''Intellivision Lives!'' is a compilation of over 60

Intellivision The Intellivision (a portmanteau of intelligent television) is a home video game console released by Mattel Electronics in 1979. It distinguished itself from competitors with more realistic sports and strategic games. By 1981, Mattel Electronic ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

s, originally produced by Mattel Electronics and INTV Corporation between 1978 and 1990. Using original game code and

software emulation In computing, an emulator is hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run software or use perip ...

, Intellivision Productions released the compilation on a

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

and

Macintosh Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...

hybrid

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains computer data storage, data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold b ...

in December 1998. Additional versions were then released for the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as application software, applications (games), the streaming media, streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox networ ...

, and

GameCube The is a PowerPC-based home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, in Europe on May 3, 2002, and in Australia on May 17, 2002. It is the suc ...

Crave Entertainment Crave Entertainment (aka Crave Games) was an American video game publisher founded in 1997 by Nima Taghavi. Its headquarters was in Newport Beach, California. It was acquired by Handleman Company in 2005 in a deal valued up to $95,000,000 but w ...

. In 2010, Virtual Play Games released a

Nintendo DS The is a foldable handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens worki ...

version. Intellivision Productions later published '' Intellivision Rocks'', which includes third-party games originally published by

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...

and

Imagic Imagic ( ) was an American video game developer and publisher that created games initially for the Atari 2600. Founded in 1981 by corporate alumni of Atari, Inc. and Mattel, its best-selling titles were ''Atlantis'', '' Cosmic Ark'', and '' De ...

, as well as Intellivoice and ECS games.

Overview

Some games, such as '' Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Cloudy Mountain'' and ''

Treasure of Tarmin ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin'' is a video game for the Intellivision video game console and the Mattel Aquarius computer system. This game was a licensed ''Dungeons & Dragons'' adaptation. It is a successor game to '' Advan ...

'' use different titles to avoid the trademark. Licenses such as

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

, NFL,

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

, and

The Electric Company ''The Electric Company'' is an American educational children's television series produced by the Children's Television Workshop (CTW, now known as Sesame Workshop). It was co-created by Paul Dooley, Joan Ganz Cooney, and Lloyd Morrisett. ...

were simply dropped from the titles. Also included were games never before released, such as ''King of the Mountain, Brickout, and Takeover''. In addition to the games, the Crave Entertainment releases have several unlockables, such as classic Intellivision commercials. The original Windows/Mac version is a resource for development history, unfinished prototypes, box art, overlays, instructions, hidden features, programmer biographies, and video interviews.

History and development

In June 1995, former Mattel Electronics programmers led by Keith Robinson started the '' Blue Sky Rangers'' Intellivision website. '' Blue Sky Rangers'' being a

nickname A nickname, in some circumstances also known as a sobriquet, or informally a "moniker", is an informal substitute for the proper name of a person, place, or thing, used to express affection, playfulness, contempt, or a particular character trait ...

given to the Mattel Electronics programmers in a

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...

magazine article from the 1982 June 19 issue. The website provides the history of the Intellivsion games and credits the programmers and artists. It was well received with fans asking how the games can be played on their computers. In 1997, Intellivision Productions, Inc. was formed by former Mattel Electronics programmers Keith Robinson and Stephen Roney with the purchase of the rights to the Intellivision and its games. At the same time, a student in Michigan named Carl Mueller Jr. was independently working on

reverse engineering Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompl ...

the Intellivision. With the help of Intellivision ROM dumps from Sean Kelly and then William Moeller and Scott Nudds, Mueller Jr. was able to create the first Intellivision

emulator In computing, an emulator is Computer hardware, hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run sof ...

that plays the games on a modern computer. Kelly was fortunate to have two Intellivision prototype cartridges with standard 8-bit EPROMs as opposed to the more complex memory mapped ROMs used by ordinary cartridges. Moeller and Nudds were able to dump the Intellivision embedded executive control software and graphic ROMs, as well as build a cartridge reader to dump any Intellivision cartridge. Mueller Jr.'s

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few op ...

emulator and a

emulator created by Intellivision Productions' Steve Roney would be used in the free Intellipack downloads so anyone could play select Intellivision games on their computers for the first time in 1997. The Intellivision for PC/Mac Volume 2 download, also of 1997, was the first release of ''Deep Pockets Super Pro Billiards'', the last game programmed for the Intellivision in 1990, but unreleased by INTV Corporation. They would also be used to play the original Intellivision games in the Intellivision Lives! PC/Mac CD-ROM edition released in 1998 by Intellivision Productions.

PC and Macintosh system requirements

The PC/Mac edition was produced with Macromedia Director and may not be compatible with modern operating systems. The QuickTime videos, emulators, and Intellivision ROM image files are directly accessible on the CD-ROM. The Intellivision Lives! PC/Mac v1.0 system requirements: * PC: Pentium 90 MHz, Windows 95, 8MB RAM, 8x CD-ROM, QuickTime v3.0 or better * Mac: Power Macintosh, OS7.5, 100 MHz, 16MB RAM, 8x CD-ROM, QuickTime The Intellivision Lives! PC/Mac v1.1 system requirements: * PC: Pentium 266 MHz, Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP, 32M RAM, 8X CD-ROM, 16-bit DirectX compatible sound & video cards, DirectX 7 or better, QuickTime v3.0 or better * Mac: Power Macintosh, OS 8/9/X, 120 MHz, 32M RAM, 8X CD-ROM, QuickTime Controller functions are mapped to the computer keyboard; an extended keyboard is required to access both left and right Intellivision controllers. With Macintosh, USB game controllers could be used indirectly with a joystick to keyboard mapper utility. For PC, Intellivision Productions promoted the Gravis GamePad Pro game controller (

game port The game port is a device port that was found on IBM PC compatible and other computer systems throughout the 1980s and 1990s. It was the traditional connector for joystick input, and occasionally MIDI devices, until made obsolete by USB in the ...

version). The MS-DOS emulator, directly accessible on the CD-ROM, also supported original Intellivision controllers through the INTV2PC Hand Controller Interface. INTV2PC is a parallel port adapter that accepts original Intellivision hand controllers. Although this feature is not promoted, it is documented in the ''INTVPC'' files on the CD-ROM. Modern intellivision emulators and USB controller adapters have since become available, compatible with the Intellivision Lives rom image files. To play the games using real Intellivision controllers, ''Intellivision Productions'' supported the use of a device called the ''Intellicart''. The ''Intellicart'' is a

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM most commonly refers to: * A male sheep * Random-access memory, computer memory * Ram Trucks, US, since 2009 ** List of vehicles named Dodge Ram, trucks and vans ** Ram Pickup, produced by Ram Trucks Ram, ram, or RAM may also ref ...

cartridge with an

RS-232 In telecommunications, RS-232 or Recommended Standard 232 is a standard introduced in 1960 for serial communication transmission of data. It formally defines signals connecting between a ''DTE'' (''data terminal equipment'') such as a compu ...

interface that can accept a copy of an Intellivision

ROM image A ROM image, or ROM file, is a computer file which contains a copy of the data from a read-only memory Computer chip, chip, often from a ROM cartridge, video game cartridge, or used to contain a computer's firmware, or from an arcade game's arc ...

file from a computer. Rather than play the ''Intellivision Lives!'' games via an emulator, they can be played on a real Intellivision through an ''Intellicart''. Since that time, modern Intellivision flash memory cartridges have been made which achieves the same result. In 2002, an updated Intellivision Lives! PC/Mac v1.1 was made available by ''Intellivision Productions''. Those that bought the original could upgrade for a nominal fee. It added Windows 98/ME/2000/XP support with a native Windows emulator supporting DirectX sound, video, and game controllers.

Modern video game consoles

Realtime Associates Realtime Associates, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher. The company was founded in 1986 by David Warhol and a group of ex- Mattel Electronics employees originally to create games for the Intellivision system. Since then, t ...

developed the video game console editions published by

for

(2003),

(2004), and

(2004). In these versions, the games are accessed from a 3D "overworld" set in a circa 1980s pizza parlor; an inaccurate representation as the Intellivision games were originally designed for a home console. Games were also re-organised by genres rather than the original Mattel Electronics ''Networks'' used in the PC/Mac edition. Some games require two controllers, even to play single player. In 2010, ''Virtual Play Games'' published Intellivision Lives! for the

handheld system, also developed by

. It features wireless, multiplayer support using a single game card. The ''Nintendo DSs touch screen emulates the Intellivision's 12-button keypad including an overlay image for each game. The

lacks a 16 direction pad used by some Intellivision games. This limitation was overcome, in ''Vectron'' for example, by mapping directional inputs to the touch screen. Only 10,000 copies of the

edition were ever released. The Xbox version of ''Intellivision Lives!'' is fully

forward compatible Forward compatibility or upward compatibility is a design characteristic that allows a system to accept input intended for a later version of itself. The concept can be applied to entire systems, electrical interfaces, telecommunication signal ...

with the

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...

console, and in 2008, ''Intellivision Lives!'' became available for purchase as a download through Xbox Live Game Marketplace's Xbox Originals.

Intellivision Rocks

''Intellivision Rocks'' is the PC-only sequel to the original PC version of ''Intellivision Lives!''. As with ''Intellivision Lives!'', ''Intellivision Rocks'' is a collection of games which were originally found on the

, presented in emulated form. It mainly features 3rd-party games from

and

. In addition, several unreleased games are included.

Reception

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

said that ''Intellivision Lives!'' is "still blocky after all these years, sure...but these games really need the controller." ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

'' editors said that although the controller emulation is a little hard to handle, the collection does a fine job in delivering classic Intellivision games.

References

External links

* * {{moby game, id=/intellivision-lives-, name=''Intellivision Lives!'' 1998 video games Crave Entertainment games GameCube games Intellivision Multiplayer and single-player video games Nintendo DS games PlayStation 2 games PlayStation Network games Realtime Associates games Video game compilations Video games developed in the United States Video games scored by George Sanger Windows games Xbox games Xbox Originals games Quicksilver Software games