Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

10 hours ago, mr_me said:

One thing that is true, unlike the other systems mentioned, you couldn't make and market an Intellivision system today without the permission of Intellivision Entertainment because of the embedded "exec" software that's required.

Indeed.  Thanks, Dave Rolfe!

20 hours ago, ColecoJoe said:

Sorry, I may have inadvertently sparked this debate when I expressed a personal opinion a few posts back

 

As yourself, or as Fake Tommy T?

😆

It's actually been an interesting discussion; hearing others perceptions of it vs my own.

On 10/19/2019 at 6:36 PM, PlaysWithWolves said:

  @mr_me is right that it's not technically an updated Intellivision model ...

I'd have to test it with Intellivision Skiing before I can say that.

10 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

That was never the case.  Just because Mattel licensed the rights doesnt mean they own the code or owned the game ever.  Data East was always the owner. It was a simple licensing deal.  Similar to Colecovision making Donkey Kong games.  They didnt own Donkey Kong or the code. 

The reason Mattel would own the code is because they wrote the code. It's why the titlescreens of the Intellivision versions have copyrights to both Mattel and Data East.  The coleco cartridge labels makes it clear, "program and audiovisuals copyright 1982 coleco industries".   Although I'd think most of the audiovisuals belong to nintendo.

5 hours ago, nurmix said:

As yourself, or as Fake Tommy T?

😆

 

 

I've learned it doesn't pay off being fake Tommy T on the internet so I am no longer assuming that identity and now go by Rick Reynolds. Beware of imposters!

17 minutes ago, ColecoJoe said:

I've learned it doesn't pay off being fake Tommy T on the internet so I am no longer assuming that identity and now go by Rick Reynolds. Beware of imposters!

I do believe we are back down to one Tommy. And whatever you know being a hired hit on Atari pays well. Geeze.

So when is the next big announcement?

When might we see some more gameplay?

1 hour ago, MrBeefy said:

I do believe we are back down to one Tommy. And whatever you know being a hired hit on Atari pays well. Geeze.

 

So when is the next big announcement?

 

When might we see some more gameplay?

Make sure you have on a clean pair of Spiderman underoos, because Tommy has mentioned  they are aiming for Dec 3rd (intellivisions 40th anniversary) to release the next trailer.  So get ready to Pitty some Atari foos  , just don't eat cereal from a 35 year old box of Mr t cereal. Sit back and relax , because they are supposed to be showing a trailer for the controller,  and who knows if the amico team will have any other suprises to finish off 2019 for the hungry amico fans that  have been some Bad Dudes , because we are always ready for a good ole Burgertime even if we must bump and jump.    ( Lol don't take any of my speak as clues , I'm more clueless than Alicia Silverstone after getting the call from her agent that she's up for the role of batgirl.)

3 hours ago, mr_me said:

 

I'd have to test it with Intellivision Skiing before I can say that.

 

The reason Mattel would own the code is because they wrote the code. It's why the titlescreens of the Intellivision versions have copyrights to both Mattel and Data East.  The coleco cartridge labels makes it clear, "program and audiovisuals copyright 1982 coleco industries".   Although I'd think most of the audiovisuals belong to nintendo.

In licensing deals EVERYTHING is always owned by the licensor and never the licensee.  Mattel or Intellivision never owned anything in regards to Burgertime, etc.  If we did, the company wouldn't have needed to get permission to put it out after the initial run.  But of course... we always did (which is why it didn't appear in the Flashback or in all of the Intellivision Greatest Hits over the years. 

I've personally never seen a contract or heard of a developer or publisher locking out ownership of the code for a licensed game.  It would be useless to do so as the licensor always controls everything to do with the product.  So it's not like the licensee could ever use that exact code for anything else.  Sometimes if the developer has created their own game engine (very rare these days... but somewhat common in the 90's) they may put a provision that they are using their proprietary game engine and that by making the game in that engine that it doesn't mean the licensor owns their game engine.

Even if you own the code copyright you'd still need Gmode's permission to distribute more copies of Intellivision Burgertime because they own copyrights on the music/sounds and much of the graphics; and of course the trademarks.  When asked, Keith R had said he owned the code copyrights to these games.

I guess for licensed Amico games like Moon Patrol and Missile Command the code copyrights belong to Irem and Atari?

12 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

I've personally never seen a contract or heard of a developer or publisher locking out ownership of the code for a licensed game.  It would be useless to do so as the licensor always controls everything to do with the product.  So it's not like the licensee could ever use that exact code for anything else. 

FYI it's something we've encountered with several products over the years. (At least 3 that I can think of off the top of my head.) I can't get into specifics, but...
 

While it's true that the licensee can't use the code autonomously if the IP is embedded, the IP owner doesn't necessarily have autonomous right to the code either.
 

The analogy I use is that if I draw a picture of Superman, I can't sell it, but DC doesn't own it either. Now of course DC and I might strike a deal, but it depends on the details of the terms. Maybe it wasn't Intellivision's experience, but there have indeed been a number of cases where a licensor that wasn't savvy didn't acquire unfettered title to the code.
 

And, as a result, 3rd Party reissues of the game were encumbered by having to now licence the IP from one company and the code from another. 
 

if you take a look at Bandai-Namco's lawsuit filing against AtGames, they say as much on the NES version of Pac-Man appearing in the Blast product. They reference the games containing "third party developer copyrights" (developer copyright of the NES code, independent of Bandai-Namco's title).

Enough of the legal babble. Let’s talk games. And shirts. We hope that there will be some like this in the next round of Intelliwear.

On 10/20/2019 at 7:31 PM, MrBeefy said:

I do believe we are back down to one Tommy. And whatever you know being a hired hit on Atari pays well. Geeze.

 

So when is the next big announcement?

 

When might we see some more gameplay?

Looking like December 3rd! 

11 hours ago, First Spear said:

Enough of the legal babble. Let’s talk games. And shirts. We hope that there will be some like this in the next round of Intelliwear.

 

Agreed and PLEASE!

On 10/17/2019 at 11:16 AM, mr_me said:

Some people here hope to play intellivision games and intellivision cartridges with Amico.  They might think of it as an intellivision.

It would be cool to play original Intellivision games and Amico exclusive games as well on e-shop.

Will Amico be available on retail stores or only online?

58 minutes ago, Serguei2 said:

It would be cool to play original Intellivision games and Amico exclusive games as well on e-shop.

 

Will Amico be available on retail stores or only online?

It will be widely available in retail stores and online.  In other words, you won't have any trouble finding it.

Amico will be able to play the original Intellivision games (it will be running the JzIntv emulator for the 'legacy' games), and while we don't have any current plans to make a cartridge port adapter, we would welcome and support a third party that wants to do so in the future.

1 hour ago, nurmix said:

It will be widely available in retail stores and online.  In other words, you won't have any trouble finding it.

 

Amico will be able to play the original Intellivision games (it will be running the JzIntv emulator for the 'legacy' games), and while we don't have any current plans to make a cartridge port adapter, we would welcome and support a third party that wants to do so in the future.

 

Thanks. Amico could compete against Switch, Xbox one and upcoming PS5

Unlike Phoenix and Omni, I might have interest with Amico.

Can I play Amico on CRT tv?

1 hour ago, Serguei2 said:

Thanks. Amico could compete against Switch, Xbox one and upcoming PS5

 

Unlike Phoenix and Omni, I might have interest with Amico.

 

Can I play Amico on CRT tv?

You'd have to get your own adapter to convert the Amico's hdmi output to anything else.  See the specifications here.

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

Edit:

Maybe an Amico faq might be helpfull.

FAQ here:

https://www.intellivisionamico.com/faq

6 hours ago, Serguei2 said:

Thanks. Amico could compete against Switch, Xbox one and upcoming PS5

 

Unlike Phoenix and Omni, I might have interest with Amico.

 

Can I play Amico on CRT tv?

I love the idea of the Amico, but I would prefer we not get too far ahead of ourselves. I think this has potential, but I'm not sure I would say its going to be competitive. This might be a good second system to own along side one of those.

1 hour ago, MrBeefy said:

I love the idea of the Amico, but I would prefer we not get too far ahead of ourselves. I think this has potential, but I'm not sure I would say its going to be competitive. This might be a good second system to own along side one of those.

For a budget system, yes it can compete.

As long as Amico will be available to most common stores like walmart, it would be fine.

1 hour ago, MrBeefy said:

I love the idea of the Amico, but I would prefer we not get too far ahead of ourselves. I think this has potential, but I'm not sure I would say its going to be competitive. This might be a good second system to own along side one of those.

I always personally find it better (and way more fun) to be optimistic as opposed to pessimistic.  But maybe that's just the way I've always been wired. 

7 hours ago, mr_me said:

You'd have to get your own adapter to convert the Amico's hdmi output to anything else.  See the specifications here.

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

 

Edit:

Maybe an Amico faq might be helpfull.

Mr. Me is correct.  I believe you,would need an adapter.  Not something we would support.

I've never personally attempted to connect an HDMI 16:9 1080 down to a 4:3 CRT.  Not sure what that would look or play like.  I can only assume crap. 

57 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

Mr. Me is correct.  I believe you,would need an adapter.  Not something we would support.

 

I've never personally attempted to connect an HDMI 16:9 1080 down to a 4:3 CRT.  Not sure what that would look or play like.  I can only assume crap. 

 

 

I did it with one of my Retropie units... you assumed correctly... it looked like crap.  I eventually ditched the CRT (set up for old consoles only now) for a SmartTV.  It never fit the screen properly from any aspects and looked muddy as hell.

Avoid it.

Will Amico come with ALL the original/legacy games, including third party licensed games? Will we be able to play the legacy games with the wireless controllers? Man I cant wait for this! Also looking forward to the modern version of the games, but for me the legacy games are the dope!

1 minute ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

I always personally find it better (and way more fun) to be optimistic as opposed to pessimistic.  But maybe that's just the way I've always been wired. 

 

 

Well to be honest I expect that from you. If you don't believe in it why try to make it a possibility?

11 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

I love the idea of the Amico, but I would prefer we not get too far ahead of ourselves. I think this has potential, but I'm not sure I would say its going to be competitive. This might be a good second system to own along side one of those.

Of course no one knows and it depends of Intellivision’s execution too but the Amico only competes against other systems for existing console/PC gamers. If you like those systems already then yeah the Amico is a niche, maybe 2nd or 3rd or 27th (Atari Age collector types) system for these people. Personally there was a time when I had young kids that I only considered Nintendo consoles and really limited the games I got for that just because of that whole family friendly concern. This lasted until they were much older and the XBoxes started showing up. I would have 100% gotten an Amico when they were 5 to 8 ish. When you are transitioning from things like closed kiddie systems like Leappad to what? Maybe kid friendly tablets from Amazon or a Switch and only hand select games for them? Amico is social, I can monitor the time because it is played in front of the TV (who knows if they are studying or playing the Switch in their room), it is dramatically cheaper, you can’t buy a non appropriate game on it - it is very attractive for parents in this position. Also the Wii was one console I bought that the kids didn’t really ask for - because I wanted it for the motion control games myself. Maybe I just randomly fit a narrow demographic of being both a worried parents and someone who enjoys casual social games, but from Leappad and Wii sales I don’t think I am the only one. Also depends on what you consider a success - I can see the Amico doing millions of units in sales - literally 1 to 3% of the PS4 and still being a huge success for Intellivision as a company. So the scale is radically different here too.