In the beginning… there was Spacewar. If you want to get more technical than that, there were games even further back than that, but really, I’m not even talking about Spacewar, so let’s not nitpick. I’m talking about me, goddammit. In the beginning… for Q… there was Intellivision.
Many people overlook the Intellivision in favor of more popular systems such as the Atari 2600, but my personal preference is for Mattel’s juggernaut. I’m well aware this could be because I owned that and not an Atari (as did half of of my extended family), but really, it was a much better system.
For one, the graphics were much better. Those of us who are well-educated in videogame history will recall how the Atari 2600 port of Pac-Man was such a graphical and gameplay disappointment that it actually did considerable damage to consumer confidence in the industry. If the more popular system had been the Intellivision, this would not have been the case; if nothing else, the graphics and maze were identical to the arcade version.
For another, the controller had more than one button. Some might say that having 16 buttons and a rotary disc are too many (and they’d probably be right), but I can attest that having more than one button is pretty much essential. 12 of those were a numerical keypad, with two buttons on either side of the controller that made it managable. What’s more, the keypad was often used for directional firing, making it the precursor to control styles that featured independent movement and firing control, like most first-person shooters. You can thank the Intellivision for that.
I will admit that using the rotary disc for movement wasn’t the best method of control, and whoever made the games that asked you to spin your finger around the perimeter of the disc should be carbombed.
The controller also featured a system called overlays. Each game cartridge came with two thin plastic overlays which could slide into the controller, over the numerical keypad. This would show you what buttons did what in each game, and also had the added advantage of providing a little extra color to your controller.
What’s more, the more advanced controller allowed for more complex games. We started to see more advanced RPG-like games, like the AD&D games, and more advanced arcade ports were possible, such as Burgertime and Bump n’ Jump. Did you know Burgertime had an isometric 3-D sequel that was exclusive to the Intellivision? And that it rocks balls?
The first survival horror game was also on Intellivision, in the form of Night Stalker. It didn’t have the consummate darkness featured in other horror games (and even the 2600 game Haunted House), but it did have a constant heartbeat in the background and excelled at limiting your ammo, increasing your tension. Hell, even the original AD&D game used the same tactic to great effect, giving you sparse ammo (you could only fight with a bow), a very limited draw distance that often revealed entire rooms very suddenly, and the distant sound of creatures in the dungeon that would leap at you as soon as the room lit-up. Many a carpet was soiled over this game, I assure you.
The maze game saw an incredible surge on the system. In my opinion, the epitome of the maze game came in the form of Thunder Castle, a fantasy-themed maze game that had you slaying different enemies on each level, but only with the aid of a Power Source, which was also different on each maze. Also, the soundtrack was based entirely on existing classical music, making it rich and powerful for such an early system.
My love for the Intellivision knows very few bounds. Even though the NES came out late in the life-cycle of the Intellivision, I still love it to death, even when I was seeking out others’ NES’s to play. Unfortunately, the only good way to play these games is to find an original system; the other legal methods, reprints and such, fail because they can’t reproduce the controller. My advice: go buy an Intellivision. It’s worth the price, whatever you have to pay.
