Mattel’s Intellivision was my first ever games console (I’m not counting Pong, as it was hardly a proper console) when I bought it back in 1981 – or my parents purchased it for me, I should clarify – and I’m seriously excited about Atari resurrecting this classic piece of eighties hardware.
Yes, Atari – and if you don’t realize how odd this turn of events is, remember that this firm was Mattel’s deadly rival back at the time with the Atari 2600. So, the Atari Intellivision Sprint reboot is a bit like, say, the Nintendo Mega Drive or the Sega Entertainment System. But as Atari puts it, the two big rivals are now friends.
If the Intellivision name is lost on you – and it might well be if you weren’t around in the eighties, or don’t have an interest in gaming console history – it’s an iconic console that featured a black-and-gold finish with wood-effect trim. It also sported a pair of controllers that looked like phones – old-style landlines, that is, as the coiled cord that attached the controller to the base Intellivision unit really did look like it belonged on a telephone from the eighties.
That cord would be no good these days, of course, which is why the Intellivision Sprint – which Atari is producing in conjunction with Plaion (hat tip to The Verge) – has wireless controllers that can be docked in the base unit for charging.
Other changes Atari has made with the Sprint include the addition of an HDMI connector (naturally) and USB ports (to add extra games, via a USB stick, presumably). We aren’t told what’s under the hood, but obviously, it’ll be quite different from what Mattel crammed in there in the eighties.
What’s most striking about the Intellivision Sprint, though, is the way the looks are fantastically unapologetic to the original – and I love it for that. The other part of the equation here, of course, is the games, and as this is a celebration of the 45th anniversary of the Intellivision, you get 45 games already on board. I remember some all too well from the many days I spent (or misspent, rather) playing the console in my youth.
Tron mazes and that voice synthesis module
Yes, the controllers did take some getting used to – the Atari 2600 had a more traditional joystick, which was a better bet. But you did acclimatize to the Intellivision controllers (especially coming from a Pong ‘dial’) and they actually worked well enough (the buttons could be a little finicky, mind – hopefully something the Sprint will address).
The games library, though, was a slice of pure joy for me – granted, in some ways simply because it was a lunar leap on from Pong. But still, the Intellivision holds some of my fondest early gaming memories, and the Sprint reincarnation is bringing some of those classics back.
Tron Maze-A-Tron was one of my favorites. It was a simple maze game at heart, as the name suggested, but with tricky nuances that made it somehow strangely compelling, with its mesmerizing sound and the chilling Master Control Program hunting me down. Although maybe the competition with my dad, who was better than me at this game (somehow), was part of what kept me coming back for more.
Utopia was a strategy game that was well ahead of its time and one I absolutely loved. Another game I played to death was B-17 Bomber, where you had to run bombing missions in Europe, controlling the flight of your aircraft, aiming the bombs, and taking the gunner’s seat to shoot down attacking enemy fighters, all with the first-ever speech in a game. (You had to buy a separate voice synthesis module, Intellivoice, to get the speech, and although it was just rudimentary utterances, it amazed me.)
What people may not appreciate is how relatively weighty some of these games were for the time. They represented my very first experiences with strategy gaming. Of course, there were arcade games as well, like Tron, and sports classics too.
Utopia and B-17 Bomber are included in the games library for the Sprint. The press release doesn’t mention Tron, but we don’t get a full list. There are plenty of sports games, including the likes of Baseball, Chip Shot Super Pro Golf, Soccer, Super Pro Skiing, Tennis, and Super Pro Football.
Atari is also throwing in some “fan-favorite arcade games” aside from the original Intellivision classics, and that includes Boulder Dash (which was a much later port for the Mattel console).
The games all come with custom inlays for the controllers, and I’m seriously tempted to pull the trigger on this retro console this holiday season. The Intellivision Sprint will be up for pre-orders on October 17, coming out on December 5 in the US and Australia, and December 23 in Europe. The price is $150 in the US and £100 in the UK. (And if you were wondering about Amico – a previous take on an Intellivision remake – after a whole slew of delays, it’s unclear what’s going on with that project these days, but what I’ve read online doesn’t sound very hopeful.)
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