Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

On 3/26/2021 at 3:10 PM, Cranker said:

I have a question. If I bring my controller to my friends place and tap it on his system, will my high scores be there so we can compete on my leaderboards ? 

We are planning to have people be able to set up their own friends leaderboards to compete with each other.

For the games that are downloaded to your friends system (that they don't have), I believe you would be able to see your own leaderboard scores but I'm not 100% sure.  Good question, I'll need to ask the team about that one and get back to you.

On 3/27/2021 at 6:21 AM, GrudgeQ said:

I am not even going to say there isn’t any lag in Dynablasters because I didn’t play it.

 

I can 100% confirm there is and never was any lag in Dynablaster that could potentially ever interfere with the gameplay.

They create these false narratives in hopes that it will put doubt in peoples' minds.  Ignore the fools.

RetroBro told me that Cyrus Martin, Brett Weiss & Relic Gamer will all be live on Amico After Dark tonight.  Folks should please feel free to ask them a ton of questions.

The question is...

Do folks believe a bunch of people who actually played it or... people who didn't, whose obsession in life is to destroy a video game system they've never played and make fun of people who like it?

On 3/27/2021 at 6:24 AM, Silverbot said:

Lag...No Lag... Some people here have played it now, and have said there is No Lag.....Lets put a pin in it now and Move On! Let’s just look forward to seeing more videos from the folks who were lucky enough to have a go on it. Hope someone filmed some Skiing footage!! 👍😀

Agree 100%.

I'm done addressing this.  The facts speak for themselves.

On 3/27/2021 at 7:05 AM, Cranker said:

I’m wondering if the control pad can be mapped to move only in 4 directions for a game like pac man. So for example, any of the 16 outputs for left would give you a “pure left”

Yes.  Absolutely.  We do that on the programming side.  Players won't need to adjust this.  It's naturally done within the programming of each game.

5 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

We are planning to have people be able to set up their own friends leaderboards to compete with each other.

 

For the games that are downloaded to your friends system (that they don't have), I believe you would be able to see your own leaderboard scores but I'm not 100% sure.  Good question, I'll need to ask the team about that one and get back to you.

 

 

Great ! Friends leaderboards will be awesome. That will make me play much more for sure !!! I’m interested in local and friends leaderboards the most because I like to know who I am beating !! 😜

On 3/27/2021 at 8:51 AM, squirrelgotdead said:

At 3:14 - guessing this is R-Type - is this the first time we've seen Amico gameplay?

Correct!  That is Rigid Force Redux ENHANCED.  First time the footage was shown on camera.

You'll notice it looks and plays like the PS, Xbox, PC & Switch counterparts.... but our exclusive version is the only one with a GREAT and unique co-op mode which will be explained a little more in our upcoming video.  Oh... and even though you get MORE in the game... the price will be 50% less.  

We'll be doing a separate video of that one in the next few weeks.

On 3/27/2021 at 11:18 AM, Intellivision Master said:

 

If you click this version it's cued up to when Cyrus starts talking about what he saw and experienced earlier that day.

Cyrus is a super cool dude and it was great to finally get a chance to meet him in person.

On 3/27/2021 at 4:05 PM, Intellivision Master said:

 

This was great.  The most in depth round-up of the day I've heard so far.  Brett Weiss & Relic Gamer have some great ones as well.

I'm looking forward to checking out the Amico After Dark tonight where all 3 of them will be talking to each other about it.

I loved the skiing footage but would like to see the mulipllayer in action !

On 3/28/2021 at 5:55 AM, Intellivision Master said:

A year ago today I joined the light side and became Intellivision Master. 

CONGRATS!!

I'm going to suggest we do a game called Intellivision Master!

On 3/27/2021 at 8:53 AM, Intellivision Master said:

I think it was Rigid Force Redux.

No.  You can get Rigid Force Redux on any of those other consoles.

Ours is Rigid Force Redux Enhanced!  EXCLUSIVELY on Intellivision Amico!!

2 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

CONGRATS!!

 

I'm going to suggest we do a game called Intellivision Master!

 

 

 

Cool.  I actually mentioned doing that on here.  I don't think you saw the post though.

Just don’t forget about Warlords and Adventure ! Warlords will be the most awesome multiplayer ever 😀😀😀

1 minute ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

No.  You can get Rigid Force Redux on any of those other consoles.

 

Ours is Rigid Force Redux Enhanced!  EXCLUSIVELY on Intellivision Amico!!

 

 

My bad.  I forgot to add in the Enhanced part.  Sorry.  

On 3/28/2021 at 6:10 PM, skylinesandsunsets said:

Hey Tommy,

Any chance that you'll publish a book? I'd enjoy reading about your accomplishments, such as video games live and Intellivision Entertainment.  The title of your book could be "Wouldn't that be something," and if possible I'd like to get an autographed copy.

Maybe something to do when I'm "retired".

On 3/29/2021 at 2:34 PM, OEB_Pete said:

you are most welcome, now if I jinx it it is all our fault LOL

OK... cool.   DEAL!

I'm totally blaming YOU if we don't hit 10.10.2021.

Just now, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

OK... cool.   DEAL!

I'm totally blaming YOU if we don't hit 10.10.2021.

 

 

 

That's right.  You tell him Tommy.  Lol.

Just now, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

OK... cool.   DEAL!

I'm totally blaming YOU if we don't hit 10.10.2021.

 

 

 

Don’t even say or think that ! I could not handle it 😩

21 hours ago, Zee said:

@Tommy Tallarico I'm anxiously awaiting an Imagic video.  Your recent poll about which Imagic games we'd like to see first has gotten me excited.  Please say a preview video for an Imagic game is close!!

Hate to disappoint... but not close.

Sorry. 

But lots of cool stuff coming!

20 hours ago, woobman said:

I do have a semi difficult question for all of you: From what you have seen. And given there will be more optimizations of the games. Do you see any potential issues with the console? limited CPU/GPU Power? Memory? Playing certain games on the controller? The size of the controller?  I don't think durability will be an issue unless you put it in a campfire, or run it over with a mower.  Bear attack? Not trying to add fuel to any negativity fire. I think EVERY system ever has had something about it. Just wonderin' 

Not a difficult question at all!  In fact I asked the same questions multiple times to multiple people all throughout the day.

I told people they need to be 100% honest and I would be interested in hearing any and all concerning feedback.

Overall... there was none (which is always nice) and everyone understood that the games weren't 100% polished and optimized (so there were times throughout the day we had crashes and had to reset, etc.)

Keep in mind that we've been focus testing for almost 2 years now... so we've already worked out and addressed a lot of the potential "kinks" or concerns already.

But ALWAYS willing to listen to feedback!  Good or bad.  We've learned a lot from listening to what completely unbiased people say.  Sometimes it's great feedback, other times it's not.  It's up to us as a company to make certain decisions based on what we feel will be best for the overall product and the audience we feel we will be attracting.

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PS - Every few months I mention Tron or ET in a post.. So I'm sending out vibes that these are still in the potential bucket.  Hoping for a Wouldn't that be something^tm post soon

I can confirm that those deals and licenses are being worked on!  I can't confirm that we will get them.... but I can confirm that we have been talking with both folks for awhile and both are interested in our proposals.

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PPS - I know Tempest is in early works as well. Would love to see at least a screenshot.

That one we will probably be showing sometime in the summer.

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PPSSPP - Adventure too.

Haven't started that one yet. 

18 hours ago, Starpaddler said:

I’m not an expert, but it stands to reason that the hardware and electrical inputs are fixed by the system. As such, it will be up to the game designers on how that input system is interpreted.  I’d guess that in a 4 way input game (i.e., up, down, left, right) the game developers would use the center point input. As an example your input would switch from down to left once the center point input crossed the zone threshold.  It has been a while, but I remember Tommy at one point confirming that the “controllers” could be zoned for different configurations based on the particular game. 
 

16 vs 64 input positions can result in the ability for much smoother control over the original Intellivision.  Take skiing for example; with 16 directions there are only 7 downhill directions (and the associated skier graphics) available which led to somewhat choppy control. With 64 positions the system can accommodate 31 downhill facing directions (and associated skier graphics) if the developers utilize the system to its fullest capabilities.

 

One thing that I really hope makes it into the developers control scheme is that the 4 direction maze type games (i.e., Burgertime, Pacman, etc.) allow for pre selecting your upcoming desired turn at the next intersection. Burgertime on Evercade for example will only let you input a turn when you are directly on the intersection, but it would be made much better (IMO) if Petter would turn at the next intersection if the controller was being commanded at a location between the current direction and the one you want to change to.  In this situation, there would need to be 4 zones of pure direction with 4 additional zones of upcoming direction-change between those zones. With 1/8 zoning of the controller (assuming same-size zones; it doesn't need to be) control should be precise enough to allow this assuming the disc is adequately sized. 

Totally agree 100% with your post.  And definitely a big YES to the pre-selecting of your upcoming desired turn at the next intersection.  People don't realize that its one of the things that makes the Intellivision disc so great!  People admit that Burgertime was the best on Intellivision without knowing why exact.  "It just controlled better" without knowing exactly why.  But the ability to keep traveling in a direction while start to slide/spin in another direction makes a BIG difference in a 4 way game like Burgertime or Pac-Man.  Just needs to be programmed correctly.  We are definitely taking advantage of our advantage and uniqueness in this area!  I absolutely HATE playing 4 direction games on an analog stick and what we're talking about on your typical 8 position d-pad also doesn't work well.  The disc is really great for this kind of stuff.  So glad you brought that up and noticed!

15 hours ago, Battlefish said:

The "Big Three" have been putting multiple USB ports into their consoles for approx. 15 years. Not a true "expansion port", but does Amico's USB-C port count, either?

Their multiple USB ports are typically for charging.  Because of our built in wireless contact charging... we don't need as many. 

Also... remember... we have bluetooth & wifi!  Almost every peripheral can be bluetooth compatible to hook up directly to the console!

14 hours ago, mr_me said:

Intellivision Skiing controls actually has two directions; turn cw and turn ccw; hold the button to turn faster.  The choppiness is due to programming.  But you're correct the extra precision on the amico disc will help, e.g. sports games or any games with open playfields, and steering in racing games.

 

 

Is that arcade burgertime or nes burgertine on the evercade.  No matter, that's how the arcade version is programmed and home conversions often tried to emulate arcade behaviour.  Intellivision burgertime does have that turn in advance behaviour.  I guess the Mattel programmer decided to make an improvement with the controls.  Amico versions are modern reimaginings so they can make all the improvements they want.

It's the NES version and I was super bummed.  Same with Burnin' Rubber (aka Bump 'N Jump).

I told them they should release the arcade versions too!

I think they responded with something like... "Wouldn't That Be Something?"

13 hours ago, nightmonkeyii said:

Hi tommy.

just wondering if the controller has enough horsepower to become a small mobile game system on its own. Mini games to play on the go?

No.  Not this time around.  Controllers are already very expensive to make as I'm sure you can imagine.  And the highest priced object in most electronics is always the processor.  We couldn't afford to add another $10 - $15 per unit cost.  And mobile phones and the Switch would still have a TON more power... so we spent a lot of time figuring out the best chip for our needs without driving the cost of the console up.

Maybe Amico II in 10 years from now.  

10 hours ago, King_Salamon said:

The Burgertime on Data East Collection 1 is the NES version.

 

There have not been any arcade versions of games released yet on the Evercade.  Those are expected to be released sometime in 2021.  Not sure what company's arcade titles will be included but stay tuned as I'm sure the arcade releases will be popular on the Evercade. 

I totally agree!  The arcade versions would definitely do well!  I know I'd buy them all!