Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

One other factor in judging the potential market on this, and this is just within the retro gaming community - which couldn't be more than a couple million out there (hard to gauge overall, there is no Grand Poomba of retro collecting that most of us would follow to get an idea of size, and even then, what percentage just collect and avoid social media?), is that among collectors and vintage game players, a lot of us will go after systems we never owned.

So while some people may say, "Atari had 10 times the market impact that Intellivision had, it'll naturally have 10 times the sales".. no, not quite.  TurboGrafx-16 had a minuscule footprint in North America, and market demand for these systems is very high.  Likewise for the Sega Master System, which was a tenth of the marketshare that Nintendo held in the late 80s in North America, yet those games have spiked in price over the last few years.  A lot of collectors will move on to adjacent systems.  For NES players, that means dipping into the Master System and TurboGrafx, the 7800.  For Atari fans who've combed over the VCS library 6,000 times, it means they're looking at the games being put out on ColecoVision, Intellivision, Odyssey2 and maybe the TI-99 or Vectrex.  A lot of non-collectors, just people who enjoy games, will venture into a system they never owned out of curiousity.  Maybe they thought Intellivision sucked as a 12 year old.  As a 46 year old, maybe they're a little more well-rounded, less in the do-or-die console wars mentality.  Or maybe they wanted all the systems but their parents didn't take out a second mortgage to entertain their gaming ambitions.  Either way, adult players broaden their collections. 

So it strikes me as not being able to see past one's own nose when an avid game collector says, "there's no market for this, Intellivision only sold 3 million, Atari wasted them and look how paltry the VCS Indiegogo funding pre-orders were?!?"... really?  Says you, collector of all systems?  You're so unique in branching out past the two systems you had as a kid??? 

7 minutes ago, RetroAdvisoryBoard said:

"Atari had 10 times the market impact that Intellivision had, it'll naturally have 10 times the sales"

Less than 5X actually.  

Time to return the favor...

X's 100!

😍

11 minutes ago, RetroAdvisoryBoard said:

One other factor in judging the potential market on this, and this is just within the retro gaming community - which couldn't be more than a couple million out there (hard to gauge overall, there is no Grand Poomba of retro collecting that most of us would follow to get an idea of size, and even then, what percentage just collect and avoid social media?), is that among collectors and vintage game players, a lot of us will go after systems we never owned.

 

So while some people may say, "Atari had 10 times the market impact that Intellivision had, it'll naturally have 10 times the sales".. no, not quite.  TurboGrafx-16 had a minuscule footprint in North America, and market demand for these systems is very high.  Likewise for the Sega Master System, which was a tenth of the marketshare that Nintendo held in the late 80s in North America, yet those games have spiked in price over the last few years.  A lot of collectors will move on to adjacent systems.  For NES players, that means dipping into the Master System and TurboGrafx, the 7800.  For Atari fans who've combed over the VCS library 6,000 times, it means they're looking at the games being put out on ColecoVision, Intellivision, Odyssey2 and maybe the TI-99 or Vectrex.  A lot of non-collectors, just people who enjoy games, will venture into a system they never owned out of curiousity.  Maybe they thought Intellivision sucked as a 12 year old.  As a 46 year old, maybe they're a little more well-rounded, less in the do-or-die console wars mentality.  Or maybe they wanted all the systems but their parents didn't take out a second mortgage to entertain their gaming ambitions.  Either way, adult players broaden their collections. 

 

So it strikes me as not being able to see past one's own nose when an avid game collector says, "there's no market for this, Intellivision only sold 3 million, Atari wasted them and look how paltry the VCS Indiegogo funding pre-orders were?!?"... really?  Says you, collector of all systems?  You're so unique in branching out past the two systems you had as a kid??? 

 

It's going to be 70%+ casual gamers, non-gamers and moms, though, right? So nostalgia should be a drop in the bucket.

The market for Atari 2600, Intellivision, ColecoVision, Magnavox Odyssey 2, seems much more limited compared to things like NES, Sega... That era of gaming, the second generation, has been consumed by the cultural milieu of the mid 80s with Nintendo and beyond. A lot of gamers believe it is the simplistic, limited, or lack of "complexity" in the games (some are very hard but not complex), but I think it is due to the simplified pixel graphics. It seems like there is a line of complexity when it comes to pixel graphics (the character sprites in particular, not backgrounds, objects, etc), where someone dismisses it as just blocks, vs when someone recognizes it as a true mascot/character. This isn't  a scientific thought, just some opinions. 

Third Generation was able to give us systems that gave us realized characters as opposed to what amounted to perhaps 3 core colors in a square shape. We also have to consider character recognition and identity.

It's harder to identify with the tank in Space Invaders, the explorer in Jungle Hunt, and the cursor ship in Asteroids than it is with Mario or even something like Pac-Man. 

I don't think it is even possible to identify with the adventurer in ... Adventure. The box art doesn't even really give us a character depiction. Despite the fact this is part of the dawn of Action Adventure (even a bit of Action RPG?) and the birthplace of things like Zelda today, Adventure is never really talked about. This is also one of the games I'm most interested in seeing reimagined.

We're seeing a revitalization of older IPs into modern graphics (Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, etc.) and perhaps if something similar is done with the early 2600/Intellivision/Coleco games it'll attract more attention. 

I'm sure this has been discussed to death already but there was a clear turn after Nintendo showed up when it comes to marketability and household penetration/sales. Not blaming it all on graphics/character recognition, but it is one of the keys.

2 minutes ago, 1001lives said:

The market for Atari 2600, Intellivision, ColecoVision, Magnavox Odyssey 2, seems much more limited compared to things like NES, Sega... That era of gaming, the second generation, has been consumed by the cultural milieu of the mid 80s with Nintendo and beyond. A lot of gamers believe it is the simplistic, limited, or lack of "complexity" in the games (some are very hard but not complex), but I think it is due to the simplified pixel graphics. 

 

Third Generation was able to give us systems that gave us realized characters as opposed to what amounted to perhaps 3 core colors in a square shape. We also have to consider character recognition and identity.

 

It's harder to identify with the tank in Space Invaders, the explorer in Jungle Hunt, and the cursor ship in Asteroids than it is with Mario or even something like Pac-Man. 

 

I don't think it is even possible to identify with the adventurer in ... Adventure. The box art doesn't even really give us a character depiction. Despite the fact this is part of the dawn of Action Adventure (even a bit of Action RPG?) and the birthplace of things like Zelda today, Adventure is never really talked about. This is also one of the games I'm most interested in seeing reimagined.

 

We're seeing a revitalization of older IPs into modern graphics (Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, etc.) and perhaps if something similar is done with the early 2600/Intellivision/Coleco games it'll attract more attention. 

 

I'm sure this has been discussed to death already but there was a clear turn after Nintendo showed up when it comes to marketability and household penetration/sales. Not blaming it all on graphics/character recognition, but it is one of the keys.

I'm not sure it was a clear turn. Playstation 1 and 2 blew away NES and SNES. Consoles just sold better as better technology got cheaper. Same with PCs.  Nintendo and so on also learned from Atari, Mattel and Coleco to control compatible games to do better quality control and stay more in their lane and not try to bet the farm on branch-offs like the Adam and Aquarius.

On 1/17/2020 at 9:45 AM, IntelliMission said:

Hey Tommy,

 

About the negativity part 2 (the nature of hardcore gamers): It's interesting how Sony and Microsoft fans are mostly ignoring the console, as expected (the first reply to your Twitter EJW announcement the other day was "what is this Amico thing? Is it some kind of meme?), but the worst attacks have come from hardcore gamers that love Nintendo (see the CUPodcast and its fans). It's like, instinctively, they know the Amico is competing on the same market as the brand they love and they feel the need to help their team win the fight. Fortunately, some Nintendo fans, such as 1001lives, are approaching the console with an open mind.

It's not just the Amico, they were all up in CollectorVision's junk about the Phoenix. To them, it had to be as good as the NT Mini or Retro AVS and cost less because it was "just ColecoVision" when they should be making an SMS/SG-1000 FPGA and other stuff. They were not ColecoVision enthusiasts and just coming in and trolling on it.

some nut finished this big monologue about everything that was wrong with the console with how it could be “Phoenix: Sega consoles risen from the ashes!”

1 hour ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Less than 5X actually.  

 

Time to return the favor...

 

X's 100!

😍

You'll only do that with a fantastic R-Type... and not Math Fun. 😇

10 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Yes.  Our initial focus is U.S./Canada/Mexico, UK/Germany, Middle East, potential China and potentially Australia.

But Amico will be a worldwide launch or other countries like Italy will have Amico in a "second wave"? In this case for the other countries (like Italy) will be possible to purchase Amico at launch on UK or Germany?

I hope that the Amico Founder's Edition will be available to purchase worldwide, I personally don't car about where it will shipped from...

About the brand recognition, it's interesting how some people are Marvel fans, other prefer DC. Some are Nintendo fans, some preferred Sega in the early 90s or Sony afterwards. But as someone else has pointed out, sometimes you've had enough of your favorite brand and need to try something else: fans of Atari are now interested on Intellivision thanks to the Amico, many Sega fans started buying Nintendo or Microsoft consoles after the year 2000... For this to happen, it's good to have some kind of "entry point", an initial purchase, product, game, character or movie that's somehow related to your tastes and serves as a starting point to the rival company. In comic books, it could be John Byrne: DC fans can try his Fantastic Four run and Marvel fans can try his Superman run. You can also try other masterpieces such as Frank Miller's Daredevil for DC fans or Alan Moore's Watchmen for Marvel fans. In video games, Nintendo fans can try Spyro or the first Metal Gear Solid and Sony fans can try the multiplayer aspect of the N64 or the amazing black & white version of Link's Awakening for the Game Boy. I hope this is true for the Amico and the millions of Atari fans recognize the Intellivision brand in the US, with older gamers around the world at least recognizing games like Breakout or Moon Patrol. It's true that Nintendo was not a well-known brand when they released the NES, but I suspect the strange decisions made by Atari made it easier for them to find a monopoly. However, the Amico doesn't need the other companies to commit huge mistakes, as they have already abandoned the casual market.

And what roots.genoa said about Germany and France is very interesting... Each country has its own video game culture, and France somehow loves Nintendo more than any other country in Europe. Sony, on the other hand, is huge in Spain, outselling Microsoft 10 to 1. And yeah, Germany has a history of censorship (I wonder what was wrong with killing nazis in Wolfenstein 3D, that was only unbanned in 2018).

A couple of questions for Tommy:

- It's nice to know that games will be released in all regions! That was a huge problem with consoles such as the Sega Saturn (see this, this and this). However, with "removing" baseball in Spain/Europe I was referring to replace it with other game in the 5 games included with the console. Will those 5 games be the same in all regions? 🗺️

- Do you have access to official sales figures of the original Intellivision? I say this because 1) It would be interesting to know how many of the 3 millions were sold in the USA and 2) Perhaps you could inform VgChartz about it, as somehow they have not included the Mattel Intellivision among the "Platform Totals" list.

 Both fans and haters will be watching the sales figures of the Amico, but there will be other details, indicators and milestones that will be also interesting: Will the Amico get its own news section on video game news portals? Will the Amico get an official magazine? Will forums create an Intellivision section? Will many gamers become "intellivisioners", joining to the console wars on the forums? Will the kids playing the Amico remember the console 20 years later and create a new retro scene for it? We will see how many of these become a reality. 🚀

On 3h42min, Tommy says: "Please help me. I am only one person".

This has motivated me, I think I will create a topic about the Amico in a major Spanish forum right now.

Tommy, as the guys interviewing you said, your energy is amazing for a one man only approach that the Amico communications have had until today. It kind of reminds me of the Faith No More's song "Just a Man". Another song to add to the official Amico soundtrack or future documentary about it. 🦅

13 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

I'm not sure you can exactly correlate systems to household's though.  Because of the expense... all my friends would come over my house and play for hours and hours (especially on the weekends).  So they were exposed and knew the brand.  But in regards to the late 80's/early 90's.  Systems would get passed along multiple times.  So although 3M Intellivision may have been sold in the U.S.... those 3 million may have been handed down to 2 or 3 different households.  For example... my uncle bought one... then he passed it to his son (my cousin) when he moved out.  He then gave it to my other cousin who lived a few cities away.  1 console = 3 households over about a 10 - 12 year period.  We were talking about this a few years ago and the final cousin said he sold it in a yard sale with all the games for like $40.  So add a 4th household to that number. 

 

 

You can double/triple it but we're still talking single digits (for younger people).  Personal anecdotes are nice but they don't prove anything.  Our Intellivision sat in a box in the late 1980s.  How many kids were going to their friends house to play intellivision in the late 80s and 90s.  Were those kids asking their parents for intellivision.  Kids also grow up remembering the toys they wanted but never got.

Atari fans may not care about Intellivision but they might care about Centipede, Asteroids, Missile Command, Tempest, Warlords, Demon Attack.  Some of those names mean more to some people than the Atari brand.  Younger people in their thirties and early forties might not care about any of that but there's a good chance they'll know Toe Jam and Earl, Earthworm Jim, and then Ecco and Sonic when they're announced.  For the kids today there'll be Disney licenses.  So Amico will have lots of brand recognition.

I had a few straight forward logistical questions about the founders edition preorders happening next week.

Will PayPal be accepted?

Is the final payment going to be automatic? 
Is there going be sales tax?

Are all the signatures going to be signed by hand?

How are the numbers going to be giving out? Can we request a specific number?

Will the orders be open till launch? If they sale out, will there be second chance to grab the ones people refunded or failed to pay later on?
Will any of the items have our names on it?

11 hours ago, Swami said:

It's going to be 70%+ casual gamers, non-gamers and moms, though, right? So nostalgia should be a drop in the bucket.

Correct.  One of the big mistakes that most of the detractors fail to see is that we are not BANKING on nostalgia.  They see nostalgia as our only way to succeed and because Intellivision isn't a big name in their eyes... they feel we are doomed.  I'll keep bringing this up (because I can't wait to prove it wrong), but Pat said that he thinks we will maybe sell 5,000 units of Amico worldwide... and that's it. 

This statement makes it clear that he doesn't comprehend what Amico is, what games we're doing for it, what our market strategy is, what makes us very different from mobile & Switch or... how big Intellivision once was.

Nostalgia is a cool factor and plays well into our SIMPLE pillar as games back in the day were MUCH easier to pick up and understand. 

11 hours ago, 1001lives said:

The market for Atari 2600, Intellivision, ColecoVision, Magnavox Odyssey 2, seems much more limited compared to things like NES, Sega... That era of gaming, the second generation, has been consumed by the cultural milieu of the mid 80s with Nintendo and beyond. A lot of gamers believe it is the simplistic, limited, or lack of "complexity" in the games (some are very hard but not complex), but I think it is due to the simplified pixel graphics. It seems like there is a line of complexity when it comes to pixel graphics (the character sprites in particular, not backgrounds, objects, etc), where someone dismisses it as just blocks, vs when someone recognizes it as a true mascot/character. This isn't  a scientific thought, just some opinions. 

 

Third Generation was able to give us systems that gave us realized characters as opposed to what amounted to perhaps 3 core colors in a square shape. We also have to consider character recognition and identity.

 

It's harder to identify with the tank in Space Invaders, the explorer in Jungle Hunt, and the cursor ship in Asteroids than it is with Mario or even something like Pac-Man. 

 

I don't think it is even possible to identify with the adventurer in ... Adventure. The box art doesn't even really give us a character depiction. Despite the fact this is part of the dawn of Action Adventure (even a bit of Action RPG?) and the birthplace of things like Zelda today, Adventure is never really talked about. This is also one of the games I'm most interested in seeing reimagined.

 

We're seeing a revitalization of older IPs into modern graphics (Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, etc.) and perhaps if something similar is done with the early 2600/Intellivision/Coleco games it'll attract more attention. 

 

I'm sure this has been discussed to death already but there was a clear turn after Nintendo showed up when it comes to marketability and household penetration/sales. Not blaming it all on graphics/character recognition, but it is one of the keys.

Each generation has had things that have drastically changed to widen the industry.  The game industry has had at least double digit growth every year for the past 30 years! 

Atari/Intellivision/Colecovision was better than all the PONG machines before it.

Nintendo/Genesis was bigger than Atari/Intellivision/Colecvision.

PlayStation, XBOX were bigger than Nintendo/Genesis

Mobile is bigger than PS, XBOX, Nintendo and PC combined.

There are lots of different factors in this happening.

As you mentioned... deeper character development and storyline is one.  Better music, better graphics is another.

But Price and Accessibility is the biggest.

It's somewhat unfair to compare the Atari/Intellivision generation to the Nintendo/Sega one (Gen 2 vs. Gen 3) as the worldwide distribution and pricing were night & day.  Considering the Gen 2 consoles did about half the total sales of Nintendo in Gen 3... that's actually pretty good considering they were about 3 times the price and had about half the territory distribution.  Also keep in mind that Japan was an economic powerhouse in the 80's so having that market locked in (and the fact that the Gen 3 machines were made & built there) brought in millions and millions of people that barely even knew the Gen 2 systems even existed.

3 hours ago, MonsterSky said:

But Amico will be a worldwide launch or other countries like Italy will have Amico in a "second wave"? In this case for the other countries (like Italy) will be possible to purchase Amico at launch on UK or Germany?

 

I hope that the Amico Founder's Edition will be available to purchase worldwide, I personally don't car about where it will shipped from...

I'll be able to answer the question of distribution a lot better by March.  Lots of things still very much up in the air at this point because most retail outlets don't put in their Christmas/Holiday orders until the end of March.  And we still have lots to decide in terms of manufacturing, shipping, etc.

I just don't want to spread ourselves too thin.  You know the expression... "You only get one chance to make a first impression."

This is the area where we need to be most careful and that Sony, Nintendo & Microsoft kick our butts!  They have offices and distributors and manufacturers and sales teams and marketing teams all over the world... and have for many many years.  And even they mostly don't release to all countries at the same time. 

Our absolute main focus is the U.S. first as it's the biggest economy in the world and our home base, we have the sales team, we understand the marketing, its our native language and we have a good grasp on the culture of gaming.  Each territory will need a full team and will need to know and understand the market for each area.  We have offices in Europe, the Middle East and soon to be China (AA forum exclusive!)

I'm totally okay to walk before we run.  Having a soft launch in the U.S. & Europe to get Amico into the hands of consumers to let the word of mouth and momentum build and for the machine to become "scarce" is a good strategy for us considering the power of the big 3 and where we are coming from.

Trust me... I'd love nothing more than to be in Italy delivering the first Amico in Rome on 10/10... but we need to be super careful and super smart as to how and where we launch.  Especially considering there are 2 major players launching within the same window who will be gobbling up all of the press.  As long as we are part of that conversation... I'm confident we will break through. 

YES!  The Founders Edition is available worldwide!  The shipping will be coming from the U.S. so it will be more expensive for folks outside the country... and because of the distance it may not arrive before 10/10... but you would still have the KING of all Amicos! 

2 hours ago, IntelliMission said:

About the brand recognition, it's interesting how some people are Marvel fans, other prefer DC. Some are Nintendo fans, some preferred Sega in the early 90s or Sony afterwards. But as someone else has pointed out, sometimes you've had enough of your favorite brand and need to try something else: fans of Atari are now interested on Intellivision thanks to the Amico, many Sega fans started buying Nintendo or Microsoft consoles after the year 2000... For this to happen, it's good to have some kind of "entry point", an initial purchase, product, game, character or movie that's somehow related to your tastes and serves as a starting point to the rival company. In comic books, it could be John Byrne: DC fans can try his Fantastic Four run and Marvel fans can try his Superman run. You can also try other masterpieces such as Frank Miller's Daredevil for DC fans or Alan Moore's Watchmen for Marvel fans. In video games, Nintendo fans can try Spyro or the first Metal Gear Solid and Sony fans can try the multiplayer aspect of the N64 or the amazing black & white version of Link's Awakening for the Game Boy. I hope this is true for the Amico and the millions of Atari fans recognize the Intellivision brand in the US, with older gamers around the world at least recognizing games like Breakout or Moon Patrol. It's true that Nintendo was not a well-known brand when they released the NES, but I suspect the strange decisions made by Atari made it easier for them to find a monopoly. However, the Amico doesn't need the other companies to commit huge mistakes, as they have already abandoned the casual market.

 

And what roots.genoa said about Germany and France is very interesting... Each country has its own video game culture, and France somehow loves Nintendo more than any other country in Europe. Sony, on the other hand, is huge in Spain, outselling Microsoft 10 to 1. And yeah, Germany has a history of censorship (I wonder what was wrong with killing nazis in Wolfenstein 3D, that was only unbanned in 2018).

 

A couple of questions for Tommy:

 

- It's nice to know that games will be released in all regions! That was a huge problem with consoles such as the Sega Saturn (see this, this and this). However, with "removing" baseball in Spain/Europe I was referring to replace it with other game in the 5 games included with the console. Will those 5 games be the same in all regions? 🗺️

 

- Do you have access to official sales figures of the original Intellivision? I say this because 1) It would be interesting to know how many of the 3 millions were sold in the USA and 2) Perhaps you could inform VgChartz about it, as somehow they have not included the Mattel Intellivision among the "Platform Totals" list.

 

 Both fans and haters will be watching the sales figures of the Amico, but there will be other details, indicators and milestones that will be also interesting: Will the Amico get its own news section on video game news portals? Will the Amico get an official magazine? Will forums create an Intellivision section? Will many gamers become "intellivisioners", joining to the console wars on the forums? Will the kids playing the Amico remember the console 20 years later and create a new retro scene for it? We will see how many of these become a reality. 🚀

Yeah... the reality is that Moon Patrol was never really known or released on Intellivision (Joe Z. doesn't "officially count... hahaha)... yet there are so many retro folks super interested and excited about it and who will be purchasing an Intellivision system for the very first time because of it.  I find the funniest ones to be the old Atari fans excited about Breakout, Missile Command, Asteroid...   er, sorry... AsteroidS!!!   And what's even more cool is that a lot of those folks are going out and trying to get their hands on the original Intellivision to check it out.  Super cool!

To answer your questions...

1.  Ah!  I see what you are saying.  I think you may have assumed Baseball was one of the 5 pack-in games.  But it isn't.  For the exact reason you mentioned.... we don't want to have to manufacture master chips and machines to ship to certain regions.  All 5 of the pack-in games will be the same in every territory.  One of the reasons I picked Skiing as the "sport" game.  Skiing is mostly a family activity and understood throughout the world.  Soccer is the most popular pro sport in the world... but weak in the U.S.  Boxing is another one that everyone understands and is popular around the world... but by its nature is violent.  Skiing is the perfect pack-in as it's easy to understand and pick up and play.  We can put funny moments in there (an avalanche, a deer crossing your path, a funny snowman), it's nice graphically, multi-player modes are easy and competitive and the best part... super easy to pick up and control.  Bottom line... Baseball is not one of the pack-in games. 

2.  We have certain records (and lore) indicating that there were approximately 4 million Intellivisions sold worldwide from 1979 - 1990.  This includes all the variants, etc.  (System III, Intellivision 2, Bandai, Radio Shack, Sears, Sylvania, etc.).  It could even be close to 5 million units as there are some records from distributers and manufacturers we just don't have and have been lost to time.  Although some have been able to calculate based on serial numbers what those numbers may be.  So I stick to the 4 million number as we're pretty confident in declaring that (at least I am anyway). 

3.  I think we are already starting to see this happen already (and before we have even stared marketing or advertising the product).  There are already Facebook pages, websites, Twitter/social media accounts, reddit pages (thanks Grudge!), now YouTube channels, etc. dedicated to covering Amico.  These are places and things that we have nothing to do with.  Only sparked and created by the interest of consumers.  Where are all of the AtariVCS fan groups?  They don't exist (not positive ones anyway!)   And we already have kids wearing our shirts, hats, hoodie's, etc.  There are still a few big things we have yet to release that will really impact what you're talking about.  In fact... we may not even be releasing the info during E3... we may just let it happen naturally as people open the box for the first time. 

1 hour ago, IntelliMission said:

On 3h42min, Tommy says: "Please help me. I am only one person".

 

This has motivated me, I think I will create a topic about the Amico in a major Spanish forum right now.

 

Tommy, as the guys interviewing you said, your energy is amazing for a one man only approach that the Amico communications have had until today. It kind of reminds me of the Faith No More's song "Just a Man". Another song to add to the official Amico soundtrack or future documentary about it. 🦅

Thanks for the kind words!  Much appreciated.  I am 100% fully dedicated to making this a reality and have it be successful. 

Me & my wife literally put having kids on hold a few years ago because we both knew that if I decided to do this.... I want to do the best I can and focus 100% on being the best I can for the project.  And when we do have kids... I will focus all my main energy on that... but Intellivision must be realized first as I wouldn't want to take away from either of those things because of the way I throw myself and dedicate myself into everything I do.  This is why I get upset sometimes when people so easily trash and dismiss the system with wrong information because they are too lazy to just go to our website or watch some videos.  Being lazy is easy.  Creating something on this level and seeing something like this through is insanely difficult and takes life-changing dedication by a huge team of folks to try and make a dent in hopes to help change the world.

The more folks we have out there right now trying to get proper info out is an important part of our success at this moment in time.  As retailers are looking online to see what the vibe is, as investors read our social media and watch influencers to see if this is something folks would be interested in, etc.  Super important time for us over the next 2 - 3 months.  Appreciate any help that folks can give and can be doing to help spread the word or to give "real" information of why we are different as opposed to some mobile game device or Switch wannabe. 

29 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

YES!  The Founders Edition is available worldwide!  The shipping will be coming from the U.S. so it will be more expensive for folks outside the country... and because of the distance it may not arrive before 10/10... but you would still have the KING of all Amicos! 

Hi Tommy.

Why not ship earlier for the foreign regions ?

30 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Our absolute main focus is the U.S. first as it's the biggest economy in the world and our home base, we have the sales team, we understand the marketing, its our native language and we have a good grasp on the culture of gaming.

Will it be available in French from day one ? In Canada ( majority in Quebec ) we have a lots of french people.

Same question could be ask in U.S.A. You have a lots of Spanish language I think.

Thank you.

1 hour ago, mr_me said:

You can double/triple it but we're still talking single digits (for younger people).  Personal anecdotes are nice but they don't prove anything.  Our Intellivision sat in a box in the late 1980s.  How many kids were going to their friends house to play intellivision in the late 80s and 90s.  Were those kids asking their parents for intellivision.  Kids also grow up remembering the toys they wanted but never got.

 

Atari fans may not care about Intellivision but they might care about Centipede, Asteroids, Missile Command, Tempest, Warlords, Demon Attack.  Some of those names mean more to some people than the Atari brand.  Younger people in their thirties and early forties might not care about any of that but there's a good chance they'll know Toe Jam and Earl, Earthworm Jim, and then Ecco and Sonic when they're announced.  For the kids today there'll be Disney licenses.  So Amico will have lots of brand recognition.

Yeah... totally.  I was just trying to make the point that folks in their mid 30's are aware of Intellivision and some have connections to it.  Obviously nowhere near Nintendo.  But it's there.

And yeah... you nailed it..  it's the licenses that mean more than the system itself!  That Earthworm Jim animation that I posted on Twitter is closing in on 60K views in under a week.  Most of the folks super excited and watching and retweeting probably never played the original Intellivision.  That's what is so cool about our strategy.  We can pull from many different licenses over the years that most consoles have ignored. 

1 hour ago, ColdCoffee said:

I had a few straight forward logistical questions about the founders edition preorders happening next week.

 

Will PayPal be accepted?

Is the final payment going to be automatic? 
Is there going be sales tax?

Are all the signatures going to be signed hand?

How are the numbers going to be giving out? Can we request a specific number?

Will the orders be open till launch? If they sale out, will there be second chance to grab the ones people refunded or failed to pay later on?
Will any of the items have our names on it?

 

1.  Paypal - yes.

2.  Final payment NOT automatic.  Folks can cancel at time of purchase if they'd like (or use another form of payment for the final cost).

3.  Sales tax on the machine when the final payment is made in September.. but not sales tax on the $100 refundable deposit.

4.  Yes.  All signatures are done by hand... NOT a machine.  I've done 5 Kickstarters and over 520 Video Games Live shows so signing 1,000 or 2,000 things within 2 or 3 hours is nothing. 

5.  No specific numbers.  The logistics of doing that would be a nightmare.

6.  No.  Once they are gone... they are gone.  If people end up backing out during final purchase then we will keep the machines or use them as give-a-ways.

7.  No.  No names.  Again... logistic nightmare. 

6 minutes ago, LePionnier said:

Hi Tommy.

Why not ship earlier for the foreign regions ?

 

Will it be available in French from day one ? In Canada ( majority in Quebec ) we have a lots of french people.

Same question could be ask in U.S.A. You have a lots of Spanish language I think.

 

Thank you.

Because the hardware will be coming in around that time.

We have languages that you can choose for not only the overall OS, but for the games as well.

I have a hope for the Amico update of Miner 2049er.  I was playing the Colecovision version on my Phoenix last night, using the cheat code to go straight to level 5.  That's how far I've got and with the half hour I had to play, once again failed dismally to get to level 6.  I don't play the game that much.  It's ok and because I own a cart of it I feel I should play it now and again.  The one thing I really don't like about it and I hope is not a feature on the new version is the time limit to complete a level.  Time limits are so old school and one aspect, if not the only aspect of some old school games that I absolutely hate.  Time limits transform a fun activity into a stressful activity.  Don't like it one little bit.  I don't mind if there's a challenge aspect to complete a level in the fastest time possible but to be given a finite time to do it in sucks.  I hope the developers of the new version have decided not to include a time limit but if they wanted one, then hey ho, that's their choice.  I might be in a minority when it comes to my attitude on time limits anyway.

23 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

5.  No specific numbers.  The logistics of doing that would be a nightmare.

Oh, so its just going to be random which person gets which numbered Amico? It won't be going off when the order was placed? I ask because certain numbers would probably be more valuable to some.

41 minutes ago, insertclevernamehere said:

I have a hope for the Amico update of Miner 2049er.  I was playing the Colecovision version on my Phoenix last night, using the cheat code to go straight to level 5.  That's how far I've got and with the half hour I had to play, once again failed dismally to get to level 6.  I don't play the game that much.  It's ok and because I own a cart of it I feel I should play it now and again.  The one thing I really don't like about it and I hope is not a feature on the new version is the time limit to complete a level.  Time limits are so old school and one aspect, if not the only aspect of some old school games that I absolutely hate.  Time limits transform a fun activity into a stressful activity.  Don't like it one little bit.  I don't mind if there's a challenge aspect to complete a level in the fastest time possible but to be given a finite time to do it in sucks.  I hope the developers of the new version have decided not to include a time limit but if they wanted one, then hey ho, that's their choice.  I might be in a minority when it comes to my attitude on time limits anyway.

So you will probably don't like Breakout !

We don't know all the details, maybe the "Karma Engine" will help at some point !?

1 hour ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

1.  Paypal - yes.

2.  Final payment NOT automatic.  Folks can cancel at time of purchase if they'd like (or use another form of payment for the final cost).

3.  Sales tax on the machine when the final payment is made in September.. but not sales tax on the $100 refundable deposit.

4.  Yes.  All signatures are done by hand... NOT a machine.  I've done 5 Kickstarters and over 520 Video Games Live shows so signing 1,000 or 2,000 things within 2 or 3 hours is nothing. 

5.  No specific numbers.  The logistics of doing that would be a nightmare.

6.  No.  Once they are gone... they are gone.  If people end up backing out during final purchase then we will keep the machines or use them as give-a-ways.

7.  No.  No names.  Again... logistic nightmare. 

 

 

Will sales tax be calculated based on the total price? Or the total price minus that refundable deposit?