Space, the most common frontier for video games in the late 70s and early 80s.
An armada of bomb-dropping aliens will wreak havoc on Earth’s defenses unless players take them out effectively. The bunkers can withstand a formidable amount of damage but they won’t last forever. The fleets are never-ending and they’ll require more skill as time flies by. This is Space Armada, a blatant clone of Space Invaders. It was released for the Mattel Intellivision in 1981 and developed by John Brooks and Chris Hawley, programmers at APh Technological Consulting.
Space Invaders, er, Armada as seen in XBLA’s Game Room.
John: Wow, this is unashamedly a clone of Space Invaders; a hard one to boot. I like that the game is very colorful and it plays well, but it’ll take a lot of practice to make progress.
Jeff: This was a clone of Space Invaders; very simple and somewhat responsive. I just didn’t like how the first stage appears to be impossible to pass. I know it is possible, but just not worth the effort. The arcade industry didn’t have much reason to worry about home consoles at this point in time and I can see why.
Snafu is a game for the Mattel Intellivision hailing straight out of Mattel, courtesy of Mike Minkoff. Released in 1981, it’s a game where players control an ever growing snake and attempt to be the last of four to survive. The game gets trickier the longer a match lasts and it’s ideal for two players.
The common snake game is a blast on any platform, even Nokia cellphones!
John: One of the best games we played. It was a fun variant of the familiar snake game and it actually had a soundtrack, not just beeps and boops. This brought back memories of me draining the batteries on my dad’s Nokia cell phone; really fun game.
Jeff: This was one of the best games that I’ve played on the Intellivision, although that isn’t saying much. After all, this was just competitive snakes on a thirty year old system.
You’ve somehow managed to get stuck in a hedgerow maze and you’re not alone; bats, spiders, and robots are all around and they’re not going to play nice. Lucky for you there’s handgun somewhere in the maze. Too bad it only has six rounds. Managing the handgun’s ammunition and finding the next handgun to spawn are what it’s all about in Steve Montero’s Night Stalker, a 1982 release from Mattel for the Intellivision.
Spiders and bats in a hedgerow maze, sure, but robots?
John: The man moves horrendously and the game grows tepid quickly thanks to that, plus the monotonous routine he’s on. Not every game should have a “win” criteria but damn, this game needs another objective besides just surviving. At least it gets tougher as a game progresses.
Jeff: This reminded me of E.T. at first, but the only thing that would link these two games together is how terrible they are. I was not impressed with the game and the disc pad was still horrible. The soundtrack didn’t impress me either.
I dig the retro box art of INTV games, especially this one.
The primary objective of any thief is to steal anything of value and escape without being apprehended. That’s just what players do in Lock ‘n’ Chase, a Pac-Man like game with the objective of filling a thief’s coffers while evading the police. Originally a Data East arcade game, Mike Winans programmed the Intellivision version which was published by Mattel in 1982.
Um, Pac-Man?
John: A poor Pac-Man clone that loses a great deal of playability thanks to the Intellivision’s disc pad. Also, the soundtrack’s three sounds are grating. Not a great game.
Jeff: There isn’t much you can do with the Pac-Man formula and Lock ‘n’ Chase shows that. As a clear clone of the excellent Pac-Man you would think it wouldn’t be difficult to make a similar “run around and collect things, while avoiding capture”, but I was wrong. Thank you Data East for this horrendous game; beep, beep and a boop to you!
My Brain on Games 