Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

8 hours ago, Intellivision Master said:

This looks cool and could be on Amico.  It has pixel art.  I know Tommy isn't a fan of that.  But he could change it like he did with Finnigan Fox.

Reminds me a lot of The Chaos Engine on the Amiga and ST.  Similar perspective and action.

Totally off topic, but it is personal pizza night here at the GrudgeQ household - hope everyone is also enjoying a nice dinner tonight!

2 hours ago, nysavant said:

Reminds me a lot of The Chaos Engine on the Amiga and ST.  Similar perspective and action.

Honestly, this does look pretty good and I agree it is reminiscent of Chaos Engine but not so much that art style which was awesome, style wise I really got more of a Zombies Ate My Neighbor's vibe (Snes/Genesis) which is not bad either, will it be near as good as either of those titles? Not sure but I am glad to see variety like this. 😎

This looks like a fun game.  It would be good to have on Amico.

P I Z Z A M I C O

11 minutes ago, CurlyQ said:

And some were purporting Amico was powered by a raspberry pi; obviously its a pizza pi

18 hours ago, IMBerzerk said:

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.

Yeah... at that point you just should have your own MAME cab for just the arcade stuff! 

17 hours ago, GrudgeQ said:

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.

Once again @GrudgeQ expresses his research and intelligence.

17 hours ago, RetroAdvisoryBoard said:

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.

Me & Tom Hall go back 25+ years.  Great guy and super funny & talented!

Easy phone call or e-mail!  I'll check into it.

12 hours ago, GrudgeQ said:

Totally off topic, but it is personal pizza night here at the GrudgeQ household - hope everyone is also enjoying a nice dinner tonight!

 

HOLY CRAP!!  That's hilarious!!  Gotta share this one on social media!!

Hahahaa!  Great one!
 

8 hours ago, CurlyQ said:

P I Z Z A M I C O

 

So strange that the second I saw @GrudgeQ's post the first thing I thought of was @CurlyQ's pizzAmico and his Running Man latte would have been a perfect addition.

I scroll down a few posts... AND HERE IT IS!!

HAHAHAHHAA!!!

7 hours ago, Starpaddler said:

And some were purporting Amico was powered by a raspberry pi; obviously its a pizza pi

HAHAHA!!  Quote of the week!

17 hours 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.

Just looking at the thing, I'm tempted to shake it to see if it's a snow globe! 😂

I’ve just been thinking about some people maybe thinking a mascot is a necessity in games, like Mario or sonic, but Sony beat them both for at least three generations with no real PlayStation mascot. Or are we going to count Lara Croft (which we can’t since she was also on Saturn and DOS at the same time). Does PlayStation have any transcendent mascot? Xbox doesn’t either unless it’s those Halo looking robot suited guys. 

12 hours ago, CurlyQ said:

P I Z Z A M I C O

 

@DJC Make that one as a special edition, (well, it can be a set of "skins", actually) and DJC will
need to get an Amico for his kitchen, as well as the ones he has for his arcade, den, and lounge.
(Hey, DJC, you need the GTO-Red for your garage.)

Actually, joking aside, I think the smooth surface of the Amico will make it ideal for fancy "skins"!
There's a partnership, Tommy, and I'll take a set free, for the suggestion.
 

2 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Yeah... at that point you just should have your own MAME cab for just the arcade stuff! 

 

 

I have 4... You want one..  lol... 

Latest... Finding an old, trashed, painted over and beat-up Gorf cabinet conveted to a 90s Neo-Geo 2-player fighting game.

Bringing it back to it's original glory with a new top end, and completely restored graphics and lower end/coin door.

Will have all LEDs, color changing strips under it, new controls with trackball and spinner... And all new custom control panel graphics playing on a 20" Dell LCD vertical mount. 

With the Sony PS3 "final days sales hype" /extinguishing of the key to unlock the Digital Rights, it reminded me of sonethibng: I remember that the plain old Xbox can still access Live.  All the updates for the original Xbox games I believe are still online if you buy a physical copy and connected to the internet.

I think the first test was the Wii.  Today I am going to see if I can access a download games on the Wii already on my SD card.

If XBox Prime set the precident of having a Twilight internet service on its old console, then if the Wii needs the internet to access the licenses that it should be able to because of the Twilight internet service on the original Wii.

Of course the shops are closed on both and the online game servers are pretty much gone unless they're supported elsewhere.

Sony seem to be the outlier of trying to take away your PlayStation games by removing the internet stream to the PlayStation 3.

I trust in the pro-consumer Amico world that if you buy digital copies of games that there will be some way to play Amico games on the original Amico console even many years from now.  Whether it be licenses hard written in the stored code of the game on hard drive or a Twilight internet service is it safe to assume that once we own a game we own it pretty much for as long as existence exists, and all the grandkids will be fighting for who gets the Amico  collection.

Speaking of which how does one pass licenses of digital games to children and grandchildren?

And about the mascot discussion Crash Bandicoot was supposed to be PlayStation's mascot, but during the PS2 generation somehow Konami got the rights to Crash and Spyro it appeared on Xbox and Nintendo systems.  Besides this one mascot that perfectly represents the Amico is The intellivision Running Man: the first well-animated interactive human character at home.  Even beat Pitfall by a year or two, which beat Donkey Kong in the arcades.

23 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!

 

 

Thanks for letting us know!

Are there any plans to address this further at a later time? I'm curious to see exactly how blockchain plays into Amico, particularly in terms of energy consumption.

Most current blockchains seem to use a lot of energy for mining tokens, as well as for verifying transactions in the first place. I know Ethereum is planning to unveil ETH 2.0, which hopes to address this...However, progress appears to have stalled for years.

This new article which talks about the Amico popped-up in my feed today.
I guess they were holding it back, until the Evercade VS announcement,
but all-in-all I think it's a fairly balanced article about new 2021 consoles.
https://www.gamingbible.co.uk/features/games-2021s-new-games-consoles-that-arent-playstation-or-xbox-20210422

It fails to mention this console though, ideal for people who don't need a 4K TV.
It doesn't actually mention the screen size, so maybe it's 50" with HUGE joypads!


 

(Off-topic a bit.)
That article I mentioned in the previous message also links to a VGL video too.
 

 It also has a link to a Video-Games-Live concert which of course Tommy is known
for, but which I'd never heard of or seen until I got interested in the Amico itself.
I guess this is an official presentation... and it's what inspired the Amico LEDs!?!
 

8 hours ago, Swami said:

I’ve just been thinking about some people maybe thinking a mascot is a necessity in games, like Mario or sonic, but Sony beat them both for at least three generations with no real PlayStation mascot. Or are we going to count Lara Croft (which we can’t since she was also on Saturn and DOS at the same time). Does PlayStation have any transcendent mascot? Xbox doesn’t either unless it’s those Halo looking robot suited guys. 

Crash Bandicoot was the Sony mascot in the beginning for the longest time.

5 hours ago, justclaws said:

This new article which talks about the Amico popped-up in my feed today.
I guess they were holding it back, until the Evercade VS announcement,
but all-in-all I think it's a fairly balanced article about new 2021 consoles.
https://www.gamingbible.co.uk/features/games-2021s-new-games-consoles-that-arent-playstation-or-xbox-20210422

It fails to mention this console though, ideal for people who don't need a 4K TV.
It doesn't actually mention the screen size, so maybe it's 50" with HUGE joypads!


 

Cool article.  Hadn't seen that one.  Thanks for sharing.

I TOTALLY want that Orb thingy although I'm super bummed they didn't just make the base of the TV legs so it looked like a little robot or something.