Breaking news: Intellivision flashback coming to retail

[1980gamer]

"I'll catch up on the long posts later, but in case nobody else has picked this nit yet... Big League Baseball == Major League Baseball. World Championship Baseball added one player, sliding, etc.."

 

Yes, a 1978 Vega and 2015 BMW are both cars!

[Rev]

They should make Baseball with a snow level! It could have white background and falling snow effects. Who is with me? Maybe call it Snowball?

 

 

 

 

 

 

ok, I'll let myself out......

[+JasonlikesINTV]

Do we know anything about potential homebrews on the Coleco Flashback? I own zero Coleco homebrews and have never really played the regular releases despite owning around 30-40 Coleco games (mostly loose carts). When I originally picked up my console, the controllers weren't working well so I didn't play any games. I've since picked more controllers (some included with my Adam). I'm bound to have some working ones, so maybe it's time to revisit Coleco.

[fast eddie]

Maybe in the future Atgames could try a arcade themed flashback with a couple good joystick controllers. That would be a pretty cool console depending on what it had on it.

 

Looking forward to the Coleco flashback and those controllers.

[Bill Loguidice]

Maybe in the future Atgames could try a arcade themed flashback with a couple good joystick controllers. That would be a pretty cool console depending on what it had on it.

 

That was considered at one point. The catch is getting the right licenses. I'm sure it will be revisited again when the line up for 2015 is discussed.

[Flojomojo]

 

That was considered at one point. The catch is getting the right licenses. I'm sure it will be revisited again when the line up for 2015 is discussed.

Atari Star Wars from 1983 with a little flight yoke would be to die for. A little steering wheel for stuff like Outrun or Turbo would be delightful. A setup for Defender with proper button layout would be swell.

 

Anything that messes with the original arcade controls and tries to shoehorn them into a standard joystick (like many of the Atari collections that needed trackballs or spinners) should be left on the drawing board.

[+nurmix]

What I want to know is:

 

Why does the colecovision flashback have a bunch of licensed games and intv does not!

 

It's all due to the license holders for a lot of the Intellivision games not wanting to grant a license to Intellivision Productions / AT Games for the console.

 

For instance, Activision owns its games as well as the Imagic games, and they aren't willing to issue another license to Intellivision Productions for these games - at least not at a price point that is economically viable. This is why the Intellivision Rocks CD ROM will no longer be available. It's the same situation with the TRON games. Disney wants $$$. I'm not certain about the Parker Brothers or Interphase games, but things like BurgerTime (which used to be owned by Data East, and is now owned by another company who thinks it's sitting on a gold mine) also wants exorbitant licensing fees.

 

In speaking to Keith Robinson about this, he wants nothing more than to include ALL these games, but this is a partnership deal with AT Games, so in addition to the licensing fees, AT Games also has a say in what is and isn't going to be on the console. And this is one of the reasons why the original Major League Baseball is only going to be a bonus game. For the most part, AT Games only wanted sports titles that had single player capability.

 

And as others have mentioned, there are significant differences between ML Baseball and WC Baseball; sliding, fly balls, scrolling outfield, controlled pitches (after the ball has been thrown), and it has a different feel than MLB. I could understand someone fondly remembering MLB, getting a Flashback, and being disappointed with WC Baseball. But as you said, Bill... if that's the case, they can get the version with the bonus game - assuming it's available in their part of the country / world.

Edited June 24, 2014 by nurmix

[fast eddie]

SNK and Capcom (are they one company now?) would probably have enough games to be a flashback all their own.

 

I could see a flashback specific for racing games like Turbo and Outrun that come with a steering wheel.

[Robert Sublett]

 

I was disappointed with that one, even though I went whole hog and got the signed special edition one, etc. I think an analog stick would provide a closer experience to the disc than an 8 direction d-pad, and of course the touchscreen is not quite as responsive or has the same feel as the bubble pad or real buttons. It will be a similar not-quite-there experience on the digital versions for touchscreen devices. It's better than nothing, but the Intellivision is one of the few consoles where you really need the bizarre/unique original controller to have a decent experience on many of the games.

Plus a one player Slam Dunk didn't work on the DS. The computer team just took the ball and held it.

[Flojomojo]

SNK and Capcom (are they one company now?) would probably have enough games to be a flashback all their own.

That's what the Neo Geo X was supposed to be. Most of those games are easy enough to find on Virtual Console or Neo Geo Station.

[fast eddie]

Thats neat. It looks like the Neo Geo is covered then (price to high for me though). Its been awhile since I played any of those, I forgot how awesome those multi-games were in the arcades.

 

The newer the game, the more space it would need and thats most likely something Atgames keeps in consideration for these systems since they probably want to keep them at a certain pricepoint.

Edited June 24, 2014 by fast eddie

[Bill Loguidice]

Thats neat. It looks like the Neo Geo is covered then (price to high for me though). Its been awhile since I played any of those, I forgot how awesome those multi-games were in the arcades.

 

The newer the game, the more space it would need and thats most likely something Atgames keeps in consideration for these systems since they probably want to keep them at a certain pricepoint.

 

That was part of the problem with the Neo Geo X when first released. The high price point set incredibly high expectations. For many, the joystick didn't feel up to snuff, the emulation wasn't of sufficient quality, and the hybrid nature of it was both over- and under-engineered. It's one thing to charge $40 - $60 for something and have it not quite be perfect, it's another to charge $200 and have it not be perfect. The Neo Geo X never did recover from the backlash, and even though prices have shot back up, at one point it was selling for half of its original price. That was also SD card-based, though in a proprietary format, but it was soon hacked.

 

To your other point, I would think a Flashback-like console for something like a Dreamcast would be doable. 16 - 64GB SD cards (or equivalent) are cheap enough in quantity and you could fit roughly 16 - 64 games depending upon the card size. Of course depending upon the flourishes, I doubt you could hit the $60 list price target. Still, at this point in time, from the Dreamcast back is probably within reason.

[Flojomojo]

Dreamcast is nicely covered elsewhere, though -- its best titles are cheap on PSN, XBLA, and Steam. What's neat about the Intellivision and Colecovision are the weird controllers and unique games that aren't available anywhere else, and the Flashback should replicate that nicely.

 

I'd love to see more rarities that haven't been emulated out the wazoo elsewhere. Examples:

 

- The LucasArts games on the Atari 5200. I have never played Rescue on Fractalus but I think I'd like it, especially with better controllers and no ginormous console/power brick.

 

- The Odyssey 2. I liked this system because I had one, though I doubt it would be very appealing to most people today, wouldn't it be cute to have an updated membrane keyboard that could talk back and play Turtles, Pick Axe Pete, and K.C. Munchkin? Or an iPad version of Quest for the Rings?

 

- Vectrex. OMG the iPad version is adorable. It should get more love.

[onmode-ky]

The last BurgerTime game I recall seeing released was World Tour by MonkeyPaw Games from a few years back, so licenses must be available for it (at a cost).

As an aside, BurgerTime World Tour was removed from all storefronts at the end of April, presumably due to expiration of MonkeyPaw Games' license.

 

They do, their business is licensing these properties out to others like Majesco (I believe they were the publisher of Data East Arcade Classics on the Wii and probably those Minis as well) or MonkeyPaw with their Burgertime reboot.

Majesco did publish Data East Arcade Classics, but they never published any Minis. I think the Data East Minis were published by G-mode themselves; YouTube videos of those games show that G-mode's is the first logo to appear at startup (followed by G1M2's, and that's it).

 

I even still get comments about the Flashback 4 not having Pac-Man of all things (which, as we know, is not the 2600's shining moment), and as such, not being something they want to purchase.

If there's ever an Xbox 360 Flashback, the absence of Yaris will be a major dealbreaker. Mark my words.

 

 

Of course, having artificial special editions is not cool, but it is probably good business, if not necessarily good for consumers.

What particularly puzzles me about these extra-game editions is the identity of the retailers. Bed Bath & Beyond? Dollar General? What must be going on is that these retailers are being offered an exclusive game if they agree to pay more (either via greater volumes or higher per-unit price), but did AtGames just throw out the offer and then go with whoever responded first? Those are national chains, sure, but wouldn't it make more sense to do this with a retailer that's either more closely associated with toys/games (say, Toys 'R Us) or has greater mainstream familiarity (Walmart, Target, Amazon.com)? Of course, maybe AtGames did try for them and got nowhere. Nonetheless, going with Dollar General on this deal makes it seem like AtGames is happy to announce, "We play in the minor leagues!" . . . And well, maybe they are.

 

That's a fantastic question and I was wondering that myself. I can only think that it was not necessary for this first iteration of the Intellivision Flashback since the first party library is so strong. The ColecoVision doesn't have a similarly available first party library, so that needed to be supplemented with third party stuff and homebrews. It's probably as simple as that.

The ColecoVision Flashback's heavy third-party presence has made me wonder if that project is actually costing AtGames significantly more than the Intellivision Flashback. We'll likely never know, but the possibility does suggest that a hypothetical CVFB2 getting green-lit would need greater revenue generated by the CVFB than a hypothetical INTVFB2 would need from the INTVFB. Well, I think so, anyway.

 

SNK and Capcom (are they one company now?) would probably have enough games to be a flashback all their own.

No probably about it. Looking at their PSP arcade collections alone, Capcom had 39 games represented, and SNK had 36 (not even including certain early titles that SNK only released singly, as Minis).

 

But no, SNK and Capcom are not one company. Not even close.

 

onmode-ky

[Andromeda Stardust]

What the list of games may look like:

 

1-ABPA® Backgammon Kevin Miller (APh) Mattel Electronics 1979 Also released as "Backgammon"

2-ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® Cartridge Tom Loughry (APh) Mattel Electronics 1982 Also identified in some later Mattel Electronics catalogs as "ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® Cloudy Mountain Cartridge"; re-released by Intellivision Productions, Inc. as "Adventure" and as "Crown of Kings" for legal reasons

3-ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® Treasure Of Tarmin® Cartridge Tom Loughry (APh) Mattel Electronics 1983 Re-released by Intellivision Productions, Inc. as "Minotaur" for legal reasons

4-Armor Battle Chris Kingsley (APh) Mattel Electronics 1979 One of the original four games released in test markets in 1979

5-Astrosmash John Sohl (Mattel) Mattel Electronics 1981

6-Auto Racing Larry Zwick (APh) Mattel Electronics 1980

7-B-17 Bomber John Sohl, Bill Fisher & Stephen Roney (Mattel) Mattel Electronics 1982 Requires Intellivoice module

8-Body Slam: Super Pro Wrestling Steve Ettinger (Realtime) INTV Corporation 1988

9-Bomb Squad Gene Smith (Mattel) Mattel Electronics 1982 Requires the Intellivoice module

10-Boxing Tom Loughry (APh) Mattel Electronics 1981

11-Buzz Bombers Mike Breen (Mattel) Mattel Electronics 1983

12-Championship Tennis Patrick Aubry & John Fiddes (Mattel Electronics France/Nice Ideas) Dextell Ltd. 1985

13-Checkers David Rolfe (APh) Mattel Electronics 1980 Released in the United Kingdom as "Draughts"

14-Chip Shot: Super Pro Golf Steve Ettinger (Realtime) INTV Corporation 1987

Commando® John Tomlinson (Realtime) INTV Corporation 1987

Dig Dug® Mark Kennedy (Atari) INTV Corporation 1987

Diner Ray Kaestner (Realtime) INTV Corporation 1987 Sequel to BurgerTime

The Electric Company® Math Fun Kimo Yap (APh) Mattel Electronics 1979

The Electric Company® Word Fun Kevin Miller (APh) Mattel Electronics 1980

15-Frog Bog Tom Soulanille (APh) Mattel Electronics 1982

16-Horse Racing Chris Hawley (APh) Mattel Electronics 1980

17-Hover Force Steve Ettinger (Mattel/Realtime) INTV Corporation 1986

Kool-Aid Man® Mark Kennedy (Mattel) Mattel Electronics 1983

18-Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack David Rolfe (APh) Mattel Electronics 1979 Included with the Master Component 1980-1982, making it the most common Intellivision game (over 2 million copies)

19-Las Vegas Roulette John Brooks (APh) Mattel Electronics 1980

20-Learning Fun I Mark Urbaniec (Realtime) INTV Corporation 1987

21-Learning Fun II Dave Warhol (Realtime) INTV Corporation 1987

Lock 'N' Chase® Mike Winans (Mattel) Mattel Electronics 1982 Based on the Data East arcade game

Loco-Motion® Daniel Bass (Mattel) Mattel Electronics 1983 Based on the Konomi arcade game

22-Major League® Baseball David Rolfe (APh) Mattel Electronics 1980 Although not the first released, the first game programmed for the Intellivision console; also released as "Baseball" and "Big League Baseball"

Masters of the Universe®: The Power of He-Man® Ray Kaestner & Rick Koenig (Mattel) Mattel Electronics 1983

Mission X® John Tomlinson (Mattel) Mattel Electronics 1983 Based on the Data East arcade game

23-Motocross Rick Koenig (Mattel) Mattel Electronics 1983

24-Mountain Madness: Super Pro Skiing Ray Kaestner (Realtime) INTV Corporation 1988

25-NASL® Soccer Kevin Miller (APh) Mattel Electronics 1980 Also released as "Soccer"

26-NBA® Basketball Ken Smith (APh) Mattel Electronics 1980 Also released as "Basketball"

27-NFL® Football Ken Smith & Kevin Miller (APh) Mattel Electronics 1980 Also released as "Football"

28-NHL® Hockey Ken Smith (APh) Mattel Electronics 1980 Also released as "Hockey"

29-Night Stalker Steve Montero (Mattel) Mattel Electronics 1982

30-PBA® Bowling Rick Levine & Mike Minkoff (Mattel) Mattel Electronics 1981 Also released as "Bowling"

31-PGA® Golf Scott Bishop (APh) Mattel Electronics 1980 Also released as "Golf"

Pac-Man® Mike Winans (Atari) Atarisoft 1983 Re-released by INTV Corp. without the Atari title screen

32-Pinball Minhchau Tran & Bob Newstadt (Mattel) Mattel Electronics 1983

Pole Position® Mark Urbaniec (Realtime) INTV Corporation 1988

33-Reversi Greg Favor (APh) Mattel 1982

34-Royal Dealer Rich O'Keefe (APh) Mattel Electronics 1982

35-Sea Battle Ken Smith (APh) Mattel Electronics 1980

36-Shark! Shark! Ji Wen Tsao (Mattel) Mattel Electronics 1982

37-Sharp Shot Frank Evans (APh) Mattel Electronics 1982

38-Slam Dunk: Super Pro Basketball Steve Ettinger (Realtime) INTV Corporation 1987

39-Slap Shot: Super Pro Hockey Ray Kaestner (Realtime) INTV Corporation 1987

40-Snafu Mike Minkoff (Mattel) Mattel Electronics 1981

41-Space Armada John Brooks & Chris Hawley (APh) Mattel Electronics 1981

42-Space Battle Hal Finney (APh) Mattel Electronics 1980

43-Space Hawk Bill Fisher (Mattel) Mattel Electronics 1982

44-Space Spartans Bill Fisher & Stephen Roney (Mattel) Mattel Electronics 1982 Requires the Intellivoice module

45-Spiker! Super Pro Volleyball Steve Ettinger (Realtime) INTV Corporation 1989

46-Stadium Mud Buggies Rick Koenig (Realtime) INTV Corporation 1989

47-Star Strike Hal Finney & Brett Stutz (APh) Mattel Electronics 1982

48-Sub Hunt Tom Loughry (APh) Mattel Electronics 1982

49-Super Pro Decathlon Scott Robitelle (Realtime) INTV Corporation 1988

50-Super Pro Football John Tomlinson & Dave Warhol (Realtime) INTV Corporation 1986

51-Tennis Gavin Claypool (APh) Mattel Electronics 1980

52-Thin Ice Julie Hoshizaki (Mattel) INTV Corporation 1986

53-Thunder Castle David Warhol (Mattel) INTV Corporation 1986

54-Tower of Doom Daniel Bass (Mattel), John Tomlinson (Realtime) INTV Corporation 1987

55-Triple Action Rich O'Keefe (APh) Mattel Electronics 1981

56-Triple Challenge David Warhol (Realtime) INTV Corporation 1987

TRON® Deadly Disks Steve Sents (Mattel) Mattel Electronics 1982

TRON® Maze-A-Tron Russ Haft (Mattel) Mattel Electronics 1982

TRON® Solar Sailer Keith Robinson (Mattel) Mattel Electronics 1983 Requires the Intellivoice module

57-U.S. Ski Team® Skiing Scott Reynolds (APh) Mattel Electronics 1980 Also released as "Skiing"

58-USCF® Chess unknown (Teletape Inc.), Russ Ludwick (Mattel) Mattel Electronics 1983 Also released as "Chess"

59-Utopia Don Daglow (Mattel) Mattel Electronics 1981

60-Vectron Mark Urbaniec (Mattel) Mattel Electronics 1983

61-World Championship Baseball Dan Dickerson (APh) INTV Corporation 1986

62-World Cup Soccer Mark Grant & Armand Barraud (Mattel Electronics France/Nice Ideas) Dextell Ltd. 1985

 

Really? Over 50% of those games are crappy sports titles. Not to be a prude here, but I'm not that much a sports fan; neither are many other retro gamers. Store shelves at used game dealers are always littered with sports releases if you believe otherwise. I wish I'd seen this list before I pounded out my TRU preorder and added the Intelli along with the Coleco. I was on page 15 or so of this thread. Stayed up all night trudging through both Flashback threads. Either way, I prolly should have stuck with just the Coleco Unit. And I hope the Dollar General "exclusive" game for Coleco isn't Burgertime or I'm gonna cry... Oh, what the hey, I've got a 7800 Beef Drop in route from the AA store!

 

As I have enough consoles as it is, without further inflating my massive collection of carts and hardware whilst deflating my wallet, I felt like both of these collections would give me a nice "sampler" of what the hardware has to offer. I currently have Atari 2600/7800 and most of the popular consoles NES and up, with emphasis on Nintendo. I also got a secondhand Atari Flashback II and it is really nice even if somewhat redundant. Yes, the desirable version, beautiful little thing, and keeping it stock. No way I'm cart slot modding mine because I have working 2600 and 7800 consoles to play games on.

 

I'm glad they are releasing these things, and hopefully it will raise public awareness of these consoles. I wish Intellivision and Colecovision well, but those are both heavy hitting pre-crash underdogs so it remains to be seen if they will make enough profit to warrent future revisions. Speaking of underdogs, I would also love to see a TG-16 Flashback version someday. I've got a Turbo with an Everdrive, but damn, the game cards are stupid expensive. Atgames, make it happen!

 

Lastly, I gotta give Atgames props for keeping it legit, unlike those illegal pirate bootleg Famiclones they used to sell at shopping malls and swap meets:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Player_Super_Joy_III

 

Yes, I owned a couple of those too and they were absolute rubbish...

:ahoy: :ahoy: :ahoy: :ahoy: :ahoy: :ahoy:

[Rev]

I bought 2 of those super joy flea market things before, had a bunch of nes games on them, fun for a while until they just stop working....peices of crap they are!

[1980gamer]

The nostalgia for intellivision are in fact SPORTS games. It's the closest thing to the real thing!

 

Also, many of the non sport games are completely original to the intellivision console!

 

Last, that list is only my guess of what will be on the system. It is very possible many of the 2 player sport games will be missing

Replaced with unreleased or prototypes games

[+LS650]

If half the games on the Inty Flashback are sports, that means about half are not!

 

Think about it: $40 for 30 non-sports games... Astrosmash, Space Battle, Star Strike, Utopia, etc. etc.

 

I think it's a great deal if the emulation is excellent and the controllers feel like the real deal.

[+Gunoz]

How well the controllers work is really gonna be the make or break for this, isn't it?

[Flojomojo]

Keith Robinson estimated that the crappy Intellivision plug-n-play NOAC that looked nothing like the original made upwards of $4 million for the manufacturers. This thing has way more nostalgic value and the market hasn't been saturated with these things lately. I hope it does well, and I expect it to at least break even.

[JoeM_Intellivision]

Agreed - I really expect these to do well if controllers are good/compatible and emulation is good.

[Bill Loguidice]

Keith Robinson estimated that the crappy Intellivision plug-n-play NOAC that looked nothing like the original made upwards of $4 million for the manufacturers. This thing has way more nostalgic value and the market hasn't been saturated with these things lately. I hope it does well, and I expect it to at least break even.

 

The market is much smaller these days for various reasons, but I do think at the very least these first versions will do quite well. After that, I'm just not sure.

 

If half the games on the Inty Flashback are sports, that means about half are not!

 

Think about it: $40 for 30 non-sports games... Astrosmash, Space Battle, Star Strike, Utopia, etc. etc.

 

I think it's a great deal if the emulation is excellent and the controllers feel like the real deal.

 

I posted in the ColecoVision Flashback thread that by my count on the Intellivision, there are 17 or 18 sports and racing games that someone might classify as "sports" on the standard Intellivision Flashback (with an 18th or 19th on the bonus version). There are four of the adventure/RPG games. The rest are the usual board, action, education, and voice games.

[Flojomojo]

I generally dislike sports games, but they're fun on Intellivision with a second player. The controller overlays help a lot with reducing their complexity.

 

The RPG games hold up well.

 

I never got into the voice module in the past (expense, clutter, WWII theme of B-17 Bomber) but I'm digging the included voice games on the DS version (Bomb Squad, Space Spartans). Maybe I'll even try B-17 Bomber if I can set aside my moral objections.

[Bill Loguidice]

The Toys R Us site now has updated hardware and box images. That's likely as close to final as we'll get before the actual release. I doubt there will be any changes.

 

Here's an image they don't have (though as you can tell, it's what was used on the front of the box):

 

[Flojomojo]

Glad they put the controller ports up front. No coiled cords, either. It would be nice to have a place to stow the controllers when not in use, but not THAT nice. Looks great!!!