Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

1 hour ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

These are all GREAT ideas and games I would want to play!

 

 

I'm very happy that you like my holiday game ideas.  It means a lot.  Hopefully some of them can become a reality. 

1 hour ago, OEB_Pete said:

I got a little crazy with this one.... also where is @IntellivisionMaster at? 

 

These are all great predictions Pete.  I hope they all come true.

2 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

An issue that modern parents need to deal with and that Amico takes care of.

6-year-old racked up over $16K on his mom's credit card

https://nypost.com/2020/12/12/this-6-year-old-racked-up-over-16k-on-his-moms-credit-card/

 

 

I totally get it that it's the parents responsibility... but that's my issue with a lot of this type of stuff is that a good number of parents don't even know their kids can do these kinds of things... and some of them unfortunately seem to find out the hard way.

Wondering if anyone here has had family or friends with similar types of stories? 

When we were doing a lot of in-person focus testing (back when we could!) we would hear these types of stories all the time.  A lot of the parents that would share their stories with us said they knew that mobile was like that, but didn't realize they could do things like that on the Switch.  So that's where most of them were getting burned.

 

 

Do not underestimate the ingenuity of kids.

This is a 100% true story. My sister used to let her son use her tablet for gaming and watching YouTube and the like, and she had age restricted it and password locked her credit card information.

My nephew, knowing my sisters birth date, maiden name and such went in under 'I forgot my password' to reset all her passwords and unlocked everything. He ran up a few hundred dollars in in-game purchases and ordering some toys off Amazon in the half-hour before my sister caught him at it.

I think he was 8 at the time?

It certainly could have been a lot worse (like this 16K!) but it does just show that if a kid wants something bad enough, they can usually figure out how to defeat parental locks.

It was still an expensive lesson for my sister.

Tommy,

What about a Highlander game on Amico?  It doesn't have to be violent.  It could be a cartoonish fighting 1 on 1 style game.

On 12/13/2020 at 7:15 AM, Intellivision Master said:

If we don't get Pac-Man on Amico, this could be an option.  It's basically the same concept but with several unique features such as the ability to hide from the enemy.

 

I say acquire the Odyssey 2 rights (no idea who owns them) and create a KC Munchkin! franchise again. 

KC Munchkin! was much cuter than Pac-Man.  hehe

TJ

It would be neat to have KC Munchkin on Amico.  Wouldn't that be something?

Tommy,

What about the Hill Climb racing game series for Amico?  They're mobile games.  I've played them and they are fun.  Best of all if they come to Amico, there will be NO ads.  Yay!

@Tavi An 8 year old hacking her mum's passwords to order toys in Amazon has enough material for a great movie. I hope some director is reading this.

I just remembered this pitch program Square-Enix Collective had started for certain Eidos IP's:

https://web.archive.org/web/20170926143809/https://collective.square-enix.com/blog/32/first-eidos-ips-made-available-via-square-enix-collective/

And according to this link, it still might be open? I don't know, but it's worth a shot:

Gex might work really well on the Amico, just saying!

2 hours ago, Cranker said:

Or this one ?

 

Yup... First saw that one in 1981 at Studio 109 Roller Rink in Long Island.  

Vanguard is a personal favorite...did you know the power up song is taken from the Hawkmen vs Ajax scene in Flash Gordon? 

https://youtu.be/SBe1hwg7V-M

1 minute ago, IMBerzerk said:

Vanguard is a personal favorite...did you know the power up song is taken from the Hawkmen vs Ajax scene in Flash Gordon?

That's interesting.  I like Flash Gordon.  I used to own the movie.  Hopefully we can get a Flash Gordon game on Amico.  Also, I like the theme song to the movie.  It's done by Queen.  It's a catchy song.

Three-Sixty's "Dark Castle" would be a fun side scroller reimagine.  With light scary stuff and puzzles to get through.  

Was available on many platforms, but looked really good on the Mac even if in B/W.

2 minutes ago, Intellivision Master said:

That's interesting.  I like Flash Gordon.  I used to own the movie.  Hopefully we can get a Flash Gordon game on Amico.  Also, I like the theme song to the movie.  It's done by Queen.  It's a catchy song.

 

That was a great movie.  Yes, they took on the whole movie sound track.  I remember reading the Brian May didn't like it because it was such a tight schedule to have to write so many songs. They kicked ass.   

Flash Gordon...Quaterback...New York Jets. (Poor bastard...Ming was a Dolphins fan back then).

Queen also did "One Vision", which was the theme song for Iron Eagle. 

2 minutes ago, IMBerzerk said:

Queen also did "One Vision", which was the theme song for Iron Eagle. 

Cool.  I've seen all the Iron Eagle films.  They're good.  Maybe an Iron Eagle game could be on Amico.

4 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

Yo!  Better late than never! 

Great to have ya!

Do you own an arcade in NC?  If so, got any pics you'd like to share?  I'm sure everyone here would love to reminisce.

What part of Mass did you live?  I was born & raised in Western Mass.  Springfield to be exact.  You?

 

Thank-you for the kind words about my music.  Earthworm Jim & Cool Spot were definitely 2 of my favorites to work on back in the early 90's.  Disney's Aladdin was another one from that team/era.

Most of the people who did the original Cool Spot & Earthworm Jim games now work at Intellivision and/or are working on Amico games!

 

 

 

 

Wow!  Great story.  Thanks for sharing.  Yeah, kids these days don't understand that for the most part, folks only ever had one video game system at a time per household/era.  And when you did get one... it was a special day that many remember for the rest of their lives.  Very cool that you all pooled your money together... I bet you really appreciated it so much more because of that.

 

 

That is definitely the goal!

 

 

 

Thank you for the support!

 

And yes... absolutely!  Our #1 objective is to put out Amico when we are happy with it... and not a second before.

 

Hope to see you around these parts more often!

Wow.....I didn't expect such a detailed reply, thanks for taking the time.

I was born in Woburn MA, and spent most of my life on the North Shore, mainly East Boston and Lynn (Lynn, city of sin!) and even Revere. Moved to Quincy on the South Shore in my 30's and started a family there. I spent the first 45 years of my life in MA and 6 years ago we relocated to Charlotte, NC.

I don't own an arcade per se, but I did build my own bartop machine. I bought one of the raspberry PI computers a couple of years ago and I was so successful at getting all these emulators up and running, that I wanted to put it inside a bartop unit so I could play games like Street Fighter 2, Robotron and Smash TV that way they were meant to be played. I didn't want to mentioned it as I was not sure if emulation was frowned on in these parts.  And yes, I have Cool Spot and Earthworm Jim on it, and countless other games you worked on.

My nickname, MIK, literally comes from arcade games. I was the best at Williams Defender and Nintendo's Donkey Kong and my name dominated the cabinets all over East Boston. Of course, it's short for Mike.  So yeah, my Mik's Arcade marquee is sort of a spin on "Flynn's Arcade" from the movie Tron.

Here is a picture of my arcade. I bought the parts off a site called GameRoomSolutions. My friend helped me create the artwork that were printed up as stickers to slap on the finished machine. I built the whole thing myself, which includes LED lighting for the marquee and all the wiring for the joysticks and button.  They all feed into a USB encoded and I set up the button to work exactly like the 6 button controll for street fighter 2.  It was HARD, but I got it done.  I hope a button doesn't break down anytime soon.  I've got 20 systems up and running, but the coin op arcade games is my true love. I don't emulate anything past Playstation One as it pretty much hits the limited of my Pi machine.  I even have a couple of special games on here like the Streets of Rage Remake from Bomberman games and the infamous Thrill Kill that was cancelled, in addition to tons of games from Japan, Europe and Asia,

Again, thanks for the time and having the gaming passion, especially for the Intellivision. It is in fantastic hands. Being a part time bass player, I know just how important music is and can't wait to hear what you do for Amico games. I cannot wait to get the Amico in the living room. I guarantee my entire family will have some very competitive gaming nights on it.

Quote

 

 

4 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

Awesome!!!

Great side art and marquee!

 

Did you make that yourself?  Or was it bought that way?

 

 

When I ordered it I gave a list of games I liked and they put them on, the marquee and control panel graphics I found on the internet. Also added a spinner, side buttons for pinball games and a light bar sensor for shooting games. 👍😀. I also have a virtual pinball table, the graphics on that was my idea and they made it up. 

5 minutes ago, Silverbot said:

When I ordered it I gave a list of games I liked and they put them on, the marquee and control panel graphics I found on the internet. Also added a spinner, side buttons for pinball games and a light bar sensor for shooting games. 👍😀. I also have a virtual pinball table, the graphics on that was my idea and they made it up. 

what's cool is, the place I bought the kit from send templates for each panel. I had my friend help, who is in visual design and has the latest and greatest Photoshop tools, and I grabbed all the image off the internet and told him how I wanted them place.

The maquee is based off characters from the game Nier

You can see God Hand, which is my personal all time favorite game.

the control panel is the player select screen from Streets of Rage 2.

The side of the bartop you can't see has a beautiful image of Bayonetta  and Jeanne, another of my favorite games. You can see a picture of the 8-bit Bayonetta game under the control panel.  When you slide the keyboard in, there is a panel that lifts up and that is covered by all the girls from the Japanese games Onechabara 

Here is a rare one but very fun one !

A special for Intellivision Master to check out!

3 hours ago, Cranker said:

Here is a rare one but very fun one !

A special for Intellivision Master to check out!

Thanks for sharing.  I watched some of the video.  From what I saw, it looks great.  I like the sound effects, they're really neat.  I never heard of this game before.  This one definitely needs to be on Amico.  Make it happen Tommy.

Cranker,

You've been really busy today with all the game requests.  I should make you my second in command.  We would make a good team.  Poor Tommy won't be able to keep up with all these game ideas.  Lol.

2 minutes ago, Intellivision Master said:

Cranker,

 

You've been really busy today with all the game requests.  I should make you my second in command.  We would make a good team.  Poor Tommy won't be able to keep up with all these game ideas.  Lol.

I have played them all. I could post all day . I lived at the arcade in the late 70’s and 80’s !

Has anyone made the request for Zaxxon/Super Zaxxon? I cannot remember... Still cannot believe we hit almost 1050 pages and the marketing hasn't even kicked off!!

Even an updated Viewpoint (NeoGeo) would be fun too!

Tron hasn't been mentioned in a few pages.. So TRON!!!!

1 minute ago, woobman said:

Has anyone made the request for Zaxxon/Super Zaxxon? I cannot remember... Still cannot believe we hit almost 1050 pages and the marketing hasn't even kicked off!!

It was probably me.  Lol.  Yes, hard to believe we're nearing 1050 pages.  If I joined the Q&A sooner we'd be at 2050.  Lol.

5 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

An issue that modern parents need to deal with and that Amico takes care of.

6-year-old racked up over $16K on his mom's credit card

https://nypost.com/2020/12/12/this-6-year-old-racked-up-over-16k-on-his-moms-credit-card/

 

 

I totally get it that it's the parents responsibility... but that's my issue with a lot of this type of stuff is that a good number of parents don't even know their kids can do these kinds of things... and some of them unfortunately seem to find out the hard way.

Wondering if anyone here has had family or friends with similar types of stories? 

When we were doing a lot of in-person focus testing (back when we could!) we would hear these types of stories all the time.  A lot of the parents that would share their stories with us said they knew that mobile was like that, but didn't realize they could do things like that on the Switch.  So that's where most of them were getting burned.

 

 

The costs of gaming keeps going up and up. Between Battle passes. Season Passes. Having to pay for the online service JUST to play online games. Lets not forget new "episodes" of a game. The extra $10.00 for some of the games on the newest generation. It's nostalgic to buy a game. Then get the entire game. (I assume if any bug fixes need to happen it will be seamless). The only 40GIG day one patch would be DAY ONE when you replace your SD card with something larger. 

Speaking of creeping costs, my son has spent over $200.00 on Fortnite over the last year plus. Luckily, apart from a few hiccups, it's all been on his money.  

On 12/12/2020 at 6:28 AM, Cranker said:

I love Gyruss !! I used to play that one a lot along with Galaga ! I never cared much for Galaxian but Galaga was awesome 😎 

If you haven't played it, find Galaga '88. It's the best.