Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

5 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

I think a lot of folks have been asking that same question.

 

For me personally... it's a Steam box for my TV.  I think that is probably it's strongest point marketing-wise (if I were running the joint). 

 

 

 

 

I'm sure it will have it's high points and low.  It's not for me, but I can see the use of having an actual PC style capable unit as well.  I just don't have a use for it... but many other will.

It's just getting to a point that between all the versions of retroboxes... old consoles, new consoles.. Amico... re-imagined systems.. on and on we're really seeing the industry flooding... 

I was just saying to my wife if I had more garage space, I'd build/restore MAME cabinets (or fix old arcade cabinets) because you can get EVERYTHING other than new original PCB's for just about every machine out there.  LOL>

2 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

I like this one.  I could see it on Amico for sure.

 

Yes... it's pixel art, but it's really well done and artistically beautiful.  It's more like mid 90's as opposed to late 80's/early 90's.  Or maybe another way to say it is that it looks more like a 32-bit game than an 8 or 16 bit one.

 

 

The animation sells it.  Kinda like the Disney games did.  Very smooth and fluid.  You don't see the raster jumps like most games of that era get.  It would look great on an High-res system like Amico.

1 minute ago, IMBerzerk said:

It's just getting to a point that between all the versions of retroboxes... old consoles, new consoles.. Amico... re-imagined systems.. on and on we're really seeing the industry flooding... 

I have to agree with you on that.  It's becoming overcrowded with all these consoles.  Not to mention all those Chinese knockoff consoles.  There's a new one every week.  Lol.

5 minutes ago, Intellivision Master said:

I have to agree with you on that.  It's becoming overcrowded with all these consoles.  Not to mention all those Chinese knockoff consoles.  There's a new one every week.  Lol.

I agree too ! Who is buying all of these Chinese knock offs consoles ? So many of them ! And who needs 50,000 games of which many don’t even work and you get 500 street fighters and 1000 baseball games etc lol ? Lol  just give me my Amico !! 

6 minutes ago, Cranker said:

I agree too ! Who is buying all of these Chinese knock offs consoles ? So many of them ! And who needs 50,000 games of which many don’t even work and you get 500 street fighters and 1000 baseball games etc lol ? Lol  just give me my Amico !! 

I just hope there's no Amico clone with a bunch of built-in games.  Like 50 repeats of Astrosmash and 100 repeats of Cornhole.  Lol.

16 minutes ago, Cranker said:

I agree too ! Who is buying all of these Chinese knock offs consoles ? So many of them ! And who needs 50,000 games of which many don’t even work and you get 500 street fighters and 1000 baseball games etc lol ? Lol  just give me my Amico !! 

It's mostly a collector driven industry.  There is no way anyone would have the time to play every system, and the majority...or even half of the games on each.

33 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

What about Day 2???  

I was going to say, "day #2 he'll unbox a controller", but I guess just a single box?
Actually, seeing some mock-ups of the retail box could be interesting!
Maybe for OEB-Pete, he can have a "Russian Doll" style shipping package option.  
One box per video, per day. His state of excitement and suspense would be epic! 🙂

1 minute ago, justclaws said:

Maybe for OEB-Pete, he can have a "Russian Doll" style shipping package option.

Yeah, the Russian nesting doll.  That would be cool to see him open a box within a box within a box, etc.  Lol.

3 minutes ago, IMBerzerk said:

It's mostly a collector driven industry.  There is no way anyone would have the time to play every system, and the majority...or even half of the games on each.

I feel like a serious gamer would make his own build and do it properly so everything is working but to each his own ! These knock offs seem like such a mess Of crap 💩 

Before people get too serious here, I thought I'd give Tommy a smile. 🙂
I just accidentally found this video... maybe everybody else saw it already...
 

7 minutes ago, Cranker said:

I feel like a serious gamer would make his own build and do it properly so everything is working but to each his own ! These knock offs seem like such a mess Of crap 💩 

I guess I fit that description...  my Retropie box has 43 systems working... over the past 5 years, I've inspected and tested every game, hand picked every piece of artwork, re-designed the theme to my own liking... spent countless hours configuring, and getting systems to work by posting on multiple forums.... 

And STILL doing it as I'm looking to fine tune DosBox with the latest version... all thanks to Byte-Knight when he first introduced me to Retropie so many years ago.. LOL.

10 minutes ago, justclaws said:

Before people get too serious here, I thought I'd give Tommy a smile. 🙂
I just accidentally found this video... maybe everybody else saw it already...
 

 

I can relate to the first parent. (for the Genesis) "This is Tecmo Super Bowl. I think it was 1983 or 84." You know you're officially old when your estimates are off by an entire decade. There comes a time in everyone's life when they start doing the math in their head: "This was 2-3, 7, 10. . .16 years ago."

2 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

No.  We have a pretty cool set up going and every one of our games (digital & physical) is an NFT.  We even received a special technology grant because of it!

 

BTW a NFT or Non-Fungible Token comes out of Block Chain technology (it is part of the Ethereum ERC721 standard) but has little to do with cryptocurrencies in the way most people think of them. Crytocurrencies or coins are all about value or worth, they are like dollar bills in your pocket. It doesn't really matter if you have dollar bill A or B, they are the same value. Notice it is pointless to say you own a particular one (unless it is some rare special bill) instead you just think of the total number you have. Bitcoin is the same way, it is just a total in a bank account, just without the bank.

A NFT, instead, has no inherent worth. Instead it is proof of ownership of a digital asset. NFT is like when you buy (or pay off) your car and they transfer the title to your name. The title is a piece of paper that says you own this particular car with this particular VIN number (i.e. this unique particular car). A NFT is pretty much the same thing except it's for a digital asset (which could be a video, MP3, GIF, game, etc.). It says you own *this* copy of that file, not just any copy, this particular one.

Notice that this, although it may on the surface appear the same, is really different than when you buy a game on Steam (for example). When you buy from Steam I am sure a little link gets placed between your account's name and the game in question. However you don't have any proof of ownership beyond a database entry in Steam's server farms. Sure you may have a Steam receipt but without Steam to verify your purchase - it doesn't really exist. Steam holds all the records, you hold nothing but an emailed receipt. With a NFT you are issued a cryptographic code which proves you own a particular copy of the game. Again not just "a copy", this particular copy, like the title to that car with that VIN number or like physical ownership such as that OG Intellvision cart you are holding in your hand. Although this whole geeky infrastructure maybe hidden to you, this has the potential to be very different and much more permanent & flexible than a Steam purchase. I have a feeling Intellivision is going to use it in some pretty unique ways.

48 minutes ago, justclaws said:

Before people get too serious here, I thought I'd give Tommy a smile. 🙂
I just accidentally found this video... maybe everybody else saw it already...
 

 

This was great and funny to watch.  Thanks for sharing. 

4 minutes ago, Intellivision Master said:

This was great and funny to watch.  Thanks for sharing. 

Well, here's another one which might interest you... 🙂  Target demographic...?
 

On 4/20/2021 at 6:35 PM, Tavi said:

Convoluted chain of thought incoming.

You had mentioned FPS shooters which made me think Wolfenstein and Doom, and cartoonish and goofy enemies, which had me remembering the Commander Keen games.

Which then in turn reminded me of Tom Hall, and that he had a few years back tried to crowdfund 'Worlds of Wander', which was advertised as a spiritual successor to Commander Keen.

That was unfortunately not successfully funded (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/368238381/worlds-of-wander-plus-secret-spaceship-club-game/description), but now has me thinking that he might have interest in dusting off and revamping his project as an Amico exclusive?

He certainly has an impressive resume, and a Commander Keen type game would easily fit in the E10 requirement. The Commander Keen games were a blast to play back in the day, but was always single player. A re-imagined multiplayer version might be quite a lot of fun?

Really would love to see Commander Keen find a home on Amico.  Very eccentric and zany, the right themes and play style, the right audience.  No reason you couldn't put two or three on a screen and force coordination to progress the screen - maybe zoom out if the players get too far separated, or lock progress until the players tighten the gap.  Nothing new there.  Instead of just a football helmet to whisk away the protagonist to another world, maybe a whole wardrobe of special clothes for a couple friends to choose from and guide who your character becomes/shape abilities.  Would make for a good deal of replay.

ZeniMax owns the rights I think, or at least acquired permission to publish a couple years back and never did.  Not sure how much interest Microsoft has in it, or if Intellivision spearheading a game at low cost unique to Amico may drum up more interest making the scale and money they'd put in it for their own exclusive Commander Keen title more enticing, if not simply priming their own market/interest without committing to a more costly game.

I know we were discussing earlier about how all these consoles are on the market.  Well here is another one with an odd name.  It's strange looking with that dome on top too. I know it's not Amico related but had to share.

The videos of kids/teens playing with their parents were nice. Now I'm not an expert nor have kids, but the game choices could have been better:

- Most of the games were single player, except perhaps the NFL game.

- Sonic is too complicated for someone who's not into retro.

- Minecraft for a 1-2 year old doesn't sound like a very good idea, even if it's used to learn the sounds animals make.

Now imagine those videos with the Atari parents bringing the typical tank combat game or Warlords, and the Genesis parents showing Golden Axe, Micro Machines, Street Fighter 2, Samurai Showdown...

But it was great to see some simple games like Frogger and Pacman.

All Amico games have multiplayer and about 90% are very simple to control, the potential of the system to have parents play with their kids is huge.

33 minutes ago, Intellivision Master said:

I know we were discussing earlier about how all these consoles are on the market.  Well here is another one with an odd name.  It's strange looking with that dome on top too. I know it's not Amico related but had to share.

I know a lot of console designers look to automobiles for inspiration.

Just sayin.

And if it dispenses tasty wafers, I'm totally in.

1 hour ago, Intellivision Master said:

I know we were discussing earlier about how all these consoles are on the market. Well here is another one with an odd name.  It's strange looking with that dome on top too. I know it's not Amico related but had to share.

It's not a console.
The white box (prototype) is the Piereader and is an optional accessory for a game service, Piepacker.

It's actually exactly what people were asking Tommy to create, for the Amico.
It's a USB attached cartridge reader, which can take different cartridge adapters for different systems.
There seems to be no reason why it could not also have an Intellivision cartridge adapter, at some point.

The glass Dome is a backers reward/collectors item on the Kickstarter, which was fully funded on day 1.

3 minutes ago, justclaws said:

It's not a console. The Piereader is an optional accessory for a streaming game service, Piepacker.

True, but it looks like a console to me even though it's an accessory. 

7 hours ago, IMBerzerk said:

A touch screen is nothing close to a bubbled plastic controller. 

What if IE made a USB to flashback controller adaptor and also remanufactured flashback controllers for the original Intellivision games, and sold them to interested folks who don't have a Flashback?  The Flashback controller design is already done, and I wouldn't be surprised if the tooling still exists.  Maybe IE does the dongle and overlays and At games sells the controllers, or give the whole thing to At games and let them do it...

32 minutes ago, Starpaddler said:

What if IE made a USB to flashback controller adaptor and also remanufactured flashback controllers for the original Intellivision games, and sold them to interested folks who don't have a Flashback?  The Flashback controller design is already done, and I wouldn't be surprised if the tooling still exists.  Maybe IE does the dongle and overlays and At games sells the controllers, or give the whole thing to At games and let them do it...

That would be awesome for playing retro Intv games. 

Imagine loading all your roms on a stick, or even via WiFi into on board storage and playing both.

I hope there is something like that made by them, or like you mentioned, 3rd party.

2 hours ago, IntelliMission said:

The videos of kids/teens playing with their parents were nice. Now I'm not an expert nor have kids, but the game choices could have been better:

 

- Most of the games were single player, except perhaps the NFL game.

- Sonic is too complicated for someone who's not into retro.

- Minecraft for a 1-2 year old doesn't sound like a very good idea, even if it's used to learn the sounds animals make.

 

Now imagine those videos with the Atari parents bringing the typical tank combat game or Warlords, and the Genesis parents showing Golden Axe, Micro Machines, Street Fighter 2, Samurai Showdown...

 

But it was great to see some simple games like Frogger and Pacman.

 

All Amico games have multiplayer and about 90% are very simple to control, the potential of the system to have parents play with their kids is huge.

One game they should have played was Frog Bog.  That's one of the best games to play with little kids aside from Shark! Shark!. 

They missed the Intellivision for 3 games on a 2600. 🙄🙄

 Results of the 15th Annual Christmas Day Frog Bog Championship of the World between my daughter and I, held Xmas 2020.

I finally won the grueling best of 3 tourney.  My record is roughly 13-2 overall... 2 f'n wins in 15 years.  

33 minutes ago, IMBerzerk said:

That would be awesome for playing retro Intv games. 

 

Imagine loading all your roms on a stick, or even via WiFi into on board storage and playing both.

 

I hope there is something like that made by them, or like you mentioned, 3rd party.

Yea, but they need to being them all back, Imagic, data east, etc...  they need to offer something folks cant get on a flashback.  Hope there is enough demand and interest to make that happen at some time.