Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

1 hour ago, RetroAdvisoryBoard said:

They do. 

 

Both discussed with quite some enthusiasm how interested they were in the Super Russian Roulette Kickstarter launching as an NES homebrew.  Ian followed up a year and a half ago about how much fun he had playing it as a drinking game with friends. A party game, with minimal graphics, using the NES' zapper to take turns pulling the trigger and seeing who's unlucky enough to kill themselves.  THAT gets rave reviews.  Super Russian Roulette fills a need evidently, and was a great idea coming.  Suicide sim drinking game selling at $55... that one they charitably afford a market.  A great idea, is a lot of fun, a game entirely based on the shared experience, people should check it out.  - Ian & Pat.

 

And I'm not dismissing the game - it's a simple premise and a concept designed to have fun with friends.  But when Amico was proposed at $149 - $179, neither would entertain how anyone could find any redeeming value or appeal in such a system.  No one is there to chime in, "Hey guys, you were gushing over a $55 game that uses a Zapper to randomly assign kills.. you can just get a phone app randomizer to mix up clicks and misses and mix up an insulting cowboy to egg you on.  Why does this need a $55 cart?". 

 

I totally accept not feeling the system is for you, not finding anything appealing, and not thinking from your perspective or predictions that it'll have an audience.  They double down on taking jabs and hyperbole of just how god awful this thing is and will be every step of the way though.  Straight cognitive dissonance, there is no desire to step back and try to understand how it could work, zero engagement.      

Good points.  The do love contradicting themselves.  I thought that controller info you posted before was very telling.

It's not that they don't like the kind of stuff we're doing... it's that they don't like that Intellivision is doing it!

47 minutes ago, malrak said:

 

Nah, it's a fine name.   And the third can be ...

 

"Amico One"

 

 

Hahahahha!   Perfect.

Tommy, I apologize if this was answered somewhere (I got way behind and had to speed-read the last ten pages), but....you mentioned awhile back that the system would come with five (or maybe six) games. Will these be pre-loaded or need to be downloaded? If they are pre-loaded, have you considered making one a download that people could pick to get them into the shop right away and also add some excitement of picking something that catches your eye in the shop.

12 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

....or both?

 

 

 

Okay! I admit, anything physical is great! But physical statues are cool too!

Just now, Chuck D. Head said:

Tommy, I apologize if this was answered somewhere (I got way behind and had to speed-read the last ten pages), but....you mentioned awhile back that the system would come with five (or maybe six) games. Will these be pre-loaded or need to be downloaded? If they are pre-loaded, have you considered making one a download that people could pick to get them into the shop right away and also add some excitement of picking something that catches your eye in the shop.

They will be pre-loaded.

That's actually a good idea about the last one being a choice. If it did happen, it would be a limited selection (would exclude any of the licensed games, for example). I also imagine that some of the negotiations that go into selecting the pre-loaded games would mandate that all 5-6 of them be firmly established as pack-ins. (The pack-ins know that they will get a larger install base than other games, for example, so maybe they will be more flexible in initial terms.) I'm just guessing about this though, I'm "just" a hardware guy. 🙂 

8 minutes ago, RxScram said:

They will be pre-loaded.

 

That's actually a good idea about the last one being a choice. If it did happen, it would be a limited selection (would exclude any of the licensed games, for example). I also imagine that some of the negotiations that go into selecting the pre-loaded games would mandate that all 5-6 of them be firmly established as pack-ins. (The pack-ins know that they will get a larger install base than other games, for example, so maybe they will be more flexible in initial terms.) I'm just guessing about this though, I'm "just" a hardware guy. 🙂 

You would be correct "hardware guy" haha. Negotiations for the games as pack ins is "probably" pretty firm. Usually.

So Tommy could say, 6 pack in games, and one free game of choice from the e-shop with 5 dollars credit or something.

6 minutes ago, 1001lives said:

You would be correct "hardware guy" haha. Negotiations for the games as pack ins is "probably" pretty firm. Usually.

 

So Tommy could say, 6 pack in games, and one free game of choice from the e-shop with 5 dollars credit or something.

The FE and VIP editions essentially have this (but with more than just a single game) with the included RFID gift cards.  I suppose they could just throw a $5 or $10 RFID card in every box.

Regarding graphics, i’d say check the top six of the top ten mobile games of all time and how important envelope pushing graphics are to them. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn7grRyGUTO/

2 minutes ago, Swami said:

Regarding graphics, i’d say check the top six of the top ten mobile games of all time and how important envelope pushing graphics are to them. 

 

Https://www.Youtube.com/watch?v=Fn7grRyGUTO

 

 

"Video unavailable"

10 minutes ago, RxScram said:

"Video unavailable"

That’s too bad. I wish that I at least knew what they were.

10 minutes ago, RxScram said:

"Video unavailable"

Strange. AA forum + mobile app = headache. 

It is “Top 10 most popular mobile games of all time! (Most Played Mobile Games in the World in 2020)” on YouTube. 

Also, regarding P&Is comments on pool, guess what 2 of the top 13 Android games downloaded are? Pool games. 8 Ball Pool and Pool Billiards Pro. 

and the the top one, Subway Surfer,  is basically a fancy Temple Run. 

12 minutes ago, Swami said:

It is “Top 10 most popular mobile games of all time! (Most Played Mobile Games in the World in 2020)” on YouTube. 

Is this the one?

4 minutes ago, jaybird3rd said:

Is this the one?

 

 

Yes. Thanks. 

10 hours ago, CurlyQ said:

For those of you that might be interested, don't miss The Retro Hour's podcast interview of Don Daglow (game designer and programmer of Intellivision Baseball, Utopia and Shark Shark originator).

 

Don Daglow Wikipedia Link

 

Lots of very interesting insights and anecdotes for all you history buffs. 👍

 

 

Thanks CurlyQ!  What a great interview; thanks for sharing!   Cant help but to like Mr. Daglow out of the gate.  Info on the “83/84 video game crash” was on my list to ask Tommy about (and his take/concerns for the potential for another one), but this goes over it in great detail. It also pretty much shows how IE’s approach builds in safe guards from this happening again (at least as may directly affect IE and for the same cause, ...but could see mobile being in trouble). Personally, I think PS & X-box could be in trouble as well, but for different reasons (i.e., diminishing returns for customers).  Who knows, in a perfect storm IE may end up being what Nintendo was in the 80’s, in how they resurrected the industry. 
 

Thanks again and gets my strong recommendation for a listen. 

Tommy, Amico was not mentioned in the parts I listened to. 

I just watched it and believe some of them could work if allowed.

13 minutes ago, LePionnier said:

 

Listening to now.  thx

TJ

Hey @LordRayken, I have a couple of questions for you and I'm sure I'm not the only one who wonders this.

After reading your first and second message, we now know that you believe that:

- An Android TV device does exactly the same as the Amico for only $30

- All games in a 15 Android TV game list, many of which are single player, offer more features than any game on the Amico

- The only thing that differentiates the Amico is that it comes with 2 controllers out of the box

- Tommy is not convincing anyone outside of this topic

- You have to be uneducated to like the Amico

- The games on the Amico look very old

- The Amico must match the graphics of the retro style racing game Horizon Chase so you're not disappointed

- Tommy must show graphics that are better than the Wii, because at this point they are much worse

- You are not a hater and you are on Tommy's side

So my questions would be:

1) Could you share with us what you actually like about the console?

2) Have you considered that perhaps this console is not for you?

😇

It looks like the ReviewTechUSA interview just came out.

2 hours ago, Jeffrey Bouchard said:

I just watched it and believe some of them could work if allowed.

I think all the 2D games and 2.5D renditions of the simpler 3D games. Tommy has been saying since the beginning that it cannot do 3D, so I am not sure why Lord Rayken picked a 3D one as a benchmark. I suspect this is what traditional hardcore gamer fans are using as a base level 3D that the Amico cannot do due to a lack of 3D to pick something impossible for it to achieve, despite plenty of 2D cartoon graphics in plenty of popular recent video games.   It’s pretty clear Tommy was right a year ago that modern hardcore gamers would pick apart the processor limits. 

1 minute ago, IntelliMission said:

It looks like the ReviewTechUSA interview just came out.

just listened to it all.  Was good.  tj

4 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

I think that maybe you haven't plugged in a Wii for awhile as it could only do 720

I don't know if you haven't plugged in one as well, but I'm afraid it couldn't; Wii's resolution was only 480p (or 576i). 😅

So yeah, Amico games can look better than Wii games, but then it's a matter of art direction, and it's highly subjective indeed.

7 hours ago, LordRayken said:

 

 

it pains me to say bu these are better than what amico has shown us too.

 

 

I think the Amico's art direction is turning out great. It has a edgy style with some attitude. Definitely some SEGA era DNA there.

I'm much more interested in the Amico games than what you posted.

To me the Amico team has knocked it out of the park with it design choices. 

4 hours ago, Chuck D. Head said:

Tommy, I apologize if this was answered somewhere (I got way behind and had to speed-read the last ten pages), but....you mentioned awhile back that the system would come with five (or maybe six) games. Will these be pre-loaded or need to be downloaded? If they are pre-loaded, have you considered making one a download that people could pick to get them into the shop right away and also add some excitement of picking something that catches your eye in the shop.

Hi!,

Thanks for the question.

I like the idea... but would cause a bit of a problem with the different licenses and royalties.  We have thin margins at the beginning that we need to be super careful about.  That is why the FE & VIP Editions are such a good deal initially.

Easier to add an RFID card (from a logistics standpoint).