Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

Tommy,

 

There should be a game mode or cheat code for unlimited balls in the new Breakout.  🤣

Nice Demo for Breakout.
 

Not sure how you swung what appears to be quick and accurate paddle control given all that unbiased reporting of controller lag...

 

Anyway, I have a quick question on physical media.  Will there be a running theme for collectors that want to maintain uniformity with their collections; for instance, similar sized boxes, art work styling and similar themed “media”?  
 

Would be nice to know if we start buying physical media, that we have the ability to ensure the set looks like other video game collections on the shelf (i.e, at minimum, uniform sized boxes). 
 

Guess that may mean at least 2 versions of physical media for some games at some point in the future; one with a special media (that may be larger then the standard box) and one with a more standard collection media.

Edited February 15 by Starpaddler

 

7 minutes ago, Intellivision Master said:

There should be a game mode or cheat code for unlimited balls in the new Breakout

Agreed, and since Tommy apparently has pulled back on Blarneo’s Math Fun Title, maybe he’d be appeased by getting a “Blarneo’s Unlimited Balls Mode” in Breakout. 

On 2/14/2021 at 10:00 AM, Tommy Tallarico said:

We have the biggest and best corporate attorney's on the planet as well as the best patent, IP and trademark folks as well.  Of course you can never protect against everything, but even our name in China has been trademarked and just like most electronics these days... the entire thing isn't "made" in one plant with one manufacturer.  Parts come from all over and different things get assembled in different places.  So although anyone can rip apart and Amico and start trying to figure out how to replicate and where to get all 700+ parts & 100 components... it would pretty much be a waste of time knowing how little margin there is on selling the hardware.  Also... the second they connected it to the internet it wouldn't work.  I'm sure some folks will go through a lot of trouble to do it (just to see if they can), but we're not concerned that there is going to be knock off versions floating around Alibaba that will damage our bottom line.

Thanks again Tommy, love the transparency. Your response actually gave me an idea for a game. I am no programmer so maybe pass it on to one of your devs.

You remember the old Game & Watch Mario Bros game?

 

 

How about instead of bottles, just replace each line of the assembly being different Amico parts, with the Amico boxed being the final form thrown onto the truck.

Change Mario Bros. to Tommy Bros. Seems like a good little mini game for the system. 👍

 

12 minutes ago, Intellivision Master said:

Tommy,

 

There should be a game mode or cheat code for unlimited balls in the new Breakout.  🤣

I’m against cheat codes because leaderboards become useless unless everyone is playing on the same level with the same advantages and disadvantages. That’s why I hate games where you can buy or get advantages. 

6 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Whose ready to BREAKOUT? Here's a little unfinished work-in-progress teaser showing a little bit more of our exclusive Breakout game ONLY available on Intellivision Amico.

 

Developed by our extremely talented friends at Choice Provisions!

 

Please make sure to check out some of their other amazing games like the Bit Trip Runner series!

 

You'll noticed we changed the spelling of PEAK back to PEEK as it seemed that the play on words caused a bit of an uproar.  We thought it was cute and funny and a fun way to title these segments.  Some folks didn't get the joke so we decided to just keep the spelling correct to avoid confusion or having to explain. 

 

 

 

Holy crap the BTR guys made this? I love all of the games in the Bit.Trip series. That explains why this game popped so much for me during that update a while ago.

1 minute ago, Cranker said:

I’m against cheat codes because leaderboards become useless unless everyone is playing on the same level with the same advantages and disadvantages. That’s why I hate games where you can buy or get advantages. 

It could work for the single player mode.  

Okay just watched the trailer. More of this please!

1 minute ago, Intellivision Master said:

It could work for the single player mode.  

But then the leaderboards for the single player mode would mean nothing. It’s ok for the local ones but not the online ones. I just don’t like cheat codes or all the loot bag in app purchases ( we won’t have that problem) I guess I’m old school. Playing asteroids , space invaders etc in the arcade. Maybe the best person have the high score !!! No way around it. 😜

2 minutes ago, Cranker said:

But then the leaderboards for the single player mode would mean nothing. It’s ok for the local ones but not the online ones.

For me the leaderboards don't mean much.  I just want to play the game and have fun.  But it is nice to get a high score.  I'm not against that.  So, instead of cheat codes, there can be a game mode like I mentioned in my original post where you have an unlimited amount of balls in Breakout.

 

4 minutes ago, Intellivision Master said:

For me the leaderboards don't mean much.  I just want to play the game and have fun.  But it is nice to get a high score.  I'm not against that.  So, instead of cheat codes, there can be a game mode like I mentioned in my original post where you have an unlimited amount of balls in Breakout.

Yes !!!!! I approve of that. lol 😂 When you have a mode for that it does not interfere with the leaderboards. I didn’t understand what you meant  😜

Edited February 15 by Cranker

6 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Whose ready to BREAKOUT? Here's a little unfinished work-in-progress teaser showing a little bit more of our exclusive Breakout game ONLY available on Intellivision Amico.

 

Developed by our extremely talented friends at Choice Provisions!

 

Please make sure to check out some of their other amazing games like the Bit Trip Runner series!

 

You'll noticed we changed the spelling of PEAK back to PEEK as it seemed that the play on words caused a bit of an uproar.  We thought it was cute and funny and a fun way to title these segments.  Some folks didn't get the joke so we decided to just keep the spelling correct to avoid confusion or having to explain. 

 

 

 

Tommy, Breakout looks and sounds great. Being a natural right hander like most people it would feel more natural to me if the paddles were on the right side of the screen and blocks on the left. Just wondering if it would be possible to flip the screen to your personal liking.

 

1 hour ago, NTV said:

Tommy, Breakout looks and sounds great. Being a natural right hander like most people it would feel more natural to me if the paddles were on the right side of the screen and blocks on the left. Just wondering if it would be possible to flip the screen to your personal liking.

I would like that as well through I am left handed. The more options without being overwhelming would be great.

 

KPHey I noticed you have a one player solo and two player co-op version of Breakout.

 

First of all since you guys probably only reveal stuff a little bit at a time I assume you have a versus mode in breakout also in addition to a co-op mode.  If you don't here's what I would suggest if you do consider it free update after the 3-month anniversary or something.

 

I thought of a good idea for a general versus rule if there's no direct person pixel versus pixel interaction.

 

I kind of like the idea of a pinball speed race introduced by Zen Studios, but there's one major problem if you make the ball drain penalty too small it encourages sloppy play if you make the ball drain penalty too big you could go on forever at modest amounts if you are of average skill.

 

What they did in Zen Pinball was take points off for whenever you drain the ball in a situation will cause you to lose a ball.  

 

This is the situation I propose.  Since breakout is a game of getting to the finish line wins, a normal technique would be to do speed runs.

 

but having one player do a speed run and then having the other player watch and wait and know what to beat a) gives a second player in advantage and b) is boring cuz of forces someone to wait.

Most of the games on the ColecoVision were of a two-player alternating type and we should try to avoid those whenever possible, except if it's turn based board game style where one person's moves affects another one's moves.

 

Zen Studios subtracts points every time you drink and it's always based on a percentage of whatever score you have so later drains get punished more than earlier drains.

 

I was thinking you could have a Time penalty for each time you have a "loss of life". The thing is none of your progress gets erased, and you complete the level exactly organically just like it's a speed run, but you factoring drains as penalty time.

 

I know when you're playing real head-to-head waiting for a minute before you could go again would be real boring therefore I suggest a penalty Bank.  So each player/team would have a separate penalty Bank.

 

When the first person crosses the finish Line, let's assume he has 4 minutes and 30 seconds in penalty and the other team has two minutes and 30 seconds in penalty.

 

It's a team with 4 minutes and 30 seconds penalty finishes first then instantly 4 minutes and 30 seconds are subtracted from everyone else's clock. If you have zero or more after the first team adds their penalty seconds, that person would be eliminated from gold.  (obviously if you play the Top Gun Mighty Wings model where there's no points for second best, the game ends ends instantly at this point) Yes negative numbers are possible and are desirable at this point because the clock then counts to zero.  If you drain a ball while the ball is counting, time gets added to the penalty Bank which by following the rule of adding negative to positive numbers if the total is above 0 you lose if the total is still under zero you still got some time left but less time than you had before the ball drain.  If second, third, and fourth, don't matter, once one positive frame has ticked, you are instantly eliminated.

 

As long as you got negative time you could still play when the first person finishes.

 

This could be done in any combination of players that the game would normally have, for example if the most she could play is two player co-op, then you could either go one-on-one, cutthroat three-way cutthroat four-way, two teams of two, three teams of two cutthroat, or four teams of two cutthroat, since I heard it's an eight-player maximum on the Amico.

 

I believe that is a balanced way to do a speed run when the primary objective of the single player mode was to clear the level before losing balls.

 

a drop ball on the first ball counts just as much time penalty as a drop ball before your last break is cleared.

 

of course if losing some of multiple bosses that cost you life those balls are not counted towards the penalty Bank.  Plus extra lives that are normally given in whatever format could be awarded As Time bonuses.

 

And while we're at it I noticed the Xbox PlayStation and Nintendo have very poor controls, (try pinpointing a position when the thumbstick has resistance against you holding it still.) since half of the fun of some of these older games are proper controls maybe we could a USB paddle with proper Amico license coding, and we can use nine pin controls and 15 pin controls so that 2600 limited turn radius paddles, unlimited turn radius indy 500 knobs, Star Wars type flight yolks which do not bounce back, like for Red Baron and Star Wars the arcade game, trackballs for centipede and Marble Madness.

 

Obviously these would not need requirements but if you happen to own original 2600 or 5200 versions of trackballs and paddles and stuff like that, you could use a special Amico encoded 9 pin and 15 pin to USB adapter for such games.

 

the extra benefit is that those original models for the original systems of the real 2600 5200 ColecoVision etc would we built to the original standard so you could use it with the genuine article old equipment plus you could use the special 9 pin and 15 pin to Amico USB adapter.  Simultaneously cover a retro market and a modern system market.

 

As I said it's not a requirement that these controllers work.   it just that some people would rather have a paddle then dial their pad like a spinner.

 

I for one would rather have a fixed radius absolute paddle for Breakout.  in all fairness I never wasn't an Intellivision person back in the day and never really saw a game that took advantage of dialing the panel in multiple circles as the original intellivision was supposed to do.  I guess INTV Pole Position might be an example of one such game. In the 90s after finding like at least 8 White Label Intellivision games, including some titles I didn't hear of till I literally saw it at the thrift store for a dollar each at the thrift store of thrift stores (regular goodwills are considered retail and this is a Goodwill closeout .  The things they sell at the Goodwill outlet store are those things that don't sell well in the regular store and are considered bottom dwelling garbage in terms of popularity, note that's a commentary on thrift store sales drive [not necessarily value on eBay or quality of game when reviewed in respect to other games at the time. ] ) I bought them that day for a dollar a game for like somewhere between 8 and 15 games.  I popped it in within a week.   When I tried it I couldn't figure out how to get it to work.  Then I read in the early 2010s that the main purpose of 16 way joysticks was to accurately do both directional games and rotational games fairly accurately and reasonably.  it was originally designed as a combo joystick / keypad controller that was ambidextrous. I guess it helps to know that the 16-way pad could be used as a pseudo paddle.

 

If one happens to have one handy and it works, you could simultaneously serve the refurb true retro market as well as the Amico market at the same time.

 

I guess you could have a paddle with six buttons along the side, so that the top two could be mean and auxiliary whether left-handed or right-handed.  And the middle and ring finger could be sub auxiliary buttons in either hand.  kind of like the idea how the middle finger button is mirrored on both sides to give you three buttons whether you rip with the left and push with the right or vice versa.  I believe in television was the first ambidextrous controller to have more than one button input that was accessible simultaneously with the joystick, or in the case of the INTV the 16-way pad. Since left handedness and right handedness were very ambiguous in the pre crash days you would just show a picture of either a griped hand showing you the left hand in a claw position or right hand in a cloth position as your choices for left grip right grip, or your fingers grabbing the dial to indicate left dialing / right dialing.

 

 

 

 

 

This could be a good Pinball option for Amico.

 

8 hours ago, Cranker said:

But then the leaderboards for the single player mode would mean nothing. It’s ok for the local ones but not the online ones. I just don’t like cheat codes or all the loot bag in app purchases ( we won’t have that problem) I guess I’m old school. Playing asteroids , space invaders etc in the arcade. Maybe the best person have the high score !!! No way around it. 😜

If god modes were added to games (unlimited balls in Breakout, for instance), the game should not allow the score be eligible for leaderboards. Seems simple enough.  

14 hours ago, LePionnier said:

I love it ! Presentation, sound, etc.

The only thing I am not sure about (1st impression), it's when we are two players, when one player is near the other one, one paddle is one inch in front of the other !

I don't know if sometimes we can miss a hit because of that (or the ball not going in the desired direction when hitting it !?)

Should one player be always behind the other one instead of this sudden change when near the other player ?

Like I said, it's only a first impression, and I never tried it ! lol  😅

100% agree.  This is the only thing I saw I wasn't sure about while watching.  It would make sense if it was a competitive thing, where you are trying to steal points or something, but I thought this was purely cooperative.  It would be cool to get some clarification on if its final (or not) or maybe just a "once you play it" type of thing.

 

Also let me be clear, I would buy it today as is, haha.

 

12 hours ago, Jeffrey Bouchard said:

I would like that as well through I am left handed. The more options without being overwhelming would be great.

The controller can be played with the "Dial" on the right side. Left Side. OR even like the old INTV, dial on the bottom/screen on top. That is baked into the system. Every game should be able to do that. I'm sure there are a number of secrets in the console and controller that we have yet to learn.

1 hour ago, woobman said:

The controller can be played with the "Dial" on the right side. Left Side. OR even like the old INTV, dial on the bottom/screen on top. That is baked into the system. Every game should be able to do that. I'm sure there are a number of secrets in the console and controller that we have yet to learn.

Yes we will. I remember hearing that but time will tell how everything works out.

16 hours ago, NTV said:

Tommy, Breakout looks and sounds great. Being a natural right hander like most people it would feel more natural to me if the paddles were on the right side of the screen and blocks on the left. Just wondering if it would be possible to flip the screen to your personal liking.

I've played quite a bit of pong and never thought to have a preference of taking the paddle on the right side of the TV or the left side.  In the squash variant both paddles were on the right hitting to the left, however.

Edited February 16 by mr_me