Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

As much as I find the Amico critical, I don't think it qualifies under the California new closure rules

Dakota County, Minnesota is open for business.  You can use my basement, work room, and I have great bandwidth  🙂

4 hours ago, GrudgeQ said:

As much as I find the Amico critical, I don't think it qualifies under the California new closure rules

 

Wonder if the new office in salt lake city was opened due to this?

10 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

 

That was a fun one!  I loved all the guesses. 

 

But for this one folks should be thinking more literally.  All will be revealed by this time next week I believe.

 

 

 

My guess is there is a common theme between them.
 

The Ferrari represents core and elegant horsepower

The horse represents primitive and literal horsepower and,

The busted remote represents Pat and Ian being figurative horse’s asses.
 

The only thing I cant figure is how this is all supposed to tie to Amico. 
 

Guess I Just have to wait a week to find out about that part of it. 

On 7/13/2020 at 6:14 AM, Blarneo said:

Yeah, I know. HE's assured me it'll be fantastic when they get to it, but they haven't started it yet. 

I've been harping on this game for 2 years... and also secretly disappointed they chose the much less fun and almost boring Moon Patrol as a launch title instead.

 

Yeah! That's right @OEB_Pete, I said it! 😜

 

R-Type Final 2 (awful name) will also be on Xbox One, which will be the version I'll buy. 

I think Intellivision will make their own custom R-Type so that's good to look forward to also.

 

Sega now owns Technosoft, so a new Thunder Force would be up to them.

I'm really looking forward to the Amico R-Type, and it's one of the games that really sold me on the system when it was announced. You probably remember me saying that, though... Still, I wonder what it's going to be. Dimensions is already basically perfect, so rather than port that, I'd rather have a new game or something.

I hope Final 2 turns out to be great. It certainly looks nice so far, but Granzella really hasn't shown much, and I think it was originally scheduled to release a few months from now. Hopefully it's still on schedule. When I played the PS4 demo last year, you couldn't even move with the d-pad and you had to use the analog stick, but I'm guessing that build is long gone. It would be funny if you still couldn't use the d-pad in the final build.

For Tommy: I imagine you can't say, but how is that Worms game for Amico going? I'm guessing it's not that weird new thing that Team 17 announced recently. It seems there's been quite a bit of negativity towards that game for obvious reasons, but I applied for the beta, so I suppose I'll at least try it for free if I can.

As for the system possibly being delayed, I suppose there's not much that can be done about it at this point. Unfortunately, if you guys do decide to do some sort of event in the USA on 10/10 in case the console gets delayed, I can't go. Well, I actually can, but then I wouldn't be able to go home since Japan is not allowing the majority of non-Japanese people into Japan, even if they are permanent residents, so I can't exactly leave the country right now.

12 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

That was a fun one!  I loved all the guesses. 

 

But for this one folks should be thinking more literally.  All will be revealed by this time next week I believe.

Im thinking we are going to see perhaps some gameplay from Intellivision Horse Racing.

I think the twitter images are hinting at a reveal of the controller overlays that were in the Koch Media press release. 

Tomorrow is the day of the giveaway for the 10 free Amicos.  

8 minutes ago, Intellivision Master said:

Tomorrow is the day of the giveaway for the 10 free Amicos.  

How will we know if we won ? Email ? 

Just now, Cranker said:

How will we know if we won ? Email ? 

Yes.

11 hours ago, Relicgamer said:

Wonder if the new office in salt lake city was opened due to this?

Unless some non Cali staff are out that way, Salt Lake is about 10+ hours drive out of LA so it isn't a practical main office replacement. I think it is mostly for the coming call/support center and was driven by the pro small business incentives of the state. Of course, all just my speculation and from what little Tommy has said about it.

Those are some good ideas Michael.

2 hours ago, Intellivision Master said:

Tomorrow is the day of the giveaway for the 10 free Amicos.  

Who's doing the giveaway?

1 minute ago, Zee said:

Who's doing the giveaway?

Intellivision Entertainment.

43 minutes ago, Zee said:

Who's doing the giveaway?

It is for merchandise purchasers who received a RFID "Golden Ticket" with their orders - they are automatically entered. You can also submit a manual entry but I think the window for those have closed.

On 7/13/2020 at 6:17 PM, Tommy Tallarico said:

We're meeting with them today!

 

 

Great. I think he could be a great programmer for an R-Type game for Intellivision and can also be great for a PS1 R-Type Delta Remake :). With Rigid Force Redux he made the best R-Type Style game since R-Type 3 on the SNES and Delta on the PS1.

1 hour ago, GrudgeQ said:

It is for merchandise purchasers who received a RFID "Golden Ticket" with their orders - they are automatically entered. You can also submit a manual entry but I think the window for those have closed.

Thanks, I figured I missed out, but I pre-ordered Amico anyway so do I need another?  Hmm... 😀

34 minutes ago, Zee said:

Thanks, I figured I missed out, but I pre-ordered Amico anyway so do I need another?  Hmm... 😀

Yes you do, we all do 😄 Fe and Vip coming to this family!

Tommy have you guys reached out to the governor over all of this? My friend owns a company in Anaheim and hes frustrated.  

1 hour ago, Sabre Wulf said:

Yes you do, we all do 😄 Fe and Vip coming to this family!

I'm sort of regretting not ordering the founders edition.  Not sure what I was thinking. 

Little bit of fun at a place called Sharkies.  

So Should we the cult of amico draw a pentagram in sand or chalk together , light some candles  and recite  some ancient sumerian  texts from the necronomicon  to try and protect  the 10/10/2020 date for @Tommy Tallarico ?   

My fingers are so crossed I'm  going to need surgery in order to play. 

Hi Folks!,

A lot to catch up on, but wanted to pop in real quick to bring your attention to a few "tough questions" I was challenged by on YouTube today.  I know we want to keep a positive vibe so I prefer never to post negative videos here.  But a set of 4 videos were trying to stump me with their so called "tough" questions.  The questions weren't tough at all.  When you have nothing to hide... then no need to hide anything. 
 

Because of the negativity angle, there were a few questions that haven't been asked in here, so I wanted to share the answers with you all.  This is a Q&A thread after all.  

I'm not going to post the links to the videos (they'll probably end up deleting my answers anyway) and if anyone finds the videos and comments on them... please try to keep it positive.

So-called "tough" questions.

Q:  What would it take for you to abandon your sunk costs and walk away from a failed project?

A:  Nothing at all. EVER. Sorry fellas. Hate to break your hearts.

Q:  You stated that you were going to have some big reveals at e3 2020, which was just a few months after the global pandemic started. You didn’t show much. Why is that?

A:  Because we are saving it for our own online press conference. Exactly the same as every game company has done. More info on ours (date & time) coming within the next week. Reason we've waited a little longer than others? Wanted to make sure that if we are forced to delay... that it would be a part of that conference as well.

Q:  What is the team working on? Software developers don’t need to be in the same room. The mobile app hasn’t been updated since January 2020.

A:  Our internal full time (w/benefits) team of 30+ hardware, firmware, mechanical, OS, Testing, backend, servers, UI/UX, and software engineers are working on the same things they have been working on for years. We also have marketing, PR, art department, audio, controller/accounting and customer service. A simple LinkedIn search will show you most of the folks and when they started. Very easy to verify. A few employees don't have LinkedIn, but you get the idea: https://www.linkedin.com/company/intellivisionentertainment/people/ In regards to our developers, there are literally hundreds of people working on games for us right now.

Q:  Did Intellivision Entertainment take any paycheck protection loans since it is operating as a small business? Or are they such a big deal, as Tommy often implies, that they don’t need anyone’s help?

A:  As with most pre-revenue start up companies affected by COVID we did receive one PPP assistance loan. Every small company applied. No reason not to. We qualified. Here is a published list of all the game studios that received them. You will see that we are at the very bottom tier of folks who received assistance. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-07-10-game-companies-lining-up-for-pandemic-relief-loans This is an explanation of what PPP is: https://www.investopedia.com/your-guide-to-the-paycheck-protection-program-ppp-and-how-to-apply-4802195

Q:  What do you feel that you, personally, can bring to this project? You're not an engineer, programmer, game designer, or project manager. What makes you think you can succeed where so many others have not?
A:  You're wrong about assuming any of those things about me. Please feel free to read my bio here: https://www.tallarico.com/bio
In regards to what makes me think I can succeed where so many others have not? It's called confidence. Because folks like you have told me my entire career that I "can't" do things. And at EVERY turn I have proven the "doubters" and "haters" wrong.  Again, read my bio... then ask yourself if you think I'll fail. If you still think yes... then I look forward to adding you to the list of folks I have been proving wrong my entire career. That's the great thing about always being the underdog... no one sees ya coming and when you pull it off... it's even that much more sweeter.

Q:  How far along are you with FCC testing for EMF radiation? Battery testing? Will you share parts of the process with the public so they have a better sense of how things are going?

A:  Halfway through testing. COVID has delayed. Known fact by everyone manufacturing hardware. Easy to Google.

Q:  How long do you really think it will take for shipping from China to the US? How long to clear customs?

A:  Takes 1 month from China to US shores. 3 days in customs. We can manufacture approximately 1,500 machines per day, shipment crates are 3,900. So approximately 2 1/2 days to create a shipment. Could potentially start manufacturing in early to mid August, but compliance testing is backed up. Decision to be made by the end of this month. Been saying this since March of this year. More news will come as we get it. Been transparent from the beginning. California once again shut down by the governor yesterday. Orange County specifically named. Things getting worse here... not better.

Q:  Can we disable the LED lights?

A:  Yes. You will be able to disable the LED Lights.

Q:  How much of your personal money have you put into this project?

A:  None of your business. Enough to matter. What difference would that make anyway?

Q:  What factors would go into your go/no go decision regarding product launch?
A:  Distributors, compliance testing, manufacturing windows and most of all... retailers.

I won't be answering any more of their so-called "tough" questions.  I gave them 10 shots... and answered them all with ease.  Of course from here on out, if I don't answer other questions then they will say I'm ignoring them and that I'm hiding something.  The ridiculousness never ends.     So just thought I'd answer everything they asked (across the videos they posted) and now I'm done with them.  If they have any more "questions" they are more than happy to come on in here and ask them in a respectful manner (if they haven't already been banned). I like to try and dedicate a hour or so each day to answering various questions around the internet so I picked this one today.  But as you can see, they are mostly asked in a negative, disrespectful or demeaning way... so no reason to give that very small group any kind of further attention.  They tried their hardest to "stump" me... and like always... failed.  They spent a lot more time making all those videos and graphics than I did answering the questions.  At what point do you start to question your life choices or be more productive with your time?  Prepare for 10 other videos over the next few days I'm sure. 

Anyway... bottom line... I thought the answers were interesting so I wanted to share them here with everyone.  Normally I wouldn't have responded...  but thought that some of you would be interested in some of the answers.

Thanks!