Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

3 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

We won't know the full effects of COVID until after the lockdown is over.  Los Angeles county just said that businesses can't open until August now.  If that happens in Orange County (we are the next county over from L.A.) I can tell you that it won't be ready by October... or even by the end of the year!  We need to be in the same room in order to complete hardware.  Especially to the level we're doing.  Imagine telling a car manufacturer to make a car but everyone needs to stay apart in different places.  Being apart for smaller games doesn't affect the software/games... but the hardware.  Yes.  2 of our guys are literally hand building controllers from scratch to get to our many developers around the world.  And parts are very late and delayed from China and of course need to be quarantined the second they arrive and are opened.  But if it takes 2 people to build a controller... how can you accomplish this when everything is in the office?  One guy comes in and does what he can do, then another comes in after that, etc.  How can we all test the different parts of the hardware when each machine part needs a ton of testing and companies that do it are closed and the hardware we have is limited.  It's crazy, but we're trying our best given the circumstances and health/lockdown laws that the state of California has placed upon everyone.  It is what it is.  Nothing we can do except try our hardest and work as long as humanly possible.  We were really hoping California would be "opened up" by May 1st.  And now they're talking about being closed til August?  Impossible to get hardware done in that time.  I refuse to put out a product that isn't the best it could be.  We're not going to rush it or cut corners and take shortcuts.  Part of the reason J Allard is such an important part of the team now.  He's been through the "red ring of death" and knows why and what happened.  Not enough time for heat and component testing was a big part of that.  I'm doing everything in my power to keep the promise I made to my mom, dad & brother about honoring my sister Karen's birthday on 10/10.  They keep telling me over and over not to worry.  And if this crap continues for another month... it's out of my hands.    But maybe if 10/10 slips I can do something super special on 10/10.  Maybe have a huge public showing where the general public can play all the games for the first time (like what we had planned for E3 and Gamescom).  Maybe we do one on the west coast (LA?) and one on the east coast (NYC?).  I don't know... I really don't feel like thinking about it or discussing that at this point.  10/10 launch is still our #1 goal right now. 

 

Founders Editions would be a few days before launch I would imagine... not a few weeks.

 

Road Rash would be pretty cool.  EA would need to be on board.  Probably wouldn't happen til 2022.

 

 

 

Very sorry to hear this but I understand. COVID has screwed up everything across many areas of life. Please take the time needed to get it done right. 

3 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

We won't know the full effects of COVID until after the lockdown is over.  Los Angeles county just said that businesses can't open until August now.  If that happens in Orange County (we are the next county over from L.A.) I can tell you that it won't be ready by October... or even by the end of the year!  We need to be in the same room in order to complete hardware.  Especially to the level we're doing.  Imagine telling a car manufacturer to make a car but everyone needs to stay apart in different places.  Being apart for smaller games doesn't affect the software/games... but the hardware.  Yes.  2 of our guys are literally hand building controllers from scratch to get to our many developers around the world.  And parts are very late and delayed from China and of course need to be quarantined the second they arrive and are opened.  But if it takes 2 people to build a controller... how can you accomplish this when everything is in the office?  One guy comes in and does what he can do, then another comes in after that, etc.  How can we all test the different parts of the hardware when each machine part needs a ton of testing and companies that do it are closed and the hardware we have is limited.  It's crazy, but we're trying our best given the circumstances and health/lockdown laws that the state of California has placed upon everyone.  It is what it is.  Nothing we can do except try our hardest and work as long as humanly possible.  We were really hoping California would be "opened up" by May 1st.  And now they're talking about being closed til August?  Impossible to get hardware done in that time.  I refuse to put out a product that isn't the best it could be.  We're not going to rush it or cut corners and take shortcuts.  Part of the reason J Allard is such an important part of the team now.  He's been through the "red ring of death" and knows why and what happened.  Not enough time for heat and component testing was a big part of that.  I'm doing everything in my power to keep the promise I made to my mom, dad & brother about honoring my sister Karen's birthday on 10/10.  They keep telling me over and over not to worry.  And if this crap continues for another month... it's out of my hands.    But maybe if 10/10 slips I can do something super special on 10/10.  Maybe have a huge public showing where the general public can play all the games for the first time (like what we had planned for E3 and Gamescom).  Maybe we do one on the west coast (LA?) and one on the east coast (NYC?).  I don't know... I really don't feel like thinking about it or discussing that at this point.  10/10 launch is still our #1 goal right now. 

 

Founders Editions would be a few days before launch I would imagine... not a few weeks.

 

Road Rash would be pretty cool.  EA would need to be on board.  Probably wouldn't happen til 2022.

 

 

 

sounds like you need to open an R&D office in a less restricted county  

I suggest the Anctartica base or the 200 inhabitant-city Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, located in a tiny English volcanic island some hundred miles west of South Africa, both Coronavirus-free sites.

1 hour ago, woobman said:

Come over to Utah! We will be in the Yellow Zone on Saturday. (Except for a few counties and cities). A quick road trip out here to do some testing and as a bonus the Police won't break down your door and fine you!

1 hour ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

We've actually been looking into and met with government officials in Utah to put one of our facilities there.  They are offering a lot of great tax incentives for tech companies right now.  Utah is an amazing and beautiful state!

 

 

Not a salesperson or Government official but coming from a transplant of the San Francisco Bay area: It reminds me of the Valley in the early 80's. Lots of startups. Some of the bigger well known companies moving out here. There is even a few divisions of an electric car company here. All this and indoor plumbing too. 

8 hours ago, supahwally said:

 

 

Are you here to talk about the Amico, or obsess over these guys?  

 

I thought we were moving on?  Wouldn't that be something?

 

Are you here to be my Dad or some motivational speaker that lives in a van by the river?

7 hours ago, IntelliMission said:

@Tommy Tallarico I have a couple of questions about the J Allard hiring:

 

- What do you think about the Zune and Kin products? J Allard was very involved in those and they were considered failures. I know it's kind of a peculiar question just after you just hired him, but perhaps you know some interesting story about those.

 

Zune was actually a very good product and it was bundled with a really good music service. The Zune HD was actually fantastic and did a lot right.  The problem was that Apple just had too much of the mindshare and people just pigeon holed Zune as a "wannabe" so it never took off.  Great products don't always succeed. People today fawn over Dreamcast, but it bombed. You can make something really great, but sometimes it just doesn't take the market by storm.

Kin is a different story.  I remember when it came out, it looked really interesting. It was something that I wanted. It wasn't quite a smartphone, but it wasn't a dumbphone either.  It was somewhere in the middle. The problem was that it was limited to few carriers and they saddled it with a data package that cost way too much for it to make sense. Remember, this is when you had to pay an extra $40 a month for your phone to receive any data.  I think it was a good product that was killed by outside influences.  That and they were working on Windows Phone, so Kin was really just to fill a contract obligation they had with (I believe) Verizon.

4 minutes ago, vongruetz said:

People today fawn over Dreamcast, but it bombed. You can make something really great, but sometimes it just doesn't take the market by storm.

The story I heard, was that Sega was in too much debt to support Dreamcast's growth beyond what they already did. In short, they had a great first year, but ran out of money to support a second, especially since Sony announced Playstation 2 in January 2000, even though it wasn't going to be released until winter 2000. Dreamcast sales took a nosedive after that announcement. Sega couldn't save their hardware business. 

10 Million sales in 14 months is anything but a  "bomb". That's Nintendo Switch numbers.

8 minutes ago, Blarneo said:

The story I heard, was that Sega was in too much debt to support Dreamcast's growth beyond what they already did. In short, they had a great first year, but ran out of money to support a second, especially since Sony announced Playstation 2 in January 2000, even though it wasn't going to be released until winter 2000. Dreamcast sales took a nosedive after that announcement. Sega couldn't save their hardware business. 

 

10 Million sales in 14 months is anything but a  "bomb". That's Nintendo Switch numbers.

I enjoyed almost every Dreamcast game I played. Still fun to play Virtua Tennis or Speed Devils.

Microsoft should have just bought Sega and keet the brand, sort of like Disney with Marvel. This would have benefited everyone:

- Microsoft would have gained importance in the Japanese market

- Sega would have had more money available to keep doing original games

- A console with Microsoft's power and Sega's games would have been a really hard contender for Sony

54 minutes ago, MarioMan88 said:

I enjoyed almost every Dreamcast game I played. Still fun to play Virtua Tennis or Speed Devils.

Still cannot get enough of SF Rush 2049!

3 hours ago, GrudgeQ said:

Tommy's interview on the Stone Age Gamer podcast (via Brett Weiss on FB):

 

https://stoneagegamer.com/blog/sag-episode-306-talking-with-tommy-tallarico-pts-12/

Good podcast.

8 hours ago, RREDDWARFF said:

9 hours ago, CurlyQ said:

I'm not letting that dude serve my kid, or anyone's kid, lemonade on a street corner. 

...it's the bow tie, isn't it?

1 hour ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

Space Hawk I remember you could literally play a game for hours, usually your thumbs gave out before you lost.  Those side buttons were tough on thumbs etc, especially in the summer with you coming in and out of the pool. 

Space Hawk was one of my most anticipated games as a kid. I envisioned the 'bubbles' as some kind of time travel mechanism. Enter the bubble and immediately be transported to some other part of space or other world. Ultimately it was a pretty simple game (as most games were back then). But, the prospect of flying around in space caught my childhood imagination hook line & sinker. Similar to Star Strike and Space Battle.

And yes, the Intellivision controllers were absolute murder on your trigger fingers especially during those epic long gaming sessions! "Gamers Thumb" was almost a daily occurrence in my household...lol 🤕

2 hours ago, Blarneo said:

The story I heard, was that Sega was in too much debt to support Dreamcast's growth beyond what they already did. In short, they had a great first year, but ran out of money to support a second, especially since Sony announced Playstation 2 in January 2000, even though it wasn't going to be released until winter 2000. Dreamcast sales took a nosedive after that announcement. Sega couldn't save their hardware business. 

 

10 Million sales in 14 months is anything but a  "bomb". That's Nintendo Switch numbers.

I hope we "bomb" with 10M units!!!

Any chance for a Caveman Ugh-lympics for the Amico?

2 hours ago, MarioMan88 said:

I enjoyed almost every Dreamcast game I played. Still fun to play Virtua Tennis or Speed Devils.

This brings to mind a question I've had for sometime. 

For everyone in here: How much does nostalgia play into your enjoyment of older consoles?

I bought a Dreamcast a few years ago, and just couldn't get into it.  Likewise, I was a Genesis kid back in the day, so I have a hard time playing all of the SNES games, even today. Atari games do little for me since I was into Intellivision.  The same goes for PS1 games, which I skipped entirely back then. But I do find that all of the games or consoles I do have nostalgia for, I can play and love for hours today. Intellivision, NES, Genesis and PS2 through today are all I played when they were new and still really enjoy.

15 hours ago, IntelliMission said:

Meanwhile, at Resetera...

 

- The moderator says "oh no Allard, what are you doing?"

 

- The moderator calls the Amico "Tommy Tallarico's delusional vanity project"

 

- Another user congratulates the moderator and compares him with @jaybird3rd, who is supposedly "banning everyone who doesn't like the console"

 

- Another user says "family market? Minecraft already exists"

 

- Several users really upset because of the "cheap looking" location Tommy used for the Sidesweepers video and his "the girl is beating you" comment

 

Gotta love how some of them are closely watching this project clearly wishing for it to fail. It looks like excuses to hate the Amico are becoming harder and harder to find (see the "the girl is beating you" comment, something that EVERYONE has said in this kind of situations and DOESN'T IMPLY THAT THE PERSON SAYING IT THINKS GIRLS ARE INFERIOR because it's just a joke).

 

It's gotta be a long, hard road for these people.

These people remind me of the basketball players when the guy with the ball brushes against them and they fly three feet backward on their ass for an offensive foul. 🤣

4 hours ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

Haters can sometimes get everyone distracted, and while some are indeed trolls, others just think different.  What works for me when I run up against some people who's opinions "I JUST DONT GET", and I find myself wasting too much time caring what they think,  I remind myself of chocolate ice cream and Farrah.  Its to remind me even though I LOVE chocolate ice cream and think Farrah was one of the most beautiful women ever,  some people actually and honestly dont agree. They like vanilla and dont think Farrah was gorgeous. To each their own, and it reminds me that people do have different likes and dislikes, and so it reminds me to just let it go and not be distracted since if people cant agree of chocolate ice cream and Farrah then people will never agree on anything. So I just let it go and get my mind back on to positive things.

 Farrah was a real treat. And one fabulous looking babe! 🤪❤️

13 minutes ago, vongruetz said:

This brings to mind a question I've had for sometime. 

For everyone in here: How much does nostalgia play into your enjoyment of older consoles?

 

I bought a Dreamcast a few years ago, and just couldn't get into it.  Likewise, I was a Genesis kid back in the day, so I have a hard time playing all of the SNES games, even today. Atari games do little for me since I was into Intellivision.  The same goes for PS1 games, which I skipped entirely back then. But I do find that all of the games or consoles I do have nostalgia for, I can play and love for hours today. Intellivision, NES, Genesis and PS2 through today are all I played when they were new and still really enjoy.

I do tend to play retro games from systems I owned (Intellivision, C64, Amiga, etc) but I also do play arcade cab stuff and just games I wished that I have had on various older systems (like some Atari/NES/SNES/Sonic stuff). However most of my game playing hours are contemporary games like Hitman (big fan of the franchise, with a few exceptions), Doom, Subnautica, Fallout and a bunch of indie stuff like Slay the Spire, the Kingdom series, Forager, etc. So overall for me it is a mix but there are certainly retro systems I just have never gotten into. Just because it is classic system (and great) doesn't mean it will click with me. I am more game style driven I guess.

36 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

2 hours ago, Blarneo said:

The story I heard, was that Sega was in too much debt to support Dreamcast's growth beyond what they already did. In short, they had a great first year, but ran out of money to support a second, especially since Sony announced Playstation 2 in January 2000, even though it wasn't going to be released until winter 2000. Dreamcast sales took a nosedive after that announcement. Sega couldn't save their hardware business. 

 

10 Million sales in 14 months is anything but a  "bomb". That's Nintendo Switch numbers.

 

I hope we "bomb" with 10M units!!!

I think you will leave 10 million units in the dust. The Wii sold over 100 million units and did not have nowhere near the game catalog quality that the Amico will have.

53 minutes ago, fdr4prez said:

Any chance for a Caveman Ugh-lympics for the Amico?

 

 

The name alone has my vote! 😆

55 minutes ago, CurlyQ said:

 Farrah was a real treat. And one fabulous looking babe! 🤪❤️

 

 

"oh, I don't wear any." - cannonball run

28 minutes ago, GrudgeQ said:

I do tend to play retro games from systems I owned (Intellivision, C64, Amiga, etc) but I also do play arcade cab stuff and just games I wished that I have had on various older systems (like some Atari/NES/SNES/Sonic stuff). However most of my game playing hours are contemporary games like Hitman (big fan of the franchise, with a few exceptions), Doom, Subnautica, Fallout and a bunch of indie stuff like Slay the Spire, the Kingdom series, Forager, etc. So overall for me it is a mix but there are certainly retro systems I just have never gotten into. Just because it is classic system (and great) doesn't mean it will click with me. I am more game style driven I guess.

@vongruetz & Grudge, I'm pretty much the same as you both, except I don't have any 8 bit systems left. You all know the story about my Intellivision at the hands of 3 stepbrothers. I sold my NES for a Genesis & bought an SNES a few years after release. I do tend to play the SNES more than my Genesis, but I had both in the 90s. My Dreamcast I bought in 1999 and I play it once or twice a year when I have time. It's hooked up to a bedroom TV with an HDMI adapter. I play the two 16 bitters more though.

As far as modern games, for the last 4 years, I've been gravitating to 2D games in the Ori/Cuphead variety on my XB One. I have to waste time in the online store to find some, but there's some gems in there. The last 3D game I really liked was Sunset Overdrive & that was an early XBO game. 

2 hours ago, CurlyQ said:

Farrah was a real treat. And one fabulous looking babe!

1976 Farrah was my favorite.