Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

Hey Tommy,

What about doing an Amico keychain for the shop?

4 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Hi Everyone!

 

I just decided that to celebrate the one year anniversary of when this thread started (Feb. 23rd) I'm going to make a special Atari Age Forum discount for the Intellivision shop!  So if you are thinking of buying anything at the store... please hold off until Feb. 23rd!  I'll post a 25% discount for everyone as a thank-you gift for hanging out here and discussing Amico with me.

Thanks!

 

Tasty. I get paid on the 25th, so I can buy more stuff and everyone at work will ask me about the color-changing mug when I make my tea, Earl Grey, hot like I do every day.

8 minutes ago, MarioMan88 said:

Haha, nah about to turn 47 this week..feel 80 sometimes as the 6 day work week grinds on ya lol. Tried getting MarioMan87 but was taken, as fall of ‘87 was the year my buddies and I discovered a little system called the NES!

In 1987 I got an Intellivision II.  Thankfully INTV Corp was still releasing games which were better than some of the original Intellivision games.  They were finally releasing sports games with a AI so you could play against a computer opponent.  There were some really good arcade games too.  Commando, Hover Force, and Thunder Castle come to mind.  If it wasn't for that time in my life, I wouldn't be here keeping tabs on the Amico.  I think Intellivision was the main reason why I never jumped on the Nintendo bandwagon, and I'm OK with that.

Quote

One of their biggest issues was the person in charge wasn't a game maker, didn't really understand the gaming market and I don't think understood the importance of GAMES FIRST.

Oddly enough... the same problem that we see Google Stadia having as well.  All the money went into the tech... to play Destiny 2 three years after it's launch?  Now they are starting to buy studios and announcing exclusives... but is it too late?  How long is it going to take for a new studio to come out with a great experience that folks will expect to see on Stadia?  A few years?  Tens of millions of dollars?

And lets not forget our friends at Atari.  WHERE ARE THE GAMES?!??!!

To us... the GAMES are the most important thing... not the tech (although we have something unique, cool and different from the rest).  Games should be at the top of anyone's list who is designing and launching a new console.  Yet the biggest company on the planet with all the resources in the world couldn't pull it off and the folks at Atari aren't going to pull it off either. 

If you can't get the most important thing right...  I don't think the rest of it is going to go well either.

Totally agree, nothing else matters if you dont have the games. I cant wait til you guys show off things like the Earthworm Jim, I think the whole playing a cartoon thing is really gonna make people stop and take notice.  2D is so under utilized right now.  People LOVE animation and cartoons but where are the games?  We can make cartoons come to life now and control them but very few are doing this.  Huge opportunity for the Amico.  Again games like Cuphead made a boatload of money , won praise and awards not for its gameplay ( which was fine) it was HUGE success because of its art. Art that can come alive now.  Cant wait to see what you have in store for us.

Wait til more mainstream articles like THIS start hitting the internet. 

https://gritdaily.com/intellivision-four-decades-later/

5 minutes ago, atarifan88 said:

In 1987 I got an Intellivision II.  Thankfully INTV Corp was still releasing games which were better than some of the original Intellivision games.  They were finally releasing sports games with a AI so you could play against a computer opponent.  There were some really good arcade games too.  Commando, Hover Force, and Thunder Castle come to mind.  If it wasn't for that time in my life, I wouldn't be here keeping tabs on the Amico.  I think Intellivision was the main reason why I never jumped on the Nintendo bandwagon, and I'm OK with that.

I got an Intellivision II in the mid 90s.

The buttons are not so great on that one. I was hoping it was just due to the age of the controllers but I tried a relatively unused one recently and the buttons felt the same. Hopefully Tommy uses it as an example of how not to make controllers. 

The Intellivison III looked cool, too bad it never came to pass. 

2 minutes ago, atarifan88 said:

In 1987 I got an Intellivision II.  Thankfully INTV Corp was still releasing games which were better than some of the original Intellivision games.  They were finally releasing sports games with a AI so you could play against a computer opponent.  There were some really good arcade games too.  Commando, Hover Force, and Thunder Castle come to mind.  If it wasn't for that time in my life, I wouldn't be here keeping tabs on the Amico.  I think Intellivision was the main reason why I never jumped on the Nintendo bandwagon, and I'm OK with that.

Yea my brother was die hard gamer, so he had all systems but never was a Nintendo man. By that time he had the C64 and they had massive 4th and inches leagues going and kept hand stats! Guess where I was younger I fell for the NES and Mario and Mike Tyson Punch Out.

I went from Pong to Intellivision to Atari 800 to Apple 2C to pretty much everything since.  I have a nice life as a business software dev and Intellivision had a big part of getting me to love Tech.

Speaking of Intellivision III, Tommy, did you know about this?! Someone beat you to the punch in Christmas of 2012 apparently! 

🤡 I love these fake console videos

17 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Wait til more mainstream articles like THIS start hitting the internet. 

 

https://gritdaily.com/intellivision-four-decades-later/

 

 

I read the article.  It was good.  Thanks for sharing Tommy.  😀

29 minutes ago, Atari_Master said:

I'm glad the Sonic movie is doing well.  A Night Stalker movie would be awesome.  

+1 on the Sonic movie being good - we need more successful game to screen conversions! Actually the movie seemed to be made with a lot of love for Sonic fans so this kinda plays into my conspiracy theory that the original Sonic design came from the studio and not the producer/director. They probably put the trailer out to test the waters and the backlash let the people working on the film finish it they way they wanted. I mean it had to cost millions to redo but the studio was fine to write a check without firing anybody for the 'failure' which tells me it was the studio's bright idea to 'humanize' Sonic. Hopefully the behind the scenes story will come out some day.

Anyway a Night Stalker film would be great, but super creepy. That new spider gets me and I don't even have arachnophobia. Mike Mika has mentioned on Twitter there is a story thread woven into the game - I am sure it would make a great Dystopian/Sci-Fi film.

35 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Wait til more mainstream articles like THIS start hitting the internet. 

 

https://gritdaily.com/intellivision-four-decades-later/

 

 

I keep forgetting about Breakout, and this article reminds me it exists for Amico. That, along with R-Type, Earthworm Jim, and no DLC, are my system sellers. My middle school's computers (all Macs) had a clone called MacBrickout. Once our computer class finished early, and it literally always did, guess what EVERYONE played for the last 20 minutes. I'll sit on my guitar amp chair and play Breakout on the Amico for hours, most likely.

I don't know why I keep forgetting about Amico Breakout, but I do. Such a simple game, but that's all it needs to be. Launch title, right?

Edit: yep, launch title. Now I know what I'm doing on whatever day the Founders Edition gets to me.

That leads to another question, actually. Will the online store already be up when Founders Edition ships? I remember when the Vita launched and I couldn't download my digital PSP games on the Vita since the PSN store for Vita did not exist yet and I also couldn't transfer stuff from my PS3. That REALLY sucked since I had a few digital-only PSP titles.

2 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

But the Beta stage is sometimes the most important.  Can make or break a game... so really focusing on making everything as playable and fun as possible.

 

If only you had another 2600 beta testers to assist you...   😁

56 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Hi Everyone!

 

I just decided that to celebrate the one year anniversary of when this thread started (Feb. 23rd) I'm going to make a special Atari Age Forum discount for the Intellivision shop!  So if you are thinking of buying anything at the store... please hold off until Feb. 23rd!  I'll post a 25% discount for everyone as a thank-you gift for hanging out here and discussing Amico with me.

Thanks!

 

Better get those Amico pre-orders up fast then 😎

1 hour ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Wait til more mainstream articles like THIS start hitting the internet. 

 

https://gritdaily.com/intellivision-four-decades-later/

 

 

Ok.  Forget being excited for Night Stalker.  Now I'm pumped for being able to do my taxes on Amico... after I finish up my workout using Jillian Michaels Family Workout (available only on Intellivision).  Unless of course they go with Billy Blanks Amico Tae Bo.  It's not as crazy as it sounds.  If the non-gamers bought another game for their Wii, it was Wii Fit.

1 hour ago, 1001lives said:

Consider one of those black running man hoodies sold 😎

Exactly what I was thinking!

It will go great with my shirt,hat or beanie that I already have. 👍

26 minutes ago, vongruetz said:

Ok.  Forget being excited for Night Stalker.  Now I'm pumped for being able to do my taxes on Amico... after I finish up my workout using Jillian Michaels Family Workout (available only on Intellivision).  Unless of course they go with Billy Blanks Amico Tae Bo.  It's not as crazy as it sounds.  If the non-gamers bought another game for their Wii, it was Wii Fit.

LOL I watched that just now also, I had never seen it.

If you want more interesting tidbits about the history of Intellivison (and more related humor) I stumbled across this article a couple nights ago:

http://thedoteaters.com/?bitstory=console/intellivision

It was a great read.

22 hours ago, GrudgeQ said:

Brett Weiss mentioned over on Facebook that his Amico videos get a lot of views for his subscriber size every time he posts one. I decided to see if other smaller YouTubers are feeling the "Amico Effect" and the answer is yes!

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting stats GrudgeQ.

Yeh my channel started with adding Amico coverage December 27th 2019 when I did my 1st one.  That video is up to 957 views now so did nicely.  All the rest going nicely and should continue that trend.

My YT channel is mostly folks for Sinclair platform is my guess with some from some of the other platforms I create videos for like Atari, Odyssey 2, etc... and now Amico too.

I have made 6 Amico related videos since Dec 27th... and would think I have a few Intellivision fans now as members on my channel which is nice.

Funny note... most my videos for Sinclair and other platforms are steady at 100% like to dislike... once in a while down in the 90 % arena... but always very positive. Funny most all the Amico are in the upper 80s or lower 90s.. so there seems to be a couple always marking dislike... which I find funny.  There are some that just hate on most anything and just dislike because... I am sure some may not like the actual video but when the same Amico are always a couple dislikes while others non Amico are 100% most the time... kind of tells me there are a few haters out there.  Oh well... such is life.

I do these for fun anyway and hoping what I do brings extra eyes on what Intellivision is up to and maybe a few more will buy one some day.

TJ 

7 minutes ago, supahwally said:

LOL I watched that just now also, I had never seen it.

 

If you want more interesting tidbits about the history of Intellivison (and more related humor) I stumbled across this article a couple nights ago:

 

http://thedoteaters.com/?bitstory=console/intellivision

 

It was a great read.

This is a fantastic read.

It shows off Mattel's Autorace a little, which is also fascinating. Handheld games are really interesting.

Here's what sort of started it all - although it's not a fully "electronic" game like Autorace, it's still one of the first "handheld" or portable games that uses electronics/batteries.

https://www.handheldmuseum.com/Misc/CragstanPeriscope.htm

I doubt there's any left in good condition out there.

4 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Not as of yet... but would love to see it on there someday.

 

 

or Mr Do! 

we were talking about Amico mascots a little earlier in the thread and i was thinking how about Duncan the penguin from Thin Ice?

he's cute and family friendly and doesn't have the baggage that the shifty eyed dealer would bring 

25 minutes ago, AtariSociety said:

Funny note... most my videos for Sinclair and other platforms are steady at 100% like to dislike... once in a while down in the 90 % arena... but always very positive. Funny most all the Amico are in the upper 80s or lower 90s.. so there seems to be a couple always marking dislike... which I find funny.  There are some that just hate on most anything and just dislike because... I am sure some may not like the actual video but when the same Amico are always a couple dislikes while others non Amico are 100% most the time... kind of tells me there are a few haters out there.  Oh well... such is life.

Yes there are a dedicated few haters who down vote everything Amico related. They used to post comments a lot but after the big surge in interest & the successful Founders pre-order they usually prefer to silently down vote since each hater response is met with 3 to 5 pro comments. Kind of funny really, I just imagine a cartoon character trying to race ahead and stop a rolling snowball that just keeps gathering size but each time they just get run over in more dramatic ways. They will all evaporate into thin air when the Amico launches and pretend it never happened. If you do manage to pin one down they will defending themselves with any mildly positive statements they ever made about it to claim they didn't say it would 100% fail (my bet for P&I) or claim that the people who buy it are just stupid & don't know what to buy (probably also P&I after making the first statement) - can't wait to see how each troll will try to weasel out of it. Start you office pools now...

2 hours ago, ASalvaro said:

we were talking about Amico mascots a little earlier in the thread and i was thinking how about Duncan the penguin from Thin Ice?

he's cute and family friendly and doesn't have the baggage that the shifty eyed dealer would bring 

I feel the Running Man has been and will always be Intellivision.  The Running Man of 2020 should not only run on screen but could also turn his head, look at you thru the screen and say something life changing as in "B17 BOMBER!"

I'll also upvote for a MR.DO! on Amico although I believe Tommy may have covered this already.

Just now, GrudgeQ said:

Yes there are a dedicated few haters who down vote everything Amico related. They used to post comments a lot but after the big surge in interest & the successful Founders pre-order they usually prefer to silently down vote since each hater response is met with 3 to 5 pro comments. Kind of funny really, I just imagine a cartoon character trying to race ahead and stop a rolling snowball that just keeps gathering size but each time they just get run over in more dramatic ways. They will all evaporate into thin air when the Amico launches and pretend it never happened. If you do manage to pin one down they will defending themselves with any mildly positive statements they ever made about it to claim they didn't say it would 100% fail (my bet for P&I) or claim that the people who buy it are just stupid & don't know what to buy (probably also P&I after making the first statement) - can't wait to see how each troll will try to weasel out of it. Start you office pools now...

This is a good time to re-post this , Love over Hate!! Win's Every Time!!!!    Let's spread the Love to all our Amico's throughout the world. So Let it be Written, So Let it be Done!!! 

27 minutes ago, YerOut said:

I feel the Running Man has been and will always be Intellivision.  The Running Man of 2020 should not only run on screen but could also turn his head, look at you thru the screen and say something life changing as in "B17 BOMBER!"

I'll also upvote for a MR.DO! on Amico although I believe Tommy may have covered this already.

 

i don't know the running man doesn't have much of a personality and do we know why he's running all the time? what is he running from?