Though the Intellivision name has been popping up an awful lot in the last few years, mostly thanks to Tommy Tallarico hyping up a console that turned out to be entirely constructed of smoke, mirrors and empty promises (the Intellivision Amico), the brand name’s strength comes from a beloved, fondly remembered, early 80s console.

Yet for me personally, neither the brand nor its associated games hold any nostalgia at all.

Growing up in the UK, I don’t recall ever seeing an Intellivision on sale or on display anywhere, neither did anyone I know ever own one.

I don’t even recall seeing ads for the Intellivision or its games in magazines or comic books at the time, though can’t say the same for the Atari 2600 or many other contemporary machines and their software libraries.

Which makes it all the more remarkable that I enjoyed the Evercade’s Intellivision Collection 1 cartridge so much.

It can be difficult to divorce the warm glow of nostalgia from genuine enjoyment, but knowing that I had zero experience of any of these games – many of which I hadn’t even heard the titles of before – means that I definitely enjoyed them without the aid of rose tinted specs.

There’s a few weak links here, however – so let’s take a look at those first.

Word Rockets, a game in which you fire vowels at two consonants soaring by in the sky to spell words, feels like a great, original idea that’s slightly awkward in execution.

Slap Shot Super Pro Hockey did absolutely nothing for me, but then my lack of interest in sports definitely doesn’t help.

In its day, this would have been a genuinely impressive hockey game – but it’s just not to my taste.

Frog Bog is a beautiful game considering the Intellivision’s capabilities, but gameplay wise it’s lacking.

I wanted to like it, but the timing of catching flies to eat just feels too fussy – and the game ends up feeling incredibly repetitive and unsatisfying.

As I’m a pinball fan, I’m glad to report that the Intellivision’s silver ball simulator – which is simply called Pinball, as was the Atari 2600’s first attempt at adapting the game – at least looks the part, with impressive physics given the limitations of the hardware.

However, the table designs on offer are underwhelming, with the loss of balls often feeling inevitable due to the overly large gaps between flippers.

It’s not a bad game, but better pinball titles do exist on the Evercade (Psycho Pinball, for example – on the fantastic Codemasters Collection 1!).

So that’s it for the underwhelming titles in my opinion – four out of twelve ain’t bad, right?

The remaining right games are a really eclectic bunch, too – with lots of different mechanics and themes on offer, as well as a ‘new retro’ game too!

Astrosmash feels like a mashup between Space Invaders and Asteroids. Though not quite as classic an experience as that hybrid formula would suggest, it’s still a playable and addictive title.

Buzz Bombers is a sort of Centipede inspired shooter, with much chunkier visuals. Though everything feels a little too clunky to compete with the frantic, busy Centipede, Buzz Bombers has some unique ideas and ends up being a fun game to boot.

Night Stalker is a hilariously weird maze game that features both horror-inspired monsters and cheesy killer robots. Your character can grab guns to fight back against the nasties in this bizarre, B-movie style, surprisingly addictive game.

That aforementioned new retro title is Princess Quest, a great platform run and gun title, which benefits from more modern game design philosophies; at least as far as the Intellivision’s hardware allows.

Princess Quest plays a little like a precursor to Ghouls and Ghosts – and it’s a really good game in its own right, despite the unavoidable technical simplicity.

Shark! Shark! has become a bit of a poster child for the Intellivision Amico, as the remake seems to exist in some form – or at least quite a bit of footage of it does. Numerous people have played it too, from what I understand – so it feels less like vapourware than many other Amico games.

The original Intellivision version is what’s here though, of course – and it’s easy to see why this is both well remembered and an obvious choice for a modern update.

In Shark! Shark!, your little fish swims around eating smaller fish, getting bigger as it does so – and taking care to avoid the always deadly, titular shark.

It’s colourful, well designed and incredibly addictive; perhaps my favourite game overall on the Intellivision Collection 1 cartridge.

Snafu is essentially a competitive version of mobile classic Snake, with either a race to stay alive or a competition to be the first to bite off your opponent’s tail. Simple and compelling, it’s a great implementation of a timeless classic.

Another odd mashup that somehow works, Thin Ice adds cute characters and a polar setting to the abstract line-drawing gameplay of Qix.

It can be very challenging, but once you get your head around creating boxes – by drawing lines in the ice – to claim territory and defeat enemies, it’s a surprisingly decent game.

Lastly, Thunder Castle is another maze game of sorts, with an appealing fantasy theme and some lovely old school visuals.

So there we have it: a compilation of games that I had little to no familiarity with prior to playing them on the Evercade – yet I still found myself enjoying the arcade style purity of much of the content here.

A few titles can be difficult to get into – not just due to their gameplay, but also because the unique nature of the Intellivision controller has necessitated a bit of an obtuse workaround on the Evercade, sometimes hampering the selection of options and even starting of games.

Yet the hits and positives ultimately far outweigh the misses and negatives here.

The Intellivision Collection 1 is a fantastic glimpse at the earliest days of console gaming, from one of the biggest challengers to Atari’s dominance in the early 80s.

Not every title is great, but several feel utterly timeless – and this is also a wonderful collection from a preservation point of view too, with many of the 40-plus year old titles being somewhat difficult to come by in physical form these days.

You can purchase the Intellivision Collection 1 cartridge from Amazon here.