This article originally appeared on Reviewcenter.com in 1999.
The Intellivision collection was relaunched on the last generation of consoles — Xbox, PS2, GC — in 2004 to mixed reviews. You have to give Keith Robinson, who runs and basically is wholly responsible for the survival of Intellivision, for keeping these games alive! See the bottom for a few old, old Intellivision commercials.
By: Tom Carroll
This is going to be a very “to the point” review. If you have ever hankered to return to the old days of video games, the days where you didn’t worry too much about a story line or character depth or polygon count or frame rate, buy Intellivision Lives. It’ll get you there faster than the twister delivered Dorothy to Oz.
This game consists of 50 of the best Intellivision games made, and they are true to the originals down to the square pixels and goofy “period” music. There are action games, sports games, kid’s games, and space games and even 21 games that were never released. How can you beat that?!
An added bonus is the extra material that comes on the CD. This is historical material, pictures, video and text-based biographies. Much of this was put together by Keith Robinson, original Mattel Electronics staffer, survivor and now a co-founder of Intellivision Productions, Inc.
Robinson originally joined Mattel Electronics in 1981 after a brief stint in TV and film special effects. After working on TRON Solar Sailer, a game based on a movie that was based within a video game, Robinson became manager of applications where he supervised the programming and graphic design of numerous Intellivision games.
Because Mattel was adamant about its programmers remaining in the shadows, the group was collectively called the “Blue Sky Rangers” in a TV Guide article about Intellivision. The name stuck.
For Intellivision Lives!, Robinson collected a bunch of the wacky videos and interviews that employees participated in during the studio’s heyday.
That’s the good part of the story. When Mattel pulled the plug on Intellivision, Robinson presided over several waves of layoffs. Because of Mattel’s attempt to avoid a media circus atmosphere, Robinson poured gasoline on the situation by handing out pink slips in a clown suit. Mattel Electronics closed its doors in 1984.
Although Intellivision lived on briefly in another incarnation, INTV Corporation, Intellivision was essentially dead.
But now, through the efforts of Robinson and others, the games and the times can live again. Intellivision Lives is a thoroughly entertaining buy and is well worth the cost to anyone who wants a good historical time capsule to keep on the shelf and play whenever the current crop of losers and clones fails to entertain.
Ups
The games look exactly like the originals!
Tons of fun games to play through
A chance to explore an age that will never be seen again
Downs
The games look exactly like the originals!
A list of games isn’t part of the documentation.
Quick hits:
Publisher: Intellivision Productions, Inc.
Developer: Intellivision Productions, Inc.
Platform: PC CD-ROM, PlayStation
Genre: Action/Game collection
Players: 1
Launch Date: April 30, 1999
Playability: [rating:4/5]
User friendly: [rating:5/5]
Sound: [rating:5/5]
Graphics: [rating:5/5]
Overall: [rating:5/5]
Ratings were determined in 1999
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