Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

3 hours ago, atarifan88 said:

Why settle for angry birds when you can have JOUST! 😀

This picture looks awesome.  It would make for some cool desktop wallpaper.  Also, I hope the physical media for the retro re-imagined games have cover art that looks like this or something similar.  

2 minutes ago, TMPiper said:

Sorry! Like I said, I was just trying to understand the gentleman’s criticism. I meant no offense to anyone here. I’m a fan of Amico and didn’t see or hear anything to concern me about the hardware or software release.

Oh dude, to be clear I wasn't slagging you.

To me it was obvious you were genuinely asking what the complaint was about.

19 minutes ago, mr_me said:

This should be a separate thread. It will get burried here.

It's related to Intellivision and Tommy, and that could help Amico in some way.

Exposure, maybe some money ( I don't know the deal they have ).

I think that's okay once, without exaggeration for future threads ! 👍

Edit : Okay, maybe I did not understand on my first reading ! You are saying it could also be in a separate thread !  Sorry.

I thought you were saying it was not welcome in this thread ! 😅

Has Intellivision ever considered turning the disc into a spinner? I've already discounted getting the Amico, but adding a spinner would at least get me interested in getting a controller if it also worked on PC. There are breakout clones on Steam I would like to play, but I want to use a spinner, not a regular controller. I want something new, not the same old. Even Astrosmash, which to me looks like it might be fun playing on a phone for a couple of minutes, might become interesting to me if you could play with the spinner.

I'm sure you could work it so you would still be able to use it like a regular dpad (Even I want to see if it is as silky smooth as they profess it is). 

Tommy,

Is there an update for the Running Man game?

1 hour ago, GrudgeQ said:

I don't even worry about what beta previews look like except for a general direction of where things are going. I know what beta code is like & been through thousands of game previews to know that none of this means much when it comes to the shipping product (good, bad or indifferent).

perhaps you mean alpha, by the time a game reaches beta testing, its almost fully cooked.  There is still time to tweak and polish and squash bugs, but what you see in beta is pretty close to what you will see in a released product.

Guys, I think we should stop all this speculation right now about games with lag and other such possible issues and wait until the games are finished. Tommy has been good enough to show us these games in different stages of development, for which I am extremely grateful, he doesn’t have to do this at all. This business about FF looking like a flash game shouldn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what a game looks like as long as it’s fun to play and you enjoy it. So let’s draw a line under this and look forward to the launch of the Amico, whenever it will be. 👍😀

23 minutes ago, Silverbot said:

Guys, I think we should stop all this speculation right now about games with lag and other such possible issues and wait until the games are finished. Tommy has been good enough to show us these games in different stages of development, for which I am extremely grateful, he doesn’t have to do this at all. This business about FF looking like a flash game shouldn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what a game looks like as long as it’s fun to play and you enjoy it. So let’s draw a line under this and look forward to the launch of the Amico, whenever it will be. 👍😀

Agreed, but I do have a comment I’d like to squeeze in.

Does anyone honestly believe that IE would go through controller and console design, obtaining of licenses, coordinate production, distribution and retail partners, develop the firmware, set up multiple offices in several countries around the world, work to obtain required safety certifications, construct the electronic store front, foster partnerships with developers, work to develop the first 50ish games and a myriad of other required activity all to fail on a bad play experience due to controller latency?  It’s simply absurd.  

It would be like Toyota selling a car that had an unfixable steering wobble.  Toyota would simply not do this and would instead redesign before release because they know that all the design and production expense would be for not, because word would get out and the car would simply not sell, let alone sink the company’s good will. 
 

6 hours ago, GrudgeQ said:

Not Amico related but nice to see the OG Intellivision games appear on modern systems, with the Evercade being a true standout in bringing back many classic retro games

Agreed.  The Evercade is a nice little handheld that is starting to have quite a good amount of collections.  Definitely looking forward to seeing what all they have planned for the 1st and 2nd carts.  However, would like to see more obscure systems (like the Super Cassette Vision) get some cart collections as that would be a good way to delve into different less known systems.

I am so happy to hear that Evercade is teaming up with Intellivision Entertainment for some cartridges. 

Evercade has done an excellent job of picking games from a wide variety of retro companies and systems that most people looked past or never had a chance to play back in the old days.

Some are more obscure than others, but I do find each cart has at least a couple games I enjoy.

Certain games are not my style of game and many people will have the same experience. 

It's great to have the option of picking and choosing,and playing the games you do enjoy.

Being that the Intellivision is my personal favorite system ever,this is absolutely perfect for me!

Kudos to both Evercade and Intellivision Entertainment for making this exciting partnership happen!👍😀

1 hour ago, Malrinth said:

Has Intellivision ever considered turning the disc into a spinner? I've already discounted getting the Amico, but adding a spinner would at least get me interested in getting a controller if it also worked on PC. There are breakout clones on Steam I would like to play, but I want to use a spinner, not a regular controller. I want something new, not the same old. Even Astrosmash, which to me looks like it might be fun playing on a phone for a couple of minutes, might become interesting to me if you could play with the spinner.

 

I'm sure you could work it so you would still be able to use it like a regular dpad (Even I want to see if it is as silky smooth as they profess it is). 

Breakout/Spinner games on PC or consoles typically use a mouse axis for input or possibly an analog axis.  I haven't heard about the amico controller being supported on other platforms but if it were, the amico disc/pad would probably become an analog stick to the computer so it wouldn't work with games programmed for a mouse axis.  Have you tried the Amico Breakout demo for windows?

I'm surprised there are no handheld consumer spinners on the market.  It seems you'd have to buy an arcade spinner and build a box for it.

1 hour ago, Malrinth said:

Has Intellivision ever considered turning the disc into a spinner? I've already discounted getting the Amico, but adding a spinner would at least get me interested in getting a controller if it also worked on PC. There are breakout clones on Steam I would like to play, but I want to use a spinner, not a regular controller. I want something new, not the same old. Even Astrosmash, which to me looks like it might be fun playing on a phone for a couple of minutes, might become interesting to me if you could play with the spinner.

 

I'm sure you could work it so you would still be able to use it like a regular dpad (Even I want to see if it is as silky smooth as they profess it is). 

 

 

 

 

If you want a spinner...  There are USB spinners available that you can make for not much money.  Glenn's retro show store front has some good, inexpensive stuff.  Until Arcade 1up can do Tron, I may just make a Tron arcade controller.  

While I haven't held the controller in my hand yet. I cannot say how smooth it really is. I'm sure if I drive up to their Salt Lake City office and say "hi', they will just let me play. Ha ha (I think I live about 10 miles south of the office).  But back to using the controller. You can use the controller just like a D pad. You don't have to spin it to move.

8 hours ago, themewsh said:

Tommy, the YouTube culture shenanigans are hurting Amico. Spelling errors in the fox video, the weird deluge of reaction vids instantly, the interviews where you talk about doing things to mess with haters, I’m sorry man but I’m out.

 

I love the idea of the system, I appreciated your willingness to engage the community but now there’s just two echo chambers at war and it’s not a good look. It leaves a segment of would be buyers with a bad taste in their mouths.

 

The world is a bad enough place and life is challenging enough that we don’t need this eternal conflict around something meant to bring the family together.

 

I’m sure I’ll get flamed for this post, but it is 100% meant to be constructive. Please understand that there are more people like me that would really like to see this do well but are turned off by what’s happening at the moment.

 

*edit for grammar 

Salient post

3 hours ago, TMPiper said:

Sorry! Like I said, I was just trying to understand the gentleman’s criticism. I meant no offense to anyone here. I’m a fan of Amico and didn’t see or hear anything to concern me about the hardware or software release.

No sorry is necessary, I wasn't referring to your post at all but instead the breathless "proof" and "Tommy admits" sensationalized sources of this crap. My problem is even if they have a point, and who knows maybe it is a valid one (a broken clock is right twice a day) I am not listening to anything they say because you can tell they are peddling an agenda or looking for self aggrandizement. Nothing wrong with what you said at all, I am just frustrated that it seems other large segments of the Internet have never left the 3rd grade school yard level of cliches, reasoning & debate.

3 hours ago, atarifan88 said:

Why settle for angry birds when you can have JOUST! 😀

Such an awesome piece of video game art. Also amazingly it explains pretty much what is going on in what, quite frankly, is a crazy premise game. Such a classic - definitely on my "would like to see on Amico" list too.

2 hours ago, mr_me said:

Breakout/Spinner games on PC or consoles typically use a mouse axis for input or possibly an analog axis.  I haven't heard about the amico controller being supported on other platforms but if it were, the amico disc/pad would probably become an analog stick to the computer so it wouldn't work with games programmed for a mouse axis.  Have you tried the Amico Breakout demo for windows?

 

 

No, I signed up for the mailing list, decided to opt out. Then, they came out with the demo, and they wouldn't let me back in lol.

I'm okay waiting for it in full.

5 hours ago, atarifan88 said:

Why settle for angry birds when you can have JOUST! 😀

That’s also another game that I’d like to see.

1 minute ago, Jeffrey Bouchard said:

That’s also another game that I’d like to see.

Maybe 4 player Joust ? Coop , VS etc ? 

Why not eight player Joust.

On 2/10/2021 at 9:17 AM, Intellivision Master said:

Tommy,

 

I know you mentioned bringing Gateway to Apshai to Amico.  Are you also going to bring over the original as well which was Temple of Apshai? 

I think he stated he started talking with the people at Epyx about some of their games en mentionned the whole Temple of Apshai trilogy

1 hour ago, Cranker said:

Maybe 4 player Joust ? Coop , VS etc ? 

That would be great.

Tommy, don't see this addressed on the website and nobody asks this from the interviews I've seen, but how does your account system work? Nintendo made a mistake back in the Wii days of tying purchases to the console. If that console bricked, well too bad. Horrible decision. MS and Sony smartly tie it to your online account, so long as you use that account on whatever console (replacement, new version, new next-gen console, etc), your purchases are with you.

How does the account system work for the Amico? Also, considering Atari VCS's launch issues with their own store and security, what measurements have you taken to make the accounts and online store/transactions secure?

Thanks.

7 minutes ago, romeoteknik said:

How does the account system work for the Amico? Also, considering Atari VCS's launch issues with their own store and security, what measurements have you taken to make the accounts and online store/transactions secure?

Thanks.

I dont want to answer for Tommy obviously but IIRC he may have mention that their backend was AWS, I only recall this because my companies whole back end is AWS as well. AWS is outstanding and is cloud based so even if your machine bricks you'll likely be fine.

I haven't been here for a while, but what's this about 10 frames of lag and where did it come from? In any case, it wasn't from the final version of the game. 10 frames of lag at 59.94Hz is atrocious and would make pretty much anything aside from something like chess or a turn-based RPG unplayable or close to unplayable. That's somewhere around Stadia levels of input lag. There is a method to accurately measure input lag, but that requires having the system, the controller, the game, something like the Time Sleuth, soldering skills, math skills, and a high-speed camera... not likely in this case, I think.

13 hours ago, Malrinth said:

Even Astrosmash, which to me looks like it might be fun playing on a phone for a couple of minutes, might become interesting to me if you could play with the spinner.

A few notes:
1. Astroblast (the version of Astrosmash for the Atari 2600) could be played with joysticks or paddles, and the paddles are notably more fun. A spinner would play a lot like the paddles and would be really nice.

2. The touchscreen can work as a linear paddle control. The Amico Breakout demo used this with laptop touchpads, and it works pretty well. (picture attached below is a look at linear slide "paddle controllers")
3. Personally, I'm in favor of a paddle/spinner knob-based add-on control option (use the USB on the controller and make the knob snap over the controller's disc), but actually shipping a console would be preferred.
4. The Amico disc is pressure sensitive, so it can fake a paddle/spinner to some degree (it's multiple speeds of left and right) though it's not the same.