Intellivision Lives! for Microsoft Xbox

Those of us who owned an Intellivision rather than an Atari felt like members of an enlightened cult. Atari was Duran Duran; we were the Violent Femmes. In other words, we knew our games had the better action, the better controller, the better graphics, certainly the better commercials - but we somehow felt ignored by the general game-playing public. This was fine with us. We wanted Intellivision to be our dirty little secret.

Which brings me to this pack. The makers did an excellent job of translating Intellivision's still-unique game controller, and in their ways, the games are still fun and even challenging. I get chills, even now, when I see the little Running Man guy do his super-smooth slow-motion sprint. "Snafu" is and always has been a so-simple-it's-brilliant little gem, "Utopia" is great two-player fun (never before or since has super-slow game play built so much tension), "Astrosmash" rocks (pun intended), "Sea Battle" is tricky and creative, and, well, there you go. The rest are a decidedly mixed-bag. You'll squeal with joy when you fire each one up, you'll say "Oh, I remember this one, it's GREAT," and you'll get bored before 10 minutes are up.

But I think most buyers purchasing this set aren't looking for great games. They're looking to recapture that magnificent anticipation of being 10 and popping in a new cartridge (one your folks paid $30 for) and playing, wide-eyed, nifty cuts like "B-17 Bomber" and "Space Spartans." They're looking for the bittersweet taste of nostalgia, in other words. But I think they're out of luck. They might get the slightest whiff of it, but then it's back to the grind and the mirror, where you realize you're not a 10-year-old kid but a 30-something dad with a crap job and a mortgage.

Oh..."Swords & Serpents" rocks too, even if they forgot to give the darned game an ending.


Walk Down Memory Lane   March 8, 2004
13 out of 13 found this review helpful

I can't do much more justice to the review than "zooter" - if you need to escape the wife, kids and mortgage for a couple of hours, nothing could serve up spite better than the archaic graphics and 2 bit sound of a monotonus game like Astrosmash! We all have better things to do with our lives, but with reality TV marinating every watercooler conversation wouldn't it be nice to respond to Susie Sitcom with a snide, "You know, I missed Idol Survivor Factor last night because I broke my high score on Space Hawk!" Then Susie asks, giggling, "wasn't that an Intellivision game?" "You bet, and it looks even worse on my 60" widescreen home theater than it did in 1981! Now back to work."
If you grew up with Intellivision, this really is a must. Even if you play it for 30 minutes and never go back, you can hear the annoying sound of those laser cannons in Space Battle one last time. A couple of feautures that were surpising upsides: the background music tracks (I swear that New Order sang the Intellivision headliner tune), the documentary and interviews with the programmers. I was into the whole Blue Sky Ranger programmer posse that had a solid web presence through the dot-com bubble and was glad to fork over a couple bucks in their direction now that they have a solid product offering. Good for them. These extras are nice for those who are informed or have the slightest interest in the 1980s videogame wars. The downsides - the controller interface is alright, but really makes some of the games almost impossible to play. Also, I recall the Intellivision being a 16 directional interface (compared to 8 for most other systems) and I find that the directional smoothness is not the same on these games (perhaps X-box is only 8 - I can't imagine - but it does seem odd that the movement is so jerky). I would pay $100 for a pair of USB or x-box ready Intellivision controllers, but I'm sure the market is so tiny it would hardly be worth the hardware development effort. This thin number of reviews is proof enough. I would have also liked to see the licensed material (D&D, Tron, etc.) in this package as well as the other thrid party titles by developers like Imagic and Activision. There were some great titles in their libraries. Also, it would be cool to have this on X-Box Live. I still talk smack with childhood friend over who was better at Intellivision Baseball. We could now settle the score even though he lives on the other side of the country.

At the very least you can see how you wasted away hundreds of hours of your childhood and are still able to read and write as an adult. Then again, with the aforementioned thin number of reviewers, perhaps most of our Intellivision peers never made it this far!
Anyhow, priced cheaper than an overrated entree' for your lady at Chez Ego, Intellivision Lives delivers the entertainment value.


What you see is what you get   February 13, 2004
Dan Weimer (Ann Arbor, MI USA)
11 out of 11 found this review helpful

I was raised on Intellivision. If you were, too, you know which games you want to play. You can also, I presume, look at an Xbox controller and see how there could be difficulties translating the disc-and-keypad controls from Intellivision to the Xbox.

If you aren't very familiar with the Intellivision, you're not really the retrogaming target audience, and you should probably move on.

Assuming you're still with me, here's the good news. The games that are in the collection are recreated spot-on perfectly. The controller works exceptionally well given obvious limitations. A right thumbstick-right trigger combination simulates the keypad 1-9 by default. You get used to it, and I certainly can't think of a better way it could have been done. But in games where it makes more sense to do it another way, it was done another way. A, B, X, and Y fire down, right, left, and up, respectively, in Night Stalker. That is, this package was put together by people who understand the games.

And, as far as the games in the package go, basically, all the first party (Mattel and INTV) games are here except the ones that are lost to licensing entanglements. Yes, it means you lose some of the system's best games. Tron Deadly Discs, Burger Time, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, and Masters of the Universe are not included, and it's a shame.

Further, no matter how much you loved the system, you'll probably admit that some of the games haven't really stood the test of time all that well. Two of the machine's flagship games, Baseball and Astrosmash!, stand out in particular.

But there are 60-some games here. For a $20 package, if you can dig up four or five of them to rekindle your love affair with, you're doing exceptionally well. Most of the games you play once for the nostalgia fix and never see again. But I'm convinced that, for my tastes, Utopia, Super Pro Basketball, Space Armada, Space Battle, Night Stalker, and Shark! Shark! are still honestly fun.

I have Intellivision Lives! for PC, and it is quite good. But putting these games back on the TV with a controller in my hand feels right. I have a good feeling that these games will continue to exist on modern platforms for the foreseeable future and I couldn't be happier. Outstanding product.


Just about worth $20   February 1, 2004
9 out of 11 found this review helpful

Let me start of by saying that if this game were priced at $49.95 like most new games, I would give it no stars,. But at $19.95, it is worth it for those who have some nostalga for Intellivision. However, keep in mind that because of the fact that Intellivision had such unusual contollers, most of the games included on this disc are either unplayable on X-Box or are just barely playable ,and thus are not much fun. So instead of getting the 50+ games as advertised, you are really getting only a few playable games. As a former Intellivision owner, this reminds me of how even with the proper controllers, Intellivision often made overly complicated games which were graphically superior to, but less fun to play than, games for the Atari 2600. If you just have a general nostalga for the 1980s, then get Midway Arcade Treasures and/or Namco Museum, but if you really miss Intellivision, then how can you go wrong for $20? Just don't expect to be able to play every game included here.


Bandit......9 O'Clock!!   June 30, 2004
Graboidz (Westminster, Maryland)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

If reading my header you are confused, look for another video game. For those of you familiar with that exclamation from B-17 Bomber, buy this game right away! You get tons of nostalgia and tons of fun with this disk! Sure the nostalgia may wear off after about 10 minutes, but go beyond that and you will find some truly fun games to revisit and play. I spent many hours in my pre-teen years playing Intellivision, and I still own the original system. I hooked it up about 3 years ago and played some of the games. It was fun, but as you can imagine, hooking up the ancient systems was a real pain in the ass! I was so glad to see Intellivision Lives! for X-Box, I bought it right away. Sure some of the best games are not included like D&D and Tron's Deadly Discs, but there are so many great ones here they won't be missed too badly, and hopefully they will be included in a second volume. B-17 Bomber is still fun to play and I get a kick out of the old "Intellivoice" warning me about Flak and Bandits. Night Stalker is great with it's bass-like background music. I still think "Pinball" is highly addictive, and I am trying desperately to teach my 6 year old son the controls for Utopia so we can play. Sanfu is included and still fun to play. Thunder Castle's theme music is still kind of chilling and though very limited, the game play is engrossing. It's also kind of nifty that there are so many games included that I missed the first go around like Shark! Shark! and the Wrestling game. Sure, there is some trouble converting from the old paddle to the new X-Box controller, but it's not something that should hinder you from picking this game up. For $20 or less if used, you are buying hours of entertainment!