Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

Maybe this was brought up 100 pages back, but the mention of "crew" made me think about how the 2-8 player aspect and Amico/phone controllers would be great for various paddle/rowing/rafting or swimming/climbing-type games. It would probably take too many controllers, but I can see how a climbing game could be very co-op in terms of helping get each other over impediments to scaling cliff-walls, etc.. Also, obstacle courses like helping each other over walls or or pulling  someone over something, like in those Survivor challenges, if anyone is familiar.

On 2/23/2020 at 2:50 PM, Blarneo said:

I'm sorry. I know that 7800 picking are pretty slim, but Scrapyard Dog sucked. C'mon! 

 

Do we HAVE to constantly suggest pre-1984 games, no matter what? I'm just sayin'! I mean Vanguard? Really? It's a boring dry run for much more enjoyable Gradius. What's next... Phoenix or Terra Cresta instead of Gaplus (or Galaga 3)or Galaga 88?

This is a back-burner concern, but one none-the-less.

We're all comfortable, familiar with early 80s/late 70s games and the game play mechanics lent themselves to shorter play, high score, arcade experiences.  They fit nicely into the "retro reimagined" bucket.  They're simple to grasp, easy to expand and many ran out of steam getting updates in the 90s, so are due for a real autopsy and complete reboot with all the knowledge and concepts learned since.  They're inherently family friendly (save a couple Mystique games which market research suggests poll lower with moms, dunno why...)

My hopes are Intellivision is gleaming a lot of new ideas from the developers its working with and those new IPs are really interesting, new concepts that feel as fresh as a new system needs to be.  Because a library of Intellivision, Imagic and Atari classics is going to do all right, but they're not going to want to paint themselves as a two trick pony - woodgrain-era console gaming reimaginings and modern sports & casual, edutainment content.  New indie titles and IPs will help, but there's a middle of 1984-2020 content that does very much fit the mantra of easy-to-comprehend, and attracts the attention of younger families who were more exposed to these games.  R-Type, Earthworm Jim, and Toe Jam and Earl fit that bill for those in their mid-to-late thirties.  I'd love to see ten more.

I think between the relationships with Mattel, Nickelodeon, Disney, Milton-Bradley, Hasbro(?), they'll do just fine with younger-aimed licenses that kids will go for.  VTech and Leapfrog have held that space for some time now, and mobile apps on Amazon, Apple and Google/Android have taken over a lot of that market, but I think Intellivision knows what its priority is in terms of kid-friendly content that doesn't JUST appeal to under 7 crowd (parents can play with their kids and not be bored out of their minds..)  Lots of Nickelodeon properties an

But.. the 40+ crowd has a lot of old favorites.  Children will certainly have a lot of current brands.  The older generation will have classic games, cards, dice, family game night entertainment.  And parents/grandparents should be able to engage their children in games largely intended to combine audiences.  No doubt cross-appeal, but we're a little scarce on properties in mind for the 16-40 year old crowd.  What efforts are being made to secure these properties?  What would these properties be?  I know most of gaming is already hyper-focused on this group, but, with its style of engrossing, epic games, adult themes, or niche appeal.  Not really casual or easy-to-pick-up games.  Wondering what Intellivision would consider tailored for this group beyond sports and casual recreational titles?

I trust there'll be several surprises in a few months, just thinking aloud. 

Those thirty-somethings with young families will like the childrens titles.  Maybe it's better they focus their efforts, they don't have unlimited budgets.  Who knows but we shall see.

5 minutes ago, RetroAdvisoryBoard said:

  I know most of gaming is already hyper-focused on this group, but, with its style of engrossing, epic games, adult themes, or niche appeal.  Not really casual or easy-to-pick-up games.  Wondering what Intellivision would consider tailored for this group beyond sports and casual recreational titles?

These hardcore arent the demographic they are after. Tommy has said many times, they will let xbox and sony fight over the hundred million hard core gamers, Intellivision is interested in the BILLIONS of causal gamers. Business 101 , you find your market demographic, you tailor your product for that demographic and you dont make any apologies for doing so.  Gamers under 30 without a family isnt the market.

20 minutes ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

These hardcore arent the demographic they are after. Tommy has said many times, they will let xbox and sony fight over the hundred million hard core gamers, Intellivision is interested in the BILLIONS of causal gamers. Business 101 , you find your market demographic, you tailor your product for that demographic and you dont make any apologies for doing so.  Gamers under 30 without a family isnt the market.

There are a lot of Hardcore gamers that are over 30 as well. But it's the one's full of hate and constant negativity to anything that they consider outside the specs of the hardware and their own  (hundred million) demographic. That keep bashing IE and what market they are targeting.  10/20/20 cant come soon enough when all that negativity and hate blows up in their faces.   

13 minutes ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

These hardcore arent the demographic they are after. Tommy has said many times, they will let xbox and sony fight over the hundred million hard core gamers, Intellivision is interested in the BILLIONS of causal gamers. Business 101 , you find your market demographic, you tailor your product for that demographic and you dont make any apologies for doing so.  Gamers under 30 without a family isnt the market.

I get that.   

Forget hardcore.  We can entirely dismiss any appeal to them whatsoever, that's not the scope. 

My question is focused on families with kids under 10.  That's an average range of parent whose age might generally fall between 25-40, probably the largest component being 28-35.  

The pre-1984 games aren't going to grab that audience on their own, since they were born too late to really spend the same hours 40-60 year olds did.  They'll be aware of several, but won't have the affinity like the 40, 45+ crowd will.  I'm curious what properties Intellivision puts in this 25-40 yr old bucket.   Disney and Nickelodeon titles may work if we're kid-centric, but the consumer either understands these games, unlike VTech or LeapFrog, unlike Kindle solo games and iTunes solo apps, are going to be designed for a family to play together, and that will be all the marketing and niche they need, or they may inadvertently think the system has nothing for adults up to middle-age. 

That they're the target audience (30-something moms, dads) may be lost in briefly walking past that display.  They can see content aimed to appeal to under 10 and assume it's a system for their kids.  The solution could be more thorough displays, inundate media with what Amico is all about. 

But thinking about the adult who has kids and isn't getting that level of market exposure, what titles would attract them?  Again, 40+ has those retro games in spades.  Under-10s has the biggest kid franchises in talks we expect.  The group in-between would need something more than "Just play with your kids or play these pre-1984 games", no? 

As it is, I haven't seen any content focused on the teen bucket, some presumption they'll play along with parents/younger siblings even if nothing deliberately tailored to their interests.  But ignoring the next two age cohorts seems unlikely.  I understand the premise of Amico very well, just trying to get across - for people born 1980 - 2000, are there properties in mind that they would look forward to that might speak MOST to them and convince them this is a system they may be interested in too?

I'm not talking Contra or Castlevania or Tekken.  I'm not even talking game franchises per se.  I'm talking about properties that have appeal to a roughly 20 year cohort.  That'd be an obvious demographic... bean bag toss is that generation's recreational game, no doubt.  Other games that are being bucketed as a definite appeal to the demographic?  

Right now, that's a demographic that is actually ultra-focused for the gaming industry, BUT only as pertains to its hard-core gamers, and cheap experiences on mobile.  Two-thirds of that demographic wouldn't fall into that first descriptor.  And in that case, the under 10 demographic is also pretty well catered for with VTech, Leapfrog and the mess of apps.  They're just not inclusive of the whole family experience, and have virtually no appeal to parents to play much with their children - not any more appeal than kid-centric Kindle or iPad apps anyway. 

Thinking older 90s Nickelodeon properties, early 2000s properties may resonate more with this demographic of adults with younger kids.  Entirely within Amico's scope and doesn't pay any mind to hardcore gaming.   Actually a lot less than R-Type, Toe Jam & Earl or Earthworm Jim - which all actually fall into this demographic's focus of properties actually. 

And we see Tommy here on AtariAge, we see similar discussions on Intellivision groups/reddits.  So tons of input from our older perspective, plenty of suggestions here.  Plenty of focus on the kids' brands.  Don't want to see Intellivision blindsided in too little focus to what appeals to moms and dads, beyond them being moms and dads, if that makes sense? 

6 hours ago, Swami said:

If IE does Q*bert, where would Qbert go next and what would he need to accomplish, changing things up but keeping with the spirit of QBert and QBert's Qubes? Maybe add some mechanics like in Upmonsters (INTV) or Amoeba Jump (2600) where you have to do a little more steering to hit your targets and have some extras like the super bounce mushrooms in Amoeba Jump. Apparently, in the original concept of Qbert, Qbert could shoot the enemies using his nozzle. That could be added in as an option having spitballs or whatever placed on a few blocks as limited ammo (then you'd actually need a button). 

 

How could co-op be implemented? Obviously, some players could play the baddies, but could you have different colored Qberts working together? Konami produced a competitive 2-player Qbert type game for the MSX called "Q*bert" with a dragon replacing Qbert for some reason. In this one, each player has a different color change and tries to change more blocks than the other, but one could also have where each player is responsible for one of the two color changes to finish a block conversion and so forth.

 

There have been some expansions with levels added with the blocks in different arrangements and added enemies, as well as one where the blocks are hexagons with 6 ways to jump rather than four. Also, something I have to look into again called Faster, Harder, More Challenging Qbert.

 

Sony tried to do a reboot of Q*Bert already, and based on how often it has been on sale, I'm guessing it didn't sell very well.  I would think that if IE wanted to get the rights for it, they'd have to talk with Sony who probably isn't interested in licensing it out. 

The reboot tried to change things up by using hexagons instead of just cubes, so it made navigating the stage extremely difficult. Though, it also included the classic version which was actually pretty decent.  I think a multiplayer option would be doable.  You have two Q*Berts on the stage and make it a co-op match.  I just don't think they should try to change the model too much and keep the game pretty much the way it was. I loved Q*Bert on my original Intellivision, but for Amico, I don't think it should be too high up on the to-do list.

1 hour ago, RetroAdvisoryBoard said:

Don't want to see Intellivision blindsided in too little focus to what appeals to moms and dads, beyond them being moms and dads, if that makes sense? 

Huh? The Intellivision team is made up of Nintendo and Mattel execs. Tommy is at the Toy Show in NY this week. Amico is already been praised by different Mom organizations. There is little worry that Intellivision wont have a good percentage of games targeted and made for families after all during those kid years Mom is the one with the purse strings. These guys know what they are doing.

4 hours ago, mr_me said:

Sky Diver, Pong, Math Fun perhaps.  I think it's a good question.  We know the Atari properties they licensed are limited to those named; is it possible more can be added?  But all of the Imagic, Mattel, and INTV properties are available to them.  Activision properties will have to wait.

You are going to have to cross Math Fun off that list!

I seem to recall reading a request for it to be considered for the Amico from someone who apparently found it to be a great party game; attempting math problems while being completely rat-arsed

39 minutes ago, Tavi said:

You are going to have to cross Math Fun off that list!

I seem to recall reading a request for it to be considered for the Amico from someone who apparently found it to be a great party game; attempting math problems while being completely rat-arsed

That is true but it's not the same as asking for it to be remade.

42 minutes ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

Huh? The Intellivision team is made up of Nintendo and Mattel execs. Tommy is at the Toy Show in NY this week. Amico is already been praised by different Mom organizations. There is little worry that Intellivision wont have a good percentage of games targeted and made for families after all during those kid years Mom is the one with the purse strings. These guys know what they are doing.

So what kind of video game would you make for a thirty-something mom rather than her kids.  The games we are talking about are for everyone but something to attract her attention.

Situational social games, celebrity gamers, old fashioned puzzle games, fashion games any combination of the above. I think that’s what’s mostly going on now is mashups of several of these. These women a willing to pay money to keep their virtual farm alive or get virtual Kim Kardashian’s fashion approval. They also get their friends involved to share with them. Unfortunately, some of these involve sharing over time online by PC or phone.

3 hours ago, mr_me said:

That is true but it's not the same as asking for it to be remade.

 

I specifically asked for it NOT to be made. Tommy said "Too fu%#ing bad!"😂

9 hours ago, RetroAdvisoryBoard said:

But.. the 40+ crowd has a lot of old favorites.  Children will certainly have a lot of current brands.  The older generation will have classic games, cards, dice, family game night entertainment.  And parents/grandparents should be able to engage their children in games largely intended to combine audiences.

If Amico creates this kind of segregation between players, it will fail.

The key for the success of Amico is not to have a handful of games intended to combine audience, it is for the vast majority of games to be for everyone, with at most only a handful of games for a particular audience.

A lot of people here say they want remakes of old arcade-style games they played when they were children. I can certainly understand that, I'm one of those, but if we get what we want, I doubt many will actually play those remakes once the novelty wears off. We now have so much choice in video games that replaying the same game over and over and over simply to get a higher score is something only a handful of gamers will do.

If I were a developer creating a remake of an old shooter, I'd ask myself one question : why would someone replay my game? What is the reward? If the only answer I can think of is to get a higher score, then I would simply scrap the game.

Nostalgia or brand recognition can make someone buy a game, but it can't make someone play a game. The reason very few people will play with old arcade game remakes is not because of an IP recognition problem, it's because that kind of gameplay has been mostly superseded.

It's OK for IE to use those IPs. Again, nostalgia or brand recognition can make someone buy a game. However, the core mechanics of the game should be almost completely different. Reimagined games are a great idea, but remakes are a very bad idea.

The core idea of Amico was to bring families and friends together. Everything should be made to stay on this path.

7 hours ago, Tavi said:

You are going to have to cross Math Fun off that list!

I seem to recall reading a request for it to be considered for the Amico from someone who apparently found it to be a great party game; attempting math problems while being completely rat-arsed

I'm guessing that was me. And yes, I do think Math Fun could be a great party game.

I have Brain Age and Big Brain Academy for the Nintendo DS. With those two games, there are simple maths mini-games. On a few occasions, I did play those game with some friends and we had a lot of fun trying to have the "youngest" or the "biggest" brain possible. (It was even more fun when it turned into a men vs women competition.)

Brain Age is the 4th best-selling game on the DS. Brain Age 2 is in 7th place. Big Brain Academy is in 15th position.

5 hours ago, Swami said:

Situational social games, celebrity gamers, old fashioned puzzle games, fashion games any combination of the above. I think that’s what’s mostly going on now is mashups of several of these. These women a willing to pay money to keep their virtual farm alive or get virtual Kim Kardashian’s fashion approval. They also get their friends involved to share with them. Unfortunately, some of these involve sharing over time online by PC or phone.

There is no chance Amico will be able to compete with Facebook.

17 hours ago, atarifan88 said:

But they didn't mention what was inside.  Open the side panel and it doubles as a bacon cooker!!! 🤤

We really need a thumbs-up button.

I'll just leave this here for everyone

1 hour ago, Steven Pendleton said:

I'll just leave this here for everyone

 

 

Ok, from now on when I feel guilty for spending time and money on Atari Jaguar and 3DO games. I'm going to think of this video and tell myself, "You know,  there's a lot worse/useless things I could be spending my time/money on right now," and you know what? I'm going to feel a lot better about myself doing it. 

14 hours ago, Swami said:

Maybe this was brought up 100 pages back, but the mention of "crew" made me think about how the 2-8 player aspect and Amico/phone controllers would be great for various paddle/rowing/rafting or swimming/climbing-type games. It would probably take too many controllers, but I can see how a climbing game could be very co-op in terms of helping get each other over impediments to scaling cliff-walls, etc.. Also, obstacle courses like helping each other over walls or or pulling  someone over something, like in those Survivor challenges, if anyone is familiar.

Co-op Oregon Trail

5 hours ago, Papy said:

If Amico creates this kind of segregation between players, it will fail.

 

The key for the success of Amico is not to have a handful of games intended to combine audience, it is for the vast majority of games to be for everyone, with at most only a handful of games for a particular audience.

 

A lot of people here say they want remakes of old arcade-style games they played when they were children. I can certainly understand that, I'm one of those, but if we get what we want, I doubt many will actually play those remakes once the novelty wears off. We now have so much choice in video games that replaying the same game over and over and over simply to get a higher score is something only a handful of gamers will do.

 

If I were a developer creating a remake of an old shooter, I'd ask myself one question : why would someone replay my game? What is the reward? If the only answer I can think of is to get a higher score, then I would simply scrap the game.

 

Nostalgia or brand recognition can make someone buy a game, but it can't make someone play a game. The reason very few people will play with old arcade game remakes is not because of an IP recognition problem, it's because that kind of gameplay has been mostly superseded.

 

It's OK for IE to use those IPs. Again, nostalgia or brand recognition can make someone buy a game. However, the core mechanics of the game should be almost completely different. Reimagined games are a great idea, but remakes are a very bad idea.

 

The core idea of Amico was to bring families and friends together. Everything should be made to stay on this path.

I agree that there should be more to a game than a hi-score but necessarily that their core gameplays are just novelties.  Some of my favourite golden age video games didn't have a score at all.  And many of the newer video games aren't replayed much by most people, they get through the content and then go on to the next game.  The old golden age games can have more replayability. 

I too was thinking that games based on retro titles would be more evolutionary than remakes but we've only seen a small part of unfinished games so far.  They will all have multiplayer modes added, both competitive and co-op modes.  These retro titles will only be a fraction of the library and they advise a fraction of those won't necessarily be for everyone.  But most of their retro titles aren't meant for just forty or fify year olds, they are meant for everyone.  We are thinking that the license will be the hook to attract people but maybe the game play can be that hook.  To people who aren't familiar with a retro title these games wll be fun new games along side the Amico games based on new original IP.

7 hours ago, Papy said:

I'm guessing that was me. And yes, I do think Math Fun could be a great party game.

 

I have Brain Age and Big Brain Academy for the Nintendo DS. With those two games, there are simple maths mini-games. On a few occasions, I did play those game with some friends and we had a lot of fun trying to have the "youngest" or the "biggest" brain possible. (It was even more fun when it turned into a men vs women competition.)

 

Brain Age is the 4th best-selling game on the DS. Brain Age 2 is in 7th place. Big Brain Academy is in 15th position.

I know brain age is popular in the modding community because it’s the cheapest game to purchase in order to hack the Wii U 🤓

13 hours ago, Papy said:

 

 

A lot of people here say they want remakes of old arcade-style games they played when they were children. I can certainly understand that, I'm one of those, but if we get what we want, I doubt many will actually play those remakes once the novelty wears off. We now have so much choice in video games that replaying the same game over and over and over simply to get a higher score is something only a handful of gamers will do.

 

just because you feel this way i guess just about everybody else must feel the same way! well i'm so glad we know this now and Tommy could close up shop and save tons of money! 

btw i love playing games just to get the high score..after almost 40 years i still play Pac Man & Ms Pac Man every night on the Namco Museum on the xbox 360 to try and beat my high score and i have a blast! but thanks again for telling us how everybody else in the world feels about those types of games! 

7 hours ago, mr_me said:

They will all have multiplayer modes added, both competitive and co-op modes.

What I hope is for multiplayer modes to be at the center of the design of the reimagined game. If multiplayer modes are just added, I fear those modes could end up being subpar experiences.

The process that I would use to make a reimagined game would be the opposite of a remake. Instead of starting with an old game and then asking myself what I can add to update this game, I would follow a process a bit like that :

1) Determine what kind of interactions and experience I want players to have

2) Create core mechanics to allow those interactions (including how the "Karma engine" will work)

3) Determine what old game could be used to implement those core mechanics

4) Adapt the core mechanics according to the theme of the old game

5) Create a single player version of this new game

This means that the single player mode could end up being a subpar experience, but in the case of Amico, I think it's better to sacrifice the single player mode rather than the multiplayer modes.

9 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Co-op Oregon Trail

I can imagine the key difference would be:

Single Player Oregon Trail: "You Have Died of Dysentery"

Multi Player Oregon Trail: "You ALL Have Died of Dysentery"

1 minute ago, ASalvaro said:

just because you feel this way i guess just about everybody else must feel the same way! well i'm so glad we know this now and Tommy could close up shop and save tons of money! 

 

btw i love playing games just to get the high score..after almost 40 years i still play Pac Man & Ms Pac Man every night on the Namco Museum on the xbox 360 to try and beat my high score and i have a blast! but thanks again for telling us how everybody else in the world feels about those types of games! 

Triggered?

I'm a perfectionist. I'm one of the people who can play for high score. Not only this is why I have two bartop MAME machines, but this also why I had so much fun with a game like SpaceChem. Simply solving the problem was not enough for me, I had to achieve the best result in each leaderboards before moving on to the next puzzle. However, I don't pretend I'm someone "normal." I'm part of a tiny minority.