Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

2 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

  On 2/12/2021 at 2:56 AM, themewsh said:

 

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

It doesn’t take some one with an extraordinary high EQ to recognize the difference between a group of people that like and stand behind a product then a camp of people who attack the former group, the product, spread misinformation and spend their time continually attacking the product, the company, and anyone associated with them.  
 

This isn’t politics, its not a product that you are FORCED to put in your house that has cameras and microphones.  Its a game console.  Do we really need to amend the saying to “you should not talk politics, religion and video game consoles?”  Not saying that some who are excited for the system haven’t “taken the bait” out of frustration (myself included), but it does not take a physiology degree to see (generalizing) which group should think about seeking out some one with said degree; really, being serious here - it could be life changing. 
 

Just to be clear, not intending throwing themewsh into either group.

2 hours ago, themewsh said:

Thanks Tommy - part of my issue is that channels you mention I should follow feel disingenuous and exaggerated. OEB Pete’s goofy faces in the thumbnails are not helping on that front. 
 

As for the official channels that trust was broken when I saw the clip where you mention putting weird things in to mess with your haters and generate negative reactions.
 

I’m not interested in misinformation in official videos for the sake of the lulz. It makes the people that want to support it feel like suckers if they don’t know what’s real and what’s not.
 

Best of luck in your endeavor, I’ll see myself out, thanks for replying.

No worries.  Glad you stopped by.

1 hour ago, Jeffrey Bouchard said:

Why not have the option of either? A menu choice at the beginning of the game If possible that could add to the playability.

Because it could cause a lot of gameplay issues and unfairness... thereby potentially pissing off a bunch of people.  

It could also double the time and budget of the entire project in order to do it perfectly.

1 hour ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Thanks!  Would be interested in hearing what everyone in here would like to see on Evercade!

Please keep in mind the following...

No licenses (i.e. stuff we don't own) and it can't use the keypad too much (i.e. Utopia = no).  But for small things like the AUTO FIRE in Astrosmash can easily be mapped to another button.

 

Let's hear it folks!

Now is your time to be heard!  What do you want???

p.s.  Imagic would be a separate 3rd collection, so I'm only talking Intellivision owned properties.  And yes... AD&D can be branded as Cloudy Mountain!  Tron Deadly Discs much tougher because of the imagery within the game.

 

 

Since Astrosmash, Frog Bog, and Night Stalker have already been confirmed, the ones that I'd love to see that would work well on Evercade are:

Bowling

Space Armada

Snafu

Shark! Shark!

Really though, just having a system to play Night Stalker anywhere is worth it to me. The other titles I'd love to see, like Lock n' Chase are probably owned by other companies. The problem is that the Intellivision controller was so important for a lot of the games like B-17 Bomber and Baseball.

On another note...

For those worried about delays, I can say with some authority, that it isn't just acquiring the components that is going to be an issue, but shipping the product from China to anywhere is currently a big problem.  Trying to get a booking for anything coming out of China right now is extremely difficult. The port of LA is so backed up at the moment that the steamship lines have decided to start reducing capacity to allow for the backlog to get cleared up. This then makes getting a booking even more challenging. It's a big, frustrating headache at the moment and while I hope it clears up soon, it's been like this for months and only getting worse.

9 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Because it could cause a lot of gameplay issues and unfairness... thereby potentially pissing off a bunch of people.  

It could also double the time and budget of the entire project in order to do it perfectly.

 

 

Makes sense and thank you for the information. In that case, I’d prefer predesigned islands.

1 hour ago, themewsh said:

manipulating viewers via an official video is what set me off, that’s been clear since my first post.

I wasn't manipulating viewers... I was manipulating a very small group of racists and bullies (as well as Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dummer) who find it entertaining to harass my wife, our employees, our developers or anyone who likes Amico.

And it worked.

My point of the experiment was to prove that they will focus on and say anything in order to try and destroy the product and turn people against us... when in fact... it does the opposite.

If you don't see the humor and justice in that... that's cool.

p.s.  You never answered my question about Elon Musk.  May as well add Steve Jobs to that discussion as well.

1 hour ago, Intellivision Master said:

I understand.  Are you considering on bringing the Breakout demo to the app?  And yes it would be something.

No.  Not at this time.

28 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

C'mon... you can't make a post like that and not show video of your light work!! 

Question:  Do you use DMX when programming Christmas lights?  That is of course the industry standard (like MIDI for music!) for most live shows and concerts/tours.

Just curious if folks in the hobby world are using DMX as well.

I have been on the fringes of the hobby for several years and did a few small things but I lived in a town home, which really limits what you can do. Just this December, however, I moved into a new, free standing home and so now Christmas (and possibly Halloween) 2021 is top burner. Fortunately I didn't have to try to jump in 2020, pretty much a rough year for everything. Will definitely post a pic or a video this coming holiday, might even have something Intellivision related if my light sequencing skills are up to it.

The controllers use E1.31 which is basically DMX over Ethernet and almost every pro controller supports at least one DMX port. The more serious folks especially are really into DMX (think fog, snow & bubble machines. motion controlled spot lights & even lasers!). Also the software used by the more serious (xLights) is basically just a DMX sequencer (like a video editor but for lights & lighting effects). Big crossover with the stage AV stuff, especially with there being a lot of cheap Chinese knockoffs of pro stage lighting. Basically everything is just the home or semi pro version of what is used in a professional stage production. Your Video Games Live crew wouldn't feel out of place at all.

28 minutes ago, Stoke said:

I think this guy made a good point about "manipulating viewers . . .".  I don't really care about lag or spelling errors as this is a work in progress.  We know the product is not finished. I care about the allegation of deception. Saying I was doing it to get the haters, is saying the ends justify the means.

We didn't sit down and plan it like that.  It happened right as we started recording so we just left it in because we thought it would be hilarious.

6 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

No.  Not at this time.

That's okay. 

26 minutes ago, Starpaddler said:

It doesn’t take some one with an extraordinary high EQ to recognize the difference between a group of people that like and stand behind a product then a camp of people who attack the former group, the product, spread misinformation and spend their time continually attacking the product, the company, and anyone associated with them.  
 

This isn’t politics, its not a product that you are FORCED to put in your house that has cameras and microphones.  Its a game console.  Do we really need to amend the saying to “you should not talk politics, religion and video game consoles?”  Not saying that some who are excited for the system haven’t “taken the bait” out of frustration (myself included), but it does not take a physiology degree to see (generalizing) which group should think about seeking out some one with said degree; really, being serious here - it could be life changing. 
 

Just to be clear, not intending throwing themewsh into either group.

You win best post of the day! 

1 hour ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

It's actually more of a spinner than a traditional Dpad if you think about it.  A traditional Dpad only has 8 directions.  Ours is 64 with pressure sensitivity as well.  It's like a combination of a dpad, analog stick and spinner.  

If you press the disc down and rotate it... it acts similar to a spinner... which dpads are unable to do.

Will any amico games be programmed to use the disc as a spinner e.g. tempest, warlords, breakout?

1 hour ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Thanks!  Would be interested in hearing what everyone in here would like to see on Evercade!

Please keep in mind the following...

No licenses (i.e. stuff we don't own) and it can't use the keypad too much (i.e. Utopia = no).  But for small things like the AUTO FIRE in Astrosmash can easily be mapped to another button.

 

Let's hear it folks!

Now is your time to be heard!  What do you want???

p.s.  Imagic would be a separate 3rd collection, so I'm only talking Intellivision owned properties.  And yes... AD&D can be branded as Cloudy Mountain!  Tron Deadly Discs much tougher because of the imagery within the game.

 

 

For the Evercade, don't forget Auto Racing and Vectron.  People think they can't work with an 8-way dpad but they can play perfectly fine.  There's also a way to get PGA Golf to work.

20 minutes ago, vongruetz said:

Since Astrosmash, Frog Bog, and Night Stalker have already been confirmed, the ones that I'd love to see that would work well on Evercade are:

Bowling

Space Armada

Snafu

Shark! Shark!

 

Really though, just having a system to play Night Stalker anywhere is worth it to me. The other titles I'd love to see, like Lock n' Chase are probably owned by other companies. The problem is that the Intellivision controller was so important for a lot of the games like B-17 Bomber and Baseball.

 

On another note...

 

For those worried about delays, I can say with some authority, that it isn't just acquiring the components that is going to be an issue, but shipping the product from China to anywhere is currently a big problem.  Trying to get a booking for anything coming out of China right now is extremely difficult. The port of LA is so backed up at the moment that the steamship lines have decided to start reducing capacity to allow for the backlog to get cleared up. This then makes getting a booking even more challenging. It's a big, frustrating headache at the moment and while I hope it clears up soon, it's been like this for months and only getting worse.

Some great guesses there!  Expect to see ALL OF THEM except Space Armada.  I believe Intellivision got a letter at some point in the 80's from the Space Invaders folks (Taito at the time)... which quite frankly... is understandable!

Thank you for bringing up the shipping (and customs!) thing.  Yeah... crates are basically going to the highest bidder at this point and all the biggest companies are getting them... even at the cost of margin loss.  Bigger companies can afford to do that.  We can't.

As I'm sure you know... you can't even get a product on a ship from China until at least May right now.

 

3 minutes ago, mr_me said:

Will any amico games be programmed to use the disc as a spinner e.g. tempest, warlords, breakout?

We've experimented with a few games (Pong & Breakout being two of them) but the reality is that the touch screen actually works better for both.  We'll probably keep the spinner option in as an option.

3 minutes ago, mr_me said:

 

For the Evercade, don't forget Auto Racing and Vectron.  People think they can't work with an 8-way dpad but they can play perfectly fine.  There's also a way to get PGA Golf to work.

Totally agree!

2 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

So wait... what you're saying is that people should use common sense and logic?

Sorry, my bad. I momentarily lost my sensibilities. 

29 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Some great guesses there!  Expect to see ALL OF THEM except Space Armada.  I believe Intellivision got a letter at some point in the 80's from the Space Invaders folks (Taito at the time)... which quite frankly... is understandable!

,,,

Space Armada has always been included in the intellivison collections.  And Keith was very conservative about these things, not to mention Mattel's lawyers.  A space armada alien was even made the cover of the nintendo ds edition.

4 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

WOW!!!   Insane!

They are finally getting the eyes right!  And the lines/pores in the skin.  Incredible. 

THIS was what I was hoping NEXT GEN consoles we're going to bring.  And hopefully they will over the next few years.  When I saw the Unreal 5 engine running on the PS5 it was mind-blowing and definitely NEXT GEN!

Yet we got nothing like this on launch and I'm still a little underwhelmed with what I've seen so far.  I know that is going to change!  But does anyone else feel like Sony & Microsoft pulled the trigger a year too early on releasing the next round of Next Gen consoles?  I personally do.

 

Shouldn't we have gotten something like THIS on launch?  Now THAT is next gen.

 

That would have been amazing!

 

 

 

I always feel hardware comes too early for the next gen cycle. But in my mind, next gen hasn’t really started yet. Why? You can’t readily walk into a big box store or mom and pop game shop and get the new PS5 or Xbox whatever they call it. And as you pointed out Tommy, the games are underwhelming at the moment. The video you shared was certainly next gen worthy. 
 

But honestly, it didn’t look fun. Just my opinion.

17 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Some great guesses there!  Expect to see ALL OF THEM except Space Armada.  I believe Intellivision got a letter at some point in the 80's from the Space Invaders folks (Taito at the time)... which quite frankly... is understandable!

 

 

Thank you for bringing up the shipping (and customs!) thing.  Yeah... crates are basically going to the highest bidder at this point and all the biggest companies are getting them... even at the cost of margin loss.  Bigger companies can afford to do that.  We can't.

As I'm sure you know... you can't even get a product on a ship from China until at least May right now.

 

Too bad about Space Armada. If I can get Snafu and Night Stalker on one cartridge, I will definitely be picking up an Evercade.

And yes... I know it takes a months right now to get anything out of China. It's the equivalent of trying to find a PS5 at the moment. Even when they say they have space available in two months, it's gone before you can even enter your information. I'm sure companies with massive shipments can secure space, but don't think they're getting a bulk discount. Those days are gone. Right now if you ask for anything less than 6 weeks out, they'll laugh at you. And even if you have reserved space, most lines are charging an extra $3000 per container just to confirm that spot. That's in addition to the normal charges. Then you factor in Chinese New Year and the backlog only increases. But I'm sure this will bore most people here, so I'll shut up now.

2 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Thanks!  Would be interested in hearing what everyone in here would like to see on Evercade!

Please keep in mind the following...

No licenses (i.e. stuff we don't own) and it can't use the keypad too much (i.e. Utopia = no).  But for small things like the AUTO FIRE in Astrosmash can easily be mapped to another button.

 

Let's hear it folks!

Now is your time to be heard!  What do you want???

p.s.  Imagic would be a separate 3rd collection, so I'm only talking Intellivision owned properties.  And yes... AD&D can be branded as Cloudy Mountain!  Tron Deadly Discs much tougher because of the imagery within the game.

 

 

My choices, not in amy particular order
 

1) Cloudy Mountain 

2) if could be creatively made to work - Space Battle

3) Burger Time

4) any chance for third party, already Licensed for Amico, like Bump n Jump?

5) Snafu (keeping original title?)

6) Skiing

7) Lock n Chase

8 ) Night Stalker

9 ) Las Vegas Poker

10) Astrosmash

Also, there was previous discussion on ports of arcade classics like Asteroids, Missile Command and Pac Man for Amico. Response was that there are already many ports out there that anyone interested could already access. If Amico was targeted to only “gammers” I couldn’t argue that, but I’d love to have faithful versions of those games, along with what I think would be superior controls, but currently do not have any of them. As Amico is targeting the non-traditional gammer demographic, I’d think there would be many like myself.

1 minute ago, vongruetz said:

Too bad about Space Armada. If I can get Snafu and Night Stalker on one cartridge, I will definitely be picking up an Evercade.

 

And yes... I know it takes a months right now to get anything out of China. It's the equivalent of trying to find a PS5 at the moment. Even when they say they have space available in two months, it's gone before you can even enter your information. I'm sure companies with massive shipments can secure space, but don't think they're getting a bulk discount. Those days are gone. Right now if you ask for anything less than 6 weeks out, they'll laugh at you. And even if you have reserved space, most lines are charging an extra $3000 per container just to confirm that spot. That's in addition to the normal charges. Then you factor in Chinese New Year and the backlog only increases. But I'm sure this will bore most people here, so I'll shut up now.

Haha exactly the opposite for me, I’ve always found shipping and logistics fascinating. My brother and I was on the coin op eBay craze in the late 90’s early 2000’s and shipping coin op units and pinballs was cool to me. Always wonder how companies move massive amounts of products from overseas, ultimately ending up at your home. 

1 hour ago, Starpaddler said:

but it does not take a physiology degree

Sorry, must have auto corrected. Was trying to say psychology degree

45 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Thank you for bringing up the shipping (and customs!) thing.  Yeah... crates are basically going to the highest bidder at this point and all the biggest companies are getting them... even at the cost of margin loss.  Bigger companies can afford to do that.  We can't.

 

As I'm sure you know... you can't even get a product on a ship from China until at least May right now.

13 minutes ago, vongruetz said:

And yes... I know it takes a months right now to get anything out of China. It's the equivalent of trying to find a PS5 at the moment. Even when they say they have space available in two months, it's gone before you can even enter your information. I'm sure companies with massive shipments can secure space, but don't think they're getting a bulk discount. Those days are gone. Right now if you ask for anything less than 6 weeks out, they'll laugh at you. And even if you have reserved space, most lines are charging an extra $3000 per container just to confirm that spot. That's in addition to the normal charges. Then you factor in Chinese New Year and the backlog only increases. But I'm sure this will bore most people here, so I'll shut up now.

This article about Sony's quarterly report says a lot about the current situation -  Sony is losing money on the PS5 (of course not a big deal if you got deep pockets) and although they made over 4 million, they can't meet production for the demand. You know with Sony's resources and everyone being stuck at home, they are doing everything possible to make & move units, the capability just isn't there.  I am not sure how Microsoft is doing on the XBox X Series XX, er X? but I am assuming they are in the same boat. Basically 2020 was a soft launch for both of them. The consoles & games will really start arriving this fall (hopefully).

3 ore fa, Tommy Tallarico ha detto:

Quasi tutti qui apprezzano uno scambio di opinioni premuroso e RISPETTOSO. E a volte ... quando le persone dall '"altra" parte vengono qui di proposito per causare il caos ... i mod (e la gente qui) E certo ... alcune persone potrebbero perdere la forma e dire cose di cui si pentono. Sono uno di loro !! 

 below my comment! 👇🏻

Quindi con le teste di cavallo mozzate che ho appena mandato a tutti gli haters cosa devo fare? Devo andare a riprenderli? ....................... sto scherzando ovviamente ..................... ... Sicuramente se qualcuno rinuncia ai preordini, vorrà dire che ci saranno più unità per chi vorrà aspettare all'ultimo minuto per decidere se acquistare o meno. Probabilmente vista la scarsità di materiale elettronico dovuto al Covid, qualcuno rischia di pentirsi di aver cancellato i preordini quando, con la sua uscita, il successo di Amico sarà sotto gli occhi di tutti ma nei negozi scarseggerà.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's an original idea: why not reprogramming the original Intellivision games that don't support single player for their re-launch on both the Evercade and the Amico adding a single player option with a good IA?

3 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Thanks!  Would be interested in hearing what everyone in here would like to see on Evercade!

Please keep in mind the following...

No licenses (i.e. stuff we don't own) and it can't use the keypad too much (i.e. Utopia = no).  But for small things like the AUTO FIRE in Astrosmash can easily be mapped to another button.

 

Let's hear it folks!

Now is your time to be heard!  What do you want???

p.s.  Imagic would be a separate 3rd collection, so I'm only talking Intellivision owned properties.  And yes... AD&D can be branded as Cloudy Mountain!  Tron Deadly Discs much tougher because of the imagery within the game.

 

 

BowlingSnafu,Skiing,Golf,Auto Racing,Astrosmash,Space Hawk,Star Strike,Cloudy Mountain,Night Stalker,Shark!Shark!,Mission X,Buzz Bombers,Pinball Motocross,Mud Buggies.

And if these are copyright ok:Diner,

Burgertime,Lock n chase. 

I dont know what 3rd party licenses IE has the rights to so my list has only 19 games on it.

I believe the magic number to reach is 24 for the two Evercade carts. 👍

Ok,add:Thunder Castle,Vectron,Thin Ice,Frog Bog and Loco Motion if those work.

24!