Atari Acquires Intellivision Brand

[Rev]

Will the list of 200 games ever be shared publicly?

[Crash7]

From the press release......

 

Intellivision Entertainment LLC will rebrand and continue its business of developing and distributing the Amico brand game console with a license from Atari to continue to distribute new versions of the Intellivision games on the Amico console. 

_________________

 

That sure sounds like Amico has a physical future

[leech]

I'm gonna throw this idea out to the universe... Atari also buys the IP of Coleco... and creates a new retro system called the 'FujiVision.' 

[Crash7]

Did someone say Fuji? 

 

 

[TrekMD]

I thought this was a joke when I first heard of it today.  When I found it it wasn't I though it was a good thing!  Lots of potential!

[+OLD CS1]

10 hours ago, leech said:

Haha, I literally just posted elsewhere, that the next acquisition should be Hyperion Entertainment so they can own AmigaOS 3.2 / 4.1.  One of the companies associated with them declared bankruptcy not so long ago...

I am not certain how to feel about this idea.

 

10 hours ago, leech said:

The AAA game industry seems to be imploding.  With Ubisoft having games with 'Ultimate Mega Supreme Edition' costing 130 USD.  The gaming sites are all being consolidated, so if one game doesn't fit their political correctness, it just gets review bombed about how evil the developers are, etc.  Indie/Retro games are selling like crazy too.  And in general, are just better games overall.

A number of commentators out there noticing Gen Z is largely playing older games, between the 80s and early 2010s because of the amount of suck being put into new games: on-line requirements, AI voice chat moderation, cost, shitty story lines, alpha-quality releases, cross-platform account requirements, monitoring and selling of your information, in-game adverts for expensive games, having games taken away or accounts closed for nebulous reasons, &c, &c.

 

Anyway, a lot of the old games, whether pixelated or boxy 3D graphics were (are) just good, fun games.  I welcome the late-adopters to my beloved hobby, but I hate that parasites and vampires that inevitably come along with it.  The same bullsnot which was part of the '83 collapse and the current collapse of gaming will cause the same to retro-gaming.

 

That might be good or bad, though.  As the hype ramps up, prices on things will go up.  Those of us with spare units may find incredible value in what we have, working or not.  Those of us who want to pick up extra units will find ridiculous prices.  Once the crash comes, the market readjustment will be awesome for us to pick up units which do not hit the bins.

 

Games journalism suffered from its own success, but not in the way one would consider.  Instead of growing on its own naturally and collapsing under its own weight, a bunch of people with money to burn inflated the games journalism market, over-valued the outlets, and everyone wanted a slice of that pie.  Some of these wanna-be journalists, too, thinking that being a game journo would be a first-step into a wider world.

 

Anyway, more on-topic, I am highly cynical of modern intrusions into the retro world.  As knob-slobbing as this may sound, I have been around long enough to trust Albert and his crew at what I deem to be a whole new Atari.  I hope this becomes a whole new golden era of home gaming.

[Greg2600]

Well I've been "away" from the forum and most of the hobby for several months, for a multitude of causes (nothing gaming related).  I saw this news on Fartbook and said I gotta come comment.  I think it makes total sense for Atari S.A. to go ahead and do this.  I'm sure the Intellivision games will fit in with their long range prospects for all the other retro 1980s stuff they've acquired.  It was unlikely to be nothing but dormant under the "Amico" team's watch.  Selfishly I wouldn't mind seeing a new "INTV Mini" with HDMI come out of this.  I guess an INTV+ isn't out of the question either. 

 

Unlike many, I don't think there's any real "historical" significance after all these years.  The competing companies both dumped or went out of business decades ago themselves.

[+OLD CS1]

10 hours ago, frogstar_robot said:

Grand Theft Auto for Atari still sucks balls.

 

 

I feel like his health should have been dropping during his encounter.

[HunterZero]

[jerseystyle]

Here’s what I would love- Atari buys Coleco, then puts out a “console wars” title, with games from all three, in the vein of the Atari 50 release. I’d be all over that.

[Intymike]

7 hours ago, Albert said:

Are you including me? 

 

..Al

I think I saw you once before.  

 

btw. I wrote you some time ago a pm, would you be so kind and take a look on it. Thanks!

[roots.genoa]

4 hours ago, Crash7 said:

From the press release......

 

Intellivision Entertainment LLC will rebrand and continue its business of developing and distributing the Amico brand game console with a license from Atari to continue to distribute new versions of the Intellivision games on the Amico console. 

_________________

 

That sure sounds like Amico has a physical future

No it just sounds like they're being polite. It just means that the Amico developers will have to license Intellivision games IF they want to release them. And they don't necessarily need a console for that, they've already released games for the Amico Home platform on mobile phones.

[+DZ-Jay]

Great.  There goes the neighborhood.

[TrogdarRobusto]

15 hours ago, Intymike said:

Funny how many Atari guys suddenly hang out in the Intellivision section that I never seen here before.

I mean ... doesn't that make sense? Especially if you are like me and were a closet Intellivision owner all these years.

[SiLic0ne t0aD]

Oh boy.. This ought to be interesting. 😬

As with Atari buying AtariAge and whatnot, I'll remain cautiously optimistic. 👍

[+fdr4prez]

On 5/23/2024 at 6:14 AM, TrogdarRobusto said:

Now I can post in the Intellivision threads and feel no guilt!

we are guilt free around here.

17 hours ago, Intymike said:

Funny how many Atari guys suddenly hang out in the Intellivision section that I never seen here before.

Yeah, it's all downhill from here  

1 hour ago, TrogdarRobusto said:

I mean ... doesn't that make sense? Especially if you are like me and were a closet Intellivision owner all these years.

[Greg2600]

19 hours ago, Rev said:

Will the list of 200 games ever be shared publicly?

200 seems very high, no?  Mattel/INTV produced 60+ games I believe for Intellivision, with a few of those being IPs they no longer own (such as Burgertime).  M Network released 17 games on the 2600, so I don't know how they got to 200?

[Maztr_0n]

On 5/23/2024 at 2:45 PM, 4ever2600 said:

Did Atari hire Tommy Tallarico?  I heard he is doing great things with the INTV IPs...

Dont think Tommy's mom will be proud if he joins the dark side, he's too busy counting roblox oof checks...

[mr_me]

3 hours ago, Greg2600 said:

200 seems very high, no?  Mattel/INTV produced 60+ games I believe for Intellivision, with a few of those being IPs they no longer own (such as Burgertime).  M Network released 17 games on the 2600, so I don't know how they got to 200?

They would still own the copyright on the software code for licensed games programmed at Mattel Electronics e.g. Burgertime, so they can be part of the deal.

 

Mattel and INTV Corp released over 90 titles for Intellivision, including ECS and KC.  There might be another thirty or forty unreleased/unfinished titles. There are handful of games for other platforms e.g. IBM PC, Apple II, Colecovision. The Atari 2600 M-network games were part of a previous transaction. There are fifteen Tutorvision titles but not sure if they own them. So that could be about 120 to 140 titles. If Amico games are included, it might get closer to 200.

 

 

[Rev]

 

[Old Timey Retro Gamer]

I am truly excited about this. Hopefully,  they will plan to do something similar to the 2600+ for the Intellivision. Atari has done an incredible job preserving the 2600 and think it would be fabulous to do the same for the Intellivision. 

Since the Amico was announced,  it seemed like there was no more passion to continue with the old games or flashbacks consoles....

[+Gunoz]

On 5/25/2024 at 4:59 PM, Rev said:

 

Reminds me why I don't listen to sports radio shows 🙄

[number6]

On 5/23/2024 at 1:36 PM, 5-11under said:

Does this sale include any logos or trademarks? (I'm not clear on who, if anyone, owns those)

If yes, which items, exactly?

The ones at bottom in green (registered)

 

#6

[number6]

On 5/23/2024 at 5:06 PM, carlsson said:

From a games' and IP point of view, those are not much to acquire. The small amount of first party games (mainly VIC-20) were licenses or knock-offs which the current brand name holder probably has little of. Actually, I believe Atari already owns a good deal of IP when it comes to classic Commodore games, if all the acquiries of software publishers made by the previous Infogrames have carried over to Atari, something we know quite little about.

Given he merely mentioned the general term "assets", we would have to include Cloanto here as well.

 

#6

[ubersaurus]

On 5/23/2024 at 1:54 PM, leech said:

I've never owned an intellivision, but do have a 5200, and I'd say the majority of the library doesn't really use the keypad buttons a whole lot (well, then you have Frogger, that uses specifically the keypad to move).  Is the Intellivision similar, did most of them not use the keypad?  I mainly am asking as if they are going to be released for the VCS or others, there probably should be a new, better designed, version of the controller...

It depends. Arcade ports and third party games don't really use the keypad much, but I feel like a lot of the sports, strategy, simulation etc. type games absolutely lean on the keypad hard. You can tell what games were designed with the Intellivision controller in mind and which were just shoehorned into it.