Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

On 1/7/2021 at 5:30 PM, Tommy Tallarico said:

I agree.  I didn't mean to say level... I should have said "ship".

The gameplay itself shouldn't be different.  But having the ability of a different style ship to play the same game could be cool I think.

 

Thoughts from everyone?

 

 

 

 

 

 

My thoughts after thinking about this is that the Physicals should not include any thing extra like levels, ships, features or anything new game wise, I think the focus should be on soundtracks, posters, stuffies stuff like that.  The box or container alone is also already a bonus.  

1 hour ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Stainless is pretty much finished with Missile Command.  They will be moving over to Warlords pretty soon.  This version that they did for the 360 is what we are basing our exclusive version on for sure. 

 

It's going to be very cool!

 

 

I need this today for Amico !! I love Warlords ! And with proper controls ? It’s a party 🎉!

After seeing all the Issues Atari is having with the prelaunch of the VCS the store really lacks in games and the pricing for those games is all over the place but I don’t think you will ever see a ton of original games for the system because Atari has to outsource everything since it’s just a marketing/licensing firm these days.  I know there is potential there as a stream box to play steam library or other streaming services but that’s an  awfully large price to pay for that kind of a thing it seems to me of course I could be wrong as I don’t get into game services like that.  
 

It does make me happy and really put into prospective though for me as someone who up until the Amico announcement didn’t really follow gaming news just how open Intellivision has been during development.  I am also very happy that Intellivision is not interested in rushing a product to market instead doing what it takes to give us the best experience possible on their system 

I was just thinking about the motion controls for the system and how they work. The Wii used the IR sensor on top of the TV to sense controller movement.  The PlayStation and XBox used a camera to do the same.  I don’t have a Switch so I don’t know how that system works.  How will the Amico detect the controller motion?  Is there something in the base unit that does this and if so will the unit need to be placed in a certain way, or is everything to sense movement packed into the controllers?

14 minutes ago, Saldo said:

I was just thinking about the motion controls for the system and how they work. The Wii used the IR sensor on top of the TV to sense controller movement.  The PlayStation and XBox used a camera to do the same.  I don’t have a Switch so I don’t know how that system works.  How will the Amico detect the controller motion?  Is there something in the base unit that does this and if so will the unit need to be placed in a certain way, or is everything to sense movement packed into the controllers?

From the tech specs on their web site, each amico controller has a gyroscope and accelerometer.  So nothing with the base unit.

https://www.intellivisionamico.com/amico-tech-specs

2 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Totally fair comment.  Everyone is different.

 

Question for you...

What does your current household look like?  How many people and what are their ages.

 

Always interested in getting feedback.

Thanks for being here and being a part of the conversation. 

Oh, it's just me.

To be honest the Amico probably came a couple years too late for me. I think my ex would have LOVED Amico as she easily got flustered by complicated controls. She liked things like the Wii or Kinect. Ironically, I was more into books than video games at that time so I probably never would have heard about the Amico, even if it had been released earlier. But interests change and now I'm into video games again, particularly retro video games.

It's strange. When games are a gen old or two, you often think they look outdated, but when they get older than that you start to think they look good. At least that's how it was for me. 

For myself, I've always been visual or attentive to detail. The first thing I look for when I see a video game is the visuals. And when I say that, I don't mean the game has to have the best graphics as that's not the case. I honestly can't tell/don't see much of a difference between PS4 or PS5 games. If it was a book, I would ask myself, why is this a story worth telling? What's different about it? I don't necessarily want to keep reading the same story, only retold with different characters.

I think that's part of the appeal for Amico, with me. We've had PS3, PS4 and now PS5 released, but what's really different about them? It's not the big graphical jump like NES to SNES was, or SNES to N64. It's just the same types of games, usually 3D and often a jumbled mess with too many things going on, looking slightly better than last time.

That's not to say I'll definitely be getting an Amico, I'll have to see more first, particularly Asteroids and the Space Strike (spelling?) game with the vector graphics?

None of the pack-in games particularly interest me either. I know it might not be possible, but I would have preferred some type of tiered system where you could pick, say, 3 games from these six games, 2 games from these five games, and 1 game from these five games.

we have all had video games glitch on us in which the rendering gets weird, here is the real life version, and yes it is real and yes it is one large ass wind turbine blade.

27 minutes ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

 

we have all had video games glitch on us in which the rendering gets weird, here is the real life version, and yes it is real and yes it is one large ass wind turbine blade.

 

 

 

YIKES! CRAP! That thing is huge. I keep looking at it, and my brain stutters a bit at the perspective. Thanks for sharing.

6 hours ago, Cranker said:

Can you still buy this game ? Is it available for any other system ? 

Yes, you can still buy it digitally on 360. However, it isn't backwards compatible for Xbox One or the new Xbox Series. As far as I know, the 360 was its only release platform, too.

5 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Stainless is pretty much finished with Missile Command.  They will be moving over to Warlords pretty soon.  This version that they did for the 360 is what we are basing our exclusive version on for sure. 

 

It's going to be very cool!

 

 

Interesting! Did their 360 version of Missile Command influence the Amico version in any way?

5 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Wii's with bundles of games and a second controllers still get $150 - $200 on Ebay.  Just think.. for $100 more they could just get an XBOX Series S.

 

(see what I did there).

 

 

 

LOL yes. I am staying away from Ebay for now since I just need the console itself...not the wiimotes or anything else. I am hoping I can find one but I have a feeling its going to be hard since I don't want anything else with it. Amazon Renewed has some but they are all in that same price range unless they are rated as acceptable condition.

For Tommy.

http://www.sjgames.com/ill/archive/January_07_2021/Want_To_Make_A_Computer_Game_For_Us

3 hours ago, jsmith73 said:

YIKES! CRAP! That thing is huge. I keep looking at it, and my brain stutters a bit at the perspective. Thanks for sharing.

I was thinking the same thing... wow... I thought that it was a ski or a strut on a Helicopter hovering above when I first looked at the picture.  That thing is massive!!!

14 hours ago, AmicoBoise said:

Amico Track & Field!

IE should make a new Super Pro Decathlon 

22 hours ago, AmicoBoise said:

Amico Track & Field!

YES! I'd love to see a re-imagined Konami Track & Field and the sequel Hyper Sports. These games were always SUPER FUN to play with a group of friends.

The more the merrier!

However, the Amico controller better be up to the challenge because those buttons will be taking a REAL POUNDING!

Perhaps the touch-screen could be used as a secondary option for controlling the speed.

On 1/7/2021 at 7:30 PM, Tommy Tallarico said:

I agree.  I didn't mean to say level... I should have said "ship".

The gameplay itself shouldn't be different.  But having the ability of a different style ship to play the same game could be cool I think.

 

Thoughts from everyone?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Im not a fan of that. Id rather extree goodies like pisters figure etc for physical  even og intellivision  game. But adding anything extra to the game for physical is a  downer to me. Rather everyone have same game with everything in it... even if it doesnt effect  gameplay.  

20 hours ago, Saldo said:

I was just thinking about the motion controls for the system and how they work. The Wii used the IR sensor on top of the TV to sense controller movement.  The PlayStation and XBox used a camera to do the same.  I don’t have a Switch so I don’t know how that system works.  How will the Amico detect the controller motion?  Is there something in the base unit that does this and if so will the unit need to be placed in a certain way, or is everything to sense movement packed into the controllers?

The IR sensor was the part of the tech in the Wii controllers so you could use the Wiimote as a pointer on your TV screen.  We don't have or need that for Amico. 

It also had an accelerometer.  That is what was used to calculate angles, force, etc.

One interesting thing that a lot of folks may not realize is that the Wiimote's did NOT have a gyroscope.  Gyroscopes are used to measure rotation more directly.

Nintendo added the Wii MotionPlus adapter (which included a gyroscope) in 2009, nearly 3 years after the initial release of the Wii.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii_MotionPlus

The Amico controllers (like all mobile devices these days) have both an accelerometer and a gyroscope to measure angles, force, rotation, etc.

Here's a really cool video I remember checking out a few years ago explaining how the Wiimote works that folks here will probably enjoy.

19 hours ago, Malrinth said:

Oh, it's just me.

 

To be honest the Amico probably came a couple years too late for me. I think my ex would have LOVED Amico as she easily got flustered by complicated controls. She liked things like the Wii or Kinect. Ironically, I was more into books than video games at that time so I probably never would have heard about the Amico, even if it had been released earlier. But interests change and now I'm into video games again, particularly retro video games.

 

It's strange. When games are a gen old or two, you often think they look outdated, but when they get older than that you start to think they look good. At least that's how it was for me. 

 

For myself, I've always been visual or attentive to detail. The first thing I look for when I see a video game is the visuals. And when I say that, I don't mean the game has to have the best graphics as that's not the case. I honestly can't tell/don't see much of a difference between PS4 or PS5 games. If it was a book, I would ask myself, why is this a story worth telling? What's different about it? I don't necessarily want to keep reading the same story, only retold with different characters.

 

I think that's part of the appeal for Amico, with me. We've had PS3, PS4 and now PS5 released, but what's really different about them? It's not the big graphical jump like NES to SNES was, or SNES to N64. It's just the same types of games, usually 3D and often a jumbled mess with too many things going on, looking slightly better than last time.

 

That's not to say I'll definitely be getting an Amico, I'll have to see more first, particularly Asteroids and the Space Strike (spelling?) game with the vector graphics?

 

None of the pack-in games particularly interest me either. I know it might not be possible, but I would have preferred some type of tiered system where you could pick, say, 3 games from these six games, 2 games from these five games, and 1 game from these five games.

Thanks.  Appreciate the feedback and good to know that you feel like your ex would have loved Amico.  That is a very important demographic to us and our market research and focus group testing tells us the same.

18 hours ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

 

we have all had video games glitch on us in which the rendering gets weird, here is the real life version, and yes it is real and yes it is one large ass wind turbine blade.

 

 

 

I'm still trying to figure out what the hell I'm looking at!   Hahahha!

A better question is... what the HELL took that pic?  Assuming a drone as nothing is attached to the blade.

17 hours ago, Battlefish said:

Did their 360 version of Missile Command influence the Amico version in any way?

Not really.  Myself & Stainless pretty much designed everything from scratch.  It's the same with Warlords as well.  When great game mechanics are already available, it's fun to figure out new and unique ways to incorporate those into simple, fun and co-op/versus situations.

16 hours ago, Intellivision Master said:

 

Such a GREAT video and GREAT guy!

He reached out to me recently about a new series of Amico videos he would like to start doing.  Please make sure to subscribe to his channel!

16 hours ago, Matt-H06 said:

For Tommy.

 

http://www.sjgames.com/ill/archive/January_07_2021/Want_To_Make_A_Computer_Game_For_Us

Autoduel?  I've never heard of that one.