Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

4 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

This may be my last post on AtariAge.  I need one of the moderators to explain to me why people supporting me in this thread have had their posts deleted.  Tempest said he didn't want any "drama" and I think we all agree on that.  But the deleted posts that were sent to me on Facebook did not contain any drama and they were rightfully pointing out that I never attacked Pat on Twitter.  So please give me a response so I can make a decision as to whether or not I feel like this forum is a place that I would still like to participate in.  I enjoyed coming here to have fun and have positive discussions with like minded Intellivision fans like myself... but I can certainly do that at the Intellivision Invasion Facebook page as well (which I typically try to put some time in to).

We certainly hope that you'll continue to visit and engage with the Intellivision fan community here on AtariAge.  During the past few days, we've noticed a significant increase in the number of posts which were critical of the Intellivision Amico to the point of outright trolling, or close to it.  We have tried to keep these posts under control without crossing the line into suppressing any comments about the Amico, either positive or negative, that were made in good faith.  Part of that process involved blocking repeat offenders from this thread, and deleting—or, to be exact, temporarily hiding—specific posts which were deemed to be attempts to stir up drama.  Many of these initial decisions had to walk a fine line and ultimately came down to the individual judgment of individual moderators, but as we have reviewed these decisions after the fact and discussed them among ourselves, we've identified certain posts which were swept up in the mix that merited a second look.  The particular post that you mentioned—this one, if I understand you correctly—was certainly one which we agreed in retrospect should not have been hidden, and so it was restored to the thread yesterday afternoon.

Please accept our apologies for any misunderstandings which may have arisen from our efforts to keep the discussion here as productive as possible for everyone; we are all very supportive of the Amico, and it certainly was not our intention to suppress any legitimate messages of support.  If you or anyone else know of any other such messages which may have been mistakenly flagged and hidden, certainly let us know; these messages have not been deleted, and we are all very interested in correcting the situation to everyone's satisfaction.

Speaking only for myself, one of the things that I appreciate so much about the Amico project—in addition to the other positives that I discussed in this post from two days ago—is the willingness that you and other principals of Intellivision Entertainment have shown in engaging with the community directly, sharing developments and news and soliciting feedback from the fans.  I'm sure I speak for everyone here when I say that we have found these interactions to be both exciting and enlightening, and I hope that the feedback we have offered has made the endeavor worthwhile for you as well.  I sincerely hope that those interactions can continue in a positive spirit as we all anticipate the release of the Intellivision Amico.  I for one plan to be among the first to welcome the Amico into my collection alongside my original Intellivision, as I'm sure many others here will also.

For the love of all that is holy please don't leave the AA Inty forums  Tommy as it has been a pleasure to see you interact in an honest and open way with so many fans of the Intellivision, most of whom are very excited about the Amico, or at the very least are open minded and hopeful about it. It would be a shame to see you leave over a few folks...

2 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Hi Everyone,

This may be my last post on AtariAge.  I need one of the moderators to explain to me why people supporting me in this thread have had their posts deleted.  Tempest said he didn't want any "drama" and I think we all agree on that.  But the deleted posts that were sent to me on Facebook did not contain any drama and they were rightfully pointing out that I never attacked Pat on Twitter.  So please give me a response so I can make a decision as to whether or not I feel like this forum is a place that I would still like to participate in.  I enjoyed coming here to have fun and have positive discussions with like minded Intellivision fans like myself... but I can certainly do that at the Intellivision Invasion Facebook page as well (which I typically try to put some time in to).
 

I think it's great that you've been here as the face of the company, speaking directly to people and answering their questions. It shows a lot of confidence and integrity on your part versus sending some poor PR guy to the forum to take all the heat. I know I've asked a number of tough questions about the Amico in a respectful manner and had respectful answers to them. It is a little frustrating to sometimes get the answer that we have to trust you and you have the research to back it while we remain in the dark, but, as I've said, every game company has to do that. It's unfortunate that that often results in folks assuming it is just going to be something like the old Intellivision or something trying to compete with the big three. I'm glad you stated that so much of what will be great about the Amico has to be kept under wraps because, even though you've stated it repeatedly, I think it gets lost in the volume of posts. Also, what you've said about being able to speak to people about things but not being able to put those things down in a centralized location is new to me and probably a lot of other people, so I think it great that you made that known as well.

I hope that you'll realize that your communication has been a positive force for the Amico and is appreciated by the forum.

I know hardware revisions are a big part of this process and I know you have been focus testing with a lot of people on a lot of different aspects of the machine, games, and operating system. With a launch date of 10/10/2020 and the big marketing push starting up presumedly around E3 in June 2020 do you currently have a projection of when you think hardware revisions will be completed? 

3 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Hi Everyone,

This may be my last post on AtariAge.  

3 hours ago, jaybird3rd said:

We certainly hope that you'll continue to visit and engage with the Intellivision fan community here on AtariAge.  During the past few days, we've noticed a significant increase in the number of posts which were critical of the Intellivision Amico to the point of outright trolling, or close to it.  We have tried to keep these posts under control without crossing the line into suppressing any comments about the Amico, either positive or negative, that were made in good faith.  Part of that process involved blocking repeat offenders from this thread, and deleting—or, to be exact, temporarily hiding—specific posts which were deemed to be attempts to stir up drama.  Many of these initial decisions had to walk a fine line and ultimately came down to the individual judgment of individual moderators, but as we have reviewed these decisions after the fact and discussed them among ourselves, we've identified certain posts which were swept up in the mix that merited a second look.  The particular post that you mentioned—this one, if I understand you correctly—was certainly one which we agreed in retrospect should not have been hidden, and so it was restored to the thread yesterday afternoon.

 

Please accept our apologies for any misunderstandings which may have arisen from our efforts to keep the discussion here as productive as possible for everyone; we are all very supportive of the Amico, and it certainly was not our intention to suppress any legitimate messages of support.  If you or anyone else know of any other such messages which may have been mistakenly flagged and hidden, certainly let us know; these messages have not been deleted, and we are all very interested in correcting the situation to everyone's satisfaction.

 

Speaking only for myself, one of the things that I appreciate so much about the Amico project—in addition to the other positives that I discussed in this post from two days ago—is the willingness that you and other principals of Intellivision Entertainment have shown in engaging with the community directly, sharing developments and news and soliciting feedback from the fans.  I'm sure I speak for everyone here when I say that we have found these interactions to be both exciting and enlightening, and I hope that the feedback we have offered has made the endeavor worthwhile for you as well.  I sincerely hope that those interactions can continue in a positive spirit as we all anticipate the release of the Intellivision Amico.  I for one plan to be among the first to welcome the Amico into my collection alongside my original Intellivision, as I'm sure many others here will also.

Hi!,

Thank-you so much for your kind and informative e-mail, feedback and in depth description of the situation.  I'm definitely going to be sticking around now that I know your process and how seriously you and the other mods take this place and the people in it.

I purposely didn't come here this week as I knew once Pat gave this link in their "attack" video that it was going to attract a bunch of uniformed folks only looking to attack us.  I figured I'd wait until I made a video this weekend so I didn't subject myself to immature and uniformed negativity.  As mentioned, some folks on Facebook were telling me that this thread was being hit with negativity and they were perplexed why their posts were being hidden as well.  So glad to hear that they were gone through again and certain ones reinstated. 

For Ian to say that everyone in here kisses my butt just shows how uniformed he is as well.  He equates anyone liking the idea of Amico as a blind follower and that I hide in here??  How uneducated is that comment?  Especially when I engaged with him directly on Twitter!  And involved in many Facebook pages everywhere!  I'm the exact OPPOSITE of someone who hides.  Shame on him for attacking the people in here or any of the folks who have left such positive messages on our YouTube videos (and for which we have a 95% Like to Dislike ratio) on our channel.  But let me once again state for the record... I'm not "mad" or "attacking" him...  I'm just saying I disagree with him and he should be ashamed of disparaging the folks here.

It's glad to know that the mods take that kind of negative stuff seriously and it really speaks volumes about the character of everyone in charge here.

I'll definitely be sticking around.

Thanks!

Good on ya. And just for the record, I'm interested to hear what you're doing, and I'm only gonna play the role of fan or critic based strictly on your finished product. Any negativity aimed your way is misplaced until you ship the product which you haven't asked anybody to pre-pay for, can demonstrate exists, and have done an excellent job trying to describe in a well thought out way. I think there's a lot of resentment floating around by folks incapable of doing that much, hence the careful moderation to keep things based in reality. 

On 9/3/2019 at 8:18 AM, Shawn said:

The Amico will not find much brand association with a younger audience. The majority of the public under the age of 40 have no clue who or what Intellivision is or was. Remakes and more modern takes on old games isn't a new thing. The Intellivision name wouldn't even need be part of this venture to be successful IMO. It's there sure and Tommy is very passionate about it for sure but old INTV owners are not going to make this thing successful.

 

 The masses don't give a shit about Shark, Shark or really any of the original INTV IP's of old. They will be fun to play I'm sure but the majority of people will not be running with wallets open to play such games based on previous positive enjoyment with those titles. Earthworm Jim? Now your talking. That has the potential to be a system seller. Thing is, Earthworm Jim isn't known to have an association with Intellivision AT ALL. So again, INTV means nothing in that regard. Amico is better off standing on it's own as most people won't have a clue and there will be a fair number who might remember INTV in a negative manor for whatever reason. The main one would be what is often called a horrible controller.  I'm liking a lot of what I've seen in the videos of the Amico, I remember INTV from back in the day, I'm also one of the people who hate the original controller. I look at the new controller and I'm worried about it based soley on my previous use of the original INTV controller. I've seen the game annoucement video and it had me thinking "wow those games look pretty cool. I hope to hell they have a "standard" controller and the one shown isn't the only option."  The controller might be awesome and I'm willing to try it but it could be a deal breaker. Not just for me, but for many.  FWIW, I was a pre-ordered (and still loving to this day) Wii owner. I dove right in when I saw the controller gimmick and early promotion video of games . 

 

 So I'm interested in the Amico and things are looking better and better as more info comes about, But I still have many concerns and reservations. 

Hi!,

Thanks for your comments.  I don't mean to come across as confrontational in any way, but how can you say that the masses don't give a sh*t about Shark! Shark! when the masses have never played it?  Especially the way we have remade it with the touchscreen controls coming into play.  Go listen to the John Riggs video (or my Ian/Pat response video today) where John Riggs... who has NEVER played Shark! Shark! in his life... said how much he enjoyed playing it and how awesome it was.

I'm quite perplexed when people say no one is going to buy the machine because no one remembers Intellivision.  What the heck does that have to do with anything?!?   We've never once said that Amico is relying on the Intellivision name in order to be successful.  People saying that is has no chance because people don't remember the name is such a hollow meaningless statement in my opinion.  At the end of the day, it doesn't matter WHAT the name or branding of the console is... as long as it makes sense and the games are super fun to play.  The fact that it's an Intellivision makes it so much cooler because of the history of the company, games and massive success throughout the years.  So that is a BONUS... not sure why anyone would think the opposite.  As if it is somehow going to drag down Amico?  On one hand people are saying that the Intellivision name sucks because no one knows it.... then in the next breath they say the Intellivision name sucks because people are going to remember how crappy it was.  So which is it?  Do people know the name or not?  The system was VERY popular in the late 70's and early 80's.  Let me remind folks.  $500M a year (equivalent to $1.4B now!), 1800 employees worldwide and absolutely industry changing technology, licensing and game design.  That is NOT a failure.

Here's a crazy stat that I bet a bunch of people don't know or realize.  When our beloved Keith Robinson did those Intellivision 10 & Intellivision 25 plug & play units (they were exclusives at Walmart as well as Bed, Bath & Beyond) 15 years ago... you know how many were sold?  Over 4 million units!!!  Just as many units (if not more!) than all of the original Intellivisions put together!!  You know how many NES and SNES Classics were sold?  About 4 million each!  Now to be fair... I'm not saying Intellivision is more popular than Nintendo.  And Nintendo I'm sure could have sold more Classic units if they manufactured them... AND... the price of the Nintendo machines were much higher (i.e. more impressive that they sold 4M) than the Intellivision ones ($14.99 - $19.99).  But the fact still remains that just 15 years ago... 4 MILLION people bought an Intellivision Plug & Play unit. 

My point being is that the Intellivision name isn't as pathetic as some people (including Pat) try to make it out to be. 

Just thought I would share that bit of information with everyone.

Also... in regards to the point about the controller being horrible.  This is the scenario (which I've spoken about many times in the past).  You either had the Intellivision II (which had a crappy controller) or maybe you never played the original Intellvision when it first came out.  For folks in the 16/32 bit generation controllers or modern controllers... who never played an Intellivision when it first came out... means they never had the experience of playing it and how great it was when it came out.  None of my friends (even the ones who had Atari) ever complained about the controllers back then.  It was the Atari joystick that was garbage (in my opinion).  Only 1 button and totally stiff stick.  Intellivision introduced what the industry now knows as the D-Pad.  That was Intellivision.  WE introduced it to the world (your welcome Nintendo, Sony, Sega & Microsoft).  

But who cares whether people liked or disliked the original controller anyway?!   The ONLY thing we have the same is the disc!!  And it's MUCH better... I can't wait to share more details about how we've upgraded this baby!  It's so freakin' cool!  People are gonna flip out when they hear and see what we've done.  So again... no need for anyone to be negative of the old controller when we're not really doing anything like the original. 

Besides... most of the games wouldn't be able to use a standard controller and the way we're creating the games around the new controller.... you wouldn't want to anyway. 

All that being said (again... not trying to be confrontational... just trying to give you my personal thoughts on your comments) I love that you are interested in the product and willing to wait and give it a chance.  I'm certain that once you play it you're going to really understand and love it!

Looking forward to that day!!  Hopefully we'll get a chance to play it together!

On 9/4/2019 at 8:55 AM, Moofyspacejump said:

Has the Amico team said what extra controllers beyond the 2 pack ins will cost? Some of the games in the trailer showed what looked like at least 4 player games. 

I can tell you that we are shooting for around $30 per controller or $50 for 2.  That's our goal... but it is up in the air (because of certain tariffs and pieces we're using) whether or not we'll be able to hit our goal.  If not those prices... it might be $40 for 1 and $70 for 2.  Which is STILL half the price of all the other 1st party controllers AND ours actually has more technology! 

 

On 9/3/2019 at 12:26 PM, Papy said:

I hope they don't. I think it's better to sacrifice the comfort of a few hardcore gamers, who wouldn't be really interested in the console anyway, rather than to sacrifice the core idea of Amico.

Agreed.  So far... with the exception of 3 of the 22 games being done right now... you couldn't use a standard controller anyway.

 

On 9/4/2019 at 2:35 AM, GrudgeQ said:

I don’t think Tommy is looking at Shark! Shark! and is thinking “wow there is some name recognition for the console”, he is thinking “there is a fun game we can modernize and make even better”. The whole retro part is fun for us older fans but the real value is that they are great games that can get better with some modern polish. I saw a lot of game play trailer posts where people didn’t even recognize the games but said they look “cool” and that is all the Amico needs. Notice they didn’t title any of the games in the trailer - you either like the game or you didn’t. 

 

If you listen to top 40 radio you are going to hear people covering songs from the 50’s on up - they aren't singing those for name recognition, they know it was a great song maybe even from an obscure artist. In fact it is one of the few perks of parents having to listening to their kids music is pointing out that current new “original” hit is actually from the 60’s. Tommy is mining gold here - game play gold, not name recognition gold necessary.

 

As far as worrying about if an IP is associated with Intellivision that is basically nullified by what you are also worried about - no name recognition for Intellivision. Joe Consumer doesn’t care if the Amico is from Intellivision or Acme Anvils Inc - except that at least some do know that Intellivision is a console company and that many of the old hands are still onboard so it helps for people more serious and looking into it.

 

As far as the controller this modernized one is so different I wouldn’t judge it ahead of time. I mean look at the Wii controller - it was a mis-shapen stick with an option string that ran to a mini joystick thingie. If you erase your pleasant memories of the Wii and just look at a photo of that controller system you will mentally say WTF. The way they worked with motion controls was great but the design looks like a bad dream. Again worried about old impressions of the OG Intellivision controller? First a lot of people did like it or at least didn’t mind it (the Internet is the definition of “vocal minority” and not reality) and going back to “Intellivision who are they?” Soccer Mom Susan is going to look at it and say “ooh a screen and a single button plus you can swing it around and play bowling - that looks easy & fun”. Not trying to discount your dislike of the OG controller but that wasn’t a universal experience and again the Amico is a nod to retro gamers but it really isn’t targeted at us.

Nailed it 100%! 

On 9/4/2019 at 3:15 AM, AtariLeaf said:

I just saw the apology video and as my comment on the video mentioned, i had no idea there was animosity between the 2 parties. I hope the folks here werent making ad hominem attacks toward pat and ian. it does nothing to further the discussion and just makes the person saying it seem immature and their further input irrelevant. I also hope pat and ian dont devolve into similar behavior as it will do nothing to help mend fences either but the sarcastic nature of their latest video was disappointing.

 

Having said that the best thing now is to have them interview tommy and hopefully clear the air and address any concerns they have. Im personally on the fence about the amico but i am following it with interest.

I agree 100%!!

On 9/4/2019 at 3:31 AM, TIGHazard said:

Firstly, while I did come over via Pat's link, I don't want to see a console fail. I do want something like this to succeed. We do need more competition in the industry. Now that's out of the way, I do have some criticisms.

 

My first console, as a 4 or 5 year old, was an Intellivision plug-n-play device. I don't know if it was officially licensed or not, but it did come with Intellivision style controllers. And I do think people forget just how small kids hands are at that age. I did enjoy the games, but the controller was too big for my hands and the buttons on the side were difficult to press. Even though the PS2 controller isn't suited to playing Intellivision games, it was a lot more easier and fun to play, at least until my hands got bigger.

 

I'm not sure a screen on the controller is a good idea. I work in a phone repair shop - You won't believe the amount of smartphones that come in, with the screen smashed, because the parents young child dropped it. Now you're adding motion controls for things like bowling to the mix? The wiimote was thin. I'm guessing this thing is as wide as a smartphone. Try swinging that around - If you think kids aren't going to lose control of that and it's not going to fly into the TV, I don't know what to say. It already happened with the Wiimote - Nintendo had lawsuits against it.

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/3725869/Nintendo-sued-over-dangerous-Wii-controllers.html

 

 

And maybe this is just the European in me, but please have a soccer game available. FIFA and Pro Evo were the two main games my family - and everyone else I know - played on the PS2. Not sure if that would break the violence policy (because tackling), but we need some soccer game that doesn't have in-app purchases.

Hi!,

Thanks for coming over from that link in the video.  Good to see that folks willing to discuss things in a mature and respectful manner made it! 

I totally understand what you're saying about the controller and I feel bad that the first experience you had with Intellivision games was the Intellivision Plug & Play device.  Those were awful controllers... but the entire thing was under $20 so you get what you pay for I guess.     I remember seeing them at Walmart and I bought one right away.  It was nice to support Keith and to see the Intellivision name in a huge store.

We are doing a TON of focus testing with kids of all ages and we are VERY aware and dealing with the fact that kids drop things all the time.  It was a very smart and thoughtful observation of you to bring that up (like you said... working in a phone repair store makes you VERY conscious of the issue!).  Trust me... we're all over making sure they can't easily break.  The screens aren't glass either (too expensive anyway!!) but are very responsive and super bright. 

Can't wait for you to play them.

Also... in regards to your football question (you did say you were from Europe!!)    YES!!  We are actually going to have multiple Soccer games in the store on day one!  When I say multiple ones I mean that we are keeping everything simple and have contracted 3 different companies to make the games in 3 totally different and unique ways!  One of them is very very simple and easy... but super fun for everyone to play.  So there will be choices and fun for everyone.

Thanks again for the comments and observations.

 

On 9/4/2019 at 9:40 AM, Papy said:

The reason those screens break easily is because manufacturers want to make them as thin as possible. Looking at the thickness of Amico's controller, I'd say they can be made quite sturdy. Besides, it looks like they are slightly recessed, so if the plastic is of good quality, they won't break that easily.

Aside from the chipset... the screens in the controllers are the most expensive thing on the machine!  We are really spending good money on making the controllers amazing (and sturdy!) in every way. 

On 9/4/2019 at 10:21 AM, zander21510 said:

As it stands now, I see a company and its founder getting extremely defensive and actively engaging and insulting a couple of guys who aren't even that popular among a lot of people who follow the game industry. If they were truly confident in their product and truly believe these are just a couple of trolls who don't know what they're talking about, they would just keep promoting their product and let it stand on its own. As they say, don't feed the trolls. If your product is good, nobody pays attention to the trolls. Had they said nothing, Pat & Ian wouldn't have done two follow-ups and there wouldn't be a dozen alarm bells going off in my head.

I never got defensive and I never insulted them.  They said that... and you believed it.  I think it's a great lesson in why real communication with people is so important.  Ask yourself why they refused to talk to me. On or off air.

You're 100% correct.  They mean absolutely nothing in the big picture.  But I'm also not going to stand by while they tell hundreds of thousands of people that the console could cost $300, that I attacked them and that my team is lazy.  I will stand up for what me & my amazing team is working so hard to accomplish.

If you haven't already, please check out my response video to them so you can see how I never attacked them and never got defensive. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiR7IvVp8TM

On 9/4/2019 at 10:39 AM, BydoEmpire said:

Just chiming in to say I had an Amico dream last night.  I went into the breakroom in my office, and there was an Amico (in my dream, it looked like an original Intellivision with updated controllers).  I was surprised we had a machine so early, but I tried a bunch of stuff, and noticed a few titles like updates of Dracula and AD&D Cloudy Mountain on the system.  I don't recall exactly what I played, but it was pretty cool.

That was no dream.

I broke into your home last night.


 

On 9/4/2019 at 11:54 AM, Blarneo said:

It's just a theory of mine, but I'm just arrogant and delusional enough to share it. 

 

There are times when having a celebrity CEO as the face of a company can be a double edge sword. When a big personality becomes the face of a company, his/her image becomes indistinguishable from the products. 

Currently Elon Musk can be seen mostly as a nerdy engineer & sometimes visionary, but there have been times he sticks his foot in his mouth and being so attached to Tesla & SpaceX, he kind of damages the 2 companies images for a time because of it.

Then there's Steve Jobs. Without him, I'm sure Apple would not be the juggernaut it currently is, but it also wouldn't be a polarizing company either. His reputation as an impatient task master and volatile hothead, not to mention a brilliant marketer, has made Apple an adore with worship/hate with a thousand suns love/hatefest of a company. His legacy lives on long after his death. People either buy Apple (Sometimes exclusively), or they will never touch anything they make.

 

Even the most famous head of corporate image, Walt Disney, belies what the company actually was before his death in 1966. Despite the historical revisionism & rehabilitation of his sometimes dark sides by the current Disney Empire, Historically Walt Disney Studios was always a struggling studio, and often teetered on the verge of bankruptcy until it was taken over by Eisner & Katzenberg in the late 80s. Disney's ambitions were truly visionary, but he also dabbled in red baiting, blacklisting, working with McCarthy and Hoover's FBI to turn in "communists", and was a notorious strike breaker and paid his animators sub par wages. 

 

Right now, Tommy Tallarico is the face of The Amico, which means its image & possible success is synonymous with him and his salesmanship. This little dustup with a couple of YouTubers is nothing much, but it'd be wise to keep the engagement with negative people to a minimum. I can recall Xbox being on top of the world, until YouTube and Reddit decided that Xbox One was going to be the end of video games forever, and the virulent backlash probably costed Microsoft half of the sales the console deserved, putting the fallacy of "No such thing as bad publicity" into the not so true axiom it really is.

For the record... I absolutely LOVE being compared in any small way to Elon Musk, Steve Jobs and especially.... Walt Disney (one of my heroes!)

Every one of those guys stood up to bullies and weren't afraid to mix it up time to time. 

The thing to remember... is sometimes folks (like me) use the negative stuff and bullying as fuel for the fire. 
 

On 9/4/2019 at 12:13 PM, 8bitgamer said:

Hey, guys, If you want to support an author (professional for more than two decades) and YouTuber (new, but growing fast) who is fully behind the Intellivision Amico and Tommy Tallarico, check out my books here:

https://www.amazon.com/Brett-Weiss/e/B001JS0BCO/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1

 

And my Retrogaming YouTube channel here:

https://www.youtube.com/c/BrettWeissRetroGamer

 

Thanks and enjoy!

LOVE your work and I'm a big supporter!

Look what's sitting on my home desk right now!

 

On 9/4/2019 at 12:49 PM, Lathe26 said:

 

I'll have to disagree that the company is getting "extremely defensive".  Some Amico fans are doing that but not the company.  Instead, the company has made multiple attempts to reach out to Pat and Ian, which is not the behavior of an extremely defensive company.  Pat and Ian have rebuffed these attempts.

 

The big problem is that Pat and Ian have made a large number of untrue statements across multiple videos.  It's fine if they are skeptical and think it will fail since those are opinions.  It's fine to state facts and extrapolate from them to say they see potential failure.  However, when it comes to stating hard facts to begin with, Pat and Ian have a documented poor track record.  This isn't limited to just the Amico but also with most pre-NES consoles.  This has been an ongoing problem with them.

 

Further, when they get called out on it, they have demonstrated that they'd rather dig in their heels versus make corrections through research or talking to any of several knowledgable people.  They are capable of interviewing people and then choosing to post only portions of the material if they think it becomes too much of a sales pitch.  They could post an entire interview and then have commentary at the end that refutes and rips it to shreds.  They could interview but then throw it away and not even mention it, if they so choose.  Instead, they have chosen to not talk to people to begin with.

 

The big question to ask is why are Pat and Ian behaving this way.

Agree.

No reason not to speak with me.  On or off the record.

 

On 9/4/2019 at 1:22 PM, Flojomojo said:

It's because they have opinions. I watched that "apology video" and while I felt stupid for doing it, they seem justified in their opinions to me. There's nothing particularly compelling on the Amico website, and if someone has to check the footnotes or follow Tommy around like a groupie to get "the real story," that's a failure to communicate. 

 

When they said, "Have fun paying $200 to play an updated Shark Shark," that sounded like fair and reasonable criticism to me. 

 

I like Tommy and wish him the all the best, but everyone knows this device is coming into a crowded field. I have to assume that the people who are rah-rah'ing so very hard for this have no inside information, since the thing is a full year away from launch. Yet they're leaping to defend it from ...what? Dorks with opinions about video games? If you new members with Intellivision-derived names are going to try and play whack-a-mole with everyone who says a disparaging thing about your favorite unreleased system, you're gonna have a bad time. 

 

As someone who is inclined to like the Intellivision games in general and TT in particular, and no particular loyalty to Pat and Ian, I have to agree with Pat and Ian. This is ... not compelling. 

 

 

It's fair for you to say that it isn't compelling to you at this point.  Totally fair comment.  The same exact thing can be said about any PlayStation, XBox or Switch for a vast majority of the planet.  Remember... 200 million hardcore gamers... but 3 billion people play casual games and don't consider themselves gamers. 

So if the system ends up not appealing to you... that's totally okay.  But if you love retro gaming... then I think you're going to absolutely love playing a lot of the games the system will have to offer.  And the great part is... you don't need to give me or anyone else money before you decide (unlike SOME folks we know). 

Wait til it comes out... have a go... and then decide for yourself.

That's all I've ever said.

But it is NOT their opinion that the machine is $300.  That is absolutely false information that they told hundreds of thousands of potential folks listening.

I have every right to try to set the record straight.  And that was only one of the many mistakes they made because they forgot or didn't do the research.  As I showed in my response video today...  Pat DID read the entire press release on the show and DID read the price last year.  So he forgot.  Okay... fair enough.  No worries... people make mistakes.  So I tweeted him and said the price isn't $300 it's $200 and the info was right in the video description.  At that point, he could have said... "Damn... sorry... my bad... I'll correct it."  But instead... he attacked me and deceived hundreds of thousands of people that I attacked them and that I can't take criticism.  In essence... trying to turn hundreds of thousands of people against us.  For what?  Correcting them on some info they got wrong?  And by the way... let me state that I don't think he purposely lied to folks.  I truly think he believes I attacked him.  From what I've heard from others... he gets attacked a lot for what he says.  So he's probably overly defensive when folks like me stand up and feel the need to correct him.  So he went into attack mode.  The problem was...  I never attacked or disrespected him.  Again... PLEASE watch the video and see what I said and how it really unfolded.

As I mention in my video... YES!!  We don't have all the info out there yet and there is a ton more info that will be coming out.  But not until next year.  Why?  Because of patents and our marketing plan.  So folks shouldn't get upset because we haven't released every piece of information about the machine 13 months before it releases.  Lets be honest... the fact that it's 13 months out and I showed 17 games when our friends at Atari are supposed to be releasing in a few months and haven't shown any games... I think says a lot in regards to how far ahead of the game we are. 



Thanks for your comments (even though you said last year you wouldn't talk about Amico until it comes out). 

Just busting your balls!  Glad to have you in the conversation. 



 

Tommy, how much of a geek does it make me if I'm counting the number of contact points for the Amico controller's disk?  😜

On 9/4/2019 at 1:44 PM, BigDumer said:

Well, I've finally caught-up on 60 pages of the Amico thread...it's quite a ride.  Just chiming in my two cents. I am a life-long gamer ever since I found an Intellivision under the Christmas tree when I was 5 or 6.  That led to a succession of consoles and ultimately a (so far) 20-year career in the video game industry. 

 

I have two kids, 10 and 7 and about 1.5 years ago I decided to start a weekly "Family Game Night".  I thought I might buy a Switch for this, but it would be $1000 for console games, controllers.  I only needed to buy 1 more PS4 controller to have 4, so we went that way.  There are some 4-player couch co-op games on PS4, but there aren't a ton.  We did Overcooked (fun but we almost killed each other that first night) and Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime (fun until my son decides it's more fun to sabotage the ship).  I then hauled out the Wii-U so we could try some of the Wii library.  The kids loved Wii Sports (for my kids, family game night requires a round of bowling) and Wii Play Motion.  We've had some fun with some of the crappy mini-game compilations (Hasbro Family Game Night, Carnival Games) and have started New Super Mario Bros. Wii.  I'm looking forward to Super Mario Kart and maybe Super Smash Bros.  Spent some time this weekend setting up my Xbox 360 for Rock Band since my son is taking drum lessons and I see them both playing a rhythm game on their iPads.

 

With that said, we have had challenges.  We have a variety of skill levels when it comes to these games and it can be tough to find games where we can all have fun.  So I'm excited for Amico.  I like the idea of more choices, more variety and a lower cost to get everyone playing.  Even cooler is the idea that friends (or, gasp, grandparents) can come by and join in the fun without having to study engineering diagrams of the controller layout.  Once, long ago, I was a tester on some popular sports games and now I don't play the latest versions because I can't be bothered to learn the controls.  It's a far cry from me and my dad playing NBA Basketball and PGA Golf on our Intellivision back in 1983.  Wouldn't it be great if my son and I could play a competitive sports game on a modern console....

 

Looking forward to 10-10-2020!

Thank you for your story.  It's amazing how many times we hear this same thing over and over and over again. 

Most of the folks who don't understand what were doing are typically not parents.  We look at the young family demographics every month and it's incredible what a huge gaping hole exists for simple family entertainment that everyone can play on the same level together.  ESPECIALLY in the video game market.  Like you said... board games are the only affordable thing these days.  Is a family of 4 supposed to buy 2 - 4 Switches so everyone can play at the same time?  $600 plus the games and they need to worry about their kids getting Mature and violent content.  Not feasible and not what young families are interested in.

For folks who think I'm just shooting by the seat of my pants and guessing on everything and think I don't know who our market is...

...would be very wrong.

Thanks again for your comment.  Absolutely agree with you 100%!!

10 minutes ago, Lathe26 said:

Tommy, how much of a geek does it make me if I'm counting the number of contact points for the Amico controller's disk?  😜

I'm glancing at 32 or maybe 48 levels of geekdom.🤠

On 9/4/2019 at 1:49 PM, dj_convoy said:

1.  it's not really up to Pat and Ian to clear up misconceptions (unless they are out there putting out purposeful mistruths, which I don't think is the case here; they merely got a couple of details WRONG, and there is a difference) about the Amico; 

 

2.  it's up to the Amico team and Tommy to clear up misconceptions based on whatever information they've put out there. 

 

 

3.  They've stated their concerns about the Amico. If those aren't your shared concerns, that's fine, but a few of you have to understand that NOT EVERYTHING IS AN ATTACK.

4.  Being unsure of something, or even critical of something is not intrinsically a bad thing. As for the Amico team's part, instead of getting into it with them (or anybody), the best revenge is living well. Shut down concerns and criticism by showing gameplay and explaining what steps are being taken to connect to the 6.8 billion non gamers out there. Show us why this needs to fit into our increasingly clogged up A/V setups. 

 

5.  It's cool that Tommy comes here to interact and drum up interest for this thing, but that doesn't mean any of us should instantly take up the banner for all things Amico and attack the naysayers. A couple of you should perhaps think twice before getting so bent out of shape over criticism. 

 

Hi,

Thanks for joining the conversation.  I wanted to give you my thoughts on some of your comments.

1.  As I showed in my video... Pat read the original press release on the show last year stating $149 - $179.  A year later he forgot and made a mistake and doubled the price.  He obviously didn't do it on purpose, but it is absolutely up to them to right the wrong after finding out the mistake.  Which... to his credit... he did!  The problem I think was that he took me correcting him as some sort of attack.  As my video response shows, that was absolutely NOT the case. 

2.  Exactly!  I agree 100%!  Which is why I tried reaching out them tons of times.  To clear up the misconceptions and to help them understand why we are doing the things the way we are, why we can only share certain info at this time, etc.  I agree that they don't need to have me on their podcast.  It's their podcast... they can do whatever they want.  But to keep attacking me and the system and give out wrong information when I'm trying to reach out to clear up misconceptions is where it starts to get a little crazy.  I really hope they watch my entire video response and understand that I was not attacking them.  If they don't want to talk or "make up"... that's fine.  I still wish them well and success.  But if they continue to say wrong things on their podcast... I'll feel the need to correct them publicly.  Thats fair isn't is?

3.  Exactly!!  NOT EVERYTHING IS AN ATTACK!  How come the folks here need to abide by that rule... but not the other side?   Many folks in here (including myself) have said many many times that the system isn't going to appeal to everyone and that folks should at least give it a try before they decide that they don't like it.  That sounds fair... doesn't it?

4.  This is EXACTLY what I've been doing.  And I didn't do it in a critical or offensive way.

5.  Again... I agree with the comment... but that isn't what is happening.   You say that people here shouldn't attack others if people don't like the machine.  Well... how about Ian or others NOT attacking the people HERE because they do?  It's unfair to expect the people who are excited about the system to act a certain way... when the folks attacking them are not giving the same respect.   Make sense?


Thanks for your comments and contribution to the thread.  Hope I'm making sense and helping you to understand another side.

 

On 9/4/2019 at 2:10 PM, JBerel said:

but on the other hand, intellivision hasn't earned a fandom yet.

Why not?  People are excited about the possibilities and what we're doing.  There isn't anything wrong with that.

When people see a movie trailer a year before it's released... people get excited.  The movie may end up sucking (the latest Superman movies come to my mind!) but it's okay to get excited and to cheer it on in hopes that it's going to be as good as your hoping for.

In our case... we're only starting to scratch the surface and we're going to absolutely OVERdeliver IMO. 

But again... I'm probably a little biased.