If you can make out the overlays in the pic, those were placed on the actual TV screen. Can you believe it? Compared to now, it is crazy. It retailed for $100 way back in the early 1970's. And, it is historically correct to identify this as the first video game console coming out prior to Atari's "Pong".
Later on, Jason and I had a good ol' time running fireplace pokers through Atari 2600 cartridges. When I would spend the night at his house (we lived next door to each other from 1977-1989) in the late-70's, we would leave the poker in the fireplace for an hour or so and watch it go right through the middle of a cartridge of our choice with no effort whatsoever.
After we had spent a couple of our lives playing, and literally destroying, the Atari 2600, Mattel goes and releases the Intellivision. Back in 1980, this thing cost $300. That was a ton of cash back then. And that is where my fondness lies...
The Intellivision had so many games that we simply could not get enough of-
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Treasure of Tarmin, Armor Battle, Astrosmash, Atlantis, Armor Battle, Auto Racing, B-17 Bomber, Beauty and the Beast, Boxing, Bump'n'Jump, Burgertime, Carnival, Demon Attack, Donkey Kong, The Dreadnaught Factor, The Electric Company Math Fun and Word Fun, Frog Bog, Frogger, Horseracing Ladybug, Las Vegas Blackjack & Poker, Lock'n'Chase, Major League Baseball, Microsurgeon, Mission X, Motocross, NBA Basketball, NFL Football, Night Stalker, PBA Bowling, PGA Golf, Pitfall, Safecracker, Sea Battle, Shark! Shark!, Snafu, Space Armada, Space Battle, Space Hawk, Star Strike, Sub Hunt, Swords & Serpents, Tennis, Triple Action, TRON Deadly Discs, U.S. Ski Team Skiing, White Water!, and Worm Whomper.
One of my favorite memories is how great Jason was at Astrosmash and Night Stalker and how I ruled at TRON Deadly Discs and The Dreadnaught Factor. There was a contest for The Dreadnaught Factor that if you scored a certain amount of points, you took a picture of your TV and mailed it in to get a patch. Jason never could get the score, but I could and I never sent the picture in. But, he'd always kick my butt at baseball as he could always steal 2nd and usually 3rd base. I was the first one of us who could bust 1,000,000 points at TRON and make it to the guards, but Jason could bust 1,000,000 points at Astrosmash with ease. My sister, SJ, was great at Frogger and we'd all get a kick out of Shark! Shark! And, don't even get me started on Triple Action. The battle cry, "Come fly with me and the birdies!", and the ever deadly "Cloud Pity." I wouldn't trade those memories, or my childhood for anything. Growing up in the 70's was the best. Video games and Saturday morning cartoons were the order of our generation.
2 comments:
#1 I love Intellevision. I never owned one, probably because they were expensive. However, my aunt had one (she was a young aunt) and jon phillip had one. I LOVED D&D! I loved rainy days because that was like the only time we could be in jon's house, thus...Intelvision (sp?).
#2 You and Jason were rich because I never knew so many games.
#3 You and Jason were dorks because you battled for scores and REMEMBER them! lol
#4 Great post
LOL! Yeah, definitely #3. Such fond memories...
Too funny you loved D&D!
I distinctly remember being at either JCPenny or Dillards and they had this huge trunk on the ground filled with Intellivision games and we (me, SJ, and dad) were looking through them and the salesman said we could get two games for the price of one.
And, back then, the Intellivision console itself retailed for $290, so it was way expensive.
I just wish that SJ and Mandy hadn't left it on all night. That killed it and Mandy ended up getting all our games :( Her mom ended up selling everything in a garage sale.
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