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Intellivision does not live!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: September 30, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Being a kid in the heyday of Intellivision and its Intellivoice add on I was revved up to get all my favorite "old school" Intellivision games on one disk....taht was until I tried to play it...almost all of the games do not work with the playstation controller...do they really expect you to pause the game try to figure out the keypad with a corresponding move then un pause and try to do whatever move you wanted to do in the first place...Do not buy this game...Also they should have put the Tron games on it anyway....the only game worth playing on this disk is Astrosmash and thats a no brainer...just move and shoot....The should have let it die instead of ruin its legacy

Loved Intellivision but....

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: February 27, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I was an Intellivision junkie until I was about 12 years old. I can't even begin to remember all of the titles I once owned. Needless to say, I was excited to see that 60 games have been grouped together for use on the PS2. Unfortunately, the transition for INTV to PS2 was far from smooth.

Cons-
1) The controls are horrible. Most of my favorite games (Tower of Doom, Utopia, and etc...) are unplayable. Who in the world did the QC on this product? Wasn't it pretty obvious that in order to "play" any of the games you must first be able to control the characters?

2) It was next to impossible for me to even get the game to play. "Blue Disc" or not- this is completely unacceptable. Once again, a decent QC department would never have allowed this product to be shipped.

3) A minor complaint is that some of the better games are missing. However, compared to problems 1 & 2 - this is pretty minor stuff.

Pros-
1) It is nice having the games in one collection. Not because the games are playable, but more because it is like watching an old familar movie.

Better off renting it

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

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I got this awhile ago, with a different case. Now it's got a different case, so I figured that the flaws were fixed ... Not at all.
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The game selection is retarded. A no-frills menu of the games is all I need, not some clunky ordeal. The concept of the background music must have looked great on paper, but is simply annoying. I know, music taste is subjective, but I'm talking about the way songs are selected. Plus, there are volume options for sound effects and "intellivision", but what's the difference? Cause only the option for sound effects works. And finally, everyone's favorite axe to grind: the controller. Yeah, hate to rain on everyone's parade, but the concept is annoying and should be optional. It's the Playstation 2, not the original Intellivision console, with its flimsy, crackly sounding keypad. Hmm, I know! Make L1,L2,R1,R2,L3,R3 and any three of the shape buttons the pad! Then you have a fire button and select/start left. Besides, very few of the games actually use all the "original" keypad. This museum was rushed, and it shows.
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In all honesty and fairness, this museum wasn't meant to be an update, and as mentioned, there are key titles missing. But the manufacturer can't get all the licenses, so they did the best they could. The console + 60 games was over 1000 dollars in the eighties, and at that point, you could get them at retail stores. Now you're lucky if you can get a decent console with working pads, and the good titles are hard to find. (I imagine the total price is over a grand, but a bargain hunter could get it all for a few hundred) So it's easy for me to shoot the messenger, but I am glad I have these games. But because of the aforementioned issues, I use this museum once a year, and may never use it again.
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If you're curious about this museum, rent it. If it's not available, buy it used. I guarantee you'll be trading it soon ...

Nice Retro games with horrible controls

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: December 31, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Here is the games list, since I couldn't find it anywhere else. Like others I found a good portion of them unplayable thanks to the control interface.

Armor Battle
Astrosmash
Auto Racing
B-17 Bombing
Backgammon
Baseball
Basketball
Battle Tanks
Biplanes
Body Slam: Super Pro Wrestling
Bomb Squad
Bowling
Boxing
Brickout
Buzz Bombers
Checkers
Chip Shot: Super Pro Golf
Crosswords
Deep Pockets: Pool & Billiards
Demo Cartridge
Factor Fun
Football
Frog Bog
Golf
Hard Hat
Hockey
Horseracing
Hover Force
Hypnotic Lights
Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack
Las Vegas Roulette
Magic Carousel
Math Master
Memory Fun
Motocross
Mountain Madness: Super Pro Skiing
Night Stalker
Pinball
Racing Cars
Reversi
Royal Dealer
Sea Battle
Shark! Shark!
Sharp Shot
Skiing
Slam Dunk: Super Pro Basketball
Slap Shot: Super Pro Hockey
SNAFU
Soccer
Space Armada
Space Battle
Space Hawk
Space Spartans
Spiker: Super Pro Volleyball
Stadium Mudbuggies
Star Strike
Sub Hunt
Super Pro Decathalon
Super Pro Football
Tennis
Thin Ice
Thunder Castle
Tower of Doom
Utopia
Vectron
Word Hunt
Word Rockets
World Championship Baseball

Great Nostalgia! Horrible controls!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 22 / 23
Date: December 26, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Ah, waking up on Christmas day in 1982 and opening Intellivision was one of the best Christmases of my youth! I remember laughing at my friends who had Atari with their stick graphics as we would wait for George Plimpton to appear on the TV to vindicate those of us who sought a better system than the standard 2600.

Alas, nothing becomes obsolete faster than video games, and unfortunately, it is totally apparent in this compilation. Specifically the sports games which separated Intellivision from the pack at the time now appear as dated as an 8-Track tape. However, it is nice to play the games that remind you of better times in childhood.

"Astrosmash", the space shoot 'em up, is still a challenging blast to play. "Bowling" still is as tough as I remember, "Skiing" holds up the test of time fairly well, stripped down, solid and timeless. "Star Strike" looks great (especially in the commericals), but has lame game play. The list goes on (over 60 in all), most are barely playable by todays standards, that aside, there is some great nostalgia here.

Negatives? Some of the best games for Intellivision are not present. Mainly because they were put out by 3rd party manufacturers (Imagic, Activision, etc.) Too bad because "Atlantis" and "Demon Attack" (both from Imagic) were very good looking and fun games.

Lastly, the game controllers on the original Intellivision drew ire even from the most devout of Intellivision fans, and were downright despised by the 2600 faithful. The mapping of the controls to the Playstation2, to put it mildly, borders on utter failure. The effort is there (e.g. graphic represenations of the Intellivision 'overlays'), but the execution is just poor. Better controls, would make this compilation 4 stars. Nostaligia alone makes it a worthwhile purchase. And for 20 bucks, you really can't go wrong!

Great stuff for Gen X video Gamers and curious heads alike--

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: December 13, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Intellivision was my first.. and basically, my only video game system throughout my childhood..

great games, indeed.. though i wasn't the best at playing all of them..

now I get a second chance.. plus I get to play games for the system that I never owned..

PRO:
Over 50 games total, all separated into "arcade/adventure", "sports", "children/kids", "Space" and more.. some of my personal favorites included the sports games (football, baseball, hockey, basketball, bowling, auto racing, more), Thunder Castle, Tower of Doom (D&D-styled RPG-esque), Hover Force (helicopter/battle), Space Battle (fight against Cylon-esque alien ships) Poker & Blackjack (my first introduction to gambling!)... "Utopia" was arguably the first Reality Sim game..

witness early prototype voice synthesis in games with B-17 bomber, space spartans, the "Yer Out" with baseball, and more..

There are some easter eggs scattered throughout, when you reach certain point/progression goals in various games..

CON:
some of the games require you to have two controllers plugged in, even if you intend to use the option of solo play (but most people have two controllers, right?).. and a handful of games are still two-players only (like Boxing)..

for face value/nostalgia, the games are fine. But there is no "enhancing" of any of the games, for the 2003 era.. There is an option to play with the screen image, which is kind of odd.. but that's it..

Using the standard PS2 controller to play some of these games is downright GOD-AWFUL! for games which only required 4 or less buttons, it's okay.. And there is an interface where each player can bring up a sim of the old Overlay (customized for each game), but the image takes up almost half the screen, and so you're expected to finagle with screen cues while still trying to keep up with the action on the screen, which seriously downgrades the experience.. Keypad-dependent games like BOXING are ridiculously complicated to witness.. I wrote to the Blue Sky Rangers to suggest creation of new INTV-styled controllers for use on PS2/X-Box, but they nixed the idea..
Legal restrictions prevented including all the popular licensed games for Intellivision (as well as 3rd-party manufactured games) released over the years (arcade adaptions like BURGER TIME, LOCK N CHASE, and movie/TV/cartoon based games like HE-MAN and my personal favorite, TRON DEADLY DISCS).. Though in my opinion, with some creativity, some of these games could have been re-worked without the licensed references..

Next time around, I'd like to see INTV license "new" versions of some of these games, like a 3-D night stalker, space battle, hover force, etc.

Also: This game is manufactured on "BLUE" Playstation discs-- which are NOTORIOUS for giving PS2 Consoles problems.. search video game message boards for tips on your options to handle any problems-- but one that worked for me is to place two pieces of tape (i used masking) on either side of the center hole on the top of the disc.. the blue discs supposedly are "thinner" and need extra "balancing" to read properly..

Mixed feelings about this release

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: November 14, 2005
Author: Amazon User

When I was young I had an Intellivision with at least 35+ games in the household (both my brother and myself would buy games for it). My impression of this PS2 adaptation of the old Intellivision games is that although they have done a great job of reproducing the exact visual look and feel of the Intellivision games - at least the ones I was familiar with, they failed horribly at making a PS2 controller act like an Intellivision controller.

Intellivision had a unique controller, with the sixteen direction touch disk, the front surface buttons and the four side buttons (if I'm remembering correctly). Plus, they had those little slide in plastic pieces. Playing Utopia, or B-17 bomber, or any game for that matter which relied on lots of the old Intellivision hand held controller buttons were a pain in the neck to play on the PS2 because the people who made this "Intellivision Lives!" release couldn't overcome the big differences between a PS2 controller and the old Intellivision controller. Simpler games like Astrosmash or Night Stalker that only used a couple of buttons translated to the PS2 controller okay.

Beyond that, another peeve I had was that some of two-player games appeared to REQUIRE a second PS2 controller before they would start up. I only had one PS2 controller and although yes, a second PS2 controller would have been needed to enjoy the two player aspects of the games, I would have at least liked to be able to see the games again but without the second controller.

It was fun seeing the games again. A big shock was realizing just how far we have come. Just prior to getting this title I had finished up Grand Theft Auto San Andreas - and going back to Intellivision games was a shocker.

Classic Intellivision gameplay on a new console!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: December 22, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Many of the reviewers have given this bad reviews because it lacks some of the more popular titles, such as the AD&D games (Treasure of Tarmin, Cloudy Mountain), and the TRON titles (3 were released for the original Intellivision). The fact is that the Intellivision group does NOT own the copyrights to these games anymore, thus, the reason they are missing. Overall, a huge collection of Intellivision games on one disc; most of the games are playable on the Playstation 2 controller (and there are some "workarounds", such as using the right analog stick or pressing the "select" button to bring up the original Intellivision keypad). Some games are still frustrating because of the original versions dependence on the original Intellivision controller, such as Major League Baseball, but overall I would recommend this collection, both for its faithful adaption of the original games ported to a current generation game console, and for the sheer number of games present. It is also nice to play some demo and playable versions of never-released games. There are plenty of younger kid friendly games on this disc, too, such as Frog Bog, Word Fun, Math Fun, Pinball, etc. Some elusive game titles are now playable for the first time for me, and I am an original Intellivision owner that still has over 50+ games, the Intellivoice, etc. Also note: the reason that there are not any Imagic third party titles is because Activision owns the Imagic game library (Activision bought the rights when Imagic folded in the mid-1980s). If you want a few of these titles, I would recommend the PS2 Activision Classics game.

An Intellivision Fan

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game is awesome it brought back to me full memories when i was a kid and i had my own intellivision II. The only thing hard to learn it's the mapping of the Intellivision controller to the ps2 controller but once solved that little obstacle the game brings tons of fun. If you were a really fan of this console in the 80's you won't be dessapointed.

Would've got 5 stars BUT.........

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

it makes my Playstation 2 sound like its dying.
Whenever I play this game, my system's fan speeds up as fast as possible & it keeps stuttering.
Not sure what the problem is. I'm afraid to play it too long b/c I don't want it to break my system.

Other than that, the game is great. Except for a few games that require two players, everything else is fine.

My all time favorites SNAFU & Shark Shark are present (gotta love the Snafu soundtrack). Even Utopia is on this game. My brother's favorite, Astrosmash has to be mentioned also.

Even though I love these games, I'd say to only rent the game. Unless I bought a lemon, your system will hate you for making it play the game...

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