Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

7 minutes ago, Intellivision Master said:

That was funny.  🤣

You wait for my next set of 5 tunes...  😋  ~ Rainbow

This game could use an Amico glow up

6 hours ago, Juice said:

Would like to see you guys talk to some sexy Amico fan girls.

Amico Live Streams are always Sausage Parties...

Dictionary Definition:

sau·sage par·ty

noun: sausage party; plural noun: sausage parties

    an event or group in which the majority of participants are male.
    "ignore the RSVP list as it looks like a sausage party"

I'm with @Juice on this one, let's make it a point to get some women on these live streams. It would be nice to get some female perspectives. 💋🚺♀️

19 hours ago, CurlyQ said:

Screw you dude, I just shit myself before I realized it was you. 🤣

You really have to give a warning or something before you post this kind of stuff.

On 6/9/2020 at 11:06 AM, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

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!

 

I was looking for help on finding overlays I was missing on Auto Racing when I was on the INTV subreddit. I noticed that there was a pinned thread about how it wasn't the official sub for the Amico. So I was like, ok what's this and followed the link to r/Amico...and here we are 🙂

Also, I am just not interested in buying a PS5. I have bought every single PS or Nintendo Console (except Wii U) since PS1 and NES and this time around I bought a Switch only because I literally do not have the time anymore to constantly play deep immersive titles that have long cut scenes and DLC, etc. I have a family and I travel for work 40% of the year. I love games like Red Dead but I literally don't have enough time to keep playing consistently. The Switch has a good library of games, I can come back to a game after a few days or weeks and pick it back up without having to spend a lot of time trying to figure out where I was or what I was doing in the game. I also am tired of multiplayer being available online only on a lot of consoles. My family games quite a bit and now that my kid is getting older and interested in playing video games but not having local multiplayer/co-op options on a lot of consoles is a big downer for me. We have actually been playing a lot of games on our Wii recently because we can play together side by side (Elebits, Wario Smooth Moves, Excite Truck, Just Dance) and he feels like he is learning the games and can play them independently. Mario Kart on Switch with the assist mode for younger kids is excellent as well.

I am hoping the Amico will have most of these attributes so we can all game together and he isn't frustrated by the games. 

https://youtu.be/E4uZGsKTt7k

This is the Amico All Access podcast from Wednesday 6/10.

Just comes to my mind: I hope the Amico will use some kind of virtual keyboard on the touch-screen of the controller to enter the WLAN password not some annoying and slow left, right, up, down selection thing. 

It seems like something like this could be a "killer app" for the Amico. There is literally something for everyone here. Even my non-videogaming girlfriend is interested in playing it. 

51 varied games at a budget price. It also makes full use of touch controls (air hockey, cards, Uno, Connect-Four, checkers, chess, dominos, and motion controls (bowling, darts, golf, tennis, baseball, ping pong, etc.). It includes local couch co-op, as well as online co-op. Easy to play and amily friendly type stuff seems right at home here. They get around paying licensing for things like UNO and Connect-Four, by calling them something different.

@spoonman We've been talking about that for weeks. Tommy even made a review of the game last Sunday. Tommy says the Amico will offer individual board/card games adding more depth and value to each and drastically improving certain aspects which feel lacking on Nintendo's product, such as the audio, the AI or the fact that you can play 4 players without buying additional controllers.

8 hours ago, oelli said:

Just comes to my mind: I hope the Amico will use some kind of virtual keyboard on the touch-screen of the controller to enter the WLAN password not some annoying and slow left, right, up, down selection thing. 

Good news, yes it will. The on screen keyboard was shown off in one of the earliest Amico phone controller app images.

On 6/9/2020 at 9:01 AM, theswede said:

A part from having a lot of potential, I think they also really like it and will buy it, they are just frustrated and almost offended that they are not the primary target group, and therefore they feel many design choices and games are “wrong” to make it what would have been much better to them. To “hate” on a system they want, is a desperate way to get you to make more compromises in their favor, a common tactic among fans (just look at last Pokémon game), if they manage to round up enough people they usually succeed, only problem is that you have to be the primary target audience for it to work. My favorite quote about this is “Nobody hates Starwars as much as people who loves Starwars..” 😆

It's a good point.  And like I've said in the past...  They search every day for Amico content, watch and comment on every video, read every article, read every comment here, spend hours making videos, make fake accounts to have double and triple the voice, etc.  I don't know... sounds like a fan to me! 

Considered "negative" or "obsessed", but they are still contributing to the community pretty much on a daily basis at this point.  That's a huge sign of future success.  If we were boring or they weren't interested, they would say their peace and go away.  Instead, like you mentioned, they are really just upset that something they really like deep down isn't exactly the way they want it for themselves.  A sign of immaturity for sure... but also a sign that they care so much about it that they feel the need to discuss and think about to the point it consumes their daily life.  Sad in one regards, but kinda cool in another. 

On 6/9/2020 at 9:08 AM, vongruetz said:

Yeah, if you don't care about something, you just don't think about it.  Reminds me of the new handheld console Playdate.  It's interesting... I have zero desire to get one, and I don't hate it.  In fact, I just don't think about it.  If people like it, cool.  If it fails, then it fails. But I'm not going to go one every YouTube video about it and post why I don't like it or why it should fail.  

 

 

Fantastic example.  If people were talking about PlayDate every day, making videos, invading every comment section, reading everything they could about the system only to complain about it... they are definitely folks who are clearly interested in the product, but are just upset because it doesn't come in their favorite color or there are a few things that they want that it doesn't have.  They prefer to stomp their feet in hopes to get my attention so I'll change our direction just to appease them.

I guess it really does just come down to lack of maturity and self-awareness as well as a bad case of narcissism.

On 6/9/2020 at 11:19 AM, 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.   🔥😈

Hahaha.  Yeah.  I agree!

Red is my favorite color and that was something I whipped up in Wix.com the night before the first press release went out. 

On 6/9/2020 at 11:26 AM, Bloodfire said:

 

Thanks for the response Tommy, and am very excited about the Amico.  I first heard about it around 3 weeks ago or so... was Google searching for 'simple video games' or 'video games for young kids', something along those lines, and at some point in that searching something about the Amico bubbled up, otherwise I wouldn't have known about it.  Since that time I've watched several videos on Youtube regarding the Amico and have preordered the wood version on fig.co.  Can't wait to play it with my kids ages 6, 3, 3, and wife!

 

Currently my kids and wife only play games on their iPads, but that will change with the Amico when we can all play together.

That's awesome!  Thank you for the support and I look forward to hopefully seeing pics or videos of you and your entire family playing Amico together!!

On 6/9/2020 at 11:45 AM, Relicgamer said:

Imagine that people that are into casual safe games and mobile  gaming being interested in the Amico.  Lol some said that would never happen.  Thanks Bloodfire for posting this.  

Interesting huh?

On 6/9/2020 at 3:02 PM, GrudgeQ said:

That is kind of like saying I interviewed a group of gardeners and it seems the most popular hobby in the world is growing plants. Of course the Atari Age crowd (including me) like certain retro games (casual or not) and hope those get remade. Also almost everyone here is a gamer of some ilk and not just a super casual gamer. However nobody (including Tommy) wants the Amico to be like a mile wide mud puddle of simple, causal games. That would make it a toy. I think we all know, expect and appreciate the Amico will be maybe 20-35% hyper causal games (cornhole and the like), another 20 to 35% casual but not trivial games (like Evel Knievel, Asteroids, etc.) and the balance will have a bit more grunt like Utopia (semi complex strategy), Cloudy Mountain (semi RPG) and Night Stalker (semi hard core run & shoot). We are just strategically rooting for a few games here & there for the casual & non casual class that appeal to us.

Yes.  I agree with this statement as well.

Games like Cloudy Mountain and Night Stalker are definitely more aimed at gamers.  As long as we continue to hit our 5 categories, we'll be lined up to cover all of the demographics of folks most interested in Amico in a really positive way.  There really will be something for everyone.  UNLIKE all the current home platforms.  Mobile certainly has a wide variety, but the "system" is broken, getting money is more important than providing balanced gameplay, zero curation, bad controller and our favorite.... SOLITARY!  Out of the millions of games... only a handful you can play with others in the same room.  Really obvious stuff if you think about it.

On 6/9/2020 at 3:52 PM, Juice said:

I'm still not totally sure what the amico is gonna be. I'm still waiting to see what it's really all about. Haven't really seen any of this co-op in action other than a little missile command gameplay. Still don't understand how a lot of the games will have co op. 

Some games may only have VERSUS as opposed to Co-Op... but all will be able to be played in a room together.

Skiing is an example that comes to mind.  There is no "co-op" mode really.  Just a couple of different ways to play VERSUS against each other.

Couch Co-op is a general term to mean people playing in a room together.  But the term should really be Couch Multiplayer.  Some call it "Local Multiplayer" but I'm not a fan of that term because it confuses non-gamers.

I personally don't like the term Couch Co-op either... but it's the one everyone knows and uses.  But yes... there is a difference between something that is "Co-operative" as opposed to challenging against each other in a Versus mode.

Every game will have at least one of those.

On 6/9/2020 at 4:07 PM, Cranker said:

They are very complex. My wife loves Breath of the wild but I have no time for a game like that. The last Zelda I finished was A Link to the Past SNES And Link’s Awakening on Gameboy !!!

Yeah... I played Zelda BOTW for about 2 weeks straight... then it just started to get too complex as I needed to get all this other "stuff" in order to pass a boss (yes, I know there are extreme hardcores out there who can pass a boss with the stick... but that isn't me!).  I had great fun with it while I played it... then when the gameplay got to a point where it seemed like a major uphill climb and lots of backtracking or potion cooking to get advantages... I decided to put it down and call it a day.  Great game, but not one that I was interested in finishing.

On 6/9/2020 at 4:12 PM, Cranker said:

I agree that there will be a balance of games with some being less casual than others but I’m sure even a game like Cloudy Mountain will be no where near as complex and those types of games on a Sony or Microsoft console . We will likely have “complex” Games Amico style. 

That I can promise!

p.s.  Cloudy Mountain is up to 3 players simultaneous.  Tried to get 4, but way too crowded on screen.

Players can jump in and out anytime though and other players can revive you after you die (by playing a mini-game on the touch screens!).

It's gonna be a great one!  Should be available on launch I believe.

On 6/9/2020 at 4:20 PM, oelli said:

I loved the Network categorization system of the old Intellivision (Sports, Action, Strategy, Space etc.) with the different box colors. Maybe for Amico something similar can be used to categorize the different kinds of games from hyper casual to advanced so that the customer has some orientation in finding the kind of game he is looking for.

Wouldn't That Be Something?™

On 6/9/2020 at 4:44 PM, oelli said:

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.

 

I'm not familiar with that game to be able to compare it to things we're doing.

On 6/9/2020 at 4:52 PM, Stillagamer said:

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.

 

Hahaha!  I guess I should be thanking them for all the free advertising and awareness they are bringing the system.

I guess in their own way... they ARE shills for Amico!

Thanks dudes!

On 6/9/2020 at 6:03 PM, 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 

If you guys have wired cable instead of satellite I can always bring back the PlayCable as well!

@Tommy Tallarico 

        Hi Tommy, Any chance there is a story based space game in work or in the current plans; something like Privateer (Amicofied) or to a lesser degree (and expanded upon) Space Trader type game?  
 

Lots of opportunity for varied types of game play within the same game, and to have action, mystery and strategy elements all blended.