The town where I spent my high school years (1981-1986) was small and somewhat remote. There were no stores selling computers or video games in town. The nearest electronics store, such as Tandy (aka RadioShack) or Dick Smith Electronics, was a couple of hours drive away. As such, my friends and I had limited access to these cool toys. In fact, I can count on the fingers of both hands the number of people I knew who had either a computer or video game – I had a Vic 20; my brother’s ids had an Atari 2600; my best friend had a Commodore 64; a family friend had a Vic 20, Commodore 64, Philips VideoPac and one other game system I cant recall; the town doctor had a Dick Smith VZ-200 and later a Macintosh; another family friend had an Atari 800XL; another had a Coleco Adam; and there were a further couple of systems I had a chance to play with. So in some respects, I was lucky enough to be able to experience a number of different systems, but compared to some people who grew up in the same era, my access was somewhat limited. For example, I never got to use the Sinclair Spectrum, the BBC, Oric, Tandy TRS80 or the CoCo, nor did I get to play with the Arcadia 2001, Fairchild Channel F, Bally Astrocade, Nintendo NES, Interton VC 4000, or the Intellivision.
In recent years, thanks to eBay I have been able to acquire some of these systems which were so influential on home computer and video game development. Many of the early game systems in particular can be found very cheaply – in fact I have a HUGE collection of Hanimex/Radofin/Acetronic systems and their variants (aka 1292 Advanced Programmable Video System) which sell for as little as $5. Some systems however attract premium prices, among them the Dick Smith Wizzard (aka Creativision) and the Intellivison. (Although a few Intellivisions have been popping up lately and prices appear to be coming down.)
While emulation remains an option for some, another alternative can be found in the emerging “all-in-one joystick” market. These devices are not much bigger than typical joysticks and plug directly into your television, allowing you to play a number of classic games that you might not otherwise have access to. The variety of these devices is astounding – several based on the Atari 2600, a couple of Commodore 64 collections, a variety of arcade conversions (such as Jakks TV’s Namco series) and a couple of Intellivision models.
A few weeks ago I won an auction for an Intellivision 25 Direct to TV system for $9. Never having played any Intellivision games before, I was interested to see what they were like. I can’t speak for how representative this sampling of games is, so I will leave a review for a later post, but my initial reactions are reservedly positive. Compared to the Atari 2600, the graphics are definitely more detailed yet the gameplay is somewhat lacking. There appears to be a few bugs in the model I have, with some games resetting for no apparent reason and some of the games seem to be unfinished – for example, Motocross only has a single level/course which just doesn’t give the game any real replay value.
Overall, the Intellivision 25 is a neat little pick-up. I may start looking for other all-in-one joystick games to add to my collection even though my first preference is and always will be for the real hardware.
Have you had any experience with an all-in-one joystick? If so, leave a comment and share your stories.
