This was the first home video game for the Dungeons & Dragons fans. You traveled through a series of mountains and over rivers, all the while seeking out objects to help you defeat monsters. An early maze game, and it had nifty sounds, such as the hissing of the snakes and the roar of the dragons.
This game was sort of a mixture of Space Invaders, Asteroids and Missile Command all in one. You controlled a spaceship that moved across the bottom of the screen while shooting at meteors and UFOs that flew down from above. You could spend hours with this game, and the longer you played the faster it got.
Burgertime
An arcade classic, and the Intellivision version for home is pretty good, the game play especially being downright the same as the arcade version, and the graphics not being too shabby. You had eight different levels to move around your chef while making giant burgers and avoiding the evil egg, pickle and hot dog. Pictured below is the Intellivision II system.
You were a robber. Cops chases you. You stole money and locked doors so the cops could get you. This one was another port from the arcade, but if my memory serves correctly, this home version was more popular than the arcade version. An Intellivsion staple, especially for those who love their maze games. And for those of you who might not know, the image to the right is of the plastic sheet that was inserted into the Intellivision controller to help you know which buttons to push for actions in the game.
One of the reasons Intellivison caught on so well in the early days of home video systems, and one of the reasons it was strong competition against the Atari home system, was because the Intellivision had far superior graphics. And Intellivision had far superior sports games. NFL Football was always my favorite of the lot offered by Intellivision.
You roam a maze while avoiding or shooting robots and spiders and bats. Seems a bit odd, and creepy. It was, but it was also a heck of a lot of fun to play. As your score climbed higher, the types of robots changed, so eventually you were facing off with some pretty tough characters. To add to the thrill, you only have six shots, then you have to find more ammo. And those spiders and bats? They couldn't kill you, but they could paralyze temporarily and you so you had to sit there and watch as the robots came along to finish off the job. Night Stalker also had some of the creepiest sounds, especially a backbround sort-of beeping that sounded like some kind of electronic robot heart pumping away.
This game was basically the Intellivision version of Space Invaders, but there were some improvements. At least there was a lot more color. Another game you could spend hours with.
In Space Hawk, you are an astronaut floating around in space. Your job is to move around with the help of a jet pack and shoot at asteroids. As you might guess, this game was a lot like asteroids, and it was just as fun. In emergency situations, you could even warp your astronaut to a random location. But be careful! You might warp right into one of the asteroids.
Obviously inspired by the original Star Wars movie, in this game you fly your spaceship along a trench while taking out enemy fighters. This was the first time I'd ever seen a whole planet blow up in a video game. It was actually quite awesome, even with the graphics available in the early 1980s.
Possibly my favorite Intellivision game ever. Marketed as a tie-in with the Disney movie, Tron. You play Tron, stuck in a giant room where you're constantly attacked by little men with deadly discs they can through at you. The good news? You have a disc, too, and can use it to shoot back or as a shield. The bad news? Every so often a giant flying robot comes along, and that thing's tough to kill. You can open doorways in the sides of the giant room, allowing you to jump to the opposite side of the room, which helps you from becoming cornered by your enemies.
Related link: 20 Classic Atari 2600 Games
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