Second VideoGame Generation Recap - Mattel Intellivision - Adam Koralik

[@thequanto8555]

My Uncle had an Intellivision, he's got that nostalgia for it. He always talked about how much better it was than the 2600.

[@CenturionKZ]

👍🏼

[@pastedtomato]

Mattel electronics presents B17 Booooomber!!!!!!

[@HonoluluBoy]

That was my favorite game on this console!

[@Drakelx55]

BEEEEEEEEE SEVUNTEEEEEN BAAAALLLLMMMMEEERRRR

[@smokingunclefrank6037]

Yeah B17 althoe I thing there was an actual B52 but it wasn't an intellivision game

[@windowsme2327]

B17 Bomberrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[@bobbysavagehill]

I forgot about that meme, lol

[@MattMcIrvin]

The Intellivision was fairly popular and was easily Atari's most serious competitor until the Colecovision came along. Even if you didn't have one at the time, you saw the TV ads for it, which were everywhere, and they emphasized in particular how much better their sports games looked than the Atari VCS's, because it was easy to do a head-to-head comparison there. Their TV spokesman was the snooty-accented writer George Plimpton--I guess it was because of his associations with sports, but this is something no games company would ever do in a million years today, so it just kind of highlights how weird things could be back then. Eventually, though, Mattel started up "M Network" which was a line of ports of original Intellivision games to the Atari 2600, and the ports were pretty good, only slightly less visually sophisticated than the originals--I think they even did the sports games. I always thought it was odd that they were diluting their competitive advantage, but at that point they likely figured Atari ports would make them more money.

[@Powermetaldaddy1974]

We had the intellivision. My friend had the voice pack as well. The games looked and ran better than the 2600. We enjoyed Advanced Dungeon and Dragons, Auto Racing, Astrosmash, and Poker

[@JesamyPorter]

Hey don't diss Astroblasters! That game was basically Galaga but with a different name. I grew up playing Intellivision because my siblings were all like 20 years older than me and they left the console to me. I grew up as an only child so I never felt the need to get another console until Nintendo 64 because so many older games were 2 player. I do however have every handheld ever pretty much. So as someone who grew up playing the console I will say its not bad, it kept me entertained, I think my siblings must have had over 50 games for it but Frogger was my favorite.

[@stratoplayer1988]

Believe it or not, the Intellivision was probably my first video game experience. When I was a kid in the early 90s, my babysitter's kids would play this on their TV when I would go to their house. While I had fun playing it, I was then blown away when they got a Sega Genesis and immediately knew that I needed one! Still, I have to hand it to the Intellivision for introducing me to the world of video games.

[@daburzze1498]

Uh, none of the GenXers I know regard Intellivision as a "Flop". Plenty of people had them, and as an Atari owner I appreciated how nice the Intellivision was whenever I was at a friend's place (who owned one). Mattel's only failure is they didn't continue with a true successor with upgraded specs. If you think about it, that was wise because the discerning gamers were going through a phase of obsessing over home computers.

[@davy1972]

Da Burzze yeahn, the flop comment and ignorance about the games was annoying.

[@phrobozz]

Pretty much used to it at this point. I'd love to see more Xers making gaming videos, fixing some of the historical inaccuracies, and fitting early consoles into their proper context. Kids who grew up with later generation consoles find it hard to understand how much we loved these consoles, even when graphics and gameplay were in their infancy. We were using the phrase, "check out the graphics!" back when Activision was considered cutting edge. We also knew the limitations of the hardware, but we also knew the technology was constantly evolvoing, and we were always watching for newer, better games.

[@AgentM79]

Give the console it's due and play it. You'll be in for a pleasant surprise. Astrosmash and Space Battle were early "killer apps". Great home adaptions of Burgertime and Ladybug as well.

[@The_Real_DCT]

Also AD&D Cloudy mountain, AD&D Treasure of Tarmin, Thunder Castle, Tower of Doom, Tron Deadly Discs, Lock N Chase, Microsurgeon, Worm Whomper.

[@AgentM79]

@@The_Real_DCT All “A”-list titles! Tron Deadly Disks and Night Stalker were my first purchases for my Sears Super Video Arcade.

[@ukkev7056]

The *_ColecoVision_* is the best pre-NES console there is. Looking forward to the next episode.

[@ukkev7056]

***** I know. I was just stating my opinion that he's covering the best pre-NES console in his next video.

[@ukkev7056]

***** LOL !!! It's you who's wrong. The Atari 5200 flopped because it was too underpowered. Nintendo refused Atari's money for Donkey Kong, and instead struck a deal with Coleco because Nintendo considered the Atari 5200 to be too underpowered.

[@AdamKoralik]

(CAX was being sarcastic.)

[@ukkev7056]

AdamKoralik Ahhhh.......

[@ukkev7056]

Glade Swope The Sega SG-1000 had a similar chipset as the ColecoVision. Someone managed to mod one of the consoles to run the other console's games.

[@raytrumble1994]

I just stumbled on to your channel and I'm hooked thanks for the awesome content!!!!!

[@AdamKoralik]

+Papi Hokage Thanks!

[@studiokadaver]

YES! The Intellivision was the first home console I ever played! Following the C64. My Stepdad still has it & some games hidden in the basement. I’m still trying to rescue it. Maybe I’ll eventually convince him to dig it out one day. Man I remember the SEGA channel that was super fun!

[@tchitchouan]

I was litterally just watching your 2015 neogeo episode. Right on time bro; time to binge watch.

[@AdamKoralik]

Hope you enjoyed it!

[@redbaron474]

Snafu was kind of like the tron light cycles. In addition, there was lock n chase, sea battle, space battle (which was used on the call-in tv gameshow "clubhouse pow"), utopia, tron, dungeons and dragons, baseball, and poker/black jack.

[@Halbared]

We had an Intellivision, with three inbuilt games. Mattel was also the first distributor of the NES in the UK.

[@Gentenstation]

AstroSmash is one of the best (non tennis) space shooters. You should play it. It was on the 2600 as Astroblast

[@Gentenstation]

Astrosmash, Shark Shark, Night Stalker, Snafu, and Lock n Chase are all great for the Intellivision. Honestly, minus the controller, I preferred it over the 2600

[@ninetailcat4932]

GenTen Station Agreed. I used to be up all night playing Astrosmash. It was intense when you got into the higher/faster levels, and I loved the sound effects in it

[@smittenthekitteninmittens2679]

i find your channel really interesting whenever i need information on older consoles i find i just need to find one of your videos on hey presto...keep up the good work!!..*subscribed*

[@AdamKoralik]

Thanks!

[@Shane-Singleton]

I had an Intellevision. My mother picked it up for us from a friend of hers that was going to toss it. I want to say it was in the late 80's. It was after we had an NES but before we got our SNES. I remember it being fairly fun but didn't play it much because we had a NES. I remember a car race game that you ccould play in 2 player and basically you just had to outrun your friend's car to past the end of the screen. And at one point i'd just try to see how far I could make it off the track between building, trees, etc. lol.

[@VanderJamesHum]

Great video. I like the design of the wood grain console, and also the white version. Very cool designs aesthetically.

[@charvelgtrs]

Colecovision was hands down the best of the 2nd generation.

[@58jharris]

I'd say it was a tie between the Colecovision and Vectrex. Both of those consoles deserved more success than they received.

[@jcwadkins2100]

charvelgtrs Colecovision was forsure the best

[@chargermaster8740]

charvelgtrs yeah to bad it came out at the near end of the 2 generation

[@chargermaster3676]

charvelgtrs yeah to bad it came out towards the end of the 2nd generation

[@BenHughes81]

Mattel was also the distributor of the NES in Australia and parts or Europe. They also made the Power Glove. I'm not sure if that should count or not.

[@wayntjies]

Hi, we owned one in the 80's in South-Africa. Ordered the cartridges through the post from the States.

[@davidfox8791]

Now got a flashback unit I wish they bring out another one

[@civicsico1198]

I had an intellivision 1 and wish I knew where it went. Use to love swapping out the interchangeable sleeves that slid over the buttons. Lost a lot of sleep playing frogbog, hockey, and the tank war game.

[@troin3925]

9:21-9:24 I loved playing with that version as a kid!

[@peteralexander2941]

I'm from the UK and I've never seen an intelevision in person, they were unsuccessful over here due to the home computer boom at the time, same with the colecovision, the atari 2600 was somewhat successful here for some bizarre reason though fun fact: the last game ever produced for the intelevision was deep pockets, a pool game that has a copyright date of 1990, it was never officially released, but can be found online as a rom and was even released on XBLM in 2010!

[@ajsmotolife5641]

My first system! It was a hand me down from my dad, from when he was a teen. My grandparents never threw anything away and it was just sitting in thier garage. I loved it! Astrosmash, Armor Battle, Space Battle, Atlantis, Lock N' Chase, Pitfall, and Advandced D&D. Just to name a few a the great games. You should really play Astrosmash probably the killer app for the system.

[@Wolfphototech]

*Boy, I do love retro consoles.* *An this is why i have subbed to your channel.*

[@AdamKoralik]

Thanks.

[@nicolanobili2113]

About two minutes into the video, you said that in Europe the Intellivision was not so popular. Well, you are too young, believe me, it WAS very popular, as a kid I knew dozens of people who had it, it was advertised in all specialized magazines and on TV, it could be found in all shops which sold electronic stuff. It disappeared, that's correct, in the second half of the 1980s, and yet in some large shops you could still find Intellivision cartridges as late as in the early 1990s. The fact that you never saw one in Europe is a coincidence, or it is due to the fact that retrogaming has never been so widespread in most European countries.

[@vgbouncehouse]

After first reading about it in magazines I held out for one, using friends' VCSs to supplement coin-ops. It set a standard for controllers for the rest of the generation (which I will always call the 1st, the pre-cartridge systems weren't really consoles) including pseudo-analog control. In addition to pushing the concept of non-arcade licensing Mattel also made voice integral to gameplay long before anyone else. While my favorites came from Imagic, Activision also produced a number of exclusive originals, in addition to great Mattel titles including the granddaddy of resource sims, Utopia. I collected 60-70% of the library as a teenager, easily the best system of the time for original, non-coin-op-derived console games.

[@johnpenguinthe3rd13]

While my first system was the Sega Master System in mid-1988 (I picked it over the NES since I could play NES anytime at my friend's house and I really enjoyed Sega arcade games like Space Harrier, Shinobi, etc) the Intellivision was my SECOND system (which an older neighbor gave me later in 1989). It was the InTV version.... but when it was first given to me, I had NO clue the system was still in production (I thought they had died when Mattel stopped producing the system and I thought the Intellivision that was given to me was a discontinued system) but InTV made NEW games from 1986 till 1989 (most of them were given to me by my neighbor and a lot of those later released games are not only some of the best on the system, but they are RARE and expensive now). Some of these games include Diner (the SEQUEL to Burgertime), Body Slam Pro Wrestling, Stadium Mud Buggies, and a few more of the later (and now rare and expensive) releases. I also got some of the early 80's, very common releases like Astrosmash. In my later years, with the invention of KZbin, I've seen all the early Intellivision commercials with "Mr.Intellivision" himself, Sir George Plimpton, who started the first console war with Atari by outright calling out Atari in the Intellivision commercials and comparing Intellivision games to Atari 2600 games (he started with the sports games... but later attacked many of Atari's other games). Atari later responded with their OWN attack ads against Intellivision and George Plimpton with their own "Real Sports" series of commercials.

[@matthewgipson9165]

Hi Adam. Love your series so far. I grew up in this series and remember fondly that the graphics on these were far superior than what I had on my 2600 at the time. I wanted one so bad, but never saw one in the day. I think its noteworthy to mention that it also could be considered one of the first consoles with a 16-bit processor and definitely had more horsepower.

[@AdamKoralik]

+Matthew Gipson Thanks for watching!

[@MrXminus1]

It wasn’t “online”. It was called PlayCable. That how I got all my games. 20 games a month for $12. Two games would drop off and be replaced by two new games. It worked well. I never had any problems with my PlayCable. Unfortunately, PlayCable couldn’t support 8K games that Intellivision started releasing. This video contains many inaccuracies.

[@intrepidnick2939]

My first console. I loved playing Astrosmash. Don't knock it, Adam. It's a great fucking game. :3

[@tbb033]

Astrosmash was one of the best games of the era.

[@maxsmusings339]

Intrepid Nick My Dad had this console as his first, he also loves astrosmash, but they sold it long ago. Nice to see a fellow fan. :)

[@mscottjohnson3424]

This was actually the first 16-bit console. Just goes to show how bits don't say much about a console's capabilities. The PC Engine was famously 8-bit but was able to compete in the 4th Generation. The original Xbox had a Pentium III, so it was technically a 32-bit console, as was the Wii.

[@kevcole3333]

great and informative review. I had the first intellivision in the early 80's and loved it. yep b-17 bomber was one of my favorites. utopia, sea battle, baseball, mirosurgeon, tron, football. was way ahead of it's time and very fun to play.

[@XtinaSones]

I had one, my first console along with the Atari 5200......my favorite game was Lock n Chase.

[@vulkusbanks5985]

I bought one of these brand new, loved it. It was advertised as the Atari 2600 killer. But was made to give you the feel of having a colecovision. The voice synth was marketed with the B-17 Bomber game. I heard a few years back that someone bought all the games rights and were releasing them on the mobile platforms. You can also get an emulator to play all the games on your PC. Mattel also released a home computer called the Aquarius, which were game ports from the intellivision games.

[@mtshark7]

Awesome video Adam!

[@AdamKoralik]

Thanks.

[@melisamarquez-rodriguez3381]

I would have loved if you talked a bit on the weird controller.

[@alaeriia01]

A 16-way "magic disk" d-pad? Yeah, that was pretty weird.

[@patsfan4life]

By 'weird' do you mean 'sucky'?

[@McMullet94]

Apparently my dad had an intellivison and played dungeons and dragons on it back in the 80s , nuts

[@scottythompson940]

cool video tech talk adam

[@alex_capone]

I am into the intellivision because my dad and I collect together and one time he got an awesome lot of a boxed console with like 50 boxed games and we have been collecting for it ever since. i actually just bought him a boxed IntelliVoice with four boxed games that support it for Christmas. yes the Hyperscan doesn't count! I agree it is weird that they made games for each other, that's like making mario 3d world for the PS4 and XBOX ONE lol. I think it is becaus ethis gen was more about makinga quick buck than kepping video games alive or giving them a meaning. Great vid! i really want a vectrex... :( lol

[@GiuseppeGaetanoSabatelli]

This was actually my primary videogame system until I was 8 years old. My parents wouldn't get me a Super Nintendo so I had to play it at a friend's house or play this until we got the new Nintendo 64. I would basically exclusively play Donkey Kong on InTV, despite having 12 games. It was just the most fun... turns out Miyamoto knew what he was doing.

[@dylbob9000]

Mattel was the distributor for the NES in Australia

[@Waifu4Life]

Well, Mattel did originally distribute the NES in Canada and Europe as well as bring the Power Glove to North America.

[@WhiteJarrah]

I'm Australian, I found one or two Intellivision game cartridges at my local GameTraders recently. But I've never seen the actual console.

[@dacypher22]

The Intellivision was definitely not a complete flop! It sold 3 million units worldwide, which is still pretty slim compared to the 25 million+ consoles that the Atari VCS sold, BUT the Intellivision was Atari's biggest competitor and the only console that, for a very short time in 1982, was actually nearly neck-and-neck with them. The much smaller sales are due to Intellivision's much shorter time on the market (the VCS was around for about 3 years before the Intellivision was even released). The Intellivision had a fairly larger price tag, so it was more of a high-end system by the early 80's when compared to the VCS, but tons of people had one.

[@AlienExorcist]

It was also (technically) the 1st 16-bit system. My nephew had one back then, I remember loving Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (a more advanced version of Adventure), so I sought mine out 5 or 6 years ago. Burgertime is almost as good as the Coleco version too.

[@LinkMEP]

Those controllers are really cool, the game specific overlays are neat.

[@marccaselle8108]

I just ordered an intellivision and 11 games a few days ago. The overlays were really cool and helped with playing the games. I can't wait till everything comes in.

[@davy1972]

There are some consoles that were ahead of their time. I would place the Intellivision with the Dreamcast and first Xbox. They pushed peripherals that would eventually be the norm. Dreamcast with online gaming and Xbox with broadband only. The Intellivision introduced vision for the videogame industry. Unfortunately, the lack of support, and of course 1983, hurt the console's momentum. On a side not, claiming the console flopped when you haven't played the majority of the games is lazy. Astrosmash was not a "space based tennis game." It was a rival to asteroids, with a thriving community of fans. Intellivision maintained a newsletter where fans of the game took pictures of their high scores and the newsletter published them.

[@scarosone14]

Growing up in that era I remember that Atari 2600 was the system most kids wanted cause everyone had one, Intellivision was the system the "rich" kids had and showed off to their 2600 friends. Odyssey 2 was the system your parents got for you for Christmas when you wanted a 2600 or an Intellivision but the stores sold out of 2600's and the Intellivision was too expensive on Christmas Eve. That is why I was a Odyssey 2 owner 😄.

[@MattMcIrvin]

...Oh, yeah, the other thing I was gonna say about the Intellivision was that, when it first launched, the TV ads *heavily* emphasized that they were going to come out later with the "Intellivision Keyboard Component", this hulking thing that the base unit would plug into that would transform it into a true home computer. That promise arguably moved a fair number of units, but the Keyboard Component was this cursed project that kept slipping behind schedule and over budget, and eventually the federal government stepped in, accused them of false advertising and started charging Mattel exorbitant fines until they could ship this thing. What they eventually did was go back to square one and develop a completely *different*, much less capable keyboard computer expansion that they could actually ship, so they could get the government off their backs. I don't think many people bought them. But I think the whole business made the Intellivision something of a headache within Mattel, even though it was a fairly successful product on its own.

[@intylab]

For being so scaled down, I loved the ECS.

[@danxepha4535]

Mattel actually also released another console. Well kind of. They were the original distributor for the NES in the UK and they had "Mattel Version" printed on the front. I think they weren't of the highest build quality and Nintendo took over pretty soon after.

[@tbb033]

They also distributed the NES in Canada, which freaked me out a bit when an American video store imported Canadian Zelda 2's and SMB 2's because of the "chip shortage" BS keeping them off american shelves.

[@phlydude]

We got an Intellivision when I was in 2nd grade (1982) for Christmas. My aunt and uncle had one and we spent hours playing the Electric Factory games and Poker and Blackjack (that shifty eyed dealer) and Baseball (Phillies vs Dodgers). When we got our own, it was at the end of the run but that meant plenty of clearance games that we could buy. Lock 'n Chase was great fun, as was Burgertime. I loved Astrosmash as well. We eventually picked up a computer plug in module and I learned basic on that thing. I just wish we had found the voice module. We had a game that was voice enabled but didn't play right (I'm guessing because of the missing voice module). I had lots of good times with that thing until I got a NES in 1986. My parents still have it I think - buried in their attic I'm guessing. Should be there with my NES and SNES consoles :(

[@garthblack8330]

I actually still have mine. It works fine and have lots of games. It was a good system. I loved the game B17 bomber one of the first voice games. Wonder if I should sell it some day?

[@dallase1]

How can you hate the Keypad on Intellivision and Colecovision but think the Keypad is a good idea on the 5200 if it weren't for the fact that the 5200 Keypad had quality problems? They Keypad on the Intellivision made it better because it served the same function as the Atari 5200, you used it to activate certain actions in games like hyper space in Astrosmash or select the short stop to catch the ball in Baseball or select a difficulty level of a game or select a game option. The controller to hate is the Atari 5200 even if it did not have the quality problems of the keypad and joystick because even if the joystick was durable it still had that annoying non self centering feature, or the Playstation controllers with their buttons instead of a D-Pad for the D-Pad, or the Odyssey 2 with those knotches in the controller that will lock the Joystick in position making it hard to quickly change directions? Why would you think Astrosmash is a Tennis game? This was the early 80's they did not have weird games like sports with Robots or something like they have on the NEO GEO, if you have 3 Intellivisions why did you not play Astrosmash on one of them? It was one of the most popular Intellivision games that everyone knew what game it was, Mattel's answer to Asteroids but it's slide and shoot instead of being a ship in the center of the screen. Beauty and The Beast is a Donkey Kong Inspired game with a bit of crazy climber in it because you climb up the open windows to get to your girl friend that Horrible Hank Kidnapped. Donkey Kong sucked slightly less than the VCS version. Didn't you do any research on the system? If you did you would have known what Astrosmash was and how horrible both versions of Donkey Kong were, they were famous for how crappy they were. Intellivision was very successful and started the first console wars.

[@dmtenor]

Loved the Intellivision when I was a kid, and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons was my jam. What's funny is that my local library actually had Intellivision games like Sharp Shot and a few others, I'm sure before the powers that be decided that video games would turn your brain to mush and lead to degenerate behavior. Oh well!

[@tbb033]

AD&D was like a proto Zelda. Very cool.

[@TheJeremyHolloway]

The homebrew "Intellivania" looks pretty good. Same with the homebrew of that Super Italian Plumber who we won't talk about because the a-holes in Redmond Washington will sue over it.

[@12me91]

didnt atari have gamelive about the same time the intellivision went online too? Or was that a year or so before. I know the guys behind aol did that before they did aol

[@ninetailcat4932]

I had an intellivision and loved it. Baseball, Astrosmash, Pitfall, and Burgertime were the best games I had. And each game came with a little plastic card you slid over the keypad to tell you what the buttons did for that particular game. It was a weird controller but had more functionality than the Atari controller, so I guess that's why at the time it didn't seem so odd. now it would feel really weird tho for sure.

[@TheJamieRamone]

I still have my III! Got it for a birthday with the computer module.

[@XPLRgaming]

Astrosmash and Triple Action were my favorite games on the system. Both my Dad and his brother had systems back then. They were the Sears Super Video Arcade, which I happen to have as a hand me down. I may do a video on it in the future. Like you said Adam, this gen is a weird one. Not only did competing companies make games for each other, but they also licensed out their tech to stores, like Sears, to sell their own versions. Interesting stuff. Also, you need to find B17 Bomber. It's by far the best game for that voice module. You may not like it today, but back then, with you and a friend, it was an incredible game to play. One of the lines I remember most was, "Bandits, 12 o'Clock!" Awesome stuff. Astrosmash, that is a game that is more like Space Invaders meets Astroids. It's an incredible game, at least in my opinion. There is another game that might be the first ever Shmup, and that is Mission X. Its an awesome game too. Plus we can't forget Frog Bog, Frogger, Pit Fall, Night Stalker and Space Armada. A lot of, if not all of these games, are on the Intellivion Lives! collection disk. I have it for Xbox. B17 Bomber is on there as well, so, you could try it on there, but playing it on the real hardware is just mind boggling when you factor in how old the hardware is. Awesome stuff. Anyways, I grew up with the system, playing it sometimes over my NES, mainly because I had, or still have, like 30 games for the system. Nice video as always Adam. If you have any questions, I would be glad to help answer them.

[@AdamKoralik]

Thanks dude, and thanks for the information.

[@XPLRgaming]

You are welcome sir. Adam, I must say, that you are one of the reasons why I decided to start a KZbin page. Providing awesome information on video games is both fun and valuable to a lot of people. Especially collectors like you and I. Happy Gaming!

[@clebo99]

Best console ever. So innovative!!!! Super Pro Basketball where you DRAFT players that have salaries. Utopia is the Grandfather to SimCity. B17-Bomber was a great game. Blew away Atari and I think kept up with Colecovision.

[@TechnologySpotlight]

My mom had this console in the early eighties. Unfortunately, it was sold at a garage sale in the mid '90s, but now I wish I had it.

[@OneEyedJack1970]

Intellivision had pretty good sports games. Hell, even their M-Network games for the Atari 2600 were pretty good.

[@brandonb1681]

We had one of these back in the day. I loved playing Blackjack on it.

[@jcchaconjr]

The Intellivision has an interesting history indeed - after inTV folded, Keith Robinson, an original programmer at Mateel Electronics, eventually bought the rights to all Intellivision IP. He is directly responsible for all the Intellivision compilations and the Intellivision Lives! website (via Intellivision Productions), and worked directly with AtGames to produce the Inty Flashback. Were it not for a screwup with the controller wiring, the Flashback controllers would work with the Intellivision II! But a fan site does offer an adapter to allow you to use them. The home brew scene is pretty active, and I think the reason that it's popular is that this was the console we all wanted when it came out, but was too freakin' expensive for most of us to afford! It did cost $300 in 1980 money, after all. That's close to $1K in today's money.

[@tbb033]

"Mateel" lol

[@halflifethegame]

Mattel electronics presents: "B-17 Bomber" (sorry i had to do it)

[@HonoluluBoy]

When I was a kid, this was the machine that got me into gaming! Loved the intellivision!

[@davecates9095]

I was just reading about Mattel's online service the other day. I believe it was called PlayCable or something like that. Cool to know that kind of thing was around that long.

[@VonOzbourne]

I haven't tried to pick up an original, but I did grab a Flashback system. While it belonged to my uncle, the Intellivision was the first non-Pong game console I ever played. Played a lot of Triple action back in those days.

[@Youmama187]

i had an intelivision with the wood finish. it was a lot of fun qhen I was a really young kid

[@bsimpson2288]

Damn, I remember that shit! I had an Intellivision back in the day. Favorite game was some top view F1 racing game...

[@hurkamur1]

I grew up with the intellivision, we had a few in my extended family too, intellivision 1s and IIs. Tons of great games, even had a vertical scrolling shmup called mission X. Imo, the console had a lot more quality games than the 2600 or possibly even colecovision.

[@odeiup]

hurkamur1 2600 sure, colecovision? HELL NO

[@dallase1]

Q*Bert was Better on Intellivision.

[@alexander2685]

Colecovision was better hands down hence the arcade experience at home.duh.

[@russianbot8576]

the side port for the cartridge isn't too weird if you look at retro computers like the commodore64 and others which usually had cartridge support on the back facing outward. considering these were the early days, top-loading wasn't standardised yet. in fact, i reckon if intellivision had been THE console, not A2600, side-loading would be the standard from there. and why not? VCRs technically 'side load' as do casettes as well. wild to think about in hind sight. in fact i would even go so far to say side loading would've probably eliminated the absolute need for the dust covers featured on top loading consoles, meaning there's actually a benefit to the concept.

[@gradygilchrist4923]

Had it as a kid, the voice was not bad (Bomb Squad).

[@mattl_]

Great video!

[@AdamKoralik]

Thanks.

[@wraithofwor1785]

I have the consoles composite modded, This is my favorite childhood console... you forgot the Radio Shack Tandyvision...lol

[@AdamKoralik]

It's not that I forgot it, I just don't own it.

[@FlyingV555]

Hey Adam can you add on to the 2nd gen recap series with the rca studio 2? You can find it on eBay for fairly cheap.

[@williamwyke5624]

Intellivision had a great marketing campaign with sports writer George Plimpton. Their main selling point was that they had better sports games than Atari. Except no one really cared about sports games. We all wanted arcade ports. which Atari and Coleco had. I only knew one guy who had one, and trying it (with those awful controllers) convinced the rest of us to go with Atari.

[@SuperMoleRetro]

I liked the Intellivision sports games a lot more than those that were made for the 2600. They seemed to work better with the numeric keypad and the graphics were a bit better.

[@emmettturner9452]

2600 was a model number. The name was VCS (Video Computer System) model CX-2600. They only started labeling it "2600" to differentiate it from the 5200 SuperSystem (again, not simply "5200"). The 7800 ProSystem obviously had a non-numeric name too. ;) See how this works? Atari VCS/2600, Atari 5200 SuperSystem, Atari 7800 ProSystem, Atari 2600 Junior, Atari Lynx, Atari Jaguar, etc. They all had non-numeric names! Every single one...

[@steveeisenhowereisenhower7130]

I had it. Loved it fond memories

[@matthewpisto308]

I liked the intellivision. My friend had that and I had the 2600. He gave me a bunch of games, in box with inserts. All the games you mentioned except empires, I have. Troy solar sailer is sealed and it uses the intellivoice module. Don't have one. 😔

[@faithlessberserker5921]

For as much as you talked about matels hyper scan I feel like this Consol deserved more air time on your Channel.

[@iceman2796]

I had Intellivision 2 and 3. I really loved it. The games were a 1,000 times better than anything on the Atari 2600. Tron Deadly Discs was the best game on any system up until the NES came along. Games like Worm Whomper and Burgertime are out standing. Lots of my friends had Intellivsion. You look too young to appreciate this system. You need to add the overlays to truly enjoy the game.

[@FukugawaUtake]

The Intelivision II was also designed to lock out third party games (like the terrible version of Donkey Kong you have), though developers quickly figured out how to get around it. There were also SEARS versions of the console that looked very different and had detachable controllers (never seen one in person though) This is one of those systems I had little interest in but upon getting one gained an appreciation for. The controllers aren't great, but once you get used to them they're not too bad. AstroSmash is a great game, a mix between Asteroids and Space Invaders (with an auto fire feature!), Burger time on this thing is great, supposedly one of the best home ports.

[@AdamKoralik]

Thanks for the information!

[@frankynakamoto2308]

Consoles always have innovative, voice speech first in consoles, not computer games, that is awesome, I mean wasn't the first 3D release for Playstation1, is impressive what those old console generations have lead us to, I guess we can thank them now for what it's has come in gaming. You should do a video about how each console from the first to our current consoles have innovative, what each one has credit for innovating in the video games.

[@brandonselitetv1436]

Fernando Salazar The first 3D release was 3DO

[@frankynakamoto2308]

RevolveTechUSA 99 that was the console, they had some 3D games, but after the Jumping Flash, for example one 3D game the 3DO had was Blade Force release in Oct 20, 1995 but Jumping Flash was release for the PS1 in April 28 1995

[@AxeCrazyAutobot]

Virtua Racing was on the 32X and Genesis in 1994 and the Atari Jaguar had Cybermorph. I'd say the PS1,Saturn and N64 were the first consoles with 3D games actually worth anything though.

[@Sketch3ric]

I think I had one of those knock-offs of the intellivision when I was little, but it was just a controller with composite cords coming from it and had around 100 games built in. It was pretty cool

[@haroof]

My brothers and I would fight over this thing. We were obsessed with Dungeons and Dragons.

[@RRW359]

Didn't the 2600 also have an online add-on that did the same thing?

[@gradygilchrist4923]

lol

[@RRW359]

Grady Gilchrist Look up "gamelink"

[@gradygilchrist4923]

You mean gameline? Kind of like Sega channel but no online play. Had Atari in 1979 Christmas doubt it was out then.

[@RRW359]

Grady Gilchrist Yeah.

[@TheJeremyHolloway]

Yes, the Gameline modem and online service for the Atari 2600. Out of the ashes of that company came Quantum Link, which later became America Online.

[@tuomasgu3766]

I found one yesterday in a thrift store bundled with 9 games for 195 euros. I live in Finland. I've never seen this before out in the wild.

[@odeiup]

Tuomas Poukkula did you get it?

[@tuomasgu3766]

odeiup Yeah I got a 20% discount from the original price so I had to get it. It was bundled with some great titles like Burger Time, Tron Deadly Discs, Utopia, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. It's still expensive compared to US prices but the console is so rare in Europe. I'm not sure how many units of the first model were sold in Europe since its launch in 1982 but read somewhere that total global sales were 500 000 units. I wonder if they stopped the manufacturing of model one after releasing the model 2 on 1983. It would imply that the model 1 was sold for less than a year in Europe. Talk about rarity indeed.

[@MrMcKane]

What about the Mattel Aquarius? That was a game system (As well as a computer)

[@JohnnyUndaunted]

Just for the record, the Atari 2600 was not the original name that Atari's first console was marketed as. It was original sold as the Atari Video Computer System or Atari VCS. The 2600 was just the code number of the product and was only used officially when they later released the 5200 so they could distinguish the two.

[@everyonelovesfriday2045]

Did you get any of the cards that slide in the controller over the numbers, they were game specific? I imagine they didn’t survive

[@ajw2305]

Just saw one of these in my aunt's second hand shop. had a ton of games, too, but the console itself was in far too degraded a condishion to be worth purchasing. Seems like a neat machine.

[@kaisercreb]

My dad had an intellivision as a teen but i have never seen one in person that i remember.

[@ThatWeirdGuyYouKnow]

I just found your channel and I'm hooked! Awesome video. By any chance do you have the Sears Super Video Arcade version of the Intellivision? I just found my dad's old one sitting in the attic and I'm trying to clean it all up. I don't know anything about this version either. He used to work at Sears when they were selling Pong.

[@OtakuNoShitpost]

As far as I know, the game to own for this was Dungeons and Dragons. Don't really know much about it other than it's supposed to be fun.

[@hurkamur1]

phoxxentswrath There are two official and one unlicensed d&d title, all good games.

[@FloatingFatMan]

Loving the series but could you please at least add some pics of the games so we can see what they looked like?