Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

4 hours ago, Serguei2 said:

Don't fix it.

 

Amico is a family console for everybody, including old people.

 

When kids are asleep at night, parents might like playing Amico for hours.

I think you may have misunderstood the article and/or my comment.

2 hours ago, Loafer said:

Busy with real life so took a while to catch up!

 

coleco Videogame original ip:  well, although it’s licensed, it is one of the few that was available on Colecovision only.  the title is: Wargames.  Even though it had a missile command style and mindset, it was still a very different game and I think updated to modern era retro graphics could look and play fantastic 

Yeah... I remember and loved that one!  Problem is that we would need to get the Wargames license from MGM so at that point, may as well make a brand new game.  I actually worked on the new Wargames video games in the late 90's!  Did all the music and sfx.

2 hours ago, Loafer said:

 

founders edition:  lots of good ideas here but let’s remember to stay feasible.  I think most of the ideas brought forth by Tommy would work well.  Any customization that changes from console to console is a non-starter.  It would be cool if there is a “thanks” available in the menu systems, very much like we see with the Kickstarter projects.  Def a limit of one PER HOUSEHOLD is important here, please don’t feed the scalpers, let us the true fans have an ability to own this piece of history.

Yeah... any manufacturing customization just isn't possible.

2 hours ago, Loafer said:

 

in fact the only problem I foresee in doing this type of limited edition is the (bad) luck of a draw where some of us can’t be fast enough to get one.  With this in mind, I hope you can give enough advance notice to us so that we can try and ensure we are available to order one.  With either 2020 or 2600, I’m really concerned I’m going to miss out and I need not remind you I’ve mentioned in the past this is my retirement gift from me to me ... and you don’t want me to head into retirement on disappointment do you?  Well, do you?!?  Lol

Hahaha!  NO!!   I don't want to disappoint!!

We will be making them available to our mailing list folks first.  I will let everyone here know when the e-mail will be coming so you can watch your e-mail boxes. 

On 1/5/2020 at 8:08 PM, Tommy Tallarico said:

Yeah... seems like a nightmare to work out.  And again... although I had and loved my Colecovision... there isn't any original games that I remember I'd want to port over (that were exclusive for the system).  Loved the sports games (and the Super Action Controller)... but not when Intellivision Baseball exists! 

 

 

I'm just gonna say it. Coleco Holdings have used shady means to get trademarks in the past and the games on the physical ColecoVision Flashback and the ColecoVision Flashback collections for other consoles were stated as a way to play the games legally, but: AtGames got permission from Coleco Holdings to use the games and took his word for it that he had the right, but I've never seen it established that he owns any of them and there are no comments about ownership of the games or who they were licensed from on the ColecoVision Flashback releases.

1 hour ago, MrBeefy said:

If the founder's is only $75 more and would cost $299, wouldn't that put the current price tag looking like $225? I know it is always changing, but curious if that is what we are looking at currently.

Potentially. We just aren't sure yet.  Obviously I'm trying to keep it as low as possible but keep the quality as high as possible.  So many trade-offs.  I can't even begin to tell you the amount of logistics and parts manufacturing and ways to ship, assemble, etc. are going into this.  As a general rule we're trying to always pick quality and reliability over cheapness.
 

3 minutes ago, Swami said:

I'm just gonna say it. Coleco Holdings have used shady means to get trademarks in the past and the games on the physical ColecoVision Flashback and the ColecoVision Flashback collections for other consoles were stated as a way to play the games legally, but: AtGames got permission from Coleco Holdings to use the games and took his word for it that he had the right, but I've never seen it established that he owns any of them and there are no comments about ownership of the games or who they were licensed from on the ColecoVision Flashback releases.

I've heard the same.  And yeah... big surprise that ATGames did something shady as well. 

Heard there were older gamers. This new game will be for them!

Founders edition: Real wood and chrome chassis on the console and controller ... fire hazard?

I like that idea of a special dust cover idea from the facebook page

Amicontroller wallet - protect those puppies when they're on the go

Physical game case

I was thinking maybe something like an Otterbox for the controllers, but then they might not fit in the charging stand.

Since this is for Intellivision fans:

A bluetooth dongle with microcontroller to put in the controller connection to use the Amicontrollers with the original Intellivisions - this is just a blutooth rceiver and programmed microcontroller

A third controller that is morphed a bit to more resemble the original controller - maybe not quite as ergonomic but I think would still be cool

Non-arcade, non-movie, etc., Coleco games besides the sports ones mentioned earlier:

Choplifter- 1982 Apple II game developed by Dan Gorlin and published by Brøderbund

Destructor-??-did they make this themselves?

Telly Turtle - pure Coleco Industries game? - Telly Turtle is the trademark of the most likely defunct "Carousel Software". It teaches Coleco and Adam programming (LOGO), but the character might be something - in the game it is just the round green cursor on the box cover - not sure if this was picked up my ToySource, who make plush animal toys, who have a "Telly the Turtle" currently unavailable on Amazon or it was just happenstance.

I think you're right about Destructor but since it wasn't on the flashback, coleco holdings wouldn't have registered the trademark.  I would imagine if the games on the flashback are illegitimate than their trademarks would be invalid anyway.  So there's really no reason to go to coleco holdings for anything other than the coleco trademark.

If someone wanted to use the game assets in colecovision Wargames without licensing the title they could just change the title.  Same thing with Dukes of Hazzard, 2010, Tarzan.  You'd have to track down the current owner of the coleco ip, but since Amico games are rewritten with updated graphics, it shouldn't matter.  They're more interested in titles for Amico rather than game assets.

Fortune Builder is another game that's unique to colecovision, published by coleco industries but not created or owned by them.  Illusions is another.  I'd consider Alkazar by Activision a colecovision game although it was later converted for the c64.

Choplifter was on a whole bunch of systems and first on Apple II.  I like the game a lot but it's best with an analog controller (eg.apple ii, atari 5200).  Not sure if the Choplifter trademark has been maintained but when Amico gets a helicopter game it should be called Hover Force.

14 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

The stats don't lie!

And notice they are NOT playing home consoles.  There's a reason for that and we're gonna fix it! 
 

Old People Are Playing More Video Games Than Ever According To Study

https://cogconnected.com/2020/01/old-people-playing-video-games-ever-according-study/

Hey I turn 50 next month!  Who are you calling old?! 😄

7 minutes ago, atarifan88 said:

Hey I turn 50 next month!  Who are you calling old?! 😄

Awe.. hell... you're just a little tyke running around the living room.. I turned 50 last month... I'm shaving my head, growing hair in places it shouldn't, arthritic pain everywhere... hold on to that youth.

It's ok, guys, we're all gonna live 120 years... 50 is the new 20 (Which makes me almost 10 years old). 🎉

A) Will Kairosoft be part of the family.  Some cool simulation games from them.

Really like "Game Dev Story". A lot of potential.
We could be the Intellivision Teams, in preparation for the launch of Amico.

What we want to focus on. Power, playability, etc.

Designing console, controller, type of game, how many of them at launch.

Signing developer, etc.   (Yes it's a little more hardcore, but can be done without excess of details ! lol )

In co-op, it's easy to do a teamwork with each screen with the color system, etc.

B) Horse racing is it in production ?

Could be cool when you have gain some money, you could buy horses, train them.

We could go from town to town, to finally arrive at the kentucky derby ...

( I don't know what I ate today, I am a little in simulations game ! lol )

C) What's in production for simulations game that you can tell us ?  Utopia ?

Thank you.

1 hour ago, IntelliMission said:

It's ok, guys, we're all gonna live 120 years... 50 is the new 20 (Which makes me almost 10 years old). 🎉

Sorry but you are going to have to leave, you are too young. Trolls on Twitter tell me that only a handful of old retro heads are interested in the Amico. Of course before that it was 'no one'. I am guessing after the marketing starts it will be 'only some house-fraus who find Tommy cute' and then after that only 'people who shop at Walmart' (insert photo of overweight woman on a mobility scooter next to a Walmart clearance sign).

2019 was a GREAT year for Intellivision as we continued to get the word out and were finally able to show people Amico for the first time and let them play games on it!
The feedback and response was overwhelming and here are just a few of our favorite clips of 2019!

Question... if you're a "hater" and watch this video... at what point do you say to yourself... hmm... maybe some people do have a different opinion than I do and might enjoy it?

11 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

Heard there were older gamers. This new game will be for them!

Damn!  You're on fire!!!!!!  

2 hours ago, atarifan88 said:

Hey I turn 50 next month!  Who are you calling old?! 😄

Welcome to the club!  It's only downhill from here!!  

8 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Welcome to the club!  It's only downhill from here!!  

 

 

From what I hear downhill is the best side of the slope it’s all that trudging uphill that wears you out 

11 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

2019 was a GREAT year for Intellivision as we continued to get the word out and were finally able to show people Amico for the first time and let them play games on it!
The feedback and response was overwhelming and here are just a few of our favorite clips of 2019!

Question... if you're a "hater" and watch this video... at what point do you say to yourself... hmm... maybe some people do have a different opinion than I do and might enjoy it?

 

 

You had to 'oof' at the end, glorious! 😂🤣

The video looks great, Tommy is certainly good creating hype and the right mood. 😎 A couple of ideas that came to my mind:

- Yesterday I told my mum and my aunt (in their late 60s): "I am going to buy a console so we can all play together, with lots of boards and cards games". They were instantaneously interested in the idea. I told them that it came with 2 controllers and you could use any smartphone and they liked that as well. I told them "it was made for you, adult women who play mobile games, the new video game players". "You are used to play games alone in your phones, but this console will try to make you play with others in front of the television". They said they missed the times when we played more board games or more PS2/PS1/retro multiplayer games. They especially missed the Trivial Pursuit video game from 1986 we played on a real Amstrad CPC. I said "that's because lately we're too lazy to prepare the consoles or the board games to play after we have lunch together, but this console is very simple to pick up and play". Then I showed them the picture of the purple Amico and they reacted like they had seen an UFO. "Where are the controllers? Is that the controller?". The magic of the Amico has started to make effect in my family. 🧙‍♂️

- In the same conversation, I told my 27 year old cousin that the guy who created the console is the same who made the sounds in one of his favorite games, Messiah. For those of you who don't know, the last sound in Tommy's video was created by Tommy 20 years ago for that game and was stolen 15 years ago by the game Roblox. Check out Tommy's twitter for more info. Tommy, did you create all the sounds for the game? Did you also made some of the music? By the way, guys, as I said with MDK, try Messiah if you haven't already. This one is a bit more complicated but more original.

- As 90% of people reading this probably know, the music in the background is the The Electric Playground theme, the show that Tommy co-started in the 90s... And it's a great theme! Did you also made that one, Tommy?

43 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

2019 was a GREAT year for Intellivision as we continued to get the word out and were finally able to show people Amico for the first time and let them play games on it!
The feedback and response was overwhelming and here are just a few of our favorite clips of 2019!

Great video ! Investors should be happy right now !

I saw a good question on twitter about founder's edition.

Will it be only one model available (retro style) for this ?

Thank you.

1 hour ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Welcome to the club!  It's only downhill from here!!  

 

 

In that case, how about a demo of this one for the "old folks"? 😁

I really like the idea of a special edition Amico. Small list I came up with to throw into the hat.

• Gold foil special packaging/box.
• Retro style catalog showcasing the launch titles. With exclusive preview/concept of Earthworm Jim Amico.
• Exclusive physical copy of one of the games.
• Friendship embroidered patch with a discount off a new Amico to give to a friend.
• A gold mat or stand/cradle. Something physical and unique to display with the console.
• A wired USB OG Intellivision controller remake. 

15 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Yeah... I remember and loved that one!  Problem is that we would need to get the Wargames license from MGM so at that point, may as well make a brand new game.  I actually worked on the new Wargames video games in the late 90's!  Did all the music and sfx.

 

 

Yeah... any manufacturing customization just isn't possible.

 

 

Hahaha!  NO!!   I don't want to disappoint!!

We will be making them available to our mailing list folks first.  I will let everyone here know when the e-mail will be coming so you can watch your e-mail boxes. 

 

 

 

that is great to hear!  Note: I am unavailable, out of the country from February 26th to March 9th with possible lack of access to the internet during that time.  I highly recommend you do not release this pre-order during that time less you start hearing those nice terminator tunes you wrote back in the day, at every turn of a corner.