A History of Game Consoles, As Seen on TV 61
PC World is running a great retrospective on videogame consoles, looking all the way back to Atari's pong. The best part is, they're doing it via television ads for the systems. The article features highly entertaining blipverts for Pong, the Fairchild, the VCS, the 2600, the Intellivision, the Odyssey, Vectrex, Colecovision, the Atari 5200, and many, many more. From the article: "Gamers were tiring of PONG consoles, and Fairchild Instrument and Camera's Channel F console offered a fresh new alternative. It featured programmable 'videocarts' containing ROM chips and code, as opposed to the dedicated circuits that the Magnavox Odyssey's plug-in cards used. The cartridge concept emerged as an industry standard, and is still used in handheld gaming devices today."
PreacherTom is an Astroturfer (Score:3, Informative)
Spread the word, perhaps?
PCWorld for the win! (Score:5, Informative)
The Intellivision wasn't lacking third party titles. Everyone from Activision, to IMagic, to Atari (!) released games for the system. You can see a full list of games over on IntellivisionLives [intellivisionlives.com].
While Intellivision focused more on thinking games rather than arcade action*, it was pretty much successful right up until the Video Game Crash of '83/84. At that point, Mattel Electronics died, but the Intellivision lived on as part of the newly formed INTV Corp. Some of the best games were produced under INTV (Diner, Thin Ice, Thunder Castle, Hover Force, etc.), and they didn't close their doors until 1991. (IIRC)
Except for the fact that Donkey Kong was on the wrong side of the screen.
Suprisingly, not that many players noticed this little gaff.
Not entirely true. It was released in Europe as the Phillips Videopac+. It took collectors a while to realize that the Videopac+ (O^3) was different than the Videopac (O^2), and that the new console had actually been released. Albeit in small quantities. Of course, the extra hardware enhancements the article talks about (like the modem) were not in the European release.
* Don't get me wrong. The Intellivision had some great action games. Dreadnaught Factor is one of my favorites, as is Space Spartans.
Re:The best part... (Score:2, Informative)
We want to see the vids, not RTFA :) (Score:5, Informative)
pong : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X53eJ8AWQ9Y [youtube.com]
fairchild : http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-763921347 2647728205&sourceid=docidfeed&hl=en [google.com]
vcs :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU3gHAGbi0Q [youtube.com]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_XrIx2eUGc [youtube.com]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lROb1vWNiig [youtube.com]
Magnavox Odyssey 2 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oG1TlryN88 [youtube.com]
Mattel Intellivision : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXet1I2TuXE [youtube.com]
Vectrex : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1KQ4i5oRrM [youtube.com]
ColecoVision : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GpptJusOjM [youtube.com]
and Expansion Module for Atari 2600 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6T7755ux2M [youtube.com]
Atari 5200 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAlmxV8e7tE [youtube.com]
Odyssey 3 Command Center (never released) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lv1a9U-6rJQ [youtube.com]
Sega Game-1000 Mk II : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iImQcL5Vs-g [youtube.com]
NES $250 deluxe set : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cssV9F6JhbE [youtube.com]
NES power glove : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93iDhnBcMGo [youtube.com]
NES power pad : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzH732OFTqg [youtube.com]
"NES rap" : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuHOCyJWFDE [youtube.com]
Sega Master System : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLEeoOaze_A [youtube.com]
Atari 7800 Pro System : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A46SSY9q3n8 [youtube.com]
Atari 2600 Jr : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_nOWJd4H_A [youtube.com]
NEC TurboGrafx-16 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmR1xJAho_c [youtube.com]
Sega Genesis : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUtIWT7CLTw [youtube.com]
Sega Genesis : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOM01F4Ihcc [youtube.com]
Sega Genesis : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWZARgoipGw [youtube.com]
Neo Geo : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ0aEjlTYms [youtube.com]
SNES : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKPZNHUlSHA [youtube.com]
SNES : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRjVXIWZfeM [youtube.com]
Philips CD-I : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ROwwU29xCw [youtube.com]
TTi TurboDuo : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEvzN5YcR80 [youtube.com]
Amiga CD32 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMd5lMV4uFI [youtube.com]
3DO : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTRqsS-ftgQ [youtube.com]
Jaguar : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQaro-yjBqI [youtube.com]
Saturn : http://ww [youtube.com]
PS3 over priced?! (Score:3, Informative)
In constant dollars.
It would've cost as much as a high end ps3.
The Fairchild didn't even support BluRay!
Re:Remember This Atari Game? (Score:4, Informative)