Intellivision Trivia

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31 Dec 2006, 05:02 PM
NeoZeedeater

Intellivision Trivia

I probably made some kind of Intellivision related threads here years ago but this will be a little different, focusing more on trivia and other related stuff. Hopefully other will find this stuff interesting too.

Some of you might not have played this console so here's a quick bit of info:

After the success of their handheld sports games in the late '70s, toy giant Mattel was preparing the release their first game console. The Intellivision was test marketed in California in 1979, and given a full North American release in 1980. It ended up in second place in the first major console war behind Atari but well ahead of the Odyssey2 and Bally Professional Arcade.
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/...ellivision.jpg

* In terms of hardware, it can claim a few firsts: It was the first console to have a 16-bit processor.

* As far as I can tell, it introduced the directional pad(Nintendo's cross-shaped d-pad originated on Game & Watch a couple years later) and the numeric keypad/overlay type controller.

* It was the first console to have downloadable games. Its PlayCable service started in 1981. Ralph Baer had thought of the idea many years earlier for the original Odyssey but the cable companies weren't interested at the time.
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/.../playcable.gif

* On the marketing front, it began the trend of bashing the competition in ads, and of celebrity endorsements. Commercials with George Plimpton made comparisons with similar games on the Atari VCS.
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/...limpton_ad.jpg

* It introduced the first officially licensed sports video games in 1980. Major League Baseball came first(it also became the best selling game on the system). It was followed by NHL, NFL, NASL, PGA and NBA games.
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/.../mlb%20box.jpg

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/...b%20screen.gif

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/...key%20intv.gif

* It had the first console strategy/simulation game, Don Daglow's Utopia in 1981. It's an ancestor to games like Civilization and Sim City.
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/...pia%20intv.gif

* It had the first true, turn-based console RPG: Tom Loughry's Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: The Treasure of Tarmin in 1982. This was amazing at the time with its 3d dungeons.
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/...ter/tarmin.gif

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/...%20overlay.jpg

The Quest for the Rings was released the previous year on Odyssey2 but it was more of an action/RPG.

* Had it been released, the 1979 game Hard Hat could have been significant in the evolution of the platform genre. It might have been the first game where you could make a character climb up and down and fall as opposed to the usually credited [b]Space Panic/b] from Universal(1980).
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/.../HardHat_2.png

* It's common practice today for movie licensed games to be in development at the same time as the movies themselves. I'm pretty sure 1982's TRON Deadly Discs was the first game to do this. This also happens to be one of my favourite games of all time so I'm curious what happened to its main designer, Steve Sents. Anyone know?
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/.../tron%20dd.GIF

* The Intellivision had a relatively large number of female development staff(usually on graphics but some on design). There isn't enough information on every developer to say for sure but the percentage seems higher to me than any other first-party from the '80s. Connie Goldman, Julie Hoshizaki, Monique Lujan-Bakerink, Ji Wen Tsao, Peggi Decarli, Minchau Tran, Karen Nugent, Donna Fisher were all involved in making InTV games for Mattel.

* Although there were hundreds of home computer and arcade games released in 1985, the InTV was the only console still in production in North America until the NES launched.

* Various companies related to the Intellivision are still around today:

David Warhol founded Realtime Associates in 1986 which employed several ex-Mattel development staff. Most of their games over the years have been licensed junk, unfortunately. They did port Maniac Mansion to the NES and Loom to TurboGrafx CD. They also developed a third of the titles for the Sega Pico, and also made the Saturn platform series Bug!. Most recently they returned to their roots with the compilation Intellivision Lives! for last gen's consoles.
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/...eater/pico.jpg

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/.../bug%20box.jpg

http://www.rtassoc.com/pastprojects.html

Quicksilver Software(founded by Bill Fisher, Steve Roney, and Mike Breen) developed the Castles series for Interplay, Master of Orion III, and other strategy games. They also revisited their roots in 2003 with the PC compilation, Intellivision Rocks.
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/...stles%20ii.jpg

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/...rion%20iii.jpg

http://www.quicksilver.com/games.php

Don Daglow was a pioneer in mainframe gaming at the beginning of the 1970s, creating the first video baseball game, and one of the earliest RPGs, Dungeon. After leaving the Intellivision scene, he worked at EA and Broderbund.

Afterwards, he founded Stormfront Studios which co-developed 1991's Neverwinter Nights with SSI for AOL. This was a big moment for online gaming. From what I gather it was the first graphical MMORPG. And if you think modern MMORPGs are expensive, this one initially cost $6 US per hour to play.
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/...erwinter91.gif

More recently they made games like Bloodwake(Xbox) and Demon Stone(Xbox/PC/PS2).
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/.../bloodwake.jpg

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/...on%20stone.jpg

http://www.stormfront.com/

APh Technology Consultants, the developer Mattel contracted to make the InTV's hardware, as well as a lot of the first-party games, is still around doing computer related stuff.

Of course, Mattel is still around. Interestingly, their recent kids system, HyperScan calls its games "Intellicards".

http://www.intellivisionlives.com/ has plenty more information on spin off developers and other stuff for those interested.

Any additions, corrections, or comments? I didn't talk about what all the good InTV games are because I think I did that before but discussion of those is certainly welcome too.
31 Dec 2006, 05:18 PM
Frogacuda

Treasure of Tarmin was the coolest thing on the system. Also, I want to smash the intellivision controller with a hammer.
31 Dec 2006, 05:33 PM
Dyne

i have one sitting in my closet with a handfull of games. i traded a blue sports game gear for it but have never hooked it up.
31 Dec 2006, 05:40 PM
Timber

I picked up a complete system, voice module & 7 or 8 games for like $10 at a thrift store a year or so ago. Still haven't gotten around to hooking it up.

I remember going over to a friend's place as a kid to play the sports games since they were so much better than the ones I had on the 2600.
31 Dec 2006, 06:09 PM
dog$

The Intellivision is how I learned how to play poker when I was a 7 year old.

Hook up your consoles; InTV's aren't exactly the most durable of systems and can/will die out eventually. It took me about five purchases before I got a system that actually worked.

Recently I was showing the system to a friend and put on AD&D (the original one) and had the quickest finish I ever played. Neither of us could finish it in the next ten tries or so. I still think it's possible to beat the game without firing a single arrow.

Hey since I'm here, I was wondering - what seperates the action buttons on this thing from shoulder buttons? Just the physical location? Wouldn't the fact that the buttons aren't on the primary face of the controller make them "shoulder buttons" anyway?
31 Dec 2006, 06:43 PM
NeoZeedeater

Quote:

Originally Posted by dog$

Hook up your consoles; InTV's aren't exactly the most durable of systems and can/will die out eventually. It took me about five purchases before I got a system that actually worked.

Yep. I lucked out and got a replacement one a year or so ago for cheap that's in pretty good condition.

So yeah, if you have a system, you should give it a try. I don't want to discourage people from emulating it, but I will warn that it sometimes gives a false impression of the games. Games that need the keypad will suck with a modern controller or keyboard(especially Deadly Discs, unfortunately) while games that don't need the keypad for gameplay will control more responsively with a modern pad(most of the arcade and 2600 ports).

Quote:

Hey since I'm here, I was wondering - what seperates the action buttons on this thing from shoulder buttons? Just the physical location? Wouldn't the fact that the buttons aren't on the primary face of the controller make them "shoulder buttons" anyway?

I'm guessing you're thinking of the people saying Nintendo invented shoulder buttons. I don't see why the InTV's ones can't be call that although I suppose it depends on definitions.
31 Dec 2006, 07:03 PM
Thief Silver

Demon Stone any good?
31 Dec 2006, 11:04 PM
dakidski

Wow. That 'Castles' game sure look like a rip-off of Defender of the Crown...
31 Dec 2006, 11:35 PM
Frogacuda

Quote:

Originally Posted by dakidski

Wow. That 'Castles' game sure look like a rip-off of Defender of the Crown...

Umm... what?
31 Dec 2006, 11:52 PM
dakidski

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/...stles%20ii.jpg
check out the other screenshots and tell me they didn't rip off DotC:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/castles/screenshots
01 Jan 2007, 12:25 AM
bVork

They didn't. Castles is more about building castles than anything else. The strategic elements are also more complex than the really light DotC.
01 Jan 2007, 12:36 AM
dakidski

I should have been more specific. I referred to the visual design, not the gameplay. The screenshots just looked awfully familiar.
01 Jan 2007, 01:10 PM
Frogacuda

Quote:

Originally Posted by dakidski

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/...stles%20ii.jpg
check out the other screenshots and tell me they didn't rip off DotC:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/castles/screenshots

Castles is a castle-building/RTS game. It's nothing like DotC at all. The visual style in both is pretty much completely generic, too.
01 Jan 2007, 03:11 PM
NeoZeedeater

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thief Silver

Demon Stone any good?

I only played the PS2 demo but it seemed like a quality hack 'n slash action game. It was on my "to buy when cheap" list but I forgot about it for quite a while.
01 Jan 2007, 03:49 PM
dakidski

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frogacuda

Castles is a castle-building/RTS game. It's nothing like DotC at all. The visual style in both is pretty much completely generic, too.

So you agree the visual style looks similar? Good.
01 Jan 2007, 05:23 PM
sethsez

Quote:

Originally Posted by dakidski

So you agree the visual style looks similar? Good.

Pretty much every medieval game made in that era looks the same. Saying it ripped off one specific game is ridiculous when they all had the same exact art style.