Intellivision

"Intelligent television."

Ahhh, the Intellivision. It may have been made simply to compete with the growing interest in the Atari 2600, but the Intellivision has a charm all it's own. There were tons of good games for the Intellivision, and while the infamous 'phone like' control pad may put off a lot of retro gamers, it's still a good system, with some great games, and a few interesting facts. For one, it's technically the first 16-bit system... as the registers in the microprocessor are 16 bits wide. But more interestingly, it was the first system with downloadable games, with the PlayCable service. The games disappeared when you turned the system off, but hey, it's still pretty neat. And let's not forget the IntelliVoice module, so now robotic voices can haunt your dreams from when you were playing your INTV. But seriously, the system gets a lot of undeserved flak, so enjoy what it is and was.

Note: A LOT of good Intellivision games are available on the Intellivision Lives! collections, which are available for PC, PS2, Gamecube, Xbox, and Nintendo DS. Also, if you're going to get an actual Intellivision, I would try to get the second model, with detachable controllers and the option of an Atari converter but beware that the AC adapter is very hard to find.

The list

Box Art	Title	Genre	Description	Screenshot
	Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Cloudy Mountain	Adventure/RPG	This game captures the spirit of a Dungeons & Dragons adventure quite well, considering it's limitations. Exploration and combat are about as seamless as you can get on an Intellivision game, it's actually quite surprising how good this is. The graphics, however, are a drawback; of course, simple graphics are to be expected, but some enemies can look confusing. Note: Early copies of the game did not contain the subtitle, as seen on the box-art to the left.
	Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin	RPG	This Dungeons & Dragons game takes a slightly more in depth approach, becoming a full blown first person dungeon crawler RPG. The graphics for the enemies are good, although the dungeon itself is a bit bland visually, which can make the game a bit tedious. Still, if you're a fan of first person dungeon crawlers, you'll like this D&D outing for the Intellivison.
	Astrosmash	Arcade/Shmup	Plays like Space Invaders, but has an objective like Asteroids. By this, I mean you shoot missiles upward on the screeb at falling targets, which are asteroids, as they descend. When you hit them, however, the break into two smaller asteroids, so you gotta be on your feet. Very fun game, usually one of the top Intellivision recommendations. Notable for being the Intellivision's highest selling game. Also released (with far worse graphics) on the 2600 as "Astroblast".
	Atlantis	Defense	Probably the best home console version of the original Atlantis... protect the ancient underwater city with missiles and shit.
	Beauty and the Beast	Arcade	No, this is not about the Disney movie... that came way after. This is almost a Donkey Kong clone, but it spices stuff up a bit.
	Body Slam: Super Pro Wrestling	Sports/Fighting	A pretty awesome wrestling game for the Intelli, despite how gay the cover is. Decent character roster of 12 wrestlers to choose from.
	Bump 'n Jump	Racing	[description goes here]
	Burgertime	Puzzle	It's fucking Burgertime. If you've never played it, it's a fun, fairly fast paced puzzle game where you're a chef making GIANT CHEESEBURGERS. Way better than the 2600 port!
	Demon Attack	Shmup/Arcade	Fucking awesome early shmup, similar but not exactly like Space Invaders. Shoot motherfuckers down in space and be awesome.
	Dig Dug	Arcade	A pretty solid port of the original Dig Dug. You know what to do, dig holes, blow up enemies with pumps.
	Donkey Kong JR.	Arcade/Platformer	No, this port isn't as good as the NES one, but it's much better than the alternatives (except for the actual arcade, obviously). Fun game where you play as little DK saving big DK after Mario kidnapped him (hey Mario, two fucking wrongs don't make a right, you guido). To do this you gotta climb vines like fuckin' Tarzan and avoid obstacles.
	Pac-Man	Arcade	Unlike the abysmal Atari 2600 version, this port of Pac-Man was actually handled extremely well, and was the best version of Pac-Man available at the time.
	Pinball	Pinball	Fucking awesome Pinball game. There's no theme, but this game gets really addictive. Highly enjoyable.
	Pitfall	Platformer	Yes, it's the famous 2600 game... for the Intellivision! This is probably the most classic adventure platformer in existence. Watch out for those goddamn crocodiles! Quality is on par.
	Shark! Shark!	Puzzle	People have been copying this game forever. You're a small fish, you gotta eat smaller fish so you can grow bigger, and eat bigger fish, while not getting eaten yourself. Once in a while a Shark pops up, wreck his shit by avoiding him and biting his tail, he'll go down like a pussy, and you'll feel like a king. Fucking awesome game.
	Thunder Castle	Action/Adventure	Awesome action adventure game set in a mze. You're a manly-ass fucking knight who's out to kill some motherfuckers. Kill enough monsters in each level to progress to the next one, and make sure to be THE BEST AROUND. Speaking of which, this game is not for the casual, this is a tough motherfucker.
	Tower of Doom	Action/RPG	It's pretty obvious this was meant to be a Dungeons & Dragons title, but what I think happened was that Mattel lost the license to produce AD&D games during this game's production, so they just dropped that part of the title. Pretty much combines the two AD&D titles on this list, by having a dungeon with levels like Treasure of Tarmin, but gameplay more akin to Cloudy Mountain. Has lots of items to collect, and LOTS of Dungeon levels (over 32?). Very fun!
	Tron Deadly Discs	Arcade	The only good TRON game for the Intellivision. I mean it. Stay away from the other two, but this one is awesome. It's kind of like Pong but manly and scifi.

Videos

20 Games That Defined the Intellivision