thrax

Sword and Serpents. Great top view RPG game that was exceptional when playing with 2 players as the 2nd person can be a wizard with each button on the keypad representing a spell that could be cast. Dracula and Microsurgeon were top on my list too since they were also very innovative. Imagic had a habit of making the intellivision look good!

That's a very good price for the system. Sometimes when someone requests things on CL they charge higher since the poster obviously wants it. So 60 for a full system less a keyboard with some well cared software is a good deal.

If the ST was ever reviewed in Byte magazine then it would probably have a MIPS rating as well as numerous other tests. I had a quite a few issues of Byte and they always did extensive testing on systems but i don't recall any of mine having Atari STs.

Sports was one area intellivision did well in. Obviously not being into sports games would of hurt your view of the system but intellivision also had above average RPG games as well as good non-sport 2 player games. Also if the controller was a problem maybe emulation might work good for you since you are not in a console buying mode anyway.

That does look like him! See, intellivision can predict the future!

thanks for the info, i never knew there were 2 kinds of steering for auto racing. I always had the "relative" to car steering which i thought was natural for the controller's disk. I'll be prepared now if i ever play the other version!

Ours came with the Poker game but when new we got Space Armada and Lock N Chase.

You pretty well have to use the items efficiently is what i remember. Otherwise you get into those circular patterns you mentioned. I also remember if you use the item to energize yourself and get the enemy near where they generate you might get a 2-for-1. At least try to make it to the skull level (3rd screen). That screen look really cool.

I agree. Star Strike had a similar effect too.

When i was shopping for a computer during the 16 bit era i looked at the ST, Mac and IIGS. The ST had a low initial cost and the apple computers had both sale prices and hefty educational discounts which made the amiga look like the expensive choice. I liked the Atari because during the initial start of the atari/amiga computers there was VERY LITTLE software available and the Atari st had the mac emulator which ran major software packages well. THe local dealer let me try some mac software packages on it and it was really awesome with the Atari's larger resolution. This was a great for those willing to wait for later software packages for the ST. The dealer also told me that lots of computer labs (like DTP houses ) were buying a couple of STs with mac emulators to add seats to their mac labs without paying the higher (undiscounted) price of the macs. I never liked the amiga's GUI it seemed kinda crude to me and the a1000s very high price didn't help much either. Educational discounts from commodore came way to late. IIRC the amiga had low memory on the cpu, something like 256K which was a turn off too. In the end i got the mac because a big sale came and coupled with the educational discount it wasn't much more than an ST. If i wasn't a student (hence no edu discount) i definitely would of got the ST. So to answer the title of the thread i would pick ST over Amiga.

I remember those too. Indian jones getting hit by Daleks. We always thought the photo of the Dungeons/Dragons one was a release that never became public as kids but realistically they probably mocked something up to be in time for the catalog.

Now we can be sure not to miss any future threads.

The IIGS was great for people coming from an apple ii already because it worked will all sorts of peripherals. You could use the newer peripherals because it had the latest ports like adb but could also use older peripherals because many were card based. On top of that the GS was backward compatible with tons of software, not just games. I mean the apple ii series was the workhorse computer with even industrial applications. I've worked in manufacturing where apple IIs were connected to testing equipment. The ST had the powerful 68K class of processor but it suffered from a smaller library of software when it first came out. Too bad the internal politics of apple worked against the GS because it did have some cool features. Even so the computer seemed under appreciated as many stated here already. I looked at the IIGS, the mac PLUS and the atari ST at the time. In the end i picked the mac plus because i heard the rumors about the cancellation of the II line and i was getting into DTP back then and the mac was the only way to go then. As for pricing hte apple systems were not as expensive as people say because they had both sale prices and educational discounts. I got a double discount of a big sale and educational discount which put the price closer to the ST. The same double discount would of applied to a GS as well.

I liked it too and for many games i can't imagine a joystick being better. Case in point, Auto Racing. Controlling the top view of the car seemed very natural with the disk. Games where you had to fire repeatedly with the side buttons like say Space Armada could get uncomfortable for extended periods but these types of games were not what people bought intellivision for. There were games where whole keypads were used for complicated gameplay which made for awesome sports, RPG and 2 player games. Look at Sword and Serpants. It would be difficult to go throw all those spells and functions without a sophisticated controller.

Well said. I've played that game most of my life and it is still rewarding completing the game, especially the harder levels. Spot on about arrow management. I find to win the harder levels you have to go to many many Grey mountains and stock up on arrows. This way you can "test fire" arrows into dark areas where there is likely a hard enemy like a dragon. That technique you mentioned about using two controllers to fire and shoot simutaneously is useful for Tron DD and night stalker too. What i did as a kid was to tape one controller below the other with the disc of the lower one hanging below. This way you could easily use the disc and buttons of the two controllers while still making it feel like a regular controller.

That's true, for example comparing a modern 1st person shooter with a 10+ year old games looks like a much larger jump in technological advancement than comparing space simulators.

I owned a couple of those series of games for the PC but i haven't tried putting it on a newer OS like XP. Only problem i remember personally was one of my joysticks didn't work with the game. As for the unlimited weapons, IIRC x-wing alliance (maybe others though) had a screen where you can toggle settings like unlimited missiles. THis was good because you can practice fighting in skirmishes that can be useful later in the game. For example you can practice firing hte heavier missiles at star destroyers to see who you can take one out.

I always remember in the old days the common question of "what magazines do you read". This way they would know where to advertise. In modern times i don't fill out the warranty stuff unless it is a really expensive item because it is inevitable to me that this info will reach telemarketers or worse.

In Ultima II from the early 80s you can offer money to someone in a pub and it may (or may not) raise and attribute so if you are patient enough you can max out the important stats. Strength and Agility were the two needed to use the more powerful weapons and armor.

Very cool game, had it for my Mac Plus. It also had a code wheel.

This would fall more under "unfinished" rather than bug since the game itself didn't crash. In Sword & Serpents there was no end to the game. You work hard to get to the dragon and there is nothing to do. IIRC they ran out of time making the game. For any modern game, i.e. made in the last 10 years, for the PC i pretty well get a patch for it without thinking. I think that's a given these days.

THis is where intellivision was great. B-17 bomber. You could divi up the responsibilities as you flew your missions. Sword and Serpents. Was awesome with the second player because they would be the mage and have all those spells. Even some games where it was a single player, for variety you can have 1 person move while the other person shoots. THis was doable in Microsurgeon, Night stalker, Tron Deadly disks and probably others. This was possible because both controllers took in inputs for that same single player. Utopia. Although technically you are competing with the other island for high score, you could of cooperated on keeping pirates at bay.

None of the classic game systems (gen 1) were really durable but the intellivision fold out boxes made people keep them like books in a bookshelf. For classic computer gaming I would say hands down to Infocom which had highly innovative and unique themed boxes for each game with lots of goodies inside.

Apple II: Transylvania Intellivision: Dracula Classic Mac and other 16 bit platforms: Dark Castle

Not just classic Games but classic everything. I own a NeXT computer and our forum notice lots of people unloading their stuff. SO even vintage "high end" stuff is depreciated.