tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743918922173292265.post94669030857724924..comments2024-01-30T10:28:02.707-06:00Comments on MadPlanet's Gameroom: Shark! Shark! for the Intellivision (and Feeding Frenzy for the Xbox 360)MadPlanethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06725908232972984690noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743918922173292265.post-49456017195315209632011-02-19T20:22:26.815-06:002011-02-19T20:22:26.815-06:00oh - yeah, unfortunately Retrozone stopped selling...oh - yeah, unfortunately Retrozone stopped selling the Intellivision adapters shortly after I got mine. I even bought a couple of cheap used Colecovision controllers off eBay intending to buy some of their Colecovision adapters and they stopped selling them too. I e-mailed them one time asking when they might have some more and they said never because they just couldn't sell them.<br /><br />And fear not Paradroyd - all comments are welcome at the Gameroom, from the longest musing to the shortest tweet!MadPlanethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06725908232972984690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743918922173292265.post-81782942797667490582011-02-19T20:14:27.328-06:002011-02-19T20:14:27.328-06:00I heard that Gamestop originally refused to carry ...I heard that Gamestop originally refused to carry Intellivision Lives since it did not appeal to their target demographic. Although it looks like they have it now so I guess they relented on that stance.<br /><br />Yeah - passing command line parameters properly and exiting the games back to the FE was what I was getting hung up with on Nostalgia. Give Bliss a shot. You'll have to google it to get the setup files though, it hasn't been updated in forever and I think they even took down the main website.<br /><br />I typically use Stella for 2600 games I don't have and MAME (of course) for arcade, but I do have a couple of decent Atari compilations too - Atari Anniversary Edition on PC and Atari Classics Evolved on PSP which is decent. Both are cheap and pretty good.MadPlanethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06725908232972984690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743918922173292265.post-21608775676167789132011-02-19T15:42:28.114-06:002011-02-19T15:42:28.114-06:00In looking back at my recent comments, it's oc...In looking back at my recent comments, it's occurred to me that I'm really wordy. It's a wonder that I can use twitter at all..Paradroydnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743918922173292265.post-84756133538383065522011-02-19T15:40:18.097-06:002011-02-19T15:40:18.097-06:00I took a look at retrozone, which I didn't kno...I took a look at retrozone, which I didn't know about before (thanks, Madplanet). Sadly, though they have adapters for a <i>lot</i> of old systems, there's no mention there of an Intellivision USB adapter now. It looks like it's been discontinued long ago.<br /><br />I have a slightly unusual variant of the original Intellivision. It's the Sears super arcade, which is a re-branded version of the Intellivision 1 with different coloring and detatchable controllers with non-coiled cords. They have the standard 9 pin connector on them, so chances are I could use them with an adapter too if I could find one.<br /><br />I might have to take another look at Bliss, too. I have a couple of installations of XBMC on small PCs hooked up to out TVs here. In addition to using them as a front-end for media I have on a server, theres a plug-in called "launcher" for XBMC that I use to launch emulator based games. Launcher takes care of the presentation of games with box art and all of that, and mostly hides the guts of the underlying emulators. I have it set up with MAME, WinUAE, and Vice so far, but I haven't been able to get Nostalgia to launch reliably with ROMs as command line parameters, so I haven't gotten Intellivision integrated into it yet. Bliss might be the ticket to make that work.<br /><br />As far as Intellivision Lives for DS.. don't get me wrong.. it's not terrible by any means. It's still more than worth the money. It's just not as perfect as it could have been and <i>should</i> have been for a somewhat delayed-to-market commercial product. If your not an emulator-head like me, it's probably the best Intellivision emulator out there that you can just switch on and use out of the box without messing with ROMs and configurations. If you weren't as hard-core into the games as I was you may not even notice a lot of the problems and omissions. I just think they could have done better.<br /><br />For what it's worth, when I was looking for Intellivision Lives at a local Gamestop, they didn't have it yet, but they had a similar Atari emulator product called "Atari's Greatest Hits, Volume 1" for DS. I bought it on the spot, and I'm glad I did. While I didn't like the Atari 2600 system as much as the Intellivision, they really got this product right. It's polished in a way that the Intellivision for DS isn't..rock solid, <i>and</i> it includes a few Atari arcade machine emulations. Among them, it includes Battlezone, which was one of my early arcade favorites.Paradroydnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743918922173292265.post-39008484075636150882011-02-19T11:54:03.682-06:002011-02-19T11:54:03.682-06:00That's what I thought too. That is the one dra...That's what I thought too. That is the one drawback of my emulator setup is that I don't have any of the overlays. A lot of games I tried don't even use the keypad buttons or maybe just 1 and they still work fine. Well the original cart with the real overlay and console is always the way to go if you can. And I always loved that Intellivision box art!MadPlanethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06725908232972984690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743918922173292265.post-33340460049388336272011-02-19T08:07:50.617-06:002011-02-19T08:07:50.617-06:00That is disappointing to hear that the DS version ...That is disappointing to hear that the DS version isn't that great as it should easily be the best with the overlay recreation.Fallguy40https://www.blogger.com/profile/16426451655763875461noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743918922173292265.post-45085153126748715662011-02-17T23:19:01.092-06:002011-02-17T23:19:01.092-06:00Well since I got that USB adapter that let me use ...Well since I got that USB adapter that let me use my Intellivision II controllers (since the first ones were not detachable) I prefer to use the PC emulators too since it is closer to the real console experience. But I did think the DS emulation of the overlays looked pretty darn cool. Bugs would definitely be annoying though. I'll check it out one of these days after DS prices drop down to what the GBAs go for these days. <br /><br />Oh - and actually I agree with you on Nostalgia. I like it better as a standalone emulator, and meant to mention it in the post but I forgot. I just use Bliss because I run all my emus through the Hyperspin frontend and I had fewer problems setting up Bliss than I did with Nostalgia. And since it bypasses the Nostalgia FE I didn't get to see the box art and screenshots that Nostalgia offers anyway.MadPlanethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06725908232972984690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743918922173292265.post-19438690490060998912011-02-17T22:47:23.310-06:002011-02-17T22:47:23.310-06:00It's funny..in the review they tout the unique...It's funny..in the review they tout the uniqueness of the game, and I guess at the time, it was. It was probably one of the first, if not THE first games of it's type, but the concept has been reused many times since then. As MadPlanet said, there's Feeding Frenzy. Also there's a game called, "Doodle Fish" that's in a game compilation called "Gamebox" for the iPhone/Ipod touch that's almost identical. Then there's a wiiWare game that I picked up for the Nintendo Wii a few months ago that's almost the same (can't remember the exact name of it at the moment). I'm sure there are others, but those are the ones I've personally run across recently.<br /><br />About the DS version of Intellivision Lives.. I'm actually a bit disappointed with it. I have an original Intellivision, which I practically played to death back in the day. It's one of my favorite systems of all time. I've bought many different Intellivision compilations on many different platforms over the years, and I've played all of the emulators I could get my hands on (incidentally, I like Nostagia for Windows the best). Anyway, the point is, I'm very familiar with the feel of the games, the system, the whole bit. The concept of the DS version is absolutely freaking brilliant, using the touch screen for overlays. The in-game manuals are excellent too. Unfortunately though, the emulation itself is a bit off. There are bugs in many of the games that aren't in the originals, but are consistently reproducible in the DS version. One of the big ones off the top of my head is that when you're playing Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (called "Crown of Kings" in the DS version)you'll be running along through the maze and all of the sudden you're uncontrollably passing though walls. I've hit that one quite a few times ONLY in the DS version. There are a few other weird little things like that. Not huge stuff, just weird little bugs. The other thing is that there are a lot of weird and somewhat crippling interface changes and omissions. For example, when you're playing Advanced D&D, Treasures of Tarmin (renamed Minotaur), when you're walking around the dungeon, there's no way to see what's in your right or left hand! (unless I'm missing something) The icons are just missing. Another curious omission is that there's no way to count your arrows in Crown of Kings. On the harder levels, that can be a big deal. I just don't see why they left it out. It's not like the DS couldn't handle it.<br /><br />None of this stuff is a show-stopper on it's own, but it all adds up to hobble what really could have and <i>should</i> have been one of the most awesome Intellivsion emulator products ever, especially with the dual-screen overlay coolness.<br /><br />I really was looking forward to Intellivsion Lives for DS, but I find myself using other emulators because of it's issues. Seriously, if they acknowledged the issues, did a fixed second version of it and re-released it there's a good chance I would buy it again. I loved the original system that much. They got so close too...Paradroydnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743918922173292265.post-32219459981056069312011-02-14T10:12:05.485-06:002011-02-14T10:12:05.485-06:00oh - and I know you aren't quite as retro-orie...oh - and I know you aren't quite as retro-oriented as I am Fallguy so for a new-gen makeover of S.S. you might want to check out Feeding Frenzy. I think it is available for download on PSN now as well. Fun little game. Feeding Frenzy 2 is out now too. Just consider it an homage instead of a ripoff.MadPlanethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06725908232972984690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743918922173292265.post-12279314954047261882011-02-14T10:05:12.038-06:002011-02-14T10:05:12.038-06:00Yeah it looks pretty nice. I didn't have much ...Yeah it looks pretty nice. I didn't have much interest until I saw the picture with the overlay on the bottom touchscreen and thought - well hey that's pretty cool. Whenever people are tired enough of their old DSs to sell them on Craigslist for around $20 I will get one and a copy of I.L. for it.MadPlanethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06725908232972984690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743918922173292265.post-37050721437475494492011-02-14T06:07:08.045-06:002011-02-14T06:07:08.045-06:00I've extremely impressed by the DS implementat...I've extremely impressed by the DS implementation of Intellivision games. That is easily the best yet.<br /><br />I've only played Shark Shark on the PC version of Intellivision Lives. It was a fun game that would have gotten a lot of play time from me had I gotten it back in the day.Fallguy40https://www.blogger.com/profile/16426451655763875461noreply@blogger.com