Auto Racing/NHL Hockey/Sea Battle/Space Battle: Intellivision Archive 3

This third edition of the Intellivision Archive series wraps up the last two games published in the platform's test market phase and introduces the first two games released after the console went national. A combination of realistic sports games and more strategic action titles - it doesn't get much more Intellivision than this.
If you enjoy this, consider subscribing to the Atari Archive patreon at www.patreon.com/atariarchive, or purchasing my book, Atari Archive Vol. 1, over at Limitedrungames.com!

[@marvdaniels5603]

My gosh! Sea Battle brings back so many memories. My childhood friend, Omar, would trounce me in Sea Battle.

[@RemnantCult]

Seriously great channel. There's still many stories to tell with the history of 70s to early 80s gaming and you're revealing many of these here.

[@PaulSoth]

Loved Space Attack when I was a kid. It works pretty well with the tracball, if you managed to have one.

[@TheHylianBatman]

Very cool! Sea Battle and Space Battle really seem up my alley, I love strategy games like that!

[@Ampersand100]

I remember seeing screenshots of Auto Racing in a magazine back in the day; it looked amazing. I never got to play it but always dreamed of it. Heck, that style of graphics still looks so appealing even today. :-) The fact that you can actually drive off-road and explore the map is very cool.

[@flowerpot5207]

'Sea Battle' looks like it may have inspired Access Software's 'Beach Head'.

[@HeroJournalism]

Great episode, loved hearing the origins of these games!

[@absolutezeronow7928]

Good to move on beyond the test market games and both Sea Battle and Space Battle sound like they're pretty good games.

[@cdrugly]

I remember the first time I played Auto Racing back in 81 and I was blown away by the graphics. Still kinda am.

[@sandal_thong8631]

I saw Auto Racing in an electronics store while my parents were shopping nearby. Too bad I already had an Atari. Also too bad they didn't make an M-Network game from it. The overhead view games are really racing, while games like Pole Position, Enduro and Turbo are just passing games.

[@toasteee252]

Ice hockey was awesome back when it came out. There was nothing like it. We liked the play but we also eanted the graphics (we akways we wanted comparable ti the local arcade. Didnt even know if we had hockey teams in texas at the tine, but we still played this one. Did you know that in addition to trippibg and getting into the penalty box that yiu could hit the goalie with a puck (dont know what caused this) and knock him unconscious leavibg him lying sprawled out on the ice on his back. Good times.

[@ArttuTheCat]

ICE HOCKEY 🏒 from Activision is so legendary, i might want to play it again 😹👍🕹️. In fact, i still have it in a compilation called ACTIVISION ANTHOLOGY for my PlayStation 2 😺👍🕹️.

[@Ampersand100]

I picked up Space Attack at a retail store somewhat late in the 2600's life without knowing anything about it. It turned out to be very fun, which was a pleasant surprise.

[@ArttuTheCat]

A new retrospective channel subscriber / retro gamer from Vantaa, Finland 🇫🇮 😺👍🕹️.

[@glenwoodreid5910]

Sea Battle - Leave a mine in your opponent's harbor.

[@jcchaconjr]

The Galáctica license could have made a big difference with Soace Battle. I know that I bought the Space Alert handheld because I liked the series. I wonder if all that licensing weighed heavily on Mattel’s operations early on.

[@BeyondTheScanlines]

I'm genuinely impressed with the depth of Sea Battle - it's a shame they weren't able to fit a good single player AI into it (which doesn't surprise me given cart sizes of the time), but had it had one, I could have seen myself spending quite a bit of time on it for sure. Space Battle really feels unique looking back at it - a more strategic approach, and it would have been neat had Mattel been able to keep the Battlestar license.

[@goldenphonautogram6141]

Way to leave us in suspense Kevin. I can’t wait to see what your thoughts on Pac-Man are! Still a fantastic episode though, as always.

[@sandal_thong8631]

There's probably a huge amount of information to condense. But once he puts it out there, he'll probably get a lot of casual viewers to his channel looking at other games.

[@anactualmotherbear]

Another excellent episode.

[@eebuckeye]

You have terrific videos!!

[@sandal_thong8631]

It was interesting to learn some video games at the arcade in the 1970s were 2-player, and the previous generation of home-pong games were too. I think 1981 was when the home console market switched to one-player games. Intellivision not having a 1-player option for many of its games would be a downside, as would the M-Network versions. If I'd gotten a better system like Intellivision, I realize now I'd have missed out on a lot of 1-player arcade conversions to Atari, and would have had trouble finding good opponents willing to learn the controls, as I did after I got M-Network Baseball and Armor Ambush. Also too bad they didn't realize they'd already lost the market when Atari got Space Invaders. If they'd launched M-Network games for Atari in 1981, they might have sold more since there was less competition (1982 had a glut), with few Atari games coming out that year after many of their programmers left for Activision and other places. Looks painful to have to play a video Ice Hockey for 20 minutes; like baseball should have options for fewer innings, and golf should have let you practice particular holes, they should have options for shorter periods. I got the M-Network version of Space Battle called Space Attack, and it wasn't very good. I remember finally winning and I think there's no score, or timer to beat next time.

[@VillageofShadows765]

Just Subscribed 😊😊

[@justsomeguywhoplaysretroga4362]

I'll be checking these games later today, on my emulator though, here I have no access to physical media for these systems.

[@DQSpider]

IDK, left is always left in any car I've driven so I don't understand the "realism" of the steering here