Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

59 minutes ago, thanatos said:

Now I'm curious what Tommy has in store for Ben Heck...

 

Portable Amico?!?! I think it could be called the Amico Turn... Amico Trigger.. Switch seems to be taken by some other company. Wait.. I know its the super secret HECKtrex.  OR the other plans of making  the included controllers into the TTAVR.. The Tommy Tallarico Amico Virtual Reality system.

Wouldn't that be something?

All product names are given to @Tommy Tallarico freely, as a fan, to KICKSTART a fund for his next red sports car. Maybe this one will be electric?

4 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

For those keeping track.  Here's a cool one that didn't have Amico or Intellivision tagged.

 

These folks are huge Reddit folks.  Thanks to @GrudgeQ for helping make this happen!

Yo Grudge... you should tell them to tag Amico & Intellivision as it would probably bring more views.

 

 

 

This was a good interview.

23 minutes ago, woobman said:

Portable Amico?!?! I think it could be called the Amico Turn... Amico Trigger.. Switch seems to be taken by some other company. Wait.. I know its the super secret HECKtrex.  OR the other plans of making  the included controllers into the TTAVR.. The Tommy Tallarico Amico Virtual Reality system.

 

Wouldn't that be something?

 

All product names are given to @Tommy Tallarico freely, as a fan, to KICKSTART a fund for his next red sports car. Maybe this one will be electric?

 

 

any input from ben heck is good input

Oh' For Crying Out Loud, Daniel!

1 hour ago, Blarneo said:

That reminds me. 

I'd love to see an update on the old Theme Park World that Bullfrog Studios made back at the turn of the century. They haven't made one in almost 20 years. I know RCT & Planet Coaster are a little much for simplicity, but TPW was a fun little sim game that Amico could handle with ease. 

 

 

This was a fantastic game! But it was horrible with console controls. Something like the Amico with it's touch screen would fix that. 

2 minutes ago, Blarneo said:

Oh' For Crying Out Loud, Daniel!

 

Why the hell do these people latch onto such single points like this and beat it into the ground?

Tommy answered, they're engineering buttons that attach to the screen that don't fall off and they're testing the hell out of them. What the hell does he want? 

2 minutes ago, 1001lives said:

Why the hell do these people latch onto such single points like this and beat it into the ground?

 

Tommy answered, they're engineering buttons that attach to the screen that don't fall off and they're testing the hell out of them. What the hell does he want? 

THANK YOU!!!!! 

2 minutes ago, 1001lives said:

This was a fantastic game! But it was horrible with console controls. Something like the Amico with it's touch screen would fix that. 

Loved Theme Park! Would love to see Populous come out. I'm sure you can make a case for some of the *Tycoon games. Like Mall Tycoon ETC.

1 hour ago, Blarneo said:

That reminds me. 

I'd love to see an update on the old Theme Park World that Bullfrog Studios made back at the turn of the century. They haven't made one in almost 20 years. I know RCT & Planet Coaster are a little much for simplicity, but TPW was a fun little sim game that Amico could handle with ease.

 

 

Bullfrog name rings a bell, what else did they do?

EDIT: Never mind, woobman just answered my question - Populous. Fun game.

3 hours ago, Crusader71 said:

Hi guys, always nice to read your posts, some very interesting and even "professional".  It's great to feel "inside" the creation of Amico thanks to Tommy's revelations and your questions and curiosities.  I'm sorry that every now and then because of the language, I can't fully understand certain jokes or double meanings.  But I'm always here every day to keep up to date on what seems to be the most innovative novelty in the field of video games.  Finally we will return to play as once, immediately, without many complicated things to learn or remember.  One thing I wanted to tell you: My Father many years ago gave me the original intellivision, it was my first video game console.  I took the founders' edition to give it to my son (11 years old), it must have been a surprise until the day of arrival, but seen how things got here (and all over the world) with the virus yesterday  evening at dinner with my wife and daughter present, I revealed to him that yes, he too will be part of the 2600 founders, and that in many years (hopefully many) he will remember me, as I remember my father who unfortunately does not  there is more, every time I hear the word "intellivision".  He was very excited, went around the table to come and hug me, he was incredulous and happy at the same time.  I confess to you, that more than a tear has fallen.  So Tommy, Amico for our family, is already much more than a console.  Now after this thing that I wanted and had to share with you, I have a question to ask.  Time Pilot, I saw your drawings as a boy a few posts back, I loved this game, tell me that you are planning something similar also for Amico, it would be fantastic.  Greetings from Italy, where we recently celebrated the anniversary of the liberation from Nazifascism. I seem to have read that your grandfather also fought for freedom in those years, honor to your grandfather Tommy!

Im really happy you shared your story.  Isnt that what gaming should be about,  building memories with your family young and old?  No doubt your children will look back at this time with love, that they will want to continue with their children. And not forgotten times alone 

Just now, NTV said:

Bullfrog name rings a bell, what else did they do?

Populous, Magic Carpet, Theme Hospital, etc. EA bought Bullfrog & the lead designer (Peter Molyneux) went with Microsoft to create the Fable series.

2 minutes ago, Blarneo said:

Populous, Magic Carpet, Theme Hospital, etc. EA bought Bullfrog & the lead designer (Peter Molyneux) went with Microsoft to create the Fable series.

Magic carpet - another great game that I have totally forgot about. Gaming in the old days was really fun because new and exiting stuff was coming out all the time. Not just rehashed franchises and spin-offs.

PS - already noted in my edited post that noobman reminded me of Populous. Never played Theme Park or Theme Hospital.

12 hours ago, IntelliMission said:

About the FigureItOutCast:

 

- The host just gave a thumps up to a very informative comment about the Amico from an user called Tom and Karen Dinardis:

 

 

- LordRayken is trying to convince the guy to do an interview with Tommy. 🙃

Yeah, that was me. After listening to his comments I felt compelled to shed some light on what was misunderstood, and he sounded genuinely skeptical and not simply dismissive. I hope Tommy will do an interview with him.

2 hours ago, woobman said:

Portable Amico?!?! I think it could be called the Amico Turn... Amico Trigger

Not that there would ever be a portable Amico but if there is, the obvious name is.... AMIGO

8 hours ago, LePionnier said:

It's not the first time that I saw someone talking about MAME. (Tommy also did)

Do you know a site that it is safe to download it ?

Thank you.

I get it straight from the source: http://openemu.org

It’s Mac only. Don’t know if there’s a PC variation of it if that’s what you’re on.

Edit: I guess there’s this site, too: https://www.mamedev.org

The only safe site I can vouch for, though, is the first one I gave.

5 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

For those keeping track.  Here's a cool one that didn't have Amico or Intellivision tagged.

 

These folks are huge Reddit folks.  Thanks to @GrudgeQ for helping make this happen!

Yo Grudge... you should tell them to tag Amico & Intellivision as it would probably bring more views.

 

 

 

I related to Tommy’s story about being the family remote control. (We’re a year different in age.)

And we had a dial on an old TV that had to be juuuuuust perfect. The slightest variation in either direction would mess it up.

Odd that I can still remember the channel numbers for those handful of stations back then along with other useless bits of info floating around in my gray matter. 

3 hours ago, woobman said:

Portable Amico?!?! I think it could be called the Amico Turn... Amico Trigger.. Switch seems to be taken by some other company. Wait.. I know its the super secret HECKtrex.  OR the other plans of making  the included controllers into the TTAVR.. The Tommy Tallarico Amico Virtual Reality system.

 

Wouldn't that be something?

 

All product names are given to @Tommy Tallarico freely, as a fan, to KICKSTART a fund for his next red sports car. Maybe this one will be electric?

 

 

What are you talking about? Obviously, it would be called the Ami-Go! 😆

We're doing our first big pre-order launch in Germany this week with the #1 & #2 retailers in the country!  We've also partnered with the BIGGEST gaming magazines (yes, they are still a thing over there) and websites.

There are already 43 stories within the past few days covering the pre-order.

This is so significant because Germany is always the 3rd or 4th biggest market in the WORLD for video games.  USA & China fight for the #1 & #2 spots and Japan & Germany always fight for #3 & #4 (they typically all go back and forth).

The gaming press and websites here in the U.S. are VERY different and don't cover us the way they should be at this point.  But that's fine... as you've all heard me say a million times... it's not really our initial target market anyway.  Which is totally fine because of all the unique ways we'll be rolling out.  But for the more traditional countries... you can already see the massive traction we're getting and again... ZERO advertising dollars.  We will be spending the bulk of our advertising for families in Germany as well.

Anyway... just got this PR report and thought folks in here would find it interesting and cool.

Thanks!

31 minutes ago, Swami said:

What are you talking about? Obviously, it would be called the Ami-Go! 😆

or

Amico di strada

Intellivision Strada 

2 hours ago, popsicle said:

Yeah, that was me. After listening to his comments I felt compelled to shed some light on what was misunderstood, and he sounded genuinely skeptical and not simply dismissive. I hope Tommy will do an interview with him.

I left him a comment and he responded back.  Not sure if he's too interested in doing an interview.  But we'll see.

3 minutes ago, m-crew said:

or

Amico di strada

Intellivision Strada 

 

 

 

 

Hopefully not Amico Stadia!

18 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Yeah... it's kinda funny when I do 3 or 4 hour live streams with tons of haters throwing questions and me answering every one.  Still waiting for the "stumper" though. 



And love your last paragraph also.  So funny how those folks have zero self-awareness.  Not sure if it's a maturity thing or an ego thing... either way... it's a mental thing. 

 

 

 

 

@Tommy Tallarico,

It occurred to me that there are questions that are out there but aren't being asked because the people asking the questions are all focused on the same thing. They doubt the vision of the console, or they question if there's a market for it. And yes, every time you come back with thoughtful answers that are backed up data, research, or Intellivision's plan for how the console is going to work.  I see this whole gray area of questions that seem to be missing.  I see it as three steps.

Step one: Vision.  What is Amico, who is for, and what is the console going to be like. 

Step two: Execution.  Going through all the necessary steps to make the vision into reality.

Step three: Launch.  Release the console into the market and see if it is a success.

It seems like most of the questions are around steps 1 and 3.  Is there a market for it? I think so because that's what my instinct tells me, you say yes because the data supports it.  Will it be a success? I believe it will be, but then great products have failed in the pass due to bad timing or other factors.  I think the "hard" questions revolve around that middle step.  How do you get it from concept to shipping. That's also the area where questions linger in my mind. I have a few, but I'll start with one.

When it's questioned whether or not there is a market for a device like this, you will say that there is and the data backs you up. You have done a bunch of focus testing on the console, the controllers, and the games. The sixth remaining pack-in game is one that tests off the charts with the focus test groups that you've used.  My question, is Intellivision relying too much on focus testing? With as much as it gets mentioned, it seems like a lot of direction for Amico and its games is being done based on focus testing. Doesn't that lead to a console that is less focused and instead feels more like it's designed by committee?  

3 hours ago, Blarneo said:

Oh' For Crying Out Loud, Daniel!

 

So wait... you're saying that folks in YouTube comments aren't reasonable?  

That sounds crazy to me. 

Clearly they all must be nicely adjusted human beings only looking to discuss the finer things of living a joyful and positive life.

No?

1 minute ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Hopefully not Amico Stadia!

 

 

we will stay far away from putting the Amico name beside Stadia...  lol that's for sure...

21 minutes ago, vongruetz said:

@Tommy Tallarico,

 

My question, is Intellivision relying too much on focus testing? With as much as it gets mentioned, it seems like a lot of direction for Amico and its games is being done based on focus testing. Doesn't that lead to a console that is less focused and instead feels more like it's designed by committee?  

I totally understand your point and concern and the simple answer is... no. 

We don't think so.  We have 600 years of experience making some of the best selling games in the world... so we rely more on that.  We know what "fun" is. 

If we relied on focus testing then games like Earthworm Jim, Tony Hawk Pro Skater & Guitar Hero would have NEVER made it to market.

I always make the final important decisions and sometimes they aren't always what the data suggests.  Same with music.  If I incorporated every "suggestion" I received... then it would be an average mess and nothing would stand out or GRAB someone.  You need a successful instinct as well... and it is something that our team has in SPADES!!  Something that Ouya clearly didn't have (for example) and Atari doesn't either (with the VCS).

That is in regards to overall design and playability. 

But it is also significant to find the most important areas of something you built so you can start to understand what is your target market most excited about... or... to confirm a hunch and/or direction.

For example... I was very happy to find out that when 1,000 people were shown Amico... Over 78% of them marked the SIMPLICITY as the best thing and close behind it was the non-violence aspect.

We now know that our hunch was correct and to make sure we focus more on Simplicity & S.A.F.E. more than "technology".  Which funny enough is exactly what Sony & Microsoft do! 

You know what was at the very bottom of their concern?  The price.  So once again... we could breath a sign of relief knowing that because of COVID and everything else... that a $249 introductory price point with the way we've created VALUE will be a success if we achieve it properly.

The problem with the hater elitists is that they don't care about ANY of that stuff.  I can tell them and show them data, research and focus tests all day long.  I can tell them about our teams accomplishments and they giggle like little school girls making fun of my Guinness World Records or anyone else on our team... no matter what they did.  Most just say that I'm LYING about a former president of Nintendo being a part of our team.

There is no proper way to approach those folks... and I really don't care at this point.  They are literally the exact opposite of our market.  It would be like going into a Democratic internet forum to try to convince them to become Republican... or vise versa.  Doesn't matter who you had on your team or what statistics or research you can show.

Not our audience and I don't care.  Once this summer rolls around you'll rarely see me on any of those types of channels or leaving comments on their YouTube channels.  We'll be way too busy talking to the folks who want and need our product.  Not the folks who don't.

Great question.  Thanks.