Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

1 hour ago, Nolagamer said:

Abd that's prob not counting the underhanded thing they did to namco over Ms Pac-Man 

Which is one of two pending lawsuits against AtGames I’m aware of at the moment so I don’t think they can do anything with Ms Pac-Man right now anyway 

16 minutes ago, Alpha82 said:

Which is one of two pending lawsuits against AtGames I’m aware of at the moment so I don’t think they can do anything with Ms Pac-Man right now anyway 

Nope even if they want to they still need namco involvement.  And nanco was in talks to purchase the full rights to everything related to Ms Pac-Man  . And atgames new and went behind backs which alone could potentially spark a legal issue . Atgames then told retailers they had rights and tried to sell products.   I bet namco gets full control soon be it in court or an out of court settlement. I don't think atgames has a keg to stand on or want to lose in court and take the financial hit. They already have Walgreens after them and who knows who all else

4 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Well... unfortunately they are.

As someone who likes your passion and who strongly believe in your project, don't do that, at least not in a public forum. You have nothing to gain from publicly bad mouthing someone that is not in your way, no matter how much you feel you were wronged in the past.

Don't get me wrong, you can certainly state that your partnership with them was not up to what you expected, but making a statement like "they are only in for a quick money grab", is a very bad idea from a professional point of view.

4 hours ago, Alpha82 said:

As far as overlays not being cut right that is a different animal as sometimes quality control issues happen but that is very different than bad business practices 

If you care about "bad business practices," then don't you think we should rather talk about big offenders like Apple, Google or Microsoft? What about Facebook or Twitter? In fact, what about the gaming industry in general? I mean it's now common for big game companies to hire psychologists to know how to better trick people into sinking money into their games.

And "bad business practices" are not only the hallmark of high-tech companies. For example, you wouldn't believe all the bullshit done by airline companies.

You know what's even funnier? Non-profit organizations that base their whole message on using "ethical business practices" don't hesitate to screw their customers. They easily see the speck in the "evil capitalist" eye, but they are totally blind to the beam in their own. I know, I had a few as clients.

Using misleading pictures on a box or in ads is not only something every company did to some extent, but it's a very minor offense in my eyes. Misleading consumers is something everyone does. Mattel certainly did it in the past.

The same is true when it comes to infringing copyrights. Those lawsuits are very common and many times the copyright holders are the ones who abuse the system.

As I already said, I'm someone who is extremely cynical. In one of my posts here, I mentioned Marcus Aurelius. I strongly value Stoicism. More than that, serving in the military taught me a lot of good things, including to never hold a grudge and to never bad mouth anyone without good reasons. Throwing stones when we all live in glass houses is a very bad idea.

43 minutes ago, Papy said:

If you care about "bad business practices," then don't you think we should rather talk about big offenders like Apple, Google or Microsoft? What about Facebook or Twitter? In fact, what about the gaming industry in general? I mean it's now common for big game companies to hire psychologists to know how to better trick people into sinking money into their games.

 

And "bad business practices" are not only the hallmark of high-tech companies. For example, you wouldn't believe all the bullshit done by airline companies.

 

You know what's even funnier? Non-profit organizations that base their whole message on using "ethical business practices" don't hesitate to screw their customers. They easily see the speck in the "evil capitalist" eye, but they are totally blind to the beam in their own. I know, I had a few as clients.

 

Using misleading pictures on a box or in ads is not only something every company did to some extent, but it's a very minor offense in my eyes. Misleading consumers is something everyone does. Mattel certainly did it in the past.

 

The same is true when it comes to infringing copyrights. Those lawsuits are very common and many times the copyright holders are the ones who abuse the system.

 

As I already said, I'm someone who is extremely cynical. In one of my posts here, I mentioned Marcus Aurelius. I strongly value Stoicism. More than that, serving in the military taught me a lot of good things, including to never hold a grudge and to never bad mouth anyone without good reasons. Throwing stones when we all live in glass houses is a very bad idea.

I never said bad business practices were only in tech industry or even exclusive to AtGames but they do have a history of bad business practices. I’m not even holding a grudge I just don’t buy their products. I’ve never even told anyone not to buy AtGames products. I know we live in a capitalist society and cash is king and you are welcome to spend money where you wish I have no issues with how a person chooses to spend their money. 

13 hours ago, LePionnier said:

Hi again Tommy.

I was taking my measurements for the sweater, and noticed for the adult size, metric sizes and US sizes have been reversed.

It's not a big deal, but at first I was wondering why I could not find my size! lol

 

I don't see any sweater's on the Amico website.  What site are you looking at?  I only see T-shirts...

11 hours ago, Swami said:

I ran into another gamer today. When I asked her what her favorite console was, she said she had several consoles but mostly played mobile games because it was easier than turning on the TV ... just some field research for Tommy.

And I thought people were lazy for ordering online for McDonalds because they couldn't be bothered to wait for their order at a drive through for a fast food restaurant?! 😜

26 minutes ago, atarifan88 said:

I don't see any sweater's on the Amico website.  What site are you looking at?  I only see T-shirts... 

Probably a bad translation from our friend Google ! I was talking about t-shirts.

24 minutes ago, atarifan88 said:

And I thought people were lazy for ordering online for McDonalds because they couldn't be bothered to wait for their order at a drive through for a fast food restaurant?! 😜

I think in today’s age people would prefer to say “hey digital assistant of choice” please play video games on my closed eyelids.

 
Of course I’m being facetious...somewhat 😁

2 minutes ago, MarioMan88 said:

I think in today’s age people would prefer to say “hey digital assistant of choice” please play video games on my closed eyelids.

 
Of course I’m being facetious...somewhat 😁

There are already smart glasses. . .just a matter of time before the lenses can be screens as well.

2 hours ago, atarifan88 said:

And I thought people were lazy for ordering online for McDonalds because they couldn't be bothered to wait for their order at a drive through for a fast food restaurant?! 😜

To be fair, boot times are a pain on many platforms, especially if you're then faced with update patches. 
 

My Atari 2600 booted instantly. No logos even. My TRS-80 went from off to DOS command prompt in less than 10 seconds. 

41 minutes ago, JeffVav said:

To be fair, boot times are a pain on many platforms, especially if you're then faced with update patches. 
 

The load times are something my wife who plays mobile games even dislikes. I know Tommy & Co have said in the last the load times will be minimal on the new Amico. That will help less patient folks like my wife.

1 hour ago, JeffVav said:

To be fair, boot times are a pain on many platforms, especially if you're then faced with update patches. 
 

My Atari 2600 booted instantly. No logos even. My TRS-80 went from off to DOS command prompt in less than 10 seconds. 

The thought never occurred to me.  The last console I bought was a Sega Genesis (after my Intellivision went kaput).  I'm glad I can right that by purchasing an Intellivision Amico! 🙂

On 10/17/2019 at 5:26 AM, 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).

I get what you're saying - but I think it's more semantics - that the original console called "Intellivision" plays "Intellivision games", and it was made by a company called Mattel Electronics, not a company called "Intellivision".

The Amico is made by a company called Intellivision, but you're right, the console itself is not an Intellivision if you're thinking in terms of the name "Intellivision" denoting a specific model (like NES, Genesis, 2600), and not a company/lineage of consoles.

With that in mind, what if Mattel had released the Intellivision III (an enhanced, yet backward-compatible console), or the Intellivision IV (a completely new console that wasn't backward-compatible).  Would you say neither of those would have been Intellivisions?  Those would have been official products, carrying the Intellivision name, which indicates Mattel was thinking of the name "Intellivision" as a console lineage, a brand, not just a specific model they made as Mattel Electronics.

And sort of the reverse of what you're arguing... what about the INTV System III and Super Pro, or the RCA Tandyvision, or the Sears Super Video Arcade?  Those weren't officially called "Intellivisions", but they were, because the hardware was essentially the same.  Is that your only classification of what makes an Intellivision an Intellivision?

Amico can play the old games, and new versions of Intellivision games, and has throwbacks to the original, such as the look of the controller, and the fact that many of the team members worked at Mattel Electronics back in the day, and that the company (operating under the name "Intellivision [Productions]" since Keith Robinson took over in the late '90s) has been in the hands of folks involved with Intellivision since the beginning.  But Amico is not an Intellivision in that it's not model #2609 running a 16-bit GI CPU.  But it's carrying on and using the brand "Intellivision" just like Mattel was planning to do with the III and IV.

Anyway, I feel like this is a rather pedantic discussion, but I'll just end with one more example.  In the 1960s, Dodge had a car model called the Dart.  It went away for a couple decades, but returned a few years ago, reviving the model name Dodge Dart.  It was a completely different car, but Dodge chose to use the name Dart, since they felt it was carrying on in the tradition of the original.  Would you say the new Dart wasn't actually a Dodge Dart?

I'm not saying it's wrong to call an Amico an intellivision, I'm just explaining why some people say it's not.

I have just bought Ring Fit Adventure from Nintendo.

It's not couch co-op or versus gaming, but it is really fun.

I just can't wait for amico to come home in less than a year now !

Can't imagine the feeling I will have when I will have an Amico controller in my hand and a lots of game to choose at launch day.

I will probably buy beetween 5 and 10 games the first day ! 300$ for Amico and 15 great games !!  WoW !

358 days to go !

We've had the question of continued software support if the console isn't as big a hit as hoped but the question that should be asked is, whether there's a contingency plan for continued quality control if there's increased pressure to launch more than 1 game every 7 to 10 days.  I know that's the plan at least initially and I totally get the reasons behind it but what if the Amico is a massive success?  The casual gamers are buying it, the hardcore gamers are getting it as a second or third system, the retro gamers are buying it, seniors are buying it, the young parents.  That's a lot of different consumers that will have their own game genre preferences and 1 game every 7 to 10 days might not cut it.  Intellivision may have to double or triple that.  That's going to increase the workload on Intellivision to maintain the quality control. I hope they're prepared for that eventuality.  I just ask because I think there's a strong chance that could happen.

1 hour ago, insertclevernamehere said:

We've had the question of continued software support if the console isn't as big a hit as hoped but the question that should be asked is, whether there's a contingency plan for continued quality control if there's increased pressure to launch more than 1 game every 7 to 10 days.  I know that's the plan at least initially and I totally get the reasons behind it but what if the Amico is a massive success?  The casual gamers are buying it, the hardcore gamers are getting it as a second or third system, the retro gamers are buying it, seniors are buying it, the young parents.  That's a lot of different consumers that will have their own game genre preferences and 1 game every 7 to 10 days might not cut it.  Intellivision may have to double or triple that.  That's going to increase the workload on Intellivision to maintain the quality control. I hope they're prepared for that eventuality.  I just ask because I think there's a strong chance that could happen.

They did say once install base grows and if quality titles in crease we could see ganes every 5-7 days or so potentially as many as 100 games a year ...that's the long term goal but short term will be  7-10 days . I hope they get more  orders than they can make  and hit a miracle and top the DS/3ds install base.

But if they can hit the Dreamcast ,wiiu Atari 2600 install we will see plenty of great games.  But wonderful if they top the GameCube and hit over 30 million.  

But Tommy says they need to sell 113,000 consoles and the company breaks even.  And current store orders not sure if just Walmart  is at 300k with intellivision meeting with retailers next month to try and up that order as they go into production in March to hit shelves on 10/10/2020.  Honestly if Tommy can reach most if the retro abd hardcore base they will at the very least be successful but once the casuals and family's hit. Amico will be on everyone's tv. Every night will be amico Gane night.

21 hours ago, Nolagamer said:

Nope even if they want to they still need namco involvement.  And nanco was in talks to purchase the full rights to everything related to Ms Pac-Man  . And atgames new and went behind backs which alone could potentially spark a legal issue . Atgames then told retailers they had rights and tried to sell products.   I bet namco gets full control soon be it in court or an out of court settlement. I don't think atgames has a keg to stand on or want to lose in court and take the financial hit. They already have Walgreens after them and who knows who all else

Not surprising.  They illegally used some Intellivision owned games in a number of their Atari products and told Atari they had the rights to do so.

22 hours ago, Papy said:

As someone who likes your passion and who strongly believe in your project, don't do that, at least not in a public forum. You have nothing to gain from publicly bad mouthing someone that is not in your way, no matter how much you feel you were wronged in the past.

 

Don't get me wrong, you can certainly state that your partnership with them was not up to what you expected, but making a statement like "they are only in for a quick money grab", is a very bad idea from a professional point of view.

To be fair... you were the one who said the opposite of that quote.  I only disagreed with it (as this is a fact that is widely known and many journalistic articles have written about).  I don't feel it's fair for you to attribute that quote to me when I never said that. 

It's like saying... "Tommy, I heard you love country music." And I say... "Not really." And then you state (with quotes) Tommy, you shouldn't say that you "don't like Country music."

21 hours ago, Papy said:

If you care about "bad business practices," then don't you think we should rather talk about big offenders like Apple, Google or Microsoft? What about Facebook or Twitter? In fact, what about the gaming industry in general? I mean it's now common for big game companies to hire psychologists to know how to better trick people into sinking money into their games.

 

And "bad business practices" are not only the hallmark of high-tech companies. For example, you wouldn't believe all the bullshit done by airline companies.

 

You know what's even funnier? Non-profit organizations that base their whole message on using "ethical business practices" don't hesitate to screw their customers. They easily see the speck in the "evil capitalist" eye, but they are totally blind to the beam in their own. I know, I had a few as clients.

 

Using misleading pictures on a box or in ads is not only something every company did to some extent, but it's a very minor offense in my eyes. Misleading consumers is something everyone does. Mattel certainly did it in the past.

 

The same is true when it comes to infringing copyrights. Those lawsuits are very common and many times the copyright holders are the ones who abuse the system.

 

As I already said, I'm someone who is extremely cynical. In one of my posts here, I mentioned Marcus Aurelius. I strongly value Stoicism. More than that, serving in the military taught me a lot of good things, including to never hold a grudge and to never bad mouth anyone without good reasons. Throwing stones when we all live in glass houses is a very bad idea.

There's a big difference between bad business practices and knowingly unethical and illegal practices.

"Can we use your product in our product?". 

No... you can't. 

"Well, we're going to do it anyway and refuse to pay you anything."

16 hours ago, atarifan88 said:

I don't see any sweater's on the Amico website.  What site are you looking at?  I only see T-shirts...

I was assuming he meant t-shirts.  For the record... we're going to be adding new things to the website every few weeks. 

8 hours ago, insertclevernamehere said:

We've had the question of continued software support if the console isn't as big a hit as hoped but the question that should be asked is, whether there's a contingency plan for continued quality control if there's increased pressure to launch more than 1 game every 7 to 10 days.  I know that's the plan at least initially and I totally get the reasons behind it but what if the Amico is a massive success?  The casual gamers are buying it, the hardcore gamers are getting it as a second or third system, the retro gamers are buying it, seniors are buying it, the young parents.  That's a lot of different consumers that will have their own game genre preferences and 1 game every 7 to 10 days might not cut it.  Intellivision may have to double or triple that.  That's going to increase the workload on Intellivision to maintain the quality control. I hope they're prepared for that eventuality.  I just ask because I think there's a strong chance that could happen.

Quality control will always trump making money.  Building value & trust are the 2 biggest things on my list for consumers.  When we successfully do that... money will follow.  But it's the aftermath.  When there is overwhelming demand... We could bump it to 5 - 7 days which could translate to around 75 quality games a year.  That would be a lot I think.  But always quality over quantity.

6 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

Not surprising.  They illegally used some Intellivision owned games in a number of their Atari products and told Atari they had the rights to do so.

 

I'm assuming you mean the M-network games.  These have been on the Atari Flashback consoles and handhelds for several years as well as the Atari Flashback Classics for XBone, PS4, Switch that came out in 2018.  Were they not licensed by Intellivision Productions?

On 10/18/2019 at 2:07 AM, Nolagamer said:

I don't think atgames has a keg to stand on or want to lose in court and take the financial hit.

I know this was a typo, but the thought of them being sued, they may need a keg to drown their sorrows!😂