Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

1 hour ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

Missile command to me looks like they are trying to do too much. Play area is really confined. Cities are too big as are the launchers.  There shouldnt be large missiles flying in a rectangle that already has too little area. The whole game is just way way too busy.

  I am a HUGE missile command fan, one of my favs back in the day.  The beauty of the game was the cool expanding explosions set off by your rockets.  The missiles coming in were at least somewhat proportional in that you really couldnt see the missile itself.  The greatest  part of that game was in the presentation and in the almost zen quality of the explosions ( and the neat part if even if your targeting was off, the explosion still might make up for your miss )  Again, this is just my opinion, but I think they are missing what made this game great to begin with. 

I agree... I felt Astroblast had a similar issue as far as graphics that are too big.

I look the games announced and I get the feeling they were designed for a small phone screen with big sprites and just repurposed for Amico. I would like to see Amico be a success, but I feel like the games are missing the mark as family games.

When I look at the team games or the real-world card games I play with my daughters, the announced Amico games seem rather lackluster. I really don't see these games being anything more than a one-time curiosity for my kids.

I haven't seen anything yet that comes off as a "killer app" for all-ages family game play.. from my 4yo to tween and teen kids, to me and my wife, and to the kids's grandparents... or even just something that my tween/teen daughters and I would play together over and over... when I'm pretty sure my kids would rather be playing Fortnite, Just Dance, Minecraft, Mario Kart, or Mario Party.

1 hour ago, Relicgamer said:

I saw part of the 1st video the father and son did. Lol I wouldn't exactly use them as an example.  I thought it was a funny video though. They seemed more interested in stuffing their faces than discussing anything video game related. Remember this is not for hardcore gamers even bringing up those 2 takes them out of the demograph this system is focused on. And remember intellivisions main target is 50 and older

I had no idea this was for 50 and older I thought the main target was millennial moms and kids? That makes more sense actually

Watched the event live.. No Audio issues.  Had to go back to work right away and got wrapped up life right after. (One Special needs child (18) and another that has some health issues that we are dealing with over the last 6-8 months).  I hope Tommy can forgive me ... LOL. As of now, I've only seen it once. I'll watch it again soon. So my impressions having watched it once: 

The presentation was exactly what I thought it would be. Interviews. Fun. Games. Some new. Some old. a slight glimpse of EWJ4. Not showing us everything. Us wanting more. This was an overview. A meet and greet type event. Did we see everything when other consoles were shown off for the first time? Nope.  The actual games came as a surprise. As we have months to go. I expect we'll see more games. This is a good first step. To get us looking and talking. The aftermath is about what I expected as well. The haters still hate. The fans are still fans. Some honest criticism. Some honest praise. some dishonest on both. But what I expected. The other three console makers could put out trash system. There would be people who would defend it until their last breath. Others would criticize the same way. The internet is full of... I'll end it there.

Me? I like the system. Like the games. I'm into what I've seen so far.  My favorite moment was Tommy, being Tommy. I saw his heart up there when he had to change the date. The other part was when we saw all the parts laid out and he said "What's this? I don't know". And tossed it aside. Like it or hate it. Reminded me of the Luke lightsaber moment at the end of Force Awakens/beginning of the Last Jedi. Please don't start a thread in here on the merits of the Disney Star Wars movies. We don't need that.  We can say that we want more Tron.. Both games and movies. @Tommy Tallaricois any chance of getting a nice pic of all the parts nicely laid out. If you could do it in widescreen, it would make for nice wallpaper.

As I stated above, overall its good start. I think Tommy will listen to the honest criticism and with the extra time, I don't want to say fix, but address those concerns that some people have. In a way, as much as I want to play the games in just over 2 months, I think it's for the better. I also think that no matter what Intellivision does, it's not an Xbox/PS/Nintendo so those detractors will say negative things. 

Can't wait to see more!!!!

1 minute ago, Juice said:

I had no idea this was for 50 and older I thought the main target was millennial moms and kids? That makes more sense actually

Tommy mentioned it in the past that the younger gamers were actually dead last as of target. Memory serves me right it was definitely older folks were 1st

4 hours ago, Swami said:

I wasn’t including remakes. Obviously lots of $30 remakes are terrible. Also, ouya controller was worse. 

Agreed 100% the Ouya was a piece of trash. The buttons would get stuck under the controllers plastic faceplate (not to mention the input lag and pairing issues). It would also randomly shut itself off due to overheating issues. Took dozens of emails and many months to finally rectify (their customer service was a nightmare). The replacement they sent me wasn't much better. I ended up selling my Ouya a few months later just to be rid of it. Out of sight, out of mind.

6 minutes ago, flickertail said:

I agree... I felt Astroblast had a similar issue as far as graphics that are too big.

 

I look the games announced and I get the feeling they were designed for a small phone screen with big sprites and just repurposed for Amico. I would like to see Amico be a success, but I feel like the games are missing the mark as family games.

 

When I look at the team games or the real-world card games I play with my daughters, the announced Amico games seem rather lackluster. I really don't see these games being anything more than a one-time curiosity for my kids.

 

I haven't seen anything yet that comes off as a "killer app" for all-ages family game play.. from my 4yo to tween and teen kids, to me and my wife, and to the kids's grandparents... or even just something that my tween/teen daughters and I would play together over and over... when I'm pretty sure my kids would rather be playing Fortnite, Just Dance, Minecraft, Mario Kart, or Mario Party.

Seems this system may not be for you, and as Tommy has said before, that's ok.  Maybe give it a chance though, you never know until you try something.

Also, the game is called Astrosmash, not Astroblast.  Astroblast was the VCS port back in the day.  🙂 

1 hour ago, GrudgeQ said:

Space Strike: Rocket League in outer space with a bit of BreakOut (hard to tell from still photos, game play is more obvious in video form):

 

Has a warlords vibe to me

1 hour ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

this one is interesting, I want to take a look at it again, with another pass in smoothing out the animation, and adding Shadowing ( this is a must) this game may look a whole lot better with just a few tweaks

It looks like the art style of the original game was meant to mimic a certain old-school esthetic with thick outlines (which later got morphed into a mixture of hard and soft lines). I am sure the lack of shadows was a similar artistic choice. It is meant to resemble the rough style of a original Super Ghouls N Ghosts, Mega Man X or Disney's Magical Quest: https://www.pcgamer.com/fox-n-forests-is-a-deeply-authentic-retro-platformer/

16 minutes ago, IntyFanMatt said:

Seems this system may not be for you, and as Tommy has said before, that's ok.  Maybe give it a chance though, you never know until you try something.

 

Also, the game is called Astrosmash, not Astroblast.  Astroblast was the VCS port back in the day.  🙂 

Sorry Astrosmash...

Maybe its not for me... but I believe @Tommy Tallarico says he wants to bring the family back together in one room to have that old classic-console-everyone-together-in-the-same-room experience along with varying degrees of difficulty depending on age and skill level... or is that just BS marketing?

I would like to see that kind of family-centric console.

Making a console for people 50 and older is not a selling point. That is the "Our Time" online-dating-service of consoles. I think that market is extremely small because that market probably tops out at 60yo anyway... and it's customers die.

1 hour ago, Relicgamer said:

I saw part of the 1st video the father and son did. Lol I wouldn't exactly use them as an example.  I thought it was a funny video though. They seemed more interested in stuffing their faces than discussing anything video game related. Remember this is not for hardcore gamers even bringing up those 2 takes them out of the demograph this system is focused on. And remember intellivisions main target is 50 and older

The father/son youtube channel is a bit of an outlier.  They have over 100k subs, however as it's been pointed out most of their recent videos only have 50-100 views.  (Actually their intellivision amico reaction video was their most watched video in a while)  I checked their most popular videos and they're all from 4-5 years ago with "Just Dance" videos which literally have millions of views.  I guess they got their 100k subs from those videos. 

4 hours ago, Juice said:

So who was that specific target audience? 

The buying public

3 minutes ago, flickertail said:

Sorry Astrosmash...

 

It maybe its not for me... but I believe @Tommy Tallarico says he wants to bring the family back together in one room to have that old classic-console-everyone-together-in-the-same-room experience along with varying degrees of difficulty depending on age and skill level... or is that just BS marketing?

 

I would like to see that kind of family-centric console.

 

If all those who think making console for people 50 and over is a selling point, I think that market is extremely small because that market probably tops out at 60yo.

The market is for families, but that being said it's the parents and/or grandparents that would most likely purchase the console for their family. Speaking for myself as a father of 3, I find it more and more difficult to get the kids to spend quality time with their own family members.  They prefer hanging with friends, or gaming alone with the headphones on (again with their friends).  I see this console as an opportunity for them to have fun together with everyone in the family, as long as there are entertaining games that appeal to them, I think it'll be an easy sell.  I'll just set the console up one day when it arrives and we'll see what happens.

13 minutes ago, Juice said:

I had no idea this was for 50 and older I thought the main target was millennial moms and kids? That makes more sense actually

The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that the #1 target for this video was developers. What did we hear the most of in this video? It was the current developers talking about how great it was working with Intellivision. It was how responsive IE was with whatever their needs were. It was to sell to all the small developers in the world with a good idea that IE was a place where they could go and make a great game. This event seems to constantly hit you with that theme. Get the devs on board and the audience will follow. 

In terms of older gamers, I definitely think that IE should be marketing to older people as opposed to kids. Excite the parents and the grandparents about video games, and that they can play those games with the kids/grandkids. That's one of the things that sold the Wii to many people. My parents, my in-laws bought Wii's, even though they would never be considered gamers.  There is a market out there for these games, and IE just needs to reach them. This event though, and this video, was meant to show game developers that lots of others are serious about this platform. That Intellivision is great to develop for, and that the potential for Amico is much bigger than people might think.

2 hours ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

cnet , im not to crazy about the title and by line..

 

https://www.cnet.com/news/intellivision-amico-vs-atari-vcs-comparing-two-baffling-retro-consoles/

Has to be one of the most informative, yet idiotic articles olive read yet.  Isn't c-net some sort of technical base site?  Why have such a negative tone to the article as if it was all a waste of time to make either of these consoles.   

I'm shocked at the top price of the VCS coming in at $390 for the "all in" version.  Wow.  Looks great, and hopefully they really do make the unit.  I'd like to own both depending on the price point.  What I don't like about the VCS is it seems to be a Linux based emulator (a la Retropie) when it playing the old games.  So we'll see...also..yet ANOTHER FPS game console.... Really??  Com'on.  If I want FPS style, I'm buying a new PS5. 

That's what I like so much about Amico.  It's coming to the market with a fresh look and new game ideas.  Some based on old nostalgia, but still brining a lot more to the table as far as fun for everyone. 

When my 12yo was 4 and she desperately wanted to play Wii Mario Kart, but couldn't get the hang of the MK steering wheel, I drilled a hole through the plastic wheel and secured to the sitting-side back of one of her wood kiddie-table chairs.

After that she straddle the chair and was able to hold the steering wheel in one place, which allowed her to play MK like a champ. A lot less frustration and screaming.

I very much want Amico to be successful, but as a family-centric all-ages friendly console, I would expect Amico to do an AI version of the "steering wheel mod" for me. That way I could avoid any crying from my current 4yo when playing Amico - or my mother, for that matter.

23 minutes ago, flickertail said:

Sorry Astrosmash...

 

Making a console for people 50 and older is not a selling point. That is the "Our Time" online-dating-service of consoles. I think that market is extremely small because that market probably tops out at 60yo anyway... and it's customers die.

Agreed.  As Tommy has stated, and it's well known now, they are not making a console for the 50 and over crowd.  They are focused on family gaming.

46 minutes ago, CurlyQ said:

Agreed 100% the Ouya was a piece of trash. The buttons would get stuck under the controllers plastic faceplate (not to mention the input lag and pairing issues). It would also randomly shut itself off due to overheating issues. Took dozens of emails and many months to finally rectify (their customer service was a nightmare). The replacement they sent me wasn't much better. I ended up selling my Ouya a few months later just to be rid of it. Out of sight, out of mind.

 

This is the sort of thing that results from trying to force something into a price point. It kind of concerns me about the 7800 XM I have on pre-order. It was $100 ten years ago and I bought a pre-order three years ago when it was supposed to ship a month later. Thing is, all the money was spent on the cases, so not sure what is going into the inside for free. 

Hi Tommy,

I was hoping to hear more about the following games in the recent announcement video:

1.      10-yard Fight

2.      Beauty and the Beast

3.      Bocce

4.      Bowling

5.      Burgertime

6.      Cosmic Ark

7.      Demon Attack

8.      Dracula

9.      Dragon Fire

10.  Football

11.  Hockey

12.  Ice Trek

13.  Lode Runner

14.  Spelunker

15.  Utopia

Could you please provide the following information:  Are all of these games actually in development?  If not, are they not currently planned and were only rumors?  Are any of these coming out at launch?  How soon will we see screenshots or gameplay from any of these games?

Sorry for all of the questions!  It would really be helpful if you could offer some perspective on this.  I think many of us would like to see some of the old Imagic games like Demon Attack and Dragon Fire be confirmed.

Thank you for your time!

1 hour ago, Juice said:

I had no idea this was for 50 and older I thought the main target was millennial moms and kids? That makes more sense actually

If I remember  it was something like this in order of popularity:

1. People over fifty

2. Millennial/GenX parents (18-55) with kids 3-9 years old 

3. 35-50

4. 18-35 with or without kids over 10

5. Kids over 10

i may be off on that 35 to 40 cutoff. Anyhow, if you are a gamer 10 to 35 and don’t like it, Intellivision predicted that 20 months ago. However, if you have kids under 10 they may like it. 

Hi Tommy,
 
I was hoping to hear more about the following games in the recent announcement video:
 
1.      10-yard Fight
2.      Beauty and the Beast
3.      Bocce
4.      Bowling
5.      Burgertime
6.      Cosmic Ark
7.      Demon Attack
8.      Dracula
9.      Dragon Fire
10.  Football
11.  Hockey
12.  Ice Trek
13.  Lode Runner
14.  Spelunker
15.  Utopia
 
Could you please provide the following information:  Are all of these games actually in development?  If not, are they not currently planned and were only rumors?  Are any of these coming out at launch?  How soon will we see screenshots or gameplay from any of these games?
 
Sorry for all of the questions!  It would really be helpful if you could offer some perspective on this.  I think many of us would like to see some of the old Imagic games like Demon Attack and Dragon Fire be confirmed.
 
Thank you for your time!

2 hours ago, flickertail said:

Sorry Astrosmash...

 

Maybe its not for me... but I believe @Tommy Tallarico says he wants to bring the family back together in one room to have that old classic-console-everyone-together-in-the-same-room experience along with varying degrees of difficulty depending on age and skill level... or is that just BS marketing?

 

I would like to see that kind of family-centric console.

 

Making a console for people 50 and older is not a selling point. That is the "Our Time" online-dating-service of consoles. I think that market is extremely small because that market probably tops out at 60yo anyway... and it's customers die.

Don't feel too bad, as a 2600 user myself I still automatically refer to Astrosmash as Astroblast, and still think Dark Cavern rather then Night Stalker.

As to the family gaming angle, the Amico's Karma Engine is supposed to help even out any gaps in skill levels between players gaming together. Honestly, if it even half works I would still love it. When playing with my little nieces and nephews I do sometimes have to 'take a dive' and let them have the win as not to hurt any feelings. Something that automatically helps balance the game between players sounds like quite a great idea I think.

1 hour ago, Noah98 said:

Hi Tommy,

 

I was hoping to hear more about the following games in the recent announcement video:

 

1.      10-yard Fight

2.      Beauty and the Beast

3.      Bocce

4.      Bowling

5.      Burgertime

6.      Cosmic Ark

7.      Demon Attack

8.      Dracula

9.      Dragon Fire

10.  Football

11.  Hockey

12.  Ice Trek

13.  Lode Runner

14.  Spelunker

15.  Utopia

 

Could you please provide the following information:  Are all of these games actually in development?  If not, are they not currently planned and were only rumors?  Are any of these coming out at launch?  How soon will we see screenshots or gameplay from any of these games?

 

Sorry for all of the questions!  It would really be helpful if you could offer some perspective on this.  I think many of us would like to see some of the old Imagic games like Demon Attack and Dragon Fire be confirmed.

 

Thank you for your time!

I would like to hear more about these games as well and if possible.

2 hours ago, IntyFanMatt said:

Seems this system may not be for you, and as Tommy has said before, that's ok.  Maybe give it a chance though, you never know until you try something.

 

Also, the game is called Astrosmash, not Astroblast.  Astroblast was the VCS port back in the day.  🙂 

I want to add that astrosmash is a rather deceiving game. You start by thinking its super simple and you will lose interest till you play it. You get almost into a trance playing it. And I'm speaking of the 40 year old version lol so dont judge it till you have played it. This is the same thing with many old games. 

Galaga 

Dig dug 

Warlords 

Try playing warlords with your child and you will quickly see how addictive it is.

My 21 year  old son love it

2 minutes ago, Relicgamer said:

I want to add that astrosmash is a rather deceiving game. You start by thinking its super simple and you will lose interest till you play it. You get almost into a trance playing it. And I'm speaking of the 40 year old version lol so dont judge it till you have played it. This is the same thing with many old games. 

Galaga 

Dig dug 

Warlords 

Try playing warlords with your child and you will quickly see how addictive it is.

My 21 year  old son love it

Yup, played Astrosmash to death back in the day.  The game can go on for a long time, and you're right, it puts you in a trance.  Wonder if the new one will have that same effect.

I was going to say we should get MrBeast as a spokesman, but I see Honey (coupon page?) already signed him up......