Commercial for Intellivision Game Console (1983)

[jcrowley1985]

Of course they're giving away free sports video games. Even to this day, I don't understand why developers make sports themed games. Like I'm going to spend $50 per year on what is essencially the same game with maybe a few new players.

Hell, I constantly see huge video game lots on ebay and at goodwill comprised solely of sports games for a buck or so.

Sports games suck!

[CHAM0RRITO]

people went ape over the first cordless phones. now look at us today. maybe in 20 years people will be laughing about how we went ape over the ipad.

[hootyhaha]

Flood Microsoft with requests to release Q*Bert on Xbox Live Market Place.

[snes317]

I took some French and all but seriously "Le Golf"?

[fearguis]

People didn't go ape over the graphics, they went ape over the fact that they could play video games for the first time in their lives. I know this because I was there, and was one of the ones that went ape over it... :)

[Liquadia1]

@fearguis i was also there 1980's

[hamster700]

when the keyboard module was released the system was expanded to 32Bit and could play cartridges or laser disks

[franklinpriante]

INTELLIVISION FOREVER.

[Antman68AD]

I remember the games came with a card you slide over the number pad. Inever got the INtel.. 2 didn't upgrade ha ha!

[crazykidsdad]

All of these announcers voices always sounded the same to me, on any TV commercial from the 80's, even today.

[tml4873]

Graphics certainly are crude compared to modern machines, but compared to the main competition (Atari 2600), they were noticeably better.

[Panorama1981]

In the early 80's the graphics on this were state of the art.

[MrSaturn33]

Imagine if the PS3 was released in 1980

[rjp443]

@MrSaturn33

If PS3 were released in 1980...It would flop BADLY. Each machine would cost $500-900k, if possible to make at all!

IGNORE THAT: there would be no developers, because there would nobody with an advanced enough platform to develop games on

IGNORING THAT: no one would know how to implement advanced physics with its SDK.

IGNORING THAT: what's the point? Enjoy it on shitty RCA 20" TVs over RF? Nah.

I know you just want to see people's heads explode, but PS3 would mainly collect dust

[MrSaturn33]

@rjp443 I just said, "Imagine." Did I say what I thought would happen? I don't see the point of your post, it seems like you're trying to argue and contradict rather than to inform.

[rjp443]

@rjp443 I did imagine. I imagined a world responding to it like the UFO in Flight of the Navigator. The point of my post was to inform of my "imagined" scenario.

But I meant no malice. I wasn't trying to extend my harsh tone to you, but really to how ignorant people would act about it for a while until it settled into obscurity.

[Watcher3223]

@rjp443

"there would be no developers, because there would nobody with an advanced enough platform to develop games on"

Of course, if there was no way to develop any kind of software for a PS-3 due to lack of available technology, how could a PS-3 exist anyways?

[Watcher3223]

@rjp443

However, MrSaturn33 merely made a lighthearted and fantastical premise not meant to be over-analyzed to the extent you exhibited: what if a PS-3 existed in 1980 along with software to show what it could do? Even on a lowly XL100, a PS-3 will look superior compared to the 2600 VCS and the Intellivision.

But, alas, such discussion is academic.

[rjp443]

@Watcher3223

Perhaps I was a touch overzealous in my approach. I think I was just tired of inane trolls saying comments like "Can it play Crysis", "Look how far we've come", and "People would sh** their pants if they saw PS3 back then! LOL"

Now maybe that wasn't his intent; it probably wasn't. But people are just make these ridiculous quips, and I got testy. I should think others would keep a discussion like this "academic" 6_6

[fjccommish]

The statement was true. The games were never more fun to play. The new games were no fun, but neither were the old games, so they weren't more fun to play.

[GreyGhostly]

5,000 Dollars in Sports Gear! Hell that would buy a hat today

[soupercoolguy]

I just remember the sound effects were theee best at the time and the games were more challenging. All kinds of fun bugs too.

[MattTheSaiyan]

I wonder how much one of these ie worth now. I WANT ONE!

[beaviselectron]

This white unit was actually "Intellivision II." Take it from a former owner - this was the second-generation Intellivision.

[TheBillbot]

And I looked at the oddesey 2's Statistics it's 8 bit

[nocturnaldusk]

Intellivision...A great system!!!!!!!!!

[Vortexghost]

I still can't believe that people would go ape over those graphics in comparison to today's!

I agree with this dude... Even in the day those graphics sucked crap.....with a passion.. compared to a ColecoVISION..

[MattTheSushi]

Actually,the first 16 bit system was the Sega Genesis.

[Mindman111]

No. The Intellivision WAS 16 bit.

[1978mtb]

@MattTheSushi your both wrong remember the turbo graphic 16 game system? came out before saga genesis!

[Kirlian196]

The Mattel unit did utilize a General Instruments 1610 chipset........16 bit. Crude but effective. The TG16 used a 16 bit graphics chip ...yes BUT it still utilized an 8 bit CPU so technically the Mattel unit was the first

[1978mtb]

@Kirlian196 Thanks for that info I always thought intellivision was like 4 or 5 bit ! People don't understand intellivision was released in 1980 other then the atari 2600 or odyssey 2 by magnavox this was a new market and mattel had better graphics and then both.The game play was its downfall and bad marketing this was a few years before colecovision came out and by that time the mattel was gonna pull the plug on their video game console and they did in early 1984.

[thatguyontheright1]

@Kirlian196 The PC Engine/TG-16 worked in the same way that the Jaguar achieved 64 bit. Processors and coprocessors. It was enough for the PC-Engine to display more colors than the Mega Drive/Genesis, 482 out of 512, rather than 64 simultaneous colors.

[Luigi84289]

@Kirlian196 It's funny. The intellivision released in 1980 is 16 bit and wildly more popular.

[Watcher3223]

@Luigi84289

This only proves that more bits doesn't mean a better system nor does less bits mean a worse system.

For system power, the best measure is how many instructions the system can execute at once.

But, numbers on paper are just that; they may not give a good picture of the system's abilities as you'd see in real world use nor do they indicate what kind of software that's available.

[sparrowkid]

does anyone know the release date? i cant wait to et one!

[luasino]

Ja ja ja,  ist good!

[whattheheck1000]

@sparrowkid October 1979 test market, 1980 wide release.

[gir42399]

@sparrowkid r u kidding?

1980- something!

[sparrowkid]

@gir42399 considering i had one of these in the 80's , yes i am kidding. good to see you have a sense of humour.

[narfire214]

Actully that's the intellivision II

[harleykman]

>>>"likewise Atari had the hit arcade games."

P.S. I was actually talking about Atari VCS/2600 versus Intellivision versus Odyssey 2 (the 1977-82 generation). I consider Coleco and Atari 5200 to be part of a different generation of gaming (1982---).

Anyway Atari had the exclusive rights to arcade games like Asteroids, Space Invaders, Missile Command, Centipede, Phoenix, et cetera. Intellivision and Odyssey had almost no arcade-born games, which made them attractive to the typical 70s gamer

[Luigi84289]

Coleco had the rights to all the new nintendo games coming out like Donkey Kong and Mario Bros and some others. If not for coleco those games would have never been ported to atari or any other console. Atari had the old arcade hits coleco even had pacman on theres which looked and sounded amazing.

[ArcadeGames]

I can't wait to get one!

[Maus5000]

the first 16bit system!

[dogeymon83]

Your description is kind of silly. Can you also believe people went ape nuts over the Model-T cart when it came out?? No horse and buggy was pretty big back then, but of course it doesn't compare with the Hummer.

People didn't have today's systems to compare to, obviously.

[pancakejarsrfun]

Inferior to Coleco. But alot more fun. :)

[Luigi84289]

Considering it came out in 79 that's understandable. It one upped atari. Was a big improvement. Games looked and sounded alot better.

[harleykman]

Yes and graphics on the Gamecube and Xbox looked better than the PS2, but it was still the ps2 that won that generation. Why? Because PS2 had the games people wanted, and likewise Atari had the hit arcade games.

Also the Atari proved itself to be flexible.

It produced RealSports Baseball, Football, Soccer, Volleyball, Tennis that looked just as good as the intellivision versions. Atari was a fine console to own from 1977-84..

[Luigi84289]

what are you talking about? Coleco had the ability to play EVERY atari 2600 cart and had versions of all the big arcade hits like atari had with better graphics almost early nes quality. The only reason it doesn't have more games is because it was released in 82 and the crash happened in 84. It was so successful the Atari 5200 was specifically designed to not allow backwards compatibility to try and put a dent in coleco's sales. Coleco was just as big as atari in 1982.

[harleykman]

False.

Colecovision could only play my old Atari library if I spent ~$150 for an A2600 adapter. Since I didn't have that kind of money to spent, I never bothered. Colecovision could not play Atari games out of the box.

[Luigi84289]

If you didn't have a VCS 150 dollars was nothing. 150 dollars for a new console is a good price.

[Smokey000027]

I have to disagree i had both systems and I think the intelvison had the better looking games. what put alot of people off was the telphone looking controler and the fact that if you lost one of the overlays you were fucked. But i respect your opinon.

[DybboB89]

NOTICE HOW THE NBA WAS NOT MENTIONED!!! before the lakers and celtics, nobody cared who bill russel was, or wilt or the other legendary players. they were only brought up to light by espn recently. basketball was only and NCAA sport and still is. NBA sucks. In the NCAA games players play as a team and thers strategy involved. The only teams in the NBA that need a brain to run are the Spurs and Jazz. I could be coach of the knicks and they wouldnt do any worse...

[smasher501]

Imagine if someone brought an XBOX 360 with Halo 3 back to then. Damn it would make a few bucks.

[hockeyplaya131]

lol, except for the fact that it would be 100% impossible to duplicate it at that time. and the fact that if you could bring it back in time would totally the past/present/future and completly fuck up causality as we know it

[WarshipAngelus]

Maybe, but if I was sent back in time, I would try to sell my PS3 to Atari and maybe in about ten years they would have a backward protype version of PS3 for Atari and Sony would had to come up with something else. LOL.

[harleykman]

The engineers of the time probably wouldn't be able to understand the CPU. Back then they didn't have modern tools, but just paper and pencils. The CPU would be traced and routed, but how it worked would be completely incomprehensible to them.

Perhaps if you sent them a less-advanced PS1, that they could unravel it and figure it out.

[NixonTech2071]

The way the disc moves on the controller is freaky. It can do a 360 degree rotation, press all the way down, and press down as a regular button.

[harleykman]

I was under the impression that the "disc" on the Intellivision was just a digital controller with 16 degrees... double the 8 degrees on an Atari, but still not a 360 degree unit.

[airfixpelz]

Wow!

This one shows the quite rare canadian game boxes (bilingual).Not easy to find nowadays...