I was listening to the most recent episode of Chris Plante's newish podcast "Post Games" where he interviewed the current CEO of Atari, Wade Rosen, about the current direction and the future of the Atari name, the Atari brand, and the very concept of Atari by the greater non-video game playing public. During the interview, Chris Plante mentioned the shirt that Wade was wearing and that it was available on Atari's website. This led me to discover that Atari bought the Intellivision brand on May 23, 2024, just over a year ago.
The last I had heard about Intellivision was that the long (long being relative to retro game enthusiasts) awaited release of the Intellivision Amico, a modern designed retro console to play Intellivision games was more-or-less dead. Originally announced in 2017, I was pretty excited about this console since the AtGames Flashback Intellivision console had ballooned from $90 to a price higher than I wanted to pay for a nostalgic novelty console; it's currently available for $249, so no. But then the price of the console was announced, coincidentally also at a $249 price point. There were several development delays due to product quality and then the supply chain issues brought about by the pandemic happened for the next couple of years. All of this is to put into context my feelings when I went perusing on Atari's website to guess as which shirt Wade was wearing, only to be surprised to find a shirt with "Intellivision" emblazoned across the front.
Atari owns Intellivision now.
That got my mental gears going again because on their website, Atari offers a few relatively inexpensive ways to play Atari 50, their 2022 collection of 100+ atari games from Atari's 50 years in existence. I then looked at Atari's public listing of what IP they currently own and obviously first looked to see if Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack and Golf were listed, which they were. Sadly though, Astrosmash wasn't listed, but at least Star Strike, which I recall never really being able to figure out, was also there.
So what if Atari were to do the same thing with Intellivision? But therein lies the problem.
The highlight of the Intellivision system were the TV remote style controllers that had swappable plastic sheets that fit over the number pad, customized to the game you were playing. You didn't technically need them and they would wear out after a few years of use, but they helped to extend the concept of the game past the screen. Having this type of functionality would require something like an elongated smart phone, but even then, the screen would be almost too small to read say, a golf ball two by two pixels in size.
The other option would be to essentially do what Amico tried to do, but to actually release a functioning product. Atari does have several retro consoles for sale, but they appear to be functioning consoles with backward compatibility between the "plus" iterations of the Atari 2600+ and Atari 7800+. Both consoles include game(s), but any additional games would require a physical cartridge. I really think that Amico had the right idea behind a digital controller that would change the screen based on the game, but the long delays in production completion and the internal problems with the company still give the $249 cost a significantly sour taste to the whole thing if it is ever released, even after the sale of the Intellivision IP to Atari.
What I really hope doesn't happen is for Atari to just sit on the Intellivision IP and not do anything with it without any future plans. We're already a year in, specifically 421 days since the acquisition and all that I can find on Atari's webpage are two shirts announced at the time Atari purchased Intellivision, and a page about the Intellivision brand. Now I'm not expecting anyting large and grand, but maybe something akin to the AtGames Flashback Intellivision console with 50 or so of the games that Atari has the IP for (specifically Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack and Golf) for the low-low price of $99.99 plus whatever Trump tariff increase seams reasonable to Atari's Board of Directors.
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