Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

59 minutes ago, Battlefish said:

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

2 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

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

On the total price of the machine like any product.

If not, I will suggest that I'll give 299$ right now and save all taxes ! 😉

On 10/3/2019 at 11:02 AM, Tommy Tallarico said:

So... for example... when I play Moon Patrol in vertical mode (most people play horizontal, but I personally like vertical).  It's actually much easier and quicker to hit the screen to shoot and jump (screen input split into 2 halves of the screen... top & bottom) as opposed to the side buttons.  You can get off way more "shots".  You quickly forget about tactile buttons.  Having a "real" tactile disc for motion and the screen for shooting is really cool actually.  It's one of those things that may be hard to imagine... but when you play it... you get used to it immediately and find that its actually more fun, forgiving and quick to use the screen to shoot because you're tapping rapidly as opposed to waiting for the tactile button mechanism to engage and disengage.  Which of course doesn't take long... but it's just "quicker" when there's nothing there except your finger and a surface.

But again... most people use it in horizontal mode.  And some use the screen to shoot and others will use the left & right shoulder buttons for firing and jumping.  And the disc could be on the left... or the right... depending on which way you are holding it vertically.  There really is something there for everyone.  Really unique.

So many ways to play. Great.

Do we need to decide before playing, or depending on how we hold the controller, everything adjusts automatically ?

If it's automatically, then we could try different ways while we are playing a level !?

Thanks.

Back when the Intellivision Flashback came out that’s what I got everyone for Christmas and picked up the full set of overlays for everyone as well I remember as soon as we were all done opening gifts we went back to one of the bedrooms hooked up the flashback and started playing games with each other.  I remember sitting there thinking how much like a childhood Christmas that felt everyone rushing to try their favorite item when all the opening was done. I may end up doing the same with Amico but it may take me to Christmas 2021 to pull that one off 

On 10/16/2019 at 6:21 PM, Tommy Tallarico said:

Tommy. Did we saw all 5 games in the August trailer ?

On 10/16/2019 at 6:21 PM, Tommy Tallarico said:

No.  You did not see all 5 pack-ins in the trailer.  Only 3.  4 of the pack-ins are Intellivision owned properties that folks will be familiar with.  1 is completely brand new and uses the motion controls.  We are hoping it will be like Wii Bowling was for the Wii (but it's not bowling).   

 

According to the discussions of the past fews days, the new one could be a lawn game. ( Cornhole ?)

The other one not in the trailer is Skiing.

2 games from the 3 in the trailer included are now known : Snafoo and Astrosmash.

Which one from the trailer will be the other one ??  It have to be an Intellivision owned properties.

My bet is on Night Stalker ! Tommy talked a lot about this game and Moon Patrol, but Moon Patrol is not an Intellivision property !(???)

And in the latest interview, he mention how important it is to have great and memorable games included with a new system.

And everybody love and play almost every day Night Stalker at the office ! lol

Great at 4 players, music and sound incredible ...

What do you think everyone ?

4 minutes ago, LePionnier said:

 

According to the discussions of the past fews days, the new one could be a lawn game. ( Cornhole ?)

The other one not in the trailer is Skiing.

2 games from the 3 in the trailer included are now known : Snafoo and Astrosmash.

Witch one from the trailer will be the other one ??  It have to be an Intellivision owned properties.

My bet is on Night Stalker ! Tommy talked a lot about this game and Moon Patrol, but Moon Patrol is not an Intellivision property !(???)

And in the latest interview, he mention how important it is to have great and memorable games included with a new system.

And everybody love and play almost every day Night Stalker at the office ! lol

Great at 4 players, music and sound incredible ...

What do you think everyone ?

Wouldn't it make sense to have that intelevision running man game it showed?

6 minutes ago, Juice said:

Wouldn't it make sense to have that intelevision running man game it showed?

Yes, but I am almost sure it's from Choice Provisions !

https://www.totallychoice.com/

18 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.

Nintendo characters like Mario and Donkey Kong first showed up in 1981.  The game was popular because it was a good game.  Nintendo also had DK jr and Popeye with nicely defined characters but I had no interest in them.  I'd rather play monochrome Asteroids, Missile Command's lines and circles, and Defender where I had no idea what I was shooting at.  Pac-man was just a yellow circle but became a huge phenomenon because the game was popular.  And I thought they all looked great at the time.  When I was older I played Wing Commander; enjoyed it but it had these characters with stupid dialogue and story.  I guess people like that.

I notice in the new Night Stalker the player characters are single colour just like the intellivision version.  If it's an "amazing" game like we're told it's going to be, the lack of character detail shouldn't matter.

9 hours ago, IntelliMission said:

 

- 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.

Some of the sales figures at vgchartz are bogus.

6 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

...

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). 

...

I think the serial numbers we have support at least 3.5M.  But there's lots of regions where there isn't good serial number data e.g. Brazil.  So more than 4M is more than reasonable.  If you put this information on your website than others can reference it.

5 hours ago, LePionnier said:

....

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.

...

I expect Canadian packaging will be bilingual but US and Mexican packaging unilingual.  When they say they are focused on the US market (among others) at launch, will that include Canada?

For those who like listening, listening, listening, and listening again our Amico Tommy !

It's sunday night ( Eastern Canada )

6 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

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. 

Take my advice with a grain of salt, because I don't plan to have children and don't even believe in marriage (I believe we are polygamous by nature and this makes virtually impossible for me to engage in this kind of projects), but what you're doing is much more important than having children. You are in a position to help millions of people, to share positive energy, to help people use technology in a healthier way, to unite them instead of separate them. Honestly, I wish I could do something like that. I think my ideal job would be to teach children to play video games in an intelligent and social way, or to try to improve the education system replacing memorization with interactivity. So yeah, don't feel too guilty about that... Some other people are already taking good care of it! 👨‍👩‍👧👨‍👨‍👦👨‍👨‍👧👩‍👩‍👦👩‍👩‍👧👨‍👦‍👦👨‍👧‍👦👨‍👧‍👧

By the way, regarding the Intellivision sales: VGChartz says the Atari 2600 sold 27 millions: 23 in the USA, 4 in Europe and 1 in the rest of the world (and 0 in Japan). Can we assume a similar percentage for the Mattel Intellivision (i. e. 4 millions in total with 3 in the USA and around 1 million in the rest of the world, most of them in Europe?

5 hours 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.

Agreed!  Time limits SUCK and is just a carry over from the old days.

5 hours ago, ColdCoffee said:

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.

We would fulfill the orders by how they are received for sure.  So the folks who jump on it immediately will definitely be getting the low numbers.  We just can't put numbers aside that people want.

4 hours ago, LePionnier said:

So you will probably don't like Breakout !

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

 

Breakout is a little different in that regards as it gives you a lot of time and we've calculated a good time for each level being made.  Meaning... more times than naught you finish the level.  Not like some games where you need to fail 100 times before you "pass" to the next super difficult level that is going to be frustrating and will take you another 100 attempts to try and complete.

Not fun. 

The way we do things is by focusing on the "fun", not the "frustration". 

P.S. LOVE your new avatar!  I might need to steal that from you come 10/10.  

4 hours ago, Battlefish said:

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

Total price.

It's the law.

3 hours ago, LePionnier said:

So many ways to play. Great.

Do we need to decide before playing, or depending on how we hold the controller, everything adjusts automatically ?

If it's automatically, then we could try different ways while we are playing a level !?

Thanks.

Some games you decide at the beginning.  Others you can just change on the fly.  It depends.

2 hours ago, LePionnier said:

 

According to the discussions of the past fews days, the new one could be a lawn game. ( Cornhole ?)

The other one not in the trailer is Skiing.

2 games from the 3 in the trailer included are now known : Snafoo and Astrosmash.

Which one from the trailer will be the other one ??  It have to be an Intellivision owned properties.

My bet is on Night Stalker ! Tommy talked a lot about this game and Moon Patrol, but Moon Patrol is not an Intellivision property !(???)

And in the latest interview, he mention how important it is to have great and memorable games included with a new system.

And everybody love and play almost every day Night Stalker at the office ! lol

Great at 4 players, music and sound incredible ...

What do you think everyone ?

Not Night Stalker. 

2 hours ago, LePionnier said:

Yes, but I am almost sure it's from Choice Provisions !

https://www.totallychoice.com/

It is from Choice Provisions (as well as Breakout as some people have guessed!).

Neither are pack-ins though.

19 minutes ago, mr_me said:

Some of the sales figures at vgchartz are bogus.

I think the serial numbers we have support at least 3.5M.  But there's lots of regions where there isn't good serial number data e.g. Brazil.  So more than 4M is more than reasonable.  If you put this information on your website than others can reference it.

That's a great point!  I'll add it next week to our Legacy section of the website.  When I do... someone should contact VGChartz and tell them what's up!

https://www.intellivisionamico.com/legacy

19 minutes ago, mr_me said:

 

I expect Canadian packaging will be bilingual but US and Mexican packaging unilingual.  When they say they are focused on the US market (among others) at launch, will that include Canada?

Correct.  US & Canada are together when I say U.S.  The reason I don't just say North America is that we're still not 100% sure if we have the capacity to go into Mexico this year.  Although we are talking to certain investors that could change that quickly with one check.  We have a TON of retail interest down there because of the price and the family aspect.

18 minutes ago, IntelliMission said:

 

Take my advice with a grain of salt, because I don't plan to have children and don't even believe in marriage (I believe we are polygamous by nature and this makes virtually impossible for me to engage in this kind of projects), but what you're doing is much more important than having children. You are in a position to help millions of people, to share positive energy, to help people use technology in a healthier way, to unite them instead of separate them. Honestly, I wish I could do something like that. I think my ideal job would be to teach children to play video games in an intelligent and social way, or to try to improve the education system replacing memorization with interactivity. So yeah, don't feel too guilty about that... Some other people are already taking good care of it! 👨‍👩‍👧👨‍👨‍👦👨‍👨‍👧👩‍👩‍👦👩‍👩‍👧👨‍👦‍👦👨‍👧‍👦👨‍👧‍👧

 

By the way, regarding the Intellivision sales: VGChartz says the Atari 2600 sold 27 millions: 23 in the USA, 4 in Europe and 1 in the rest of the world (and 0 in Japan). Can we assume a similar percentage for the Mattel Intellivision (i. e. 4 millions in total with 3 in the USA and around 1 million in the rest of the world, most of them in Europe?

Yep.  That's why I chose Intellivision right now.  Gotta do this first.   

I think Mr. Me probably knows better than I do regarding where the Intellivisions are.  He knows a lot about this.  I believe your guesstimates are correct though.  Mr. Me?  What do you know?

Just wanted to let everyone know that leading up to the big Founders Edition Pre-Sale... you can bet we'll be dropping a LOT of bombs every day of the week leading up to it!

Need to get folks super excited.

You guys are gonna have fun next week with everything we plan on teasing/showing.

Prepare yourself for seeing Night Stalker in action!!!!!  Some Skiing I think as well.  And how about showing off some of the uniqueness of the controller (remember that dice demo I've been talking about).

Some cool stuff ahead!

Hopfully you drop another earth worm jim level game announcement even if it's another 2021 game

Say something insane like a sonic by original team sonic.  That's epic news if that ever happens

2 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Just wanted to let everyone know that leading up to the big Founders Edition Pre-Sale... you can bet we'll be dropping a LOT of bombs every day of the week leading up to it!

Need to get folks super excited.

 

You guys are gonna have fun next week with everything we plan on teasing/showing.

 

Prepare yourself for seeing Night Stalker in action!!!!!  Some Skiing I think as well.  And how about showing off some of the uniqueness of the controller (remember that dice demo I've been talking about).

 

Some cool stuff ahead!

 

 

I don’t need to see surprises to get pumped for the pre order, but it will help with the wait 😁

Gonna try to sit by that email and when the Founders Edition email comes, I’ll be plopping my $100 down via PayPal in an effort to get lowest number I can 😎

I was thinking about the amico controller and  thought about spy vs spy which could be a pretty cool game for multiplayer imagine having  instead of 2 spys, you have 4 to 8.  

I had the nes version when I was a kid. I never got around to getting the xbox 360 one.

FYI Victor Lucas from some show called Electric Playground (Tommy have you ever heard of this guy?) 😉😂 is doing a poll on non-big 3 consoles. Spoiler alert on who has taken the early lead:

7 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

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! 

 

 

I 100% understand and agree with you on all the point you described. By the way it would been really cool meet you in Rome and maybe shake your hand. If you will have in mind to come to Rome for Amico past 10/10 please let us know!

For the Founders Edition: luckly i'm not (so) obsessed about having games or consoles exactly at "dayone" so I can wait till it will be delivered...

10 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Just wanted to let everyone know that leading up to the big Founders Edition Pre-Sale... you can bet we'll be dropping a LOT of bombs every day of the week leading up to it!

Need to get folks super excited.

 

You guys are gonna have fun next week with everything we plan on teasing/showing.

 

Prepare yourself for seeing Night Stalker in action!!!!!  Some Skiing I think as well.  And how about showing off some of the uniqueness of the controller (remember that dice demo I've been talking about).

 

Some cool stuff ahead!

 

 

Really appreciate Tommy !

Everything you do for us it's really exciting. (We know after E3 it will be time to concentrate on casual players ! )

I hope we will see some action from Skiing. After Snafoo, it's the second most played game by my son on Intellivision Lives !

When I showed him the 3 pictures from the new ski game, he was really excited just at looking at "players ski pass" ! lol   He love it !