Intellivision Lives! part 5 – Playing Games Yesterday and Today

After focusing on the future of video games during last week’s Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco, it’s time to look back at the history of video game development with an Exclusive 5 Part Series focusing on the people behind Intellivision.

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 video game universe. But this year they gathered at the Comic Bug in Manhattan Beach, California, to see some familiar faces, meet some of Intellivision‘s most ardent fans (they still ordered pizza), and to promote the release of the Intellivision Lives! 60+ game compilation now available on the Nintendo DS. 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 fifth and final 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.

Click here to see part 1 – Meet the Blue Sky Rangers
Click here to see part 2 – The Rise of Intellivision
Click here to see part 3 – The Fall of the Early 80s Video Game Market
Click here to see part 4 – The Best and Worst of Intellivision

Bonus deal! Go to their official site now for their 10% off FIRE SALE! (just enter the coupon code FIRE) The building where their offices are housed in Manhattan Beach were recently hit by a fire (offices sustained smoke damage). Go to their official Facebook page or official site for more information!

Today we take a peek at the behind-the-scenes mischief that went on between Atari and Intellivision employees and the secret trick that LA kids used to get cheap games out of Mattel. Then we wrap it up with a look at why Intellivision games still hold their appeal for fans around the world, even today.

Playing Games with Mattel

Code Blocking and Kid Scamming

The Continued Appeal of Intellivision Games