Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

36 minutes ago, Intellivision Master said:

You only need internet when you put the physical game on Amico for the first time.  It has to download to the console.  After that, it's done.  You won't need internet anymore for the physical game.  I thought that's how Tommy explained it.

Ahhh and then you would be able to play it on any console after that ? Without any need for the internet ever ? 

2 minutes ago, Cranker said:

Ahhh and then you would be able to play it on any console after that ? Without any need for the internet ever ? 

I'm not sure.  But Tommy would know.

23 minutes ago, Cranker said:

Ahhh and then you would be able to play it on any console after that ? Without any need for the internet ever ? 

No, it's only playable on the console that it is installed on. But you would not need the internet for that console after the first time.

13 minutes ago, RxScram said:

No, it's only playable on the console that it is installed on. But you would not need the internet for that console after the first time.

If that’s the case then it’s essentially digital software . What if it’s 20 years later and your console breaks and IE is gone ? Isn’t that the one of the key points of physical media ? To play it on any Amico console anytime ? Maybe Tommy can answer this question.

26 minutes ago, RxScram said:

No, it's only playable on the console that it is installed on. But you would not need the internet for that console after the first time.

But if I remember well, you can bring your controller and play at a friend's house !?

If the answer is yes, then you can play on another console ! ?? 🤔

I know I’m the new guy here, but here’s my 2¢ ...

I’d like to see any game releases be identical, and I’m okay with differing price points for download versus physical media. 
 

I’ll be the first to point out I know little about marketing and sales, so I’m okay with whatever TT and the crew decides. I just wanted to express my opinion. 

1 hour ago, Cranker said:

But what if I have physical game I want to play years after IE is gone ? I hope they will be around for years to come but the point of physical games is that you can play them without any need for any type of connection or verification ? 

I believe the Amico can be backed up also, so if something happens with the mothership, and your systems has an issue, hopefully a backup can be used to rebuild.   TJ

I can backup an app on my phone and install on another device; no internet required.  This does not backup any data or license information, just the program.  No reason Amico can't do this, it's part of android, they just have to make it available.  The license would still come from the physical item.  It would be like installing an amico game with a borrowed license from a controller.  Once the controller/license is taken away the game is still installed; only doesn't work without a license.  It's up to them to enable such a feature, physical game media is not required.

This podcast is on 1/17 at 4pm ET.  I guess there's no podcast for Sunday 1/10.

1 hour ago, Intellivision Master said:

This podcast is on 1/17 at 4pm ET.  I guess there's no podcast for Sunday 1/10.

nope, moving to very two weeks so we have more to talk about,  need more news to make it more exciting .  Once we get closer to launch we will go back to weekly, in between there will still be lots of Amico videos on the channel

3 minutes ago, OEB_Pete said:

nope, moving to very two weeks so we have more to talk about,  need more news to make it more exciting .  Once we get closer to launch we will go back to weekly, in between there will still be lots of Amico videos on the channel

Okay, that makes sense.  I thought you were skipping the one week because you had something planned.

1 hour ago, OEB_Pete said:

nope, moving to very two weeks so we have more to talk about,  need more news to make it more exciting .  Once we get closer to launch we will go back to weekly, in between there will still be lots of Amico videos on the channel

@OEB_Pete you could go back to weekly and every other week do an Amico Puppet Show!  

I would so watch that!

You have any left over socks to make some puppets?

TJ

19 hours ago, Cranker said:

If that’s the case then it’s essentially digital software . What if it’s 20 years later and your console breaks and IE is gone ? Isn’t that the one of the key points of physical media ? To play it on any Amico console anytime ? Maybe Tommy can answer this question.

That's actually a really good point.

19 hours ago, Cranker said:

If that’s the case then it’s essentially digital software . What if it’s 20 years later and your console breaks and IE is gone ? Isn’t that the one of the key points of physical media ? To play it on any Amico console anytime ? Maybe Tommy can answer this question.

That's actually a really good point.

1 hour ago, Battlefish said:

20 hours ago, Cranker said:

If that’s the case then it’s essentially digital software . What if it’s 20 years later and your console breaks and IE is gone ? Isn’t that the one of the key points of physical media ? To play it on any Amico console anytime ? Maybe Tommy can answer this question.

That's actually a really good point.

It is a very good question. It's actually crossed my mind a few times over the 2 years(?) that I've been visiting this particular forum. My guess is that Tommy will have our backs with something. What that something would look like, I don't know.

Some fun Possibilities:

1)They put the entire catalog on Archive.org for us to download what/when we want.  Basically turning it all into freeware.

2)They warn you to make backup copies. (And disable any anti-piracy it in the Firmware prior to shutting down). Then you can save them wherever you want.

3)Tommy has something up his sleeve.

4)We will all be playing the Amico 3 series X and will be all backwards compatible that will have many TB of storage that can be backed up and restored to our mobile phones/controllers.

5)As they are all flash games, according to some, they will be available on a flash games repository on the web so we'll be able to play them in a browser.

6)@Games will have an Amico Flashback that will have 100's of games on it and be compatible with the standard Amico Controller.

Take your pick

1 hour ago, woobman said:

It is a very good question. It's actually crossed my mind a few times over the 2 years(?) that I've been visiting this particular forum. My guess is that Tommy will have our backs with something. What that something would look like, I don't know.

 

Some fun Possibilities:

1)They put the entire catalog on Archive.org for us to download what/when we want.  Basically turning it all into freeware.

2)They warn you to make backup copies. (And disable any anti-piracy it in the Firmware prior to shutting down). Then you can save them wherever you want.

3)Tommy has something up his sleeve.

4)We will all be playing the Amico 3 series X and will be all backwards compatible that will have many TB of storage that can be backed up and restored to our mobile phones/controllers.

5)As they are all flash games, according to some, they will be available on a flash games repository on the web so we'll be able to play them in a browser.

6)@Games will have an Amico Flashback that will have 100's of games on it and be compatible with the standard Amico Controller.

 

Take your pick

 

7) What major console hasn't been hacked after 8 years? (Answer: Coleco Telstar Arcade ❕)

Are there any nice PD images of the Amico that can go on Wikipedia? I put up one that was common, but it still got flagged (although they had the original source wrong).

I'm sure CurlyQ could whip something up, with Tommy's blessing.

The Atari VCS that just came out has avatars for the profile/account.  If only Amico would have avatars.  Instead the Amico is going to have names.  Perhaps down the road, there will be an option for avatars on Amico.  

Some examples for avatars on Amico: Astrosmash ship, Night Stalker robot/gun, Moon Patrol buggy & the Running Man.

On 1/5/2021 at 10:06 AM, IntelliMission said:

and 92% of the population is Christian, which means the family-oriented approach of the Amico has potential.

 

 

This statement implies those of us who are non-Christian somehow do not value the Amico for being family friendly, and it also implies that Christianity values 'family' over other religions (or non-religious people).  If you think having religion (of any kind) has anything to do with loving and caring for your family, you are either very young or very deluded.  You may want to widen your understanding of the world (or think more carefully about your wording) before making statements like that.  If it's what you truly believe, keep it to yourself.  

I could go on, but I won't.  

32 minutes ago, supahwally said:

This statement implies those of us who are non-Christian somehow do not value the Amico for being family friendly, and it also implies that Christianity values 'family' over other religions (or non-religious people).  If you think having religion (of any kind) has anything to do with loving and caring for your family, you are either very young or very deluded.  You may want to widen your understanding of the world (or think more carefully about your wording) before making statements like that.  If it's what you truly believe, keep it to yourself.  

 

I could go on, but I won't.  

 

 

I think you're reading too much into my message, and I don't want to sound confrontational. I'm a huge atheist, but, just as I previously suggested Tommy that China (yes, China) could be a good market for the Amico due to their particular approach to video games where violent ones are not released there, I was just pointing that out from a business perspective.

I don't have a wife and I don't plan to have children, but I think it's great that families can enjoy the Amico and Tommy has mentioned multiple times that they're targeting that segment. And Tommy knows their target market, to the point that he will have Intellivision Entertainment attending Christian events.

We all wish for the console to be a success, and for this there is nothing wrong to accept that some segments of the population are potentially where the money is. This is what I was saying! I hope it's clearer now. 🖖

38 minutes ago, supahwally said:

This statement implies those of us who are non-Christian somehow do not value the Amico for being family friendly, and it also implies that Christianity values 'family' over other religions (or non-religious people).  If you think having religion (of any kind) has anything to do with loving and caring for your family, you are either very young or very deluded.  You may want to widen your understanding of the world (or think more carefully about your wording) before making statements like that.  If it's what you truly believe, keep it to yourself.  

 

I could go on, but I won't.  

 

 

that statement in no way implied what you are casting out there... the mention of anything these days seems to get a response such as this... how thin can a skin be that persons must always jump at anything that comes from a viewpoint other than that of androgynous agnostic neutral or atheistic bent... I notice the atheistic is always tolerated however... but agnostic is more neutral and might that be the new 'norm' even if such things are the exceptions and not the rule... must we all be ruled by the 2 or 8 percent... or half a percent?

Let's face it, almost all posts and mail on the web contain gender, faith, moral, ethical, or other mentions in them, even if it's faith in one self or the human condition... they could be anything from grammar, style to the pronouns used, or even the construction of a simple sentence in many languages. No where should a person be forced to be quiet and keep it to themselves or be silenced for such passing mentions, because at that point, even those who speak hedonistic-ally, aesthetically unpleasantly, or even atheisticly will eventually be silenced as well. Consider that what you said is far more gregarious than it needed to be and that sometimes we may be looking for implications that simply might not exist.

4 hours ago, IntelliMission said:

I don't want to sound confrontational. I'm a huge atheist,

How much do you weigh? 😈

Hey everyone,

Super busy week!  Will try to answer as much as I can (before I break for food for the first time today!).

Here's the latest update regarding the April launch:
 

We are still trying our hardest to finalize everything by early February to get it into manufacturing before the Chinese New Year (mid February). We are NOT willing to sacrifice quality just to rush something out to hit a target date. As you may remember in my August 5th video I mentioned that if everything goes great and things with COVID get better... we should be able to hit April. Unfortunately, as everyone is aware... they have gotten much worse.

We are still trying though... but in the meantime, we have started talking to our retail, manufacturing, compliance, logistics and distribution partners to see when an alternative launch date would be. We are currently looking at mid summer. We will know for sure by the end of January and will put out information (probably a short video) by the very beginning of February. I have no problem saying that is probably unlikely that we make April... but we're still trying like crazy. Thanks again for your fairness and understanding.

On 1/3/2021 at 2:58 PM, Silverbot said:

Tommy,

 

On the new video, there were no lights on the Amico when Astrosmash was playing, were they turned off, or are they not used on that game? 👍😀

We will do a separate video going into detail about the lights.  We had all the lights turned off for that demo.

Our goal is to be doing new video updates at least once a week (and sometimes 2 or 3 times a week) starting soon!

5 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Our goal is to be doing new video updates at least once a week (and sometimes 2 or 3 times a week) starting soon!

 

 

 

This is great news.  I can't wait.