Why Didn't The Intellivision CRUSH The Atari 2600?

I talk about back when it was Atari vs Intellivision, and how did the Atari manage to win the console war with such an inferior system in comparison.

[_Bit]

Atari 2600: 1) released first 2) less expensive console price 3) had more comfortable controllers 4) had a more open architecture due to 65xx processor, easier for 3rd party developers 5) arcade game licenses 6) fast 60 fps gameplay 7) bigger game library 8) cheap games 9) better pack-in game 10) more name recognition 11) lots of 3rd party controllers, easily replaceable

[PuzZLeR_]

Interesting subject. I think you covered it all.

Atari had:
-a head start on the market
-strong branding and marketing
-many more arcade licences
-a cheaper price
-a simple joystick controller (which at the time was the norm)

Those that were into graphics, sophistication and sports titles were who Intellivision likely won over, but Atari was all about marketing which was hard to beat.

[bmkretrogaming]

Nice video, and great topic Brian! You made a lot of excellent points. As many have already pointed out here it mostly came down to Atari having a more established brand, better price point, controllers which weren't awkward for those not accustomed to them, and better third party game support. Of course the IntelliVision did rule in it's own time as king of the sports game genre. With you well all know you grew up as a Commodore 64, and IntelliVision gamer whereas you also developed a great love of Atari down the road.

[Halbared]

Love those original cart designs, very utilitarian.

[mrtoon]

I think it's the arcade titles. It was all about having those arcade ports at home

[DangerousDaveyBoy]

I had an Intellivision. My favorite game was Astrosmash. But I loved Night Stalker, Lock -n- Chase, and the incredible version of BurgerTime. We had Baseball and Frog Bog and, of course, Blackjack and Poker. But my Dad wanted to surprise us with an Atari. (Because that’s what all the kids were talking about). The lady at Toys R Us immediately said, NO! Intellivision is better than Atari. Get a Nintendo”.

[Diskoboy]

Intellivision was originally supposed to have NFL Football packed in. Had Matell stuck to that idea, it would've sold a LOT more machines.

[thegougeman]

Intellivision doesn't get enough credit for being the first 16-bit gaming system. They dared to use the CP1610 processor (which wasn't very popular at the time), and the power of the Intellivision with that 16-bit processor clocked in 2 MHz, vs. the 8-bit chip running at 1.19 MHz for the Atari. What's weird is that in retrospect, there is something very nostalgic about the Intellivison games that seem to hold up way better than the Atari 2600 games even though Atari was more popular back in the day. The sounds the Intellivision could make with it's sound card were incredible (i.e. Night Stalker, Tron Deadly Disc etc). Maybe it's like the Intellivison machine had more personality? Kind of hard to put into words, but I was glad I grew up with the Intellivision (yes I am that old) and that my parents had it waiting for us Christmas of 1980, plugged up in the living room (and they were playing Armor Battle against each other). I'll never forget it....

[RayChiTown]

I've never had a Combat cartridge. We had a Sears Tele-Games Video Arcade. It came with Target Fun (Air-Sea Battle) instead of Combat. I was actually happy to have Target Fun instead of Combat.

[derkikkirshaw]

I was lucky enuff to have both, was 7 in 1984 and it held us over untill we got a nes in 1989

[kromanaut]

Good point about the controllers. The 2600 joystick was much more reminiscent of real arcade games, which basically represented the gold standard of gaming at that time. However, in my personal opinion, I always disliked the Atari 2600 controller, it just didn't feel right to me. On the other hand, I really liked Intellivision's unique circular d-pad thing (not sure what it's actually called) and the different game cards you would put over the membrane keypad looked really cool.

[IntoTheVerticalBlank]

Too expensive and the controllers were not great (they were good though) . The Intellivision was for people with a lot of money. At the time it was far out of the reach of most people. Even the 2600 was expensive.
The games were great though. The 2600 could easily compete in game play though and for the most part that counted for more. Plus licenses AND the best Activision games were on the 2600 (Intellivison got some too).

Great video as always Brian. The 2600 was out in 1977 (didn't really start selling a lot until last '78) and the Intellivison was out in '79, BUT it really didn't start selling until 1980.

[JustMe]

The killer app for the VCS was Space Invaders. Once that was the pack-in (instead of Combat) the war was over. Also there is one advantage that the VCS had... although the graphics were not as good as the Intellivision, the games tended to be more playable, and the animations were much more fluid (Intellivision's animations are very choppy).

[catholicactionbibleonlyist]

may have born 1988 and only been aware of Intellivision for a few mouths, however more a fan of the Intellivision

[SnapCraft]

Not mentioned yet (at least I didn't see): the library. Atari had a lot more games. Also, Intellivision was seen mainly as a 2-player "sports" console. Real fans knew better and loved the controller!

[ethacade]

Imo it comes down to the controllers and the fact the Atari controllers were easier to use over Intellivision controllers

[danielespeziari]

I was born in 1984, so I didn't experience the early 80s, but I know arcades were huge at the time, and I believe people wanted their consoles to replicate the games they were playing in the arcades. That's why the 2600 really became a huge success after the release of the Space Invaders port, and started to decline after the horrible port of Pac Man. As you said, money was also a key factor, and you must remember that Atari in the early 80s was part of Warner, which certainly helped. So, arcade ports, money and marketing

[marklechman]

Because once you were done playing your first game on the Intellivision, you could never get it back out of the console.😁

[mjp]

Did Intellivision really have better graphics?

[BillyinRetroNola]

In my eyes, Intellivision did crush Atari. I always thought that the Atari's drawback was its simple controller. There was only so much you can do with 8 directions and one fire button. The Intellivision controllers allowed them to do so much more with the games.