Intellivision Reviews A

I was just getting into the D&D pencil-and-paper game when this came out. Had I been aware of it at the time, the Intellivision would have certainly topped my Christmas list. This game beautifully translates the mystery and excitement of the board game into a well-crafted console adventure.

Advanced Dungeons and Dragons was Lord of the Rings before the movies, heavily borrowing its mythology. Your goal is to reach the Cloudy Mountain and defeat a dragon, which should sound very familiar to Hobbit fans.

You begin on an expansive "world map" of mountains, rivers, walls, and volcanoes. You move a band of white dots which represents your party. You'll need to traverse a series of mountains to reach your goal. Upon entering a subterranean passage, you find yourself controlling one member of your party at a time. Your well-articulated archer navigates winding tunnels connecting rooms of various shapes and sizes. I love how the caves materialize as you venture through them.

As you search for the exit you'll pick up keys, weapons, and other items. The visuals can be a little confusing however. Once I stumbled upon what appears to be a pile of arrows but couldn't pick them up. Apparently they were just part of the scenery, like an occasional horned skull lying on the ground.

The passages tend to be angular but the controls make them fairly easy to navigate. When I would get stuck on occasion, I could always blame the 45-year-old controller disc. What most impressed me most about the game was the ability to fire arrows independent of your movement. You can even shoot backwards while running away! Just be mindful that arrows can ricochet off walls, including back at you!

Monsters don't appear without warning. Most make some kind of distinctive sound like the flapping of bat wings or the ominous breathing of a dragon guarding the exit. The game's most glaring limitation is the modest size of the sprites. The "dragons" look like bears and demons look a heck of a lot like martians - complete with antennae!

After losing a life and respawning, areas you've previously explored remain visible. The number of arrows in your quiver isn't displayed on the screen; instead you hit a button on the keypad to play a series of "clicks", one for each arrow. I find that very peculiar but also kind of awesome.

The only thing missing is a status screen showing your attributes and stats. There are four skill levels to master. Decades later, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons still manages to bring the paper-and-dice experience to life. One could argue this is D&D distilled to its purest form. © Copyright 2025 The Video Game Critic.

Mattel actually released two Advanced Dungeons and Dragons titles in 1982, both of which were nothing short of spectacular. Automating the board game in 2D was impressive enough, but Treasure of Tarmin takes things to an entirely new level. This game delivers a first-person D&D experience, which was pretty much considered "the dream" in 1982.

Upon selecting your difficulty you're presented with a map of subterranean passages under a castle. You can see your final objective marked on the lowest floor. Starting from the top you must find the ladder on each maze-like level, gradually descending into the depths while fending off monsters and collecting loot along the way.

The screen layout displays a slew of information, including a somewhat confusing set of numbers along the bottom right describes your armor/weapon/spiritual status. The controls are highly sophisticated with buttons on the keypad mapped to functions like open, use, attack, and pick up/drop.

You can hold an item/weapon in each hand. The item in your right hand can be used to attack (like a sword) while the one in your left hand affects your status. For example, holding a shield increases your defense. Swapping items between hands and sifting through your inventory requires some practice.

The bulk of the screen shows your view of the dungeon ahead. It's always rendered with blocky green corridors and blue doors, but the illusion of movement is surprisingly smooth. Items appear often at your feet and formidable foes appear in your path. Unlike the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (Mattel, 1982), the creatures can be quite sizable. Many are blocky humanoids, but that giant scorpion looks pretty ominous.

Tarmin boasts a slew of advanced features, like the ability to "glance" left or right. When you open the door, bars rise to reveal its contents. I just wish they didn't close behind you once you enter. When fighting monsters the combat unfolds in "real time", so you can actually see your arrows striking your enemy. You also have the option to retreat from battle or rest to regain health.

Some time investment is required to become familiar with the keypad commands. You'll need to be able to pull out an important item at short notice, or stow it away for later use. The simple act of identifying items can be a challenge. There are literally dozens of chunky images shown in the manual that can be hard to reconcile with pixelated objects on the screen.

Treasure of Tarmin was years ahead of its time. The first time you play, make sure you select a novice dungeon to get the hang of it. Once managing your inventory becomes second nature, you'll be ready to take on the hoards. This D&D romp literally places you "in the game" like few classic adventures can. © Copyright 2025 The Video Game Critic.

Armor Battle takes aim at Atari's Combat (Atari 2600, 1977), and in terms of graphics and depth of play, it blows that game out of the water. A two-player only contest, each side begins with two realistic-looking tanks you can toggle between on the fly. You can even drop mines.

For a 1978 title (per the title screen), Armor Battle is technically impressive. Each round takes place on what appears to be a randomly-generated battlefield of trees, rivers, roads, and barracks. The scenery isn't just for show either. While you can speed down roads, water and foliage slow you down, and the buildings will block your shots. If only there were changing weather conditions. A bright white snow stage would have put this one over the top!

You might expect the varying battlefield layouts to add strategy, but that's not usually the case. Switching between tanks via the keypad is slow and awkward, so in my experience each stage tends to boil down to two separate one-on-one battles.

The controls could be better. Some of my friends even call them terrible. The side button propels you in the direction you're pressing the disc, and your turret always aims forward. The keypad lets you switch tanks. You can also lay mines but I have never once seen this used effectively.

Each tank can absorb two hits before blowing up on the third shot. Whenever an intermediate hit occurs, both tanks turn slightly, giving the players a brief opportunity to escape or turn the tables. When your tank blows up, the resonating explosion is jarring!

After completing the first round you may be surprised to see that you still have 48 tanks remaining! Is that supposed to be a joke?! I can't imagine plowing through all 50. My friend Brian thinks this game is incredible, but only because he worships everything Intellivision. I think he's in a cult or something. Personally I find Armor Battle more exciting to watch than to play. © Copyright 2024 The Video Game Critic.

In 1981 Atari had a runaway hit on their hands by the name of Asteroids. Mattel needed an answer, and what they came up with was pretty good! Astrosmash is a fast-paced shooter combining elements of both Asteroids and Space Invaders. You move a cannon back and forth over a planet surface, firing at raining asteroids which split in half when shot. You'll also need to keep an eye out for white "spinners" which cost you a life should they reach the surface. Upon scoring 20K, a huge bomb-dropping mother ship makes an appearance.

The action is non-stop and a handy auto-fire feature unleashes three shots per second (sweet). Obliterating asteroids is a blast, and their explosions even incinerate other objects in the vicinity. To discourage the player from becoming passive, the game actually deducts points whenever an asteroid reaches the surface, so your final score is actually your "peak" score. For the first few minutes, Astrosmash is the best game you've ever played, but over time it wears out its welcome. The game drags on for far too long, and after 20 minutes or so you tend to grow weary of it all.

The main culprit is an overabundance of lives - one awarded every 1000 points! I actually racked up over 20 reserve ships on the hardest difficulty! Even in advanced stages the game seems to replenish ships as fast as you can destroy them. I also noticed that the animation gets choppier and the collision detection suffers as you progress. It's still a good game, but I prefer the Atari version of Astrosmash, known as Astroblast (Atari 2600, 1982). © Copyright 2009 The Video Game Critic.

Whoa! The Atari 2600 version of Atlantis was great, but this Intellivision version is amazing! Imagic pulled out all the stops for this, with outstanding visuals and surprisingly rich gameplay (relatively speaking of course). Heck, even the art in the instruction manual looks great. The gameplay involves shooting down invading ships that fly progressively lower across the screen until they begin frying your city below.

The half-submerged city of Atlantis looks gorgeous with its oscillating generators perched upon shadowed undersea mountains. Unlike the Atari version, you actually move crosshairs around the screen to precisely aim your missiles. Missiles are launched from cannons on both sides of the screen, and I love how they rotate in flight. Upon reaching their target they explode into a cloud of flack, so you don't have to hit your target dead-on.

Since you can fire two missiles at a time, the game takes on a certain Missile Command flavor. You also have the option of unleashing your "Sentinel Saucer", which you move freely around the screen while firing missiles from both sides. Atlantis contains three distinct stages: day, dusk, and night. The day screen features a bright blue sky with white clouds, and dusk looks somewhat gray and overcast. The night screen is pitch dark save for two floodlights that pan the night sky for enemies. That's one nifty piece of programming.

So what's not to like? Well, the controls could be better. Instead of using the left buttons to fire the left cannon and vice versa, the top buttons shoot the left cannon, and the bottom buttons fire the right. A balanced approach would have made the controls much more comfortable. The night stages seem to last a lot of longer than the day stages, which is annoying because they tend to be very hard. There's no co-op mode, but you do get three skill levels. Ambitious in scope and easy on the eyes, Atlantis is truly a showcase title for the Intellivision system. © Copyright 2007 The Video Game Critic.

My friend Jonathan tossed out a great line while helping me review this game: "Dave, are you mad at me? Is that why we're playing this?" Auto Racing is one relic that might be best left buried deep below the earth's crust. If its counter-intuitive controls don't make you wince, its never-ending races certainly will.

The action is viewed from an overhead perspective, and by all accounts the graphics are quite good. The houses on the side of the road have a slick 3D appearance with realistic shadows and colorful bushes. The roads twist and turn in every direction, but the scrolling has a herky-jerky quality that's not exactly pleasing to the eye. The two-player contests are similar to Micro Machines, in that you score points by taking a commanding lead or having your opponent crash.

The main problem with this game lies with its steering controls. Pressing right always turns right, no matter which direction your car is facing, and even after you get the hang of it, it's very easy to suddenly become disoriented. Having to press the disk "lower" for sharper turns complicates matters even further.

Another issue is Auto Racing's hit-or-miss collision detection, which will have you asking, "What the [expletive] did I just crash into?" The unpleasant "roar" of the car engines sound more like an out-of-tune radio signal. Finally, the races are simply too long. The two-player matches are meant to last until someone scores 50 points - which is a complete joke.

Even racing solo (for best time) requires you to complete five long, boring laps. Auto Racing's gameplay was ahead of its time, and I'm sure it's quite fun with two players who know what they're doing. But only the most patient gamers will be able to overcome its steep learning curve. © Copyright 2007 The Video Game Critic.