Intellivision Lives

by Crave Entertainment

Product Features

• Library of over 60 classic Intellivision games
• Historical information and fun facts about the games, including interviews with the original Intellivision developers
• View original Intellivision commercials and archival footage!
• All games optimized for Xbox Controllers

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000E32YM
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches ; 3.8 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: January 20, 2004
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #23,091 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Game Informer Review

Intellivision Lives is a neat compilation that offers over 60 different old-school Intellivision games (this even includes some unreleased titles like Hardhat, Brickout, and Deep Pockets). While it is definitely fun to play some of these classics again and watch the programmer interviews, many don't quite play the way they should since you don't have the keypad, which was one of the system's highlights. Collectors will get a kick out of it for some of the extra data, but the games don't quite have the same luster as they do when you play it on an actual unit (although Astrosmash is much easier to play using the PS2
d-pad).

Rated: 5 out of 10
Editor: Andy McNamara
Issue: February 2004




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From the Manufacturer

Relive the 80’s with Intellivision Lives! Over 60 classic Intellivision games available all in one package. Your all-time favorite games like Baseball, Astrosmash, Space Battle and more!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Walk Down Memory Lane, March 7, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Intellivision Lives (Video Game)

I can't do much more justice to the review than "zooter" - if you need to escape the wife, kids and mortgage for a couple of hours, nothing could serve up spite better than the archaic graphics and 2 bit sound of a monotonus game like Astrosmash! We all have better things to do with our lives, but with reality TV marinating every watercooler conversation wouldn't it be nice to respond to Susie Sitcom with a snide, "You know, I missed Idol Survivor Factor last night because I broke my high score on Space Hawk!" Then Susie asks, giggling, "wasn't that an Intellivision game?" "You bet, and it looks even worse on my 60" widescreen home theater than it did in 1981! Now back to work."
If you grew up with Intellivision, this really is a must. Even if you play it for 30 minutes and never go back, you can hear the annoying sound of those laser cannons in Space Battle one last time. A couple of feautures that were surpising upsides: the background music tracks (I swear that New Order sang the Intellivision headliner tune), the documentary and interviews with the programmers. I was into the whole Blue Sky Ranger programmer posse that had a solid web presence through the dot-com bubble and was glad to fork over a couple bucks in their direction now that they have a solid product offering. Good for them. These extras are nice for those who are informed or have the slightest interest in the 1980s videogame wars. The downsides - the controller interface is alright, but really makes some of the games almost impossible to play. Also, I recall the Intellivision being a 16 directional interface (compared to 8 for most other systems) and I find that the directional smoothness is not the same on these games (perhaps X-box is only 8 - I can't imagine - but it does seem odd that the movement is so jerky). I would pay $100 for a pair of USB or x-box ready Intellivision controllers, but I'm sure the market is so tiny it would hardly be worth the hardware development effort. This thin number of reviews is proof enough. I would have also liked to see the licensed material (D&D, Tron, etc.) in this package as well as the other thrid party titles by developers like Imagic and Activision. There were some great titles in their libraries. Also, it would be cool to have this on X-Box Live. I still talk smack with childhood friend over who was better at Intellivision Baseball. We could now settle the score even though he lives on the other side of the country.

At the very least you can see how you wasted away hundreds of hours of your childhood and are still able to read and write as an adult. Then again, with the aforementioned thin number of reviewers, perhaps most of our Intellivision peers never made it this far!
Anyhow, priced cheaper than an overrated entree' for your lady at Chez Ego, Intellivision Lives delivers the entertainment value.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Can't go home again, can ya?, February 26, 2004

By 

M. Casarino (Wilmington, DE United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Intellivision Lives (Video Game)

This isn't really fair, since I haven't actually purchased this product (I don't own a PS2). But I have played it extensively on a friend's machine.

Those of us who owned an Intellivision rather than an Atari felt like members of an enlightened cult. Atari was Duran Duran; we were the Violent Femmes. In other words, we knew our games had the better action, the better controller, the better graphics, certainly the better commercials - but we somehow felt ignored by the general game-playing public. This was fine with us. We wanted Intellivision to be our dirty little secret.

Which brings me to this pack. The makers did an excellent job of translating Intellivision's still-unique game controller, and in their ways, the games are still fun and even challenging. I get chills, even now, when I see the little Running Man guy do his super-smooth slow-motion sprint. "Snafu" is and always has been a so-simple-it's-brilliant little gem, "Utopia" is great two-player fun (never before or since has super-slow game play built so much tension), "Astrosmash" rocks (pun intended), "Sea Battle" is tricky and creative, and, well, there you go. The rest are a decidedly mixed-bag. You'll squeal with joy when you fire each one up, you'll say "Oh, I remember this one, it's GREAT," and you'll get bored before 10 minutes are up.

But I think most buyers purchasing this set aren't looking for great games. They're looking to recapture that magnificent anticipation of being 10 and popping in a new cartridge (one your folks paid $30 for) and playing, wide-eyed, nifty cuts like "B-17 Bomber" and "Space Spartans." They're looking for the bittersweet taste of nostalgia, in other words. But I think they're out of luck. They might get the slightest whiff of it, but then it's back to the grind and the mirror, where you realize you're not a 10-year-old kid but a 30-something dad with a crap job and a mortgage.

Oh..."Swords & Serpents" rocks too, even if they forgot to give the darned game an ending.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What you see is what you get, February 13, 2004

By 

Dan Weimer (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Intellivision Lives (Video Game)

I was raised on Intellivision. If you were, too, you know which games you want to play. You can also, I presume, look at an Xbox controller and see how there could be difficulties translating the disc-and-keypad controls from Intellivision to the Xbox.

If you aren't very familiar with the Intellivision, you're not really the retrogaming target audience, and you should probably move on.

Assuming you're still with me, here's the good news. The games that are in the collection are recreated spot-on perfectly. The controller works exceptionally well given obvious limitations. A right thumbstick-right trigger combination simulates the keypad 1-9 by default. You get used to it, and I certainly can't think of a better way it could have been done. But in games where it makes more sense to do it another way, it was done another way. A, B, X, and Y fire down, right, left, and up, respectively, in Night Stalker. That is, this package was put together by people who understand the games.

And, as far as the games in the package go, basically, all the first party (Mattel and INTV) games are here except the ones that are lost to licensing entanglements. Yes, it means you lose some of the system's best games. Tron Deadly Discs, Burger Time, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, and Masters of the Universe are not included, and it's a shame.

Further, no matter how much you loved the system, you'll probably admit that some of the games haven't really stood the test of time all that well. Two of the machine's flagship games, Baseball and Astrosmash!, stand out in particular.

But there are 60-some games here. For a $20 package, if you can dig up four or five of them to rekindle your love affair with, you're doing exceptionally well. Most of the games you play once for the nostalgia fix and never see again. But I'm convinced that, for my tastes, Utopia, Super Pro Basketball, Space Armada, Space Battle, Night Stalker, and Shark! Shark! are still honestly fun.

I have Intellivision Lives! for PC, and it is quite good. But putting these games back on the TV with a controller in my hand feels right. I have a good feeling that these games will continue to exist on modern platforms for the foreseeable future and I couldn't be happier. Outstanding product.