Intellivision Lives!is a compilation of over 60Intellivisionvideo games,originally produced byMattel Electronicsand INTV Corporation between 1978 and 1990. Using original game code andsoftware emulation,Intellivision Productions released the compilation on aWindowsandMacintoshhybridCD-ROMin December 1998.[2]Additional versions were then released for thePlayStation 2,Xbox,andGameCubebyCrave Entertainment.In 2010, Virtual Play Games released aNintendo DSversion.
| Intellivision Lives! | |
|---|---|
 Original cover art forWindows | |
| Developer(s) | Intellivision Productions Carl Mueller Jr Quicksilver Software (Win/Mac) Realtime Associates (PS2, Xbox, GCN, Nintendo DS) |
| Publisher(s) | Intellivision Productions (Win/Mac) Crave Entertainment (PS2, Xbox, GCN) Virtual Play Games (Nintendo DS) |
| Platform(s) | Windows,Macintosh,GameCube,PlayStation 2,Xbox,Nintendo DS |
| Release | Windows/Mac
Xbox
|
| Genre(s) | Various |
| Mode(s) | Single-player,Multiplayer |
Intellivision Productions later publishedIntellivision Rocks,which includesthird-party gamesoriginally published byActivisionandImagic,as well asIntellivoiceandECSgames.[3]
Overview
editSome games, such asAdvanced Dungeons & Dragons: Cloudy MountainandTreasure of Tarminuse different titles to avoid the trademark. Licenses such asMLB,NFL,NBA,andThe Electric Companywere simply dropped from the titles. Also included were games never before released, such asKing of the Mountain, Brickout, and Takeover.[4]
In addition to the games, the Crave Entertainment releases have several unlockables, such as classic Intellivision commercials.[5]The original Windows/Mac version is a resource for development history, unfinished prototypes, box art, overlays, instructions, hidden features, programmer biographies, and video interviews.
| Game Title | Genre | Win/Mac | PS2, Xbox, GCN | NDS | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bomb Squad | Arcade | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Buzz Bombers | Arcade | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Racing Cars | Arcade | Yes | Yes | No | Part ofTriple Actionon Win/Mac. |
| Night Stalker | Arcade | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Pinball | Arcade | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Shark! Shark! | Arcade | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| SNAFU | Arcade | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Thin Ice | Arcade | Yes | Yes | Yes | Win/Mac version includes prototypeDuncan's Thin Ice. |
| Vectron | Arcade | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Armor Battle | Combat & Sorcery | Yes | Yes | No | Two-player available with DS connect. |
| Adventure / Crown of Kings(Nintendo DS) |
Combat & Sorcery | Yes | No | Yes | Prototype of originally releasedAdvanced Dungeons & Dragons: Cloudy Mountain. |
| Minotaur | Combat & Sorcery | Yes | No | Yes | Prototype of originally releasedAdvanced Dungeons & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin. |
| Battle Tanks | Combat & Sorcery | Yes | Yes | No | Part ofTriple Actionon Win/Mac. Two-player only. |
| Biplanes | Combat & Sorcery | Yes | Yes | No | Part ofTriple Actionon Win/Mac. Two-player only. |
| B-17 Bomber | Combat & Sorcery | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Hover Force | Combat & Sorcery | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Sea Battle | Combat & Sorcery | Yes | Yes | No | Two-player available with DS connect. |
| Sub Hunt | Combat & Sorcery | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Thunder Castle | Combat & Sorcery | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Tower of Doom | Combat & Sorcery | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Utopia | Gaming & Strategy | Yes | Yes | No | Two-player available with DS connect. |
| Astrosmash | Space | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Space Armada | Space | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Space Battle | Space | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Space Hawk | Space | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Space Spartans | Space | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Star Strike | Space | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Auto Racing | Sports | Yes | Yes | No | Two-player available with DS connect. |
| Baseball | Sports | Yes | Yes | No | Two-player available with DS connect. |
| Basketball | Sports | Yes | Yes | No | Two-player available with DS connect. |
| Body Slam: Super Pro Wrestling | Sports | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Bowling | Sports | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Boxing | Sports | Yes | Yes | No | Two-player available with DS connect. |
| Chip Shot: Super Pro Golf | Sports | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Football | Sports | Yes | Yes | Yes | Two-player available with DS connect. |
| Golf | Sports | Yes | Yes | No | Two-player available with DS connect. |
| Hockey | Sports | Yes | Yes | No | Two-player available with DS connect. |
| Motocross | Sports | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Mountain Madness: Super Pro Skiing | Sports | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Skiing | Sports | Yes | Yes | Yes | US Ski Team Skiing |
| Slam Dunk: Super Pro Basketball | Sports | Yes | Yes | Yes | Requires two controllers. |
| Slap Shot: Super Pro Hockey | Sports | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Soccer | Sports | Yes | Yes | No | Two-player only. |
| Spiker: Super Pro Volleyball | Sports | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Stadium Mud Buggies | Sports | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Super Pro Decathlon | Sports | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Super Pro Football | Sports | Yes | Yes | Yes | Requires two controllers. |
| Tennis | Sports | Yes | Yes | Yes | Two-player only. |
| World Championship Baseball | Sports | Yes | Yes | Yes | Requires two controllers. |
| ABPA Backgammon | Gaming & Strategy | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Checkers | Gaming & Strategy | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Horse Racing | Gaming & Strategy | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack | Gaming & Strategy | Yes | Yes | Yes | Requires two controllers. |
| Las Vegas Roulette | Gaming & Strategy | Yes | Yes | Yes | Requires two controllers. |
| Reversi | Gaming & Strategy | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Royal Dealer | Gaming & Strategy | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| USCF Chess | Strategy Network | Yes | No | No | |
| Crosswords | Kids | Yes | Yes | No | Part ofWord Funon Win/Mac. Requires two controllers. |
| Factor Fun | Kids | Yes | Yes | No | Part ofLearning Fun Ion Win/Mac. Requires two controllers. |
| Frog Bog | Kids | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Math Fun | Kids | Yes | No | No | |
| Math Master | Kids | Yes | Yes | Yes | Part ofLearning Fun Ion Win/Mac. Requires two controllers. |
| Memory Fun | Kids | Yes | Yes | No | Part ofLearning Fun IIon Win/Mac. Requires two controllers. |
| Sharp Shot | Kids | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Word Fun | Kids | Yes | No | No | |
| Word Hunt | Kids | Yes | Yes | No | Part ofLearning Fun IIon Win/Mac. Requires two controllers. |
| Word Rockets | Kids | Yes | Yes | No | Part ofLearning Fun IIon Win/Mac. |
| Air Strike | Unreleased | Yes | No | No | |
| Brickout | Unreleased | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Crazy Clones | Unreleased | Yes | No | No | |
| Deep Pockets: Pool & Billiards | Unreleased | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Demo Cartridge | Unreleased | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Go for the Gold | Unreleased | Yes | No | No | |
| Grid Shock | Unreleased | Yes | No | No | |
| Happy Holidays | Unreleased | Yes | No | No | IncludesSanta's Helper,Easter EggcitementandTrick or Treat. |
| Hard Hat | Unreleased | Yes | Yes | No | Two-player available with DS connect. |
| Hypnotic Lights | Unreleased | Yes | Yes | No | |
| King of the Mountain | Unreleased | Yes | No | No | |
| Land Battle | Unreleased | Yes | No | No | |
| Magic Carousel | Unreleased | No | Yes | No | |
| Meteor! | Unreleased | Yes | No | No | |
| Number Jumble | Unreleased | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Space Cadet | Unreleased | Yes | Yes | No | Two-player available with DS connect. |
| Super Soccer | Unreleased | Yes | No | No | |
| Takeover | Unreleased | Yes | Yes | No | Two-player available with DS connect. |
History and development
editIn June 1995, former Mattel Electronics programmers led by Keith Robinson started theBlue Sky RangersIntellivision website.[6]Blue Sky Rangersbeing anicknamegiven to the Mattel Electronics programmers in aTV Guidemagazine article from the 1982 June 19 issue.[7]The website provides the history of the Intellivsion games and credits the programmers and artists. It was well received with fans asking how the games can be played on their computers. In 1997, Intellivision Productions, Inc. was formed by former Mattel Electronics programmers Keith Robinson and Stephen Roney with the purchase of the rights to the Intellivision and its games.[8][9]
At the same time, a student in Michigan named Carl Mueller Jr. was independently working onreverse engineeringthe Intellivision. With the help of IntellivisionROM dumpsfrom Sean Kelly and then William Moeller and Scott Nudds, Mueller Jr. was able to create the first Intellivisionemulatorthat plays the games on a modern computer.[4][10]Kelly was fortunate to have two Intellivision prototype cartridges with standard 8-bitEPROMsas opposed to the more complex memory mappedROMsused by ordinary cartridges.[11]Moeller and Nudds were able to dump the Intellivision embedded executive control software and graphic ROMs, as well as build a cartridge reader to dump any Intellivision cartridge.[12]
Mueller Jr.'sMS-DOSemulator and aMacintoshemulator created by Intellivision Productions' Steve Roney would be used in the free Intellipack downloads[13]so anyone could play select Intellivision games on their computers for the first time in 1997. The Intellivision for PC/Mac Volume 2 download, also of 1997, was the first release ofDeep Pockets Super Pro Billiards,the last game programmed for the Intellivision in 1990, but unreleased by INTV Corporation. They would also be used to play the original Intellivision games in the Intellivision Lives! PC/Mac CD-ROM edition released in 1998 by Intellivision Productions.[4]
PC and Macintosh system requirements
editThe PC/Mac edition was produced with Macromedia Director and may not be compatible with modern operating systems. The QuickTime videos, emulators, and Intellivision ROM image files are directly accessible on the CD-ROM.
The Intellivision Lives! PC/Mac v1.0 system requirements:[14]
- PC: Pentium 90 MHz, Windows 95, 8MB RAM, 8x CD-ROM, QuickTime v3.0 or better
- Mac: Power Macintosh, OS7.5, 100 MHz, 16MB RAM, 8x CD-ROM, QuickTime
The Intellivision Lives! PC/Mac v1.1 system requirements:[4]
- PC: Pentium 266 MHz, Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP, 32M RAM, 8X CD-ROM, 16-bit DirectX compatible sound & video cards, DirectX 7 or better, QuickTime v3.0 or better
- Mac: Power Macintosh, OS 8/9/X, 120 MHz, 32M RAM, 8X CD-ROM, QuickTime
Controller functions are mapped to the computer keyboard; an extended keyboard is required to access both left and right Intellivision controllers. With Macintosh, USB game controllers could be used indirectly with a joystick to keyboard mapper utility. For PC, Intellivision Productions promoted the Gravis GamePad Pro game controller (game portversion).[15]The MS-DOS emulator, directly accessible on the CD-ROM, also supported original Intellivision controllers through the INTV2PC Hand Controller Interface. INTV2PC is a parallel port adapter that accepts original Intellivision hand controllers. Although this feature is not promoted, it is documented in theINTVPCfiles on the CD-ROM.[4]Modern intellivision emulators and USB controller adapters have since become available, compatible with the Intellivision Lives rom image files.
To play the games using real Intellivision controllers,Intellivision Productionssupported the use of a device called theIntellicart.[16]TheIntellicartis aRAMcartridge with anRS-232interface that can accept a copy of an IntellivisionROM imagefile from a computer. Rather than play theIntellivision Lives!games via an emulator, they can be played on a real Intellivision through anIntellicart.Since that time, modern Intellivision flash memory cartridges have been made which achieves the same result.
In 2002, an updated Intellivision Lives! PC/Mac v1.1 was made available byIntellivision Productions.Those that bought the original could upgrade for a nominal fee.[17]It added Windows 98/ME/2000/XP support with a native Windows emulator supporting DirectX sound, video, and game controllers.[4]
Modern video game consoles
editRealtime Associatesdeveloped the video game console editions published byCrave EntertainmentforPlayStation 2(2003),Xbox(2004), andGameCube(2004).[18]In these versions, the games are accessed from a 3D "overworld" set in a circa 1980spizza parlor;an inaccurate representation as the Intellivision games were originally designed for a home console. Games were also re-organised by genres rather than the original Mattel ElectronicsNetworksused in the PC/Mac edition. Some games require two controllers, even to play single player.[19]
In 2010,Virtual Play Gamespublished Intellivision Lives! for theNintendo DShandheld system, also developed byRealtime Associates.It features wireless, multiplayer support using a single game card.[20]TheNintendo DS's touch screen emulates the Intellivision's 12-button keypad including an overlay image for each game. TheNintendo DSlacks a 16 direction pad used by some Intellivision games. This limitation was overcome, inVectronfor example, by mapping directional inputs to the touch screen. Only 10,000 copies of theNintendo DSedition were ever released.[21]
The Xbox version ofIntellivision Lives!is fullyforward compatiblewith theXbox 360console, and in 2008,Intellivision Lives!became available for purchase as a download through Xbox Live Game Marketplace's Xbox Originals.[22]
Intellivision Rocks
editIntellivision Rocksis the PC-only sequel to the original PC version ofIntellivision Lives!.As withIntellivision Lives!,Intellivision Rocksis a collection of games which were originally found on theIntellivision,presented in emulated form. It mainly features 3rd-party games fromActivisionandImagic.In addition, several unreleased games are included.[23]
Reception
editIGNsaid thatIntellivision Lives!is "still blocky after all these years, sure...but these games really need the controller."[26]GameSpoteditors said that although the controller emulation is a little hard to handle, the collection does a fine job in delivering classic Intellivision games.[24]
References
edit- ^"Official Intellivision Classic Videogame Website - Main Page".Intellivision Productions. Archived fromthe originalon January 25, 1999.RetrievedOctober 16,2019.
News 12/18/98:"CD-ROM available now!" - ^"Official Intellivision Classic Videogame Website".www.intellivisionlives.com.Archived fromthe originalon 16 January 2018.Retrieved12 January2022.
- ^"Intellivision Rocks".www.intellivisionlives.com.Archived fromthe originalon 16 January 2018.Retrieved12 January2022.
- ^abcdef"Intellivision Lives! PC/Mac".Intellivision Productions. Archived fromthe originalon 2018-01-16.
- ^Curtiss, Aaron (3 May 1999)."Want to Visit--or Revisit--the Early 1980s? You Can".Los Angeles Times.Retrieved4 November2016.
- ^"Official Intellivision Classic Videogame Website".Archived fromthe originalon 1999-01-25.Retrieved2010-10-27.
- ^"Intellivision Classic Video Game System / TV Guide Profile".intellivisionlives.com.Archived fromthe originalon 16 January 2018.Retrieved12 January2022.
- ^"Intellivision Classic Video Game System / History".intellivisionlives.com.Archived fromthe originalon 16 January 2018.Retrieved12 January2022.
- ^"Intellivision Classic Video Game System / Frequently Asked Questions".www.intellivisionlives.com.Archived fromthe originalon 16 January 2018.Retrieved12 January2022.
- ^Kelly, Sean."Intellivision".Digital Press.
- ^"Prototype Stuff".21 June 2012.
- ^"many many thanks".jzIntv.
- ^"Intellivision Downloads".www.intellivisionlives.com.Archived fromthe originalon 16 January 2018.Retrieved12 January2022.
- ^"Intellivision Brasil".Archived fromthe originalon 2017-03-17.Retrieved2017-03-17.
- ^"Intellivision Lives! Common Problems and Questions".www.intellivisionlives.com.Archived fromthe originalon 16 January 2018.Retrieved12 January2022.
- ^"Intellivision Classic Video Game System / Frequently Asked Questions".www.intellivisionlives.com.Archived fromthe originalon 16 January 2018.Retrieved12 January2022.
- ^"Intellivision Lives! Common Problems and Questions".www.intellivisionlives.com.Archived fromthe originalon 16 January 2018.Retrieved12 January2022.
- ^"Intellivision Lives! (Game)".
- ^"Intellivision PS2 & Xbox".www.intellivisionlives.com.Archived fromthe originalon 16 January 2018.Retrieved12 January2022.
- ^"Intellivision Lives!".19 December 2011.
- ^"Intellivision Really Lives".5 March 2010.
- ^"Intellivision Lives!".
- ^"intellivisionlives.com".Archived fromthe originalon 2017-01-01.Retrieved2010-10-27.
- ^abTracy, Tim (2004-02-09)."Intellivision Lives! Review".GameSpot.Retrieved2010-03-20.
- ^Harris, Craig (2003-11-18)."Intellivision Lives! Review".IGN.Retrieved2003-11-18.
- ^IGNPS2 (2003-11-18)."Intellivision Lives! Review".IGN.Retrieved2010-03-19.
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