Intellivision II Controller

[Hannacek]

I just got my first Intellivision II. At first I thought the controller was broken, but now I think it is supposed to be that way. All of the buttons work, except the side buttons are extremely stiff, and the keypad buttons are even more stiff. It seems the only way to know if an action button, or a keypad button is pressed is if the desired function in the game is performed. The buttons make almost no click, and have almost no travel as it is pushed.

 

I have an Intellivision flashback, and the controller works fine.

 

Are my Intellivision II controllers broken, or are the buttons supposed to be that stiff?

[pimpmaul69]

I just got my first Intellivision II. At first I thought the controller was broken, but now I think it is supposed to be that way. All of the buttons work, except the side buttons are extremely stiff, and the keypad buttons are even more stiff. It seems the only way to know if an action button, or a keypad button is pressed is if the desired function in the game is performed. The buttons make almost no click, and have almost no travel as it is pushed.

 

I have an Intellivision flashback, and the controller works fine.

 

Are my Intellivision II controllers broken, or are the buttons supposed to be that stiff?

sadly the intv ii controllers are shite. They are stiff. Flashback controllers are far better than any of the old controllers as far as the side buttons go. Buy some adapters from nurmix to use your flashback controllers on your intv ii Edited September 16, 2015 by pimpmaul69

[BassGuitari]

I just got my first Intellivision II. At first I thought the controller was broken, but now I think it is supposed to be that way. All of the buttons work, except the side buttons are extremely stiff, and the keypad buttons are even more stiff. It seems the only way to know if an action button, or a keypad button is pressed is if the desired function in the game is performed. The buttons make almost no click, and have almost no travel as it is pushed.

 

I have an Intellivision flashback, and the controller works fine.

 

Are my Intellivision II controllers broken, or are the buttons supposed to be that stiff?

That's just how they are. They work well, though. Think of the buttons more as touch points.

[Hannacek]

I heard the Intellivision II controllers weren't as good as the original controllers, but that is an understatement.

 

As someone who is new to Intellivision, which games take advantage of the 16 way disc, and which really only need 4 or 8 directions? Some games like Space Armada and AstroSmash only use 2 direction.

[wolfy62]

Obviously all the Sports games go in all 16 directions, and I never saw the need for an 8 way controller.

 

Lock n' chase, Burgertime, Pacman, Snafu etc. plus a bunch of Homebrew games are great 4 directional games.

 

There are some great Homebrew games that are 4 directional as well such as Ms. Pacman.

 

I agree with Pimpmaul, if you get an Intellivision Flashback and adapters from Nurmix for your Intellivision 2 that is the best way to go. I bought a great 4 directional joystick from a gentleman named Grips here, it works great but it is aroung $250. to purchase.

 

Intellivision 2 controllers are stiff in general unless you can find a lesser used pair. Good luck!

[+Lathe26]

Since you are new to Intellivision, I'll add that you should stay away from the "Wico Command Control" joysticks. These were the only 3rd party complete joysticks made for the Intellivision back in the day. They are worse than the Intellivision II controllers.

 

However, there are some new homebrew ones made that are nice (check which ones do all 16 directions).

[bikeguychicago]

Like others said, you can either use the Flashback controllers (with adapter) or, if you can find them on eBay, you can use the controllers from the Sears Super Video Arcade. The later was a Sears-branded Intellivision I unit that featured detachable controllers which are pin-compatible with the Intellivision II. You'll recognize them as white Intellivision controllers with an Atari-type plug at the end of the cord.

 

The Flashback or Sears controllers are more responsive and are definitely more comfortable than the Inty II ones.

[+wongojack]

I heard the Intellivision II controllers weren't as good as the original controllers, but that is an understatement.

 

As someone who is new to Intellivision, which games take advantage of the 16 way disc, and which really only need 4 or 8 directions? Some games like Space Armada and AstroSmash only use 2 direction.

 

 

I built my own controller that has 8 way control. There are some games that you just can't play with it like Vectron and others where you can get by like Space Hawk. I'd say what limits using a custom stick more than the directions is the keypad (I did not build a kepad into mine). There are still many games that (once you get past the game selection) the directions and keypad are not a factor. Burgertime, Astrosmash, Thundercastle, Beauty and the Beast, Bump n Jump, Lock 'n Chase, Atlantis, Diner, and Dreadnaught Factor might be some of the best examples. Although I tend to prefer to play Atlantis with the original hand controller because it requires all three buttons (IIRC) and they need to be in order for it to make gaming sense.

 

Some very popular games where you will want to use the hand controller are: Treasure of Tarmin, AD&D (Cloudy Mountain), Shark Shark, Tower of Doom, Baseball, Tron Deadly Discs, Utopia, Nightstalker

 

Two games that are absolutely unplayable without the 16 way controls are Vectron and Ice Trek. You just can't target the items you need to hit in either game without the full 16 directions.

[BGH]

For more 16-direction fun, be sure to check out Microsurgeon. The best (and intended!) way to play it is hold both controllers at once as an early take on dual-stick shooting.