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Mattel Intellivision
Updated 6/4/11
Mattel released the Intellivision in 1980. It was part of the second generation of game consoles. Although it had superior graphics, sound, CPU and RAM when compared to Atari 2600, it didn't have the software support, so it didn't do as well in the market. It was the only console to give Atari any competition in the second console generation. Like Atari, the Intellivision was marketed by Sears rebadged as the Sears Super Video Arcade, and by Radio Shack as the Tandyvision. 6 million units were sold over 12 years, and 125 games were released.
a.k.a. Crown of Kings, a.k.a. Adventure. Make your way to Cloudy Mountain. Only vaguely related to D&D.
a.k.a. Minotaur. Make your way through a first-person maze to get to the Minotaur's lair, who is guarding the Treasure of Tarmin. I never could figure out how to play.
Like the tank portion of Atari 2600 Combat.
Kind of like a vertical shmup, but your gun is on ground, and objects are falling down the screen at you.
Plays kind of like Missile Command on steroids.
An overhead-view racing game with simultaneous two-player action. If one player gets ahead of the other by leaving the screen, they get a point. The one with the most points when the timer runs out is the winner.
Combines first-person flight sim with overhead, vertical scrolling bombing missions. Uses Intellivoice module to great effect.
Cross between Donkey Kong and Crazy Climber.
It's a wrestling game with awkward controls.
Remove components from a circuit and replace them with others in order to defuse the bomb in time. Uses Intellivoice module. Very unique game, but pretty difficult.
This is a very good bowling game, if you like that sort of thing.
This is a clone of Super Breakout. I can see why they didn't release this game. It is too buggy. Your ball goes through blocks, and blocks disappear that you didn't hit. The ball goes through your paddle before it bounces off.
Good arcade conversion. Race along a vertically-scrolling track, and jump over obstacles.
Great arcade conversion.
This plays kind of like centipede, but with bees. When you shoot bees, they turn to honeycombs, which you can shoot, or you can leave them for a friendly hummingbird to eat for more points. If bees reach the bottom, they leave flowers. Your spray can can get stuck on the flowers. The game ends when you run out of sprays. It would have been a 4-star game, but the music stops every time you fire. What in the world? The shots use white noise, not tones, so the music doesn't have any technical reason to stop. Weird. There are intermissions every 5 levels, which is unusal for a console game of this era.
Terrible arcade conversion.
Good checkers game.
Very nice golf game, played from an overhead perspective. It's better than PGA Golf. It has 5 18-hold courses, plus you can build your own.
Remove components from a circuit and replace them with others in order to defuse the bomb in time. Uses Intellivoice module. Very unique game, but pretty difficult.
I understand why this game was not released. The graphics are very flickery, and the gameplay is very imprecise.
Plays kind of like Phoenix. Nice graphics.
Actually worse than Atari 2600 Donkey Kong! This game was made by Coleco, and rumor has it that Coleco made the game terrible on purpose so it wouldn't compete with the slick Colecovision version.
Best Dragonfire on any console.
Try to catch more flies than your opponent. Very nice graphics and sound.
Good arcade conversion.
The game is played from an above-view perspective looking down from your helicopter. You have to take out enemy helicopters, and put out the fires they start. This game has a lot of potential, but the sluggish and unresponsive controls ruin it. It takes forever to change directions, and when you fire, if anything happens at all, it happens a second or more after you press the button. Fail!
Pretty much what it says. The dealer is fun to watch.
It's as good as any other roulette game I've ever seen. I'm not into gambling games, though.
Mattel's answer to Pac-Man.
Very good baseball game, but World Championship Baseball does it better.
Go around the inside of a body and perform medical operations. 2-player co-op play. Kind of slow-moving and difficult.
It's kind of like an isometric Excitebike. There is even a way to build your own tracks. But there isn't much sense of speed, and poor acceleration. And it's too easy to go off the track, which results in an instant crash. And sometimes when you crash and are put back on the track, you can't avoid going back off the track again.
This is an enhanced version of Skiing. There are 32 courses available, and you can make your own. Plus there is more variety to the scenery.
Slow and not very fun.
a.k.a. Basketball (by Sears). The game is viewed from the side and above. You play three-on-three. No dunking or 3-pointers.
a.k.a. Football (by Sears). Fun game, but requires the manual to know the plays.
The controls make it difficult, since you have to use the keypad to shoot and the disc to move. You also have to stop in order to shoot, which makes it easy to be caught. You run around a maze shooting bats, spiders, and... the robot from Lost in Space?!? When you shoot the bats, they explode violently. What in the world?
a.k.a. Golf (by Sears). Very nice overhead-view golf game.
This is a pretty sparse pinball game.
Just as good as the Atari 2600 version.
Good Reversi/Othello game.
Hearts, Rummy and Crazy Eights. Slow gameplay and awkward controls.
Interesting 2-player game with strategy and action elements.
Fun game seen from a side-view perspective where you eat fish that are smaller than you. The more you eat, the larger you grow. You have to avoid any fish that is larger than you, and sharks.
Good skiiing game.
This is better than NBA Basketball. It is still played from the side, and it is 3-on-3. But you can slam dunk and shoot 3-pointers, and you can play against the CPU. It includes team management as well as playing as part of the team.
This is an enhanced version of NHL Hockey, but it really isn't much better, although now you can play the CPU.
Plays like Surround or Tron Light Cycles.
Space Invaders done wrong.
Send squadrons to fight incoming fleets of ships. When your squadrons engage the enemy, you can switch the game to a first-person shmup. Fun!
Plays kind of like Asteroids, but with a scrolling screen, and somewhat tricky controls. Your goal is to destroy space hawks that are pooping out bubble things that you also have to shoot.
Star Raiders clone. Uses Intellivoice module. The first-person shmup sections are sluggish.
This is an OK monster truck game that came out late in the Intellivision's life (1989). INTV also ported it to NES, and it put this version to shame, although the NES version isn't very good, either.
Kind of like the Death Star trench battle in Star Wars IV, but you attempt to destroy bombs in the trench before they are launched at Earth while fighting off enemy ships. It has a nice third-person 3D effect. Awesome graphics and sound.
Using your periscope and overhead map, find and destroy battleships.
This is a good decathlon game, but the Intellivision controls are kind of awkward for this kind of game.
Plays kind of like Gauntlet.
Fun Tennis game. Plays from a side-view isometric perspective.
This game has you ice-skating around penguins to drop them through the ice while avoiding enemies.
This is a medieval-themed Pac-Man clone. You are chased around a maze by a dragon. Touching a bat energizes you (naturally), so then you can slay the dragon. Your character appears to be completely naked except for his sword and shield.
This game has a lot of potential, but the interface and cheap traps hurt it too much.
Play Battle Tanks, racing Cars, or Biplanes. None of the games are particularly good. I suppose they included all three on one cartridge so you wouldn't feel as ripped off when you bought it.
Probably the first RTS game ever.
This game is confusing and difficult. The controls are very awkward. And it takes 15 seconds for the game to draw the screen to ask how many players, and another 15 seconds to erase the screen again. Who thought that was a good idea?
Good arcade conversion.
Best baseball game on any system. Game is played from an overhead perspective. It's basically an enhanced version of Major League Baseball.