Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

I think going forward Tommy should redo what he did with that skying part, and do that with all the previews. It should be him, with the amico, talking with us and showing us games and that is it.  Hes got a great personality and lets be honest, we all really just want to see gameplay.  All that other fluff and interviews is not going to make anyone sit up and notice anything.

9 hours ago, Stoke said:

Honest feedback: I found the video underwhelming, and can't see any reason to have delayed it by a day.  Count down to a count down at the beginning? I think delaying the console until April of next year is a mistake as well.

Well, I think it's important to remember that we (meaning the people who frequent AtariAge and other similar communities) are not the primary audience for presentations like this, just as we've long acknowledged that we're not the primary audience for the console itself.  Our community is simply too small for that.  Any last-minute developments which prompted the delay might not seem that important to us, but it was decided that they were important enough to the primary audience to justify waiting the extra day; if that weren't the case, I doubt that the team would have waited.  Personally, I think the one-day delay wasn't all that big of a deal, and that it will be quickly forgotten.  As I understand it, the "extra" countdown at the beginning was a YouTube livestream thing; the people watching it on replay (which will probably be most of them) won't ever see it.

 

For whatever it's worth, I was impressed by the presentation.  The Amico team have clearly made significant progress under difficult circumstances, they showed a good mix of different games, and the games that were shown all appeared to be well-executed for the kinds of games that they are.  Whether the art style appeals or not is up to the individual players' tastes, but granting that the games are still works in progress, I didn't have any problem with what I saw.  To me, the platform—particularly the controllers—will be what sets apart the overall experience of playing these games from the smartphone games and flash games that they're often compared to.  With most smartphone games, you don't usually have the ability to play together in front of a shared TV, or with physical controllers, or with multiple screens.  It may be possible to cobble together expansions and add-ons (at extra cost and complexity!) which would give you most of that, but then you're not really comparing the Amico to a typical smartphone gaming experience anymore, nor would that experience be available for all games, or as seamless or as consistent as what you can have with a platform inherently designed for local multiplayer.  Flash games, too, had limits that the Amico won't have: most of them had to be played on a PC, with a mouse, on a single (relatively low-resolution) monitor screen, and usually within a Web browser.  Again, not an apples-to-apples comparison with gaming on a modern console.

 

I also liked that the presentation took the time to introduce the teams behind the Amico and its library of games.  It was very nice to get to "meet" them, particularly the international development teams, and I'm looking forward to the different styles and sensibilities that they will bring to the Amico.  It was good to see them for another reason ... one of the things about the tiresome trolls we've all had to deal with is that they're largely disconnected from the consequences of their behavior.  They operate as if they're impersonally racking up achievements in a video game, usually without ever having to reveal their own identities, which is really dangerous.  It's useful to be reminded that there are real people on the receiving end of such behavior, people who do have to live with those consequences, long after the trolls have moved on to their next targets in search of their next dopamine high.

 

Looking on the bright side, I hope that the delayed release, as unavoidable as it is given the circumstances, will at least give them the time that they need to develop an even deeper launch catalog.  That will become especially important once the first Amico players begin to look beyond the pack-ins.

2 minutes ago, Intellivision Master said:

What was your favorite part of the Amico event today?  Mine was the Bomb Squad part, that was funny.

I loved the Bomb Squad part as well. I was not expecting that. 

 

From a games perspective, I am super geeked for Nitro Derby. I got a hardcore RC Pro AM vibe from that. Some of the people in the live chat hated the top down racing....I like that style. I can totally see my family playing this. 

 

Also, I liked Finnegan the Fox. I am guessing I am probably one of the few people who liked it. It looks fun and if it has a good plot I am all for it. 

 

Obviously, I am already excited for Astrosmash and I really hope the music featured in the footage is the real music. The ability to use the shields to protect a co-op player or bounce off asteroids into others in VS mode is pretty cool. Also, uhhh, Boss Moon!

 

From an overall video perspective, I liked that they incorporated the developers into the presentation as well as the staff. People in the chat seemed to be bored of it because they wanted EWJ footage but I actually liked this aspect. I think it was different because it showed the passion of the people hired and partnering with IE, I think its important to believe in the vision. 

 

I am sure I will think of other things but this is just my initial take. 

 

 

There was a news release / leak from a German site yesterday that I wasn't sure was real and it detailed the new release date and all the games they showed. Now after seeing the presentation it's obvious that leak was real so I'm wondering why the announcement was delayed a day as well.

Overall it was good seeing more gameplay and the console/launch screen Tommy showed although I think it was a bit long and the presentation dragged a bit in places. Just being honest, don't jump on me!

Still looking forward to the console but now it's an 8 month wait

27 minutes ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

they do this instead of making you read a 20 page manual and you are only made to do this once. Most big game open up with a menu with a continue option to pick your game up.  

Just sticking with the Forza game since that was my experience and one I clearly remember since it was my breaking point, there was no option to skip. I swear I was looking for a bypass button and trying combo buttons that would have made a Mortal Kombat master proud. But no luck. And it was long walkthrough with lots of tasks to achieve. 

 

I don’t even care if it’s only the first time you run it (which you are, of course, correct about). It’s the fact that no one in game development spoke up and said, “Y’know, lots of people will already know what to do, or perhaps have played this at a friend's house. Let’s give the user a clear option to go straight to gameplay while having a walkthrough for everyone else who is new and wants it.” 

 

Listen, in the general scheme of things, this is minor (if even that) to most people. I feel somewhat silly even expressing my position on this. But it played a role (along with a few other points) of me stepping away from the big consoles. 

 

So, yeah... I liked the word “Skip” in the video today.

Edited August 5, 2020 by Jake67
I originally said “defending” my position, but that was making it sound like I was arguing with people and that wasn’t my intent.

15 minutes ago, jaybird3rd said:

 

For whatever it's worth, I was impressed by the presentation. 

come on, keep it real, blowing smoke helps no one. the audio was 10 to 15 seconds behind the video, thats umm not good.. So lets be real, at that point it was just disaster management. Im sure Tommy and his team are pissed and to be honest it is really a YouTube upload issue as Im sure their local version is spot on. Im sure going forward they will upload and preview content on a secret account the night before to make sure upload is good.  EWJ saved the day though so they just will move on and do better next time

Edited August 5, 2020 by bigdaddygamestudio

1 minute ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

come on, keep it real blowing smoke helps no one. the audio was 10 to 15 seconds behind the video, thats umm not good.. So lets be real at that point it was just disaster management. EWJ saved the day.  

Was this a widespread issue? I was in the chat about an hour before the event started and I stayed there until after the EWJ section and my audio/video was in sync the whole time, unless I just discovered that i'm having a very slow stroke.

4 minutes ago, Scrundle said:

Was this a widespread issue? I was in the chat about an hour before the event started and I stayed there until after the EWJ section and my audio/video was in sync the whole time, unless I just discovered that i'm having a very slow stroke.

I didn't experience any lag, either.  (Then again, I wasn't watching on a wireless device with a slow connection, which might have been a factor for some.)

1 minute ago, Scrundle said:

Was this a widespread issue? I was in the chat about an hour before the event started and I stayed there until after the EWJ section and my audio/video was in sync the whole time, unless I just discovered that i'm having a very slow stroke.

people were commenting in chat about the poor audio sync the whole show.

2 minutes ago, jaybird3rd said:

I didn't experience any lag, either.  (Then again, I wasn't watching on a wireless device with a slow connection, which might have been a factor for some.)

I have a super fast connection and I had audio lag the entire time.  There was never an interruption everything was smooth, but the audio was a good 10 seconds behind the video.

Edited August 5, 2020 by bigdaddygamestudio

I had no lag either.

Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk

wasnt lag per se, it was the audio sync was off.  Look back at the chat , many people were commenting on it, but Im glad to hear it wasnt for everyone.

Edited August 5, 2020 by bigdaddygamestudio

17 minutes ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

come on, keep it real, blowing smoke helps no one.

Who's "blowing smoke"?  Some people seem to have experienced lag or synchronization issues and some didn't, which indicates to me that the problem was not at the source.  For all we know, it could have been a problem with individual viewers' devices or connections, or a problem with YouTube, or some combination of both.

4 minutes ago, jaybird3rd said:

Who's "blowing smoke"?  Some people seem to have experienced lag and some didn't

i'm glad to hear some people didnt experience the lag, thats good to know. Unfortunately a lot of people did and I assure you with my 1 gb a sec connection, the problem isnt on my end. Its likely a youtube issue as many lately have run into issues it seems with video/audio syncs on the uploaded videos

Edited August 5, 2020 by bigdaddygamestudio

2 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

So I just realized that I have not been here for like 20 pages or something like that. It's also 0329 and I have a meeting in like 6 hours, so for now I'll just say this so I can sleep:

 

matte woodgrain

 

Also, I sent the email and it got rejected. Maybe I'll try again in the morning... wait, it is morning. Maybe in the afternoon.

Yeah, I checked about 2pm and it said there were 71 new replies since 11am. 

4 hours ago, Intellivision Master said:

What was your favorite part of the Amico event today?  Mine was the Bomb Squad part, that was funny.

Bomb Squad is shaping up to be a little like one of my favorite local party games "Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes". I never was too keen on the original because of the mechanics but I am getting more & more excited for this one

15 minutes ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

wasnt lag per se, it was the audio sync was off.  Look back at the chat , many people were commenting on it, but Im glad to hear it wasnt for everyone.

The audio sync issue only hit me when I started scrubbing a bit back to type up my notes. After that the rails came off YouTube's little choo choo train of streaming and it was messed up after that. However playing the archived video now the audio is fine so this was definitely a YouTube issue.

wasnt lag per se, it was the audio sync was off.  Look back at the chat , many people were commenting on it, but Im glad to hear it wasnt for everyone.

I had the audio lag at the beginning it was pretty bad but I refreshed my browser tab to restart it and the lag was gone. I guess some people didn't take that step.

42 minutes ago, jaybird3rd said:

Well, I think it's important to remember that we (meaning the people who frequent AtariAge and other similar communities) are not the primary audience for presentations like this...

I think this is pretty important. As Amico ramps up, there’s a need (I would have to believe) to have some professionally done “overview” videos that talk to more than just gamers. That could be potential development partners, licensing partners, media outlets, etc.

 

No doubt they have internal stuff to pass along, but it’s good to have some material publicly available on YouTube and other channels that are not just silly fun with lots of in-jokes for the gamers, or seat-of-your-pants videos that are done on the spur of the moment. 

 

I didn’t have much in the way of expectations today because I assumed that while there would be lots of info for me, a buyer of the console, this type of video was really serving multiple purposes. 

21 minutes ago, GrudgeQ said:

However playing the archived video now the audio is fine so this was definitely a YouTube issue.

yeah that sucks for Tommy and team, totally not their fault. I tried doing a few things to resync, nothing seemed to help unfortunately, I'm hoping im in the minority and most were able to view fine.  Its good to know it ok now since hopefully they will have many more thousands watching it later

Edited August 5, 2020 by bigdaddygamestudio

 

 

Just a couple of pics of the prototype menu for the Amico. I like they are keeping the interface super simple but it has little video previews, player count & rough time to play a round. You can see where they are going with it generally

 

 

1 hour ago, Intellivision Master said:

What was your favorite part of the Amico event today?  Mine was the Bomb Squad part, that was funny.

Hard for me to say as I enjoyed all of it for different reasons I enjoyed the interviews because it gave us a look at the people working on the games and I enjoy looking at the human side of things.

 

Tommy’s hardware bit and match 3 joke had me laughing a lot 

 

All the gameplay I saw looked like games I would either enjoy on my own or with friends or my grandparents probably my favorite gameplay videos for new games were Finnigan Fox, Ridge Force Redux Enhanced, Space Strike and Bomb Squad and I think my grandma will enjoy the Monster Spades game thanks to the characters 

 

i has a lot of fun watching and will be rewatching soon 

POSITIVE: 

EWJ4 

CARD GAME 

Bomb Squad 

THE SPACE GAMES cant remember the names.  Long day at work lol. 

1 was a shooter

1 was the one like warlords 

Delay not an issue for me 

NEGATIVE: 

parts of it were long

Moon patrol was one spot that was long

Only because we have the demo.