Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

Yo!,

I posted the GameDaily article today on Social Media.  The one where I give the real reason why we picked the 10.10 date for launch (article below).

Someone on Facebook just brought up another cool thing about the date 10.10 that I wasn't aware of.  Whether you're religious or not... this is still pretty cool.

John 10:10 - I have come that you may have life, and have life to the full.

Amico was born!  And Intellivision reborn!

https://gamedaily.biz/article/1680/intellivision-amico-receives-10000-preorders-only-needs-180000-sold-to-hit-break-even-point?fbclid=IwAR0RtGhdTTEA2isWtTf_iArr4n4iLq64cEXyQUEZfqQqGz2_t1A8MSpx11g

Amico's Making Intellivision Great Again...  We'll call it "AMIGA" for short.  Oh. Wait. So THAT's where they came up with that name.

6 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Yo!,

 

I posted the GameDaily article today on Social Media.  The one where I give the real reason why we picked the 10.10 date for launch (article below).

 

https://gamedaily.biz/article/1680/intellivision-amico-receives-10000-preorders-only-needs-180000-sold-to-hit-break-even-point?fbclid=IwAR0RtGhdTTEA2isWtTf_iArr4n4iLq64cEXyQUEZfqQqGz2_t1A8MSpx11g

 

Really nice reason for the launch date, lovely tribute.

3 hours ago, Relicgamer said:

Ha ha I'm in the same camp.  Nuon owner and only to have tempest 3000. And it wasnt cheap to acquire it all. Controllers are hard to fund now. But we are a rare breed. But Tommy's correct with the math. This console is a steal in  my eyes. And withtye future titles not costing me 60 bucks each its a hugh bargain.  Not sure how people dont get that. And this is headed by one of the best in the industry.  So I'm in 100% and how can people even slap 500+ on a serious x when they wo t even have games on launch lol but these are the same kind of people arguing cost. Lol its hilarious to me.

If the Nuon came out a year or two earlier, as it should have, I think we'd have a slightly different video game landscape now.  Although we don't see it in any of the released games, it could Ray Trace way back in the late 90s. I lived near VM labs in California. Got to see a few demos. The offices were a small hop skip and a jump away from my favorite Tower Records.

I understand that the Series X is backwards compatible with all the old Xbox games.  If so, I'd dust off my copy of Crimson Skies for the OG Xbox. If needed, I can use my Duke controller to block the sun on bright days. Use it for Shelter. Probably lose the Amico under it if I set it down on top... 

29 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Yo!,

 

I posted the GameDaily article today on Social Media.  The one where I give the real reason why we picked the 10.10 date for launch (article below).

 

Someone on Facebook just brought up another cool thing about the date 10.10 that I wasn't aware of.  Whether you're religious or not... this is still pretty cool.

 

John 10:10 - I have come that you may have life, and have life to the full.

 

Amico was born!  And Intellivision reborn!

 

 

https://gamedaily.biz/article/1680/intellivision-amico-receives-10000-preorders-only-needs-180000-sold-to-hit-break-even-point?fbclid=IwAR0RtGhdTTEA2isWtTf_iArr4n4iLq64cEXyQUEZfqQqGz2_t1A8MSpx11g

 

That was a good article Tommy.  I like the reasoning behind the Amico's launch date.  I wasn't sure at first why that date was chosen but now it all makes sense.  Also I like the scripture verse, it ties in very nicely.  

5 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Since you guys are talking with Sega, I'd love to see Thunder Force and Herzog Zwei with Tommy Tallarico audio on the Amico! I think they own the rights to all of the Technosoft games now. A bit of a stretch, but I'd still love to hear it.

 

And you know what? If there was such a thing as a Kolibri/Thunder Force/Herzog Zwei remake on the Amico, it would be a great place to stick in some authentic YM2612 music samples for that awesome FM sound. I think Yuzo is still using the damn thing even now for some projects on occasion.

i second all of that. And if they can get yuzo on board for a new (grassroots, true to form) streets of rage (or shinobi) game that everyone's been clamoring for since the dreamcast, then the amico will take all the spoils in the 9th gen. console wars.

56 minutes ago, Relicgamer said:

I personall dont have experience with 2000. Use to havejaguar but it quit working many years ago.  Never had 2000 but its on my short list. From what ive heard 2000 seemed a bit better due to 3000 having a butt load of psychedelic lighting effects which can make it difficult to play.  But 3000 is great to me. It does take some getting use to. Couple of weeks back I started it and 1st try got to level 12 which I couldn't believe tried 2nd time did it again.  Lol theres a guy making a proper spindle controller for it but it requires butchering a controller.  Definitely not ready to do that. Controllers are next to impossible to find and can cost upwards of 300 bucks now. I feel the Amico would be a perfect place for a new tempest 5000 lol the controller I think could be a nice match.

 

At my old job, I used to bring my older machines into work for "Retrogaming Fridays". Whenever the Jaguar came with me. Tempest 2000 would be played above all the other games. You get used to the controller. It becomes second nature. When the Nuon came in, they would all put in T3K . Same with that Batwing controller for T3K. You got used to it. My logitech controller died within a few months of getting it and I never got another.  Both versions are great games and worth the price of each system. Same for TxK for the Vita. And Temest 4000 for the PS4/XbOne.  I do have to pick up a copy for the XBone.  I would like to try each of them with a Spinner though.... That would be amazing!

That begs a question: Any chance of Specialized controllers for the Amico Tommy? Like a Spinner? Trackball? Light gun? Steering wheel? Steel Battalion controller? OK that last one may put the game slightly over the $10.00 mark.

4 hours ago, wolfy62 said:

Man,I am really sorry I missed this game BITD,and I had a Commodore 64 too!

I was always looking for arcade style games for it because a computer was worthless to me as a computer.😄

My friends and I would have loved it for sure.

CCS64 or Vice64... Google to find games... And you're in.  The emulators work as good as the original, minus the wait time.

I've been running these things for years 

2 hours ago, GrudgeQ said:

Unfortunately my German is limited to critical survival phases like Bier and Schweineschnitzel (basically just the important stuff ;)) but I wanted to get this posted for any German speakers here:

 

 

I probably could have picked out a few more words here and there, but they talk too schnell (fast). Langsam bitte (slower please).

What a couple of Ashlochen! (do you really need a translate?)

Witze machen (just joking around).

I'm sure they said ausgeseignet (outstanding).

Grudge, 2 VERY important German phrases...

Haben sie zimmer zum heute abend? (Do you have a room tonight?)

Haben sie spiegel über das bett? (Do you have a mirror over your bed?)

3 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Yo!,

 

I posted the GameDaily article today on Social Media.  The one where I give the real reason why we picked the 10.10 date for launch (article below).

 

Someone on Facebook just brought up another cool thing about the date 10.10 that I wasn't aware of.  Whether you're religious or not... this is still pretty cool.

 

John 10:10 - I have come that you may have life, and have life to the full.

 

Amico was born!  And Intellivision reborn!

 

 

https://gamedaily.biz/article/1680/intellivision-amico-receives-10000-preorders-only-needs-180000-sold-to-hit-break-even-point?fbclid=IwAR0RtGhdTTEA2isWtTf_iArr4n4iLq64cEXyQUEZfqQqGz2_t1A8MSpx11g

 

Wow that was a good article.  Never knew the 10/10 . It puts this into a much more passionate journey.  Makes it even more important.  

On 4/13/2020 at 2:28 PM, Cranker said:

Xbox one also had problems when they launched Xbox One with Kinect for 499 vs PS4 at 399. Sometimes base price can make or break a system as they had to lower it the price to 399 by removing the Kinect from the bundle which consumers did not seem to see much value in as a pack in. This is not the same situation for the Amico but it does show that people are very price sensitive when comparing 2 very similar products. Throwing in the Crappy Kinect and throwing in 6 games and a controller are 2 different things of course and in the case of MS and Sony it was direct competition. I think IE is getting it right with this bundle, and believe the consumers They are targeting will see tremendous value in it. 

Agreed.  The Amico is going to have to play the 'value' card as much as possible.  And I believe it does have a lot value and will be able to hammer that point home pretty well.  Still, people will look at the price and compare it to what else is out there.  It is just going happen.  Personally, if the Amico was still in the $180 to $200 range this would make it a whole more enticing to my own-self, and I believe a lot of others in general.  But, at the $225 to $250 price range, I believe it make things tougher for the Amico as that places it in the Sony, MS, and Switch area with some of their console SKUs.  However, I do believe the Amico can find success and may just be the little console that could.  Time will only tell.  That being said, a lot can happen between now and October and perhaps things yet to come will help the Amico, or could hinder it.  I hope it is the former rather than the latter.

19 hours ago, BigDumer said:

I know many people here know, but Earl Weaver Baseball (Amiga, Apple II, DOS) was made by Don Daglow and Eddie Dombrower.  Don Daglow is a Blue Sky Ranger who made Utopia and World Series Baseball and oversaw the development of many other Intellivision games. Eddie Dombrower also worked on World Series Baseball and then on Earl Weaver with Don.  Many of the innovations they made on World Series Baseball (especially in stats and simulation) were carried over to Earl Weaver Baseball which became a big hit for EA.

 

Source: Intellivisionaries Podcast.

I can't tell you how many hours I lost to Earl Weaver BB for the amiga. I still play it on emulator at times and while the graphics are obviously dated, the gameplay and realism is just as good as anything since then. The only thing feature it lacked was a CPU/AI team personnel management and simulated games. I was a great game though.

18 hours ago, RxScram said:

Hey @Michael Garvey,

 

Sorry it took so long to answer this. I had to make sure @Tommy Tallarico wasn't looking over my shoulder when I answered.  😛

 

Tommy is the best kind of boss... he's passionate about the project, hires people who are passionate (and damned good at what they do), and then gives directions (sometimes REALLY out there!) and then lets the team go to work. No need to micromanage, just an expectation that the people he hires is going to do what they are good at. Then, for the things he does, it's really eye opening to see somebody with his vision get to work. Audio, music, game design (more from the standpoint of "wouldn't it be more fun if this happened"), aesthetic design, etc.... he's just really damned good, plain and simple.

 

The overall atmosphere is relaxed and fun, but with an expectation that you'll get done what you need to get done, and that you'll help the team achieve overall success.

Best kind of work environment there is and am lucky enough to have the same; think it is too rare these days and took me a long, long, long time and some not so great work environments to get there. 

12 hours ago, vongruetz said:

From a business perspective, American Girl has Amico written all over it.

 

Huge customer base. Appeals to pre-teen girls and moms. Mattel owned property. Edutainment focused. Affluent customer base.

 

And there aren't any console games for it anymore.  Just not sure who has the license. THQ made some games years ago, and now most everything is just mobile games. 

Great, and they can bring their Amico with them to their doll hair cut/coloring spa, lunch, outfit shopping, optometrist appointment day.
 

Think I am kidding, look it up

18 hours ago, MinerWilly said:

Yes! Klax is a must for Amico. I had fun times playing it with my Atari Lynx.

 

For those younger than 40, here is the original version of Klax (also called Jacob’s ladder).  This is the stuff we had to play with before Atari and Intellivision. 
 

Now maybe you’ll start to understand why those systems meant so much to our childhood. 😂

4 minutes ago, Starpaddler said:

Great, and they can bring their Amico with them to their doll hair cut/coloring spa, lunch, outfit shopping, optometrist appointment day.
 

Think I am kidding, look it up

LOL totally true, and you forgot to mention the dolls go for between $60 & $100 each. However they are backed by a series of hundred of books and a store experience like Build A Bear. They have hit a bit of a slump lately with more competition in the custom made doll market so they are refocusing on their roots - historic, period dolls backed by girl empowered stories. Think of it as Little Women backed by the doll series & in store experience. Especially with their brand in a bit of a slump, this might be a great time to approach them. They definitely have a following and are backed by parents because of their empowered girl positioning.

2 hours ago, Hwlngmad said:

Agreed.  The Amico is going to have to play the 'value' card as much as possible.  And I believe it does have a lot value and will be able to hammer that point home pretty well.  Still, people will look at the price and compare it to what else is out there.  It is just going happen.  Personally, if the Amico was still in the $180 to $200 range this would make it a whole more enticing to my own-self, and I believe a lot of others in general.  But, at the $225 to $250 price range, I believe it make things tougher for the Amico as that places it in the Sony, MS, and Switch area with some of their console SKUs.  However, I do believe the Amico can find success and may just be the little console that could.  Time will only tell.  That being said, a lot can happen between now and October and perhaps things yet to come will help the Amico, or could hinder it.  I hope it is the former rather than the latter.

It is true that most people will look at the base price for the Amico and may disregard the fact that it comes with 2 controllers and 6 games. This will have to be communicated to the consumer properly. For example , people look at the PS4 and say it’s 399 and don’t think about it The fact that They will most likely buy an extra controller and a few games as well. Its the 399 that sticks in their head. We know the value of the Amico but I hope the average consumer can be made aware and can appreciate the value proposition of the Amico With their marketing plan . It won’t be easy but I trust IE has the marketing plan down !!! I think it’s an amazing value and love that we get everything we need out of the box......but most people do tend to look at the bottom line price and disregard the high cost of the extras they are buying that add to base price which can be 100-200 at a minimum. 

20 minutes ago, CurlyQ said:

 

8 hours ago, RetroAdvisoryBoard said:

I know, it's nice to have some optimists frequently pop up in my subscriber lists.

 

In his latest video (unless he's uploaded three more in the time it takes to post this, he's quick.  Scary quick.  Twitch game fanatic quick), Pete revealed he'll be participating in the "Extra Life" charity supporting Children's Miracle Network hospitals, taking place every Nov 7th.  They've raised $70 million since starting in 2008.  People stream games, viewers donate.  That on top of a giveaway he's doing to donate a VIP edition Amico when he hits 1,000 subscribers.  One of my favorite channels.  Favourite. 

 

It'd be really fun to show support where we can, if people can show up to cheer him on, maybe have some milestone donations they'd want to make for certain games - also spread the word in whatever platforms you have decent reach as his live-stream gets closer.  If anybody else plans to participate, let's get a list together over the next several months so we can show some Intellivision love for this event.  Maybe we get Pete and anybody else participating a custom screen-print of one of those Imagic cycling shirts.. 🙂  Maybe Intellivision has plans already to get involved - Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony have all supported this several years running, donating directly and/or putting together teams under the company umbrella.  How cool would it be to have some of the great Intellivision talent playing brand new Amico games or playing some favorite classics and talking a little about making those games, or approved "reveals" of upcoming games?  That'd drive some pretty big traffic, and since the games are much shorter, probably easier to keep an audience engaged and hit certain milestones, achievements for the audience to root for.  We could probably put together running lists of some achievable milestones for classic Intellivision games and some Amico games as more info gets released, maybe run some bullet lists past cmart, Nurminex, Rick & co. on the 125 (and homebrews?!) as fun fact talking points if any Intellivision streamer needs any points for small talk - help educate an audience not necessarily all that familiar with the legacy, help entertain the audience and encourage participation/donation.  A lively stream just encourages more small donations.  And if Intellivision had a press release in December announcing the totals from various streaming charity push.. that'd be pretty damn spiffy.    

 

Any global/regional charitable events coming up that do something similar, share it here!  Don't want to just make this North America-centric, especially with Intellivision offices in Nuremberg and Dubai and some members from around the globe.  This one's a 12-year old charity with a good reputation.

 

Thoughts? 

Yep I was glad to hear Pete is participating in the Extra Life event. Rick actually does it each year as well and I have to nudge him to not forget to advertise that fact since his goal is to raise funds for Children's Hospital. Hopefully those who can afford to donate will do so to both of these kindly gents. 👍🏻

29 minutes ago, Blarneo said:

 

You know when your opponent plays back your attack *twice* it is because you are making yourself look worse than the person you are attacking.

8 hours ago, BiffMan said:

More, please!! 🙂

 

That's a delightful tease of how the screen might be used during gameplay and a delightfully creative example of a little nudge to help folks catch up.  Nothing unbalanced, just a little help.  

 

What else? Huh? Huh? Pretty please? We promise not to tell anyone! 😇

Don’t they have something like this on PS4 games as well?  I thought It’s something you can find in a loot box. 🥴

1 hour ago, GrudgeQ said:

LOL totally true, and you forgot to mention the dolls go for between $60 & $100 each. However they are backed by a series of hundred of books and a store experience like Build A Bear. They have hit a bit of a slump lately with more competition in the custom made doll market so they are refocusing on their roots - historic, period dolls backed by girl empowered stories. Think of it as Little Women backed by the doll series & in store experience. Especially with their brand in a bit of a slump, this might be a great time to approach them. They definitely have a following and are backed by parents because of their empowered girl positioning

One thing I would say about the American Girl lines is that they are quality products.  With three girls we dropped some money on those products many a Christmas and birthdays.  Yes, those dolls were $100 but they were made extremely well.  The clothing and accessories were top notch as far as quality goes.  Just like the gaming crowd they have collectors also.  Those $100 dolls that are 15-20 years old are now worth $400-$800. 

Tommy, is Sea Battle on the short list?

Also, just want to confirm you got Craps added to the list as well; that's a sure buy for myself.