Intuition

Name:	Intuition
Company:	Tigervision
Model #:	7-009
Programmer:	Unknown
Year:	1983
Released?	Yes
Notes:	Originally scheduled for release in March of 1983

Intuition has always been a bit of mystery in the 2600 world.  While it was shown in the last Tigervision catalog, the picture and description were rather vague.  Showing the head of a translucent being with a prominent brain, the game description simply says "Develop your creativity!  This fun game uses forms and color to enhance your intuitive reaction and creative thinking."  Not exactly much to go on...

While most people wrote Intuition off as one of those odd experimental games that companies were trying out towards later years of the 2600's life, most people assumed that the game had never been started (catalogs of the time were infamous for listing games that had no programming started as "coming soon!").  Then in 2021 a copy surfaced in a Chicago area used book and game store, but its existence was not made public at the time.  In early 2022 the game was then auctioned off and sold to an anonymous bidder for $10,000.  How a used bookstore in Chicago came into possession of this one of a kind prototype is unknown, but as Tigervision was located in the Chicago area it wouldn't be unusual for a former employee's items to be sold to used game/book store.

Not much is really known about the development of the game.  For years most people assumed that the catalog entry said "By Aqam" (due to the font used), but no one could ever figure out who or what Aqam was.  Thankfully a sharp eyed Atari historian Rob of AtariSpot noticed that the catalog description didn't say 'Aqam' but rather 'Agam'.  So what the heck was Agam you ask?  Agam isn't a company but rather a man, Yaacov Agam.  Yaacov Agam is a famous Israeli artist known for his experimental optical and kinetic art.  So how did a Israeli experimental artist get involved with creating an Atari 2600 game?  It appears that Yaacov had an interest in using computers as a medium for his experimental creations.  In addition to developing intuition for the 2600, he also developed an Atari 8-bit computer program called Yaacov Agam's Interactive Painting for Atari France which also went unreleased (although a playable prototype exists).  Further research shows that Yaacov Agam was indeed involved with the creation of Intuition as it was mentioned in a blurb about new Tigervision games in the Arcade Express newsletter.

So now that the origins of the game are a little clearer, how about the gameplay?  Not much is known about how the game actually plays as the rom has not been released to the public.  While the catalog entry says the game was supposed to "Develop your creativity and enhance your intuitive reaction and creative thinking", another description says that the game was made to exercise the left side of the brain (the logical side of the brain) and was supposed to "stimulate reactions in the user and break down the innate resistance we have to using that part of the brain".  Unfortunately neither one of these descriptions really helps us understand how this game was to be played.  Thankfully we have a brief description from the few people who saw the game in action before it was sold.  Once again Rob of AtariSpot provides us with some crucial information:

"The gameplay does match that description, but with no directions of any kind, it's hard to tell what you're supposed to do.  There are some bars shifting colors along the top and bottom of the screen.  Underneath the top bar are a couple rows of numbers.  In the middle of the screen are two more single digit numbers which you can adjust.  When you press the button on the joystick you either get a stereotypical Atari "bad" sound, or a brief "good" tune.  If you get a good tune it shows a random shape such as a heart or star and then it starts all over."

So now we have an idea of how the game looked while being played, it doesn't really help with figuring out how the game was meant to be played.  It would appear that the player was supposed to adjust the two sets of numbers in the middle of the screen based on the numbers and moving colors on the top of the screen.  If the player successfully used their intuition they were rewarded with a little tune and a pretty picture, otherwise they got a razz sound.  This sounds very similar to Atari's ESP based experimental game Mind Maze.

So why was Intuition never released?  While we don't known for sure, best guesses are that it either did poorly in focus group testing (not really being a game, but rather a experimental brain training program) or possibly that Tigervision got cold feet after the bean counters told them that it wouldn't sell in large numbers.  It's also possible that there was some sort of disagreement between Yaacov and Tigervision or that the game simply wasn't shaping up the way he (or Tigervision) wanted.  Until the rom is released, we can only speculate on what happened to this unique game.

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