Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

12 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

I went to the opening of the Tron ride in Shanghai, China!  I was working on and producing BT's album and tour at the time (Electronic Opus) and he did the music for everything! 

I just bought Electronic Opus on iTunes a couple of weeks ago. listened to it twice so far. I really like it! 

Thanks for turning me on to them/him. I also got 'These Hopeful Machines' as well.👍🤙

4 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

So if you were to bring the Vectrex back (DO IT!!!), what changes would you make to the hardware?

Can I start my wishlist on this?

A 10" flatscreen with a MS Surface type table stand and a paper white type matte finish to the glass... this appears extra sharp to the eyes. A gray filter over the screen to cancel out the "not really true black" appearance of LCD monitors.

A deep enough casing to provide adequate bass in the 3 channel DTS speaker system. Also mini plug & Bluetooth for my own speakers.

Clicky joystick controllers that can somehow be recharged on the back of the unit. The New Geo Mini has very nice looking 4 button thumbstick controllers. Perhaps take inspiration from them.

Oh' yeah! Whatever this color of Bimmer is, the Vectrex should have as an option.

Or better yet. Build the Vectrex into the Bimmer's dashboard screen system!

Interesting article about parents trying to play video games with their kids during this lock down. We need Amico now!

Allowing kids to be the guides, parents can form fun new connection through video games during these stay-at-home times

Seth Schiesel The New York Times Company

You have binged on “Paw Patrol.” You already have watched “Trolls World Tour.” • There must be something better — more interactive and fun — to do with your kids while stuck at home. Look at it as an opportunity to connect and build relationships with your children by doing something together: playing video games. • The trick, of course, is finding ones that you actually want to play without driving yourself crazy. • The first step: Find out what they are already playing. Express genuine, non-patronizing interest and you might find some common ground. If your kids already play, ask them to explain their game to you, no matter how inane or mysterious it might seem. Ask them to let you try it, under their guidance. You may be surprised at your response.

It’s likely that your kids are into at least one of the big three games popular with children — Fortnite, Roblox and Minecraft — each of which has hundreds of millions of players.

If your kids play Fortnite, in which 100 players battle until only one is left standing, you might find the game interesting to watch but you should have realistic expectations about actually playing with them. Fortnite certainly rewards teamwork, cooperation and strategic planning, but it also requires a level of reflexes, eye-hand coordination and manual dexterity beyond almost anyone who can remember the Clinton administration.

Roblox is not a single game but rather a platform for thousands of different mini games created by users. Some of those mini games are more manipulative than others in trying to extract real money from players. As with Fortnite, it is unlikely parents will have much fun with Roblox, though for a different reason: Much of Roblox is just simplistic.

Minecraft, however, probably has the broadest crossover appeal between adults and children of any video game, and for good reason. Minecraft’s basic formula — explore a newly created world, find materials, build structures — generates a cycle of discovery, creation and community stimulating enough for curious adults but accessible enough to captivate even grade-school children.

If your kids already play Minecraft, you should give them the opportunity to introduce you to a new hobby, as long as you can stand the blocky graphics.

If these options aren’t appealing, don’t give up. There are plenty of other choices that can engage both parents and children, both multi-user games played simultaneously and single-player games played as a team. And most are available for multiple systems.

One final piece of advice before the recommendations: Don’t let yourself be put off by cartoony graphics. Just as the best animated films are written to entertain both young children and their parents, games often use a similar sleight-of-hand: wrapping subtle play systems in simple images.

1 hour ago, Blarneo said:

A 10" flatscreen with a MS Surface type table stand and a paper white type matte finish to the glass... this appears extra sharp to the eyes. A gray filter over the screen to cancel out the "not really true black" appearance of LCD monitors.

I think the biggest thing with the Vectrex is that vector display. I have never used a Vectrex and I'm too young to have seen vector displays in general, but it seems that the screen itself is one of the features of the system that stands out the most.

By the way, Tommy, about the music we were talking about the other day... I was looking into the Mega Sg's settings today, and only now after having it for a year did I realize that I have complete control over the volumes of the FPGA simulated YM2612 left and right channels, 3 square channels, and the noise channel. Like I knew about this before since you have to fix the settings every time you update the firmware, but only now did I realize that I can mute individual channels, make specific channels super loud, etc..

Normally you can't touch that stuff on real hardware (maybe you can if you open it up and do some stuff to the actual components) and I generally distrust emulator YM2612 audio because a lot of it is inaccurate, but I think I will have to try having some fun with the Mega Sg's audio to see how the music is constructed by the system since it's very accurate to a real system. It's not perfect, since I know of at least 3 games that do not run properly on it (one of them literally does not work at all on the newest firmware and another crashes during the first few moments of the game, so I guess that makes 2 unplayable games), but it is very close.

Okay, I just tried it, and it seems I don't have as much control over the audio as I was hoping for. I can mute the YM2612 left or right, as I mentioned, which leaves me with just the 3 squares and noise channels. Unfortunately, I can't actually get rid of specific YM2612 channels, sadly, so I won't be able to go in and dissect music the way I was hoping to. Playing Sonic 3 & Knuckles without the YM2612 audio was really strange, though.

15 hours ago, woobman said:

This is not the first time you have said that..  After you get this one off the ground and rolling along. I look forward to "the next vectrex 11/11/2022" announcement.

And I can’t wait to be able to leave snarky comments in every forum/YT video about how bad idea it is since the Amico have much cooler games with better graphics 😜

13 hours ago, Jake67 said:

Sorry I wasn’t more clear on that one. I understand all that for the console itself, but I’m talking about the individual games that come out each month. 

 

I might just still be in old-school thinking, but I would imagine welcome publicity of any console year after year is great reviews of games that are released. And if you’re a developer who makes money from game sales, you’d love to see it positively reviewed somewhere.

 

So my question was more of where will people read about new games, not the console itself. And then that led me to wonder if the target market (like moms) even cares about a review of individual games after they’ve already bought the console. Maybe because of the low cost of games, just seeing it on the homescreen makes a new game a likely purchase if the description of the game strikes a chord with someone in the family. 

 

Just trying to wrap my head around how a new company (well, a long-time company doing things in a new way) promotes individual games beyond the homescreen, or whether that will even matter in the Amico world.

 

I’m already all in. I bought a Founder’s Edition and a VIP edition. But some of that behind-the-scenes marketing stuff is really interesting to me.

Yes!  We have a lot of things planned... but it really depends on the genre of game and the people it will attract.  But I can tell you that advertising in mobile would be a good example.  A similar style game would get an ad saying... would you like to play something like this with your friends and family in a room together?  How about no microtransactions? 

Hahaha!  We may piss off a bunch of big mobile publishers.    (We wouldn't do that on smaller indie games).

But again... that is one small idea.  It depends on what the game is about and getting to those people

Bottom line... we spend the money and take all the risk... not the developer.

34 minutes ago, Steven Pendleton said:

I think the biggest thing with the Vectrex is that vector display. I have never used a Vectrex and I'm too young to have seen vector displays in general, but it seems that the screen itself is one of the features of the system that stands out the most.

 

I think you could/should still do a vector display (pretty much required for the Vectrex, I think). Not using CRT technology which is pretty much unavailable now (maybe some niche military/industry uses them) and not to mention they are huge & heavy. However lasers have become cheap, commodity items. You could project onto a little built in screen (basically a phosphor coated sheet of plastic/glass) or maybe even project onto a wall to give it 'big screen' appeal. Make this so Tommy, you know, in all of your extra, spare time

14 hours ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

The easiest way to debate haters or people who think this may not succeed, is to not get into a back and forth and to basically not debate them at all. Simply say. " Yeah you may be right this may not sell but then again maybe it will, we will see in the next couple years".  Thats it. There really is no need to debate points because truth be told, no one knows if this will work yet. Launching a new product is tough, status quo IMHO is always the toughest wall to break through.  IMHO I think the Amico has a good chance of selling but its still gonna be tough.

Yeah... debating points and winning doesn't make them go away.

I've just been cutting and pasting the same statement whenever I see a total jackass.  Here it is.  Other folks can feel free to use it on clear hardcore elitists if they'd like.

Ask yourself an important question... why do you spew hatred and hope for the destruction of a video game machine you've NEVER played.  HOW DARE WE want to bring a new and unique video game console to the world that is positive and doesn't have any violence and hate. How dare we employ and give opportunities to hundreds of indie developers and keep thousands of people employed around the world during a worldwide crisis. How dare we trying to widen the video game spectrum by welcoming new people to the hobby and to play with others.  HOW DARE WE!!!  I suppose if you had your way we would be out of business and all those people would be suffering right now. And although you are very negative, thank-you for your post and it's good to know that you have taken the time to watch videos & read articles about us while adding content and your opinions to the community. You may not like us... but we certainly have your attention so much that you can't look away... and you certainly find us interesting. We win!

15 minutes ago, GrudgeQ said:

I think you could/should still do a vector display (pretty much required for the Vectrex, I think). Not using CRT technology which is pretty much unavailable now (maybe some niche military/industry uses them) and not to mention they are huge & heavy. However lasers have become cheap, commodity items. You could project onto a little built in screen (basically a phosphor coated sheet of plastic/glass) or maybe even project onto a wall to give it 'big screen' appeal. Make this so Tommy, you know, in all of your extra, spare time

Yeah, we had some PAR scopes that were literally from like the 50s at MCAS Futenma that used something that looks vaguely similar to the vector screen in the Vectrex. One of my friends from there and then is actually back there now and he said they replaced those ancient PAR scopes with something a bit more modern a few years ago. Not sure what they are using now, but I know the Air Force has some nice modern stuff and I think it's the same model that the Air Force is using. Unsure, though. Air Force always gets all of the fun toys while we didn't have enough money to buy trash bags in 2011~2012 because we wasted it all buying the stupid F35.

1 hour ago, Steven Pendleton said:

I think the biggest thing with the Vectrex is that vector display. I have never used a Vectrex and I'm too young to have seen vector displays in general, but it seems that the screen itself is one of the features of the system that stands out the most.

I think that modern 4K or "retina" displays will kind of render the old CRT vector tubes obsolete. 

Imagine a neon type of graphical animation with curves on top of angular edges, and cross hatching, stipple & pen & ink sharpness in hundreds (or millions) of colors to add depth and detail, instead of just empty lines of only 8-16 colors.

14 hours ago, vongruetz said:

Big question.  What are the screens on the controllers made out of?  Tommy said it wasn't glass and it wasn't plastic.  Logically that can only mean IE somehow invented transparent aluminum.  I've got to admit, I'm perplexed as to what it could be.

Great question that I don't believe has been asked before!

It's a type of acrylic.  Which means is a lot more scratch resistant than say a plastic or plexiglass yet a lot more sturdy than glass.  So it's the BEST of both worlds!

This was another one of the important item upgrades that brought the pricing up from where we had originally planned.  Really looks and feels slick in your hands though! 

6 minutes ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Yeah, we had some PAR scopes that were literally from like the 50s at MCAS Futenma that used something that looks vaguely similar to the vector screen in the Vectrex. One of my friends from there and then is actually back there now and he said they replaced those ancient PAR scopes with something a bit more modern a few years ago. Not sure what they are using now, but I know the Air Force has some nice modern stuff and I think it's the same model that the Air Force is using. Unsure, though. Air Force always gets all of the fun toys while we didn't have enough money to buy trash bags in 2011~2012 because we wasted it all buying the stupid F35.

The Marines should change their motto to "The first people you call - the last people you fund".

Just now, Blarneo said:

I think that modern 4K or "retina" displays will kind of render the old CRT vector tubes obsolete. 

Imagine a neon type of graphical animation with curves on top of angular edges, and cross hatching, stipple & pen & ink sharpness in hundreds (or millions) of colors instead of just empty lines of only 8-16 colors.

Yeah, the stuff you can do with vector graphics is really awesome, and since it's just a bunch of lines, it can be upscaled easily. With advances in modern display technology, we could see something extremely impressive, I think, and I'm very curious to see what would happen if Tommy decided to get the Vectrex and tell it "RISE FROM YOUR GRAVE!".

Again, I've not seen the Vectrex or any other vector display to my knowledge in person, so I'm not sure what exactly is lost when playing the Vectrex on an emulator like the MiSTer or some software emulator, but I have heard that it is something that should absolutely be played on the real thing if possible because of the screen.

14 hours ago, 1001lives said:

So was there going to be a livestream tonight or did it get moved?

It was moved to this Friday night at 5pm pacific.

Just now, GrudgeQ said:

The Marines should change their motto to "The first people you call - the last people you fund".

Already have a better one: "Always ready to fight the previous war".

13 hours ago, sanguinesonata said:

 

 

i just really hope that in your desire to make the console "accessible" to everyone, you don't end up gelding it to the point where it becomes a total pansy machine. 😡

It's a valid concern and one we're aware of.  But don't worry, once you play a game like Night Stalker you won't be thinking that at all.  

11 hours ago, Saldo said:

We go to Springfield every February and spend a long weekend to go to the Northeast RV show at the Eastern States Expo Center.  We always have a great time.  One of my best friends (known him since elementary school) managed a Friendly's while we were in collage.  Always loved going there to eat, he would jack up the syrup on my orange sodas for me! I also loved the Fribbles.  All of the Friendly’s shut down in NY decades ago.  My daughter went to college at Montserrat College of Art in Berverly, MA and we would pass that big Friendly’s sculpted hedge along the Mass Turnpike near Springfield.  We looked into it and realized Friendly’s was still around and there is one about 1/2 mile from Eastern States.  We always do a lunch there every time we go.

 

Sorry for the ramble!

Did you ever go to the Eastern States Expo Center when they turned it into the BIG E once a year!  (i.e. the state fair).

13 hours ago, Tarzilla said:

Now you are just being an Aerosmith shill! How Dare You?!

Just Kidding!

Seriously though, have you ever played on stage with him and or Aerosmith?

There's a story about this!  It's a bit long so I'll tell it when I have a bit of time.

2 minutes ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Yeah, the stuff you can do with vector graphics is really awesome, and since it's just a bunch of lines, it can be upscaled easily. With advances in modern display technology, we could see something extremely impressive, I think, and I'm very curious to see what would happen if Tommy decided to get the Vectrex and tell it "RISE FROM YOUR GRAVE!".

 

Again, I've not seen the Vectrex or any other vector display to my knowledge in person, so I'm not sure what exactly is lost when playing the Vectrex on an emulator like the MiSTer or some software emulator, but I have heard that it is something that should absolutely be played on the real thing if possible because of the screen.

Yeah I do remember the vector arcade machines I played Red Baron, Asteroids & Battle Zone and it is hard to recreate that feel even on a high resolution TV. They were, in effect, an analog display with nearly infinite resolution (at least to the human eye). This is opposed to a typical CRT which display TV by driving the beam into a series of set rows. Now a days, they have physically created a grid of pixels to recreate the way TVs were driven but if a new console came out with vector graphics on a TV, I don't think I would be interested. Probably some what Good-Old-Days Syndrome but for me it just would not be the same and also would have no appeal over just a remastered Atari collection or something (i.e. a $15 software purchase).

7 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

So if you were to bring the Vectrex back (DO IT!!!), what changes would you make to the hardware?

Better and more reliable screen, bigger screen, color screen, maybe a touch screen?, online capability (for downloading new games and leaderboards), thinner overall (maybe by about 30%) and definitely 2 controllers!  Wouldn't change the controllers much though.  They are part of the charm.  Would also have about 20 or so games on board... to provide super value.  Would be great if we could get the retail price around $149.

1 minute ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

There's a story about this!  It's a bit long so I'll tell it when I have a bit of time.

 

Admit it! 'Dude Looks Like A Lady' was about you, wasn't it? That Vince Neil line was just a misdirection.😈

Oh' you like it, like it, like it!🤩

2 hours ago, Blarneo said:

I just bought Electronic Opus on iTunes a couple of weeks ago. listened to it twice so far. I really like it! 

Thanks for turning me on to them/him. I also got 'These Hopeful Machines' as well.👍🤙

Yeah!  Thanks for the support and glad you like the music! 

Without saying too much... if you like the Electronic Opus album... you're probably really gonna like "the game".

2 hours ago, Blarneo said:

Can I start my wishlist on this?

A 10" flatscreen with a MS Surface type table stand and a paper white type matte finish to the glass... this appears extra sharp to the eyes. A gray filter over the screen to cancel out the "not really true black" appearance of LCD monitors.

A deep enough casing to provide adequate bass in the 3 channel DTS speaker system. Also mini plug & Bluetooth for my own speakers.

Clicky joystick controllers that can somehow be recharged on the back of the unit. The New Geo Mini has very nice looking 4 button thumbstick controllers. Perhaps take inspiration from them.

 

 

Oh' yeah! Whatever this color of Bimmer is, the Vectrex should have as an option.

 

Or better yet. Build the Vectrex into the Bimmer's dashboard screen system!

Ah!  Yeah!  Almost forgot... definitely want some KICK ASS SPEAKERS (and a small sub-woofer!) and yes.. wireless rechargable controllers.

Welp... there goes my $149 price point!

See how hard this is guys!!!

6 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Better and more reliable screen, bigger screen, color screen, maybe a touch screen?, online capability (for downloading new games and leaderboards), thinner overall (maybe by about 30%) and definitely 2 controllers!  Wouldn't change the controllers much though.  They are part of the charm.  Would also have about 20 or so games on board... to provide super value.  Would be great if we could get the retail price around $149.

Sounds really awesome Tommy.  I'm all in.  Take my money now.  By the way will the new Vectrex be able to play original carts & the homebrews?  There are a lot of homebrew games for this system.