Atari just revealed the Intellivision Spirit, a modern refresh of the classic Intellivision gaming console from 1980. The new console certainly looks like the original. You can practically smell the cigarette-soaked carpeting from here.
Beyond aesthetics, this console includes plenty of newfangled bells and whistles. The controllers are wireless, which is a technology that didn't quite exist in the 1980s, and it connects to TVs via HDMI.
It also includes 45 built-in games, reminding me of stuff like the NES Classic and the Atari 2600+. The library includes plenty of sports and strategy titles, because those genres were considered the console's biggest strength way back when. Other games include the puzzler Boulder Dash and a riff on Space Invaders called Space Armada. Each title comes with a unique overlay that gets placed on the gamepad, showing off the controls.
This is an interesting bit of tech because Intellivision was once Atari's greatest rival, which was sort of like a proto-version of the classic Nintendo/Sega rivalry. Atari actually bought Intellivision last year, officially putting the decades-long struggle to bed.
The Intellivision Spirit costs $150. Preorders are available right now and shipments start going out on December 5. It's good to know that this thing isn't vaporware, like Intellivision's long-gestating Amico console.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/atari-just-announced-the-intellivision-spirit-a-revamp-of-the-iconic-1980s-gaming-console-163210832.html?src=rss
