Mattel’s Intellivision: Not for the dexterity challenged
Darn. Sorry, folks, it just hit me like insects smashing into windshields in the dead of the night.
Back in the 80s, when Atari was still the in thing, I remember getting my grubby hands on the controls of Mattel’s Intellivision at the house of a family friend.
Boy, they weren’t kidding when they dubbed the machine “intelligent television.” It took me an entire day just to figure out how to operate the whacked out controller, which consists of a keypad and dial. And that’s just learning how the darn thing operated. Mastery was a word I couldn’t connect to the machine that was in front of me that time.
The Intellivision was developed by Mattel Electronics, a subsidiary of Mattel formed expressly for the development of electronic games, Wikipedia says.
It adds: One of the slogans of its television advertisements stated that Intellivision was “the closest thing to the real thing”; one example in an advertisement compared golf games. The other (read: Atari) console’s games had a blip sound and cruder graphics, while the Intellivision featured a realistic swing sound and striking of the ball, and graphics that suggested a more 3D look, although undoubtedly crude when compared with modern gaming consoles. There was also an advertisement directly comparing the Atari 2600 to it, featuring the slogan “I didn’t know.”
Well, compared to the Atari 2600, which had joysticks for controllers, the Intellivision was not for the dexterity challenged, people like me. No, I wasn’t a bad gamer. I had—and still have—this affinity for video games that allows me to easily master controls. The Intellivision’s controller was a different animal, so different that it made my fingers ache with frustration.
I’d take a joystick over that spaced-out controller any day.
I got one of these! I haven’t played it much, I have to clean off the games to get them to work. The only one I played was nhl hockey. It was crap, so the Intellivision is on a shelf unplugged. Maybe I’ll try it again one day, and see if I can get the other games to work.
Not a fan of the Jaguar’s controller either then… Well, that’s understandable…
Oh, and lovely write-up!
Why, thanks, little gnome. Do come back and let’s explore the inconveniences of fiddling with the wiimote’s ancestors.
Hey, Futuramaguy42! You mean your Intellivision’s still working? Egad! I sent all my old gaming consoles to the trashbin eons ago. It’s good to know some people take care of their video game machines. Shame on me.
I got mine at a yard sale a few months ago for 5 dollars. I’m a collector of old systems.
Not bad. Although I think you could’ve haggled and got the machine for less. Hehe. Tell me how it runs if ever you decide to plug it in again.
I loved M.I. Baseball!! By pressing the dial in certain places, one could control the pitches: fast, slow, curve, outside, etc. The fielders could be easilly selected w/ the keypad and they graphically changed color shade when selected: if the shortstop had the ball, he could toss to first by selecting the first baseman on the controller: that was the nice thing about the insert pad covers: all the buttons clearly labeled by function. I loved the way the ump called “Yer out!!” I find Nintendo NES baseball versions difficult to field the fair hit balls.