Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

21 minutes ago, Juice said:

I'm a casual gamer I don't own any current or past gen consoles. I was a gamer back in the N64 days.

Me too.

But let us characterize casual and non casual more concrete.

Let's take the popular game "Die Siedler" (The Settlers) original version from 1993 as an example. For sure no hyper casual game. But is this game any casual at all? Will games of this complexity level come to the Amico?

Would be interesting how Tommy sees this.

 

Edited June 9, 2020 by oelli

9 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Let me know your thoughts.  Aside from Nintendo... I've actually never seen as many high profile experienced industry professionals on one team.  Especially for hardware.  And even in the case of Nintendo... it's only Nintendo experience those folks have.  We have top super successful people who worked for Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, EA, Namco, Sega, Mattel, Disney, Konami, Virgin, Interplay and many others!  It's really amazing if you think about it.

 

An awesome team you assembled, theres no doubt in my mind the Amico will be a success. Please tell the Irem guy to remake R type delta! I had that game as a kid and now its like 300 bucks😑. I found out about the amico watching Pat the nes punk and then i watched your interviews. Immediately saw the vision and loved the fire and passion youre putting behind this. I like keeping an eye on future winners its cool watching it play out. Also I hate people like Pat who are talentless hacks and man babies like Ian. Also the other room temperature IQ retro youtubers like toploaded gaming. What a jackass that guy was. Love seeing people like that be dead wrong about something because their brains are too small to see outside their own narrow perspectives.

 

5 hours ago, haplo13 said:

I first heard about it from the Intellivision Productions facebook page and/or mailing list when it was announced Intellivision Productions was turning into Intellivision Entertainment.  BTW, I'm glad you didn't stick with the red logo that was in one of those original emails - reminds me of somewhere that isn't so SAFE.   🔥😈

I also heard about ist long ago from this original email. And the whole styling back then I found not really appealing. Looked very dark and technical in my memory. The actual homepage looks much more pleasant.

10 hours ago, Relicgamer said:

Yet how dare you have games on the Amico that requires a cellphone. Oh no not sure if your target audience has cellphones lol. 

Im all set, Im guessing the port will be in the back?

 

 

 

9 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

I reached out to the Marbula One folks again yesterday.  This would make such a GREAT game on Amico!  Especially with the motion controls!

I would think the fun in this game would be setting up course, setting up the races and league, and then just letting the marbles do their thing with built in physics so you basically do as we do with Marbula one in so much as you watch and cheer on your favorite teams.  So perhaps a participant mode and a fan mode, so you have best of both worlds.

Edited June 10, 2020 by bigdaddygamestudio

On 6/7/2020 at 4:37 PM, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

Probably pretty obvious that I was a kid from the 70's/80's and dig that classic melodic rock style (which is TOTALLY gone these days!).

 

Maybe I'll bring that back in some of these games. 

 

 

 

On 6/8/2020 at 3:41 PM, RetroAdvisoryBoard said:

Totally gone?  Are you suggesting modern pop has killed off melody?  Just a stream of 2 or 3 constrained notes, totally dependent on a rhythmic layer to get to that all important hook?  Nooooooooo.....

 

::listens to recent hits::

 

No, I take that back.  Not that I'm going to go on some "the kids these days and their music, bleh!" rant - beats are great, lyrics are clever, but more melodic rock and pop and classical tunes.. an unrestrained YES PLEASE!  

 

22 hours ago, Starpaddler said:

For me, majority of the music these days seems to have to stand for something and the singers needs to be “believable”.  
 

What happened to music just being fun?  #where did the 80’s go?

What about this song:-

                          I'm Mad/Fancy Man/Framed/Riot in Cell Block Number 9/Trouble

 

It is a 1977 medley from a UK band called 'The Darts', they were a UK 'Doo-Wop' revival band (though there is no Doo-Wop in this track).

I am not normally a fan of medley songs but this one is done well.  It sounds as if it is just one song musically(sonically) and lyrically.  You would not know it being a medley if you did not know the songs.

 

The singer takes on the persona of a gangster and sings about his life.

 

I did a little research into the song:-

  I'm Mad song was originally performed by Willie Mabon in 1953, he wrote this himself.

  Fancy Man part of the song written by the Darts band themselves.

  Framed was originally performed by 'The Robins' in 1954, written by Lieber and Stoller.

  Riot in Cell Block No. 9 was originally performed by 'The Robins' in 1954, written by Lieber and Stoller.

  Trouble was originally performed by Elvis Presley in 1958 (it was also featured in the 'King Creole' movie) and he also sung it in his 1968 comeback special show, written by Lieber and Stoller.

 

You could say these old songs on this track have been retro re-imagined

 

You can follow the words in the title of the song as the song plays (they are in the same order)

The link for the track   I'm Mad/Fancy Man/Framed/Riot in Cell Block Number 9/Trouble     is below:-

 

 

I think 'The Darts' were quite clever with what they did with this song as the song can stand alone in its own right.

 

For your reference for those that are interested, here are the links for the original songs:-

 

I'm Mad by Willie Mabon:-

 

 

Framed by 'The Robins':-

 

 

 

Riot in Cell Block No. 9 by 'The Robins':-

 

 

 

Trouble by Elvis Presley (1958):-

 

 

49 minutes ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

Im all set, Im guessing the port will be in the back?

 

 

 

Sure man. You're good. You just want to hook that up to your Sega Netlink and the Amico will be good to go 

Edited June 10, 2020 by RREDDWARFF

22 minutes ago, RREDDWARFF said:

Sure man. You're good. You just want to hook that up to your Sega Netlink and the Amico will be good to go 

I still use my sega saturn netlink   via voip though

49 minutes ago, RREDDWARFF said:

Sure man. You're good. You just want to hook that up to your Sega Netlink and the Amico will be good to go 

hmm, sega net??  what do I do with this then?

 

1 hour ago, Nolagamer said:

I still use my sega saturn netlink   via voip though

I loved the Netlink back in the day. I purchased the Netlink Edition console bundle that came with the Netlink, Saturn console, keyboard, mouse and Sega Rally and Virtual On. I spent most of my time in the chatroom. Seganet I think it was called? We had some good times. Lots of late nights. I think my wife thought I was cheating on her at one time. She thought I had an online "Sega" girlfriend. Pretty funny stuff. 

14 minutes ago, RREDDWARFF said:

I loved the Netlink back in the day. I purchased the Netlink Edition console bundle that came with the Netlink, Saturn console, keyboard, mouse and Sega Rally and Virtual On. I spent most of my time in the chatroom. Seganet I think it was called? We had some good times. Lots of late nights. I think my wife thought I was cheating on her at one time. She thought I had an online "Sega" girlfriend. Pretty funny stuff. 

I have all 5 games . I wish it was supported beyond the 5 games. 

2 hours ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

I would think the fun in this game would be setting up course, setting up the races and league, and then just letting the marbles do their thing with built in physics so you basically do as we do with Marbula one in so much as you watch and cheer on your favorite teams.  So perhaps a participant mode and a fan mode, so you have best of both worlds.

Yeah probably ! Could be kind of like Horse Racing with bets !? 🙄

First time poster.  This whole Amico thing has really caught my interest and I have 2 thoughts on my head that not many are saying:

1. Regardless what you think about the system or how well you think it will do (successful in my opinion), this is the first time in history we get to sit in the passenger seat and watch Tommy the CEO (kinda like the Steve Jobs of Retro gaming), share insight and input to the development and release to this product. I feel the excitement surrounding this with geeks like myself is kinda helping guide Intellivision on making this even more tailored to our liking (or at least I hope), up till its release to through its life. What if the whole thing is a science experiment and they only make this based on the feedback of fans romanticizing over it? OEB Pete has great ideas about how D&D could be made using the touch screen to mix spell... perhaps that may become reality? Hope so. Just a thought.

 

2. Also - not quite related but on my mind. There has been some criticism over the content quality of the games (claiming that it is just playing mobile games). I once made this criticism about indie games on the PS4 and downplayed them.  After giving them a shot and being able to not be consumed but AAA title-quality, photo-realistic graphics I was actually able take in the game for what is was. Games really don't need to be AAA to be great. Anyone played Braid? The other part is this rant is that we need to realize how good mobile gaming actually is. There are incredible crafted games made exclusively for mobile with incredible graphics, yet they are overshadowed that they are 'mobile games'. Anyone ever seen Infinity Blade? It's beautiful.  The point here is that if anyone calls an Amico game just a 'mobile game' (false as it is an Amico game), then that is only really a compliment as mobile games can be pretty damn powerful even if it is stuck in a 6 inch screen.

 

 

Thanks for the media to empty my thoughts,

#notashill

Quentin

2 minutes ago, martianman2012 said:

The point here is that if anyone calls an Amico game just a 'mobile game' (false as it is an Amico game), then that is only really a compliment as mobile games can be pretty damn powerful even if it is stuck in a 6 inch screen.

welcome, I agree games dont need to be AAA to be worthwhile, they just need to be fun.  As far as mobile games, I just have two real issues with them, its the small screen and the controls which put your fingers in the way of the already small screen.  So for me mobile just isnt a real gaming option.  Like many older gamers, the older I get the bigger my screens get. As for the amico, I like the idea of the phone being totally a controller with some viewing options, Like the cards in your hand etc.  

9 minutes ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

welcome, I agree games dont need to be AAA to be worthwhile, they just need to be fun.  As far as mobile games, I just have two real issues with them, its the small screen and the controls which put your fingers in the way of the already small screen.  So for me mobile just isnt a real gaming option.  Like many older gamers, the older I get the bigger my screens get. As for the amico, I like the idea of the phone being totally a controller with some viewing options, Like the cards in your hand etc.  

Yes I know exactly what you mean. I think I meant to emphasize the quality of the mobile games minus the controls. Tapping on glass only goes so far especially when you are tapping on the only screen you have and you need to see the game LOL. I had thought about using a bluetooth handheld controller case for my phone, but just went back to playing 2DS and Switch for portable over the past few years. Also the more work apps I had to load on my phone working in I.T., the less I wanted games on it. Not really ever been a super mobile gamer however I am not sure if Plants Vs. Zombies or Evil Dead Army of Darkness would work as well without the touch screen as they were made to require you tapping on objects quickly that were a far distance away (which would generally be too fast for gamepad speed). On the contrary games like Sonic the Hedgehog with the virtual d-pad are pretty crappy to play on mobile IMO.

7 hours ago, Cranker said:

Not me. I want simple fun games to play with my family and friends with couch coop and leaderboards !! I can get complex on any other console !

Whats wrong with both?  I’m looking forward to all and differing aspects of the games i’ve heard about to date. With 5 main categories, there is bound to be something for everyone (not accounting for the 5 or so folks who wont have time to enjoy playing it because they are to busy following things they do not like).

14 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Hi Bloodfire!,

Welcome to the thread and thank-you for sharing your story and favorite games!  Archon is already on our list... and you may have seen our Missile Command update as well.

 

Question for you... where was the first place or time you heard about Amico?

I'm curious to understand where folks first heard about us.

 

For others in here... would be interested in knowing where you first heard about it as well!

 

Thanks Bloodfire... hope to see ya around these parts and please let me know if you ever have any questions.  Will try to answer them as best I can.

I found Amico when I searched Intellivision. I would periodically check up on what was happening with the company.  I got my game fix from the DS Intellivision Lives and the Flash back console, but always had an interest in what was going on with the Company itself. 
 

Tommy, did Intellivision Productions used to have headquarters in Redondo Beach?  I looked them up one time and seem to remember them being on PCH near Artesia (which isn't too far from my house), but never did see it.

4

Even Kitt preferred the Intellivision over the Atari 

7 hours ago, Starpaddler said:

Whats wrong with both?  I’m looking forward to all and differing aspects of the games i’ve heard about to date. With 5 main categories, there is bound to be something for everyone (not accounting for the 5 or so folks who wont have time to enjoy playing it because they are to busy following things they do not like).

None of the games on the Amico will be really complex, but it doesn’t mean they can’t have depth.  

I saw one them type phone in War Games movies. Maybe u guys bring back  risk board games 

Edited June 10, 2020 by Jenny Davis

22 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

For others in here... would be interested in knowing where you first heard about it as well!

 

I first heard about the Amico from the generally dismissive YouTube buzz coming out of the Portland Gaming Expo in 2018. According to them it was at best a tired play on another retro rehash, would never sell and Tommy was an idiot for even trying. Fortunately shortly thereafter Tommy did one of his patented "Tommy-a-thon" hour & half interviews on the Rerez YouTube channel. I watched that interview over & over because I am one of those hyper analytical people and wanted to think through every single point he was making. The need for a simple, affordable system, with approachable games, that the whole family could play, with no parent 'gotcha' traps of inappropriate content or yet-another-single-screen-babysitter-syndrome - it all just made sense. In short, Tommy went from idiot to genius in about 1 1/2 hours.

46 minutes ago, Jenny Davis said:

I saw one them type phone in War Games movies. Maybe u guys bring back  risk board games 

Yeah some folks here remember the bad-old-days, back when the Internet was just a dream and two computers talking to each other was a big deal (not to mention expensive, clunky and slow as hell). You also had to choose between having your computer connected & making a phone call. Also just someone picking up the regular phone in the house would disconnect you and ruin that multi-hour download. Ah, the memories (nightmares)... But yes some of those classic Parker Brothers (now Hasbro) board games like Risk, Clue, Sorry, Aggravation, etc. would be a great additions to the family gaming section of the Amico. There is a classic Intellivision, somewhat Risk like game, called Utopia being remade but nothing says you couldn't have both.

8 hours ago, LePionnier said:

4

👍😊😃

I don't remember where I saw the Amico first mentioned. I think I was checking some ex friend's Twitter (yeah I sometimes do thinks like that when I'm bored), the guy is a retro gaming fan and he used to have a Genesis (Mega Drive here in Spain), so he probably tweeted something about the new Earthworm Jim.

 

This was a huge coincidence, because I don't really check video game news outside of the big ones (i. e. PS5 final looks, etc.) and I'm not into modern retro-style indie stuff either.

 

I was very interested to learn more about this mysterious new system and I discovered the Playdate around the same time, so I started opening topics about both consoles in several Spanish forums. In one of them, one guy mentioned this thread in Atari Age and how Tommy was revealing stuff 24x7 here, so I created 30 accounts: all the new users from the last year are actually me. Just kidding! I just have this one for now.