Early Intellivision Games Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sea Battle

The screen primarily shows the ocean with each player's home port in the designated corner. You have thirteen ships and eight types of ships. Your ships are grouped in fleets of one to three ships. When one of your fleets encounters one of your opponent's fleets, combat begins. One of the ship types is a minelayer that can place up to four underwater minefields.

This 1980 game was designed by Ken Smith.

Answer: NASL Soccer

You choose which team player to control on your team with the AI controlling the other players. Several actions are possible including dribbling and corner kicks. In this two player game, if your game ends in a time you continue playing in overtime.

The field scrolls from side to side (one of the first times in a video game) in this relatively slow moving game. The game was released in 1980.

Answer: Horse Racing

The game takes place at a fictional racetrack in western Kentucky. Up to six players can play "Horse Racing", with each player betting on that day's races. Each race has four horses and each horse has special abilities. Players then use the joysticks to move the horses along the track. The horses have color-themed names to identify them. This 1980 game was designed by Chris Hawley

Answer: Space Battle

This 1979 video game was designed by Hal Finney. in this space battle you are controlling the mothership and the computer, representing an alien race, has six fleets of space ships. There was no two-player version of this game. You have two views, however: from the cockpit of a fighter or the radar view from the mothership.

The working title "Battlestar Galactica" suggests it was originally based on that television franchise.

Answer: NBA Basketball

Ken Smith developed this 1980 video game. Your team consisted of three players. One was controlled by you and the other two by the computer (you could choose which player was controlled by you). Your player could carry out a variety of actions but all baskets were worth two points and there were no foul shots.

The NBA logo appeared on the packaging. The game had twelve minute simulated quarters and a five-minute overtime period

Answer: Auto Racing

"Auto Racing" was released in 1980 and written by Larry Zwick. Multiple versions of this game were possible with five different tracks to choose from as well as five different cars. In the solo player mode, you raced against the clock. In the two player mode, pulling far enough ahead of your opponent was more likely to earn you points.

In either case, the player controlled steering and breaking, rather than the speed of the car.

Answer: US Ski Team Skiing

Each of the six players gets three chances or heats on the same ski course with the fastest time winning. You have the choice of a downhill or slalom course. The downhill course has varying levels of steepness. Your skier character naturally accelerates leaving you to use the joystick to turn the skier. Scott Reynolds designed this 1980 release. Later editions of this game were usually just called "Skiing".

Answer: APBA Backgammon

This 1979 game was designed by Kevin Miller. It closely based on the traditional board game. The player is presented with a traditional appearing backgammon board with the triangular spaces and the black and white playing pieces. A familiar game like this might have interested potential purchasers who were less familiar with video games.

Answer: Armor Battle

Chris Kingsley created this 1979 video game. You have over two hundred battlefields on which to combat your opponent. A player starts with an active tank and a tank in reserve and tries to eliminate opponent tanks with three direct hits.The amount of cover provided and speed at which tanks may travel varies according to terrain type and physical features.

Answer: Baseball

Over one million copies of "Baseball" were sold. This game was played by two players with the first representing the away team. The 1980 game was created by David Rolfe. For the time, players had a large number of choices including type of pitch, defensive play attempted, and base stealing.

Intellivision acquired a license from Major League Baseball although only the MLB label was used for the game (on the packaging).