didimo63

I've been living in St. Louis (Central West End) for the past 14 years, and I've never ever been to the north side. I was pretty much told to stay away from some of the areas north of Delmar. The few safer areas I visited truly had nothing, really. Well, except for the Mills outlet mall, which is located in a safe area anyways.

So that's what's different! I actually felt that Cosmic Avenger played somewhat better, but I just could not quite put my finger on it. I'll have to test the two side by side, the original CV and this unit. That said, the new button placement in CA makes so much more sense, in my view. More "natural".

I understand. Thank you for taking the time to explain. That said, my inner child is still very, very happy he found them .

I posted a quick review of both the Intellivision and the Colecovision units on the forum posts devoted to them. To summarize my thoughts, these are excellent products. GREAT joypads / joysticks, just like the original, yet improved in terms of mechanics / responsiveness. Accurate emulation, running the original roms (I initially wrote 100% accurate emulation, but I genuinely would not know for sure. Let's put it this way: I have the original machines and games, and I don't see differences). I have not unpacked my Atari 5 yet. I will let you know asap [first day of classes today, and I'm a college prof, sigh ].

Great question, and definitely one I had in mind. Clearly, these items were supposed to go on sale in August. While my February "sighting" of the Flashback 5 in a St. Louis Wal-Mart mentioned in another forum post a few months ago cannot be confirmed (I took it at face value, I did not know that they were not supposed to be sold until August), I suspect the Chinese company has had at least some form of these products ready (at least for test market purposes?) for quite some time. [i wondered about that. St. Louis is a fairly big city, but quite provincial]. Sounds like either a) corporate moves, which basically I could care less about (wait until October so that the Christmas mad shopping rush begins, when especially older people look for presents for baby boomers / generation X people?); or b) buying more time to get more organized / visible: get www.intellivisiongames.com in shape, the atgames site in shape. But frankly I don't see why I, the enthusiastic, dedicated customer of a, frankly, niche product aimed mainly at people between the ages of 35 and 55, would have to wait pointlessly when the product is ready and made available on store shelves. Did they need more time to come up with a better product because this one was not finalized? NO. I am clearly holding the finalized product in my hand. Were there safety concerns with my products? NO, clearly. these ones are fine. So why? Corporate stuff I basically could care less about? I want to play my games, that's all .

I understand your point. At this point, however, my main goal is to protect as much as possible the nice customer service people who helped me out that store. My location has been mentioned a few times here. Since the people who helped me were in perfect good faith (items were on the shelves, etc), I want to protect them as much as possible . In my experience, in fact, it's always the poor young person down the ladder that ends up paying the price for the screw-ups of the people up above. I truly don't want that to be the case.

It may, or may not have been. I don't want any heads to roll. I did not it could not be done, the clerks were in good faith, and they treated me as a customer in a remarkably great way. As far as I am concerned, that was some of the best, most courteous customer service I ever received .

[copying here my post from the Colecovision Flashback thread. Fairly new here, so if this is not acceptable, just let me know] So, I'm originally from Italy, born and raised there, but for the past 20 years I've been spending 8 months a year in the US, first as a grad student, then as a college prof. Why does that matter? Well, it doesn't really (especially if you forgive my non-native English ], except that I was in Italy for the whole summer (like I've been doing for the past 20 years). I left in mid-June, and I returned on the 21st. While in Italy, I don't have a reliable internet connection. I use a crappy 3G Internet Key, which SORT OF works, only really at night, whenI have my own administrative work to do, and very little time to "play" online. So, as a result, I did not know about the pushed back date for the Intellivision, Colecovision and Atari 5 units. When pre-orders opened online at Toys'R US several months ago, I thought about pre-ordering, but since no date was specified, and I knew I'd be back on the 21st, I waited. About 10 days ago I went on the TRUs website and noticed that the pre-orders were nowhere to be seen [so, no, they have not been taken down over the last two days or so. They probably were taken down at least two weeks ago]. Yesterday it was my first jet-lag free day since I returned. I had errands to run and I did not make any plans, and ended up visiting friends in the county, a good 30 miles away from my area. On my way back I decided to stop at a retail store [no, I won't name it], to see whether the Inty, Coleco and Atari 5 had been made available in the meantime. Good, they were on the shelves! I got all 3, debated whether I really needed a Flashback 5 (I already own 1 through 4!), and ultimately decided that YES, I did. Incidentally, you may recall another post from me, my first, a few months ago. I told how last February I walked into a local Wal-Mart and I saw Atari 5 on the shelves. I just assumed they were already available. I thought against buying one, did not think much about it, then only later did I discover, through a post on one of the forums here, that they were not supposed to be available until August. I had no way to confirm my sighting, and that's ok. But I knew what I saw. The unit I saw last February was exactly like the one I got yesterday, with the Centipede logo and the game boxes (but I somehow thought it had 100 games?). But I digress. Seeing all three on the shelves did fill me with joy and I took a picture. To see the names Intellivision, and, even more so, Colecovision again on store shelves after 30+ years was quite the sight! When I got to the counter, the very courteous clerk scanned the first item and said "we're not supposed to be selling these yet, let me check". They ultimately decided that since they had been selling the Atari's for a while, it was ok to sell them to me. I did not think much of it, I was focused on getting the new toys I wanted . When I got to my car, incredibly happy to have in my hands brand-new official Intellivision and Colecovision products (and yes, I have all the originals. And yes, I did own them back in the days. And yes, I do know they are not the same thing. BUT I'm happy nevertheless, they are interesting products!), I took my iPhone out of my pocket and googled "Intellivision Flashback release date". Only then did I realize that indeed I had in my possession something I was not technically supposed to have yet. I messaged Bill LoGuidice on FB and sent him the pic. He confirmed that they were not supposed to be available yet. Wow. Now, a brief review: I am VERY pleased with both the Intellivision and the Colecovision units. The controllers are GREAT! They look and "feel" like the original, only BETTER! The side buttons on the INTV are much more responsive. The disk and keypad feel the same. Regarding the CV, too, the controllers feel the same, BUT they are much better. The infamous mushroom stick is a bit shorter (or so it seems) and has a nice click to it, very easy to handle. The side buttons are much more responsive, and the keypad has individual buttons, rather than a single-layer plastic. Controllers are detachable, and the CV controllers are compatible with the original console. Can't wait to try my new controller on my original CV, but since classes start tomorrow, that may have to wait a few days . As www.intellivisiongames.com explains, this is an official product under the BlueSkyRangers name. Emulation in both consoles is SPOT-ON. It's the original, actual game code. No crappy remakes (unlike the infamous Intellivision 25 from a few years ago, what a sad travesty that was). Yes, the (bogus) few seconds wait after the title screen in CV games is there . That's because it's the original rom, folks! MINOR cosmetic changes on some opening screens for some games due to copyright issues. Game selection is very good in my opinion, especially in light of the notorious licensing issues. I'm very, very pleased with both. Interestingly enough, some of my favorite Colecovision games from 30 years ago seemed a bit faster to me. But then I realized that that's because at the time I was playing the PAL, 50Htz version, which is a 10% slower than the NTSC 60Htz one . AtGames has done a great job, as far as I am concerned. One note of praise to Bill Loguidice for the great job on the instructions. They are concise yet complete, a great resource. Bravo Bill! Hope this helps . Ciao!

Hey all! Interesting tread. Which may become more interesting after I add a few comments . So, I'm originally from Italy, born and raised there, but for the past 20 years I've been spending 8 months a year in the US, first as a grad student, then as a college prof. Why does that matter? Well, it doesn't really (especially if you forgive my non-native English ], except that I was in Italy for the whole summer (like I've been doing for the past 20 years). I left in mid-June, and I returned on the 21st. While in Italy, I don't have a reliable internet connection. I use a crappy 3G Internet Key, which SORT OF works, only really at night, whenI have my own administrative work to do, and very little time to "play" online. So, as a result, I did not know about the pushed back date for the Intellivision, Colecovision and Atari 5 units. When pre-orders opened online at Toys'R US several months ago, I thought about pre-ordering, but since no date was specified, and I knew I'd be back on the 21st, I waited. About 10 days ago I went on the TRUs website and noticed that the pre-orders were nowhere to be seen [so, no, they have not been taken down over the last two days or so. They probably were taken down at least two weeks ago]. Yesterday it was my first jet-lag free day since I returned. I had errands to run and I did not make any plans, and ended up visiting friends in the county, a good 30 miles away from my area. On my way back I decided to stop at a retail store [no, I won't name it], to see whether the Inty, Coleco and Atari 5 had been made available in the meantime. Good, they were on the shelves! I got all 3, debated whether I really needed a Flashback 5 (I already own 1 through 4!), and ultimately decided that YES, I did. Incidentally, you may recall another post from me, my first, a few months ago. I told how last February I walked into a local Wal-Mart and I saw Atari 5 on the shelves. I just assumed they were already available. I thought against buying one, did not think much about it, then only later did I discover, through a post on one of the forums here, that they were not supposed to be available until August. I had no way to confirm my sighting, and that's ok. But I knew what I saw. The unit I saw last February was exactly like the one I got yesterday, with the Centipede logo and the game boxes (but I somehow thought it had 100 games?). But I digress. Seeing all three on the shelves did fill me with joy and I took a picture. To see the names Intellivision, and, even more so, Colecovision again on store shelves after 30+ years was quite the sight! When I got to the counter, the very courteous clerk scanned the first item and said "we're not supposed to be selling these yet, let me check". They ultimately decided that since they had been selling the Atari's for a while, it was ok to sell them to me. I did not think much of it, I was focused on getting the new toys I wanted . When I got to my car, incredibly happy to have in my hands brand-new official Intellivision and Colecovision products (and yes, I have all the originals. And yes, I did own them back in the days. And yes, I do know they are not the same thing. BUT I'm happy nevertheless, they are interesting products!), I took my iPhone out of my pocket and googled "Intellivision Flashback release date". Only then did I realize that indeed I had in my possession something I was not technically supposed to have yet. I messaged Bill LoGuidice on FB and sent him the pic. He confirmed that they were not supposed to be available yet. Wow. Now, a brief review: I am VERY pleased with both the Intellivision and the Colecovision units. The controllers are GREAT! They look and "feel" like the original, only BETTER! The side buttons on the INTV are much more responsive. The disk and keypad feel the same. Regarding the CV, too, the controllers feel the same, BUT they are much better. The infamous mushroom stick is a bit shorter (or so it seems) and has a nice click to it, very easy to handle. The side buttons are much more responsive, and the keypad has individual buttons, rather than a single-layer plastic. Controllers are detachable, and the CV controllers are compatible with the original console. Can't wait to try my new controller on my original CV, but since classes start tomorrow, that may have to wait a few days . As www.intellivisiongames.com explains, this is an official product under the BlueSkyRangers name. Emulation in both consoles is SPOT-ON. It's the original, actual game code. No crappy remakes (unlike the infamous Intellivision 25 from a few years ago, what a sad travesty that was). Yes, the (bogus) few seconds wait after the title screen in CV games is there . That's because it's the original rom, folks! MINOR cosmetic changes on some opening screens for some games due to copyright issues. Game selection is very good in my opinion, especially in light of the notorious licensing issues. I'm very, very pleased with both. Interestingly enough, some of my favorite Colecovision games from 30 years ago seemed a bit faster to me. But then I realized that that's because at the time I was playing the PAL, 50Htz version, which is a 10% slower than the NTSC 60Htz one . AtGames has done a great job, as far as I am concerned. One note of praise to Bill Loguidice for the great job on the instructions. They are concise yet complete, a great resource. Bravo Bill! Hope this helps . Ciao!

Sorry, my bad. The Intellivision power connector is in the exact same position, right-hand side, towards the front. Doesn't bother me, really.

Yes. In terms of third-party, it has Imagic, Atari (Jungle Hunt), Parker Brothers (Montezuma's Revenge), Sierravision, Xonox, Interphase, Spectravideo (Cross Force), Probe, Micro Fun, Epyx. I guess that's maybe because the Intellivision was created in conjunction with the BlueSkyRangers? Right licensing is such a grey area to me.

Wait for game over, then press 1. You cannot reset a game before game over unless you press the reset key and select the game again.

You mean outside a game, at the game selection screen? [not a native speaker of English here]. Well, I'm not that picky, I suppose . However, I would not trust the bad quality of my iPhone 4 video/audio capture.

I think it was an honest mistake, and I got lucky. Fate decided to do me good, probably because a) I'm really old (51 y.o.), b) two days ago was my birthday and I flew back from Europe, and c) I'm a college prof and my DOOM starts on Monday

Not really. It was on the shelf of a chain store. I didn't know about the new release date of October 1st (they were supposed to be released sometime in August, the last thing I knew. I came back from Europe for the summer 2 days ago. I did not keep up with related news while I was gone). I was told at the counter that they were not supposed to be sold until October 1st, but since they were on the shelf... I wondered about the power connector on the side / front, but it really does not bother me. The Intellivision one is on the side, also, but towards the back of the unit.

Yes. Astrosmash, Buzz Bombers, Crown of Kings, Minotaur, Night Stalker, Space Spartans, Space Hawk, Utopia, WC Baseball, Word Fun.

Evil . They were on the shelves. Easily available to all .

Fairly bad quality video, but you get the idea. I'm VERY pleased with this product! The controllers feel great, very much like the original, yet better. The "mushroom" stick has a nice click to it, and it's very responsive. The side buttons are great, equally more responsive. The keypad, rather than being made of one single layer, has individual buttons, nice and soft. Emulation is spot-on, down to the (annoying? ] few seconds delay on the title screen. Pepper II plays just like the original (I'm a big fan of this game). Excellent product!

Fairly bad quality video, but you get the idea. I'm VERY pleased with this product! The controllers feel great, very much like the original, yet better. The "mushroom" stick has a nice click to it, and it's very responsive. The side buttons are great, equally more responsive. The keypad, rather than being made of one single layer, has individual buttons, nice and soft. Emulation is spot-on, down to the (annoying? ] few seconds delay on the title screen. Pepper II plays just like the original (I'm a big fan of this game). Excellent product!

And yes, there is voice synthesis in the Intellivoice games.

Fairly bad quality video, but you get the idea: I'm very pleased with this product. The controllers are awesome! While they feel just like the old ones in terms of size, they are much nicer in terms of mechanics. The disk feels great, the side buttons are much smoother than the original, and the numeric pad feels just like the old one. Very good emulation, also. I tested Astrosmash, and everything "computes". Sounds, speed, even the rapid fire by pressing 1. Excellent product!

I'd happily share the happiness if I could . [Wait, maybe they are bad . However, I have good feelings about them. The controllers alone scream "quality", and they've done a good job with the way the units look, also]

Someplace in the Midwest today, a European 51 y.o. dude stopped at some store, and bought these. [Yeah, I know. They were not supposed to be sold until October 1st. Maybe my charming accent helped ]. I love the units and the controllers. They feel "real", look about the same size as the original (will check later on), and the Colecovision controller feel better, more responsive, less clunky! Will try them out later on, after dinner.

Someplace in the Midwest today, a European 51 y.o. dude stopped at some store, and bought these. [Yeah, I know. They were not supposed to be sold until October 1st. Maybe my charming accent helped ]. I love the units and the controllers. They feel "real", look about the same size as the original (will check later on), and the Colecovision controller feel better, more responsive, less clunky! Will try them out later on, after dinner.