Intellivision® TV Commercial: Space Games

[ProjectRealism]

"I didn't know..."

WELL WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU KNOW?!?!

[fs10inator]

ICBINAVGN FTW!

[jksonny]

As a kid, I didn't want Intellivision b/c I didn't like the looks of the control pads. They looked too complicated, more like calculators, and there was no joystick.

[HYPNOGLANCE87]

and this what started the console war ppl oh yea and also in todays console war....lol there never was a console war its all bluff n bs talk i really dont care which is better theres always a flaw in a console n there always replaceable if it breaks down so pretty much i like all of the 3 the wii for its nostalgia store the 360 for its online and the ps3 for its online and the ps store for its multimedia selection

[KartKing4ever]

Space Armada? Fuckers stole Space Invaders.

[MadaraStv]

Advertising by actually saying who you are better then... That would lead to so many lawsuits today...

[qtfan1121]

Three people don't know.

[TheYayuga9000]

I didn't know!!!! XD

[kinmanyuen]

I know they are comparable...

[spartan2222222222222]

dear,inteliivision productions

who do you prefer? nintendo or sega?

sincerly,spartan

[AtariMaxx]

I love how both the top comments are the same exact thing....

[Spagettieater9000]

Thumbs up for DLAbaoaqu.

[ProManUnitedFan]

3 people work for Other Companies

[southport97]

Once you go black, you never go back.

[baahhhFATALITY11]

THIS is where the whole "I didnt know!" clip came from. I always though it came from a "C" list movie or something.

[fearguis]

The funny thing is, now no one has any space games. First person shooters killed the genre...

[MetaSponge64]

I STILL DIDN'T KNOW

[ProManUnitedFan]

I didn't know

[orbitoverthesun]

i never knowned

[ant64423]

3 peoples didn't know

[bigdaddykool1]

Compare the crappy disc controller compared to atari's Joystick.. that was the down fall of intellivision in my opinion.

[ProManUnitedFan]

@bigdaddykool1 Intellivision has a crappy controller? I DIDN'T KNOW!!

[Butters644]

ahhh i born in the lovely snes era

[franklinpriante]

LOVE ATARI,LOVE INTELLIVISION.

[ProManUnitedFan]

ICBINAVGN sent me here

[ftolmsteen]

@ProManUnitedFan I DIDN'T KNOW!

[ProManUnitedFan]

@ftolmsteen I knew!!

[gamenerd4444]

I can't beleive it's not AVGN sent me here.

[Tosaden]

I knew!

[kirbypenpal]

I didn't know!

[vipercannonmafia]

SPACE ARMADA = SPACE INVADERS

[hootyhaha]

That end graphic when it says Intellivision Lives. That guy looks like the Jump Man Jr. guy. But JJj was not on this system. Is it just a coincidence? I guess back then most running characters all looked similar. Awesome commercial, thanks for posting this stuff.

[ZunnieShine]

In our commercials every single comparison product is called X , cuz we're simply not allowed to name other products. :(

[Thatlankydude1232]

And knowing is half the... aaw I cant do it.

[MaskedOddity]

3 people still don't know.

[abiel998]

@cdw626 I saw watch?v=69_l1oZ2b2M and you were right it was him.

[MrBarrelroll42]

In Soviet Russia, you did know.

[Agent1W]

@MrBarrelroll42 KGB knew their shit back then, maaan!

[reggiardito]

"I can't believe it's not AVGN : I didn't know!"

[sunlexlo]

2 people didn't know!

[orbitoverthesun]

i still do'nt know!

[fattoler]

I DON'T KNOW!

[cdw626]

Holy crap! Is that the same kid in the Nintendo commercial for the Legend of Zelda!?! The one where they rap... Here check it out: watch?v=69_l1oZ2b2M

Put that in after the youtube address, I'm pretty sure that's the same kid.

[Owneador1337]

@cdw626 HO-LY SHIT.

[darthvadr2341]

@cdw626 i don't think it is, take a good look at the 2 of them

[cdw626]

@darthvadr2341 If it's not then they're pretty damn close. But given the fact that this commercial was in 81 and the NES comm was in 86 then it's a pretty good possibility that it is. They look about five years in age difference. The Kicker is their voices though. Listen to them, side by side. Tone, inflection, and pace are both the same.

[ragnarock86]

@cdw626 NES = 1985 (In North America, Europe, and Australia), 1983 (In Japan).

[supersteelpokemon]

@cdw626 They aren't. I looked them up and George Plimpton was never in a LoZ ad

[cdw626]

@supersteelpokemon

I am really sorry but you seem to have confused yourself with whom I was speaking of. I was talking about the young kid. George Plimpton was born in 1927, so unless the Intellivision and Atari were made in the late 30s then I do not think that he could have been in this particular commercial as a preteen. I think you should try to find the name of the young actor then see if they are the same. I have still not been able to find out his name... good luck.

[TheLastBrainLeft]

Intellivision space games sucked. They were all "slow". In fact, Astrosmash played better on Atari as Astroblast.

[ohhrichie]

I Knew

[notyoursavior78]

At least I know now and didn't have to embarrass myself in that commercial like the kid there.

[Bobofjudia]

Guys! Calm down! HE DIDN'T KNOW, BACK OFF OF THE POOR KID!

[norsemustang]

"Check out the enclosed instruction book."

[LeoFan93]

RIP George Plimpton

[MrJoshuaSalway1990]

DLAbaoaqu uses the 'I didn't know' quote A LOT in his videos.

[nosound98]

@MrJoshuaSalway1990 I DIDN'T KNOW!

[1nespower]

I didn't know!

WHAT DO YOU KNOW NERD!!

[TehCreeper45]

Hey guys guess what? I didn't know!

[MattTheSaiyan]

Great console, great commercial, thanks for uploading.

[DukeNukem500]

I DIDN'T KNOW

[Jakeallen86]

I Didn't Know!

Irate. You suck ass.

[no1cp]

"Wow, the games look really cool, but why did you give me this piece of shit controller to play them with?!"

[bandcouver]

I was around when this was all we had. But Intellivision was better than Atari. Intellivision had way better graphics. Atari games look like a 3 year old did them with overly simple graphics and no detail or 3-D imaging. Yes, they both look incredibly primitive and pathetic compared to the games we have now. But at the time, it was sure a step up from Telstar's Pong.

[19psi]

@bandcouver

So Intellivision had games that could compare with Atari's Solaris, Tunnel Runner, Jr. Pacman, Battlezone, Pitfall II ect?

Intellivision even had their claim to fame sports titles blown away when Atari introduced the Real Sports and Super Sports series of games.

Pick any good Intelly game and odds are the 2600 has a half dozen similar titles that were as good or better from its vast library of games.

[Mesina2]

I didn't know.

Until I watched AVGN review of Intellivision.

[b4gm4n]

You know, if only they named the device "I-Vision" similar to what Apple-Corp does to all it's newly released devices, just add an "I" in front and hoards of A-holes worldwide would buy the shitty thing and pass it off as good, just a thought :)

[stads24]

you're an "I"-hole!

[TeamGalinnie]

@b4gm4n yeah so they would later sue apple for copying their name so that all ipod's, iphones, and ipadss never existed

[bagthesecond]

And just how are they supposed to be better than the Atari titles?

[Muffincakeswithsugar]

@bagthesecond once you compare...you'll know

[supergamma2010]

i don't know!

[Muffincakeswithsugar]

I DIDN'T KNOW!

[DJCuell]

I didn't know!

[gdement]

Back when "SPACE!!" was it's own game genre.

[SaintLizard]

I DIDN'T KNOW

[splldrong]

@SaintLizard lmao

[Freakingpanda1]

Haha the kid is all the time like "I didn't know! I didn't know!"

[1moreastronaut]

This is the genesis of the Mac vs. PC commercials.

[fgfan19]

Intellivision is a great  system I love astrosmash.

[SicSolution]

Too bad the controllers sucked ass!!

[bukster1]

Oh God, such primative games!

[kritiker14]

I didn't know!!!!!!

[dogeymon83]

Man, back in this day, it was like watching McCain and Obama ads! Hahaha! Always attacking each other, comparing systems.

NES classed things up with their commercials. Just NES. Nothing else.

[america20xy]

He totally stole that kid's thunder. What an arrogant bully.

[pancakejarsrfun]

I want an intellivision! :)

ASTROSMASH!

[stilleavy]

i was an Odyssey 2 kid

[pilgrimomega]

I remember one saturday in the middle of summer vacation, playing it all day, leaving the game paused and turned on to pee, eat, and sleep.

Get up the next morning, and keep on rocking.

Except for the time the power went out...I was trying to get a high score on astrosmash for that contest they had....

[AToughF150]

God I used to play Astrosmash for HOURS

[mcorleonep]

This commercial really pissed me off in 1982 but the only Intellivision game there that really stood out was Space Battle. That game was a lot of fun and very advanced for the day. The others were "meh"...

[thejobe]

Atari > Colecovision > Intellivision

[fjccommish]

Unfortunately for Plimpton, those games on Atari were classics while those Intellivision space games were nothing.

[adog262]

The only people who said that Atari was classic are those who didn't compare its games to competitors.

While Atari was good for the time, competitors like Odyssey 2, Intellivision, and Colecovision wiped them out with their games.

"Once you compare, you'll know." XD

[fjccommish]

Sorry, the blips and bloops on Intellivision may have been better, but Atari had the games that were more fun to play.

[adog262]

Oh really! Did you beat Astroids or Space Invaders? :?

Are you telling me that games are more fun to play just because they were called "Atari" games?  We don't want "Atari", we want video games! :)

[fjccommish]

Asteroids and Space Invaders were on Atari.

[adog262]

I know, but I asked if you beat them.

[fjccommish]

I don't recall it being possible to "beat" either game. They just went on and on.

[adog262]

Yeah, my general rule is that if one could get 100,000 points or more, then they beat a game.

[fjccommish]

Then I beat them.

[adog262]

Cool.

[wildsmiley]

"Here, you try"

"But this controller sucks, sir"

"Shut up, kid"

"What's with this stupid disc? Where's the joystick like Atari, sir?"

"Shut up kid, and play the goddamn game"

Seriously though, Intellivision was a great console. Just badly designed controllers, which was a recurring problem in the early '80s.

[sinistermoon]

There was nothing wrong with the controllers. Do you know how many directions of movement the disc has over the Atari 2600 controller? Or how about how many buttons it has compared to the Atari 2600? Those buttons all mean one thing to me, more options. But hey you can't help that one controller that looks like a young black boy's penis with ONE button shaped like a slice carrot works better for you.

[adog262]

Yeah, I agree... Intellivision controllers are fine for the most part. Colecovision controllers are even worse! They only take in 8 different joystick directions! XD

I am surprised at how many buttons are on an Intellivision controller. It actually has 1 button more than an Xbox 360 controller. Wow, and to think that I use this to play Popeye.

[cessnaace]

The Jaguar wins! It has more buttons on it's controller than any three consoles combined. LOL!

[robotwo]

The Atari 5200 controller actually had more buttons than the Jaguar controller.

[cessnaace]

Really? I don't have one. Did the 5200 controllers use overlays, the way the Intellivision and Jaguar did?

STAY AWESOME!

[robotwo]

yupp , the 5200 used overlays aswell , but I didn't play with a original controller when I did play it since the original controllers broke :(

[cessnaace]

Yes, I have heard about the unreliablity of the 5200 controllers. thanks for sitting me straight.

STAY AWESOME!

[adog262]

Yeah, good thing that you can repair them nowadays.

[Jay9928]

Space Armada (Intellivision), ripoff from Space Invaders (Atari & Midway)

[tvtimetravel]

For more info about this commercial, and the Atari vs. Intellivision war, check out an article from the New York Times, Dec. 14, 1981, on microfilm or the Times website.

[daveheel]

george plimpton sure showed him.  ;-)

[adog262]

Space Armada?! Look at the game, it's almost similar to Space Invaders! Man, what copycats...

[TheLastBrainLeft]

Every system had a Space Invaders clone.

The problem with Intellivision "space" games was not the graphics, but the speed. Atari games were more fun to play because they were arcade fast.

[adog262]

Oh yeah, comptetitors were trying to cash in on the franchise. Why not copy Atari?

It's kind of like how today's games look similar to one another. When I play Saint's Row, I'm thinking to myself, "Wow! It's just like Grand Theft Auto!"

Hmmmmm... I wouldn't exactly say that Atari games were easier to play. Alot of your Intellivision games had an auto-fire button, while as none of the Atari games really did.

[ZacharyDuhamel]

i didnt know?!

[Koolkitties]

I still prefer Atari because there's more games, and today, nobody cares which twenty-five year old console had better graphics.

[ZacharyDuhamel]

well a lot of people do would you rather play atari deffender or deffender on colecovision. the graffics are tremendoes on coleco, but look primative and silly on atari

[TheLastBrainLeft]

Intellivision's better graphics were negated by the awful controllers. AstroBLAST was more fun to play than AstroSMASH (Astroblast was Mattel's simplified version of Astrosmash for the 2600). In fact most of the Mattel games released for the 2600 were easier to play.

[sinistermoon]

In your opinion perhaps. For me Astrosmash was the better version. Astroblast was stripped down for the Atari's limitations.

[memphiselle]

I love Intellivision!!! :)

[ZacharyDuhamel]

i didnt know!?

[howitreallyis7]

To this day I don't know anyone that had a Intellivision back then. Me and my mates all had Ataris. Still got mine in fact !!!

[jazziesax]

Ooh...that's so exciting...real exploding sounds!

[Constitusean]

I didn't know

[WULFY1993]

ATARI IS BETTER NO qUESTION BETTER GAMES IS ALWAYS BETTER THAN BETTER GRAPHICS LIKE COMPARE AN NES GAME TO A 360 OR PS3 GAME THE NES GAMES ARE FAR MORE FUN THATS WHY I ONLY PLAY THE CLASSICS AND NOT THE NEW SHITTY ONE,AND BACK TO WHAT I SAID EARLYER ATARI WAS BETTER :P.

[Skylinesandsunsets]

Intv commercials sucked. If only they had hired a spokesperson who was "cooler" and looked like someone who actually played video games in his spare time. Besides, there's no way that some nerdy "I didn't know" kid would win me over to Mattel's side.

[GameGuyTroy]

Aha, Intellivision doesn't quite beat Atari there, who has the least precise controls? Intellivision. "I didn't know!" Well, now you know that Atari is the way to go with better controls.

[bigdog49094]

The intellivision games were better so all I had to do was re-engineer the controls which I did and everything worked great. But your right I don't know why mattel did not improve the controls even when they came out with the second version they were not much better just a little.

[cal2jack]

space armada? i woulda sued over that game, space armada = space invaders

[an147]

Right! Mattel made a copy of the game, and even made it better.

[Whitehawkup]

he keep eggin it on... "I DIDN'T FUCKIN KNOW! ok calm down, kid!" lmao

[BlackWolfessUSCM]

These commercials sparked the world's first Console war advertising, and while both systems were before I was born, it still paved the way for the next gen wars of today.

[slimer145]

even if you do side by side comparisons of the graphics doesnt mean the intellivision is better than the atari 2600. I love the Atari 2600.

[mcan4287]

"Once you compare, you'll know" - catchy eh?

[sakura4000]

He didn't know, alright? Leave the kid alone, Plimpton.

[ifhgsfj]

I DIDN'T KNOW.

[nonmez190]

quote "I didn't know"

[snakes3425]

Mr. Intellivision: 1927-2003 RIP

[snakes3425]

Space Armada = Space Invaders

[Ishykawa]

these were the most hardcore console wars of all time.

[memphiselle]

Indeed..........

[SkyfireTheFox]

Why don't we see more video game commercials like this today? Why not do a side-by-side comparison to show off technical capabilities? If you want to sell me something, then give me a firsthand demonstration!

[VaderNES]

Fuck Intellivision! Atari 2600 kicks Intellivision's ass. Intellivision is for posers.

[fawdown]

Intv was way ahead of it's time. I was much happier with the games that required a little bit of thought rather than just mashing an atari dot or stick that was supposed to be a graphics. Not to mention the crappiest joystick ever.

[VaderNES]

The Atari 2600 joystick works fine. I have all original joysticks with my Atari 2600 (made in 1978). And fun matters more, and Atari 2600 is way more fun than Intellivision, with games like Space Invaders, Pitfall, Asteroids, Missile Command, Pole Position, and much more.

[Xervosh23]

People who had to rely on that horrible, Intellivision disc controller shouldn't say anything about the Atari VCS/2600 joysticks (and paddles, by the way).  Besides, the crappiest joystick ever was clearly that piece of crap that came with the Colecovision....

[Skylinesandsunsets]

Intv was indeed ahead of its time, but the graphics were slow and there weren't enough "fun" games to justify its high price. I liked night stalker and space battle, but Atari was a fun system.  That's what really matters.

[TheLastBrainLeft]

Exactly. I can't play anything on Intellivision with those god awful controllers. Almost every Intellivision game released in a simplified 2600 version by M-Network was more fun to play.

[sinistermoon]

Maybe you have god awful hands because I never have had a problem with the controllers and I have been playing Intellivision for over 23 years.

[Watcher3223]

The Commodore 64 buried both of those machines.

I'm not saying that the InTV or the VCS sucked, but just a recital from history.

When Atari lost against Activision, everyone, including Quaker Oats, made games on the consoles which flooded the market with terrible product. Then the VIC-20 and the C64 came out and undercut everyone because of their vertical integration and aggressive marketing.

[VaderNES]

Yes, but not much later, there was NES, which pwns all. And my Atari (from 1978) still sits hooked-up to my TV, while if I had an Intellivision, it would be in the trash along with my Macintosh (which I smashed for crashing). And C64 is technically a home computer, and really can't be compared to dedicated gaming machines.

[Watcher3223]

Well, that would be about 3-4 years later when the NES comes out.

Part of it was Nintendo's formula: control over 3rd parties and keeping it simple but powerful, which helped it to compete against "home computers" in gaming.

But, the NES still ran on Commodore. The main Ricoh CPU is derived from the MOS 6502, also used in the VIC-20, the 1541 disk drive, the Apple II, and even a variant of it was used as part of the Stella chipset in the 2600 VCS.

[memphiselle]

Ok. I'm just gonna end this argument. Intellivision was superior to Atari 2600. End of story.

[Watcher3223]

Ending an argument that has been dormant and considered over one year ago?

Jeez, man!

[memphiselle]

Uh....lol! Yup! Sorry. I didn't know that was a year old argument! Lol! Oh well!! :)

[Watcher3223]

I should rephrase.

The Ricoh 6502-based CPUs were used only for the NES. The systems I mentioned used the 6502 by MOS and not a variant by Ricoh while the Atari used what's known as the MOS 6507, which is a 6502 short of a few features.

[Watcher3223]

NES AND Famicom.

[Watcher3223]

As for the C64, there is one reality about that computer. Although it was definitely capable of work, we have to fess up to one thing about it: the C64 was famous primarily for gaming.

[smincer]

jeez...like the intellivision game just looks SOOO much better. NOT! They were both 8-bit systems.

[gguru1]

Even little kids who think "the old Nintendo" means Nintendo 64 can tell how much better Intellivision games look compared to Atari 2600 games.

[ifhgsfj]

I'm glad I'm not one of those kids!

[Skylinesandsunsets]

Atari was *NOT* an 8-bit system. Not even close! Atari 2600 could barely handle 4k of ram. 8-bit systems were the original NES and the Sega Master System. As for Intellvision, it's credited as being the first 16-bit system.

[joeshaus]

Like the boy from Atari says, "I didn't know!".

[frankwhite007]

I grew up in st.louis mo i was the only kid on my block who had a intelevison and i had alllllllll the games everbody else had ATARI which was a peace of shit

[robotecha5]

Astrosmash is awsome so is Space Battle

[meidc]

Intelevision?

I didn't konw!

I didn't know!

LOL

[grumpybb]

I played AstroSmash for hours upon hours when I was a kid. I absolutely loved my Intellivision!

[Boojababy]

I had Intellivision when I was a kid, I miss it, I got the newer plug and play version but it was'nt the same, it did'nt have the same sounds.

[retseuqzaps]

Intellivision football...I still remember the play codes: 9 1 2 3 = screen play. 9 1 2 9 = hail mary.

[hoobam1]

ah man, thank you for that. I gasped when I saw those numbers...I had forgotten. Intellivision rules!

[jackmorgs]

LOL there dissing ATARI, INTELLIVISION RULZ! (I got 1!)

[VoyBoyX]

Astrosmash rules. And Armada was way better than Invaders.

[BOX5]

networth astrosmash was the shit yell