Blue Sky Ranger Discusses Groundbreaking Intellivision Game at Health Conference
Friday, 29 May 2009
Blue Sky Ranger Rick Levine will be a guest speaker at the Games for
Health conference in Boston (June 11 & 12, 2009). Games for Health has
been held annually since 2004, and it is part of the Serious Games
Initiative.
Rick is well-known for creating the Intellivision game Microsurgeon back in 1983 for Imagic. In the game, the player moves a robot probe through a patient's body, cutting out tumors and blood clots. Rick used his experience in the medical field to create a game that was ahead of its time, using factual medical information in a game that was fun and educational.
At the conference, Rick will discuss Microsurgeon in a Q&A format, with the game playing on a big screen.
For more about the conference, check out these links:
NOTE FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO WERE THERE: Because they let in people early for the next screening, we had to move the awarding of door prizes into the lobby. We know some people didn't find us and left without finding out if they won. If you still have your door prize ticket, email us the number (to
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) and we'll let you know if you are a winner! Sorry for the inconvenience! Write Comment
Last Updated ( Friday, 08 May 2009 )
Arcade Documentary Screening with Director Q&A Sunday
Saturday, 25 April 2009
Lincoln Ruchti (above right) talks with host Robert Welkner about his documentary film Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade on the web show Coin-Op TV. Inspired by a Life Magazine photo from 1982 showing the top arcade scorers in the country (below), Ruchti follows these gamers from their glory days in the arcades to their lives today. For some it's just a fond memory; others are still defending their claims to the high scores. Their stories are bizarre, touching and funny, often all at once.
Intellivision Productions, Inc. is sponsoring a screening of the film Sunday, April 26 at 2PM as part of the Los Angeles Harbor International Film Festival in San Pedro, California. After the screening, Ruchti will take questions from the audience. Well worth the $10 ticket price, right?
But wait! There's more! Yes, DOOR PRIZES! You arcade fans out there know Billy Mitchell, holder of multiple arcade machine world-records and the first person ever to score a perfect game in Pac-Man (3,333,360 points). He's featured in the film. He's also proprietor of Rickey's World Famous Hot Sauces. He's sent us a case of his hot sauce specially labeled with the Chasing Ghosts logo and the April 26, 2009 screening date. These limited and numbered collectors bottles will be given to randomly selected attendees of the screening. Copies of the music CD Intellivision in Hi-Fi will also be handed out, courtesy Intellivision Productions.
In addition to sponsoring this screening, Intellivision Productions provided footage from two vintage commercials - BurgerTime and Major League Baseball - to use in the film. "We're proud to be part of this movie," says Intellivision president Keith Robinson. "A big part of what we do is preserving and promoting video game history. Chasing Ghosts is an important document of that wild era when the arcade was the center of so many kids' lives."
If you're in the Los Angeles area this weekend, please join Lincoln Ruchti, Keith Robinson and a bunch of the Blue Sky Rangers at the screening! The Film Festival is being held at the historic Warner Grand Theatre, 478 West 6th Street in downtown San Pedro, California. Doors for Chasing Ghosts open at 1:30 PM. Tickets are $10. You can buy tickets at the door, or order online here.
Intellivision Sponsors Arcade Documentary April 26
Tuesday, 07 April 2009
Intellivision Productions, Inc. will sponsor a screening of the always fascinating, often hilarious documentary Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade at the Los Angeles Harbor International Film Festival, Sunday afternoon, April 26. What is Chasing Ghosts? The trailer says it all:
If the trailer speaks to you and you can get to the Los Angeles area, don’t miss this film! Director Lincoln Ruchti will be there for a Q&A session following the film. Also, a number of the original Intellivision programmers will be in attendance, happy to answer questions or autograph your fave game boxes.
The screening is at 2PM, Sunday April 26, at the historic Warner Grand Theatre, 478 West 6th Street in downtown San Pedro, California. Doors open at 1:30. Tickets are $10. You can buy tickets at the door, or order online here.
Last week, March 18 to be exact, was George Plimpton's birthday. George Plimpton, author, actor, raconteur, was the spokesman for Intellivision in a series of television and print ads in the early 1980s. While the Blue Sky Rangers will always remember the late Mr. Plimpton as the public face of Intellivision, he was so much more, as this song by Jonathan Coulton makes clear:
Blue Sky Ranger and Intellivision Productions, Inc. President Keith Robinson appeared on LAGtv.com (Live Action Gaming Television) Tuesday night. For those of you who missed it, you'll find his appearance posted here on LAGtv.com. Write Comment
The thief in the Lock ‘N Chase game is named Lupin after Arsene Lupin, Gentleman Thief, a French literary character popular in Japan where the original arcade version of the game was created. The name Lupin is used in the instructions on the arcade version but not in the Intellivision version.
The question I'm asked most frequently is "When is the DS version coming out?" Excellent question. It has been over three years since we first showed Intellivision Lives! for DS at the 2005 E3. Dozens of publishers have evaluated the product, and all have passed. The problem isn't the quality of the collection itself; we've received nothing but enthusiastic feedback. The problem is the bean counters for these publishers. In August, one company told us in an e-mail, "We intend to publish this game..." In September, they reversed themselves because "...the projected return did not justify the capital expenditure..." My frustration is that we have to find a licensed Nintendo publisher to get the DS version released; Nintendo does not have a path that would allow us to distribute Intellivision Lives! ourselves directly to the public.
That is changing soon. Nintendo is planning on releasing the successor to the DS, the DSi, in Spring 2009. The DSi will be able to upload complete games - including Intellivision Lives! - through a service similar to Wii Ware and Xbox Live Marketplace (which now carries our Xbox version). We are still trying to find a publisher for the current DS, but I am excited that even if that doesn't happen, you will all finally be able to play the DS version with the DSi.
Nintendo hasn't yet released details of how publishing to the DSi is going to work, so none of this is official; that's why I'm talking about it here in a blog instead of in the News column. But we have opened communication with Nintendo and I hope we can make an official announcement soon. Thanks for your patience; it looks like in 2009 it will be Springtime for Intellivision!
I'd like to thank all of the Intellivision fans who stopped by the National Cartoonists Society booth at Comic-Con to say Hello! It's always great to meet those of you who grew up with Intellivision and to hear the stories of playing the games under the Christmas tree with your brother or sister of dad, even if it does make me feel about 120 years old.
Here's a slideshow of photos from the booth... Write Comment
Earlier today, Tuesday, June 10, we posted a birthday greeting to Blue Sky Ranger John Sohl. John sent us an e-mail this afternoon thanking us for the birthday wishes and, by the way, pointing out that his birthday is actually June 20. Whoops. We've taken down the item and deleted the RSS link. They'll be back on the 20th.
I'm very sorry for the error. Luckily mistakes like this are extremely, extremely rare. Well, except for when we got Mike Minkoff's birthday wrong in the Intellivision Update e-mail last week. His birthday is May 30, not 15.
John says he is particularly looking forward to his birthday this year, as he'll be eligible for the 55+ meals at Denny's! Congrats, John (10 days early)!
Those of you who used to receive the Intellivision Newsletter should have received an “Intellivision Update” last weekend. (If not, please check your Spam folder and add us to your address book.)
If you want to sign up for the Updates, here's the form:
But, many of you have asked, Whatever happened to the Intellivision Newsletters? Here's the scoop...
Blue Sky Ranger Rick Levine will be a guest speaker at the Games for
Health conference in Boston (June 11 & 12, 2009). Games for Health has
been held annually since 2004, and it is part of the Serious Games
Initiative.
Rick is well-known for creating the Intellivision game Microsurgeon back in 1983 for Imagic. In the game, the player moves a robot probe through a patient's body, cutting out tumors and blood clots. Rick used his experience in the medical field to create a game that was ahead of its time, using factual medical information in a game that was fun and educational.
