Intellivision Lives! part 1 – Meet the Blue Sky Rangers

A week ago it was all about the future of video game development when the Game Developers Conference hit San Francisco, allowing today’s innovators to take the stage and show off what they’ve got to compete in the modern gaming arena. But more than 30 years ago, there was a group of individuals that were hired to make games during a very crucial point in video game history. A number of talented men and women were hired by toy company Mattel to compete in the burgeoning home video game market, creating games for the now classic Intellivision gaming console. And even though they only spent about 4 years in the trenches at the offices located in Hawthorne, California, they created a bond that lasts to this day. Every year since Intellivision was shut down in 1984, the people behind the games have gathered at their favorite lunchtime spot, Original Jino’s Pizza, to recall the good times and the games that came out of their corner of the still very new world of video games.

But this year was different. Since game designer and illustrator Keith Robinson had purchased the rights to the Intellivision games to create Intellivision Productions, he and his team have worked to bring their classic games to the next generation of gamers, lest they forget where their Angry Birds, Call of Duties, and Starcrafts came from. To promote the release of the Intellivision Lives! 60+ game collection available for the Nintendo DS, they brought their pizza party to the Comic Bug in Manhattan Beach, California, so that they could meet with their fans, young and old, along with the chance to see all of their old friends again under one roof (one member even travels from Japan each year to join this gathering!). I got to sit down with Intellivision Productions president Keith Robinson and a few of the other people who created some of the now classic (and some not so classic) games that came out of the early 80s.

This is the first part of a week-long, Pop Culture Geek Exclusive 5 Part Series, featuring video footage that will give you a peek into what it was like to make video games during the first Console War of the early 80s… a war that nearly everyone lost.

Today we take a look at why the people who call themselves the “Blue Sky Rangers” get together each of the 27 years since Intellivision shut down in 1984 and what it was like to work there while it lasted.

Why do the “Blue Sky Rangers” hold yearly reunions?

Working and Playing at Intellivision