Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

Hey folks,

normally I just read here but I want to leave a comment today: Being an avid boardgamer I think the Amico really has great potential in simulating boardgames - due to its specific controller it can come much closer to playing an actual boardgame than any tablet or classic video console controller. With storage room being always a restriction in most households, I think many may appreciate the possibility of expanding their boardgame collection digitally.

Just want to place three wishes for dice/card/boardgames that I think would be perfect picks for amico: Pickomino, Sushi go Party! and Draftosaurus. You can find small trailers for all of them on YouTube. They are pretty popular within the boardgaming community but probably lesser known outside.

Whether one or more of them will find its way on the amico or not - I am excited for enjoying a huge variety of different gaming experiences on amico within my family. Having a three year old daughter the system comes out at a perfect time for our family. :-)

1 hour ago, Intellivision Master said:

If we do get a 7th pack in game, wouldn't it be neat if it was Breakout or Warlords?  Or if not those, perhaps it could be Bomb Squad?

Bombsquad would be great as its set up.be an explosive party game . The other 2 no  since they would have to pay atari for each amico sold.  They wont put licensed  titles in the pack.ins.

And according to tommy from.ladt nights podcast.  Warlords is about to start production. The mussile command team.is making. And they ate into the final week of missile command.

I never got around to saying this, but I think in the vs modes of missile command the guns should be shorter and even cut back some of the other edge graphics to make the open area and distance between players larger, IMO. 

3 hours ago, Intellivision Master said:

Awesome interview Tommy.  Glad to hear that Warlords is coming.  Also, it was good hearing about the new exclusives. 

Thanks!

For those of you who missed it, I announced the ultra portable Amico Lite! Great for doing your taxes on!! 🤣

 

 

 

17 minutes ago, Swami said:

I never got around to saying this, but I think in the vs modes of missile command the guns should be shorter and even cut back some of the other edge graphics to make the open area and distance between players larger, IMO. 

One of the compliance issues with games these days is making sure no data appears on the 10% edges of the full screen as there are so many TV's out there that show things in different aspects... it's so annoying, but something we need to do so that some folks won't get important info/data cut-off.

But yes... we are still doing some tweaks to the versus mode and agree with your thoughts.

1 hour ago, Talerian said:

Hey folks,

 

normally I just read here but I want to leave a comment today: Being an avid boardgamer I think the Amico really has great potential in simulating boardgames - due to its specific controller it can come much closer to playing an actual boardgame than any tablet or classic video console controller. With storage room being always a restriction in most households, I think many may appreciate the possibility of expanding their boardgame collection digitally.

 

Just want to place three wishes for dice/card/boardgames that I think would be perfect picks for amico: Pickomino, Sushi go Party! and Draftosaurus. You can find small trailers for all of them on YouTube. They are pretty popular within the boardgaming community but probably lesser known outside.

 

Whether one or more of them will find its way on the amico or not - I am excited for enjoying a huge variety of different gaming experiences on amico within my family. Having a three year old daughter the system comes out at a perfect time for our family. 🙂

 

 

Hi!,

Thanks so much for the first post and comment.  Hope to see more!

I have the Sushi Go game but haven't heard of the other two.  I will check them out and order them right away.

Thanks for the suggestions! 

And yes... I agree with your assessment of the potential of board games. 

Appreciate it.

2 hours ago, GrudgeQ said:

 

Both are much watch IMHO:

Scott Barrett is hilarious and talked about the early days of Electric Playground; Dangerous Stunts with Tommy^tm; his early days in the video industry; his arcade machine collection (including a curtain pull reveal (literally) of a Tron *booth* arcade machine); perils of the gaming business; his game Heavy Burger and of course Bomb Squad.

 

Tommy interview was one of the best just casual talks with a couple of cool guys (and some wife guest appearances) in a long time. Tommy was leaking like a sieve (as usual) dropping info on Warlords; how Intellivision is looking at cultural differences & not just male/female/hard core/casual gamers; Tommy shows off the "Amico Light" with keyboard attachment (or not), Spideman & comics talk, new sports franchises have been acquired; pickable 7th free game? and much, much more.

Yeah!  Loved the Scott stuff.  Was really great!

And yes... dropped some "exclusives" as always.  

11 hours ago, OEB_Pete said:

Amico All Access for August 26th is up in Rewind.  I want to thank Scott Barrett for coming on the show and roasting @Tommy Tallarico a little bit  Scott was a blast to talk to and he shared his thoughts on Amico and Bomb Squad!

 

 

Great episode!   Loved it!

Gotta get me & Scott on the same show together and watch all hell break loose!

9 hours ago, IMBerzerk said:

 

This is the best one you've done!  Thanks for it... if he saw it, he'd laugh as well!  

 

So great!

Someone should post it on Twitter and tag him!  (not sure if he has a Twitter or not).

2 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Gotta get me & Scott on the same show together and watch all hell break loose!

That would be so cool.  I'd really like to see that.  Just for fun, beam me up Scottie.  Lol.

The great thing about board games on the Amico is that you won't have to memorize the freaking rules: they will be automatically applied.

Also, some games give some secret information to each player, such as a card. To be able to see that on the controller screen will be cool.

An example of this is the game Lords of Xidit, which doesn't include dices: each player "programs" the direction of 6 "jumps" or "moves" of their figure in the map. They have to program it in advance and without knowing what the other players will do. So apparently, when a player arrives second to a place with a treasure, its' better than first for some reason. So they have to guess what the other players will probably do when they program their own moves in some kind of cardboard with spining wheels with symbols.

In the end, all players (3 to 5) apply their 6 moves AT THE SAME TIME, so it can be quite hilarious. I think @Tommy Tallarico should try to license one of these games (even if it won't leverage the dice rolling system®).

23 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

So great!

Someone should post it on Twitter and tag him!  (not sure if he has a Twitter or not).

 

He doesn't have a personal account, I believe, but uses the band's @rushtheband

Tommy, just curious, why was the original AD&D Intelliviison game (one of my favorites!) later renamed Cloudy Mountain?  Was it a licensing/royalty issue?  Always wondered.

Off topic, I sent you a PM here about 2 weeks ago on a separate topic; not sure if you got a chance to read.  Thx.

4 minutes ago, The_Analog_Kid said:

Tommy, just curious, why was the original AD&D Intelliviison game (one of my favorites!) later renamed Cloudy Mountain?  Was it a licensing/royalty issue?  Always wondered.

 

Off topic, I sent you a PM here about 2 weeks ago on a separate topic; not sure if you got a chance to read.  Thx.

From wiki:

"Advanced Dungeons & Dragons is an Intellivision game; it was one of the first Advanced Dungeons & Dragons games to be licensed by TSR, Inc. It was later retitled to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Cloudy Mountain to distinguish it from the sequel, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin."

I owned the original named "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" without the "Cloudy Mountain" added in, and I also had Treasure of Tarmin.

1 minute ago, Zee said:

 

From wiki:

"Advanced Dungeons & Dragons is an Intellivision game; it was one of the first Advanced Dungeons & Dragons games to be licensed by TSR, Inc. It was later retitled to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Cloudy Mountain to distinguish it from the sequel, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin."

 

I owned the original named "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" without the "Cloudy Mountain" added in, and I also had Treasure of Tarmin.

Thanks, Zee.  I had the original AD&D (sans "Cloudy Montain") but didn't have the sequel...what was different about Tarmin compared to the original AD&D?

OEB Pete has started a Moon Patrol challenge series:

And a bunch of other Moon Patrol game play (Atari Creep, TJ, Retro Asylum, etc) from the 'Tube in case you missed them:

https://youtu.be/q1TiXZGPfwA

https://youtu.be/XfFY8waud40

https://youtu.be/44e17gRObjk

https://youtu.be/Cvnmr05g-rE

https://youtu.be/nT4vvnEaWZQ

https://youtu.be/49ue1wNchOo

https://youtu.be/XKxlwoth4ho

https://youtu.be/E3CqZZaQxDc

1 hour ago, The_Analog_Kid said:

Thanks, Zee.  I had the original AD&D (sans "Cloudy Montain") but didn't have the sequel...what was different about Tarmin compared to the original AD&D?

Yeah they added Cloudy Mountain to the title in some marketing materials but you won't find it on any cartidges or boxes.  That was back in the 1980s when they still had the AD&D license.  When the Intellivision Lives compilation came out in 1998 it was called "Adventure" which was the prototype title and on the 2014 Intellivision Flashback they modified it so the title reads "Crown of Kings".

The original AD&D was an action-adventure while Treasure of Tarmin was more of an RPG with a first person perspective.

9 minutes ago, mr_me said:

Yeah they added Cloudy Mountain to the title in some marketing materials but you won't find it on any cartidges or boxes.  That was back in the 1980s when they still had the AD&D license.  When the Intellivision Lives compilation came out in 1998 it was called "Adventure" which was the prototype title and on the 2014 Intellivision Flashback they modified it so the title reads "Crown of Kings".

 

The original AD&D was an action-adventure while Treasure of Tarmin was more of an RPG with a first person perspective.

I think the NES game was the first to follow actual D&D rules. 

Also, there is that D&D electronic board game that might be cool as a board game brought to life with animated characters. 

20 minutes ago, Swami said:

I think the NES game was the first to follow actual D&D rules. 

 

Also, there is that D&D electronic board game that might be cool as a board game brought to life with animated characters. 

If that's AD&D Pool of Radiance, it was first on commodore 64, apple ii and IBM PC.  It was ported to NES several years later.

If they get the D&D license for Amico you might actually see a D&D dice game on the system.  This was suggested in one of the interviews.

On 8/26/2020 at 11:05 AM, IntelliMission said:

Hey @Tommy Tallarico , here's the worst and, simultaneously, the best question in this thread so far:

 

- What would you do if J Allard approached you and said "we gotta redo the graphics in Astrosmash from scratch. Let's do it Vectrex style".

Maybe they can add that in as a cheat code or DLC. I think they could do the asteroids using 3D model with good bump/normal map shader.  I was pretty obsessed with bump map stuff back in the days.  So neat and cool to look at.  I abused that when I started learning Cinema 4D. 

1 hour ago, mr_me said:

If that's AD&D Pool of Radiance, it was first on commodore 64, apple ii and IBM PC.  It was ported to NES several years later.

 

If they get the D&D license for Amico you might actually see a D&D dice game on the system.  This was suggested in one of the interviews.

I think he means D&D Computer Laybrinith... which come to think of it.. was a really cool game back in the days of using your imagination (whatever that is...LOL!)

3 hours ago, The_Analog_Kid said:

Thanks, Zee.  I had the original AD&D (sans "Cloudy Montain") but didn't have the sequel...what was different about Tarmin compared to the original AD&D?

Tarmin is actually the better of the two games if you're looking for an ancient dungeon crawler type game. 

It was the first of it's kind for a console based game, and set the bar for games like Dungeon Master, Bard's Tale, Eye of the Beholder, and the like that used 3D perspective.

I'm going to take a stab at this... but it might have been influence by Dungeon's of Daggorath (TRS-80).

15 minutes ago, IMBerzerk said:

Tarmin is actually the better of the two games if you're looking for an ancient dungeon crawler type game. 

It was the first of it's kind, and set the bar for games like Dungeon Master, Bard's Tale, Eye of the Beholder, and the like that used 3D perspective.

Tarmin (1983) was particularly amazing considering it was released *9 years* before Wolfenstein 3D (1992) (the pseudo 3d, first person game that most people remember). Can you imagine doing a 3Dish game in about 1K of RAM?

27 minutes ago, IMBerzerk said:

I think he means D&D Computer Laybrinith... which come to think of it.. was a really cool game back in the days of using your imagination (whatever that is...LOL!)

i remember I owned this but it was a lil wonky and wasnt as cool as we hoped. 

I don't think Wolfenstein 3D and Treasure of Tarmin play in the same league, as you can't move freely on the Intellivision title.

However, it's pretty cool that it appeared 4 years before Dungeon Master (1987). In the Wikipedia, they don't mention Tarmin as an influence on the developers. Was Tarmin real time or turn based when you encountered an enemy? The Wiki says DM was the first one with real time battles.