Atari 2600 vs Intellivision! 53 Games Compared!

In this video I offer MY OPINIONS on 53 games that appeared on the Mattel Intellivision to their counterparts on the Atari 2600 and share MY OPINIONS about these games! (Crazy, but YOUR OPINIONS might be different!!!) Which game did I ENJOY MORE? Watch and find out what are MY OPINIONS of these games!
Games Featured: Armor Battle, Astrosmash, Atlantis, NBA Basketball, Beamrider, PBA Bowling, Boxing, Brickout, Bump 'N Jump, BurgerTime, Carnival, Centipede, Checkers, Chess, Commando, Congo Bongo, Deep Pockets Pool, Defender, Demon Attack, Dig Dug, Donkey Kong Jr., Donkey Kong, Dragonfire, Fathom, NFL Football, Frogger, Frog Bog, PGA Golf, Masters of the Universe: The Power of He-Man, Mountain Madness Super Pro Skiing, NHL Hockey, Kool-Aid Man, Lock 'N Chase, Mouse Trap, Pinball, Reversi, Pac-Man, Soccer, Pitfall!, Pole Position, Popeye, Q*bert, River Raid, Space Battle, Space Armada, Stampede, Star Strike, Super Cobra, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Tennis, Tron Deadly Discs, Tutankham
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#atari #intellivision #classicgaming #videogames #retrogaming #retrogames #classicgames #classicvideogames #vintagegaming #vintagegames #arcadegames #atari #atari2600 #atari5200 #atari7800 #atarilynx #atarijaguar #nintendo #nintendones #nes #nintendosnes #supernintendo #nintendowii #sega #segagenesis #megadrive #segasaturn #segadreamcast #turbografx #pcengine #colecovision #intellivision #arcade1up #arcadegames #playstation #sony #xbox #microsoft

[@GregsGameRoom]

Really appreciate you watching this! It was a doozy to make! 10 Things You Don't Know About Atari: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f4GzXoJ4eN2Kg7c 5 Minute History: The Atari 2600 kzbin.info/www/bejne/fmnZkouFgK-rgbM My Gaming Memories - Atari 2600, 7800, Nintendo NES: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hnmcZ3-umNCDhLs

[@brett3105]

The Intellivision controller is actually comfortable, you just need to know how to hold and use it. It also leads to much better game play. If you don't know how to play the game, or hold the controller, of course you'll think it's bad. Games are more fun on Intellivision. If you knew how to play, you'd be amazed. Sports games on Intellivision are actually some of the best of all time. It's frustrating when someone plays Intellivision, doesn't know how to play, then says it's no good, just because they can't figure it out.

[@Jirass]

Yeah, it is not even close with regard to the sports games. Atari probably had better racing games and their hockey game was pretty good but that's about it. Intellivision's MLB Baseball, NBA Basketball, and NFL Football games had fast and exciting gameplay that only improved with the later INTV releases. And their golf, bowling, skiing, tennis, wrestling, and volleyball games were also amazing for the time.

[@dagttv]

Most intellivision games included a card that slid over the keypad which made it much easier to understand the controls. Its probably really cryptic without the cards haha

[@Rob774]

It was called an overlay.

[@robbieadams9837]

You have to use the overlays for sport games.

[@gawkersdeathrattle1759]

Seems like the bulk of your issues with intellivision is not understanding the controls, which if you had the original game w. overlays would be very obvious. It's unfortunate that the emulator doesn't provide something like that.

[@robbiereisman8954]

Atlantis is far superior on the Intellivision. Did you figure out that you can actually move the middle base freely around the screen,

[@gcatman98]

While you're correct that Intellivision Baseball was a 2 player only, learning the keypad to highlight a player and throw was a small learning curve and gave the game much more versatility. Double plays, steals, nine players on the field vs. one along with better graphics make it a clear winner.

[@zoltanz288]

if you hate sports games and cant even grade which is better why would you include them at all?

[@svh01]

You're missing out on the Intellivision sports. The controls are great if you know how to use them. The keypad is essential to Intellivision.

[@caseyharris4013]

I had both growing up playing them. I leaned more toward the Intellevision because of graphics and that I had a brother that could play with me. We had a great time and although the controller took more technique and skill to learn and play, ultimately they were better playing experiences. We definitely played the Intellevision more. Baseball, hockey and football was our favorite games because you could program different plays with the keypad and it took more strategic thinking and playing. Burger Time was fun!

[@askcommish]

Intellivision boxing when you play with another player is insanely fun.. each color boxer has their own good/bad qualities and depending on what color guys are in the ring, it can be a crazy fight. As kids we had so much fun with Boxing.

[@doc2ur_who]

Had both systems as a kid. Loved both. The Intellivision cartridge slot on the side made it easier to daisy chain expansions and to rest them on the table surface horizontally and also to dissipate heat better than vertically stacking them. Great video.

[@GregsGameRoom]

I can see that. Makes it a bit more challenging to access though.

[@doc2ur_who]

I think both systems could have benefitted from having a cartridge release switch like a Super Nintendo had. I used a cartridge selector switch anyway.

[@freeculture]

@@doc2ur_who I had zero issues removing cartridges, and that Intellivision was replaced with a famiclone that happened to not have the lever (unlike the real famicom) and i felt right at home, never had issues plugging or unplugging. The Nes frontloading mechanism of my friends would break all the time, so i could happily play their games with a 60 to 72pin adapter in my famiclone while they waited for their NES to be repaired for the Nth time. I don't understand why the VCS had those strange springs (which would often break) i think the Atari 800/400 was much sturdier in that regard (if not over engineered, using metal, plastic self closing cover etc).

[@vintagepennies6899]

​@freeculture Were you friends with gorillas? Me, my cousins, and all my friends had an NES and it never broke on us. I have seen one like that long ago at a thrift store that was broken and wouldn't stay down. None of us had that problem. We took care of our stuff. Best wishes.

[@drewchaboo719]

@@GregsGameRoom do you known about the Atari 2600+?

[@deathofkings5633]

I believe Atlantis on intellivision also has a ship that comes out of the tower that you can fly around and defend the city!

[@jeremiahthomas8140]

I was thinking the same thing. Unless that was only the Odyssey^2 version.

[@brett3105]

It did have a that ship. You could fly around and shoot the aliens.

[@freeculture]

Yes, you could launch the saucer pressing one of the keys in the keypad, but i got very good with the anti air systems so i very rarely did. More importantly there are day stages including night time with skylights, the Atari is boringly the same thing all the time...

[@chrisnizer5702]

You really need the plastic overlays for the Intellivision sports games. They're all but impossible to play without them. I picked up the Intellivision Flashback a few years ago and it included a bunch of the overlays. Definitely made the games playable and a lot of fun. The original Intellivision console had 3 sound channels. It could handle 3 different and distinct sound effects continuously no prob.

[@sandwichninja]

When you covered Atlantis you didn't mention that the Intellivision version has a flying saucer in the center that you can take out to fight the aliens more directly.

[@blatherskite3009]

When I was a kid I had an Atari and my best friend at school had the Intellivision. There was no doubt that the Intellivision was the more powerful machine, with better graphics and more complex (for the era) games. The Atari couldn't hope to run games like Utopia or B-17 Bomber. But the Atari had the advantage of having all of the popular arcade licenses and a much better controller for arcade-style games. That said, you're not really doing the Intellivision justice here by playing its games on a keyboard. The whole point of that weird disc controller was that it could do 16-directional movement, not just the 8 directions that you got with a standard joystick or (yuck) a PC keyboard. An extra angle of movement in between each of the 8 normal directions, basically. The slightly more subtle control made a big difference in sports type games like "TRON Deadly Discs" where you had twice as many angles of movement available to try to fake out the other player. Still, it's nice to be reminded of the days when different formats were _very_ different hardware, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. It's sad that's all in the past now, with every console just a slightly different spec of "PC in a box" and nothing truly distinctive about any of them. You can easily tell an Intellivision or Atari game just by looking at a static screen; the style of the graphics, the color palette, the fonts, etc., are all totally unique to the hardware.

[@Catastrophic-hk3mh]

You have to use the overlays that slip into the controllers especially for baseball

[@zeecassel325]

A lot of the control issues on the Intellivision roms ARE due to digital input simulating analog disc input. Frog Bog actually allows you to adjust jump length.

[@vjspectron]

"Frog Bog" has an easy mode that simplifies the jump controls. I think you had this mode turned on during your playthrough.

[@RogelioPerea]

Atari wins on the Baseball game? 🤣🤣

[@svh01]

Intellivision Baseball was AMAZING.

[@michaelchauvin7219]

M Network stands for Mattel Network. Home Run is NOT an equal comparison. Super Challenge Baseball should have been the comparison straight up.

[@GregsGameRoom]

Probably. Super Challenge, RealSports and Pete Rose were all better on Atari. So I have no problem giving it the point on that basis.

[@Jolt7800]

I am in the process of watching all this. Thank for compiling this.

[@GregsGameRoom]

Appreciate it!

[@jago07]

I love this series from you! Extremely entertaining. Thank You

[@bitwize]

Intellivision: better tech (first 16-bit console!), more potential for great games. Atari 2600: bigger market reach, bigger game library, more actual great games in its era. Inty homebrew has yielded some real gems, however.

[@GregsGameRoom]

Yeah, for 16-bit it sure seems underpowered!

[@bitwize]

It was tremendously powerful for its day! Just because a CPU is 16-bit doesn't mean the system is capable of SNES or Genesis type games. It can just process data in bigger chunks. The Intellivision supports pretty faithful, if low resolution, ports of Super Mario Bros. and Castlevania, something the Atari can't match on its best day, and not bad for a 1979 system! The TI-99/4A also had a 16-bit CPU, which made it capable of doing things in software -- like smooth horizontal scrolling -- that contemporary systems would require dedicated hardware (e.g. scroll registers on the video chip) to pull off. When you're trying to shave off every cent possible from your BOM, that extra bit of power can count for a lot of boutique-schmoutique hardware design that doesn't need to be done.

[@anophelesnow3957]

Lock N Chase for the Intellivision is good. Really good.

[@GantryG]

Thanks for the in-depth comparison; very informative; I got a good feel of the differences between the two. 😀

[@DJCGAMESTUDIOS]

The INTV Atlantis has a saucer in the middle you can launch and control...u def need the overlays for these games. Same with Astrosmash it has an auto fire and hyperspace....as for baseball the overlay has the whole team on the pad.. you press the player u wanna throw to...and use disc to run.....brickout is a home brew/unreleased. Most all of these games are impossible without the pad and overlays, emulators are the worst.exceptions are burgertime and bump n jump...only disc and side buttons

[@GregsGameRoom]

Honestly, I think the number pad is the main problem. The programmers were probably told to use it as much as possible even when some games would play better without it. Thanks for the constructive comment!

[@Cpt_Guirk]

Intellivision required some learning but it was far superior to Atari. It has 2x the bits. The pad was great. 16 positions. Auto racing rules. Nostalgia is OK. I can't get the controller to work fully with JINTY but I can tell it's a faithful emulator.

[@Perseid]

@@GregsGameRoom But if you have the overlay, you have a visual representation of what button does what. Did it over-complicate some games? Sure. But some of the better games for the system, like Utopia or D&D wouldn't be possible on the competing systems because it didn't have the keypad.

[@Derddy]

Just found your channel. Your content is very specific and unique. I really like what I've seen so far.

[@jwprimetime9795]

I really enjoyed this video!! Thanks for work amigo!!

[@WigWoo1]

So with basketball on the Atari they messed up the modes. The 1st mode is called 1 player but it’s actually 2 players If you select the 2nd mode which is the 2 player mode it will actually be single player

[@b.o.4492]

Love this video. Very well done! Used to always track down each version of games I liked. Demon Attack was neat. Atari 5200 of centipede with tracball was awesome.

[@2001pl]

imho, the Intellivision is vastly superior to the VCS. Games like Hover Force, all the D&D, Utopia... are nowhere to be seen on the Atari.

[@mrt9539]

No question, and the controller was vastly superior. It gets hated on for reasons I don't understand.

[@nickynj454]

If basing it by power and not year the 2600 should be the end of a generation and the Intellivision the beginning of the next. There is no comparison. It should be in the same "bucket" as the 5200 and Colecovision,

[@willdouglas77]

My brother and I had an Intellivision and it was way better 😎👍🙌🏼

[@ImaniAjamu]

Bro what the controller is ass on the intelvision

[@asa-punkatsouthvinland7145]

Intellivision was the first 16-bit game console, a full two generations before it became the industry standard.

[@PlasticCogLiquid]

Burgertime - Atari 2600 "Overall.....it's not baaaaad.." Yes it is, are you joking? It's really bad. I was livid when I first played it back in the day.

[@CarecaRetrogamer]

45:48 "I'm not sure who created this game (Pole Position)"... Believe it or not, it was Namco... I found out because of the Cartoon that I used to watch when I was a kid... Nice video, BTW... I used to play the Intellivision at my neighbour's place back then, but I might have played it a handful of times only... my favorite game was Shark! Shark!... Addicting AF... lol

[@GregsGameRoom]

Did Namco create the Intellivision port?

[@CarecaRetrogamer]

@@GregsGameRoom I'm not sure about the port, but Pole Position, the arcade game at least was made by Namco...

[@10p6]

Nice video. One big thing about these games is the release date and costs. Like Pac-Man on the 2600 came out a year before the intellivision version, and that version had a much larger cart as ROM costs were lower by then. In comparison the homebrew version of Pac-Man for the 2600 with 8K ROM is much better.

[@Unregistered.HyperCam.2]

Even without looking at homebrews that came much later, Ms. Pac-Man on the 2600 is a MASSIVE improvement over the 2600 Pac-Man. Atari's Pac-Man gets a lot of flack for not exactly being a great port - rightly so, though I personally don't feel it was a completely awful game on its own - but Atari's Ms. Pac-Man doesn't seem to get the praise it should, in my opinion.

[@vidarlystadjohansen9829]

cool video, fun games and I like to hear peoples personal perspectives and history of gaming theses classics. both systems are great

[@zoltok1]

Being most of your choices were do the fact that you can’t figure out the controls on Intellivision and you didn’t grow up using the more complex intellivision controllers makes your comparisons a bit unfair . Being we had both systems , once you master the intellivision controllers which isn’t hard it’s easy to pick intellivision 😊. Fun video though thanks for posting

[@Meebzorp5200]

The best games for the Intellivision were the D&D ones and Imagic, imo. Microsurgeon was amazing for the time. There were a number of Imagic games that never made it to the 2600 that I thought were innovative. Not the greatest, but pretty cool. White Water! comes to mind. Dracula, Beauty & the Beast, Truckin', Safecracker, and Swords & Serpents were oddballs but fun in their own way. Utopia I picked up later on in the 90s when I started retro collecting and it was the first "civ" game on a videogame console. It blew me away that they fit a full-blown strategy game onto a 1st gen console. I bought the Intellivision II during the crash with graduation money. You filled out a postcard and I think you got 6 free games in the mail. The controllers hurt my thumb (the fire buttons) much more than the original console controllers. I still have it. When I checked on it recently in a crate, the plastic turned bright orange so in desperate need of retrobrighting. I've never seen such a bad case of it.

[@GregsGameRoom]

It had a lot of unique games for sure. Microsurgeon always interested me.

[@kevtheschmidt]

Yes! Microsurgeon was amazing, so was Swords and Serpents, Sea Battle, Utopia, the Dungeons and Dragons games... Also loved Major League baseball and NFL football

[@ReviewAtari2600]

Great video Greg, so glad you did this! That Plimpton commercial also haunted me as a kid with an Atari 2600! Especially, as I internally knew that the graphics *were* indeed better but did not want to admit it. I think if the controllers were better, it might have also sold more... but still... hard to beat Space Invaders that launched Atari 2600 through the roof. 😀 Killer app... I'm going to have to use that in my eventual review... heh heh

[@DDDINC420]

Also, most of the 2 players sports games have super pro versions that you should've used

[@Dmarcoot]

The battle of my childhood

[@GregsGameRoom]

My neighbor had an Intelly. Everyone else had Atari. :D

[@Rafdao]

Great video!

[@bikingchad]

Had neither of these as a kid but all my friends did. This was fun to watch!

[@IntoTheVerticalBlank]

Very good and fair comparisons! One thing, Intellivision Demon Attack is more Phoenix than Demon Attack. There is a good 2600 version of Phoenix too.

[@GregsGameRoom]

I tried to be fair based on the game itself. Assuming I could start the game. Most started fine, why can't all of them?

[@freeculture]

@@GregsGameRoom I played Demon Attack back in the day. The most important difference is you get boss battles.

[@thomaslau8806]

I can still remember dad's disappointment when he got Pac-Man for our 2600. Fun times!!

[@sevelos]

Yes, the 2600 Pac-Man sucks.

[@kevtheschmidt]

Thanks for the nostalgic video. A lot of the Intellivision games used the overlays for the keypad. You needed to use them in order to know the specific and unique controls for many of the games. Sports on the intellivision were amazing, esp world series baseball (and yes, you could play against the computer). And some (like nfl football) required reading the manuals because you needed to be able to know the different formations and patterns and enter them on the keypad before you could execute a play. The keypad was the best part of the intellivision imho and provided a lot of options that would otherwise probably have required menus (eg Utopia, Sea Battle). Some of the two player sports games had later re-releases with some modifications that allowed for single player gameplay. Most of the Coleco games for Intellivision were brutal, especially Donkey Kong. Some suggested they deliberately made bad games for the intellivision to make the Cokecovision ones seem better.

[@DDDINC420]

You need a controller and overlays for the games you had issues starting

[@ynotjetlag]

You need to use the overlays and read the manual on some intellivison games, because they are more complicated, Basketball and Ice hockey where two of my favorite intellivision games

[@annwatts7002]

I subscribed to Greg's Game Room because he feels the games out from one system to the next. Great job Greg. today is 6-24-23

[@basketballsteve54]

The intellivision boxing does have a one player version that was a mod/user generated version that is the best boxing game of the era until the SNES boxing games, absolutely great 1 player play on the modified version. OH and the intellivision has six distinct boxers to choose from with their own distinct strengths and weakness that need to be accounted for within the game play strategies you use. Beamrider a tie with exception that the intellivision version has slightly better sound and a dedicated button for your 3 torpedoes.

[@classicarcadeamusementpark4242]

I had both systems, plus Colecovision & Vectrex followed by games on computers like the C-64, Apple ][, Atari 8 bit and Amiga. I generally preferred the games on the Atari 2600 to the Intellivision, but it did have some good games. The selling point for me was the port of Burgertime which was terrible on the 2600 and I got it included with my Intellivision II. I also had the voice synth module and enjoyed B-17 bomber, and I like the motorcycle game. I had plenty of games for it, but generally liked the Atari better. I still have it in storage. The Intellivision controllers were terrible, but probably not as bad as those on the NES. I hated those D-pads. I did enjoy Astrosmash by the way.

[@marcellachine5718]

Lol hated d pads,

[@psterud]

I wish I had a Vectrex back in the day. Those vector games really stand out for me against the pixel games, especially in the arcade.

[@tonyciantar6417]

I'm an Atarian. Tron is far better on the Intellivision. Once you learn how to use the disk controller. When the machine thing comes it makes the game more fun, not seen that happen on the Atari. Nice video!

[@agentmith]

You can play 1 player in Atari Basketball in game 2. I loved Atari Boxing, but never realized it was an overhead view until when I was an adult. I always thought you were just a weird sigma character.

[@GregsGameRoom]

I thought there was a 1 player version of Basketball.

[@peacefulscrimp5183]

Great video 👍

[@ZagnutBar]

Back in the day, we actually read the instruction manuals. It was expected that you'd take some time to actually leaen how to play the game, and the controller overlays acted as a cheat sheet. I mean, look at the early PC word processors that had keyboard overlays to remind you of all the cryptic commands. That was the mentality of the time.

[@midknightfalconfan]

Should do Atari Adventure vs Intellivision Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. My fav game on both platforms and I don't think they made either version for the other platform.

[@SomeGuy712x]

I'm glad you gave Burgertime on the Intellivision the win, because it was one of my favorites back in the old days. Pinball on the Intellivision was another favorite, though I had fun with the Atari 2600 one as well. However, I'd say the Intellivision Pinball is better in my opinion. I saw you making the same rookie mistake in your shown Intellivision Pinball gameplay that I remember making at first as well, by using only the "all flippers" buttons. The buttons below the "all flippers" buttons let you flip only the left flippers or right flippers respectively, which can prevent the issue of the opposite flippers often slapping the ball down the drain on you. Also, I recall that the disc on the controller can be used to "bump" the machine, but if you overuse it, you "tilt", a buzzer sounds, the screen border turns red, and you forfeit your current ball and any bonus points you would've gotten on that ball.

[@rustyhancock1377]

Interesting video! Better comparisons for the 2600 might have been using the Realsports version of football (or Mattel's 2600 version), Double Dunk (instead of the basic Atari Pinball), Realsports Baseball or Mattel Baseball (instead of Home Run) and Midnight Magic instead of the original Atari Pinball.

[@fionagibson3314]

There was a track ball for the Atari 2600 and worked on the Atari 7800 aswell

[@mistermac56]

I purchased one of the Intellivision systems when they debuted on the market. Once you get used to the proper way to hold the controller, the disc was a snap to use. As other posters have opined, the games came with overlays that slid into place to define the keys in games and with a lot of the game titles, were a must. The sports games were far superior to the ones on the Atari 2600. My friends and I would play the Intellivision NFL football game for hours. The big issue I had was the controller touch membranes would wear out. Mattel was great in that they would ship out 10 replacement ones for free and included instructions on how to replace them. If you used the console a lot, you could get about 6-8 months before replacing the controller membranes. Once my original wood grained console finally bit the dust, I had to send it in for repair and I think it cost 29.99 and paying the one way shipping to Mattel. Around that time, they had released the Intellivision 2 console and that is what I received in exchange for my dead one. I liked it better, as the controllers were removable and easier to replace worn out controller membranes. Also, the console ran a lot cooler and was smaller and didn't take up as much room on a table. I eventually got tired of it and I bought an NES system and enjoyed it for many, many years. The last game console system I purchased was a PlayStation 3, which I still occasionally play.

[@slow71971]

Intellivision's Pole Position driver seriously needs to take a breathalyzer test.

[@GregsGameRoom]

LOL!

[@brett3105]

I really wish you knew how to play the Intellivision. I'm sure you would appreciate it more, if you knew how to play. Atlantis on Intellivision let you use the ufo in the center of the screen. You could fly around and shoot the invading ships. Every game for Intellivision plays just fine, you just have to understand the controls, then you can enjoy the games more.

[@ShanetheFreestyler]

For the few Intellivsion games you had trouble starting, I _think_ that may have been because those games expected Player 1 to use the _right_ hand controller instead of the left. Some Atari 2600 games did that too, but Stella will automatically swap the left and right joysticks for those games, most Intelivision emulators don't do that. Also, I highly recommend using an analog stick for Intelivision emulation since that way you can hit all 16 directions of the disc instead of only 8. Pole Position used this for a sort of pseudo analog control that makes steering a little easier. (Though I'll agree it looks off having the car move instead of the road. In fairness, I think that was a hardware limitation.) Speaking of hardware limitations, the reason why Intelivision sprites where often mono colored is because you couldn't change the sprite color per-scanline like you can on Atari, (I think.) Intelivision didn't have the same type of raster effects because it didn't use CPU driven graphics, it had a proper GPU to hold graphics before pushing them to the screen, and said GPU didn't have scanline interrupts to allow for the same kind of effects the Atari 2600 was capable of. (At least, not that I'm aware of.)

[@jackofallgamesTV]

In the Colecovision version of Tutankham, you can only shoot left and right. And that fact (only shooting left and right) is a defining feature of the game. It would be too easy if you can shoot up and down.

[@julianbrown1331]

Playing these on an emulator is probably the biggest problem I can see with the whole process. You have to judge compatibility (messed up music?) as well as the game which really misses the point. The other hard part for the Intellivision is that without the overlays for the keypads, it really is hard to make sense of it all sometimes. The other point, and this really is opinion, is the Intellivision really aimed to get people playing together on the sports games so without a second player of course it is going to be a poor experience. If you prefer playing by yourself then those sports games really don't make much sense. Played properly the baseball game, in particular, works really, really well. A more complex, multi-button controller is another one of the great features and it really doesn't translate to a keyboard. Never going to cure your bias on the matter and it would help to highlight some of the great games that were only on one or the other too

[@psterud]

Yeah, the overlays were/are crucial.

[@MoviemaniaNick]

My cousin had the Intellivision and the Colleco as a kid and I played them all the time! lol It was interesting with the control pads.

[@GregsGameRoom]

They were close to coming up with a NES style pad. So close…

[@freeculture]

@@GregsGameRoom Let me repeat it: 16 hardware directions, not 4. The NES is the same as the Atari, except a second fire button and select start. If anything, NES wen't back, and no games would ever enjoy the level of directional freedom the Intellivision had until Analog controllers became a thing in consoles in the 90ies. You don't get it? Sea Battle is not won by doing up and down and left and right only. I don't remember Colecovision games using more than 4 directions but i do remember those side buttons were very pleasing to press. Ironically Mattel Electronics did release a NES controller with a disc, but of course the NES only had 4 directions. So rather than calling it close, you are missing the whole point while the others were copying without thinking. If you loved the NES cross, then you must love blisters, especially the American NES which was more rough on the edges. But i guess you bought an Advantage or something with a stick... The blisters when plating with a NES was the thing that infuriated me and i missed that disc control for years. Almost zero effort, always responding super confortable, if only it had the Coleco side buttons it would have been perfect

[@F1JV]

@@freeculture…ATARI’s 🕹 is 8-way…not 4. Same for Nintendo’s gamepad.

[@jaymesjmathias9390]

Just play both D&D games on the intellivision for your own know! That game had me & friends roaming the overgrown field's with sticks & stones + deer, dog n moose bones at 10 y o.

[@npaladin2000]

Back then you had to read the game manuals, there was no such thing as "intuitive" because everything was new. The Atari games were so simple because they only had one button. The intellivision games used overlays for the pads to provide instructions, but if you're emulating you don't have those. I don't like the Intellivision that much myself but I think you treated it unfairly here.

[@trimatch-king6103]

Thanks Greg, nice video! I was watching just to remember many sounds of my childhood ! Atari forever! Cheers!

[@DrScrobo]

Atari Bowling is still one of my favourite retro bowling games. Fond memories of my grandma and I playing bowling after school.

[@FUGP72]

Touchy controls in Burgertime is sometime that the arcade version had too. It was very picky about you being lined up when you want to change directions. No leeway. If you weren't right under/over a ladder, you were not going on that ladder. And if you were not all the way up or down the ladder, you were not moving off to the ledge.

[@psterud]

I was around 10 years old when these consoles really hit the big-time in the early '80s, and while most of my friends in school and on my street had Atari, a few of them had different stuff. One kid had a Vic 20, which had some cool games. One kid, whose family seemed to have more money than the rest of us, had an Intellivision. I remember being envious of him because graphics-wise Intellivision was superior. This video has helped me, 40 years later, to reconcile my feelings and see that Atari wasn't necessarily worse than Intellivision. A valuable lesson. One little anecdote I'll share is about going over to that one friend's house down the street and playing football on Intellivision for the first time. It was certainly playable, and the whole family had fun playing it. If I recall correctly, there were inserts that you could slide into the controller, on top of the keypad, to map out the different decisions one could make, like certain offense and defense. When I was invited to play I had no idea how to use that controller. I thought that to move forward I had to spin the dial instead of pushing it in a certain direction. So I spun and spun and moved nowhere. I didn't do very well, and got frustrated, and I think that may have been the first and last time I played Intellivision. I had no friends with Colecovision, but that seemed to be the best console of the bunch at that time, around 1982 or so. But Atari is what most of us had, and we enjoyed it. It was especially fun to go over to various friends' houses for sleepovers and what-not, because everyone had a different selection of games, and every single one of us had fun playing. A magical time.

[@SplorinRyan]

Actually thought the intellivision was a pretty nifty console at the time... Candidly, I was a little younger and by the time I was old enough to really get into any of the games, the Atari, the intellivision, and the coleco were all on the market and I fell pretty firmly into the coleco camp

[@GregsGameRoom]

All of them had games that interested me. I was far more jealous of ColecoVision owners though...

[@keithfulkerson]

Looking back, I think you made the right choice.

[@freeculture]

When i saw the Coleco it felt solid improvement, but it was expensive. While Atari's where cheap trash, i can never forget everyone breaking that useless joystick which is just a pcb with 5 buttons and most of the game being 5min affairs that would get boring real quick.

[@solong.everyone]

Did you know that the Intellivision version of Dig Dug has a secret game hidden in it? If you enter a certain code, you can actually play Deadly Dogs, which is a version of Tron: Deadly Discs but with the characters replaced with the hotdogs from Burgertime.

[@GregsGameRoom]

Interesting...

[@chattingesque372]

Yeah sure

[@TheOFF-GRIDiot]

Intellivison was my very first 'video game' console experience and paved the way for my ENTIRE LIFE. All my classmates had Atari.....so Atari was better....because sharing/trading games and controllers.....let alone better and more titles.

[@8bitsnkboy472]

This was a really fun and entertaining video. I know you were biased towards the Atari VCS (showing my age here), but I mostly agreed with your choices regardless. Growing up in the 70's and 80's, my family never had any videogame systems (We were very poor, so there were other priorities), but fortunately I got to play on Atari and then a bit later, intellivision and Coleco when visiting friends. I only really got into video games seriously in the 90's (when I finally had decent job and a disposable income of my own), but I have recently gone back to these older consoles to re-live some of my childhood facination with them. The Atari VCS was the one I played the most, so I'll admit to being a bit biased too. That said, the intellivision is the system I'm playing the most at the moment, which is surprising to me, as I was initially put off by the controllers. I am currently completely hooked on Advanced Dungeons and Dragons and Tower of Doom in particular (both great adventure games), along with a healthy dose of Night Stalker, Thunder Castle and Venture (which despite being graphically inferior to the Coleco version, has more responsive controls). The bottom line is, that there are a lot of games which are better on Atari's console. Generally the Atari's strength is it's pick-up and playability and it's huge library of games (although most of it's games won't hold your interest beyond a quick fix). Whereas, the inty's strength is the complexity of many of it's games. Anyway, thanks again for these comparisons. Although I must admit that I was surprised at how well the intellivision did overall. Keep up the great work.

[@GregsGameRoom]

Thanks! Both systems have their strengths & weaknesses.

[@AtariBorn]

I can respect the Intellivision for the system it is and we all know timing was their Achilles heel but a definite thorn in their side was the oversight for peripherals and alternate controllers. All the Intellivision 2 did was fragment the fanbase. The original system had hired wired gamepads but could play all of the game cartridges. The Intellivision 2 had removable gamepads and had the potential for peripherals but couldn't accommodate all of the Intellivision game library. A lose/lose for the system's future.

[@blackenedheart9592]

I grew up with an Atari VCS and never played or owned an Intellivision. Even now I really can't see myself going out of my way to buy one and games for it when they don't look that much better than the Atari and mainly for that awful controller. At least with the colecovision you could swap out for a Genesis controller cause they're not wired to the console like the Intellivision.

[@GregsGameRoom]

The Intelly is an odd system in many ways.

[@freeculture]

The best controller is not for everyone. Of course, since you did not own or cared to use it long enough, you did not get it. Using the disc was a breeze, not like that blister inducing d-pad that later consoles used... They are perfect how you could grab it with one hand and use the disc using your thumb naturally, like you now do with smartphones... And its 16 directions, not 4, you don't have to press a button under it either, its smooth and effortless unlike anything except analog controllers.

[@JustMe99999]

A couple of takeaways for me... the animations on the 2600 are a lot better than the Intellivision for some reason. Pitfall looks and plays much better on the 2600 (in my opinion anyway). Modern programmers have really pushed the limit of the 2600 as well... the recent version of Burgertime on the 2600, for example, looks better than the Intellivison version. Also more recent versions of Pac Man, Donkey Kong, etc. are really good. It seems like the 2600 was capable of a lot more than what was developed on it at the time.

[@stllda909]

I had an Intellivision. My best had the Atari 2600. We spent more time playing Intellivision than Atari. If you have such an issue with the Intellivision controller you must hate X-Box and PS5. Those controllers are may more complicated.

[@Inadvisablescience]

One thing about Tutankhamen is that even in the arcade game you could only shoot left and right.

[@asa-punkatsouthvinland7145]

Sega, who created Congo Bongo, didn't even attempt the isometric view for CB on their 1st console the SG1000 which was an NES competitor. This really shows how hard CB pushed the 2600!

[@downscale]

The player-character Animations from Sega's 2600 version of 'Congo Bongo' is pretty fantastic for the system. You should try it again. I think it's the better version

[@DeadKoby]

Some friends had an Intellivision.... I had Atari. I had fun with both consoles.

[@crookedmouth1971]

Great video! Can't believe the amount of games you covered here. I owned both systems and for the most part I agree with you. Many of the Atari games just seem smoother. River Raid, for instance, IMO was much better on the VCS. Just have to say I don't agree with Tron Deadly Discs, Bowling and Dragon Fire but I am one of those wierdos that didn't mind the controls on the Intellivision. Being able to run one direction and shot another was what made Tron Deadly Discs such a great game. That being said, I think you were more then fair. Thanks Greg!

[@GregsGameRoom]

Admittedly some games would probably work better if I was using an original controller. But then again my hand might be a claw after playing 53 games…

[@randombarbarian5637]

You get the hang of the #'s pad on Tron for Intellivision after you play it for a bit. It's a very fun and addicting. It's not the only Tron game on Intellivision BTW.. there's also Tron Solar Sailer

[@kevtheschmidt]

And Maze-A-Tron

[@asa-punkatsouthvinland7145]

Having grown up in a time where these systems were the norm I can say your assessment generally reflects opinions of the day. Most felt Intelevision had better graphics but far a worse controller where generally gameplay & the controller were far better on the Atari. Had Intellivision had a better & more comfortable controller to simplify input it likely would win out overall.

[@Rob_1776]

That frog bog was a game! That they played in the break room! In Grandmas Boy

[@jerrystephens9057]

On an emulator you may need to have a keyboard connected to type in the number of players before any of the buttons work. I’m guessing the keypad did this on the original. Colecovision games are the same way.

[@GregsGameRoom]

The keypad buttons are mapped to my PCs number pad.

[@elcoyote9137]

No se pueden comparar aunque tengas gráficos arcaicos y pixelados,la intellvision tenía una CPU de 16 bits y la atari 2600 de 8 bits

[@stefanweilhartner4415]

the 2600 version of commando has very nice colors. that creates a certain desert vibe.

[@freeculture]

Unlike you i grep up with the Intellivision II, friends had the Atari so i didn't particularly missed it. Controls. Atari sucks, hands down, except maybe the paddies. The intellivision controllers can be used with a single hand easily. Doesn't its shape look familiar? Oh its like a Smartphone, but unlike a smartphone the underside is hollow so its very easy to grab. Lets reiterate, Atari control sucks. Its cheap, almost everyone i knew broke theirs, whats inside? 5 buttons. Thats it, thats the whole thing, the 4 directions and the one fire button. What is the disc? a fancy 4 directional control with 4 buttons under it like the Atari? NO. The thing has 16, count it 16 directions, so software could interpolate and have 32, in a DIGITAL controller. There is zero effort to press the disc, and you can change direction smoothly, with your thumb. Just like nowdays people play with smartphones, except with a more confortable ample circle that you fill and press down. The only complain for the II in particular were the side buttons, which would be fire a and b, those were stiff and would make you blisters. Apparently that was not the case with the original Intellivision, but i had the II not the I. Side cartridge is perfect. Let me tell you PERFECT. You hold the console with left hand, push the cartridge with right hand, the end. Take it out the same way. The intellivision did not that the spring thingies, it wasn't particularly hard to remove a cartridge or insert a new one. Why do you want to stare at a cartridge protruding from the center of your unnecessarily big console (full of air inside, if you ever opened a VCS 2600). I particularly prefer the compact Intellivision II, the way you store the controls and the fact that you can unplug them to replace them. Oh yeah, the keypad was used by the games, often to choose difficulty but in some more advanced games like Sea Battle, for strategy. Hey, do you know the Intellivision is technically a 16 bit CPU? In 1978!? Yes, tho it runs at about half a mhz. Apparently they were planning a more proper successor with the Intellivision III that never came, based in the Motorola 68k series. Oh and the Activision was for Atari what Imagic for Mattel, those games were excellent. Its a shame this died after the game market crash, thanks Atari... What was my impression as a kid playing Atari 2600 VCS (yeah a friend let me borrow his for a week). Those game lacked depth, most of them were 5min affairs, nothing involving like you would with the Intellivision games. Sure some games were a bit like that, but there were many more games were you would at least stay like half an hour if not more. The very first time i stayed awake an entire night until sunrise was playing Treasure of Tarmin, a more "proper" RPG of the likes like Eye of the Beholder would be years later (yeah i know this type of existed in some 8 bit computers, i just didn't knew it at the time). What the Atari has is colors, but that's it, resolution is worse, but hey, rainbows!

[@pjcnet]

In those days computer power was doubling roughly every 12 to 18 months, so the Intellivision released 2 years later had considerably higher specs including better sound and if used to it's fully potential should mean more advanced games even though this wasn't always the case with more experienced programmers that were able to squeeze every last drop out of the Atari 2600, especially in it's later life.

[@danaeckel5523]

When I was a kid I had a 2600, and my cousins had Intellivision. It was always fun to go there and play games on it, but I would have never traded my 2600 for it. It is fun to see how on paper the Intellivision is better in every way, but some of those 2600 programmers were brilliant, and some of the Intellivision games I would have expected more.

[@cameralabs]

Amazingly thorough and very enjoyable, thanks! I was another Atari VCS / 2600 who often looked longingly at the Intellivision's prowess, but was always perplexed by those controllers; TBH, I never knew anyone who had one, so I never actually got to have a go. Then I got a Colecovision, so I guess the mad controllers were always going to get me at some point. What were they thinking of?

[@SeeJayPlayGames]

the only familiar button array paradigm they could think of - phone keypads! Atari 5200 had one too, and it was horrible. I regret begging my folks to get that system. Such a waste of money.

[@Catastrophic-hk3mh]

I never had atari. I had intellivision

[@Nezuji]

I was too young to play with these consoles when they came out, but as a kid I remember playing both of them at friends' and relatives' houses, after retrieving them from rec-room cabinets or dusty storage closets. It's only now, decades later, that I'm looking deeper into their libraries and finding some really good games. But some of your comments made me laugh. Especially preferring literal "tank controls" in 2023, and complaining about not being able to play some Intellivision games without reading the manual. I've already lost count of the 2600 games that are in exactly the same boat. But the funniest one was griping about having to hit the reset button just to start the game on the Intellivision. I spent a long time with my 2600 setup trying to figure out what was wrong with so many games before I thought to try this; plenty of 2600 games have the exact same issue. Even when the game boots to a title screen! I mean, I just turned it on and it's obviously working, why would I want to reset the system? But thanks for the detailed comparisons!

[@HellTantrumbull]

The image for Congo Bongo on the 2600 doesn't jitter like that on the real console. the emu you were using was definitely doing that.

[@downscale]

I had a Trackball instead of a Mouse till like WIn98, i even had (Still have it) a serial-port Trackball!