Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

1 hour ago, Swami said:

Well, it makes sense that every game would involve calculating the inverse tangent of log base 6 in octadecimal. 

"*Simple* Affordable Family Entertainment" my AtariSA! (sorry I know swearing is discouraged here). Oh well, you know what they say, the family that, er, finds derivatives together, stays together.

2 hours ago, GrudgeQ said:

"*Simple* Affordable Family Entertainment" my AtariSA!

Is the S.A.F.E. acronym intentional?🤔

i would love to be able to buy stock in the company at some point 

1 hour ago, Swami said:

Is the S.A.F.E. acronym intentional?🤔

I really think so because it is pretty perfect - took me a while to notice it too. I bet this is prominently on the box and/or instore kiosks in a first letter cap checklist format.

55 minutes ago, ASalvaro said:

i would love to be able to buy stock in the company at some point 

Looks like they are still open to series A round funding if you are whale - may take awhile for shrimps like me to be able to get in ;). Actually I wouldn’t doubt this is pretty closely held through the life of the company, I think Tommy likes the control to keep the vision in focus (total speculation of course).

https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/intellivision-entertainment#section-funding-rounds

3 hours ago, Swami said:

Is the S.A.F.E. acronym intentional?🤔

Sorry for the double answer but confirmed in this radio Dubai interview (9:10 in):

https://omny.fm/shows/dubai-today/intellivision-entertainment-25-06-2019#description

Although I am excited for the Amico I really don't buy into Tommy argument that games are too complex now-a-days. They are easy as

123.............................................................................................................................................................994,995,996,997...

Really looking forward to the release of the Amico.

I have shown pictures and videos to my 7 year old daughter and she really likes what she has seen!
She wants the the purple one and it will be cool to have it next to my Intv System 3 for ”generational” comparison.

But I do have some thoughts on the latest trailer.
To me it is good but not great basically...😉
 

First of all the music is good but feels too dramatic.
This is is a fun console. The music should be the same.

And IMHO the trailer is a bit too long and does not focus enough on some of the selling points.

I think these points should be clearer in the next trailer:
 

• ·         Kids friendly - none of the the realistic bloody vilolence games that can appear on other consoles.  
  My personal opinion is that this is the most important thing.
   
• ·         The controllers are like the smartphones the kids play on these days, and they can use their smart phones as extra controllers. Show people sitting together playing.
  
  (BTW, will you be able to buy extra Amico controllers?)
   
• ·         Low cost – The console intself AND especially the games.
   
• ·         Plug and Play – You are up and running in no time compared to other consoles
   
• Not just remakes of retro games but also completely new games.
   

So, thats just from the top of my head right now and I am sure the marketing will be great.

Anyways,

Good luck and keep up the great work!

On 8/25/2019 at 6:20 PM, Noah98 said:

Thanks for the response Tommy! Can the games be backed up as well?

We are looking at the best solutions out there to make this happen.  Piracy becomes a huge issue unfortunately.  For a machine like ours, combating piracy is going to be an important element as it could literally take down the entire project if not handled properly.  We're hoping that for the incredible value that people receive that folks would be less likely to steal.  But unfortunately we live in a day and age where people have no consideration for all of the hard work, risk and creativity goes into something that can so easily be stolen.

So the answer is... we hope so!  But not at the risk of destroying the entire project.   
 

On 8/25/2019 at 6:23 PM, King_Salamon said:

Now what about the physical media sales?  If I purchase all the games via physical media (I love retail packaging as an old gamer from the 70's and early 80's... aren't most of us here?) will they require to be stored on the system's hard drive or can they play off the 'cart' (for lack of a better term)?

 

Another reason to purchase physical would be for the next Utopia game as I am hoping that there will be a small manual which has been sorely missing from the current generation of games.  A little artwork and something to read while waiting at the mall for the Mrs. to do her shopping would be a treat (not to mention, take me back to reading manuals to new games in the backseat of the car on the way home).

 

Regardless, I'm excited to see how things develop in the next 13 months and change. 

I can't answer this question at this time.  Sorry.  It has to do with filing patents.  But all will be revealed next year.

 

On 8/25/2019 at 7:55 PM, imstarryeyed said:

As I follow and contribute on this thread something dawned on me..   Tommy is doing a great job on answering our questions, something that really doesn't happen from bigger companies at all with their communities.  I mean I was not a hard sell for the idea since the beginning but after his involvement in this board and his obvious passion he has for this I am, hopefully like others, have become an advocate for the awareness of Amico to my friends and family.

 

I also hope this board has helped him and his team understand the "gaps" in communication and where at least "some customers" are coming from as we on this board most likely do not represent all of this clientele.  I would hope that his team continues to utilize this board and users to help shape future games and concepts for Amico, as from what I have seen, when the board works with a developer usually the game or idea they are building turns out to be much better than what the original developer intended.  

 

The way I see it, if a group of interested folks like us, who knew and grew up with the Intellivision and understand his vision, still have so many questions, then I can only imagine those folks who did not benefit from that background may have.  I hope that data is useful to them.

 

I really want this console to succeed as it seems like the first modern console in a long time that I, and my friends, are actually very excited about.  It seems to have the passion and understanding of exactly what I was looking for in a modern console.

 

Thanks! 

To be honest, the biggest reason I come here so frequently is because I love being around fellow original Intellivision lovers like myself.  And for the most part it's been a pretty positive place (probably given that we are all a little bit older and more mature than most message board posters). 

But yes... I have used feedback in this thread about certain things that has helped me to make decisions regarding certain things.  So THANK-YOU Atari Age Intellivision folks!!!!!!!!  

 

On 8/25/2019 at 9:49 PM, GrudgeQ said:

I agree Tommy has really communicated his passion with this community and hopefully we are helping at least in honing the message and being reasonable advocates for the platform against knee jerk dismissals by the pundits.

 

Of course a lot of the questions we have are because Tommy can’t announce the full vision due to the need to keep some marketing hype back - and I am sure some things are still in flux a year out too.

 

Also we really aren’t the core demographic for the Amico but instead often are typically focused on retro gaming/collecting which means we are interested in certain features WAY more than most people would be.  I appreciate that they are including the OG Intellivision games and some form of physical games as a nod to this community. Physical games might have an important sales role outside of this group but the OG games really is just honoring the Intellivision history a bit.

 

Overall I do want to say a huge “Thank You” to Tommy for trusting this community enough to involve us in the early days of the Amico launch. After all I hear the proper way to do it is to announce the product then just about go into pre-orders but cancel that, fire everyone involved, wait a year and then really launch pre-orders, take everyone’s money, and ignore all forms of regular communication except to announce a series of delays (each one claiming to improve a product which hasn’t come into existence yet). Bonus points for hiring a key engineer who is both accident prone & has dangerous hobbies - but Tommy is new to this and so can be forgiven.

 

 

 

Thanks!  I really appreciate your post.  It really means a lot to me.

GROUP HUG!!!!!

18 hours ago, GrudgeQ said:

"*Simple* Affordable Family Entertainment" my AtariSA! (sorry I know swearing is discouraged here). Oh well, you know what they say, the family that, er, finds derivatives together, stays together.

What the?!?!?  Hahahhaa!!  I never heard or seen that definition before.  Hilarious!!

16 hours ago, Swami said:

Is the S.A.F.E. acronym intentional?🤔

Yep!  Paul came up with that!  For a year I was saying Simple, Affordable, Family, Fun (in all the previously trailers and press releases and interviews).  I had a big poster printed up in our E3 booth this year with those 4 words and our logo.  Paul comes over to me and says... "Y'know... if you made the last word Entertainment instead... it was spell out S.A.F.E."   GENIUS!!!!!!!  I've been using SAFE ever since!

In the new trailer I was going to take each of the letters in that section and show viewers that it spelled out safe... but then 3 mass shootings happened within a week and I didn't want people to think I was using the shooting to further our agenda... so I edited the SAFE part out of the trailer.  We will be using S.A.F.E. in the future for sure... but the timing wasn't right to unveil it.  I do use and say it in interviews and when I talk to people about it in person though.

But you get the Stan Lee No-Prize for mentioning it first!!  Woo-hoo!!!!

14 hours ago, GrudgeQ said:

Looks like they are still open to series A round funding if you are whale - may take awhile for shrimps like me to be able to get in ;). Actually I wouldn’t doubt this is pretty closely held through the life of the company, I think Tommy likes the control to keep the vision in focus (total speculation of course).

 

https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/intellivision-entertainment#section-funding-rounds

Yeah... we are just about finished with Round A, the minimum is around a $500K buy-in from qualified firms or investors.  We have one of the biggest investment bankers on the planet behind us... so money raising is not an issue.  We have an incredible CFO who is a very successful and great friend of mine.  Super smart and super successful.  Also, my best friend and one of the co-founders of the new company is David Perry... who raised over $50M for Gaikai (one of the creators of cloud gaming) before selling it to Sony for around $380M!  Our corporate attorney's are Morgan Lewis... check their Wiki page to see how huge they are!  They represent most of the Fortune 100 companies on the planet as well as presidents and many other high wealth corporations and individuals.

To say we have the smartest "money" people around us is an understatement.  I've chosen the folks around me wisely.  Without a AAA team of passionate, experienced and hard working folks... this project wouldn't be possible.  And it's really the main difference between a "crowd-funded" project and something that will be real and successful.  People completely overlook it and I don't talk about it much.  But everything is very real and very top shelf.  I wouldn't want it any other way. 

12 hours ago, GrudgeQ said:

Although I am excited for the Amico I really don't buy into Tommy argument that games are too complex now-a-days. They are easy as

123.............................................................................................................................................................994,995,996,997...

Hahaha!  That's a good one!  And that's on the "family friendly" Switch! 

These are the ones I use in our investor deck...

 

1 hour ago, NumbThumb said:

Really looking forward to the release of the Amico.

I have shown pictures and videos to my 7 year old daughter and she really likes what she has seen!
She wants the the purple one and it will be cool to have it next to my Intv System 3 for ”generational” comparison.

But I do have some thoughts on the latest trailer.
To me it is good but not great basically...😉
 

First of all the music is good but feels too dramatic.
This is is a fun console. The music should be the same.

And IMHO the trailer is a bit too long and does not focus enough on some of the selling points.

I think these points should be clearer in the next trailer:
 

• ·         Kids friendly - none of the the realistic bloody vilolence games that can appear on other consoles.  
  My personal opinion is that this is the most important thing.
   
• ·         The controllers are like the smartphones the kids play on these days, and they can use their smart phones as extra controllers. Show people sitting together playing.
  
  (BTW, will you be able to buy extra Amico controllers?)
   
• ·         Low cost – The console intself AND especially the games.
   
• ·         Plug and Play – You are up and running in no time compared to other consoles
   
• Not just remakes of retro games but also completely new games.
   

So, thats just from the top of my head right now and I am sure the marketing will be great.

Anyways,

Good luck and keep up the great work!

Thanks for the feedback.

The thing to remember about this particular trailer is that it was not meant for families and mom's.  That kind of marketing doesn't start until mid next year.  We have a LONG way to go before starting our "retail" marketing campaign.  This trailer was "red meat" for our fan base and to show YouTubers and the press that this is real and what our main goal is.  We needed to "fix" the message of the first trailer as most people thought it was only going to be a "retro" machine.  I put way too many old games in the original trailer and everyone glossed over the few seconds I put in of 20 brand new original games!  I did that mostly because the trailer was played at the Portland Retro Game Expo.  So that was my fault and I needed to correct it.  I needed gamers to know that we're not trying to compete with the big 3, but just trying to bring back people in a room together and that games for your non-gamer friends are too complicated which is why they aren't playing with you anymore.  We also wanted to show the real prototypes instead of just screen shots and drawings or renderings.  But the big pay-off were the 17 games at the end.  Everyone was thinking it was going to be a 16 or 32 bit looking sprite based 2D machine (no matter how many times I stated 2.5D!) 

So really... the goal of this trailer was for all of those things and for the audiences that are paying attention 14 months out.   And from that regard it was a massive and huge success.  A lot more positive comments around the internet and YouTube than negative ones.

The family/friendly stuff targeted to mom's is going to be very different and will start much later.

Hope that makes sense and helps in understanding what are goals were at this point.

2 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

We have an incredible CFO who is a very successful and great friend of mine.  Super smart and super successful.  Also, my best friend and one of the co-founders of the new company is David Perry... who raised over $50M for Gaikai (one of the creators of cloud gaming) before selling it to Sony for around $380M!  Our corporate attorney's are Morgan Lewis... check their Wiki page to see how huge they are!  They represent most of the Fortune 100 companies on the planet as well as presidents and many other high wealth corporations and individuals.

 

Pretty off topic but if you want to pass along some sage business advice to your kids here it is:

"When evaluating a business team always looks for equals that are willing to work with someone again".

The "equals" here is important. Money can hire splashy pedigree people (former CFO of Intel, etc.) - nice but they don't count very much. Equals also means they aren't ladder climbing by attaching themselves to something that looks more successful than what they got going on currently. Washed up NFL star head of marketing? Actually more of a warning than a good thing unless they appear really, really smart.

"Again" is also critical, a con man can con millionaires (it's just slightly harder than normal folks) so Richard Branson is an investor in a company - also great but that doesn't count very much either unless he has invested/worked with them before. Once you have worked with or are friends with some one then making the choice to enter into a business is a lot more impressive than a stranger.

So basically look for people who can pull in equally successful people that they have worked with in the past - the best sign I have found that things are on the up and up.

So when evaluating this statement as a measure of this company, CFO - very impressive, David Perry - very impressive, other players like the unmentioned Hans Ippisch - very impressive (plus some other key folks I can't remember offhand). Morgan Lewis - somewhat impressive. Obviously I am extremely impressed with the Intellivision Entertainment team - just wanted to pass along why and how I came to that determination.

1 hour ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

I needed gamers to know that we're not trying to compete with the big 3, but just trying to bring back people in a room together and that games for your non-gamer friends are too complicated which is why they aren't playing with you anymore. 

I think that this may be tough to achieve the right message in the right way. Many people may be staring at the word "together" and think: "multiplayer already exists!" or "ouch , another subscription to pay!" and so on... I'm sure you and your marketing team will do the miracle!

2 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Everyone was thinking it was going to be a 16 or 32 bit looking sprite based 2D machine (no matter how many times I stated 2.5D!) 

This is another point where some people (not so much fortunately) staring at. Which GPU will power the Amico? And the CPU? What are the hardware specifications? And so on... It's quite annoying but unfortunately we are living in the videogame "performace" era (teraflops, fps, GHz, cuda, etc) and many forgot the videogames "fun" era. I don't know if reach that people minds is possible or convenient, sincerely I don't now but, again I know you'll do a great job at!

3 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Yep!  Paul came up with that!  For a year I was saying Simple, Affordable, Family, Fun (in all the previously trailers and press releases and interviews).  I had a big poster printed up in our E3 booth this year with those 4 words and our logo.  Paul comes over to me and says... "Y'know... if you made the last word Entertainment instead... it was spell out S.A.F.E."   GENIUS!!!!!!!  I've been using SAFE ever since!

 

...

I'm going to start using "Amico" as my new safe word.

5 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Thanks for the feedback.

The thing to remember about this particular trailer is that it was not meant for families and mom's.  That kind of marketing doesn't start until mid next year.  We have a LONG way to go before starting our "retail" marketing campaign.  This trailer was "red meat" for our fan base and to show YouTubers and the press that this is real and what our main goal is.  We needed to "fix" the message of the first trailer as most people thought it was only going to be a "retro" machine.  I put way too many old games in the original trailer and everyone glossed over the few seconds I put in of 20 brand new original games!  I did that mostly because the trailer was played at the Portland Retro Game Expo.  So that was my fault and I needed to correct it.  I needed gamers to know that we're not trying to compete with the big 3, but just trying to bring back people in a room together and that games for your non-gamer friends are too complicated which is why they aren't playing with you anymore.  We also wanted to show the real prototypes instead of just screen shots and drawings or renderings.  But the big pay-off were the 17 games at the end.  Everyone was thinking it was going to be a 16 or 32 bit looking sprite based 2D machine (no matter how many times I stated 2.5D!) 

So really... the goal of this trailer was for all of those things and for the audiences that are paying attention 14 months out.   And from that regard it was a massive and huge success.  A lot more positive comments around the internet and YouTube than negative ones.

The family/friendly stuff targeted to mom's is going to be very different and will start much later.

Hope that makes sense and helps in understanding what are goals were at this point.

 

 

almost all the videos on youtube have been very positive and people are really excited about the Amico..well except the guy that commented on your backround decor which he liked but came off very sarcastic as well as the rest of his channel of big 3 fanboys...nevermind gotta concentrate on the positive! lol 

On 8/25/2019 at 9:23 PM, King_Salamon said:

Another reason to purchase physical would be for the next Utopia game as I am hoping that there will be a small manual which has been sorely missing from the current generation of games.  A little artwork and something to read while waiting at the mall for the Mrs. to do her shopping would be a treat (not to mention, take me back to reading manuals to new games in the backseat of the car on the way home).

I want a manual, a catalogue and goodies! It may seem strange, but having some sorts of memorabilia does increase the value I give to the game and therefore my interest in playing it. It doesn't have to be big or expensive. It can be some cheap Dollar Store quality crap. But I want something!

7 minutes ago, Papy said:

I want a manual, a catalogue and goodies! It may seem strange, but having some sorts of memorabilia does increase the value I give to the game and therefore my interest in playing it. It doesn't have to be big or expensive. It can be some cheap Dollar Store quality crap. But I want something!

While I agree that I'm not fussy about what I get in terms of a manual etc in the package (as long as it's something better than current games) I don't think Tommy and the gang at Intellivision Entertainment want to put out something cheap that people will relate to Dollar Store quality.  Regardless, I think I know what you mean and I agree.

Here's hoping Tommy gets some product catalogues for the AA members!  

11 hours ago, MonsterSky said:

I think that this may be tough to achieve the right message in the right way. Many people may be staring at the word "together" and think: "multiplayer already exists!" or "ouch , another subscription to pay!" and so on... I'm sure you and your marketing team will do the miracle!

 

This is another point where some people (not so much fortunately) staring at. Which GPU will power the Amico? And the CPU? What are the hardware specifications? And so on... It's quite annoying but unfortunately we are living in the videogame "performace" era (teraflops, fps, GHz, cuda, etc) and many forgot the videogames "fun" era. I don't know if reach that people minds is possible or convenient, sincerely I don't now but, again I know you'll do a great job at!

We don't really talk too much about chip specs because that's not what we're about.  Our developers know and that's all that matters.  It's an absolutely no win situation for us to release that info.  It's not what we're about.  My mom, your mom, the casual player, etc. doesn't care what chip is in the machine and how many teraflops it has.  It's all about how FUN the experience is and THAT is our main focus.  I'm tired of a machine or an industry being judged on speed or budget.  I think it's silly.  The machine or games are either fun or they aren't.  I'm trying to change the narrative here so I don't want to focus on that type of stuff.  I will say that we have 8 cores and 2.1GHz and that every game that was in our trailer was running 60fps.  That's all we really care about.  I totally understand and respect that hardcores care about specs.  But that's not what were about.  They'll be disappointed on "paper".  People need to PLAY the games before deciding if they like it or not. 

Someone seeing images of the Amico: "It looks like foot massager."

Sony: "Hold my beer..."