What is an Intellivision?

The Mattel Intellivision is a home video game console that was released in 1979 by Mattel Electronics, makers of Barbie, Hot Wheels, and much more. 

Throughout the 1980's it was a direct competitor of the Atari 2600 and Colecovision and was a moderate success worldwide. Games for the console were still being released into the early 1990's via mail-in orders. A total of over 3 million Intellivision consoles were reportedly sold worldwide.

Many Intellivision products were released after that era, including LCD handhelds, compilations on Playstation 2, Xbox, Gamecube and Nintendo DS and the Intellivision Flashback in the 2014.

An attempt to revive the Intellivision with a new console in the 2020's ultimately failed due to mismanagement and other issues. In 2024 Atari purchased the rights to Intellivision with plans for a modern revival. 

The Mattel Intellivision has had a very active aftermarket gaming scene with new homebrew games being released each year by many publishers. The first homebrews being released in the early 2000's and then taking off in the 2010's with Intelligentvision and Elektronite and others soon following. These new Intellivision game releases are keeping the Mattel Intellivision legacy alive!

Burgertime!

Factoid: Intellivision was the first 16 bit video game console.

Elektronite's SteamRoller

Pitfall!

Utopia!