mnvnjnsn's Diary

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2003-07-30

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Intelligient Television, Listen to George Plimpton!

I have a geek quiz that some of you may have taken, and I've realized I should have put one more question on it: What is your favorite video game console ever? Why?

My answer would be as follows: "Intellivision. Because the controllers were cool and the games were fun, and all the sports games had the same crowd noises and I loved the whistler."

Why does that make me a geek? The answer is two-fold: 1) because it proves I was old enough to enjoy video games in 1978 and have fallen victim to the VH-1 "I love the 80s" nostalgia enough to write a journal entry about it, and b) because I bought an Intellivision console and 25 games off eBay and the games just arrived. And I am thoroughly delighted.

Hooray!

All the nostalgia came flooding back when I opened up the shipment (sent kindly by a seller in Brantford, ON in a KotexTM box) and saw those boxes. Much like the small PC game boxes of today, the front flap opens and the cartridge (YES-- cartridge. Shut up, you young whipper-snappers), sits in a hollowed out square in the back part. The front flap has a pocket on the inside that holds the game instructions and the controller overlays.

Yes, the cool thing about Intellivision controller is that it looks like one of those flat push-button phones that were big in 1985, with the number pad and everything, and instead of having to remember that 6 meant 'fire,' the overlay would just say 'fire' over the 6 pad.

Each of the 25 games has the original box, overlays and instructions. Because they are Canadian, many of them have French instructions too! Hooray, Canada!

These are the games I got: Astrosmash, Auto Racing, Vectron, Frog Bog (or, Marecage a Grenouilles), Burgertime, TRON Deadly Discs, PGA Golf, NBA Basketball, Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack (complete with the shifty-eyed dealer), Night Stalker (which came out before Richard Ramirez, as they say, hit the scene), Space Battle, NFL Football, Checkers (always good to have in video game format), Space Hawk, NASL Soccer, Donkey Kong, Star Strike, Maze-a-Tron, SNAFU (yes, they made a kids game called this. My dad had to tell me what it meant. Poor Dad), Major League Baseball, Lock'n'Chase, NHL Hockey, Space Armada, Sea Battle, and Horse Racing.

I will have to continue this stumble down memory lane later, since I have to work and all, but I'll stop here by saying this:

How old are these games? The boxes all say "FOR COLOR TV VIEWING ONLY." Ah, back in the day.

1:57 p.m. - 2003-07-30

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