Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

5 hours ago, Jake67 said:

I’ve been all-in with the Amico since I first heard about and there’s no way I’m cancelling my pre-orders. I do have a couple of concerns still. Nothing major in any way, but being that there’s a worldwide pandemic going on and I’ve got a bit of spare time on my hands...

 

1. Lack of game demos

First off, Pete’s interview last night was great... lots of Q&A quick-hits. I’m still not clear on why demos won’t be a part of games. That’s not a deal killer for me because I’m sure YouTubers here and elsewhere will review them quickly, and we’ll probably get official videos with each release.

 

But this idea that we can try games that our friends bring over seems to side-step the reason for demos. Especially starting out, the Amico won’t be in huge supply from what I’m gathering. It’s a nice thought that I’ll have friends upon Amico’s release who will be happy to be the gaming guinea pig and bring over games for me to try, but I don’t think it’s likely, especially in the early days. 

 

I must have missed it, but is there a specific reason that demos aren’t going to be made? If it’s resources (the time it takes to add demo code to a game) I certainly get that. I just don’t feel “have a friend bring it over to play on your system” is a suitable replacement for a demo I can try out whenever I want, and having to hope I have a nearby friend who bought the game already. 

 

Listen, the games are inexpensive, so this is not a huge deal at all. But I cringe a bit when I hear Tommy say that my “demo” experience can be a friend who will supposedly buy the game before I do so I can try it out. That’s certainly an option, but not as easy as being able to play a demo whenever I want without calling on a friend to rush over with his controller.

 

 

 

 

How-D Jake67,

Nice to hear that You're still 'All-In' on the Amico!

I know I sure am!  I have a Founder's Edition, for myself, and a VIP Edition, for my In-Law's who still play their Wii almost daily, on pre-order.

Can't wait!

I'd like to throw my two cents out here about Your # 1 above, I hope that You don't mind!

Maybe one of the thoughts behind the IE Team's decision is that the hope that one of these things below could occur after purchasing the game, as an alternative to providing a demo up front :

1 - Either one or more people in the family would end up completely digging the game right out of the gate, and determine that it was money well spent! ( WIN )

2 - Nobody ended up liking the game, but they found a friend, or neighbor that they were able to trade them a game at a relatively comparable price point, so that everyone ended up with something they were happy with ( TIE )

3 - Even if no one in the family was 100% over the moon with the game on purchase day one, the more time that went by, opportunities to play, different strategies to learn how to play, different people to play with, etc. Could all eventually make a difference ( TIE )

In the above examples, the buyer is at least coming out with a positive experience on each of these different scenarios. 

Hope this helps provide some other ways to look at this for You and everyone else! These were just a couple of things that popped into my head when I read your interesting post.

Thanks

B

14 hours ago, CurlyQ said:

Amico on launch day...

 

I’ll be one of more than 10,000 that was smart enough to pre-order, and will be playing on my Amico while the droves are scrambling to find one. 😆

Evel no longer relevant? I think they should name the movie "I am Evel!"

https://screenrant.com/leonardo-dicaprio-evel-knievel-movie-cast-rumors/

7 hours ago, Intellivision Master said:

 

These were already listed somewhere. I thought it was on Wikipedia ? It was said as though it was new information but these 12 games were listed somewhere months ago. Where did I see this ?

5 hours ago, LePionnier said:

Hi Tommy.

Can you tell us if you have had discussions with Colectorvision ?

They have rights on some really good Exidy games. ( Mouse Trap that girls really liked ! Venture, Pepper II etc. )

 

Thank you.

Yes those !!! And Ladybug 🐞  !!!!!!

I'm guessing most of you guys got the email about the new atari coin coming out...  My god....  what the hell has happened to that once great name. I know the name has been bought and sold many times, but man o man its a shame whats happening to it now.  It wont recover from this IMHO.  This latest grift is just sad.

Tommy,

In the re-imagined Shark! Shark! will there be different types of sharks?  Like a hammerhead or great white? 

13 hours ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

My god....  what the hell has happened to that once great name. I know the name has been bought and sold many times, but man o man its a shame whats happening to it now.  It wont recover from this IMHO.  This latest grift is just sad.

Yes.  I still remember when Atari "died" as an independent company, when the "reverse merger" with JTS happened in the summer of 1996.  It's been a long and sad decline ever since, with Atari's ashes being passed around from owner to owner, each one more desperate to squeeze some residual value out of them than the last.  (The only bright spot along the way, in my opinion, was the Hasbro Interactive era.  They had their hits and misses with their Atari-branded retro remakes, but the best of them were really good games that I still enjoy playing today.  They actually managed to add something positive to the Atari legacy, which is certainly more than I can say for the current owners.)  I think the "Atari spirit" is to be found today in communities like AtariAge, particularly among the hardware engineers and homebrew programmers, who still practice that special mix of creativity and technical prowess that Atari—and Mattel Electronics!—had in their prime.

I wasn't one who grew up with the Intellivision, but I quickly fell in love with it after seeing the first version of "Intellivision Lives!" on CD-ROM, probably in 1998/1999.  What struck me immediately was that, unlike Atari, the Intellivision had never really gone away and had always remained close to the people who originally made it great, and I was very impressed by that.  Keith Robinson was truly a visionary, and he was looking beyond hardcore gamers at least as far back as the Intellivision Productions 10-in-1 and 25-in-1 handheld TV games in the mid-2000s.  They sold millions of those handhelds, and won awards and endorsements along the way from the likes of Parents Magazine and Grandparents Magazine ... the very same market that the Amico is pursuing now.

8 hours ago, haplo13 said:

Wow!  I had never seen that before.  That was wild!

It's pretty trippy.  Their Pole Position and Centipede commercials were bizarre too, as I recall.

7 hours ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

we certainly had imaginations back then. That game with such simplistic graphics gave rise to that type of commercial .. wow.

I love the original game artwork for the same reason, including everything from the paintings on the boxes to the stories in the manuals.  Atari's artwork in particular was criticized for being much more elaborate than the actual games, but as Tim Lapetino's "Art of Atari" documents, those criticisms missed the point.  The artwork was a catalyst for the players' imaginations, giving them visuals and environments that they could superimpose onto the (relatively primitive) games as they played, just as the games themselves were catalysts for fun interactions between parents and children.  To me, that special combination of ingredients was what made the classic video games so immersive and so memorable, something that I hope the Amico can recapture for today's families.

7 minutes ago, Intellivision Master said:

 

My favorite Intellivision game I used to play on my brothers system! Can’t wait for this to be reimagined 😀 Hope it’s soon after launch!

12 hours ago, LePionnier said:

Another interesting point from yesterday that Tommy was talking about, it's the good relationship with Warner Bros.

If I am not mistaking, they have the rights for Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), a movie that Tommy really like !

 

From Wiki :

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment purchased most of Midway's assets, including Joust, with the intent to develop movie adaptations.

 

So yes, I think I quote him right ! 😊

We all saw the truly razzy worthy effort in Rampage with Duane Johnson. 🙄

I'm hoping that they give it a rest. 🤕

Warner Bros also produced Tim Burton's 2005 version of Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, so they probably maintain an ongoing license with Roald Dahl's estate.

51 minutes ago, jaybird3rd said:

It's pretty trippy.  Their Pole Position and Centipede commercials were bizarre too, as I recall.

I love those 1950's style monsters.

42 minutes ago, Blarneo said:

We all saw the truly razzy worthy effort in Rampage with Duane Johnson. 🙄

I'm hoping that they give it a rest. 🤕

 

Warner Bros also produced Tim Burton's 2005 version of Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, so they probably maintain an ongoing license with Roald Dahl's estate.

The Depp version of Wonka was just... weird... and not in a good way.

Big Shout out to @OEB_Pete for last night's Interview with Tommy. Great news, great exclusives and it was so nice to see folk in the chat engaged and jazzed about the Amico!

Can't get enough you guys!

Cheers,

The Wren  

4 hours ago, Swami said:

Evel no longer relevant? I think they should name the movie "I am Evel!"

 

https://screenrant.com/leonardo-dicaprio-evel-knievel-movie-cast-rumors/

 

And Leo's credibility is going to take another big step next week with the Grant miniseries on History.

7 hours ago, Intellivision Master said:

 

Huh. The Riddler shows up at 0:25.

I'm not sure if this has been asked, but Tommy,  what's the chance of a trackball coming to the Amico? What a great accessory to have early-on during the systems life. I'd gladly pay good money for one.. 

10 hours ago, jaybird3rd said:

It's pretty trippy.  Their Pole Position and Centipede commercials were bizarre too, as I recall.

 

I love the original game artwork for the same reason, including everything from the paintings on the boxes to the stories in the manuals.  Atari's artwork in particular was criticized for being much more elaborate than the actual games, but as Tim Lapetino's "Art of Atari" documents, those criticisms missed the point.  The artwork was a catalyst for the players' imaginations, giving them visuals and environments that they could superimpose onto the (relatively primitive) games as they played, just as the games themselves were catalysts for fun interactions between parents and children.  To me, that special combination of ingredients was what made the classic video games so immersive and so memorable, something that I hope the Amico can recapture for today's families.

That could be said of much of what was sold in that time ...board games, video games, toys...etc.  That really is a stupid thing for a critic to say.

Box art was, like you said, meant to point your imagination in a direction...not be the example of the experience.  

https://youtu.be/mEi21AtiD9w

This is OEB Pete's new podcast tonight at 8pm ET.  I couldn't upload the video image.  Sorry.