Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

When will the Amico be able to do this?

And when are you going to announce? Is this the Secret BenHeck project?

You could call it Project Blue Sky... Or BS for short. PBS I think is taken by something else.

---OK Sarcasm mode off now.

Seriously Keep up the great conversations!!! Counting down until Amico Day!!!

2 hours ago, OEB_Pete said:

Ok I totally get that, let me know when you want to come back on with me to do more casual family stuff as I got tons more questions in that realm.  To be honest I am hardcored gamed out, plus as I know you will all knock those games out of the stratosphere so zero concerns from me on that level.  Thanks for doing what you do Tommy, it is appreciated and respected by 99.99% of the people who follow Amico

If you can have a chat with Tommy, can you get more info about educational games? I know very few people are interested in those games, but I am.

Just a few questions that I can think of on the spot :

• Will math fun be limited to practicing mental calculation or will it also teach maths (geometry, algebra, etc.)?
• What subject is in the work other than maths?
• Is there a possibility of non-traditional subjects like electronics or even weird subject like survival skills? (For those who are wondering, I'm a fan of Primitive Technology YouTube channel, so I think a game like Minecraft but based on real primitive technology would be fantastic.)
• Will educational games use a known IP (Carmen Sandiego, Dora, Rayman, etc.) or will they use a new IP based on the Amico mascot (if there is one)?
• In what way they will be different from games on PC?
• Will those game be targeted at specific age group or will they try to reach the broadest audience possible?
• Will education games use the leaderboard too? If yes, will the leaderboard be divided by age group?

I guess I could think of many more question, but I will let you do your own interview... 😉

BTW, for those who think educational games are just for kids, I remember a program written in Prolog that I used in my philosophy 101 class to learn to manipulate logical propositions and to construct valid reasoning. To some degree, Zachtronics made games that could be classified as educational, not only to learn programming, but also in the case of Kohctpyktop, to learn circuit design.

11 minutes ago, Papy said:

If you can have a chat with Tommy, can you get more info about educational games? I know very few people are interested in those games, but I am.

Me, too!  I'm an educator myself, and I am also a product of home-schooling—I was taught at home from the seventh grade all the way through high school—and I'm working on a few ideas of my own of how a system like the Amico could be used as an educational tool by home-schooling families.  (Whether those ideas would fit into IE's long-term plans for the Amico is another question, but it's a growing market that seems to be largely ignored by the educational technology industry.)

23 minutes ago, Papy said:

Will educational games use a known IP (Carmen Sandiego, Dora, Rayman, etc.) or will they use a new IP based on the Amico mascot (if there is one)?

Or Sesame Street ? etc. 🙄

Education should be much less memorization and much more interaction. I remember the silly games I played much more vividly than 95% of the classes I took as a kid. That's a lot of time and money wasted in memorizing stuff than you quickly forget, it's time someone changes this and I hope the Amico can help creating such games.

By the way, I think somebody should make King Quest style games for the original Intellivision. The 1984 blocky one, of course. Since there is no keyboard, each action could be mapped to a number on the controller. I don't think the processor speed would be a problem to create such games.

2 hours ago, 1001lives said:

Just saw some Monopoly footage from Ubisoft. Looks pretty cool.

 

What console is that for ?

1 hour ago, jaybird3rd said:

Thank you for the insightful post!  It crystallizes something I've also perceived about these "critics" of the Amico.  The more I see of them, and the more I get a sense of their evident range of interests and their overall life experience, the more unimpressed I am.  Whatever their incredibly narrow areas of interest might be, that seems to be all that they know and all that they do.  It's no wonder their tiny little minds are boggled by the Amico, which is designed for the kinds of gaming experiences that would appeal to normal people, because they don't really understand normal people and don't seem all that interested in trying.  It would also explain why they make such a big deal over trivial issues: for most people, such issues would barely be worth arguing over, but in their narrow context, those issues make up their entire world.

 

I too am glad that Tommy is thinking of moving on to other venues and more mainstream audiences.  He's made a valiant effort to address the "critics" and to counter their misinformation—I greatly enjoyed the most recent ReviewTechUSA interview—but after a certain point, the old saying about "casting pearls before swine" comes to mind.

I am also glad Tommy is thinking of moving on to other venues. Some of those YouTube interviews  must be so mentally exhausting and could burn him out. At this point I’m sure his precious time could be better used elsewhere. I don’t know how he manages. We need you strong Tommy. Leave the haters be 😀

14 minutes ago, IntelliMission said:

By the way, I think somebody should make King Quest style games for the original Intellivision. The 1984 blocky one, of course. Since there is no keyboard, each action could be mapped to a number on the controller. I don't think the processor speed would be a problem to create such games.

Great idea.  Huge King's Quest fan.

Haha, I actually don't like the game itself, but I love the graphics, the little tune, the text in the game and the whole idea. I would have said Larry style games, but that's not S. A. F. E.

The first Space Quest, the first Larry... Those are masterpieces. For some reason I only like Sierra games when they are humorous. One thing I love about those early games is how they managed to look genuinely better than the 1991 remakes, especially Larry.

But yeah, I hope some programmer creates something like that. Screens don't scroll and there's not too many sprites on the screen, so it would be a matter of using the low res graphics with intelligence. Graphic adventures are easy technically but difficult from a design point of view, as creating puzzles with the right difficulty must be hard.

Back to the education and slightly offtopic, am I the only one under the impression that modern cartoons suck?

I mean, they look terrible, but I could be completely misguided. Any fathers that watch cartoons with their kids over here can confirm?

10 minutes ago, IntelliMission said:

am I the only one under the impression that modern cartoons suck?

there have been a few I like. Leaving aside the Simpson/Family Guy.  I think SpongeBob especially the earlier ones are good and I think Gravity Falls is an absolute classic series. Fairly Odd Parents is another good show too. 

59 minutes ago, IntelliMission said:

Education should be much less memorization and much more interaction. I remember the silly games I played much more vividly than 95% of the classes I took as a kid. That's a lot of time and money wasted in memorizing stuff than you quickly forget, it's time someone changes this and I hope the Amico can help creating such games.

I agree.

Ultimately, memorization is unavoidable, but the trick is to gamify this memorization, which will allow the player to associate this memorization with emotions.

For example, imagine a game to learn a new language that start by depicting you as a victim of a shipwreck. You wake up on a beach and a character comes to you speaking the foreign language you want to learn (let's say French). The character starts by communicating both with her foreign language and signs.

The character (pointing at herself) and says : "Mon nom est... Lea... Lea."

The character then points at you and says : "Quel est ton nom?"

The player then has to guess he must say its name to the controller. The character then smiles, points at her again and says : "Mon nom... Lea." Then points at the player and stays "Ton nom..." (and says the player's name with her voice).

The character would then make a gesture asking the player to follow her and say : "Viens avec moi" and wait for the player to follow.

It doesn't matter if the player has no clue what the character is saying for now, simply listening to the language is enough.

As the player go on an adventure, the character starts to name things that the player sees during this adventure in her own language, asking the player to name the same thing in his own language (to allow the game to verify that the player understood the word).

After that, if for example the player was shown a hammer and learned that it was a "marteau", another character could ask the player to retrieve a "marteau". If the player brings the right object, he's rewarding with a smile. If not, the character asks the player again.

Learning like this is obviously slower than simply trying to memorize a list of words. However, it's certainly more engaging and I'm pretty sure those memories are much more persistent.

Hay Tommy what about all the cancelled games that never came out ? Will there be remakes of them?

2 hours ago, jaybird3rd said:

I'm an educator myself, and I am also a product of home-schooling—I was taught at home from the seventh grade all the way through high school—

if you don't mind me asking, were you taught/educated by your mother or did you have tutors?

6 minutes ago, sanguinesonata said:

if you don't mind me asking, were you taught/educated by your mother or did you have tutors?

We couldn't afford tutors, so it was either Mom teaching me or me teaching myself.  (She also home-schooled my four younger siblings, including one with special needs, so out of necessity I was usually left to take care of myself, or to help the younger kids.)

2 hours ago, Papy said:

Will educational games use a known IP (Carmen Sandiego, Dora, Rayman, etc.) or will they use a new IP based on the Amico mascot (if there is one)?

Blarneo's Safari Through The River Of Math Animals!

9 minutes ago, jaybird3rd said:

We couldn't afford tutors, so it was either Mom teaching me or me teaching myself.  (She also home-schooled my four younger siblings, including one with special needs, so out of necessity I was usually left to take care of myself, or to help the younger kids.)

well it was definitely the way to go.... having someone that loved you intricately involved in your education as opposed to being taught by cold strangers who are getting paid to care. the reason i asked was because i've always enjoyed reading your posts as you have a very distinct, poetic prose that enables you to communicate and elucidate your thoughts most effectively. i've always thought you were highly educated, and i've been meaning to ask you if you had a degree in either english or journalism. i'm a firm believer that if every mom stayed at home and educated her own children instead of giving them over to the state, then the world would unquestionably be a better place.

Now we know a few new German words! 🤣

SpielKonsole- Game Console

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15 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Proud to announce that today marks Amico´s first official appearance in German retail! You can discover our unique family entertainment system on the websites of MediaMarkt and Saturn, Europe’s biggest consumer electronics chains!

 

Pre-sale starting Thursday, April 30, 00.00 AM CET

 

https://www.mediamarkt.de/catentry/2651349

 

http://www.saturn.de/catentry/2651349
 

Wait a sec?!?!?  This doesn't make sense...  I thought this was a scam?  I thought "retailers will never carry this thing".  I thought we don't even have a "prototype" yet.

 

 

😂
 

 

 

After reading some of the press releases, I did see some interesting info buried in there:

1) I love the idea of having the first group of people be in the credits of games. Does this mean that the group Founders Edition and VIP's from the US will have their names in games as well?  What about people that contribute in this forum? It would be cool to be an Easter egg of some kind.  

2)It says that there are 2Gigs of Storage. Not RAM. That and Complact Flash. Not SD.. Is this a different rev? Just curious. I know some people will take you to task for a "aha" moment for them.

3)Can't wait to play the 6th game TBD!!! Is that another version of MDK?

4)Getting more and more anxious to see the Box and physical media for the games are!

Interviews are good and can be entertaining.  This is from the interview last night.  I mean I get some people have questions but others like this individual are just making up stuff up. 

3 hours ago, woobman said:

When will the Amico be able to do this?

And when are you going to announce? Is this the Secret BenHeck project?

 

Project "ORIS"? 

As in both Ori games? 

But, but, but I thought open world 3D games were the only ones anybody wants to play anymore! Not these two 2D Metroidvania games!

4 hours ago, jaybird3rd said:

It would also explain why they make such a big deal over trivial issues: for most people, such issues would barely be worth arguing over, but in their narrow context, those issues make up their entire world.

That makes me think of my daughter who is a late-teen now. She’s grown up around video games, but by and large, has never had too much interest. Among the exceptions was Wii Sports (bowling in particular) and Bomberman. She and I had a blast playing those together. She still enjoys Minecraft and Elder Scrolls, too.

At no point during any of her gaming experience through the years – which stretches back to the original Xbox – did she ever comment on the graphics not being ultra-realistic, asked if something was originally a port from another system before deciding whether or not to play it, what the processor was capable of, if the console she was playing was considered the “best” of the current gen or not, the personality of the company’s CEO, what other people were saying on social media, etc.

The only question she cared about was, “Am I having fun?” Which is interesting because that’s the same way I looked at things when I moved a square around (which was actually not a square, but a knight!) while I played Adventure on the 2600 way back when.

My daughter is aware of the Amico, knows I’ve pre-ordered, and is looking forward to playing against me. And she’ll judge it the same way she’s judged all her gaming... “Am I having fun?”

It doesn’t have to be any more complicated than that.