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by Adam King |
Greetings, gamers, and welcome to back to RCV. This
month is also dedicated to George Plimpton, who passed away on September 26th.
He did a lot of things during his writing career, but of course we remember the
two years he spent bashing Atari and glorifying Intellivision. So I decided to
serve up another double dose of Plimpton, doing what he does best.
This was one of the early Plimpton ads. He tries to make his pint by showing off both systems' basketball and soccer games. We see Atari gameplay footage compared with Intellivision footage, meant to show us which console is better. BTW, this is the second commercial in the series; he did a previous one comparing baseball games.
"I've been making more comparisons between Mattel Electronic's Intellivision and Atari. Different games, but the same results. Look at Atari Basketball. And Intellivision. I think Intellivision plays more like real basketball. Here's Atari soccer. And Intellivision. Again I find Intellivision more sophisticated and lifelike. If you try them both I think you'll find the clear winner is Intellivision, from Mattel Electronics."
"Gather around, children, for a little look 'n' learn."
"Witness the battle of the Basketballs."
"I think I made my point. Atari bad. INTV good."
This ads does do a good job making Mattel's point clear.
Intellivoice Module
Our next spot is for Mattel's Intellivoice module, the box that gave some INTV games speech. Plimpton shows that the Atari just has blippy sound effects, yet the Intellivision can actually do voice clips.
"I'm about to show you something new for Intellivision that will revolutionize the way games are played and compared. First, here's a popular Atari game. Now don't look."
[Plimpton covers the screen with his hand, and we hear Asteroids]
"And here's new Space Spartans for the Intellivoice module."
[Plimpton again covers the screen, and we hear several voice clips from Space Spartans]
"New Intellivoice. Now that Intellivision talks, you can tell the difference with your eyes closed."
"Time for another lesson on why Intellivision rules."
"Hey! No peeking!"
The magic box that makes it all possible.
Geez, Mattel was attack Atari on all fronts, weren't they?
That's it for this month. I know you're wondering about some of the ads I'm going ot feature on the Commercial Vault CD. Next month I'll offer a sneak preview at two ads you won't find anywhere else. Until then see you next month.
Rest In Piece, Mr. Intellivision.