Intellivision Flashback

[Hoopz]

Hadn't seen this before.



and

http://intellivisionlives.com/

Good to see a console out with a reset button so you can hit it when the other player is winning....   

60-1 with "original" controllers.  I'll get one and will be curious to see how they compare to the originals.  I have a working console hooked up now along with a Shiny Technology Classic Gaming Controller.  If the controllers are close to the originals, it's probably a good value.  If not, meh...  It'll be interesting to see if the USB controllers can be used on a PC w/ Nostalgia.

[pbj]

There are a lot of obese kids in that commercial

[Hoopz]

I noticed that also.  Clearly made recently as opposed to footage from 30+ years ago.

[wp34]

I may be in for one of these depending on the price.  Hooking mine up is a PITA.

It looks like it comes with the non-branded versions of football and baseball.  I wonder if these are the 1 player versions?

[97thruhiker]

Would be interested in picking this up as well - first console my parents bought me.  Remember the night my parents brought it home, I must of stayed up to 2-3 in the morning playing auto racing thinking it was the greatest thing ever.  Many afternoons playing that baseball game as well . . .

[ahofle]

Someone please take one for the team and review this.  Intellivision emulation is pretty poor compared to other consoles and this controller is hard to replace.  I'm especially curious if the sounds are accurate -- many emulators sound terrible compared to the original.

[Hoopz]

I'll buy it and post a review.  I'll cover the feel of the controllers, sound, overlays, video etc.  If someone has specific requests, just let me know.

I'm almost certain that the MLB game was the two player version.  You can see the center fielder get selected after the short stop so it was someone who wasn't familiar with the keypad.  I guess the computer could be playing the batter though.  But none of those actors held the controller the right way. 

[DaveMMR]

They also just came out with the Colecovision one.  I think both of these have some homebrew games added to the list. So they're worth it even just to have those.

[BadMouth]

http://www.coleco.vision/

[mgb]

Wow,
 after watching that ad, I want to hug my family and tell them it will be alright.

I would like to check out both the intelivision and coleco units though.

[popsicle]

Ok, I bought one of these last night at ToysRUs.  There were only four of them, and when scanned the date said 0/0/00 so the guy had to call his manager over. She said the actual release date wasn't for another few days but they rang me up anyway (muttered something about they'll have to keep the other three for promotional something or other?).

Anyway, the controllers are the main reason to get this.  They feel very similar to the originals but have softer side buttons and I think the disc might be a *bit* smaller?   The keypad feels great, and they plug in to the front.  Yellow and white RCA style cables are hardwired into the back, and the whole thing is small, light, and cute.

The included Baseball game can be 1 or 2 players, and this game and a handful of others include overlays.  It's missing the TRON games and Burgertime, but most of the favorites are there.  I look forward to teaching one of my kids how to play Sea Battle 

I'm going to find dig out my old system today to see how the old overlays fit.

[SavannahLion]

Not sure if it was ever a cool "feature" or not but the 2600 Flashback PCB had space to solder on a 2600 cart slot. Of course, one had to sacrifice a 2600 to do so.....

But I digress, did they do the same with this one?

[PL1]

Not sure if it was ever a cool "feature" or not but the 2600 Flashback PCB had space to solder on a 2600 cart slot. Of course, one had to sacrifice a 2600 to do so.....

Not necessarily.   

Best Electronics carries the "Atari 2600A Black Cartridge guide and 24 pin cartridge connector CO15573A" for $10.


Scott

[nitrogen_widget]

jeez,
Remember playing one of these with my cousin.
He was the "rich kid" of the family cause everyone else only had a 2600. 

[SavannahLion]

Not sure if it was ever a cool "feature" or not but the 2600 Flashback PCB had space to solder on a 2600 cart slot. Of course, one had to sacrifice a 2600 to do so.....

Not necessarily.   

Best Electronics carries the "Atari 2600A Black Cartridge guide and 24 pin cartridge connector CO15573A" for $10.


Scott

That's new news to me.

Hopefully not as crappy as the NES version 

Would be nice if they have the CO10813 left

[popsicle]

jeez,
Remember playing one of these with my cousin.
He was the "rich kid" of the family cause everyone else only had a 2600. 

Funny you said that, because all of my friends had a 2600 for a couple of years before my uncle bought my Intellivision.  Mattel had a special promotion where you would buy a game and get one free via mail (one per household).  He bought like ten cartridges on sale over a period of time and put down his address, my address, his neighbor's address... I would get a game in the mail each month or two for a while.  Good times! 

Come to think of it, the promotion may have been Kay-bee toy store?

[DaveMMR]

Not sure if it was ever a cool "feature" or not but the 2600 Flashback PCB had space to solder on a 2600 cart slot. Of course, one had to sacrifice a 2600 to do so.....

But I digress, did they do the same with this one?

I think only Flashback 2 had the ability to be "hacked" to become a fully functional VCS. It's all off-the-shelf parts (just like a real 2600.)   
http://www.atarimuseum.com/fb2hacks/

[popsicle]

Games play as I remember, but there seem to be sound effects that are different/missing.  For instance, the standard 'raspberry' sound you get when you hit a wrong key sounds weird, the missile that blows up the Earth in Star Strike is silent, the 'engage' alarm sound in Sea Battle is missing, and other little things like the crowd noises in baseball seem off.  I seem to remember playing games in Nostalgia that sounded identical, so sound emulation can't be the issue right?  There is only a single white RCA jack for audio.  I tried adjusting my tv for mono sound but it made no difference.

It is nice that 1+9 (or 3+7) still pause the games.  Other games missing - Skiing, Lock n Chase, and the Imagic titles of course.  I was rummaging through my old Intellivision box to find overlays and ran across those oversized Imagic instruction manuals.  The artwork in those were really cool!

[nitrogen_widget]

Some of my favorite games from that era were by imagic.

[mgb]

jeez,
Remember playing one of these with my cousin.
He was the "rich kid" of the family cause everyone else only had a 2600. 

All my friends had 2600s, colecovisions or computers. My dad got us an intellivision one Christmas (1982 or 83) and we loved it for a couple of hours until my sisters dropped it and it stopped working.
It was probably something simple but my dad never fixed it or replaced it.
I would then just go back to getting my game fixes at the local stores and arcades and especially at my friends house on his Atari 2600 & C64.
I then waited until 1987 to finally get a 2600 jr before going on to the NES and later, Sega Genesis.
       I truthfully can't remember ever playing the Intellivision besides that one Christmas day. 

[fwiler]

I remember being jealous of anyone that had one because of the superior graphics over my 2600.

[popsicle]

Tower of Doom seems broken, which is a shame because I was looking forward to learning this one.  It just wont go into melee mode when running over a monster.   

Treasure of Tarmin is probably my favorite game on the system, and it's on the flashback as Minotaur.  The Cloudy Mountain D&D game is here too, but called Crown of Kings.   

My kids LOVE this thing, and now want to play Shark Shark, Snafu, and World Series Baseball instead of Minecraft   

I dug out my old system, which after canned air and rubbing alcohol q-tips on cartridge contacts still works, and played a round of Microsurgeon with my 7 year old son.  I moved and he shot stuff.  He was absolutely delighted when I told him we were going to exit the guy through his butt.  We made $57,000.

[Generic Eric]

He was absolutely delighted when I told him we were going to exit the guy through his butt.  We made $57,000.

Isn't that what everyone does on a Thursday night?

[nitrogen_widget]

Better out than in as shreck always says.

[Hoopz]

Tower of Doom seems broken, which is a shame because I was looking forward to learning this one.  It just wont go into melee mode when running over a monster.   

Treasure of Tarmin is probably my favorite game on the system, and it's on the flashback as Minotaur.  The Cloudy Mountain D&D game is here too, but called Crown of Kings.   

My kids LOVE this thing, and now want to play Shark Shark, Snafu, and World Series Baseball instead of Minecraft   

I dug out my old system, which after canned air and rubbing alcohol q-tips on cartridge contacts still works, and played a round of Microsurgeon with my 7 year old son.  I moved and he shot stuff.  He was absolutely delighted when I told him we were going to exit the guy through his butt.  We made $57,000.

How does the disc feel compared to the original?

The one key trick in Treasure of Tarmin is that the ladder to the next level is almost always straight in front of you when you enter a new level.  Not always but more than 50% of the time.  Sometimes ya have to go around walls that don't have doors in them but it's a great trick.  Loved that game and still play it whenever I get on the Intellivision. 

I never cared for having the overlays in.  I wanted to feel the bubble on the buttons instead of the plastic.  I played enough that I still have muscle memory for most of the games.  Treas of Tarmin used all the buttons for different things and I still can go through them pretty quickly.  I may add that to my resume....   

[DaveMMR]

I never cared for having the overlays in.  I wanted to feel the bubble on the buttons instead of the plastic.  I played enough that I still have muscle memory for most of the games.  Treas of Tarmin used all the buttons for different things and I still can go through them pretty quickly.  I may add that to my resume....   

I'm a "Johnny-Come-Lately" when it comes to the Intellivision but I've noticed like 90% of those overlays, while cool, are completely pointless.  However, it did seem to keep those boxes from being tossed since it helped owners keep them and the cart together in one place.  (I find more boxed copies of INTV games than loose.)

[Hoopz]

I never cared for having the overlays in.  I wanted to feel the bubble on the buttons instead of the plastic.  I played enough that I still have muscle memory for most of the games.  Treas of Tarmin used all the buttons for different things and I still can go through them pretty quickly.  I may add that to my resume....   

I'm a "Johnny-Come-Lately" when it comes to the Intellivision but I've noticed like 90% of those overlays, while cool, are completely pointless.  However, it did seem to keep those boxes from being tossed since it helped owners keep them and the cart together in one place.  (I find more boxed copies of INTV games than loose.)

It depended on the game but a lot of games didn't need them.  Skiing, Lock N Chase, BurgerTime, Bump N Jump etc basically just used the side buttons during gameplay so once you could recall that you jumped or flipped out pepper with any side button, you didn't need them.  A lot of the sports games were more in depth so you "needed" them until you could remember what button was what fielder, how to set your lineup in football, where to pass basketball etc.  D&D games, Swords & Serpents, Sea Battle etc were more complex but after playing a few games, you knew them too.

[popsicle]

I don't use the overlays for Baseball, Sea Battle, or Treasure of Tarmin either (memorized and like the tactile feel of the bubble buttons too) but they sure do help when you are new to the game.  I still have to use the Space Spartans one to play correctly.  Also, the overlays are just damn cool.

Tarmin is hard when you skip levels too fast.. need to build up your health from encounters!

The disc is the same size (I was mistaken when I thought they were smaller) and feel just like the originals, with the little clicky springy sound when you release it quickly. 

[yotsuya]

He was absolutely delighted when I told him we were going to exit the guy through his butt.  We made $57,000.

Isn't that what everyone does on a Thursday night?

Sounds like a Bachelor Party Weekend hosted by Pinball Jim! 

[yotsuya]

I've never played on an Intellivision before. Everyone I knew owned an Atari.

[kixfan]

I am very interested in the Colecovision for sure.   I have to share my Intellivision story.   In the early 90's I stopped at a garage sale and saw a box with an Intellivision 2 with about 20 cartridges.    It had no price, so I asked what they wanted, he replied 1 dollar.    My best console score ever.   Burgertime was my favorite Intellivision game.

[clok]

NO DISC of Tron, that's almost a deal breaker for me. Loved that game, Killing the Orange guys with the Light sticks, Killing recognizes. The Imagic ones (as somebody mentioned) are tough too. Swords and Serpents was very deep game for the systems back then. I see its on AMAZON but almost $70, to much for me.

[Hoopz]

NO DISC of Tron, that's almost a deal breaker for me. Loved that game, Killing the Orange guys with the Light sticks, Killing recognizes. The Imagic ones (as somebody mentioned) are tough too. Swords and Serpents was very deep game for the systems back then. I see its on AMAZON but almost $70, to much for me.

The pain in the ass thing about Swords and Serpents is that you needed two players to win.  I spent a lot of time playing that game.

[ahofle]

Picked up one of these for Xmas from Dollar General (they were half off at $20!).  The Dollar General version has a 61st game too, the original 2 player baseball game.  I must say this controller is 10 times better than I expected.  Sounds are off in some games as noted, but much better than I expected.  The controllers appear to have the atari 2600 joystick pinout.  So the question is, is there a way to plug this into a PC to get the best of both worlds (superior emulation with a proper controller)?

[PL1]

The controllers appear to have the atari 2600 joystick pinout.  So the question is, is there a way to plug this into a PC to get the best of both worlds (superior emulation with a proper controller)?

Maybe after the KADE miniConsole+ Kickstarter Jon will add the Intellivision 2 controller.   

Hey! I'm not seeing any Intellivision 2 controller in that image! 

There are WAY more inputs and outputs than are represented in the sketch.  In the case of the Intellivision 2 controller, it is NOT covered.

As well as plug and play support for popular controllers we could introduce fixed support for others like this by creating custom firmware if we feel that it will improve the product.  The original KADE miniArcade device was extended massively after our kickstarter based on feedback and feature requests from the community.

Scott

[pbj]

Picked up one of these for Xmas from Dollar General (they were half off at $20!).  The Dollar General version has a 61st game too, the original 2 player baseball game.  I must say this controller is 10 times better than I expected.  Sounds are off in some games as noted, but much better than I expected.  The controllers appear to have the atari 2600 joystick pinout.  So the question is, is there a way to plug this into a PC to get the best of both worlds (superior emulation with a proper controller)?

Which dollar general location?  Did they have more?

[keilmillerjr]

Picked up one of these for Xmas from Dollar General (they were half off at $20!).  The Dollar General version has a 61st game too, the original 2 player baseball game.  I must say this controller is 10 times better than I expected.  Sounds are off in some games as noted, but much better than I expected.  The controllers appear to have the atari 2600 joystick pinout.  So the question is, is there a way to plug this into a PC to get the best of both worlds (superior emulation with a proper controller)?

Which dollar general location?  Did they have more?

They were $20 at the dollar general near my house a few weeks ago. Brand new store. It used to be an airport. That awesome strip of pavement went to lame golf, storage units, etc. The location is rt138 Griswold CT

[nexusmtz]

Which dollar general location?  Did they have more?

On Monday, the Manchester, CT location had none. On Tuesday, the East Hartford, CT store had one Intellivision, two Colecovision, and an Atari. They weren't marked on sale in the store, but the Intellivision and Colecovision price-checked to $20. The Atari was full price ($40, as it was on the web) so I passed on that one.

I had forgotten how awkward those controllers are. Both controllers seemed responsive, but my hands don't reshape themselves to rectangles as easily as they once did. It was nice to play some of the old games, but I wish the Colecovision had more of the titles that my real system has.

[ahofle]

Which dollar general location?  Did they have more?

Actually, it was on their website.  Looks like they are back up to $40 now. 
http://www.dollargeneral.com/product/index.jsp?productId=43753786

EDIT: strange, there is still a 50% off label right next to it, but when you add it to the cart, it shows up as $40.

[knightrdrx]

No ADD Cloudy Mountain. No sale.
I'll stick with my original.  Anyone ever play 99 games of Snafu?  My friend and I recently did and it ended in a tie.

Actually I just read it's under another name.  I guess if mine breaks I'd consider getting it for the easy of connections just as long as the game control is just as aggrivating.  You want to throw the controller when the dragon turns you into a pulp.

[Macace911]

Picked up one of these for Xmas from Dollar General (they were half off at $20!).  The Dollar General version has a 61st game too, the original 2 player baseball game.  I must say this controller is 10 times better than I expected.  Sounds are off in some games as noted, but much better than I expected.  The controllers appear to have the atari 2600 joystick pinout.  So the question is, is there a way to plug this into a PC to get the best of both worlds (superior emulation with a proper controller)?

You can plug the controllers in to your PC and use an emulator. You can get the adapter here. http://www.intellivision.us/intvgames/interface/interface.php

[ahofle]

Thanks, I may give that a try.  Hopefully the intv flashback controller works with it -- looks like the Coleco Flashback controllers work too.

[deadmoney5]

I got this for Christmas as well...The controllers seem the same to me.  Sucks that they didn't include all of the overlays, but you can purchase them on their site if you really want.

I like how you can also go to their website to read the actual manuals.  They have pdfs of all of the manuals and overlays.

Haven't played a whole bunch, but I did play a game of Astrosmash and Bomb Squad (with voice).

Definitely a cool gift for sure.  i hadn't played these games in 30 years.

[ahofle]

FYI Sam's club has both the Intellivision and ColecoVision Flashback on sale for just under $20.  I just picked up the coleco...the controller is equally amazing.  It's too bad the only way to interface these to PC is with a $60 eyesore of an adapter!

[jaharr01]

There are a lot of obese kids in that commercial

Yeah but the real fat kid eating the cereal, I think is the guy later with with the hot wife and the long hair. See it just goes to show you that even fat kids can grow up and have hot a --I'm attempting to get by the auto-censor and should be beaten after I re-read the rules-- wife.

[wp34]

FYI Sam's club has both the Intellivision and ColecoVision Flashback on sale for just under $20.  I just picked up the coleco...the controller is equally amazing.  It's too bad the only way to interface these to PC is with a $60 eyesore of an adapter!

Thanks.   

[Loafmeister]

Are these not available on Sam's Club website?  I can not find any results searching for Flashback or Coleco, etc.  In store only?

Note:  I'm Canadian, I don't think we have these stores up here in igloo land, therefore why I'm searching online.