Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

Here's a zombie shooter for Amico.

Had a dream last night Tommy was showing off some of the peripherals for Amico. A couple of them involved placing the controller into a remote-controlled monster truck, bicycle, or a thing that could scale the walls, all controlled in-game, sorta like a cooler Mario Kart Live Home Circuit.

Is my subconscious onto anything Tommy?? XD

On 4/26/2021 at 11:07 PM, Steven Pendleton said:

Any progress on R-Type? R-Type Final 2 releases in 2 days, so I'm kind of curious about Amico R-Type.

We haven't started that one yet.

On 4/27/2021 at 8:52 AM, Zee said:

@Tommy Tallarico on amico all access you mentioned baseball would be available at launch.  Any chance we get a video of the game play in the next few months?  The game must be moving along nicely if it's scheduled for October!

Yeah.  Footage will be coming over the summer for sure.  We've been messing around with different camera angles and player sizes.  I want to get that in a better place before showing it again.

On 4/27/2021 at 7:07 PM, Intellivision Master said:

CurlyQ,

 

I like the Shark! Shark! shirt that you recently showed.  It would be nice to also have a shirt with just Puffy on it.  Then have his name under the picture.

Yes!  @CurlyQ... you should work on that one next!

 

On 4/27/2021 at 9:03 PM, LinemanDoc said:

Finally!!!!  After almost 2 months of playing catch-up, I just finished reading all the posts.  This thread grows faster than I have time to read.  I'm excited for the Amico and my kids (2, 7, and 9) LOVE to wear thier Amico T-shirts to school now that they go in person.

Very cool!!!  Represent!!

On 4/27/2021 at 9:03 PM, LinemanDoc said:

I know Utopia is being reimagined, but what other games are in the pipeline that would really allow the player to build, create, strategize, and control the environment?

Nothing at this moment.  But we are open to it.

On 4/27/2021 at 9:03 PM, LinemanDoc said:

Any way, I'm just rambling on with multiple thoughts because it will probably be another 2 months before I catch up with reading this thread again.  I might as well get it all out while I'm here.  Thanks everyone and hopefully the people at Intellivision can incorporate my parental thoughts into the vast majority of thier games.  And also add more world-building, strategy, and Sim-City style games.

Definitely something we are not opposed to.  Just nothing in the pipeline until we start and complete Utopia first.

On 4/28/2021 at 5:21 PM, CurlyQ said:

Darth Vader doesn't go anywhere without his Amico.

 

Atari fans be like...

On 4/29/2021 at 12:31 AM, RREDDWARFF said:

Yes, but Vader has an unfair advantage. He uses "mind" controls. 

I hear his mind control is laggy though.

On 4/29/2021 at 5:46 AM, IntelliMission said:

@LinemanDoc It's great to know different points of view and yours is surely original. However:

 

1) I think you disregard educational games too quickly. You say "no kid wants to play those". I confess I never played one, but these games exist for a reason. They are aimed at very small children. The educational part of them is not about future, potential working skills (to young for that?), but about having human values. Also, it's not about what they want, it's about what their parents want at those ages.

The educational games we are currently focused on are aimed at 3 - 5 year olds.  There is a big difference for educational products from 5 - 7 year olds but we intend on following our 3 - 5 years old into that area... so we have a year or so before we start diving into those types of games.  Sesame Street as a license for example is mostly 3 - 5 year olds.

On 4/29/2021 at 7:31 AM, GrudgeQ said:

I agree it is likely there won't be too many strategy games but don't forget about announced titles like Incan Gold (Diamant), which are basically board games but with a strategy element. I also wouldn't mind seeing other simple strategy games like Risk, Catan Jr, Ticket to Ride etc. make the jump from board to Amico. I think you are right we won't (and shouldn't) see complex strategy games but simple & popular board strategy games I think we will see several of.

Yeah... we definitely have those strategy type of games.  Risk vs. reward, etc.  Incan Gold is a perfect example!

On 4/29/2021 at 7:59 AM, GrudgeQ said:

Me too, I want to see how they handle multiplayer

4 frogs playing.... but only 3 homes at the end of the screen....

GO!!!

🐸
 

On 4/29/2021 at 10:17 AM, GrudgeQ said:

Chip shortage continues

 

 

https://www.engadget.com/ford-bmw-honda-production-chip-crisis-124350237.html

 

Yes.  It's definitely getting worse... not better.  We currently have 4 components we are trying desperately to source and find before July.

On 4/29/2021 at 2:00 PM, justclaws said:

This is great, but you should have saved it for Star Wars Day (May 4th Be With You)
You're really a maestro with Photoshop, or whatever you use.

I can only imagine what we'll be seeing on May 4th!

On 4/29/2021 at 2:12 PM, justclaws said:

Well, it's also affecting the European car manufacturers... like BMW.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-56915685


Interestingly, after some research, it seems that cars do not use any normal mainstream
processors like X86 used in PCs, or the Arm families which are in most mobile phones, STBs
and of course, the Amico. (Actually, I presume it's not the Arm chip which is the Amico issue,
but the special components used in the controllers, as Arm set-top-boxes are easily available.)

As posted before, it's often the fabrication of any custom chips which is the blockage right now,
for most companies, and I would guess Amico gamepads have some custom components in use.

Yes.... it's very challenging.  Doing out best.  We literally have a team of people who work on this every day for the past 6 months.

 

On 4/29/2021 at 2:21 PM, justclaws said:

This evening, I discovered that Tommy's smile had a reason behind it, thanks to Amazon.
  
I saw a video on YouTube about being able to order the controller joystick "buttons", and
when I went to look, I saw also that controller overlays are already available for pre-order,
via Amazon.de, and they are under distribution from Koch Media, just like the console.

There are 6 sets listed, controllers only, but I'm guessing console skins are also coming?!
 

Nice find.  

Those are mostly all placeholder skins.  The real ones look a lot cooler!!  The animal ones are pretty close and the racing ones are 2/3 correct (the checkered flag is different and better on the final versions). 

More on the way.  They'll all be updated on Amazon over the next month or so.

On 4/29/2021 at 5:11 PM, GrudgeQ said:

 

OMG Rainbow, the Shillaliens have invaded the Amico controllers! Run for the bunker but don't forget to grab your allergy medication! 🤣

(actually these are a great idea to designate different controllers for different people or just to add a bit of bling to a Glacier White or Graphite Black - really love these)

 

I had these in Texas but forgot to show them to everyone!

On 4/29/2021 at 6:57 PM, LinemanDoc said:

1) I see your point.  When I said, "no kid wants to play those," I was really thinking about my 7 year old boy.  At his age, anything school related seems boring.  On the other hand, my 2 year old daughter would probably love the Sesame Street ABC & 123 games.  I just don't see elementary age kids begging to play them over something like Minecraft or even Shark Shark.  I really just wanted to emphasize adding learning experiences in regular games.  I don't want to get rid of traditional educational games.

 

Totally agree.  Our research and focus testing has shown the same.  3 - 5 year olds will play Sesame Street AND games like Shark! Shark!   7 - 10 year olds are already into Roblox, Minecraft and Switch.  Very difficult to do traditional "edutainment" with a 7 - 10 year old.  That is why your idea of strategy, etc. is a good one.  You can't really teach them traditional school subjects at that age (like you can with a 3 - 5 year old), but there are other ways to "teach" without banging them over the head with school.  

On 4/30/2021 at 12:53 AM, totalamico said:

Controller sleeve $16.99.

 

 

On the final controller sleeve the log is up a row and centered.  

On 4/30/2021 at 3:30 AM, CurlyQ said:

Hahaha!  Awesome!

I'm going to e-mail this to them now. 

On 4/30/2021 at 4:15 AM, oelli said:

Couldn't it be that some of the physical games also contain special controller overlays?

Wouldn't That Be Something?™

But only in Special Limited Edition versions where the physical boxes would be a little bigger than our standard ones.

Whoops... I've said too much.

On 4/30/2021 at 5:17 AM, atarifan88 said:

These racing overlays are slick looking! 🏎️🏎️

The center and left are accurate.  The checkered flag was redesigned and looks a lot cooler now. 

On 4/30/2021 at 7:37 AM, MASTER260 said:

Lovin' the army green and the American flag.  Anything with the flag is good in my book!

2 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Wouldn't That Be Something?™

 

But only in Special Limited Edition versions where the physical boxes would be a little bigger than our standard ones.

Whoops... I've said too much.

 

 

 

 

 

No, it's okay.  Do tell us more.

On 4/30/2021 at 7:41 AM, GrudgeQ said:

For me the obvious function is kid appeal. Can you imagine the difference between a kid into sparkles and rainbows getting the standard Amico controller vs the bling upgrade? A lot of kids back home (in the "heartland", i.e. middle America) would be into the 'merica set of camo & US flag. Younger me would have went for the space set, but mostly for the rocket ship one.

 

Also I wonder if there is a reason you might want to track the individual controllers? Maybe there is a 'master controller' setup on the Amico (the one that lets you share games and such). If nothing else it lets you make sure you get your controller back home after going on an Amico play session with friends. I am with @atarifan88 - present day me finds those racing ones pretty cool. Somehow I think Tommy might be rocking the middle one of that set himself.

Yeah... one of the cool things about the controller overlays is that you always know which controller is yours.  Comes in handy when there are multiple controllers in the household.  That way you won't need to always log in and out of your profile from your controller. 

On 4/30/2021 at 1:15 PM, GrudgeQ said:

Interesting article about a leaked document from Electronic Arts. It shows that they are doing everything possible to move players to FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT), a cornerstone of which is loot boxes. "We are doing everything we can to drive players there". And people say we don't need the Amico, all that stuff is on other systems. Maybe it isn't so much about the stuff that is on other systems, but the stuff that isn't on the Amico.

 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/gopublic/fifa21-loot-boxes-electronic-arts-1.5996912

 

 

 

Not surprising.