Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

16 minutes ago, AtariSociety said:

So that means nearing 13000 Amico sold to date then since FE sold 2600.  Wow!

Great News!

TJ

Just about to beat the atari vcs preorder numbers . 

And Atari spent money promoting that  

So, just wanted to say hi to everyone. Been a 13 day work streak for me. Looking forward to a day off.

Got the PS2 compilation in yesterday. It was amazing going back and playing Thunder Castle again for the first time in ages!

Shark! Shark! is sooo much fun with my son. Looking forward to the Amico version more now!

Also, is it wierd that 14 people are on youtube waiting for tonight's interview, and it's still 25 mins out? My guess is it's all folks from on here.

Amazing news on the VIP! 10K + FE are strong numbers, doubly so when you consider it's basically been word-of-mouth (or, it's digital equivalent).

Additionally, I wanted to thank Michael Garvey for a random thought that popped in my head at work a few days ago.

It was a particularly rough morning, and my crew was looking a little down. I was in the middle of a 13 day stretch (thankfully over today), and thought, 'what's a good morale-boosting line for this situation?'

Then it hit:

'Gents, let's make John Alvarado proud!'

They had no clue what I was talking about. I'm still chuckling to myself about it, a little.

Incidentally, when explaining it to my assistant later in the day, I showed him a few of the Meet Amico! videos. He pre-ordered a glacier white VIP package.

I'd like to think I sold him on it, but in truth, it was Missle Command!

17 minutes ago, LePionnier said:

Hi ! I don't know if somebody already post this information ?

10 000  VIP Editions sold !

https://venturebeat.com/2020/04/04/intellivision-takes-more-than-10000-vip-edition-preorders-for-amico-console-in-a-few-days/

That’s awesome. Great to hear. I’m confused about a couple things.  Great to hear about all the retail pre-order interest as well. 

Does 10,000 orders mean 10,000 units or 10,000 orders that may include multiple units? Nit-picky question, but could mean it’s more like 13,000 plus the 2600 FEs. 

What does retro brand mean? If you google it, all you get is a T-shirt company. 

2 minutes ago, Swami said:

That’s awesome. Great to hear. I’m confused about a couple things.  Great to hear about all the retail pre-order interest as well. 

 

Does 10,000 orders mean 10,000 units or 10,000 orders that may include multiple units? Nit-picky question, but could mean it’s more like 13,000 plus the 2600 FEs. 

 

What does retro brand mean? If you google it, all you get is a T-shirt company. 

 

What it means is that there are a lot of cards Tommy is going to need to sign.  Time to make another trip to Office Max and get some more Sharpies.

Did @Tommy Tallarico post the link to the youtube battle yet?

29 minutes ago, LePionnier said:

Hi ! I don't know if somebody already post this information ?

10 000  VIP Editions sold !

https://venturebeat.com/2020/04/04/intellivision-takes-more-than-10000-vip-edition-preorders-for-amico-console-in-a-few-days/

Never in Doubt, I better get another order in now, for friends, yes friend!

Just now, RxScram said:

Did @Tommy Tallarico post the link to the youtube battle yet?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN5baFhPSEk

39 minutes ago, LePionnier said:

Hi ! I don't know if somebody already post this information ?

10 000  VIP Editions sold !

https://venturebeat.com/2020/04/04/intellivision-takes-more-than-10000-vip-edition-preorders-for-amico-console-in-a-few-days/

Well that's really good news! 

3 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

No.

 

I can tell you a few that were on "the list" though.

 

Intellivision Spark

Intellivision Quest

Intellivision Prism

 

 

I found another list I found oddly here in Illinois and not in California.  I don't know how it got here.  Here's some additional items,

Intellivision model 4 (IM4)
Intellivision Golf
Intellivision Mega Drive
Intellivision U NO!
Intellivision DoubleYou DOUBLE NO!!
Intellivision 180
Milk
Butter
Egg

8 minutes ago, Intellivision Master said:

 

chat is disabled for live stream?

Is anybody seeing anything? I've got no chat either?

Stream seems like it's on hold for some reason.

Just now, Swami said:

Is anybody seeing anything? I've got no chat either?

He's on a new stream

Watch "Tommy Tallrico Interview" on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnJOsoKZD34

4 minutes ago, Swami said:

chat is disabled for live stream?

The chat is gone.  There are technical difficulties with the stream.

This is the new stream: 

3 minutes ago, Intellivision Master said:

The chat is gone.  There are technical difficulties with the stream.

Now I understand why it's not a video chat ! 🙄

1 minute ago, LePionnier said:

Now I understand why it's not a video chat ! 🙄

here, no video just an black screen and a lot of us talking 

So it's an conversation with a guy who is of the mindset "Nobody plays the Wii anymore. Kids only want mobile games. I don't get it." ??

Just now, vongruetz said:

So it's an conversation with a guy who is of the mindset "Nobody plays the Wii anymore. Kids only want mobile games. I don't get it." ??

i'm going to have to listen to this when i have time later but from the clip i heard it might get heated! lol 

1 minute ago, ASalvaro said:

i'm going to have to listen to this when i have time later but from the clip i heard it might get heated! lol 

From what I was hearing, it was Tommy saying that people could play together again, and the other guy is just going to be a brickwall.  That's fine. There are people like that, but I don't see why you need to debate someone who isn't going to listen. It's like talking politics with my mother. I won't see her side and she won't see mine. So we talk about other things.

9 minutes ago, vongruetz said:

So it's an conversation with a guy who is of the mindset "Nobody plays the Wii anymore. Kids only want mobile games. I don't get it." ??

This guy sounds completely clueless.  So closed minded it's unbelievable.  Why would anyone be against a new system trying to make fun games and encourage family play?  What is wrong with that?  If he doesn't like it or want it, then don't buy it.  It's that simple.

Plus he spelled Tommy's last name wrong in the title of the video...wow.

1 hour ago, IntyFanMatt said:

Why would anyone be against a new system trying to make fun games and encourage family play?  What is wrong with that?  If he doesn't like it or want it, then don't buy it.  It's that simple.

I wonder the same thing.  You'd think that most people would be enthusiastic about the idea.  Even if they believe it's hopeless, you'd think they'd simply refrain from buying it, let the marketplace do its job, and see it fail on its own.  But for whatever reason, there are some who seem to be so troubled by the very idea of the Amico that they're rooting for it to fail, have already decided how and why it's going to fail, and have taken to trolling, here and elsewhere, to remind us every day.

All these deranged reactions remind me a lot of the ugly reactions years ago to Brenda Laurel, a video game designer and researcher who founded a startup in the 90s called Purple Moon.  Its mission was to produce software specifically for girls; like the Amico, it was as positive and as well-intentioned a venture as you could imagine, and exactly the kind of innovation that everyone in the industry claimed to want.  But, when she actually did it, she came under all kinds of criticism: that it was sexist, that it was exclusionary, that it perpetuated gender stereotypes, that it was just a marketing scam, etc.  Unsurprisingly, most of the people who ganged up on her had a vested interest in the status quo and felt threatened by what she was doing, though they would never admit it.  I first learned about the incident from Chris Crawford, and his remarks about her critics can be applied to the critics of the Amico as well:

Quote

It is not my place, nor any of the critics' place, to determine the entertainment value of this software; we're not the target audience. The people who should decide are the girls themselves. Let them play with it, let them determine its entertainment value. And not just one or two girls, but thousands. If they like it, they'll play it more, and Purple Moon will have proven the entertainment value of its work -- and made a bundle of money. If they don't like it, Purple Moon bites the dust and Brenda Laurel takes it in the chin. So we have a perfectly good means of determining the entertainment value of this software. Why are these buttinsky's stacking the deck before Purple Moon has its fair chance?

(Simply replace "Brenda Laurel", "girls", and "Purple Moon" with "Tommy Tallarico", "families", and "Intellivision Entertainment", respectively.  I think the observation fits perfectly.)