Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

2 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

Absolutely we have concerns.  Have been figuring a lot of things out though.

 

Also... the pics of the machine on the website are not the final one.  We've actually change a few things on the base and it looks even cooler IMO.  Things like the charging ports and airflow and lighting needed to be tweaked a bit.  We'll be replacing all the pics when the Rev 2 Dev Kits are finalized and produced. Will be revealed on our 40th anniversary.  Dec. 3, 2019.   

 

2 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

Absolutely we have concerns.  Have been figuring a lot of things out though.

 

Also... the pics of the machine on the website are not the final one.  We've actually change a few things on the base and it looks even cooler IMO.  Things like the charging ports and airflow and lighting needed to be tweaked a bit.  We'll be replacing all the pics when the Rev 2 Dev Kits are finalized and produced. Will be revealed on our 40th anniversary.  Dec. 3, 2019.   

 

Sweet! Can’t wait to see the updates on the machine...the pics give us diehards something to look forward to!

Glad you guys are working on the SD card and piracy issues. I remember you saying in some interviews about the concerns of piracy and its harm to the Amico ecosystem and it seems like hackers love easy SD access. I want the Amico to succeed because I think it will be a fun and incredibly value priced system for pure family fun!

5 minutes ago, MarioMan88 said:

 

Sweet! Can’t wait to see the updates on the machine...the pics give us diehards something to look forward to!

 

Glad you guys are working on the SD card and piracy issues. I remember you saying in some interviews about the concerns of piracy and its harm to the Amico ecosystem and it seems like hackers love easy SD access. I want the Amico to succeed because I think it will be a fun and incredibly value priced system for pure family fun!

I always kind of figured they might go the Dish route where in order to expand memory for the DVR you could plug in a device but once it formatted for that system it wouldn’t work on say a PC.  I don’t know if that’s what they did or not but and I’m not tech savvy enough to know if that’s possible on SD cards but it makes since in my head 

16 minutes ago, Alpha82 said:

I always kind of figured they might go the Dish route where in order to expand memory for the DVR you could plug in a device but once it formatted for that system it wouldn’t work on say a PC.  I don’t know if that’s what they did or not but and I’m not tech savvy enough to know if that’s possible on SD cards but it makes since in my head 

I use to have Dish but never needed to add additional storage, but Dish has always been aggressive fighting piracy. Sure hope Tommy & team use a strategy like this.
 

Still have my original Wii from launch and was shocked to hear from my modding friends how easy the Wii was to exploit via the SD card slot.

34 minutes ago, Blarneo said:

Will your T Shirts eventually come in white?

Black is too hot for Florida, although there's a few sweaty masochists who try to be edge lords about it & wear black anyway. 

Yeah... we'll be adding new merchandise to the store every few weeks.

1 hour ago, GrudgeQ said:

Tommy is downplaying his Instagram! Sure it has lots of pics of him with famous people & concerts around the world (blah, blah, blah) but you also get to see Tommy in his role as a serious, corporate leader in Amico planning meetings, business negotiations & talking with Intellivision staff:

 

BUSTED!!

Lemurs were the ones doing the controller LED RINGS (get it?)

On 10/11/2019 at 3:58 AM, IntelliMission said:

I just learned about the intense drama in the Atari VCS topic, with at least 3 different persons using Tommy's avatar... wow.

Wow! If this avatar comes from a picture of Amico ...

It becomes popular.

4 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

And lets not forget about the collectable RFID card as well.  This card will enable you to easy join our monthly sweepstakes.  This includes giving away on of our LIMITED EDITION Intellivision Amico's every month until launch!

Tommy the RFID card will be the only way to access the features you mentioned? My phone doesn't have a NFC capability, in case I'll buy an external reader...

6 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

We're not going to be selling them individually... they will all be coming in "packs".  So you'll be able to get 10 original sports titles in the SPORT pack and the price will be around $5 for the entire thing.  So we're only talking around .50 per game.  Our goal isn't to make money on these titles... but more about keeping the legacy alive. 

I'm thinking it would also be a huge logistic nightmare to try and figure out who originally bought something from 40 years ago without a receipt.  Just showing a pic of a cartridge wouldn't mean much.  What if someone stole a bunch of games?  Without a receipt, how would one prove that they were the originally purchaser?  And then they would need to show every game in the pack.  Easy to just pull pics off the internet.  If there's a way to "beat the system"... folks will find it.  Even if they are only saving around 50 cents. 

I'm hoping that the very low price is something that will appeal to the original Intellivision owners.  I feel that .50 is a great value to play those originals with a digital overlay and force feedback, etc. 

Just want to point out (so no one is disappointed on launch) that these are something we are looking to do after launch and after the machine has been established.  We don't want to confuse new consumers or have people think we're some AT Games pile of crap.  I put out a retro style trailer for the PRGE last year (a retro convention) and it's taken me over a year to try and convince folks that we aren't a retro machine.  I could easily see some in the gaming press or podcasters reviewing those experiences and saying how lame the machine is.  We all know the kind of "folks" we're talking about.  

Hope that helps to explain everything a bit more.

Curious to know your thoughts now that you know a little more.

p.s.  Here are 2 colored versions of the NEW logo in .jpg format... you gotta update your avatar! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's fair.  I would pay $5 for a bundle.  That makes sense instead of charging that much per game.  I'll try to change my avitar.  Thanks!

7 hours ago, MarioMan88 said:

I use to have Dish but never needed to add additional storage, but Dish has always been aggressive fighting piracy. Sure hope Tommy & team use a strategy like this.
 

Still have my original Wii from launch and was shocked to hear from my modding friends how easy the Wii was to exploit via the SD card slot.

Of course Tommy should not say anything about any protection scheme (any hints are a hackers friend), but just generally modern console protection relies a lot on cryptographic code signing, (and depending on the chipset) memory encryption and a hypervisor (like a built in command & control system) that can prevent "data" from being executed as code (a common hacking technique). There are also things called 'e-fuses' which can be blown at hardware level in the CPU, which can be checked to force the system to run only certain firmware levels - so things have gotten a lot more sophisticated. That being said, really no system is unhackable, it is just a matter of "time divided by interest". The more the system is interesting to hackers the more attacks will be made and the more likely a hack will be found. On the good news front the Amico isn't a powerhouse system sold at a loss like most consoles (just think if you could hack the new PS5, you might get a $800-$900 PC equivalent for $500), doesn't really target the H4X0R (geek) customer, also the games are cheap ($6-9 rather than $40-60) which also lowers interest. Also quite frankly Amico right now has a 'good guy' vibe in the community which limits the people who would want to hack it (most hackers do have some sort of ethics). So although IE can't probably create Microsoft/Sony levels of hacking prevention (no knock, just really budget) it also presents a lower profile for hackers. All IE do is make it tough enough to ride out 5-7 years of the life of the console so when it does get hacked it is a legacy system and 95-100% of the revenue the system will ever make is already generated.

Lots of good info there GQ and I’m sure Tommy & Team have a plan on piracy and, as you say, I’m sure no hints will be handed out! 
 
I tend to think like you and hope the low entry cost of the machine and games will keep piracy away from this console. I’m pretty pumped about it and all that the Intellivision folks have in store for us. Brother and I use to play Dracula and Utopia as youngsters and I can’t wait to play the reimagined versions of these games. 

3 hours ago, GrudgeQ said:

Of course Tommy should not say anything about any protection scheme (any hints are a hackers friend), but just generally modern console protection relies a lot on cryptographic code signing, (and depending on the chipset) memory encryption and a hypervisor (like a built in command & control system) that can prevent "data" from being executed as code (a common hacking technique). There are also things called 'e-fuses' which can be blown at hardware level in the CPU, which can be checked to force the system to run only certain firmware levels - so things have gotten a lot more sophisticated. That being said, really no system is unhackable, it is just a matter of "time divided by interest". The more the system is interesting to hackers the more attacks will be made and the more likely a hack will be found. On the good news front the Amico isn't a powerhouse system sold at a loss like most consoles (just think if you could hack the new PS5, you might get a $800-$900 PC equivalent for $500), doesn't really target the H4X0R (geek) customer, also the games are cheap ($6-9 rather than $40-60) which also lowers interest. Also quite frankly Amico right now has a 'good guy' vibe in the community which limits the people who would want to hack it (most hackers do have some sort of ethics). So although IE can't probably create Microsoft/Sony levels of hacking prevention (no knock, just really budget) it also presents a lower profile for hackers. All IE do is make it tough enough to ride out 5-7 years of the life of the console so when it does get hacked it is a legacy system and 95-100% of the revenue the system will ever make is already generated.

yeah not trying to get insights on that at all.  I intend to buy a lot of the new games even ones that I may not use now because as life changes in the future some of those might be good to have.  That's why I'm trying to buy any extras for Amico I can early including things to make it easier on my body to game due to my physical limitations, to SD card case and maybe some cards or an external hard drive to back up the games to.  Do you have a SD card brand or type you would recommend for this sort of thing? 

1 hour ago, Alpha82 said:

yeah not trying to get insights on that at all.  I intend to buy a lot of the new games even ones that I may not use now because as life changes in the future some of those might be good to have.  That's why I'm trying to buy any extras for Amico I can early including things to make it easier on my body to game due to my physical limitations, to SD card case and maybe some cards or an external hard drive to back up the games to.  Do you have a SD card brand or type you would recommend for this sort of thing? 

Didn’t mean to imply you were asking for insights on protection - truthfully that was for Tommy not to reply if I am even close because he is often willing to chime in on stuff. On the SD card, I am a big fan of Sandisk with Samsung being my 2nd choice. I don’t use anything else for anything important. Cost a little more but worth it.

2 hours ago, MarioMan88 said:

Lots of good info there GQ and I’m sure Tommy & Team have a plan on piracy and, as you say, I’m sure no hints will be handed out! 
 
I tend to think like you and hope the low entry cost of the machine and games will keep piracy away from this console. I’m pretty pumped about it and all that the Intellivision folks have in store for us. Brother and I use to play Dracula and Utopia as youngsters and I can’t wait to play the reimagined versions of these games. 

The Amico such a deal already it shouldn’t have to fight the pirates over $8 games, however I know some will try. Also liked Dracula & am a big Utopia fan - always like the strategy games. Lots of good games on the Intellivision plus many which were impressive technically for the time like the Intellivoice games and complexity games the DnD or Utopia - it really was a step above Atari as far as just system capability. Can’t wait to see what the Amico brings on those and other classics re imagined.

7 hours ago, GrudgeQ said:

The Amico such a deal already it shouldn’t have to fight the pirates over $8 games, however I know some will try. Also liked Dracula & am a big Utopia fan - always like the strategy games. Lots of good games on the Intellivision plus many which were impressive technically for the time like the Intellivoice games and complexity games the DnD or Utopia - it really was a step above Atari as far as just system capability. Can’t wait to see what the Amico brings on those and other classics re imagined.

If the focus of video games in the early 80s had been more on depth, than making a clone/port of arcade games, the Intellivision would have been deeper in the spotlight and around a lot longer than either of the big 3 system of the era.  Just think of the Intellivision playing some of the early Commodore 64 games from Epyx like Summer Games, Temple of Apshai, Impossible Mission.  From what some of the recent independent developers have shown us, big RPG style games were definitely doable... Just that the market wasn't ready for it.  

The Intellivision was number two in it's era.  Games at the time were limited by cartridge size; 4k to start and some 16k cartridges starting in 1983.  Today, Intellivision homebrews are pushing 400k.  Computers with floppies at that time didn't have that limitation; if only the Keyboard Component had come out.  Seriously, Mattel was already working on the Intellivision's replacement in 1982, it was the only way it could have competed. 

Regarding piracy; nobody knows what the impact piracy has on sales.  The best selling video games are sometimes the most pirated.  Steam makes tons of money despite piracy.

19 hours ago, MonsterSky said:

 

Tommy the RFID card will be the only way to access the features you mentioned? My phone doesn't have a NFC capability, in case I'll buy an external reader...

Sorta.  By law people will be able to mail in chances to win prizes.  The RFID just makes it a LOT easier. 

That being said... no reason why you couldn't have a friend's phone enter you into the give-a-ways.  I'm feeling bad that you would need to spend additional money just to enter our give-a-ways.

 

12 hours ago, GrudgeQ said:

Of course Tommy should not say anything about any protection scheme (any hints are a hackers friend), but just generally modern console protection relies a lot on cryptographic code signing, (and depending on the chipset) memory encryption and a hypervisor (like a built in command & control system) that can prevent "data" from being executed as code (a common hacking technique). There are also things called 'e-fuses' which can be blown at hardware level in the CPU, which can be checked to force the system to run only certain firmware levels - so things have gotten a lot more sophisticated. That being said, really no system is unhackable, it is just a matter of "time divided by interest". The more the system is interesting to hackers the more attacks will be made and the more likely a hack will be found. On the good news front the Amico isn't a powerhouse system sold at a loss like most consoles (just think if you could hack the new PS5, you might get a $800-$900 PC equivalent for $500), doesn't really target the H4X0R (geek) customer, also the games are cheap ($6-9 rather than $40-60) which also lowers interest. Also quite frankly Amico right now has a 'good guy' vibe in the community which limits the people who would want to hack it (most hackers do have some sort of ethics). So although IE can't probably create Microsoft/Sony levels of hacking prevention (no knock, just really budget) it also presents a lower profile for hackers. All IE do is make it tough enough to ride out 5-7 years of the life of the console so when it does get hacked it is a legacy system and 95-100% of the revenue the system will ever make is already generated.

Totally agree on all points!

On 10/13/2019 at 9:04 AM, Tommy Tallarico said:

Cool.  Please send us some YouTube trailer or gameplay links.

Make sure to send an e-mail to [email protected] 

My team has put a process in place for folks looking to potentially develop for our system.

 

Thanks!

Sent.

1 hour ago, IMBerzerk said:

If the focus of video games in the early 80s had been more on depth, than making a clone/port of arcade games, the Intellivision would have been deeper in the spotlight and around a lot longer than either of the big 3 system of the era.  Just think of the Intellivision playing some of the early Commodore 64 games from Epyx like Summer Games, Temple of Apshai, Impossible Mission.  From what some of the recent independent developers have shown us, big RPG style games were definitely doable... Just that the market wasn't ready for it.  

Man my brother and I loved Summer Games, Winter Games..lots of battles on the C64!

1 hour ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Sorta.  By law people will be able to mail in chances to win prizes.  The RFID just makes it a LOT easier. 

That being said... no reason why you couldn't have a friend's phone enter you into the give-a-ways.  I'm feeling bad that you would need to spend additional money just to enter our give-a-ways.

 

I'm not in the know with techy stuff, but exactly how would you utilize the information on the card that comes with the t-shirt?  Is this basically downloading an app that will read the information?  Thanks in advance for the help!

6 hours ago, atarifan88 said:

I'm not in the know with techy stuff, but exactly how would you utilize the information on the card that comes with the t-shirt?  Is this basically downloading an app that will read the information?  Thanks in advance for the help!

Yes.  Correct.  Through an app that we'll be telling people about in Dec.

Before boarding my flight to the Middle East the TSA pulled me over and wanted to go through my carry on.  Whatever for?? Nothing suspicious looking here. Must be those damn Ferrari sunglasses!

37 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Before boarding my flight to the Middle East the TSA pulled me over and wanted to go through my carry on.  Whatever for?? Nothing suspicious looking here. Must be those damn Ferrari sunglasses!

 

Just a TSA agent trying to get a sneak peak of the Amico ahead of E3

For the geeks like me, that is an Arduino Due board. My best guess is it interfaces with the Amico prototype motherboard pre-production test ports and may be needed for it to function since it is probably setup to pump out diagnostics at all time.

p.s.  The Arduino in the pic is just something we quickly hook up for the LED light sequences/programming on the prototype machines.  Doesn't have anything to do with the actual console.

1 minute ago, GrudgeQ said:

Just a TSA agent trying to get a sneak peak of the Amico ahead of E3

 

For the geeks like me, that is an Arduino Due board. My best guess is it interfaces with the Amico prototype motherboard pre-production test ports and may be needed for it to function since it is probably setup to pump out diagnostics at all time.

 

Damn... you beat me to the explanation.  Gotta be quick around you!