Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

3 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

For those of you who aren't collectors and/or don't care if you have physical media or not, what would drive you get a physical media game for Amico?

As a non collector I can't imagine anything that would make my get physical copies.  That's not to say I'm not interested in what you have planned, but for someone who just wants to play games with the family, I don't see any advantages. 

Another thought is patches and updates. Will games have them and if so how would physical media get patched?

3 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

On my top 10 films of all time!  I'm a huge fan.

 

Also on that list... Rocky, Star Wars, Raiders, Godfather, Planet of the Apes, early James Bond, Tron & Tombstone... so pretty good company!

 

 

Tommy could we possibly see a Rocky game and others that you mentioned? I would love it if possible.

49 minutes ago, Matt-H06 said:

As a non collector I can't imagine anything that would make my get physical copies.  That's not to say I'm not interested in what you have planned, but for someone who just wants to play games with the family, I don't see any advantages. 

 

Another thought is patches and updates. Will games have them and if so how would physical media get patched?

The only thing pushed out for games after release would be if a flaw is found in the game and a patch is needed to fix it.  Other than that it would just be a follow up game like the planned series of games for Moon Patrol 

3 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Don't worry... we got ya covered.  Just not in the way you are traditionally thinking.

 

 

And what were doing gives a lot more advantages.

 

Sorry I can't tell you more right now.  We'll talk about it a lot more before launch.

 

 

Glad to hear. Looking forward to more reveals.

4 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Hahaha!  Nice one!  I have ALL the XaviX games.  Bowling, Fishing, Baseball, Tennis, etc.  A lot of folks don't realize that the system came out before the Wii.  The problem was the framerate and gameplay though (and no marketing).

That system could have been a lot more popular than it was if they spent a little more time and money on the games and a lot more money on the marketing or getting sports licenses and doing partnerships with those sports leagues/organizations.

 

For those not aware, it was a system out of Japan that came with actual physical controllers in the shapes of the actual sports equipment with all the games.  It was 2 years before the Wii.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xavix
 

I know what was the biggest marketing campaign and how I heard about it...

Sean Hannity. He did a commercial in his own words.  These talk show host only use their own words/vocal likeness on things they personally endorse.

Of course, once Hannity was aware of the Wii, either he couldn't in good conscience take money and say the things he said about Xavix from that point onward, or Xavix didn't want a spokesman who was becoming a Wii guy.

4 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Hahaha!  Nice one!  I have ALL the XaviX games.  Bowling, Fishing, Baseball, Tennis, etc.  A lot of folks don't realize that the system came out before the Wii.  The problem was the framerate and gameplay though (and no marketing).

That system could have been a lot more popular than it was if they spent a little more time and money on the games and a lot more money on the marketing or getting sports licenses and doing partnerships with those sports leagues/organizations.

 

For those not aware, it was a system out of Japan that came with actual physical controllers in the shapes of the actual sports equipment with all the games.  It was 2 years before the Wii.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xavix
 

Me too, except fishing. Can't bring myself to spend $70 on what was declared as the most boring of its games. 

51 minutes ago, Alpha82 said:

The only thing pushed out for games after release would be if a flaw is found in the game and a patch is needed to fix it.  Other than that it would just be a follow up game like the planned series of games for Moon Patro

So what happens when my physical game has the flaw?

5 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

It's amazing for me to see the incredible quality, time, care and research that @RetroAdvisoryBoard puts into his videos.  Like his posts... everything is very well thought out.


Super guy as well!  I hope we can all support him by subscribing to his channel.

 

 

Thank you Tommy.  You guys have been incredibly supportive, and pretty creative at seeding and watering lots of ideas - credit where it's due!  Couldn't ask for a better corner of the net to banter over a games system.

59 minutes ago, Matt-H06 said:

So what happens when my physical game has the flaw?

It would be patched the same way digitally distributed games are patched.

19 hours ago, justclaws said:

For some people, for sure, a system without a Jeff Minter game isn't worth buying yet.
I think a Minter 2D game like this re-imagined by Lllamasoft for the Amico could rock.
I'm a bit sick of the 3D games of late, and the psychedelic VR Games. More fun, 2D. 🙂

I think I can agree with that. Let me see...

Bought a Jag for Tempest 2000

Bought the Nuon (2x different models)for Tempest 3000 and the VLM

Bought the xbox 360 for the VLM (Neon) and Space Giraffe - Then other games.

Bought a PS Vita for TXK

Bought a PS4/PSVR for TXK VR that was coming out( then canceled). Bonus - Polybius did make it. Then Tempest 4000!. 

Buying an Amico - For the obvious reasons... But hopes of a Llamasoft game coming out. 

6 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Fun game you guys are playing with the list.


Here's a different take on this list...

 

I worked on 17 of those consoles!  

 

The only one I never owned was the Neo Geo.  But I did play it.  Was too damn expensive for me to own at the time, but my best friend David Perry had one at the office when we worked at Virgin Games in the early 90's... so I just played his.

 

Tommy,

The only one I worked on was the original XBox to write a Windows driver for the controller (for low-level testing, not enabling gaming).

Did you ever see the early prototype versions of the Duke controller?  I'm curious if they were seen outside of Microsoft.  They were painted gold, the controllers cable ran to a large black box with 2 metal plates, and had a USB and serial connection on the other side of the black box.  The box probably had the real electronics in it while the controller was only switches.  The controller itself was a different shape.  It was taller (like how the Sega Dreamcast controller is tall) and was much more circular.  The center circle was raised compared to the out side grips.  Below is a crude drawing that I created from memory. 

3 months from today for the Amico launch.  I'm still hopeful that the console can make the release date.  I know Tommy said only a 20% chance but that's better than nothing.

2 hours ago, Matt-H06 said:

So what happens when my physical game has the flaw?

I can only guess at this one but I would assume that the physical game gets added to your system with other games and a patch if needed would be downloaded in the background 

6 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Super interesting article that I thought a lot of people here would appreciate (and understand what we're going through as well).

 

Auto parts shortage due to... Playstation...

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/business/auto-factories-semiconductor-chips.html?campaign_id=4&emc=edit_dk_20210114&instance_id=25995&nl=dealbook&regi_id=86417126&segment_id=49278&te=1&user_id=fb608b7c7d8ceb789abb558d892e7010

I saw AMD is having issues as well, but this covers tariffs and freight costs. This isn't the only area that is impacted, freight and shipping is an issue across the board.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/12/22227040/nvidia-amd-gpu-shortage-rtx-3080-3070-3060-ti-3090-rx-6800-xt

On 1/14/2021 at 2:25 PM, skylinesandsunsets said:

Why is Amico going to be the "dark horse" console of this decade? 

It has four of the five key elements, listed in the advertisement below, that made the classic 2600 into Atari's most successful product: Arcade classics, games with single player modes, priced to sell, and easy-to-use controllers.

Contrary to the advertisement below, the 2600 didn't necessarily have the fifth key element: "best games" (I'm looking at you, Pac-man port!). 
However, Atari proved that you can be known as "the best in the business" just by being popular.  It still happens all the time (I'm looking at you, Zoom!).

Amico may not be destined to offer the largest library, but at the least they will have quality games. 
After all, I dare say that one of many reasons why the classic NES was a success is because Nintendo pioneered the "seal of quality" concept.  

With the NES formula ("quality plus the other four key elements") , something that's slightly different than what this Atari 2600 advertisement boasts, Amico will become a success.    

 

 

To be fair, at the time of that ad, those weren't "arcade classics". It's kind of funny they already were tossing that language around. Many of those titles were, however, among the most wildly popular arcade games of the era. I suppose you could count some of the 'barely more than Pong' early arcade games "classics" from 2-5 years prior.

That said, I largely agree. Price, variety, flexibility (1-8 player support), simple controllers - these all are strong characteristics. The potential 'knock' is that there is a lot of power in The Franchise. Like it or not, the gamer crowd are going to look for some franchise they already know, and others like parents and grandparents who are initially looking at "stuff for the kids" are going to look for that, too.

And if people are weirded out by the controller, they're likely tossing up a strawman. The era of the smart phone has already trained most people how to use most of the features on the Amico controller!

9 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Don't worry... we got ya covered.  Just not in the way you are traditionally thinking.

 

 

And what were doing gives a lot more advantages.

 

Sorry I can't tell you more right now.  We'll talk about it a lot more before launch.

 

 

And as always... The Great Tallarico has another magical gift up his sleeve!! 

Lol!  

BTW... Was going to do Boston instead of Brooklyn, but neither of us are Red Sox fans...so why bother.  Hahaha!!

It was interesting to hear how the logo came to be.  And what unique sound effects were used during the animation.

Back in the Day, How many here actually saw this Intellivision ad in a movie theatre?

Tommy,

There should be a special edition Amico console in the shape of the Astrosmash ship.  When turning on the console, it makes sounds like a ship taking off.  Also, it would have laser sounds too while navigating/clicking on things via the home screen and online shop.  Wouldn't that be something?  

On 1/13/2021 at 2:00 PM, Loafer said:

3-4-3-4-4-3 = 21.  The only consoles I’ve not owned listed above are: Sega SMS (wish I had bought it!), Atari Jaguar and Nintendo Wii-U.   There are a few more I’ve owned not listed such as:  Odyssey 2, Amiga CD32 and Vectrex.  I loved the Colecovision, the NeoGeo, SNES, Genesis, Dreamcast and the Xbox 360 the most out of all of these though there is affection for most of the others too (if we talk about Computers, then add The Amiga as my favorite of all time).

 

Good times !

I've owned lots of computers since my first, the Intellivison

Keyboard Component, but by far the best ever was the Comodore Amiga. Waaaaaay ahead of its time.

1 hour ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

Back in the Day, How many here actually saw this Intellivision ad in a movie theatre?

 

 

Sadly, I didn't see it back in the day.  However, today I own a copy.