Mr Intellivision Adverts & Commercials, George Plimpton

Intellivision adverts and commercials featuring George Plimpton AKA Mr Intellivision who was the face of the Mattel Electronics Intellivision Advertising and commercials campaign in the 1980s. Mr Intellivision stared in various commercials advvertising the console, games and addons often at the expense the Atari 2600
George Plimpton was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review.

[@johnnyredux4019]

The early 80s were peak America.

[@Gecko1993HogheadIncOfficial]

Before the war between PS3 & XBox 360, and before there was the 1990’s Sega Vs. Nintendo, there was Mr. George “Intellivision” Plimpton smack-talking Atari!

[@sandal_thong8631]

He was right about the sports games being better than Atari's. Even when the graphics got better, there was only so much you could do with a 1-button joystick. But sports games weren't what kids wanted. In 1980, 1981, 1982, they wanted arcade conversions like Space Invaders, Missile Command, Asteroids, and especially Pac-Man.

[@toasteee252]

I was 8 years old and had an intellivision. Yes we wanted to play those games because unlike today we would go out and play the same games in real life with our friends or go to the stadiums. There was Tron and other games similar to ataris. The only one you couldn't play that you wanted to was pitfall

[@SKBottom]

These commercials were very effective. They made you feel as if You were somehow less intelligent and of lower class if you played Atari.

[@mattfayne9691]

You WERE lower class. Atari graphics sucked!

[@t-bo2734]

@@mattfayne9691 Not 5200.

[@sandal_thong8631]

Even before these ads, other kids said Atari sports games sucked. Football! and Baseball! were better on the Magnavox Odyssey², but only those two games. Atari made a big mistake releasing Home Run and Football in 1978; it would be 1982 before better versions were released for its system. For years I wanted a "better" system, but didn't get one because we already had Atari. But after learning more about the Intellivision games and how some didn't have a 1-player version, I figured I did alright with Atari and had a much more enjoyable experience than if I'd had Intellivision.

[@daveidmarx8296]

Of course, this was back when it was embarrassing to be thought of as being unintelligent. Now, folks wear their stupidity with pride.

[@Germania9]

Nintendo may be the better console, but they're seriously missing a charismatic spokesperson like George Plimpton. He's like the Mr Rogers of early gaming.

[@Kilroy_5150]

Nintendo would be....hmmm...Sam Kinison for its time. Imagine that commercial if you can.

[@ricarleite]

He's more in line with Mr Delicious in the ad area.

[@ComicToonProductions]

Sega had its own spokes person, Mr Chill E.B for the CD & 32X, but appears to be much aggressive in the Marketing campaign.

[@ncant]

Howard Philips might have been a good candidate

[@liamobrien6151]

George Plimpton was truly great.

[@jimsworthow531]

i like that the commercials are the same 40P resolution as the games; I'm sold!

[@Ikrananka]

Very nice compilation and tribute to George Plimpton.

[@mikepetitti]

Great commercials from a great era.

[@scottl.1568]

Fuckin' good old days 🫡

[@Kilroy_5150]

The way he got into those commercials, he should have been George PIMPton because he was pimpin Intellivision. nuff said?

[@Progearspec]

Now atari owns the intellivision brand who saw that coming o_O

[@garybryant9097]

Quite true. There's a recent Intellivision translation of Super Mario that's spot on.

[@DamienPaulLabonte]

Lots of fun ideas😊

[@thegougeman]

Intellivision > Atari. The first system back in 1980 with a 16-bit processor. Remarkable machine for the day.

[@superpan218]

Intellivision. And a hot plate! It's perfect for soup!

[@anare123456]

Intellivision the Best

[@brandonreina5461]

I'd probably pick "C" which is the Nintendo Entertainment System

[@richardhutnik]

How about a Genesis? Different era for consoles.

[@brandonreina5461]

@@richardhutnik Or a PlayStation PlayStation rulez!!! My most current game console: PS4

[@hellsunicorn]

The NES came out in 1985, these commercials were shot between 1980 and 1983. Intellivision and Atari were from a prior generation of video game consoles, so it’s kinda unfair to compare them with later ones.

[@brandonreina5461]

@@hellsunicorn Exactly

[@SwordsmanMercenary]

No option C is the Colecovision

[@BinaryRetroClips]

My favorite system when I kid.

[@Ocea8i53]

I have been brought up to like atari, but gosh darn it when comparing their sports titles such as atari 2600's home run, basketball and golf fail to what the intellivision sports titles could offer.

[@fentazen2677]

Basketball is great, for the 2600. You can cheat in the Intellivision version. The programmers obviously have never played basketball for the intellivision. Stupid.

[@sandal_thong8631]

That's true. But the catch is people (incl. kids) were pretty much done with 2-player sports (and other) games, and were interested in the 1-player games, like at the arcade.

[@georgeshelton6281]

I also really didn't think that; this was a compilation of all the Mattel Electronics Intellevision TV commercials. Next time I'll know not to jump the conclusions ever. 😳 😐 🙄 😑 😒 🤔 😳

[@freakyflow]

I remember my dad after buying the Atari 2600 And Telling me playing Pacman : Son why do you play the other games? What other games dad? The ones on the back of the box the Atari came in.....Dad you only get one game You have to buy the rest ...How much are they? Like $50 .... Man he was pissed Then He seen intellivision on TV And smiled at me ....Looks like your getting a summer job...lol

[@sandal_thong8631]

Considering Atari came out in 1977 as a generation 2 system with cartridges after the previous Pong-based games where they were included in the console, by 1982 it seems like he should have known about cartridges.

[@freakyflow]

@@sandal_thong8631 Atari might of come out in 1977 But i was only 6 years old ..Mom and Dad were not into games And were i lived No one had a Atari So they never even see one before hand I remember I had to hook it up to the TV All the cartridges were shown as pictures on the back of the Atari box...That he thought was inside

[@richardhutnik]

I cannot find the Atari ad where Atari takes a shot a Plimpton.

[@TheRetroByte]

Isn't it the William Shatner add that did that kzbin.info/www/bejne/lXukhmyEqdWio9U

[@richardhutnik]

@@TheRetroByte that is not the one I remember. The space games ad was a shot back at Atari by Mattel. I wanted to find the ad that did that. This one joined in the fun.

[@sovietonion72]

@@TheRetroByte Atari must've absolutely hated Plimpton 😯

[@sandal_thong8631]

The "no comparison" ad has a kid and a blank screen, but no George Plimpton character. But they were right in 1981: kids wanted Asteroids, Missile Command and Warlords, Warlords sold over 1 million, Missile Command over 2 million, and Asteroids over 3 million.

[@daveidmarx8296]

​@@sandal_thong8631I was 11 in '81 and only wanted Intellivision.

[@zemxxi2765]

nerdboy: "I didn't know."

[@sandal_thong8631]

That particular ad was 2nd in a series of 3. The first was "no comparison" between Atari's games and competitors. The third was William Shatner telling the kid and the suit to move over, here comes the VIC-20 which is a computer that can play games. "We didn't know."

[@michaeljordan6008]

I wish Intellivison had a regular joystick.

[@toasteee252]

I seem to remember that they had adapters accessories where you could put a joystick on the disc back then.

[@therealhardrock]

4:53 for the thumbnail commercial.

[@sandal_thong8631]

I missed the Intellivision II ad, but I learned recently it was just a cheaper version of Intellivision, not a new system. I heard they were losing money hand-over-fist when that came out in 1983. Getting an arcade game like Burger Time was too little, too late. Intellivision ad: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qputYYeiaLx4hLM Someone said that ad scared them as a kid! I'm sure that's what Mattel wanted!

[@classicarcadeamusementpark4242]

I choose option A, B, C & D. Atari, Intellivision, Colecovision & Vectrex. Still have them all too. I liked Intellivision the least, but it was still decent. Excellent port of Burgertime, and I really liked B-17 Bomber with the voice module. The Intellivsion controllers were terrible just as the NES D-pads were.

[@Ocea8i53]

Can I use part of the video that talks about atari golf compared to intellivsion Gold

[@TheRetroByte]

Thanks for asking but I don't hold the original copyright. However I have no issue with you using the footage 👍

[@sovietonion72]

@@TheRetroByte I'm turning 50 later this year, just before Xmas last year my son bought a pandora with heaps of retro games from the 80s, I'm back playing Elevator Action and Time Pilot 84, my wife calls me Peter Pan 🤔 Is what I'm doing a crime?

[@TheRetroByte]

@Soviet Onion 72 sounds great, got to keep some fun in your life. 👍

[@pajamamar2011]

The Intellivision controller was hard to hold and the control knob kills your thumb plus the 2600 greatly outsold the Intellivision system.

[@daveidmarx8296]

Intellivision had great sport games. Their Baseball was incredible for the time.

[@cameronpickard7456]

sports games sure but thats it

[@sandal_thong8631]

I think they had a D&D game. But I feel you. I learned in the last year or so that the sports games didn't even have a 1-player version. Boy, if I had Intellivision (packed with Blackjack & Poker and maybe bought Baseball) boy would I have been disappointed!

[@liamobrien6151]

Brilliant ads. Though if intellivision was fair in its comparison, Star Strike would be compared to Atari's Star Raiders . . .not Asteroids.

[@sovietonion72]

Intelervision MLB ooooh aaaaar 😱 🤣

[@joaomoreiranetojmn]

🎀🌼

[@sandal_thong8631]

Sadly, Intellivsion was D.O.A. in 1980 because Atari licensed Space Invaders and put out a decent version. That was a must-have game that more than doubled Atari's sales, making Atari THE system, and giving them 70% market share. (I didn't know that Lock 'n' Chase was an arcade game, but so what?) Atari having Asteroids and Missile Command in 1981 increased their desirability. But releasing Pac-Man in March 1982 sealed the deal since that was another must-have game, and Pac-Man fever resulted in that port selling 2-5 million more Ataris. Intellivision (and Intellivision II) sold about 3 million total. Nine months later, despite it being a bad port that got mocked in the Intellivision commercial, it was still a top seller according to Billboard's ranking of video games. They were right in their ad that they had better sports games than Atari, but the public had moved on from 2-player games. I always felt that the ad 4:53 where Intellivision is saying, we have space games too, was kind of pathetic.

[@sa3270]

And no one wanted phone controllers that already seemed retro.

[@marktwain4538]

intellevision was an upgrade no doubt

[@DonkeykongSw2]

0:41-0:46 That's not football, it uses hand, and the ball is elongated.

[@opa-age]

And Colecovision destroyed them all 😂

[@JohnSmith-zw8vp]

INTELLIVISION DOES! 16 bit arcade graphics... (no really; it was a 16 bit system) You can't do this on Atari! INTELLIVISION DOES! 16 bit sports action... You can't do this on Atari! INTELLIVISION DOES! 16 button precision controller... You can't do this on Atari! INTELLIVISION DOES! INTELLVISION DOES! INTELLVISION DOES! What Atari don't!