Intellivision
was a milestone in game devlopment. The only system to go head to head
with the Atari 2600, Intellivision was to Atari what Beta was to VHS,
except more popular. The addition of voice technology, and a controller
that supported more complex control schemes than we see in many PC games
today, combined to make the Intellivision a masterwork of technical
achievement. The console sold over 3 million units between 1979 and 1984
(although it takes until 1989 for the system and new games to fully
wither away), making it a major player in the heyday of home consoles.
The Intellivision met and dealt with Ataris 2600, ColecoVision, and, in
the end, the NES. And although the system is long gone from store
shelves and childrens playrooms, the games and the story of
Intellivision live on.A famous group of Intellivision developers, the
Blue Sky Rangers, obtained the rights to Intellivisions games back in
the mid-1990s. Since then theyve done their best to insure the
continuation of Intellivisions history. They have set up a great
website at
IntellivisionLives.com, and they have released several collections
of classic Intellivision games. The most recent release is the 20th
Anniversary Edition of Intellivision Greatest Hits. This collection is
available in two sizes, small and large. The small version comes in a
jewel case and sports 10 classic titles. The large version comes in a
proper PC game box and features 25 games. Were taking a look at the
deluxe version here.
Intellivision fans will want to know up front which games are
featured in the collection. So heres the complete list: Astrosmash,
Star Strike, Space Armada, Space Spartans, Night Stalker, Buzz Bombers,
Thin Ice, Vectron, SNAFU, Pinball, Shark! Shark!, World Championship
Baseball, Super Pro Football, Super Pro Basketball, Stadium Mud Buggies,
Super Pro Golf, Las Vegas Poker and Blackjack, Reversi, Backgammon,
Thunder Castle, Tower of Doom, Sub Hunt, Hover Force, B-17 Bomber, and
Utopia. Of course, these 25 games are bound to contain many but not all
of your old faves there were some 125 titles released for the
Intellivision, so there are plenty more to seek out beyond this
collection.
The collection runs on either a Mac or PC, and does not require much
in the way of system resources. It is basically constructed out of a
Flash-based interface and Intellivision emulator, and it works about the
same way as (although generally much better than) other game system
emulators you might download such as MAME. The emulated game ROMs are
well done and as true as can be to the original game. Everything from
graphics to sounds are reproduced faithfully.
Of course, an Intellivision emulator can never be as great as a real
Intellivision if only for one reason: The controller. The Intellivision
controller was a classic of game controller design. While other
companies have copied the Atari joystick and the NES game pad, nobody
has duplicated the Intellivision controller. These controllers used a
full number pad and a disc-based shuttle, similar to the circular
controller on the Apple iPod. Gamers would insert plasticized cards over
the numeric keypad in order to see the controls for the game. In this
way, each Intellivision game controller card taught you how to play the
game (how sweet would that be, in this age of pausing to look at control
setups or thumbing through manual pages to locate a diagram?). These
controller cards would eventually get torn up pretty good by hours and
hours of thumbs pounding on them, but by that time you usually had the
controls memorized and it was no problem. But these controllers were
incredibly charismatic, and it was this human computer interface that
helped endear the Intellivision to so many fans.
Having listed the one real shortcoming of this collection, we can
move on to some of the perks. The disc features historical documentation
that is wonderful. We get to revisit elements from other classic
Intellivision games, such as material from their voice activated games.
We also get to see commercials for the games that are generally
hilarious to watch. I never get tired of seeing George Plimpton from
Masterpiece Theater diss Atari so thoroughly.
Overall, weve got a good bit of gaming history contained in a tidy
package. Do you really need Intellivision Greatest Hits? The answer to
that question lies in your own soul. Does the Intellivision running man
hold the same iconic power, representing the human in the game, the
ultimate avatar, as it does for so many gamers? Do you love all things
retro and classic? Are you a retro gamer? If your answer to any of these
questions is yes, then, yeah, you do need this collection. But even if
not, youll never really understand gaming until you have played at
least these 25 games.