Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

15 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Happy Birthday America!

 

Thanks to our friends at Intv Prime for creating this video using the original Intellivision!

17 hours ago, Mulletino said:

Is it just coincidence that the first two and last two letters of tommy's surname spell out the adopted word for that fictional box thing discussed at length in another thread?

They'll be able to add that to their tombstone.  

4 hours ago, sramirez2008 said:

Very cool.  Thanks for sharing.
 

Does a ROM exist for this?  It would be nice to add to our LTO’s.

 

Not sure.  Would need to ask the INTV guys.  I just made a video from a video they posted a few years ago.

So I just watched this which includes a segment on the Amico at the 42 minute mark.

To be honest it really doesn’t seem like they put any thought into the Amico to me at all. They mentioned that the Amico is trying to capture the audience the Wii did buy they failed to look at the differences in approaches between the consoles because Nintendo captured the casual audience by accident where Intellivision is actually targeting that group with market research and focus groups. The only kind of positive statement was when one of the people said they had more fun than they expected playing the games it also almost comes off as if they were offended because they couldn’t talk directly about some of the games they played since those haven’t been announced yet 

9 hours ago, Alpha82 said:

To be honest it really doesn’t seem like they put any thought into the Amico to me at all. They mentioned that the Amico is trying to capture the audience the Wii did buy they failed to look at the differences in approaches between the consoles because Nintendo captured the casual audience by accident where Intellivision is actually targeting that group with market research and focus groups. The only kind of positive statement was when one of the people said they had more fun than they expected playing the games it also almost comes off as if they were offended because they couldn’t talk directly about some of the games they played since those haven’t been announced yet 

Interesting that you would deduce no thought was put into the system, like they are just putting it out there for the purpose of putting it out there.  As you noted, they are targeting a different group of people instead of the "in-crowd" (i.e. those that play the switch, xbox, etc).  The fact that they are going for an old-fashioned approach is what's caught my eye because nobody is doing that these days.  Most companies just keep feeding the approach that if it's on their cell phone, it's good enough.  The problem with certain people is they are on their phones way too much an lack human interaction.  What IP is doing is encouraging people to be in the same room to play games and interact with one another.  IMO, it's a step in the right direction and is something people need to go back to.

@atarifan88

I think Alpha82 was making a commentary about the people on the video and does not feel that way.  At least that is how I read the comment, of course I could be misunderstanding your comment as I write this as well.

I do have to say that the guys on the video did not understand the idea of Amico very much.

I groan every time I hear them call the disc controller a rotating disc like an apple.

2 hours ago, atarifan88 said:

Interesting that you would deduce no thought was put into the system, like they are just putting it out there for the purpose of putting it out there.  As you noted, they are targeting a different group of people instead of the "in-crowd" (i.e. those that play the switch, xbox, etc).  The fact that they are going for an old-fashioned approach is what's caught my eye because nobody is doing that these days.  Most companies just keep feeding the approach that if it's on their cell phone, it's good enough.  The problem with certain people is they are on their phones way too much an lack human interaction.  What IP is doing is encouraging people to be in the same room to play games and interact with one another.  IMO, it's a step in the right direction and is something people need to go back to.

I believe Alpha82 was referring to the folks in the podcast (not Intellivision) when he said they didn't put thought into it.  I agree.  The vibe I got was that the old guy in the middle (who wasn't at our booth at E3) was just looking for something to complain about.  There was one point in the video where all of his questions were getting answered and you could see him just trying to find some other reason not to like it.  His data was also extremely wrong and off when he mentioned Earthworm Jim being the only game and not a reason for people to buy the console.  No matter how many times we tell people... we're NOT doing just a 2D platform game 25 years later.  And the ONLY system and controller we can do what we want to do it on is the Amico.  

But the most interesting thing to me was when the dude on the right said he enjoyed playing the games... but then kinda dismissed it because they were all games that he couldn't see himself playing for hours at a time.  This is EXACTLY our goal and point!!  Too many home console games these days take way too long to learn and play.  With couch co-op people want something fun to do for 20 - 30 minutes... and then they can go on to the next game, etc.   Younger people have never really experienced this kind of gameplay with others... so I understand if they consider the idea of this to be unfamiliar.  To be frank... I don't think these hardcore gamer types are really going to be our audience initially.  They may end up getting one once they realize how fun it is to actually play video games with other people not on their level.  

The other comment that was off is when they said that people could gathe and play games together on mobile WITHOUT a main screen.   Really??  Explain how you would play a simple bowling game?  

Those guys were nice enough to cover it and had nice things to say about me as a person... and the one dude did say he'd like to have me on the show to explain more.  I Tweeted back at them and said I'd love to come on, but haven't heard back.  

At the end of the day... the guy said he enjoyed playing the games.  That will translate to the folks that really matter. 

 

18 minutes ago, imstarryeyed said:

@atarifan88

 

I think Alpha82 was making a commentary about the people on the video and does not feel that way.  At least that is how I read the comment, of course I could be misunderstanding your comment as I write this as well.

 

I do have to say that the guys on the video did not understand the idea of Amico very much.

 

I groan every time I hear them call the disc controller a rotating disc like an apple.

 

 

Yes... you are correct.  Alpha82 was referring to the folks in the video.  He is a big fan of Amico.

Tommy I do hope they get back with you and have you on the show.  It was a little hard to tell if their lack of awareness of the system philosophy was intentional or not. 

My only concern from that video would be if the Amico's "two sentence pitch" is absorbing correctly in gamers or non gamers.

Just for fun I wrote the Amico a few quick pitches, I used to write these types of things for my video game store and felt I needed the marketing practice... let me know if your marketing team needs any help! Ha ha. 

"Amico, the console for everyone giving you todays gaming experiences along with yesterday's old school retro simplicity.  Couch gaming has truly arrived." 

...

"Amico, the console for everyone giving you todays gaming experiences along with yesterday's old school retro simplicity.  Family couch gaming has finally evolved."

...

"Our console gives you modern multiplayer games with old school retro simplicity; truly gaming for everyone."

In all seriousness I am looking forward to seeing your Amico ads and pitches when they are available, I love that ever so important and often difficult part of business.

16 hours ago, Alpha82 said:

 

So I just watched this which includes a segment on the Amico at the 42 minute mark.

 

To be honest it really doesn’t seem like they put any thought into the Amico to me at all. They mentioned that the Amico is trying to capture the audience the Wii did buy they failed to look at the differences in approaches between the consoles because Nintendo captured the casual audience by accident where Intellivision is actually targeting that group with market research and focus groups. The only kind of positive statement was when one of the people said they had more fun than they expected playing the games it also almost comes off as if they were offended because they couldn’t talk directly about some of the games they played since those haven’t been announced yet 

man i'll tell ya i can't watch videos like this too long without my italian blood boiling lol..know it all gamers who don't see anything outside of Nintendo,Sony & Microsoft...everytime i hear somebody on these shows say "who is this for???" i scream at my monitor "ME YOU FOOLS!" 

another thing you would be suprised is how LITTLE these so called experts on these shows know about gaming history..they don't seem to realize there were video games before the stupid NES

4 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Yes... you are correct.  Alpha82 was referring to the folks in the video.  He is a big fan of Amico.

 

 

Ok, my bad. Yes the guys in the video didn't put much thought into reviewing the Amico. On a separate note I'm sure there will be a new version of golf your team is working on, but what about doing something a little different like disc golf? This may help get the younger kids to play the game since it doesn't involve knowledge of golf clubs. Just a thought...

I just saw an article about how lawn games such as cornhole and kubb are becoming a big money industry.

"Lawn Games" for Amico could be a big hit with kids and hipsters!

I just want to congratulate Tommy on his stance of trying to jump in and head off these quick dismissals from hard core gamers. The system isn't really meant for hard core gamers but because it is a console they will feel compelled to review/talk about it (at least in passing like in the Game Informer video). This is like the Plumbers of America trade organization insisting they review a trombone because it is made out of pipes. "Way too thin, impractically shaped, won't hold water, make strange noises - DOA".

None of the guys liked the controller which is not surprising.  But I'll say that if you are playing a two button action game holding the controller horizontally looks to be awkward.  Holding it vertically looks good for two button action games. 

I can't remember where but Tommy T hinted  about a "pro controller" option.  Now that we have seen the latest controller design can we expect anything different in the next year?

11 hours ago, atarifan88 said:

Ok, my bad. Yes the guys in the video didn't put much thought into reviewing the Amico. On a separate note I'm sure there will be a new version of golf your team is working on, but what about doing something a little different like disc golf? This may help get the younger kids to play the game since it doesn't involve knowledge of golf clubs. Just a thought...

Yep!  It's on our list!

5 hours ago, boxpressed said:

I just saw an article about how lawn games such as cornhole and kubb are becoming a big money industry.

 

"Lawn Games" for Amico could be a big hit with kids and hipsters!

Already in production!! 

3 hours ago, mr_me said:

None of the guys liked the controller which is not surprising.  But I'll say that if you are playing a two button action game holding the controller horizontally looks to be awkward.  Holding it vertically looks good for two button action games. 

 

I can't remember where but Tommy T hinted  about a "pro controller" option.  Now that we have seen the latest controller design can we expect anything different in the next year?

Info available next year. 

That being said...  has anyone ever heard me say that ANY bluetooth controller couldn't work? 

But the reality is that almost all games utilize the screen in some way, shape or form.   But hey... at least this way people couldn't complain they didn't have "options".   

People LOVE to complain about the controller without ever trying it or playing games on it.  You'll notice in the Game Informer video that the person who said they couldn't imagine using the controller was the one person who wasn't there at E3 and was only thinking about using it as a 2D side-scrolling Earthworm Jim platform game.  

14 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

Already in production!! 

Even though I don't play these lawn games, I think this could be a nice seller for Amico.

You can also address controller complaints by saying that you can play Amico with a controller in one hand and a drink in another!

1 hour ago, boxpressed said:

 

 

You can also address controller complaints by saying that you can play Amico with a controller in one hand and a drink in another!

Chocolate Milk right ...   lol

 Cheers !!!!

Yeah that video "review" is off but if we can be honest, that's to be expected with many of the press. until they get concrete info and able to actually talk about what they are playing, you are going to get some of these comments and lack of understanding.  You are going to get speculative opinion instead of facts.

For that reason, I put ZERO weight on what any of these guys say.  To be fair, I also thread carefully on all positive comments since again, there's not much as far as "facts" provided right now.  That's cool, right now my own expectations and understanding of what's been said has me very excited. That's enough until we get the little reveals along the way

Let's have some fun with the "slogan" or "pitches" of sorts:

"The Amico:  Playing games together again... live not online!"

"The Amico:  Playing games without needing a PHD to figure out what to do"

"The Amico math:  Couch coop > online coop"

"The Amico:  Where playing together brings us in sync"

"The Amico:  A blast from the past makes the trip into our present and future"

Well what do you expect in a 5 min post? 

Tommy:  There seems to be a lot of talk on casual friendly but I think someone said rtype is coming out for the system.  To me, my definition of "casual friendly" doesn't mean the game is necessarily easy, rather it means it's easy to get into.  With rtype and other possible shooters coming for the system, even some platformers like EWJ, I hope it's not forgotten that a lot of those old classics we used to play were "hard" and that was A-OK!  Sure level selects for the more casual playing fans is a must but... let's not forget we don't want to see everything about a game in 30 min.   I'm not implying that's what you mean at all, but I think it would go some distance to provide clarity of what casual gaming means here so that people don't think this is just a walk in the park gaming console and that hardcore games can also apply, just not the GTA/RDR2/GOW type of production values hardcore gamer

21 hours ago, atarifan88 said:

Interesting that you would deduce no thought was put into the system, like they are just putting it out there for the purpose of putting it out there.  As you noted, they are targeting a different group of people instead of the "in-crowd" (i.e. those that play the switch, xbox, etc).  The fact that they are going for an old-fashioned approach is what's caught my eye because nobody is doing that these days.  Most companies just keep feeding the approach that if it's on their cell phone, it's good enough.  The problem with certain people is they are on their phones way too much an lack human interaction.  What IP is doing is encouraging people to be in the same room to play games and interact with one another.  IMO, it's a step in the right direction and is something people need to go back to.

I probably didn’t organize my thoughts too well or at the very least I didn’t reread it well enough before posting. I am very excited about Intellivision’s message I stopped with modern systems with a ps3 I got second hand new consoles are just too expensive for me. And I’m excited for games that are easier to understand how to play because I miss those types of games 

34 minutes ago, Loafer said:

Let's have some fun with the "slogan" or "pitches" of sorts:

 

"The Amico:  Playing games together again... live not online!"

"The Amico:  Playing games without needing a PHD to figure out what to do"

"The Amico math:  Couch coop > online coop"

"The Amico:  Where playing together brings us in sync"

"The Amico:  A blast from the past makes the trip into our present and future"

 

Well what do you expect in a 5 min post? 

 

Ha ha you got the right idea here... pitches & jingles are great and boy oh boy are they hard to get right.

=--==-=- Warning .... academic mode on, former biz owner spewing  =-=-=-=-

A mission statement is often one of those things many people who even bother to write a business plan (and you should ALWAYS write a business plan) spend so little time writing.  The real purpose of it is to force you to create clear messaging for your readers, investors, customers, etc...

They are often very hard to write and usually need all kinds of refinement through people and public testing, if however you get it right, you can use it to help communicate very easily to people in an elevator or anywhere.

Companies spend tons of money on things like:

Honnn -  Daaaa ...   just 2 notes on a piano and it was iconic..

Liberty, liberty, liberty... libertyyy

Oscar Mayer “I Wish I Was an Oscar Mayer Weiner”  ... genius...

These are just the jingles too, not even the 2 sentence messaging.

-=-=-=- Academic mode off... I deeply apologize for any potential derailment of attention =-=-=-=-=-

In the end the Amico has Perrin Kaplan, after looking her up I can see she is way more than qualified to do the console justice.  Kaplan's background with Nintendo seems just right, as if there was any company that knows how to market and foster IP it is the Big N.

I am more keen now to see what kind of creative campaigns she is going to create...

Tommy,

Is there a marketing benefit for the Amico in seeing the original Intellivision in popular retro settings? Why I’m thinking this is that I keep hoping for a prominent product placement in the gigantic ‘Stranger Things’ series. The boys are often setting up or playing Dungeons & Dragons and I just sit there hoping Mike might say, “Can we play D&D on Intellivision tonight, guys?”

Unfortunately, season 1 and 2 were set in 1983 & 1984, which might have been more perfect timing. Season 4 might be set in the year of the Nintendo.

Also, I’m only on Season 3, Ep. 3 so maybe it’s still to come this year. 

14 hours ago, Loafer said:

Yeah that video "review" is off but if we can be honest, that's to be expected with many of the press. until they get concrete info and able to actually talk about what they are playing, you are going to get some of these comments and lack of understanding.  You are going to get speculative opinion instead of facts.

 

For that reason, I put ZERO weight on what any of these guys say.  To be fair, I also thread carefully on all positive comments since again, there's not much as far as "facts" provided right now.  That's cool, right now my own expectations and understanding of what's been said has me very excited. That's enough until we get the little reveals along the way

 

Let's have some fun with the "slogan" or "pitches" of sorts:

 

"The Amico:  Playing games together again... live not online!"

"The Amico:  Playing games without needing a PHD to figure out what to do"

"The Amico math:  Couch coop > online coop"

"The Amico:  Where playing together brings us in sync"

"The Amico:  A blast from the past makes the trip into our present and future"

 

Well what do you expect in a 5 min post? 

 

Tommy:  There seems to be a lot of talk on casual friendly but I think someone said rtype is coming out for the system.  To me, my definition of "casual friendly" doesn't mean the game is necessarily easy, rather it means it's easy to get into.  With rtype and other possible shooters coming for the system, even some platformers like EWJ, I hope it's not forgotten that a lot of those old classics we used to play were "hard" and that was A-OK!  Sure level selects for the more casual playing fans is a must but... let's not forget we don't want to see everything about a game in 30 min.   I'm not implying that's what you mean at all, but I think it would go some distance to provide clarity of what casual gaming means here so that people don't think this is just a walk in the park gaming console and that hardcore games can also apply, just not the GTA/RDR2/GOW type of production values hardcore gamer

Hi!,

We have a few great slogans lined up (we haven't picked the final one yet) and will be using them once our marketing kicks in.  They are based around the things you've mentioned in yours.  We feel we'll have multiple ones depending on the audience we're marketing to as well.

One thing I'd like to bring up in case anyone is interested.  We never refer to it as "The" Amico.  We always just say Amico.  I want it to feel like it's a part of the family and someone close to you.  Not The Friend... but My Friend.  More about this will be revealed next year.   :)

There are definitely some "hard" games!  Especially the 25% arcade style games we're doing.  All of our focus group testing shows that hardcore gamers really like the games targeted at them and they love the fact that they can play with or against their friends in a same room.  It's that Super Smash Bros. vibe they get (playing together in a room)... but with a more simple feel where others can join in.

 

13 hours ago, imstarryeyed said:

 

Ha ha you got the right idea here... pitches & jingles are great and boy oh boy are they hard to get right.

 

=--==-=- Warning .... academic mode on, former biz owner spewing  =-=-=-=-

 

A mission statement is often one of those things many people who even bother to write a business plan (and you should ALWAYS write a business plan) spend so little time writing.  The real purpose of it is to force you to create clear messaging for your readers, investors, customers, etc...

 

They are often very hard to write and usually need all kinds of refinement through people and public testing, if however you get it right, you can use it to help communicate very easily to people in an elevator or anywhere.

 

Companies spend tons of money on things like:

 

Honnn -  Daaaa ...   just 2 notes on a piano and it was iconic..

Liberty, liberty, liberty... libertyyy

Oscar Mayer “I Wish I Was an Oscar Mayer Weiner”  ... genius...

 

These are just the jingles too, not even the 2 sentence messaging.

 

-=-=-=- Academic mode off... I deeply apologize for any potential derailment of attention =-=-=-=-=-

 

In the end the Amico has Perrin Kaplan, after looking her up I can see she is way more than qualified to do the console justice.  Kaplan's background with Nintendo seems just right, as if there was any company that knows how to market and foster IP it is the Big N.

 

I am more keen now to see what kind of creative campaigns she is going to create...

 

 

 

Absolutely!  You are 100% correct. 

Our COO/CFO is a freakin' WIZARD.  We have an amazing huge business plan & model.  We wouldn't have been able to raise the money we have so far without it.  I don't talk much about him publicly as people always want to hear about the "machine" or the "vision".  But just like the other folks I have working for us, I've surrounded myself with some of the best in that category as well.  He sold his last 2 companies for $150M and $75M.  And if you combine our other business folks, as a group... they've raised over $400M throughout their careers which have gone on to be worth/sold for over $1B!

We have big meetings with Perrin and her team (also ex-Nintendo folks) every week on messaging.  Currently getting specific as to where our marketing dollars are going for 2020 and how/where the message will ring the most true.

Definitely an art... which is why it was so important to have the quality level of the people we do.