Intellivision Game System

Intellivision was developed by Mattel which was first released in 1979. The unit was devised to rival that of Atari 2600.

* Intellivision sold about 180,0000 units the first year at $299. Intellivsion advertised itself with being the game system with the best 3D graphics and most realistic feel to the real thing.
* Intellivision featured a keyboard style controller different from anything on the market.
* In 1982 Mattel introduced the voice synthesis device, which produces speech when playing specific games. Due to the fact you can't compress that much speech on a game cartridge really hurt the sales of the device.
* Mattel pretty much lost its market in the gaming industry with false promises. Making promises about releasing upgrades to the current system, but those upgrades never came about.

Then in 1983 Mattel released The Intellivision II Game System which featured a more compact design and detachable controllers. The system also supported Atari 2600 games as well.

Many of the original intellivision games were not compatible due in part to the controller play. Also due to the fact they tried to place a lock code on the inside of the game system. So other companies games would not play on the unit. This did fail, and inturn caused many gliches with some of the original Intellivision Games.

The Intellivision 2 is widely collected today and receives a higher dollar than the original bulky Intellivision.

An Inlay or Overlay - Was made so that would slide into place as an extra layer on the keypad to show game-specific key functions. This is a rectangular piece of plastic, that fit in on the controller for the game system.

Each game came with 2 inlays included the inlays specific purpose was to help you play the game. The inlay which you placed on top of the controller, on top of the buttons. Then the inlay had directional controls printed on them.

With the use of the inlay or overlay, you actually could have 16 different controls you could operate. Which was pretty unique at that time.  If you need some Inlays or Overlays, I found Some for relatively cheap

The Game that was included with Intellivision was Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack. This is still one of the most common games around. There were about 11 main companies that made games for Intellivision.

** Mattel
** Sega
** Sears
** Parker Brothers
** Imagic
** Coleco
** CBS (Telegames)
** Atarisoft
** Activision
** Intv Corporation

There was a good number of games produced for the system which made for some extremely common games, such as Sub Hunt, Advanced D&D, Astrosmash, and Space Battle.

Then their are Intellivision games that are very rare and probably could get 100's of dollars on eBay. Some titles are Congo Bongo, Spiker Super Pro Volleyball, and Super Cobra (Which is worth around $150.00). These games were made with very limited quantities, and many collectors look for years still not to find one.

I've always have been told white label games are also a collectors item. I never really could find out really why. It seemed way back when when the games were made, to cut cost intellivision had some of their games printed on what ever just to save cost. Maybe this is how the white labels began?

As always boxed Intellivision games are still sought after.  Many collectors are still looking for some of their favority games with the original box.  You could probably sell a lot of 25 more common games with boxes between $50 and $100 just depending on the titles.  As always you can buy and sell intellivision games all over the net check out The Old School Game Vault to sell games now.