Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

11 hours ago, martianman2012 said:

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

100% agreed.  You don't need AAA titles and there are plenty of mobile games that are very impressive and (dare I say) just as good as what you can find on any current home console.  However, the issue for me is that I just haven't see any games thus far that have really fired me up.  Also, while I do appreciate and understand the redoing of classic titles like Astrosmash, Moon Patrol, Pong, and Breakout, I don't know if there really has been a big call for this to happen.  Just my opinion as I could very well be wrong.  However, definitely the Amico has potential and I wish Tommy and IE the best.  I am definitely keeping track of the updates and look forward to when this is finally out and available for the masses.

Speaking of DnD thats a huge franchise thats even getting more popular these days. Probably because of stranger things. How awesome would a DnD game like this be on the Amico:

11 hours ago, martianman2012 said:

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

Yup I 100% agree.  Ive seen mobile games kook 10x better than games on the original xbox and no one question the quality of those games of the past. To me gaming is an art form. Does anyone question the quality of a galaga arcade?  Do we call those old games mobile games and make fun of them? No I sure dont. 

38 minutes ago, Hwlngmad said:

Also, while I do appreciate and understand the redoing of classic titles like Astrosmash, Moon Patrol, Pong, and Breakout, I don't know if there really has been a big call for this to happen

When I first heard about this, I wasn’t really interested in those “Arcade” titles either, but since 80% was going to be other types of games it was still a very interesting system (kids/edutainment/sports/board/dice/card games), but after having seen the “re-imagined” versions with 4-8 player co-op & vs modes, I’m now very interested in those as well, as I think it would be fun to play with the whole family.

1 hour ago, Stillagamer said:

Speaking of DnD thats a huge franchise thats even getting more popular these days. Probably because of stranger things. How awesome would a DnD game like this be on the Amico:

 

 

I love the idea and have brought this up before how the intellivision Amico can accomplish. Even better than the way this game does it. Using a computer is that part of friction I can see this game not getting a majority of people on board.  Few have their computers setup to a tv. The Amico eliminates this hurtle 

2 hours ago, GrudgeQ said:

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

I found out about the Amico in '18 with the original announcement. Checked back on the site every so often. Searched for it every so often. Then I discovered this group in Atari Age in early November of last year. I didn't do much posting until then. But when you have the chance to help with any part of the development cycle of a console, regardless of how many it sells. How can you not? Especially when the CEO of that company responds to you. And gives you a real answer. Yes. No. Wouldn't that be something? (TM)  Plus we have a fun group of misfits!!!  What more do you need?

During that same time, we've watched some people come and go. Some haters come and go. We've watched a Pandemic sweep the globe. The shutting down and locking down of the world's economy.  The slow crawl back to normal. Whatever that will look like in the future. Now riots. AND THERE IS STILL A CHANCE THE AMICO WILL COME OUT ON TIME. How amazing is that? If the date does slip, so be it! That means more completed games to choose at launch.  Darn.

I posted this over on the Amico Society group but had to post it here.  I could not stop laughing...

Intellivision should get Kevin James as a spokesman for Amico and use something like this for "CouchX-Coop". hahaha

TJ

5 hours ago, Stillagamer said:

Speaking of DnD thats a huge franchise thats even getting more popular these days. Probably because of stranger things. How awesome would a DnD game like this be on the Amico:

 

 

I'd LOVE to get back to basic D&D games that aren't following the multiple choice story trend with the cringe-worthy sex scenes added. That's just sad. Can't even play modern D&D games with your kids anymore. (Actually, it was Dragon Age that was on the consoles. Only the rare D&D this last decade on consoles, PC games are good)

Does anyone know the best site to keep track and get notified of hard to find items ? I’m trying to find a 2nd switch since mine is overheating to tide me over until I get my Amico !!

I'm using nowinstock.net at the moment. Seems not that great. 
 

any ideas ? I’m in Canada. 

16 minutes ago, Cranker said:

Does anyone know the best site to keep track and get notified of hard to find items ? I’m trying to find a 2nd switch since mine is overheating to tide me over until I get my Amico !!

 

I'm using nowinstock.net at the moment. Seems not that great. 
 

any ideas ? I’m in Canada. 

 

 

Have you tried taking it apart and cleaning it. I find just alittle build up of dust can get them to quickly overheat 

1 hour ago, Swami said:

with the cringe-worthy sex scenes added. That's just sad. Can't even play modern D&D games with your kids anymore

I will never get why some people think love/sex is bad but killing/hate is just fine and fun.

1 minute ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

I will never get why some people think love/sex is bad but killing/hate is just fine and fun.

I believe that was Larry flints main argument. Killing and violence is okay but nudity and love is crossing the line.

49 minutes ago, Relicgamer said:

Have you tried taking it apart and cleaning it. I find just alittle build up of dust can get them to quickly overheat 

I have not but I’m pretty sure it’s not he fan that stopped working. 

39 minutes ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

I will never get why some people think love/sex is bad but killing/hate is just fine and fun.

Yeah, not saying that.

39 minutes ago, Cranker said:

I have not but I’m pretty sure it’s not he fan that stopped working. 

I saw someone on Reddit that thought their fan was still working because air was flowing out, but they ended up replacing their fan and it fixed their overheating problem. Obviously no guaranty, but it has happened. 

Pete,

That was a good podcast tonight.  Too bad Tommy didn't stop by.  

There's supposed to be a press release this Thursday or Friday.  

53 minutes ago, Intellivision Master said:

There's supposed to be a press release this Thursday or Friday.  

With Sony blowing out the tech news cycle tomorrow (even though Tommy said it wasn’t directly gaming related) I could see it getting pushed to Friday or even early next week. Would love some Amico news however,

I loaded the demo version of Club House Games on the Switch.  4 games out of 51 are available.

The first game I tried was Four in a Row ! That was one of my favorite game when I was a young teenager.

We made tournament with trophies. I was U.S.S.R. and my favorite movie was Rocky IV ! 😃

I was really good at Connect 4, and I am sure still I am !

That's why I was ready for a big first game against the computer, and I put that level at expert !

I let the computer begin, and guess what ? I won with only 4 pieces needed !!!

It's really not serious! I lost all interest in playing this game that I love ! 😪

The second game that I tried is President ! That's a card game that I really enjoyed playing when I was at a friend's house !

I was not deceive by this game. I really enjoyed it !

Which leads me to say that card, dice and board games will be a superb hidden card for Amico that even several hard core gamers will appreciate in my opinion.
I'm really looking forward ! I can't wait any longer!😅

Hey Tommy, I just listened to the generation zen interview and i think it was the best one so far. Also the disney inspiration and Miyamoto design philosophy is really exciting and sets a high bar. Im really curious about the controller feel, even though itll be hard to not see it and remember the 360's pad. I have a few questions if you dont mind. You mentioned that a lot of your games will be liked by hardcore gamers but they dont know it yet. I would say that there are a lot of different people who fall into the "hardcore" category. I remember reading an article on why the xbox couldnt get a foothold in japan. The japanese people who even knew what it was, said it was because the games on xbox were too complicated, not because it was american. They prefer games like jrpgs that are easy to play and xbox didnt offer those experiences. I want to ask you, will there be jrpgs on the amico? I know Hironobu Sakaguchi's studio is making one for the Apple Arcade. Also, whats your interest level for the asian market? You also talked about how there will be 2d platformers on your console and this is where it clicked for me. You worked on games like Aladdin that at the time were really ahead of the pack when it came to presentation, art, and sound. Are super high quality 2d games what we can expect from the Amico? Games like Ori and the Blind Forest, and artistic games like Limbo and Gris? You said that one of your favorite games is Ico, and youre already talking to the Never Alone team so it seems like you have a taste for games that push the mediums artistic boundaries. Unlike Sony's hollywood stories, I think it would be amazing if the Amico was a home to games that have a more "show don't tell" approach to storytelling. I think thats where games set themselves apart from movies or books as art. You have the guy who brought Flow and Flower to psn too. All that plus the Disney and Miyamoto inspiration, paints the picture that the Amico will be a lot more than just a hypercasual mom console. I wonder why you haven't gone with that as part of your initial pitch because it would have resonated with the gamer crowd better. Is your intention to surprise people? Its an interesting gamble i think artists do because if it lands it really lands. The hardest punches are the ones they dont see coming kind of thing. After the interview I was playing this game called The King's Bird, which got me thinking about games like that on Amico. Its a really fantastic game despite what the critics thought (they said its too hard, its not).  I think you should play it! Anyway thank you for being so approachable, I think i was right in thinking there was something special brewing here. An artist with funds, connections, experience, leadership traits, and does things "the right way" is hard to find. Especially in the games industry i think its a very small list. That along with the amount of talent and experience on your team, it really is unprecedented. I think youre going to approach this the same way you did with VGL. Elevating not just innovating. I cant wait to see how this all plays out. Thanks if you read all this!

On 6/9/2020 at 10:57 PM, Tommy Tallarico said:

Yep!   I helped him to put that deal together with Interplay. 

 

I actually have 3 copies of each... and the complete set of playing cards.

 

They are both AMAZING books!  Would highly recommend them to anyone interested in comics/graphic novels.  The quality is unbelievable.  I've never seen anything like it.  He used every printing trick in the book!  From foil to embossing, cut outs, UV spotting, etc.  Really incredible.

 

Doug said some amazing things about me in my section of the "Making Of" book.  It literally had me in tears reading it.  It was really cool of him to say those things and something the "haters" should read before doubting so much.  

 

 

 

Yeah, this book is really good. It's interesting to see a hardcover comic book with gilded pages, glow-in-the-dark stuff, and all of the other interesting stuff he did with it. It's heavy, though. I did read the whole thing, but not all of the making of book yet. I did look through it some more, though. Everyone from the original team has a few pages on them, and there was more information about the making of the original game than I expected. Nice to see how it talked about using the interrupt to do the raster trick from Down the Tubes that makes it look like you're under water. I haven't really been paying attention to what he said about the second book, but I know he's apparently working on it. I haven't opened the cards yet, though.

I wonder if this new game will incorporate anything that was introduced in the comic book, but I doubt you can say anything about that game yet. I don't think there was much information about who Jim is before this book was released. There is absolutely nothing about Jim in the first 2 games (I don't have the instruction manuals, so I don't know what is written about him in there), and I'm not sure how the cartoon, which I haven't actually seen since it was on TV in the 90s, fits in with everything, if it does at all, and same with Earthworm Jim 3D, which I've never played and I don't think I want to because I've heard it's terrible. I do have it on Steam, but that's only because I made the mistake of buying the set on there hoping that it would have the Windows 95 version of the first game.

Hi Tommy,

My mother is disabled, and was wondering if any software that could possibly be in the pipeline that could be a cognitive training type game. I think the amico could also play a role in that type of device. Ive ordered the vip edition, so when it arrives i can try it out with her

nightmonkeyii

Good interview Michael.  Keep them coming.

14 hours ago, Intellivision Master said:

Pete,

 

That was a good podcast tonight.  Too bad Tommy didn't stop by.  

He is a busy busy man, I think he has spoiled us