Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

11 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

 

Seriously Tommy... You met Muhammad Ali?!?!  Wow!  That's amazing and no doubt for our generation an honor!  I used to love watching him with Howard Cosell jaw back and forth on ABC's Wild World of Sports!  And of course any fight he was in.  The original GOAT before it became Brady fashion to say it.  What an honor!!! Great pic.  Looks like somewhere in the mid-late 80s?  Thanks for posting.  😄

Here's a funny spoof on the two of them from the 1980 classic Animalympics.  Voiced by Billy Crystal in his prime.

6 hours ago, Intellivision Master said:

Tommy,

 

With the Amico controller, is it possible to change the control layout when playing a game?  Or will they just be default controls that can't be changed?  It would be nice to have the option of remapping buttons.  But then again, it probably doesn't matter to change the controls since the games on Amico will be simple to play.  And you can rotate the controller for different ways to play too.

In certain games you can pick certain control types.  Don't really need to remap buttons as there aren't many buttons in any of our games.  Maybe 1 or 2 buttons per game.

6 hours ago, nightmonkeyii said:

Hi tommy. Could there be a possibility for a music education game? Where kids and adults alike can learn chords and scales for guitar and piano, learn bass and percussion, and ultimately learn to compose music? Can play along with real instruments, and a cool metronome or pre composed drum loops?

Absolutely!!   We're working on a few music related products and are pretty sure one of them will be coming out at launch.  Something we're really proud of but haven't shown a single frame of yet.

1 hour ago, IMBerzerk said:

Seriously Tommy... You met Muhammad Ali?!?!  Wow!  That's amazing and no doubt for our generation an honor!  I used to love watching him with Howard Cosell jaw back and forth on ABC's Wild World of Sports!  And of course any fight he was in.  The original GOAT before it became Brady fashion to say it.  What an honor!!! Great pic.  Looks like somewhere in the mid-late 80s?  Thanks for posting.  😄

 

Here's a funny spoof on the two of them from the 1980 classic Animalympics.  Voiced by Billy Crystal in his prime.

 

 

Not only did I meet him (early 90's) but I got to hang out and work with him for about 3 weeks!!

That particular pic was taken in Las Vegas during CES (I'm wearing my Virgin Games badge).  I believe it was 1992.  Maybe '93?  You can see me wearing a Q-Sound pin on my jacket so I would have been writing The Terminator for the Sega-CD at the time.  We were on our way from the Convention Center back to Ceasars Palace where we were staying.  You can see Ceasars in the background of the pic.  I have so many incredible Ali stories.  I should do a video and put it up on my personal YouTube channel.  I met him a few times after we worked together and he always remembered me.  I worked with him mostly in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

He was so incredible to me.  He even signed some boxing gloves to me (To Tommy).  I cherish them!

3 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

In certain games you can pick certain control types.  Don't really need to remap buttons as there aren't many buttons in any of our games.  Maybe 1 or 2 buttons per game.

 

 

I disagree with this. How difficult is it to add controller remapping options like with the Xbox? I had a stroke in 2018 and no longer have much use of my right hand. Remapping buttons is extremely important to me, as well as several other handicapped gamers out there. Why not just have an option in the console settings to remap all of the buttons?

6 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Not only did I meet him (early 90's) but I got to hang out and work with him for about 3 weeks!!

That particular pic was taken in Las Vegas during CES (I'm wearing my Virgin Games badge).  I believe it was 1992.  Maybe '93?  You can see me wearing a Q-Sound pin on my jacket so I would have been writing The Terminator for the Sega-CD at the time.  We were on our way from the Convention Center back to Ceasars Palace where we were staying.  You can see Ceasars in the background of the pic.  I have so many incredible Ali stories.  I should do a video and put it up on my personal YouTube channel.  I met him a few times after we worked together and he always remembered me.  I worked with him mostly in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

He was so incredible to me.  He even signed some boxing gloves to me (To Tommy).  I cherish them!

 

 

 

 

That's an awesome story T.  He was one of my favorite icons.  I just loved his mentality about being the best at what you do.  What a pleasure that must have been. I don't want to say you're a lucky guy..  that's not how it works.  You earned it! And that's what makes it even better!  Thanks again for sharing.  

1 hour ago, IMBerzerk said:

I don't want to say you're a lucky guy..  that's not how it works.  You earned it! And that's what makes it even better!  Thanks again for sharing.  

So true, one of my favorite articles of all time is this one from RollingStone about Bonnie Raitt who became an "overnight" sensation in 1990 after she won several Grammies that year - having been in the industry 20 years, releasing 9 albums before then, got her first guitar at 8 and was already playing the piano before that. Luck is mostly where hard work meets opportunity.

Just saw an add for this.. Interesting. They seem to see the same thing that Tommy does. According to them 9 million users..

Your Browser is the console.. Your Phones are the controllers..  Some of that does sound familiar ..  Take a look at this and tell me what you think:

https://www.airconsole.com/

I can't wait for the new video today.  It will be short like Tommy said in the Amico podcast yesterday.  But that's okay.  Just keep them coming.

Just found this article today about defective console controllers (or at least, flimsy ones):

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/ps5-drift-investigation-suggests-dualsense-sticks-have-a-life-of-417-hours/

Apparently, this "drifting" joystick design is used by Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony.

Any thoughts on controller durability of Amico?

8 hours ago, RREDDWARFF said:

I disagree with this. How difficult is it to add controller remapping options like with the Xbox? I had a stroke in 2018 and no longer have much use of my right hand. Remapping buttons is extremely important to me, as well as several other handicapped gamers out there. Why not just have an option in the console settings to remap all of the buttons?

Good point! If a game uses two buttons, for instance, but said buttons are mapped on the opposite end, then shouldn't there be a way to change them to be mapped on the same side as one another?

1 minute ago, Battlefish said:

Apparently, this "drifting" joystick design is used by Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony.

 

Any thoughts on controller durability of Amico?

Hopefully the Amico controller doesn't have disc drift. 

Check out our latest Intellivision teaser... it's a BLAST!

2 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Check out our latest Intellivision teaser... it's a BLAST!

 

 

That was a neat little teaser.  I liked it.  Can't wait to try this game out.

3 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Check out our latest Intellivision teaser... it's a BLAST!

 

 

Loved the original..  Hopeful for this one. With all of the controller features being used. Very cool.  Can't wait to see gameplay and how it will all work.

I've got tons of questions.. I'm sure most of us will, but I'll start with 2 simple ones. Will we (meaning 2 or more people) be able to play at the same time? or one by one? and the 2nd: Was that an actual level? other than the popout telling us about the controller, of course. Good tease Tommy!!!

1 hour ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Check out our latest Intellivision teaser... it's a BLAST!

 

 

Nailed it with the siren! Chills. Can't wait to see all the different ways it will use the controller and how it plays multi-player.

Now I may be sold on this game... 

1 hour ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Check out our latest Intellivision teaser... it's a BLAST!

 

 

Damn Bomb Squad is looking good, looking forward to seeing more on this one

If Bomb Squad gets a physical release, maybe it could come with a suitcase.  Like in the teaser video.  Wouldn't that be something?

Bomb Squad looks amazing! Keep them coming Tommy!!! At this rate I’m going to be spending more money on games, than the price of the Amico at launch!!! 👍😀

2 hours ago, Battlefish said:

Just found this article today about defective console controllers (or at least, flimsy ones):

 

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/ps5-drift-investigation-suggests-dualsense-sticks-have-a-life-of-417-hours/

 

Apparently, this "drifting" joystick design is used by Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony.

 

Any thoughts on controller durability of Amico?

That is going to get some howls from the PS5 FPS Battlefield/COD players. Burning though a 70$ controller every 2-3 months is not going to be a very welcome additional expense I expect.

I am pretty sure at some point Tommy had made a post here about designing the Amico for durability and is intended to last for years of play. I would expect that would cover the controllers as well?

At 400+ hours, the PS5 seems to be setting the bar pretty low for the Amico to surpass them.

https://youtu.be/B3CfotPh1Aw

This is a reaction video from Snestastic.

3 hours ago, Intellivision Master said:

Hopefully the Amico controller doesn't have disc drift. 

The good news is that I think it would pretty much be impossible for the Amico controller to have disc drift. The drift typically comes from analog sticks which can measure slight tilts in angles and so it easy through damage to start detecting unintended drift. However the Amico disc requires you to overcome the spring below the disc's force and land on conductive pads. You could theoretically have other issues like eventual disc pad wear but drift would be near impossible or at worst require a spring replacement. If the Amico controller is anything like the original Intellivision controller, it is going to last a looong time.