Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

2 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Considering most adults like getting their balls sucked... I'm taking this as a compliment.  🤣

 

I will pay double if it has this feature! Although you may want to make it a Red Light Edition only feature.

Seriously though, I know you have talked about retailer exclusive colours but will any of these end up in Canada?

24 minutes ago, IntelliMission said:

By the way, I'm so tired of video game reviewers treating games as if they were interactive movies. And this is happening since the 80s! The story in a video game was usually an afterthought, some stupid idea that the programmers came up with to fill up the manual, and even today it should be secondary to the gameplay. But somehow we still see reviews that dedicate the first 3/4 of the text to speak about the crappy B-movie story. The graphics and voice acting come afterwards and, near the end, they say something like "oh and the puzzles are terrible and the gameplay is dull, but that's not very important, right?". 😑

 

This is going to be one of the most attractive things of the Amico. Games will be games.

This is a famous director, it's not Hitchcock. I've forgotten his name but the quotes live on.

6 hours ago, NinjaWarrior said:

 

Well if Games like Sonic Mania or even Shovel Knight comes out on it, Might be hard to control Sonic with a Disc then a D-Pad

Just saw this -

I think Tommy has stated the disc is essentially an advanced D-Pad. I'd go further from what I've seen and say it reminds me a lot of a D-Pad mixed with something a lot like an analog stick's functionality. It has 64 positions, will be pressure sensitive, and can accept you rolling your thumb around (like an analog stick) to different directions without having to literally spin it around like a disc.

A traditional D-Pad only has 8 directions, so no issues with controls there whatsoever. A platformer designed for this 64 position "disc" would have a lot more options for directional movement than a classic D-Pad. Especially going up stairs in a background layer (always a pain in Castlevania with an 8 direction D-Pad).

For an "analog stick" type experience, we have to consider how many positions a circular zone on a stick may have. You usually have two little sticks in the Analog Stick moving around that determine the analog stick's X-Y positions precisely, (I just typed stick a lot...) and there's only so many numerical digits on that X-Y plane that an analog stick can communicate. It's probably more than 64 positions, but 64 positions in a circle pad is so many distinct positions that if an Analog Stick WERE limited to that range of motion, you probably wouldn't see a big difference. 

To determine this, you would need to take an Analog Stick and slowly begin to rotate it around... Every time you hit the limit and the camera begins to move slightly would be a new position value. You could tell this really easily with something like Mario 64, as Mario will start moving more and more quickly around in a circle as you hit different coordinates. This could also be part of the games programming, too. There's a lot of variables that go into positions on an Analog Stick but I bet most games aren't programmed to recognize hundreds of pinpoint positions on a stick. 

Edit: We won't really be able to test this fully as I don't think there are going to be any fully 3D open worlds, at least at launch.

59 minutes ago, IntelliMission said:

And these systems are still receiving games 30 years after their "death" thanks to the amazing and underpaid job of homebrew developers.

THIS is what brought me to AA. While being younger I still loved my Atari and had heard some about homebrews. It is amazing what has been done over the years and if anyone hasn't checked any out need to head to the AA store and pick up a few. I can't keep up with all the ones I want!

1 hour ago, IntelliMission said:

Hey guys, do you realize how lucky we are to love consoles and computers that are clearly different to the rest in graphics, sound, controllers and cartridges? And these systems are still receiving games 30 years after their "death" thanks to the amazing and underpaid job of homebrew developers.

 

Compare this to a kid growing up in the 2000s... The Dreamcast was the last system with an active scene of homebrew developers. Starting with Windows 98 and the PS2, computers and consoles stopped having a "personality" and nobody is developing for those systems anymore. We even have 20 year old consoles, such as the Xbox, with zero homebrew games and where you can't even play some of the games after the online servers were closed.

 

I guess we can add these to the huge list of things that have been lost or are about to disappear in the last decades: physical media, offline multiplayer, going outside to pick up a game from a friend/shop, several video game genres... and looking at a few pixels and imagining some jungle or strange planet, of course.

Yeah!  I agree!!

I'm a HUGE supporter of the Home Brew community and will support them as much as possible.

I regard it as a huge honor that people care that much and have so much passion to do such things.

In a perfect world, once we are profitable, I'd love to start up some kind of Intellivision Home Brew fund for the original console.  That would be AMAZING!!  And would take the risk burden off the developer.

My understanding is that some of the budgets are anywhere from $10K - $20K.  So donating $100K to a fund could help to create 4 - 7 new Homebrews a year!  And then... we could put out all of the Homebrews as one "pack" on Amico and get some royalties to the Homebrewers as well!

Just thinking out loud.

1 hour ago, 1001lives said:

This is a famous director, it's not Hitchcock. I've forgotten his name but the quotes live on.

Jean Renoir

Just now, jaybird3rd said:

Jean Renoir

Thank you! That was killing me. I knew he was french. 

1 hour ago, Atari_Master said:

Okay because I assumed that the Missile Command for the Amico was the updated version of the game that never saw release on the original Intellivision.  But I forgot that the Missile Command coming to Amico is the updated Atari 2600 version.  Wishful thinking I guess.  I also assume that with updated/remastered classic Atari 2600 games coming, we might see Berzerk?

Atari doesn't own Berzerk... or else it would have been on the list of the 12 games I licensed from Atari (versions that will appear EXCLUSIVELY only on Amico!)

1 hour ago, IntelliMission said:

By the way, I'm so tired of video game reviewers treating games as if they were interactive movies. And this is happening since the 80s! The story in a video game was usually an afterthought, some stupid idea that the programmers came up with to fill up the manual, and even today it should be secondary to the gameplay. But somehow we still see reviews that dedicate the first 3/4 of the text to speak about the crappy B-movie story. The graphics and voice acting come afterwards and, near the end, they say something like "oh and the puzzles are terrible and the gameplay is dull, but that's not very important, right?". 😑

 

This is going to be one of the most attractive things of the Amico. Games will be games.

PREACH MY BROTHER!!!

I feel the same way!

We will be including some story content... but it will be a small paragraph the you read before the level or game starts.  Not a 20 minute cinematic you can't click through!  

1 hour ago, jcalder8 said:

I will pay double if it has this feature! Although you may want to make it a Red Light Edition only feature.

 

Seriously though, I know you have talked about retailer exclusive colours but will any of these end up in Canada?

I'll call it the "Baller's Edition".

We're still in talks with Canadian retailers about exclusives, etc.  Typically this kind of stuff doesn't get ironed out for the holiday selling season til around the end of March.

Will keep you posted for sure!

45 minutes ago, MrBeefy said:

THIS is what brought me to AA. While being younger I still loved my Atari and had heard some about homebrews. It is amazing what has been done over the years and if anyone hasn't checked any out need to head to the AA store and pick up a few. I can't keep up with all the ones I want!

Yeah!  I agree!  And what really blows me away is the quality they are getting out of the machines!!  Was blown away by the Castlevania Intellivision project screen shots.  Getting to look like NES style at this point.  Pretty darn cool!

And yeah... I've spent hundreds on these things... and gladfully so to held support the community.

Someone should do an Earthworm Jim remake for the original Intellivision.  I'll supply the MIDI files!  

12 minutes ago, jaybird3rd said:

Jean Renoir

Wow!  You're good!

 

1 hour ago, 1001lives said:

Just saw this -

 

I think Tommy has stated the disc is essentially an advanced D-Pad. I'd go further from what I've seen and say it reminds me a lot of a D-Pad mixed with something a lot like an analog stick's functionality. It has 64 positions, will be pressure sensitive, and can accept you rolling your thumb around (like an analog stick) to different directions without having to literally spin it around like a disc.

 

A traditional D-Pad only has 8 directions, so no issues with controls there whatsoever. A platformer designed for this 64 position "disc" would have a lot more options for directional movement than a classic D-Pad. Especially going up stairs in a background layer (always a pain in Castlevania with an 8 direction D-Pad).

 

For an "analog stick" type experience, we have to consider how many positions a circular zone on a stick may have. You usually have two little sticks in the Analog Stick moving around that determine the analog stick's X-Y positions precisely, (I just typed stick a lot...) and there's only so many numerical digits on that X-Y plane that an analog stick can communicate. It's probably more than 64 positions, but 64 positions in a circle pad is so many distinct positions that if an Analog Stick WERE limited to that range of motion, you probably wouldn't see a big difference. 

 

To determine this, you would need to take an Analog Stick and slowly begin to rotate it around... Every time you hit the limit and the camera begins to move slightly would be a new position value. You could tell this really easily with something like Mario 64, as Mario will start moving more and more quickly around in a circle as you hit different coordinates. This could also be part of the games programming, too. There's a lot of variables that go into positions on an Analog Stick but I bet most games aren't programmed to recognize hundreds of pinpoint positions on a stick. 

 

Edit: We won't really be able to test this fully as I don't think there are going to be any fully 3D open worlds, at least at launch.

Agreed!  I've got 8 pages of script on this disc vs. d-pad vs. analog thumbstick alone - and came up with several of the same points you did.

People don't realize each has positives, AND negatives.

Traditional cross-pad:

• 8 directions
• difficult for driving games
• difficult for range-of-motion games (sports games like running in free space on a football field, fielding a baseball, skating in hockey)
• does not gauge speed or intention well - you only have 8 inputs.. perhaps 9 if pressing true center is a dedicated 9th input
• great for precision jumps in platformers, inching forward a dedicated length
• great for precision scoping in a viewfinder (a touch to the left, a tap up or down for pixel-perfect alignment)
• difficult to quickly alternate opposite directions (left/right back and forth action you see in paddle games)

Analog sticks

• indetermined number of directions
• great for free range-of-motion games/moving about in a 3D space
• versatile in that you can glide in any direction and press in any direction for a secondary input/instruction
• difficult in that they're not precise.  Scoping in a viewfinder usually needs a crosspad for precision.  Pressing left is just as easily pressed left and three degrees up.  A lot of course correction.
• players can enact a circular motion, but no controller guidance, too easy to slip out of position or overshoot
• do casual players use their thumb on top to guide them, or pinch them with two fingers?  We've all seen the "Can you believe these dum gurls?!?" meme with a trio of teenage girls holding N64 analog sticks with their index finger and thumb.  We simply don't encounter the thumbstick outside of a video game controller, and the difference in hold considerably affects gameplay and control
• far too many inputs and doesn't map well to simple games that don't have a 3D or 360 range of motion options.  How do you map user intent?

The disc

• Incorporates 64 directional inputs, but can be programmed/mapped to as few as 1 or none. 
• Can perfectly emulate a traditional d-pad's mapping
• Natural fit for driving games, sports games involving range-of-motion, games involving balance or shifting from side to side (jousting, skiing, boxing) because the rotational disc can read direction and speed of rotation to further deduce player intent
• pressing the disc in a direction can indicate intent.  Pressing harder can activate adjacent sectors indicating further intent (ie, pressing harder to run faster).  Rolling a thumb left or right while pressed could add spin or a dodge (think boxing, a football player spinning away from a tackle while running in a direction).  A hard spin can indicate another action altogether using the same thumb - may a duck-and-dodge evasive move.  This mandates the player has to depress the d-pad, but momentum of the run can account for that, again, player intent can still be induced. 
• may be a problem if the spinning disc is too flimsy and inadvertently rotated when player intent is just to press, or easily pressed d-pad under the disc when player intent is to rotate the disc.  Game designers will need to be careful about how much directional input they build and how they account for user intent.
• less precision jumps in platformers if the player's thumb isn't placed in the intended zone (pressing to the right if placed near the top of the disc doesn't register the same as pressing right when your thumb is in the center of the basin).  I think Amico's basin design for its disc mitigate this, but we'll need to see.
• Fantastic for any sort of back-and-forth game (hockey, Breakout, Kaboom!, Crackpots
• Incorporates multiple directional actions on one control input.  You don't need to "learn" to control movement with two fingers/two hands.  One could do it all
• Could be incorporated into games that have two directional functions, (moving in one direction and shooting in another, or over a dedicated arc) like Ikari Warriors, Smash TV, Robotron 2084, Asteroids.

There's plenty more, but I think traditional video game players so committed and focused on modern controller design haven't given so much as an afterthought to how the disc could work as a direction in controller design.  They have so many presumptions about the crosspad or analog stick as the epitome of amazing controller design, when in truth, they solved problems for games of their day and of a type - they aren't a panacea for all games.  There's a reason we see track balls and steering wheels, the computer mouse, the touchpad, and multiple other innovations in controllers.  The disc is a form factor that hasn't been much explored in 40 years.  It's due some innovation.  And I think it can perform and exceed expectations if put in the right hands. 

21 minutes ago, RetroAdvisoryBoard said:

There's plenty more, but I think traditional video game players so committed and focused on modern controller design haven't given so much as an afterthought to how the disc could work as a direction in controller design.  They have so many presumptions about the crosspad or analog stick as the epitome of amazing controller design, when in truth, they solved problems for games of their day and of a type - they aren't a panacea for all games.  There's a reason we see track balls and steering wheels, the computer mouse, the touchpad, and multiple other innovations in controllers.  The disc is a form factor that hasn't been much explored in 40 years.  It's due some innovation.  And I think it can perform and exceed expectations if put in the right hands. 

Absolutely fantastic write up and I would agree with all of your points (omitted them to save space lol). 

That drives another Amico criticism that also needs to be squashed, a lot of misunderstanding or misinterpretation of what the circle pad is vs what it isn't. Everyone is looking at it saying "I can't see myself playing blank and blank on that." Chances are like Tommy says, you won't be playing "blank and blank" on the Amico, and the games you will be playing are designed/tailored to or work even better WITH this layout as opposed to another you're thinking about. 

Usually people seem to think the analog stick is the be all end all of controller design or a panacea as it were. This really isn't the case, and especially not for older games. I would say the mouse and keyboard are pretty close to perfect. Gyro can imitate a mouse's ability to aim pretty decently, and when it comes to navigating a game the mouse if combined with a traditional D-Pad (WASD) or analog stick together are pretty damn great. 

Ultimately I just want to see more innovation and more ideas given their time to shine, so things can evolve. Because where we are now isn't perfect nor is it the end of all design. But if no one attempts to make anything new, we're just going to have 12 buttons and two analog sticks for the foreseeable future. And that seems like a bad way to go into the future of the 2020s to me.

Right now we're seeing an awfulll lot of "samey" games coming out... A ton of them all focus on a central character, with camera around him/her, fighting bad guys, in a story based campaign. They're all looking very very similar and all built very strictly around what two analog sticks can do.

26 minutes ago, RetroAdvisoryBoard said:

There's plenty more, but I think traditional video game players so committed and focused on modern controller design haven't given so much as an afterthought to how the disc could work as a direction in controller design.  They have so many presumptions about the crosspad or analog stick as the epitome of amazing controller design, when in truth, they solved problems for games of their day and of a type - they aren't a panacea for all games.  There's a reason we see track balls and steering wheels, the computer mouse, the touchpad, and multiple other innovations in controllers.  The disc is a form factor that hasn't been much explored in 40 years.  It's due some innovation.  And I think it can perform and exceed expectations if put in the right hands. 

Totally! 
 

We're super excited about getting our controller into peoples' hands.  The simplicity of the disc design (and how powerful it is as a directional) is way under appreciated by the folks who have never used it.

Non-gamers and casuals MUCH prefer the disc over analog sticks, joysticks and traditional d-pads.  Fact... backed up by data and research. 

11 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Totally! 
 

We're super excited about getting our controller into peoples' hands.  The simplicity of the disc design (and how powerful it is as a directional) is way under appreciated by the folks who have never used it.

Non-gamers and casuals MUCH prefer the disc over analog sticks, joysticks and traditional d-pads.  Fact... backed up by data and research. 

 

 

Yeh can't wait to have a Amico controller so I can learn to hold it the correct direction for this old Atari stick user. 

TJ

8 hours ago, NinjaWarrior said:

 

Well if Games like Sonic Mania or even Shovel Knight comes out on it, Might be hard to control Sonic with a Disc then a D-Pad

And what's this "shovel-ware" you speak of?  I thought that was reserved for the Atari VCS?! 😄

48 minutes ago, RetroAdvisoryBoard said:

Agreed!  I've got 8 pages of script on this disc vs. d-pad vs. analog thumbstick alone - and came up with several of the same points you did.

 

People don't realize each has positives, AND negatives.

 

Traditional cross-pad:

• 8 directions
• difficult for driving games
• difficult for range-of-motion games (sports games like running in free space on a football field, fielding a baseball, skating in hockey)
• does not gauge speed or intention well - you only have 8 inputs.. perhaps 9 if pressing true center is a dedicated 9th input
• great for precision jumps in platformers, inching forward a dedicated length
• great for precision scoping in a viewfinder (a touch to the left, a tap up or down for pixel-perfect alignment)
• difficult to quickly alternate opposite directions (left/right back and forth action you see in paddle games)

Analog sticks

• indetermined number of directions
• great for free range-of-motion games/moving about in a 3D space
• versatile in that you can glide in any direction and press in any direction for a secondary input/instruction
• difficult in that they're not precise.  Scoping in a viewfinder usually needs a crosspad for precision.  Pressing left is just as easily pressed left and three degrees up.  A lot of course correction.
• players can enact a circular motion, but no controller guidance, too easy to slip out of position or overshoot
• do casual players use their thumb on top to guide them, or pinch them with two fingers?  We've all seen the "Can you believe these dum gurls?!?" meme with a trio of teenage girls holding N64 analog sticks with their index finger and thumb.  We simply don't encounter the thumbstick outside of a video game controller, and the difference in hold considerably affects gameplay and control
• far too many inputs and doesn't map well to simple games that don't have a 3D or 360 range of motion options.  How do you map user intent?

The disc

• Incorporates 64 directional inputs, but can be programmed/mapped to as few as 1 or none. 
• Can perfectly emulate a traditional d-pad's mapping
• Natural fit for driving games, sports games involving range-of-motion, games involving balance or shifting from side to side (jousting, skiing, boxing) because the rotational disc can read direction and speed of rotation to further deduce player intent
• pressing the disc in a direction can indicate intent.  Pressing harder can activate adjacent sectors indicating further intent (ie, pressing harder to run faster).  Rolling a thumb left or right while pressed could add spin or a dodge (think boxing, a football player spinning away from a tackle while running in a direction).  A hard spin can indicate another action altogether using the same thumb - may a duck-and-dodge evasive move.  This mandates the player has to depress the d-pad, but momentum of the run can account for that, again, player intent can still be induced. 
• may be a problem if the spinning disc is too flimsy and inadvertently rotated when player intent is just to press, or easily pressed d-pad under the disc when player intent is to rotate the disc.  Game designers will need to be careful about how much directional input they build and how they account for user intent.
• less precision jumps in platformers if the player's thumb isn't placed in the intended zone (pressing to the right if placed near the top of the disc doesn't register the same as pressing right when your thumb is in the center of the basin).  I think Amico's basin design for its disc mitigate this, but we'll need to see.
• Fantastic for any sort of back-and-forth game (hockey, Breakout, Kaboom!, Crackpots
• Incorporates multiple directional actions on one control input.  You don't need to "learn" to control movement with two fingers/two hands.  One could do it all
• Could be incorporated into games that have two directional functions, (moving in one direction and shooting in another, or over a dedicated arc) like Ikari Warriors, Smash TV, Robotron 2084, Asteroids.

 

There's plenty more, but I think traditional video game players so committed and focused on modern controller design haven't given so much as an afterthought to how the disc could work as a direction in controller design.  They have so many presumptions about the crosspad or analog stick as the epitome of amazing controller design, when in truth, they solved problems for games of their day and of a type - they aren't a panacea for all games.  There's a reason we see track balls and steering wheels, the computer mouse, the touchpad, and multiple other innovations in controllers.  The disc is a form factor that hasn't been much explored in 40 years.  It's due some innovation.  And I think it can perform and exceed expectations if put in the right hands. 

Good points.  Nice research!  The next time a nintendo fanboy complains about "the disc" someone needs to **tch-slap them with this!  If I had a dime for every time someone complained about the disc, I would have enough to buy a couple Amicos.  I believe the disc helped pave the way for the modern game controller dpad, and a lot of the same people don't complain when using them...

I bought the founder edition and am very excited for the Amico.  What I am most excited by, beyond just the cool remakes etc,  is that this platform is perfect for animation games. To me nothing is more stylish and fun to play than hand drawn art.  Cupheads as a recent PC example, while difficult it was also so fun and addictive because it really felt like playing a cartoon.  I have no doubt Earthworm Jim on the Amico will take animation gaming to a whole new level.  Hell, these guys made great animated games 30s years ago with that limited tech.  I can't wait to see whats in store for us.  One thing I would love to see explored is possibly some older Hanna Barbera licenses.  Most are just rotting away and forgotten, but not by us, the Intellivision crowd, I mean how fun would a " Stop the Pigeon" game be? or Jetsons or Flintstone or Goober and the Ghostchasers adventure game done right.  Anyway, just my two cents, love what the guys are doing, I get it, and as they have mentioned there is some magic in the air, this is the right product at the right time by the right people.

On 2/1/2020 at 6:24 PM, ASalvaro said:

yup and also as i mentioned a couple months ago an Amico catalog like they used to have with the Intellivision with screenshots of upcoming games would be awesome..i mean some screenshots of games even if they never came out STILL stick in my head 35 years later like this one for the Colecovision 

 

That exact image has stuck with me over the years also.

2 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Yeah!  I agree!!

I'm a HUGE supporter of the Home Brew community and will support them as much as possible.

I regard it as a huge honor that people care that much and have so much passion to do such things.

In a perfect world, once we are profitable, I'd love to start up some kind of Intellivision Home Brew fund for the original console.  That would be AMAZING!!  And would take the risk burden off the developer.

My understanding is that some of the budgets are anywhere from $10K - $20K.  So donating $100K to a fund could help to create 4 - 7 new Homebrews a year!  And then... we could put out all of the Homebrews as one "pack" on Amico and get some royalties to the Homebrewers as well!

Just thinking out loud.

 

 

 

That would encourage more original homebrew vs ports so that could be cool

 Especially if added features for the amico like expanded multiplayer 

And if popular  enough maybe get the developer to work on a from the ground up version or sequel on the amico... could even be amico user voted .

2 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Yeah!  I agree!  And what really blows me away is the quality they are getting out of the machines!!  Was blown away by the Castlevania Intellivision project screen shots.  Getting to look like NES style at this point.  Pretty darn cool!

 

And yeah... I've spent hundreds on these things... and gladfully so to held support the community.

 

Someone should do an Earthworm Jim remake for the original Intellivision.  I'll supply the MIDI files!  

 

 

Jim could open the game being shot out of a b-17 bomber

16 hours ago, jaybird3rd said:

Absolutely!  I probably shouldn't mention it, but I also get an extra bonus for every doubting heretic that I banish from the threads.

Is that the Karma Engine at work? 🤪

2 hours ago, 1001lives said:

Absolutely fantastic write up and I would agree with all of your points (omitted them to save space lol). 

 

That drives another Amico criticism that also needs to be squashed, a lot of misunderstanding or misinterpretation of what the circle pad is vs what it isn't. Everyone is looking at it saying "I can't see myself playing blank and blank on that." Chances are like Tommy says, you won't be playing "blank and blank" on the Amico, and the games you will be playing are designed/tailored to or work even better WITH this layout as opposed to another you're thinking about. 

 

Usually people seem to think the analog stick is the be all end all of controller design or a panacea as it were. This really isn't the case, and especially not for older games. I would say the mouse and keyboard are pretty close to perfect. Gyro can imitate a mouse's ability to aim pretty decently, and when it comes to navigating a game the mouse if combined with a traditional D-Pad (WASD) or analog stick together are pretty damn great. 

 

Ultimately I just want to see more innovation and more ideas given their time to shine, so things can evolve. Because where we are now isn't perfect nor is it the end of all design. But if no one attempts to make anything new, we're just going to have 12 buttons and two analog sticks for the foreseeable future. And that seems like a bad way to go into the future of the 2020s to me.

 

Right now we're seeing an awfulll lot of "samey" games coming out... A ton of them all focus on a central character, with camera around him/her, fighting bad guys, in a story based campaign. They're all looking very very similar and all built very strictly around what two analog sticks can do.

I agree mostly. I don't think there's anything wrong with analog sticks, and I enjoy using them with many older emulated games, often over the original controllers, even though the controllers do add some nice nostalgia value. But I like that Amico is doing something different, and the key is as you said, the games made for this system will be designed to work with the disc. The disc may very well not work at all well for more common games on Xbox and Playstation, like first person shooters, but that's not the kind of games that will be on this system.

Tommy, to echo the comments of others, if there was a way to put out a game catalog with screen shots like Intellivision did back in the day, not only would that be a great source of advertisement, but would speak to those of us who grew up reading these things over and over, while we looked forward to certain games coming out.  That would really spark up some nostalgia in the process! 😎

Do you think something like this is possible, even if it's done electronically as a PDF sent to those on the email list?