Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

22 minutes ago, ColdCoffee said:

Retro style catalog showcasing the launch titles. With exclusive preview/concept of Earthworm Jim Amico.

Great idea. Can have some "Games to come " too in this catalog !

4 hours ago, IntelliMission said:

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?

Thanks for sharing your family stories!!   All good stuff that we hear all over the world as well!!

Me & my sound designer Joey Kuras did all the sound fx for MDK & Messiah.  I only did a few tunes for Messiah.

Actually... that song in the background is from Earthworm Jim 2!  Tangerines from the first level.  

4 hours ago, LePionnier said:

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.

No.  We will sell the "normal" Limited Edition Vintage Woodgrain as well.  It just won't have all the extra stuff.  And it will be more expensive than the normal black & white versions.  The Founder's Edition is a really great value!

2 hours ago, Loafer said:

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.

Will be way before that!!  Could be within the next 2 weeks!

7 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Will be way before that!!  Could be within the next 2 weeks!

 

Heck yea bring on that vintage woody founders edition!!!! Bet we get our console before the VCS folks 😆

47 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

5 hours ago, LePionnier said:

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.

No.  We will sell the "normal" Limited Edition Vintage Woodgrain as well.  It just won't have all the extra stuff.  And it will be more expensive than the normal black & white versions.  The Founder's Edition is a really great value!

Sorry ! My english is so bad!

What I mean is, knowing that the founder's Edition is a really great value, can someone choose to have the Founder's Edition, but not the Vintage Woodgrain, wanting the black one to "fit" with is tv ! Is it possible ?

6 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

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

 

 

That's what the blue pills are for.😈

3 hours ago, Loafer said:

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.

Don't worry. I'll cover you for a small fee of... 

One Million Dollars!

So, for Amico fans, January is the month of the Founder's Edition, and the next moon patrol demo (full level before the end of month !!)

I found this comparative video for moon patrol games ! Really crazy in those years how a game could be so different depending of the system !!

Soon, the better version will arrive on Amico !

2 hours ago, LePionnier said:

Sorry ! My english is so bad!

What I mean is, knowing that the founder's Edition is a really great value, can someone choose to have the Founder's Edition, but not the Vintage Woodgrain, wanting the black one to "fit" with is tv ! Is it possible ?

Ah!  I see what you're saying.

I'm not sure.  I'll need to discuss it with the team.

It can only be a Founder's Edition if it can polymorph into other objects, and every 16 hours it must be turned off and rest in a bucket

Am I correct in reading the regular Amico is $225.00 and the founder's edition is $299.99?

Just came here to ask this because I was interested in the Amico as a cool secondary fun console but $225.00 is a lot steeper than I was expecting for this.

(Sorry if this was the wrong place to ask this!)

Tommy has mentioned they are not 100% certain yet.  They are shooting for $199 however some hardware changes (example: enhancement to the controllers) may raise the costs a bit from their original target.  Ie: the sale price is still to be determined

this is a personal opinion and I am not affiliated with Intellivision in any way so take that for what it is (a big donut hole of valid guess/info eheh) but... I always felt this thing may hit at $250 at first and maybe a year later hit the $200 once the tech is shrunk some more.  With games selling at approx $10 each, they can’t be going with a lost leader approach here, no loss on hardware is possible so including two controllers with multi touch capabilities, gyros, etc., the charging system it has, capabilities of a 3D generating engine means the GPU isn’t a neutered system, etc.  $200 may be achievable but it will be close and probably not quite high enough out of the gate

this post is for entertainment purposes only, please don’t read too much into it and enjoy it for what it is: speculative guesswork at best

2 minutes ago, Loafer said:

Tommy has mentioned they are not 100% certain yet.  They are shooting for $199 however some hardware changes (example: enhancement to the controllers) may raise the costs a bit for their original target.  Ie: the sale price is still to be determined

 

this is a personal opinion and I am not affiliated with Intellivision in any way so take that for what it is (a big donut hole of valid guess/info eheh) but... I always felt this thing may hit at $250 at first and maybe a year later hit the $200 once the tech is shrunk some more.  With games selling at approx $10 each, they can’t be going with a lost leader approach here, no loss on hardware is possible so including two controllers with multi touch capabilities, gyros, etc., the charging system it has, capabilities of a 3D generating engine means the GPU isn’t a neutered system, etc.  $200 may be achievable but it will be close and probably not quite high enough out of the gate

 

this post is for entertainment purposes only, please don’t read too much into it and enjoy it for what it is: speculative guesswork at best

Good observation..I always held out hope the system would be 199 as that seems to be a sweet spot for average consumers. 
 

I have no prob with higher cost of the founders edition but I dare say we are not Tommy and teams primary target audience 😆

$199 is absolutely a sweet spot they should target.  But even the Nintendo wii which came out 14 years ago (eons in videogaming time) was released initially at $249.  That is 14 YEARS AGO so taking into account inflation I gather that’s closer to $300 in today’s dollars.

edit: according to inflation calculators, this is $319 in today’s dollars.

Am I understanding this correctly that the Founder's Edition is going to be available for preorder some ten months before release of the retail version and it's going to require payment in full up front?  If that's the case, doesn't this just open Amico up to all the same attacks as the Atari vaporware console?  I mean, how is this different than crowdfunding, especially if a couple of thousand will be sold at $300 each?  I know Google didn't charge for their founder's editions on Stadia until the day they shipped, so maybe that's an option here as well.  Really confused about what is happening here as it seems to go against what I thought the plan was for Amico.  

Personally I'm fine with a slight increase in price. 

Top price when it was announced was $179, so at $225 it's a less than $50 increase above what was originally announced. Learning over the last year about what it could do, and the controller designs and other things Tommy "can't talk about right now, but you'll be amazed, shocked and tantalized... But wait! There's more!", then a price increase of $50 not only seems justified, but entirely reasonable.

I've been struggling finding meaningful and well paying work recently, so I most likely can't justify a founders edition for myself if I have to pay full price next month. I'm just starting a new job next week, but I can save up to buy the regular edition in October.☺️

9 hours ago, fdr4prez said:

It can only be a Founder's Edition if it can polymorph into other objects, and every 16 hours it must be turned off and rest in a bucket

 

 

I Always investigate Quark!

3 minutes ago, bojay1997 said:

Am I understanding this correctly that the Founder's Edition is going to be available for preorder some ten months before release of the retail version and it's going to require payment in full up front?  If that's the case, doesn't this just open Amico up to all the same attacks as the Atari vaporware console?  I mean, how is this different than crowdfunding, especially if a couple of thousand will be sold at $300 each?  I know Google didn't charge for their founder's editions on Stadia until the day they shipped, so maybe that's an option here as well.  Really confused about what is happening here as it seems to go against what I thought the plan was for Amico.  

I was going to ask the same question, but I didn't want to get pounced on, banned or have another post removed without justification. The minute this goes into charging people up front for something that's not available to ship, then there is a much higher level of credibility and guarantee of service required. So far, it's been lots and lots, and lots of talk and excitement. Granted Amico "seems" to have their act together better than some recent utter scams in the retro/alternative gaming world, but there's still a concerning amount of conjecture and hype at play here. I suppose a money back guarantee with any pre-order would suffice, or $10 down and payment upon shipping like some Gamestop pre-orders maybe. But, there's still a long way to go before this thing is locked down into a tangible shipping product with guaranteed ship dates, and by their own admission, they haven't spent any of their excessive marketing money they keep teasing about which might suggest greater credibility. I'm not saying it's the case here, but there's always a chance these things are propped up on window dressing, best intentions or exaggerated egotism. Talk is cheap and voluminous. Just trying to remain objective rather than cynical. 

16 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

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.

That, and my Boxwine addict aunt would run the risk of spilling wine all over the game board talking about her husband not satisfying her needs.

41 minutes ago, bojay1997 said:

Am I understanding this correctly that the Founder's Edition is going to be available for preorder some ten months before release of the retail version and it's going to require payment in full up front?  If that's the case, doesn't this just open Amico up to all the same attacks as the Atari vaporware console?  I mean, how is this different than crowdfunding, especially if a couple of thousand will be sold at $300 each?  I know Google didn't charge for their founder's editions on Stadia until the day they shipped, so maybe that's an option here as well.  Really confused about what is happening here as it seems to go against what I thought the plan was for Amico.  

28 minutes ago, JBerel said:

I was going to ask the same question, but I didn't want to get pounced on, banned or have another post removed without justification. The minute this goes into charging people up front for something that's not available to ship, then there is a much higher level of credibility and guarantee of service required. So far, it's been lots and lots, and lots of talk and excitement. Granted Amico "seems" to have their act together better than some recent utter scams in the retro/alternative gaming world, but there's still a concerning amount of conjecture and hype at play here. I suppose a money back guarantee with any pre-order would suffice, or $10 down and payment upon shipping like some Gamestop pre-orders maybe. But, there's still a long way to go before this thing is locked down into a tangible shipping product with guaranteed ship dates, and by their own admission, they haven't spent any of their excessive marketing money they keep teasing about which might suggest greater credibility. I'm not saying it's the case here, but there's always a chance these things are propped up on window dressing, best intentions or exaggerated egotism. Talk is cheap and voluminous. Just trying to remain objective rather than cynical. 

The distinction is that this is a *limited* pre-order of a *once only* special edition for fans, media people who want to get their machines a few days early and people who highly value the bonus features over just the console. I am sure you will be able to pre order the Amico for $10 at Game Stop (or something similar), but that will much closer to the actual ship date. As with *any* pre-order you are taking a risk {insert joke about $10 and GameStop here} and if people have any qualms then I suggest they simply wait for retail. This isn't the Intellivision business model, this is a bonus for early supports.

25 minutes ago, JBerel said:

I was going to ask the same question, but I didn't want to get pounced on, banned or have another post removed without justification. The minute this goes into charging people up front for something that's not available to ship, then there is a much higher level of credibility and guarantee of service required. So far, it's been lots and lots, and lots of talk and excitement. Granted Amico "seems" to have their act together better than some recent utter scams in the retro/alternative gaming world, but there's still a concerning amount of conjecture and hype at play here. I suppose a money back guarantee with any pre-order would suffice, or $10 down and payment upon shipping like some Gamestop pre-orders maybe. But, there's still a long way to go before this thing is locked down into a tangible shipping product with guaranteed ship dates, and by their own admission, they haven't spent any of their excessive marketing money they keep teasing about which might suggest greater credibility. I'm not saying it's the case here, but there's always a chance these things are propped up on window dressing, best intentions or exaggerated egotism. Talk is cheap and voluminous. Just trying to remain objective rather than cynical. 

And again, in the spirit of wanting to be objective and not cynical, I'm down on the idea of a "Founder's Edition" at all. Just too much into Chameleon territory- not in the IT'S A SCAM sense, but more in the putting the cart before the horse sense. I don't care about limited editions and multiple console colors and hoo ha. I want to see games and why it is that I need one of these. More power to those of you who what to be validated as early adopters or whatever; it's just not my bag. If I'm going to be buying this thing, I want to be shown WHY, and the colorful candy shell it comes in doesn't hold a lot of interest for me. 

Sorry to turn the discussion to price or pre-orders. I was just curious. Thank you for all the great replies this is the information I was looking for.

I don't mind a special edition pre-order, even though $300 is way out of my price range. I will just be honest, I am worried about the games on the system at launch and the price point of $225 though. As a rule of thumb I do not buy systems unless there are 5 must have games available when I buy it and if these 5 games are all $9.99 each we're pushing $275 for a system with 5 games. I believe the Nintendo Switch is close to that price. I don't think this will compete with Xbox or Sony but it would compete with kids and adults who want Switch.

Edit: I looked closer, I see it comes with 5 games but I have only seen skiing so I am not sure if I am missing the others

4 minutes ago, dj_convoy said:

And again, in the spirit of wanting to be objective and not cynical, I'm down on the idea of a "Founder's Edition" at all. Just too much into Chameleon territory- not in the IT'S A SCAM sense, but more in the putting the cart before the horse sense. I don't care about limited editions and multiple console colors and hoo ha. I want to see games and why it is that I need one of these. More power to those of you who what to be validated as early adopters or whatever; it's just not my bag. If I'm going to be buying this thing, I want to be shown WHY, and the colorful candy shell it comes in doesn't hold a lot of interest for me. 

That is totally legitimate - 90% of XBox fans don't care what color the box is if it runs the games, however some people are going to run out and buy that Fortnite themed special edition too. A lots of folks have been wanting an Amico special edition, including me. Wanting to see more of the games is legitimate but having seen enough of the games, hardware & vision to see where this is going and wanting a special version of the console is legitimate too. Again if the Founders Edition isn't your bag - great (saves one for me) but Intellivision offering it when people have been asking is fine too. Nobody is required to buy it, the gold & wood grain edition is still going to be available at launch (just not in the Founders package) - this is totally optional for an Amico buyer and (hopefully) we are all adults here and can make grown up choices.

12 minutes ago, 1001lives said:

Sorry to turn the discussion to price or pre-orders. I was just curious. Thank you for all the great replies this is the information I was looking for.

 

I don't mind a special edition pre-order, even though $300 is way out of my price range. I will just be honest, I am worried about the games on the system at launch and the price point of $225 though. As a rule of thumb I do not buy systems unless there are 5 must have games available when I buy it and if these 5 games are all $9.99 each we're pushing $275 for a system with 5 games. I believe the Nintendo Switch is close to that price. I don't think this will compete with Xbox or Sony but it would compete with kids and adults who want Switch.

 

Edit: I looked closer, I see it comes with 5 games but I have only seen skiing so I am not sure if I am missing the others

It will come with 5 games, skiing being one of them but the rest are unannounced (there has been quite a bit of hinting & guessing going on about the rest of them on this site & others). So you get the console, two controllers & 5 games for that one price. The included games will be in different categories too - the idea is being you can turn it on and everyone will probably have something they want to play. At launch in the store there are going to be about 30 to 40 games and they are going to be $9.99 or less. I am guessing most will be $7.99 to $9.99 range.