Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

46 minutes ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

I recently got back in vinyl records, and that looks like its gonna be a giant rabbit hole for me.  I bought a decent player with decent speakers, and bought about 50 to 60 albums, so now of course I want to upgrade the player and speakers and I can tell this is gonna prove costly..  whats old is new again

yeh, I have too many of those hobbies and easily swayed into getting into new ones.

haha

TJ

8 hours ago, timbofry1 said:

I really never (or next to never) play online multiplayer against random people.  I only like to play against friends.  I was one person that asked about this for the Amico.  Not looking for random online multiplayer, but interested in playing against family and friends online, like a buddy who lives halfway across the country.  I do understand the added cost and other complications this would bring, not to mention going against the spirit of the Amico, so I'd be just fine with couch coop and keeping the games at a lower cost.  Fine by me.  I find even trying to play friends online can be tough anyway...hard to find times that work for both parties, so it hardly ever happens because of that...

I agree. From the few times I played online, I never found it satisfying or fun to win or lose to random people online. That’s just me. 

i know the main idea of the Amico is co-op but Tommy was there ever an idea of selling a single player version of the Amico 

with only one controller and only a couple pack in games like Astrosmash and Shark Shark at a cheaper price for people that will 

be mostly playing the Amico by themselves? 

Wow.  Wow.

An extra-nasally, Owen Wilson has an epiphany Wow.  Have I missed a lot...  About 22 pages back and someone may need to send Lassie to get help to get me out of the well, things are pretty weird from where I'm sitting five days ago.  

Not sure I have enough time or imagination to have an alt here, but I'd spend all my time gushing over my witty comments and reposting myself to check if you guys missed that particularly insightful little observation.  Sooo, keep an eye out for Dark RAB (Bizarro RAB?), or I guess I could just keep it kosher with the one account.  Kinda vanilla, but, ehh, the mods do seem busy enough some days.

6 hours ago, woobman said:

I was looking at the packaging for some of the older games. Not just Intellivision. Other systems as well. I miss the art. Love the colorful boxes. Even EA had some awesome boxes back in the day. Look at some of the original games on floppy disk for the C64 or other systems. Even the 3DO Multiplayer had some nice art on the boxes.  My original Adventure Cart (in box) is sitting at my desk. Still packing the receipt inside.

 

Then I got to thinking: You have some of the veterans possibly coming on board to help with certain games. If you could get some of the original EA team. 3DO had some fun stuff on their platform. Lucasarts. I know a lot of them are over at Doublefine. That company was purchased by Microsoft last year, but it would be amazing to have some of those games brought back and re-imagined. There are so many good game companies from back when it was a smaller industry. That just scratches the surface.

 

Gotta end it with: Wouldn't that be something?

 

 

 

I too would love to see some updated 3do games ported over. That's a really great idea. There are several puzzle games like Icebreaker, Trip'd and Bust a Move  that would fit perfectly on the Amico. Not to mention, how about another Return Fire.

It is sad that games do not have the artistic cases like they used to; a lost art. The same is with album covers. Remember the beautiful artwork on covers like Boston or Kansas? 

Here's a good one.  Betcha didn't know that Amico was supposed to come with 17 pack-in games!!!

Don't worry... neither did I!  

Where do they get this stuff from!??!?

https://www.thegamer.com/intellivision-amico-gamestop-exclusive-purple/

On 5/5/2020 at 9:56 AM, bigdaddygamestudio said:

No I totally understand and I appreciate you being real, my only caveat is that you might want to be careful as you extend beyond us old gamers and to the general public as they do not know you ( and like you like we do) and that personal touch might not be as well received.  Again just my 2 cents.  Tweets and so forth are of course less formal, emails/advertising however are usually more formal, at least in my world and I guess thats why it jumped out at me.   Anyway, just trying to help.

Totally!  Absolutely.  Once the "real" marketing and advertising start you'll be seeing a lot less of me making posts on our official pages.  They may "share" some of my posts.. but in general... they will be handled by someone else at that point.

Thanks for looking out.  Appreciate it.

On 5/5/2020 at 2:06 PM, Relicgamer said:

We still actually regularly play on our intellivision.  My son (21) loves astrosmash. I think its still fun to dive in and try to beat each others scores.  Adding multiplayer makes it that much better 

We have some pretty cool "twists" for VERSUS and Co-op for Astrosmash. 

Can't wait to share more info!

23 hours ago, Intellivision collector said:

Intellivision was always known for being innovative.  I have a suggestion for the Amico to carry on that tradition.  What if you take an extra Amico controller and place a 3D holographic projector on the controller’s video screen?  It could be a holographic Oracle/wizard displaying different magic spells in a dungeon crawler game; or as a long range sensor in a space game. (Reference: How to make 3D hologram projector w/resin (super clear) - resin DIY on YouTube). The controller/projector could sit between the players to provide extra information for the game.  I like the cast acrylic because it is more durable around children than a plexiglass projector.

How many people know that Intellivision was going to release 3D glasses in ‘82 (I think) and the first game to use them was going to be Space Shuttle?  But, sadly, the crash happened. So this would fit with Intellivision’s legacy.

@RxScram... please whip up a prototype over the weekend.  Nick is gonna LOVE this feature.

23 hours ago, OEB_Pete said:

Thanks for sharing Tommy, but thanks for everything you and team Amico are doing to resurrect so many wonderful memories for so many of us.  I hope you truly realize the epic amount of good you are doing for so many people around the world, especially during these uncertain times.  I did not grow up with the Intellivision but I am so happy my kids will grow up with Amico. 

Thank you so much!  You have no idea how much that means to me and the entire team.  Will share your message now.

23 hours ago, Intellivision collector said:

A pirate game could be very interesting - one that would let you explore the islands of the Caribbean.  You could have sea battles against British and Spanish man o war.  Weather elements, like wind, tides, etc. could affect your ship.  You could search for clues to locate and raid your opponents‘ buried treasure. And if you’re low on men and supplies you can go back to your home island.  The game could incorporate history, geography and seamanship.  You could not only attack other ships, but also do shore bombardment and raid settlements or merchant ships.  

Yeah... a pirate game would be cool.  Maybe it could be a whole side story line for the pirates in Utopia!  

23 hours ago, Relicgamer said:

I guess for me its the surprise you get when these older systems surprise you.  Games like warlords on the 2600. 4 player and sure it was available at the arcade but its not common and most have never played it. Also games like hero. Dont believe there ever was a arcade version.  Thats a real gem. And I also play on pc xbox one x and ps4 pro.  But its still fun to fire up my intellivision and whoop my son butt. The laughs we have with warlords never gets old. If you haven't played that on 2600 I suggest you do. That game still amazes me.  Also the 2600 space invaders to many its the best version.  2 player mode is unique to that game franchise 

Yep!  Re-imaging Warlords for Amico!  Great multi-player game.  Starting in 2021.

20 hours ago, Razzie.P said:

 

Your AA signature placement makes it look like you wrote that letter yourself  🤣

 

 

The haters will say I did anyway.

47 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Here's a good one.  Betcha didn't know that Amico was supposed to come with 17 pack-in games!!!

 

Don't worry... neither did I!  

 

Where do they get this stuff from!??!?

https://www.thegamer.com/intellivision-amico-gamestop-exclusive-purple/

 

 

It's not just a typo, it's a marketing strategy!  You heard it here first, Tommy wrote "...Amico... to come with 17 pack-in games!!!"  

Paraphrasing is fun!  Who needs responsible or accurate journalism these days?  😁

23 hours ago, Intellivision collector said:

A pirate game could be very interesting - one that would let you explore the islands of the Caribbean.  You could have sea battles against British and Spanish man o war.  Weather elements, like wind, tides, etc. could affect your ship.  You could search for clues to locate and raid your opponents‘ buried treasure. And if you’re low on men and supplies you can go back to your home island.  The game could incorporate history, geography and seamanship.  You could not only attack other ships, but also do shore bombardment and raid settlements or merchant ships.  

I love love love Sid Meier's Pirates.

4 minutes ago, BiffMan said:

It's not just a typo, it's a marketing strategy!  You heard it here first, Tommy wrote "...Amico... to come with 17 pack-in games!!!"  

 

Paraphrasing is fun!  Who needs responsible or accurate journalism these days?  😁

I clicked on the hotlink. It says 17 exclusive games announced at Gamescom. 

Must've fallen on his head as a boy. 

1 hour ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Yep!  Re-imaging Warlords for Amico!  Great multi-player game.  Starting in 2021.

Excellent!  I think Warlords would be a natural for the Amico, since it's already a "party favorite."  Earlier this year, when I brought my Atari 5200 to my university for our Computer Science Club, four-player Castle Crisis (Bryan Edewaard's excellent Warlords conversion) made it one of the most popular exhibits.

It didn't get a lot of attention at the time, but I still enjoy the updated version of Warlords that Creature Labs developed as part of the Infogrames "Atari Revival" triple-pack in 2002 (somehow I can't seem to find any video of it, but here is a review).  It's a solid effort, and it even has four-player LAN support, which is close to the kind of local multiplayer experience that I imagine the Amico version will deliver.  But it also has a few rough edges, and I think they went a little too far with the new power-ups, which interfere with the flow of the game.  If the Amico version can avoid that, I think it would be a great addition to the library.

19 hours ago, cmart604 said:

Haha! That said I could do with cleaning out some extra stuff to make way for all the Amicos heading back to my underground lair. 

See... what @cmart604 doesn't understand is this whole "Amico" thing is just a huge plot to get his boxed PlayCable!

😈

1 hour ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Yep!  Re-imaging Warlords for Amico!  Great multi-player game.  Starting in 2021.

 

 

Yes !!! I love that game. It’s an awesome 4 player game  😀😀😀

12 hours ago, MmKat said:

Hi Tommy,

 

I'm following this Amico Project since the beginning already and thought I might leave some feedback here. So the main reason for me buying the Amico will be that there are no gory games. I hate seeing that and it has gotten worse in gaming since the graphics got more realistic. I have a Switch too and I play it a lot, but the Amico has a whole different approach, which I gonna support.

 

And I really like the Galaxy Purple Edition. I know it's an exclusive version, but will there be a smilar version available in Germany?

 

 

 

Thanks for the kind words and support!

Yes.  The Galaxy Purple will eventually make its way to Germany.  At this time I don't know when or with who... or if it will be available at launch.  But please feel free to check in from time to time if you don't hear any news from our Mailing List.

Thanks!

10 hours ago, Intellivision collector said:

I was at CES the day the “day video games died”.  The atmosphere of sadness, fear, panic swept through the hall. 

10 hours ago, Intellivision collector said:

Tommy,  not sure if it would be possible, but it might be a nice tribute to Keith Robinson if his name or signature could be somewhere on the founder’s edition of the Amico.  For decades he was “Mr. Intellivision” - the heart and soul of Intellivision.  And, yes, I am championing him for the Patron Saint of videogamers for his kindness and warmth and playful sense of humor.  

If not for Keith... Amico wouldn't exist and Intellivision would have died a long time ago and/or ended up in the wrong hands (like SOME retro companies). 

2 hours ago, ASalvaro said:

i know the main idea of the Amico is co-op but Tommy was there ever an idea of selling a single player version of the Amico 

with only one controller and only a couple pack in games like Astrosmash and Shark Shark at a cheaper price for people that will 

be mostly playing the Amico by themselves? 

It was talked about but the retailers hated the idea, our design engineers hated it (couldn't redesign the whole base just for one controller, but would look weird if it only came with one) and our biggest consumer "pitch" is Together Again and co-op.  So having a single player system out there may only confuse the consumer.  So the idea was dropped.  Too many "negatives".

43 minutes ago, BiffMan said:

It's not just a typo, it's a marketing strategy!  You heard it here first, Tommy wrote "...Amico... to come with 17 pack-in games!!!"  

 

Paraphrasing is fun!  Who needs responsible or accurate journalism these days?  😁

And then... if it came out with 18 games... people will call me a liar.

12 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

 

 

Change a few lyrics and Amico could have a new anthem 😀.