Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

To be fair, the AT Games Intellivision was not that bad.

The controllers were better than the originals AND we got some new controllers into circulation.  A little QA would have spared us a wiring issue.  But we worked around that.

The emulation was not terrible, but I was looking forward to a second version with correct wired controllers and additional games.

I do have the Ultimate Intellivision Flashback   but again, just having a source for controllers was nice.

10/10/2020 Will be a great day!

As far as the deal and the company, I cannot speak to that end.  I am just a classic gamer!

Sega dumped AtGames earlier as well. The Genesis mini is company owned.

3 hours ago, 1980gamer said:

To be fair, the AT Games Intellivision was not that bad.

The controllers were better than the originals AND we got some new controllers into circulation.  A little QA would have spared us a wiring issue.  But we worked around that.

The emulation was not terrible, but I was looking forward to a second version with correct wired controllers and additional games.

 

I do have the Ultimate Intellivision Flashback   but again, just having a source for controllers was nice.

 

10/10/2020 Will be a great day!

 

As far as the deal and the company, I cannot speak to that end.  I am just a classic gamer!

It looks like they have a habit of telling different people different stories to try to make it look like they have more rights/projects than they really do. They also don't mind backstabbing IP holders by buying sub-rights out from underneath them. Some might argue that this is just 'business' however I would imagine the IP holding community is a small one and I wonder if this isn't going to come back to bite them.

My personal complaint it that they shipped a totally different product to a reviewer (John Handcock) to get a good review and then shipped a totally different product (one with console ROMs vs arcade ROMs) to retail. They even still left the arcade ROM versions on the back of the box however - which is directly lying to the public. They have also been accused of paying for 5 star reviews. Just shady, anti-consumer stuff that get me. Their products are often crap (although the Flashback was decent - got one myself) but it their practices and not their products that make me mad.

https://www.polygon.com/2019/9/25/20884111/bandai-namco-atgames-lawsuit-ms-pac-man-pac-man-flashback-blast-copyright-infringement

https://www.polygon.com/2019/9/26/20886032/ms-pac-man-lawsuit-bandai-namco-atgames-rights-royalties

11 hours ago, squirrelgotdead said:

 

12 hours ago, atarifan88 said:

" 😂

3 hours ago, 1980gamer said:

 

 

I do have the Ultimate Intellivision Flashback   but again, just having a source for controllers was nice.

 

90% of my Intellivision gaming these days is on that thing. I love it!

1 minute ago, ColecoJoe said:

90% of my Intellivision gaming these days is on that thing. I love it!

Only 12 months til we have a new intellivision

Just now, Nolagamer said:

Only 12 months til we have a new intellivision

Amico is not a Intellivision though

3 hours ago, 1980gamer said:

To be fair, the AT Games Intellivision was not that bad.

The controllers were better than the originals AND we got some new controllers into circulation.  A little QA would have spared us a wiring issue.  But we worked around that.

The emulation was not terrible, but I was looking forward to a second version with correct wired controllers and additional games.

 

I do have the Ultimate Intellivision Flashback   but again, just having a source for controllers was nice.

 

10/10/2020 Will be a great day!

 

As far as the deal and the company, I cannot speak to that end.  I am just a classic gamer!

It was better than nothing for sure.  But when you dug deep... the emulation wasn't as good as it could have been.  And the real tradgedy was that Keith & Intellivision Productions offered to fix it and give them all of the right stuff.... and they refused.  A lot of the controllers failed and Keith and Emily felt bad for the customers so they personally had to buy TONS of controllers (over cost!) and personally mailed them out to customers because AT Games didn't care and refused to deal with customers.  Then there was the packaging.  Again... Keith had a MUCH better design but they refused.

I guess I just know too much of the inside scoop to like it as much as I should.

Well... at least I'm honest.

13 minutes ago, ColecoJoe said:

Amico is not a Intellivision though

I would disagree.  It has the name right on the controllers and the box.  So it is a new Intellivision. 

Sheesh... What kind of fake Tommy Tallarico are you? 

11 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

I would disagree.  It has the name right on the controllers and the box.  So it is a new Intellivision. 

 

Amico made by Intellivision, for me at least Intellivision will always mean this beast

1 hour ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

It was better than nothing for sure.  But when you dug deep... the emulation wasn't as good as it could have been.  And the real tradgedy was that Keith & Intellivision Productions offered to fix it and give them all of the right stuff.... and they refused.  A lot of the controllers failed and Keith and Emily felt bad for the customers so they personally had to buy TONS of controllers (over cost!) and personally mailed them out to customers because AT Games didn't care and refused to deal with customers.  Then there was the packaging.  Again... Keith had a MUCH better design but they refused.

I guess I just know too much of the inside scoop to like it as much as I should.

Well... at least I'm honest.

 

 

What a standup guy Keith was . When technically he didn't have to but he cared that much about the name of intellivision to uphold it no matter what.   

I recall hearing Keith say that IP provided ATgames with original controller and asked them to get the wiring right.  By the time Keith found out the wiring was goofed by ATgames, it was too late to fix.

2 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

It was better than nothing for sure.  But when you dug deep... the emulation wasn't as good as it could have been.  And the real tradgedy was that Keith & Intellivision Productions offered to fix it and give them all of the right stuff.... and they refused.  A lot of the controllers failed and Keith and Emily felt bad for the customers so they personally had to buy TONS of controllers (over cost!) and personally mailed them out to customers because AT Games didn't care and refused to deal with customers.  Then there was the packaging.  Again... Keith had a MUCH better design but they refused.

I guess I just know too much of the inside scoop to like it as much as I should.

Well... at least I'm honest.

 

 

I had bought mine on Amazon and gave it a bad review (2 stars) shortly after I played it for an hour or two.  I felt it really did not live up to what the Intellivision standard was all about (not knowing IP was even involved in the production of it).  The sound emulation was poor, especially the Razz sound and the Intellivoice was too low.  Plus whatever RCA output driver they used made the video look very cheap and processed.  Not anything close to the old system.

After about a week, I got an email from Emily through my Amazon account kind of calling me out that IP was offended at what I wrote and disagreed with me.   I really felt bad and changed my review to 3 stars and took out some of my opinion on the unit.  I know Keith was a good man, and because of that, I didn't want them to loose any money on the units.  Sad though, it really could have been done a lot better and as everyone else felt, would have been nice to have at least gotten the wiring correct right out of the box.  Up until you wrote this, I had no idea IP was even involved, that's why I felt the unit was crap, as if it was made by someone with no known knowledge of our beloved system... well... I guess I was half right.  If they ignored one of the most knowledgeable Intellivision minds on the planet, they obviously didn't give a crap about authenticity.

But I still have it and will never sell it.  There was something about it I just liked.  Can't say the same for the ATGames Colecovisoin unit I bought from Toys R Us.  That went back 2 hours after I bought it... what a POS!!! 

Looking forward to the Amico.  It really sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun!

JR

2 hours ago, ColecoJoe said:

Amico made by Intellivision, for me at least Intellivision will always mean this beast

 

You mean there's another version other than the Sears Super Video Arcade???  I didn't know that!  lol!!    The Beast is the best looking version!  Love my SSVA's!

4 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

It was better than nothing for sure.  But when you dug deep... the emulation wasn't as good as it could have been.  And the real tradgedy was that Keith & Intellivision Productions offered to fix it and give them all of the right stuff.... and they refused.

I'll play the devil's advocate...

I'm guessing AT Games believes the demand for retro games is so small that the only way to survive as a company is to resell the same products to the same customers again and again. A good Intellivision Flashback would have meant their customers would see no point in buying a Flashback 2.

I agree this is not honest, but now pretty much everyone is doing this in one way or another.

As for customer service, considering the very low price of the Intellivision Flashback, I don't think they could have offered it.

In my case, I love my Intellivision Flashback. The reason is I was bitten by life enough times to become extremely cynical. This lead me to also become extremely pragmatic. You said that it was better than nothing and that's the only thing that matters to me. I'm happy to have something.

As for Amico, although I will most probably buy all the original games, it won't replace my Flashback. The look of the Flashback reminds me of the original Intellivision and of my youth, so it will always be on display somewhere. Also, there are still times when I'll want to relive the feeling of the original controllers.

9 hours ago, ColecoJoe said:

90% of my Intellivision gaming these days is on that thing. I love it!

I have one as well.  It definitely makes for great Intellivision gaming on an HD TV!  I will continue to use it until the Amico comes out, depending on which of the old games I can load on it.

9 hours ago, ColecoJoe said:

Amico is not a Intellivision though

I disagree!  It is the next generation Intellivision made by Intellivision Entertainment.  It also has the Intellivision name on it, and it plays the old Intellivision games as well as the new ones they are putting out.  So it is not the old Intellivision, but it is a new version for a new generation. 😉

48 minutes ago, atarifan88 said:

I disagree!  It is the next generation Intellivision made by Intellivision Entertainment.  It also has the Intellivision name on it, and it plays the old Intellivision games as well as the new ones they are putting out.  So it is not the old Intellivision, but it is a new version for a new generation.

I think they skipped a few generations.

The direct-to-tv plugnplays that came out in 2004 had the intellivision name on them but definitely not intellivisions.  My computer plays intellivision games but it's not an intellivision either although it tries to emulate one.  It even has an intellivision controller plugged in it.

The new games being created are amico games made by a company called intellivision.  The old games are intellivision games, none of which were created by a company called intellivision (e.g. Mattel, INTV).

30 minutes ago, mr_me said:

I think they skipped a few generations.

 

The direct-to-tv plugnplays that came out in 2004 had the intellivision name on them but definitely not intellivisions.  My computer plays intellivision games but it's not an intellivision either although it tries to emulate one.  It even has an intellivision controller plugged in it.

 

The new games being created are amico games made by a company called intellivision.  The old games are intellivision games, none of which were created by a company called intellivision (e.g. Mattel, INTV).

That's actually not true.  We have multiple original people from Mattel & INTV working on the hardware and software.   We're not just a company named Intellivision.  We are Intellivision.  Just made the company an LLC. for investor reasons.

Are games like Night Stalker, SNAFU, Frog Bog and Astrosmash Amico games or Intellivision games?  Is a Switch not considered a Nintendo because it was made by a different designer than the NES?

Of course not.

Amico is an Intellivision... plain and simple.

If we have original people, the name, the trademarks, the patents, the content, the DNA, the same thought process, etc.  Then what are we missing? 

Also, I would argue that INTV was a VERY different company than Mattel.

Night Stalker made by Mattel for the Intellivision and the new Night Stalker made by Intellivision Entertainment for Amico are two different games.

A Nintendo Switch is not an NES, although it can try an emulate one just like my computer does.  And an SNES is not an NES either.  But they are all made by nintendo.  People are just referring to the intellivision the device.

1 hour ago, mr_me said:

Night Stalker made by Mattel for the Intellivision and the new Night Stalker made by Intellivision Entertainment for Amico are two different games.

 

A Nintendo Switch is not an NES, although it can try an emulate one just like my computer does.  And an SNES is not an NES either.  But they are all made by nintendo.  People are just referring to the intellivision the device.

So it's an Intellivision but not the Intellivision. 

(I can't believe I'm having this conversation).

1 minute ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

So it's an Intellivision but not the Intellivision. 

 

(I can't believe I'm having this conversation).

 

 

 It wasn't  a Mattel made by Intellivision so it's an Amico made by Intellivision  ... either way it's definitely not a AtariVCS whatever that is

Some people here hope to play intellivision games and intellivision cartridges with Amico.  They might think of it as an intellivision.

7 hours ago, Papy said:

 

I'll play the devil's advocate...

 

I'm guessing AT Games believes the demand for retro games is so small that the only way to survive as a company is to resell the same products to the same customers again and again. A good Intellivision Flashback would have meant their customers would see no point in buying a Flashback 2.

 

I agree this is not honest, but now pretty much everyone is doing this in one way or another.

 

As for customer service, considering the very low price of the Intellivision Flashback, I don't think they could have offered it.

 

In my case, I love my Intellivision Flashback. The reason is I was bitten by life enough times to become extremely cynical. This lead me to also become extremely pragmatic. You said that it was better than nothing and that's the only thing that matters to me. I'm happy to have something.

 

As for Amico, although I will most probably buy all the original games, it won't replace my Flashback. The look of the Flashback reminds me of the original Intellivision and of my youth, so it will always be on display somewhere. Also, there are still times when I'll want to relive the feeling of the original controllers.

I bought an Intellivision Flashback for everyone in my family the year they came out and picked up the overlay packs there was my Christmas present to everyone that year so I did enjoy the product but AtGames did let me down in that they had the opportunity to work with Intellivision Productions to make it the best project it could have been and decided not to do so this to me is the biggest problem with a lot of company’s today there is no pride or passion in AtGames products it’s just about quick money grabs which seems very sad.

As Intellivision fans we have been very lucky over the last 40 years because Intellivision has always been in the hands of people who were there from the beginning and cared about the machine and too this day. That to me is an amazing thing. Intellivision Amico is being made by some of the same people who worked on the original which is also amazing and we have gotten to see the passion for this product on display by people involved which has been amazing I am very excited for 10/10/2020 to support Intellivision and to bring that original home video game experience to a new generation 

48 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

So it's an Intellivision but not the Intellivision. 

 

(I can't believe I'm having this conversation).

 

 

🎵 How do I solve my... confused condition? 🎶 What do I call my... Intellivision?🎵

47 minutes ago, ColecoJoe said:

 It wasn't  a Mattel made by Intellivision so it's an Amico made by Intellivision  ... either way it's definitely not a AtariVCS whatever that is

What is this AtariVCS that you speak of?