Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

8 hours ago, Cranker said:

Hmmmm......are we going to talk about games anymore or are we done ? These last few pages are getting so off topic that the MOST of us are here for. (Ongoing discussion about the same things said in different ways over and over again). We are mostly here to share our passion and excitement for the Amico. I get that some people will disagree and raise concerns etc but this is getting a bit ridiculous and the latest conversation is not balanced as far as why MOST of us are here. In my opinion of course😀 

Yeah.  Folks here are civil and mature when people come here with concerns or objections and they get the same respect they are given.  But it is clear that when all of you have taken the time in a respectful manner to address each and every point in detail and not a single thing said was given any consideration... then it becomes obvious that the real goal and objective of some of these folks is NOT to have a mature dialogue but instead to try to gain some kind of notch in their belt by having a negative interaction with me.  Negative folks call this place an "echo chamber"... they just can't stand the fact that there are groups of mature people talking positively about something they hope they are going to like.  Think about that for a second.  Really think about it and what kind of people they must be.  Wow. 

Now that I've established to this person that I will not in fact be engaging with him.  I really don't think he has any reason to engage anymore.  Like he said... he's only here to tell me all the problems with Amico and I've told him I don't care what he thinks.  Case closed. 

If and when stuff like this happens in the future... please feel free for anyone to start other conversations or ask questions during it.  I go through everything and react and respond as I'm reading it. 

Thanks!

8 hours ago, Relicgamer said:

I would like to start with. Amicos new original titles. Love to get thoughts and  expectations from everyone and any added hints? 

It's a great topic but one that I can't really talk about much because of the way we're revealing some of them.  But happy to answer as many questions as I can.

We have a few really cool surprises up our sleeve that folks are really gonna love.  But hard to put into words or screen shots or gameplay footage.  Our original game Back Talk Party is a perfect example.  It needs to be demoed properly in order for folks to understand it better.

8 hours ago, Cranker said:

I would love to hear more as well. My expectations are quite high for some new experiences with the focus on  couch coop taken to the next level built from the ground up using all the bells and whistles that  the Amico controller has to offer. That being said, I love what I  have seen so far being done with reimagined games , dice games, sports  etc ....! It all looks amazing and fun to me and each game will be original and unique with coop , VS etc added to each and every Amico game. I have very high hopes for original IP’s like the “ice cream game” I am eagerly awaiting new information, demos etc 😀

Hahahha!  It's funny that it's been called the "ice cream game" a few times.    That's the character I always pick when I play.  Not sure why... just think it's hilarious.

8 hours ago, RetroAdvisoryBoard said:

 

Crowdfunding and investing are not interchangeable verbiage.  The one is not a synonym of the other. 

 

Crowdfunding is not when "you take money from the general public".  A lemonade stand takes money from the general public.  A pickpocket takes money from the general public.  Hardly the same, not really interchangeable.  Crowdfunding is a broadly defined term to simply mean securing capital (money) from a larger pool of people (the crowd).  It is meant to differentiate it as an alternative from traditional forms a company raises capital, including investments, equity funding (sometimes broadened to equity crowdfunding when the barrier to investment is lowered.. perhaps $1000 increments, or, like fig.co, $250 increments, rather than a more rigid, traditional $10,000 or $25,000 minimum for larger venture funding endeavors. 

 

When you say crowdfunding @Ez G, we're taking you at the presumed layman's terms that you're using the term like everyone else is using the term - a platform for raising small amounts of money from a large number of people to secure funding for a project.  Kickstarter.  Indiegogo.  Patreon.  GoFundMe.  Fundable.  These have you fund a company, an individual, an artist, to create or finish creating a project they otherwise do not have access to.  They typically have small rewards to backers for meeting different goal tiers - small extras they can do to encourage higher donations or funding, not typically on par with the value of the increments pledged.  Most of the discussion around Amico & crowdfunding is some flavor of this understanding of crowdfunding, how it's now "no different than Atari VCS or Ouya, that Intellivision's gone back on its point of saying how it's not crowdfunded". 

 

What are people doing on fig.co?  They're either placing a pre-order (a set deposit amount toward the purchase of a product), refundable, through an SEC regulated medium; or, they're investing in the company with a projected rate of return on said investment.  Intellivision isn't "collecting money" to build their project.  They're opening up their business to a class of investors who don't require independent pitch meetings and funding rounds.  Fig is securing the investment and payout structure of the company, Intellivision will be making payments to Fig from presumed revenue and profits, and Fig in turn will make payments to those investors at a later date, the rate of return will fluctuate depending on how successful the product is.  There is risk involved.  There is a high return of reward if Intellivision is successful, and the payout model will fluctuate depending on Intellivision's current equity, current funding through venture capitalists, loans, grants and other streams of capital, including pre-orders, including merchandise.

 

That is an investment.  It's an expected return.  It's an expected profit for the individual investors putting their funds through Fig.

 

Compare that to Atari's campaign on Indiegogo for the VCS, or Kickstarters to finish compiling reviews of the NES or SNES games library for a guidebook.. there are no returns on that investment, and if you don't meet its minimum goal, that money is not awarded to your project.  There is no scrutiny of Carol's cashflow and total equity when she puts up a GoFundMe for her church group visit to Uganda.  That's all just crowdfunding, in the term we all [everybody, not just people on this forum] know and use it. 

Amico is pulling money from early pre-orders (it said it would in that very first press release in May 2018), and it's offering an investment option for interested parties who aren't flying down to Irvine to attend a pitch meeting among fellow venture capitalists and wealthy angel investors looking to drop 6-7 figures on a fun little corner of their portfolio like starter video game manufacturers.  To misconstrue these really normative avenues of investment and commercial pre-order of a product as some alternative funding source like aforementioned crowdfunding sites doesn't make it through any of the definitions of crowdfunding out there.  Google has 25,000,000+ results on "crowdfunding vs investments", articles by every major business and investing magazine and trade publication - so there's certainly some question out there amongst the public.  But also a very clear answer as to the differences between the two.

I hate to say this because it will probably sound a little mean... but if anyone doesn't understand the difference after this post... then they are just plain "dumb". 

I don't mean that as an insult, I mean that as not having the cognitive ability to grasp information.

If the word "dumb" offends anyone then please feel free to use any of the following synonyms instead...

Foolish
Unintelligent
Dense

Stupid
Doltish

Feebleminded
Moronic

Thick

and one of my personal favs...  Dim-witted.

3 hours ago, CurlyQ said:

FREE AMICOS FOR EVERYONE!!!!!!!!

11 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

It's a great topic but one that I can't really talk about much because of the way we're revealing some of them.  But happy to answer as many questions as I can.

 

We have a few really cool surprises up our sleeve that folks are really gonna love.  But hard to put into words or screen shots or gameplay footage.  Our original game Back Talk Party is a perfect example.  It needs to be demoed properly in order for folks to understand it better.

 

Do you already have a schedule in place to release the demos on these particular games? And are these going to be available at launch?  If so how many are there if you can say?

3 hours ago, Dorkalicious said:

On another note Space X Launch today lookin cool!

Interesting fact:  Elon Musk is a huge Intellivision fan and he had one growing up.

Whose ready for...

SpaceX Armada
SpaceX Battle

SpaceX Hawk

Star StrikeX

SpaceX Spartans

...and of course...

Mission XX

Add one more X and we'll be able to publish it on the Switch!

KIDDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2 hours ago, IntelliMission said:

Hey guys...

 

Do you think this Coronavirus thing is making us all a bit more touchy in the forum discussions?

 

🤏🙃

I actually didn't think anyone got touchy at all.  I wasn't seeing it happen in real time though... I just had a read for the first time late last night over about 3 pages. 

All I saw was folks in here being as respectful as possible and trying to answer "concerns" with logic, facts and some personal opinions thrown in for good measure.  The only person I saw getting a little touchy and combative was the dude who said he wanted to get the information in the first place.

2 hours ago, GrumpyOl'Guy said:

I'm sure it's come up previously, but was there discussion about seasonal releases? The initial launch date of 10/10 would have been perfect timing for a Haunted House game.

Perhaps a seasonal mini game or two on the app? Just a random thought that hit me on a walk through the woods this morning.

Great question!  And the answer is YES!!!

But we also have a few things in the works that is really going to take this to the next level!  And... on a worldwide cultural scale.  I'm really excited about it!

2 hours ago, GrudgeQ said:

I was wondering if there was any update on Utopia? The game I burned through the most hours on with the Intellivision & the first God Game on console that I know of. Is it still on schedule and any hope of a sneak peak coming up in the next month or so?

We're still figuring that one out.  It's such an important title for us and there are a few different ways to approach it on the table right now and I'm trying to figure out the best way to handle.

Should have more news by the end of June.

1 minute ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

Interesting fact:  Elon Musk is a huge Intellivision fan and he had one growing up.

 

Whose ready for...

Space X Armada
Space X Battle

Space X Hawk

Star Strike X

Space X Spartans

 

...and of course...

 

Mission X X

 

Add one more X and we'll be able to publish it on the Switch!

KIDDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

You know Tommy, Space Armada was one of my top five Intellivision favorites. I thought I was pretty good at that game until I recently watched a YouTube video gameplay of it. I never knew that later in the game the red spaceship at the top of the screen actually comes down and eats away at your bunkers!  These are the types of things I love about the old Intellivision. Even though you think you have mastered a game, there was always something more to some of them. A couple more examples are Night Stalker with the invisible robot when you get to 80,000 points and with Tron Deadly Discs and the orange men with paralyzing sticks when you reach 1,000,000 points. I really hope the Amico games will have this type of bonus, reward, Easter egg, whatever you want to call it for those who really excel at playing. 

2 hours ago, RREDDWARFF said:

Guys, it's time to just ignore the trash talking. If you don't feed the animals, they'll eventually go away.

Look at that! 

A funny meme about your comment AND I got it back on topic for next week.

A 2 for 1!

🤣

3 hours ago, CurlyQ said:

OMG I spit my coffee everywhere when I saw this OMG you sic Curly! shyte my master plan is revealed! I guess I will now go to mixer

4 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

We're still figuring that one out.  It's such an important title for us and there are a few different ways to approach it on the table right now and I'm trying to figure out the best way to handle.

 

Should have more news by the end of June.

 

WoW ! (Talking about Utopia )

I would love to be a little bird and hear your debate and your wonderful suggestions.
It must be interesting, but not easy to choose which path to take.
One way may appeal to some players, and another way to other types of players! 😊

1 hour ago, RREDDWARFF said:

I know this is not really an original title, but I'm really hoping for some Jeff Minter Tempest. Whether it be Tempest 4000 or a whole new version. Tempest 2020 sounds fantastic. 

 

Another type of game I'm hoping comes to the Amico is a space exploration game like Star Control II. I absolutely love that game on the 3do. Not only is it fun, but it's laid back. The multiplayer arena style battles are fantastic too. How fun would it be to couch co-op a game like that. Working out strategies to defeat enemies, or both people making choices during the dialogue. 

New Tempest confirmed!  We haven't started working on it yet, but I have the license to do an exclusive game and we will be taking full advantage of that.

2 hours ago, GrudgeQ said:

I was wondering if there was any update on Utopia? The game I burned through the most hours on with the Intellivision & the first God Game on console that I know of. Is it still on schedule and any hope of a sneak peak coming up in the next month or so?

I still do not own that game, or know how to play it, I will leave now   Though I do have a let's play coming soon as it is on my INTV Flashback I think

1 hour ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Yeah... It's a great thought.  We've thought a lot about the following things...

Sherlock Holmes

Encyclopedia Brown

Hardy Boys

Nancy Drew

and...

Choose Your Own Adventure

 

Nothing in the works as of right now... but something that at point point we'll put a team of folks on.

 

TT<giggles>, I would buy another 3 Amico's if you put out a game like a choose your own adventure book.  I must have read every one I could find when I was a kid,nostalgia overload at the moment!

22 minutes ago, Relicgamer said:

Do you already have a schedule in place to release the demos on these particular games? And are these going to be available at launch?  If so how many are there if you can say?

We have some "ideas", but nothing in stone at this point really.  Landscape is still changing and moving with COVID crap so it's really hard for any business to accurately predict timing, budgets, outside resources, etc.

Yes... we intend on having a handful of original titles on launch and will definitely hit those targets.  We have 6 or 7 Original IP's slotted in for potential launch and probably 4 or 5 of them will make the initial launch date while the others we stack up and filter out over a few months after that.

17 minutes ago, Craig Parker said:

You know Tommy, Space Armada was one of my top five Intellivision favorites. I thought I was pretty good at that game until I recently watched a YouTube video gameplay of it. I never knew that later in the game the red spaceship at the top of the screen actually comes down and eats away at your bunkers!  These are the types of things I love about the old Intellivision. Even though you think you have mastered a game, there was always something more to some of them. A couple more examples are Night Stalker with the invisible robot when you get to 80,000 points and with Tron Deadly Discs and the orange men with paralyzing sticks when you reach 1,000,000 points. I really hope the Amico games will have this type of bonus, reward, Easter egg, whatever you want to call it for those who really excel at playing. 

TOTALLY!!  That is one thing that no one will ever need to worry about with most Amico games.  The lack of easter eggs and fun unlockable or later level surprises!

I kind of gave a little bit of a hint with our Night Stalker video.  How many people were expecting to see what they did when they entered LEVEL 2.  Could have easily just changed the outlay and design of the map for the next level.  But our approach is more like Donkey Kong.  Same mechanics... but what the heck is the next level objective going to be like? 

19 minutes ago, OEB_Pete said:

OMG I spit my coffee everywhere when I saw this OMG you sic Curly! shyte my master plan is revealed! I guess I will now go to mixer

Can I be your Mini-Me???

1 minute ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

later level surprises!

Somehow I read this as "water level surprises", and please don't ask how because I'm not sure myself. Given the general opinion of water levels, that would certainly be interesting for sure, though.

19 minutes ago, LePionnier said:

WoW ! (Talking about Utopia )

I would love to be a little bird and hear your debate and your wonderful suggestions.
It must be interesting, but not easy to choose which path to take.
One way may appeal to some players, and another way to other types of players! 😊

Yeah... we have some of these meetings and it feels like I'm in a dream or something.

Can't believe that I'm talking about this stuff and making decisions about it.  So incredible.  My inner 10 year old FREAKS OUT on a daily basis. 

6 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

Can I be your Mini-Me???

 

Done,  now go get me a Poutine! ...... err... sorry.....

12 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

TOTALLY!!  That is one thing that no one will ever need to worry about with most Amico games.  The lack of easter eggs and fun unlockable or later level surprises!

 

I kind of gave a little bit of a hint with our Night Stalker video.  How many people were expecting to see what they did when they entered LEVEL 2.  Could have easily just changed the outlay and design of the map for the next level.  But our approach is more like Donkey Kong.  Same mechanics... but what the heck is the next level objective going to be like? 

This is great to hear!  Glad you mentioned same mechanics. Donkey Kong is another example of a game where I was pleasantly surprised. I got pretty good at playing it and had no idea there was a fourth different screen. Found out about it in the arcade while friends were watching Me play and it freaked everyone out!

53 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

Interesting fact:  Elon Musk is a huge Intellivision fan and he had one growing up.

 

Whose ready for...

SpaceX Armada
SpaceX Battle

SpaceX Hawk

Star StrikeX

SpaceX Spartans

 

...and of course...

 

Mission XX

 

Add one more X and we'll be able to publish it on the Switch!

KIDDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

Does the physical version come with a blunt to smoke?