Customer Reviews

Intellivision Lives

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Ah, waking up on Christmas day in 1982 and opening Intellivision was one of the best Christmases of my youth! I remember laughing at my friends who had Atari with their stick graphics as we would wait for George Plimpton to appear on the TV to vindicate those of us who sought a better system than the standard 2600.

Alas, nothing becomes obsolete faster than video games, and unfortunately, it is totally apparent in this compilation. Specifically the sports games which separated Intellivision from the pack at the time now appear as dated as an 8-Track tape. However, it is nice to play the games that remind you of better times in childhood.

"Astrosmash", the space shoot 'em up, is still a challenging blast to play. "Bowling" still is as tough as I remember, "Skiing" holds up the test of time fairly well, stripped down, solid and timeless. "Star Strike" looks great (especially in the commericals), but has lame game play. The list goes on (over 60 in all), most are barely playable by todays standards, that aside, there is some great nostalgia here.

Negatives? Some of the best games for Intellivision are not present. Mainly because they were put out by 3rd party manufacturers (Imagic, Activision, etc.) Too bad because "Atlantis" and "Demon Attack" (both from Imagic) were very good looking and fun games.

Lastly, the game controllers on the original Intellivision drew ire even from the most devout of Intellivision fans, and were downright despised by the 2600 faithful. The mapping of the controls to the Playstation2, to put it mildly, borders on utter failure. The effort is there (e.g. graphic represenations of the Intellivision 'overlays'), but the execution is just poor. Better controls, would make this compilation 4 stars. Nostaligia alone makes it a worthwhile purchase. And for 20 bucks, you really can't go wrong!

Do you remember lots of fun in the mid 1980's when you used to have your Atari 2600, Intellivision and Colecovision? If you do and Intellivision is your thing, you'll like this collection of over 60 Intellivision games ever on it's run. Let's look at some of the features you'll get in this blue disc:

Play some of the classics Intellivision has to offer: Night Stalker, Space Armada, Star Strike, Frog Bog, SNAFU, Shark! Shark!, 3 Triple Action games (Biplanes, Racing Cars and Battle Tanks), Las Vegas Poker and Blackjack/Roulette, PBA Bowling, NFL Football, NASL Soccer, and more.

The pros in this disc are when you play a certain game where you have to beat the score, you'll get treated to bonus commercials (Some are with late actor George Plimpton comparing the InTV games with the Atari games), programmers' interviews, etc.

The cons are the abscences of some games like the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons games (Copyrighted by TSR Games), USCF Chess (You need left and right controller overlays for this game, different functions. How can you add more functions for that game anyway? Get InTV Classic Games for the PSOne or the PC version of InTV Lives for it.), TRON Deadly Discs and Maze-A-Tron (Walt Disney Productions own the TRON franchise.), etc.

Anyways, the game play is solid, with the right analog stick as the keypad found on InTV controllers. Hold down R1 and tap the stick to the number (2 = Up, 4 = Left, 6 = Right, etc.) You can call up the InTV pad by tapping select, and highlight the function with the left analog stick, pressing X to enter. But like I said, the game play in each game has its' own style.

The sound are the standard bloops and bleeps found in these InTV games.

So far, my faves in this disc are PBA Bowling, Night Stalker, Auto Racing, Frog Bog, SNAFU, etc.

I give this game a 5 for unlimited replayability, and awesome games InTV had back in the mid 80's. For $...you can't go wrong. Pick up InTV Lives and you'll have a great time playing it.

Intellivision was my first.. and basically, my only video game system throughout my childhood..

great games, indeed.. though i wasn't the best at playing all of them..

now I get a second chance.. plus I get to play games for the system that I never owned..

PRO:
Over 50 games total, all separated into "arcade/adventure", "sports", "children/kids", "Space" and more.. some of my personal favorites included the sports games (football, baseball, hockey, basketball, bowling, auto racing, more), Thunder Castle, Tower of Doom (D&D-styled RPG-esque), Hover Force (helicopter/battle), Space Battle (fight against Cylon-esque alien ships) Poker & Blackjack (my first introduction to gambling!)... "Utopia" was arguably the first Reality Sim game..

witness early prototype voice synthesis in games with B-17 bomber, space spartans, the "Yer Out" with baseball, and more..

There are some easter eggs scattered throughout, when you reach certain point/progression goals in various games..

CON:
some of the games require you to have two controllers plugged in, even if you intend to use the option of solo play (but most people have two controllers, right?).. and a handful of games are still two-players only (like Boxing)..

for face value/nostalgia, the games are fine. But there is no "enhancing" of any of the games, for the 2003 era.. There is an option to play with the screen image, which is kind of odd.. but that's it..

Using the standard PS2 controller to play some of these games is downright GOD-AWFUL! for games which only required 4 or less buttons, it's okay.. And there is an interface where each player can bring up a sim of the old Overlay (customized for each game), but the image takes up almost half the screen, and so you're expected to finagle with screen cues while still trying to keep up with the action on the screen, which seriously downgrades the experience.. Keypad-dependent games like BOXING are ridiculously complicated to witness.. I wrote to the Blue Sky Rangers to suggest creation of new INTV-styled controllers for use on PS2/X-Box, but they nixed the idea..
Legal restrictions prevented including all the popular licensed games for Intellivision (as well as 3rd-party manufactured games) released over the years (arcade adaptions like BURGER TIME, LOCK N CHASE, and movie/TV/cartoon based games like HE-MAN and my personal favorite, TRON DEADLY DISCS).. Though in my opinion, with some creativity, some of these games could have been re-worked without the licensed references..

Next time around, I'd like to see INTV license "new" versions of some of these games, like a 3-D night stalker, space battle, hover force, etc.

Also: This game is manufactured on "BLUE" Playstation discs-- which are NOTORIOUS for giving PS2 Consoles problems.. search video game message boards for tips on your options to handle any problems-- but one that worked for me is to place two pieces of tape (i used masking) on either side of the center hole on the top of the disc.. the blue discs supposedly are "thinner" and need extra "balancing" to read properly..

I purchased this about 3 weeks ago and have been having loads of fun with it. I am a vet'ran video gamer back from the late 70's/early 80's when Atari and Intellivision were the only (home) games in town. I can say that the PS2 port of the majority of the good Intellivision games is not bad.

I don't agree that there is a problem with the controls. More specifically, the PS2 controller imitation of the INT controller is pretty accurate. I was a big fan of Atari BECAUSE the INT controller was a real pain (mental and physical) to deal with. But you can overcome this.

The secret???

MEMORIZE THE OVERLAY and use the right thumb stick and R1 button.

Yep, it takes some of your time and brain power to do it, but once you do, I claim that the PS2 controller is EASIER to use than the original INT controller. Seriously give it a try! You can make keypad selections without having to look down at the controller. I remember that back in '81 you gould get serious neck strain from continually looking back from screen to controller to screen to hit those keypad/overlay buttons. The better players actually memorized the overlay and did not insert it because it made it difficult to find the buttons by feel. The older INT controllers had raised buttons. Also with the PS2 controller the old 'bleeding fingers' problem from the INT controller is eliminated. The side buttons on the INT controllers caused cuts and blisters when used correctly :)

I give the package a 5 because I love it but there are flaws - some of them in the ORIGINAL games and some in the PS2 release...

Flaw - generally poor instructions for the more complicated games - Example: UTOPIA is an AWESOME game if you know how the pieces interact with each other ...but none of this is explained in the instructions. Another example: In Sea Battle, you win the game immediately by sailing either your AIRCRAFT CARRIER or your TROOP TRANSPORT into the other player's harbor - this fact is not mentioned in the instructions, all they say is "sail your ships" into the other player's harbor (at one point I did know this but I had to re-learn by trial and error). I haven't scoured all of the instructions but I have to imagine that omission errors like this are rampant.

Ah, another point - You HAVE to read the instructions for almost every game or you will not have much fun. Sure, there are exceptions - Astrosmash, Space Armada and others - but usually you need some critical piece of info in the instructions to be able to win. I can't imagine anyone winning a game of Space Battle without knowing what the controls all do.

Also, it is important to realize that Intellivision games in many cases were not originally conceived to be extremely reflex-oriented like the huge majority of the Atari games. This fact and the funky controller along with the higher price tag shunted people towards the Atari. I remember that well enough.

Overall I was very, very pleased! For around 20 bucks it's like getting an Intellivision console with 64 carts! Woulda cost around 16 or 17 hundred bucks in the 80's!

Oh, I did notice that the Armor Battle game crashes (my guess) about 60% of the time. I don't know if it is an original flaw or a problem with the port. So far I have tried all the games an average of at least 3 times (several many, many more than 3) and this is the only consistent crash problem I had.

Many of the reviewers have given this bad reviews because it lacks some of the more popular titles, such as the AD&D games (Treasure of Tarmin, Cloudy Mountain), and the TRON titles (3 were released for the original Intellivision). The fact is that the Intellivision group does NOT own the copyrights to these games anymore, thus, the reason they are missing. Overall, a huge collection of Intellivision games on one disc; most of the games are playable on the Playstation 2 controller (and there are some "workarounds", such as using the right analog stick or pressing the "select" button to bring up the original Intellivision keypad). Some games are still frustrating because of the original versions dependence on the original Intellivision controller, such as Major League Baseball, but overall I would recommend this collection, both for its faithful adaption of the original games ported to a current generation game console, and for the sheer number of games present. It is also nice to play some demo and playable versions of never-released games. There are plenty of younger kid friendly games on this disc, too, such as Frog Bog, Word Fun, Math Fun, Pinball, etc. Some elusive game titles are now playable for the first time for me, and I am an original Intellivision owner that still has over 50+ games, the Intellivoice, etc. Also note: the reason that there are not any Imagic third party titles is because Activision owns the Imagic game library (Activision bought the rights when Imagic folded in the mid-1980s). If you want a few of these titles, I would recommend the PS2 Activision Classics game.

I was an Intellivision junkie until I was about 12 years old. I can't even begin to remember all of the titles I once owned. Needless to say, I was excited to see that 60 games have been grouped together for use on the PS2. Unfortunately, the transition for INTV to PS2 was far from smooth.

Cons-
1) The controls are horrible. Most of my favorite games (Tower of Doom, Utopia, and etc...) are unplayable. Who in the world did the QC on this product? Wasn't it pretty obvious that in order to "play" any of the games you must first be able to control the characters?

2) It was next to impossible for me to even get the game to play. "Blue Disc" or not- this is completely unacceptable. Once again, a decent QC department would never have allowed this product to be shipped.

3) A minor complaint is that some of the better games are missing. However, compared to problems 1 & 2 - this is pretty minor stuff.

Pros-
1) It is nice having the games in one collection. Not because the games are playable, but more because it is like watching an old familar movie.

A wonderful collection of retro games from an era gone by. The graphics are classic and selection expansive. An adjustment is required to get use to the new style of controls. I hope someone comes out with the classic disc/keypad controller for the modern consoles! Although some colors and sounds aren't exactly authentic, the bonus material makes up for it. A solid value to add to the game collection for those who experienced the original.

Since my parents knew someone who worked at Mattel, our family was allowed to purchase our Intellivision long before most other people did. After receiving a couple of beta-test systems that would crash way too often, we finally got a final-release system in 1980.

Over the next 3 years, our cartridge collection would grow to about 40 games. :)

"Intellivision Lives" almost accurately recalls those days of my youth! The first thing I did upon slipping the DVD-ROM into my PS2 was fire up Astrosmash, and I proceeded to get a new personal best score!

For the simpler games, the ergonomical design of the dualshock controller comes in very handy, however, the games that used the numeric keypad extensively were a little rougher to control, but even with a keypad-intensive game like Baseball, I eventually worked my way around the diamond via the right analog stick & R1 like it was second nature :) The keypad shortcuts via the analog stick take some getting used to, but eventually you *will* get used to it :)

Playing these games again makes this old-school gamer-girl's heart soar, and if you were a previous Intellivision owner (or a current one, I know there are some of you that still exist ;) ) it will do the same for you.

Here is the games list, since I couldn't find it anywhere else. Like others I found a good portion of them unplayable thanks to the control interface.

Armor Battle

Astrosmash

Auto Racing

B-17 Bombing

Backgammon

Baseball

Basketball

Battle Tanks

Biplanes

Body Slam: Super Pro Wrestling

Bomb Squad

Bowling

Boxing

Brickout

Buzz Bombers

Checkers

Chip Shot: Super Pro Golf

Crosswords

Deep Pockets: Pool & Billiards

Demo Cartridge

Factor Fun

Football

Frog Bog

Golf

Hard Hat

Hockey

Horseracing

Hover Force

Hypnotic Lights

Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack

Las Vegas Roulette

Magic Carousel

Math Master

Memory Fun

Motocross

Mountain Madness: Super Pro Skiing

Night Stalker

Pinball

Racing Cars

Reversi

Royal Dealer

Sea Battle

Shark! Shark!

Sharp Shot

Skiing

Slam Dunk: Super Pro Basketball

Slap Shot: Super Pro Hockey

SNAFU

Soccer

Space Armada

Space Battle

Space Hawk

Space Spartans

Spiker: Super Pro Volleyball

Stadium Mudbuggies

Star Strike

Sub Hunt

Super Pro Decathalon

Super Pro Football

Tennis

Thin Ice

Thunder Castle

Tower of Doom

Utopia

Vectron

Word Hunt

Word Rockets

World Championship Baseball

Intellivision Lives! is a retro game compilation featuring over 60 games from the Intellivision system originally released in 1979. The 60 games are divided into 7 seperate categories(SPACE-ARCADE-GAMING&STRATEGY-SPORTS-COMBAT&SORCERY-CHILDREN'S-UNRELEASED). You nagivate inside a place called 'Hal's Pizza'. There is a Jukebox that plays 80's music.

Each game has 5-6 seperate options. These include Play, Instructions, Production Notes, Watch Commercial, View Box, Radical Gameplay Modes. The commercials are unlockables. They are fun to watch(at least for those who remember them). Also included is a section with Programmer Interviews and History of Intellivision; both run about 8 mins.

It can be very frustrating just to get into each game. You need to press the select button just to bring up the original Intellivion pad and then you need to select a bunch of options before the game can begin. This alone will probably turn off a lot of gamers, especially those not used to the Intellivision. You also need 2 controllers for quite a few of the games.

This collection is not as fun for me as some of the others for the PS2. Mainly has to do with the setup time. It was nice listening to some of the synthesized voice games from back then. Also didn't realize that games were still being produced in the late 80's under the INTV corp label. Obviously the graphics are prehistoric, only slightly better than the 2600. But nonetheless this is a historic package and nice to have for those that fondly remember the times.