Console Debate #8: Intellivision

[fox | 1,694]

 

[Tulpa | 3,569]

Very advanced for its time (16 bit!) and had a few cool games, but lacked the arcade hits needed to make it really succeed. The controller is a mixed bag; disc takes some getting used to, and the fire buttons on the side aren't easy to use, but some games really used the keypad in interesting ways.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,641]

Don't think I've played one.  Not much of a fan of primitive pre-NES stuff, so I doubt I ever will.

It would probably be a 2, 3, or 4 though.  As far as game libraries that I want to play in 2020, these sorta games are bringing up the rear.

[mbd39 | 2,036]

I voted 7/10 because I have a lot of nostalgia for it. Best friend had one growing up.

 

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

I don't remember playing this one. I don't really know enough about it to have any interest.

[TDIRunner | 2,794]

One of the few from this generation that I haven't played or owned.  I had an opportunity to buy one several years ago with about 25 boxed games in absolutely perfect condition, but I passed on it because I was buying so much other stuff at the time.  

[DefaultGen | 5,506]

3/10. Night Stalker is the only banger I think of. It has some almost-cool games: Utopia, Microsurgeon, AD&D. Their main problem is that you have to play them on a friggin' Intellivision. What an awful controller. Tommy Tallarico should still reconsider bringing that abomination back into the world.

I'm noticing bad controllers is a common theme with consoles I don't like.

Also there's something about Blackjack & Poker being the most common game that's super lame. At least when you see SMB/DH and F-Zero in a lot of Nintendo junk it's like yeah, those are some of the greatest games on the system. But cmon, Las Vegas Blackjack & Poker? 

[mbd39 | 2,036]

Just want to say that Intellivision has fantastic ports of Frogger, Burger Time, Demon Attack and Lock n Chase.

B-17 Bomber was a fairly sophisticated combat flight sim for the time.

Here's a pretty advanced RPG from later in the console's life:

 

 

Edited December 25, 2020 by mbd39

[Strange | 1,706]

Gave it a 4 but that feels generous. I like pre-NES stuff purely for the history of it, and I’ve got a boxed Sears Telegames version of the Intellivision. But it’s hard to get excited for these days if you don’t have that specific nostalgia from growing up with it.

Intellivision Lives! on Nintendo DS is probably the best way to experience these games if not using original hardware. It’s for the keypad for the games on the touch screen.

[CMR | 522]

I think it's a cool console, but the controllers are horrible.

[Webhead123 | 691]

I didn't have an Intellivision growing up (I had a Colecovision instead) but what little I played of it at my friends or cousins was fairly impressive for its time. The controllers kinda sucked but the graphics capability was a step above the 2600 and it boasted the best sports titles of the time.

Today, I doubt its library would hold up to the Atari at all but I certainly wouldn't mind owning one and firing it up from time to time.

6/10

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

I, too, gave it a 6/10.  I never got to play one until I was an adult and got offered a system and a stack of games from a friend getting out of classic gaming and was relatively impressed with the level of fun of most of the games on the system.  What absolutely stands out, however, is the absolute awfulness of the controllers.  I'd have rated it higher, as games like Dracula and Micro Surgeon were fairly unique at that time, but the controller gives me cramps in my hands every time I use it for more than a few minutes at a time.  There were some joystick adapters you could get that either stuck or clamped onto the disc in the controller (it varied depending on the brand), but as I've not had access to those, I can't swear that they would fix the issue with the controllers.  Absolutely solid system, though, even if the library started petering out right around the time of the crash, before it could repeat itself with multiple bad clones of the same games the way the 2600 did.

[AstralSoul | 503]

Never played an actual Intellivision console, have absolutely zero interest in owning one from a gamer standpoint, but I've played a bunch of games in collections and emulators. I don't think it seems like a bad console, but just like Atari 2600, games from this era just don't interest me. I've mostly played them just to try them out, and none have ever stuck with me enough where I've thought about them or wanted to revisit them. Those controllers don't look the slightest bit comfortable either. All in all I think for the time it was probably pretty good, maybe only second to the 2600 til the NES came along. I'm sure I would have enjoyed it back in the day but seeing as I have no nostalgia, connection or desire to play or own this console I gave it a 5/10 which is probably even too high for me personally.

[peg | 380]

Never played it and don't really have any interest in it. If I'm going to play one of the prehistoric consoles it's going to be the 2600, and even that is pushing the limits of what I will tolarate. There just isn't room for a second dinosaur.

[PII | 1,918]

I give it a 7.  The console, for me, is somewhere between Colecovision (which I adore) and the 2600 which I have a more relaxed interest in.  It's got some must play console exclusives from it's era (Diner and Thunder Castle to name a couple) that are worth it for anyone who loves gaming from this time period.  With the exception of the bulk of the sports games, most anything here that didn't come out for the coleco is going to be of interest to me.  There are also some noteworthy variations as far as games that were ported to plenty of other systems, but were a bit different on the Intellivision (Burgertime for example.)  

As far as that controller goes, it's the reason I held out for an Intellivision II (detachable rather than hardwired.)  I remember someone saying once that the controller for the Colecovision was a "hard controller to love", and I was nothing less than shocked that I did in fact grow to love it.  I use a third party controller always for a minority of games and the standard controller most of the time.  I feel a similar sort of way about the Intellivision's controller.  I don't hate that disk.  It's better than I expected.  The fire buttons on the other hand make me wonder about the developers a bit.  It's like they completely failed to consider the importance of quality in this respect.

Being realistic, it's not a console for everyone, but it definitely does still have some special charm and fun to offer to those who have both the ability to appreciate, and the will to explore it.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

Never played it and probably never will. If an amazing condition console/games bundle fell into my lap, I'd buy it, but that seems unlikely at this point.

[ThePhleo | 2,198]

Average.

I tried playing a few games a few times and nothing held my attention for a few minutes. This is also after googling “top Intellivision games” and playing the results.

The console almost gives a semblance of nostalgia to me since my grandmother and mother used to play it and would talk about it to me once in a while.

All pre-NES consoles have no place on my connected systems shelf though. This includes Atari 2600, 5200, ColecoVision, Intellivision, Astrocade, Channel F, Odyssey 2, Vectrex, etc.

It doesn’t mean I don’t collect for them, and I certainly appreciate what they did, but they are closer to novelties than they are to games for me.

As far as I’m concerned you could have label this entire thread “Generation 2 of game consoles”

[nrslam | 477]

One of the better looking consoles of its day, but reliability has proven to be poor and it has, I think, the worst controllers I've ever used. Original library seems mostly uninteresting to me, with too many sport games that require 2 players.

On the plus side, it is fairly fun to collect for with a manageable 125 game library with multiple variants if you're into that sort of thing, and a very active homebrew scene that has produced some games that are better than the original releases.

[Deadeye | 1,600]

My friend had one growing up, we would play Lock n Chase and Burger Time on it.  I have fond memories, but I leave them there instead of being disappointed replaying the system now.  Maybe I am wrong, but I'd rather not risk it.

[Webhead123 | 691]

5 hours ago, ThePhleo said:

All pre-NES consoles have no place on my connected systems shelf though. This includes Atari 2600, 5200, ColecoVision, Intellivision, Astrocade, Channel F, Odyssey 2, Vectrex, etc.

I love the Vectrex even to this day. There is something so timelessly appealing about vector graphics that makes them outlive their contemporary pixel graphic competitors. Berzerk on the Vectrex is something I could play for hours.

[Dr. Morbis | 2,099]

I had a near full set years ago and eventually sold them all but three games.  Most of the early sports games are two player only, and the graphics always seem to look identical for every game, much like the Odyssey2.  But the real killer is the controller; I honestly feel that the INTV controller (that's wired so you can't switch it out - and no, I'm not going to hunt down an INTVII to alleviate this since I'd still need something with a number pad to select games anyway) is bar-none the worst video game controller of all time.  Using the pad is frustrating as hell, and the four side-buttons are pain and cramp inducing if playing for more than about five minutes at a stretch.

Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that this console has my second favourite pre-NES game in existence, I wouldn't even keep one around, and that game is THUNDER CASTLE!  I love that game sooooo much.  If someone ever did accurate ports of Thunder Castle and Shark Shark to the NES, I would probably sell my Intellivision and never touch another one again.

I rated it 6/10, but four of those points are for Thunder Castle; take that game out of the library and it's a 2/10 for me...

Edited December 26, 2020 by Dr. Morbis

[Tanooki | 4,958]

Been exposed to some of the games, strangely just not on the original hardware, though I don't think it would change my opinion on its average level of mediocrity for a score either way.  It's part of that second generation of systems with a semi-similar benchmark of power under the hood but having also been exposed to a couple of others in that time, the Vectrex and notably the Colecovision I consider the Intellivision the crappier of the choices.  The audio was moderately better if that over the 2600 and the visuals barely less obnoxiously chunky and lacking.  Vectrex aside as it's unique, you're left with the Coleco and that thing despite being pegged in its generation and the Famicom from the same time frame really (1983 to the US 1985/86 NES) are in various ways closely paralleling each other despite being third generation.  I'd take the Coleco over this thing any day, every day as it just did everything better, including so many of the games that overlapped and the quality was obvious.  There really wasn't much to love about the Intellivision unless you really were a super early adopter before the Colecovision existed and you were coming off the weaker 2600 or some random Pong box (or the Fairechild Channel F.)

[Tulpa | 3,569]

7 hours ago, Dr. Morbis said:

If someone ever did accurate ports of Thunder Castle and Shark Shark to the NES, I would probably sell my Intellivision and never touch another one again.

The Intellivision Plug-n-Play has NES/Famicom ports of those, as it uses an NOAC to play the games. I think Bunnyboy actually managed to get Astrosmash playing on real NES hardware. The ROMs may be floating out there.

The 25-in-1 version has both Thunder Castle and Shark Shark (10 in 1 only has Shark Shark.)

Edited December 27, 2020 by Tulpa

[Dr. Morbis | 2,099]

2 hours ago, Tulpa said:

The Intellivision Plug-n-Play has NES/Famicom ports of those, as it uses an NOAC to play the games. I think Bunnyboy actually managed to get Astrosmash playing on real NES hardware. The ROMs may be floating out there.

The 25-in-1 version has both Thunder Castle and Shark Shark (10 in 1 only has Shark Shark.)

I have the ROMS and they are very, very poor ports

[Tulpa | 3,569]

Ah, you already have that covered.

Sounds like someone should spearhead a homebrew project.