Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

On 9/4/2020 at 4:23 PM, bigdaddygamestudio said:

I would just suggest that Amico fans not expect a giant breakthrough or wild selling numbers out of the gate. Overnight sensations usually take many years. What IE has going for it is that IE with its low BE allows for the time it needs to work its way into the publics consciousness while remaining viable and if all goes well, the Amico may become a main stream console in a few years from now but I would suspect it would take at least 2 to 3 years before they hit any sort of large market penetration.  Again, becoming an overnight sensation takes time.

 

GREAT POST!!

I TOTALLY agree!

 

And every single video game console over the past 30 years has had that same "bell curve".  Year 1 and 2 only represent a very very small percentage of the overall lifetime sales for a system.  And those folks already have name recognition, tons of infrastructure around the world, tens of millions for marketing, etc., etc., etc...

 

We do a couple hundred thousands units by next Christmas, maybe even pass the million mark by the end of year one (April 2021) that would be a HUGE success!  Going into year two we do another million or so and then by year 3 we really take off.  I believe $199 will be our magic price point for the "masses" so if I can get it to that by the end of year two... we'll be off to the races!

 

Of course this is all just speculation.  But fun to look at the past trends and the interesting possibilities that could be ahead of us.

 

 

12 hours ago, IMBerzerk said:

Lol.. Rhinebeck!  I live in Long Island and used to go there all the time as a kid, then later with my friends on our bikes.  Great place.  I went there a few years back to get some inspiration for some of my work in our sim.  

 

If you ever played RB3D and modded it.... I'm the guy that made The Hell's Angles Super Patch.  I'm "OvS" or "Otto von Stachel".  In the WWI simming world ...you might say I'm "world famous"...if that means anything.  To me it doesn't.  I'm just an average Joe that has a passion I put to a sim and made the best I could. 

 

But to relate all this to the Amico...I genuinely know what Tommy is thinking and feeling.  It's very hard to take something that is beloved, historic, well known... whatever... and make a new version of it, while making sure it pays homage to what came before it.  With WWI planes, I get the "rivet counters" ...the guys that constantly pick out the smallest detail and have to make an issue of it.  "Nope...the Fokker D.VII had blah...blah..blah".  It makes me work harder to make sure its right, but it also annoying as hell to have someone break your balls on something so small after you spent 2 months recreating all possible details you can find.

 

So when I read Tommy's replies to two individuals that only sit in chairs and pass on stupid sarcasm, but yet have never experienced what it's like to actually make something that you're kinda investing your life into... I totally understand.  It's never easy to please everyone, but as long as the majority are enjoying what you make, you're far ahead of most. 

 

That's why I never bash anything unless I've played it myself.  We've had people slam us because or graphics engine is now ancient.  It's a moded version of M$ Combat Flight Simulator 3...yup... I typed that right.  We've been able to bring it up to a better level, but it's ancient.  It's our campaign and pilot AI that draws in our fans.  Most people come back and tell us they can't get over how real the combat is. That's what makes the sim come alive.  You really feel like you're fighting to stay alive in a fabric kite.

 

So when I play a game...it's not about how flashy it is ..or the sounds...it's about how it makes me feel.  Did I just waste an hour of my time...or am I looking at the clock 3 hours later saying...wow ..I wanna play some more!  

 

I can see the Amico doing that, and I can see some of the games being fantastic re-creations of a lost time that we simply enjoyed playing a simple damn game.  

 

I'm sorry, I guess I hijacked this for a moment... But what I'm saying is relevant.  I have a lot of respect for Tommy and the gang at IE.  It comes from experience.  I hope this thing really kicks ass.  I hope all the time and energy they all put into this comes back 10 fold.  I believe it will.

 

 

 

No worries!!  You're not hijacking at all.  I love hearing about other peoples' projects and lives in here.  Super cool community we've built and love seeing pics and projects!  Keep em coming!

 

What other games have you done?
 

 

 

On 8/14/2020 at 7:30 AM, Alpha82 said:

I find this I don’t think it will sell to it’s intended audience thought very strange because from what I have seen I think we have a system coming from Intellivision that could I believe outsell the Nintendo Wii even though Intellivision does not have the brand power of Nintendo here are the reasons I think that way

 

1. A team that features just in the core group over 600 years of experience in the games industry from all different aspects of the business including high quality marketing people and while this does not guarantee success I would think it would be a positive aspect towards success.

 

2.  Part of the marketing team launched every Nintendo Console from NES - Wii/DS which includes two of Nintendo’s best selling consoles of all time, another marketing member helped get one of the best selling franchises of all time Pokémon off the ground, and yet another marketing member worked for Mattel a very successful toy company on products for their Disney property toy lines.  Why mention these folks and their past so high up on the list because of the success they have had in marking their items to their intended groups this will be a key to Intellivision’s success with Amico and they thought enough about that aspect to put together a top notch team long ago which shows how important they think that aspect will be for success.

 

3.  Unlike the Wii which fell into a hypercasual and non gaming crowd thanks to a fun to play tech demo packaged with the system but did little to follow up with the audience themselves leaving those experiences mostly to third party developers Intellivision is focusing on hypercasual players with 20% of their library being for hypercasual players who play mainly on cell phones or tablets currently.  
 

4.  Intellivision’s focus on gaming together with friends and family will be a huge part of their success because that’s an experience that is not really offered much on the mobile gaming scene.  That experience should get people excited to play games with family and friends in the same room on a shared screen much like Wii did with a tech demo.  Families will also be excited for the educational games that will make up another 20% of the library allowing them to play games with the younger children they have as well, this will be enhanced by the inclusion of partners like Sesame Street Workshop.

 

5. A controller that is more approachable by a mobile game player the controller looks similar to a cellphone it’s a little thicker has action buttons on the top or bottom or sides depending how it’s held and a big movement disk or button the familiar design of this makes it much more approachable by people who normally don’t play games outside of mobile or tablet and that will make it much easier to have others pick up and join in the fun.

 

As a bonus for anyone who thinks that the Wii market is covered by mobile games and no room remember that the most recent release of Just Dance sold better on Wii after all these years than any other system currently available.  Intellivision has a plan for simple to understand and play (not necessarily easy to beat games) that are affordable digital games with a max price of $9.99 that are family friendly and entertaining for the whole family that on some games up to 8 people can play together. 

 

As someone who misses very much being able to play video games with family outside of sports or fighting games where there are very few options on modern systems these along with some I’m sure I failed to mention are a few of the reasons I think that Amico will outsell the Wii 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Still catching up on the many pages of posts that I missed while on vacation. 

I really liked this one and kinda talks about some of the things I was saying a few posts up.

 

 

 

 

On 8/14/2020 at 1:17 PM, Starpaddler said:

Who left IE? Last I knew it was over 700 years. You’re only off by a century, but who’s counting 🤗

 

oh, and I agree with you about outselling the wii

 

Today, there are

1) greater number of families (Bigger potential market)
2) more expendable income (Covid aside)

3) $249 today is much cheaper than when the Wii sold 14 years ago 

4) $10 games

5) quality of the team (not disparaging current manufactures, but am saying I’d pick IE against any of them)
6) 2 controllers 

7) 6 pack-ins (officially - note what number this one happened to fall on though - Coincidence?)

8 ) Family friendly, safe space (more pertinent today then in the Wii days)

9) simple - turn on and play; no minutes to hours long updates, no dlc’s, no adds, no micro transactions, no loot boxes

10) share-ability

11) no time investment required to train (or relearn) a game

12) every new game supports single player - Wonder if original games will be updated to add AI...

13) every new game supports multiplayer

14) up to 8 players out of the box, no additional investment required (assuming tablets or phones already available)

15) Games that focus on FUN (imagine that, seems so simple)

16) and finally, while IE may not have the name recognition of Nintendo, we do have C-mart

 

Maybe I should have just led with number 16

 

 

 

 

Sounds like a bunch of great bullet points for the box!

 

 

 

On 8/15/2020 at 2:11 PM, flickertail said:

Though I retracted my post, I appreciate the comment anyway.

 

I'm not trying to be hyper critical of Amico, and so I don't think I'm going to post in this thread any more.

 

I appreciate Tommy's story and unlike the Atari folks, I think Intellivision has a plan that will be successful with Amico.

 

I especially feel for his family loss and his reasons for the 10/10/2020 launch date that he talked about in their last promotional announcement. For that reason, I wish he could have mad the original launch date.

 

I lost a sibling years ago, and that's why I hang out here on the boards and dabble in classic game development... just trying to recapture something I lost. I can understand why he wanted to make the launch date and how hard it must have been to let it go.

 

Memories of an "Atari Fund" my brother and I started as kids to save up for an Atari, and fought over... until our mom got tired of us fighting about it and told us we were getting one for Christmas. Or when my brother got his first job and ran out to buy an INTV 2. We played that thing for hours. We didn't always get along, but we did when we were playing games.

 

I don't know... I want the Amico to be successful. I'm not here to offend anyone or insult anyone.

 

 

Yo flickertail!,

 

I hope you come back and continue posting.  Don't feel that because you may have doubts, questions or concerns that you aren't welcome here or that you come across as being hyper critical.  Most of the reason I started this thread in the first place was to answer questions and have discussions about any doubts, questions or concerns.  So please feel free to hang around and let me know your thoughts on whatever you'd like!

 

Hope to see ya around!

 

 

On 8/16/2020 at 4:05 PM, インテレビジョン said:

There are three jobs listed there for the Amico. I notice the wording is a bit different from the jobs listed on LinkedIn's website. The one for an embedded Android software engineer (URL here) requires someone who "will take on a senior software development position ... to develop system-level Android software to make the system run." That job listing was posted 6 days ago. I'm a little concerned about the "to make the system run" statement which sounds like the system doesn't run. It didn't say "to make the system run better". Hopefully Tommy can explain this better. The good thing is they have 48 applications for that position already.

We put wording like that in there because we are looking for TRIPLE A rockstars who are at the top of their field.  The position was immediately filled by an absolute amazing firmware legend and genius.  He worked at the biggest mobile & chip manufacturers in the world and he is reporting directly to our head of firmware.  We currently have 4 full time employees working on firmware (most of which have been doing it for over a year) and literally TEAMS of firmware folks around the world doing certain things as well.  We've hired 7 new full time people over the past 2 weeks.  Not bad in this COVID environment!!  We have 2 more people starting on Tuesday and 2 more the week after that.

 

 

On 8/18/2020 at 5:51 AM, IntelliMission said:

The infamous "New Atari than Ataribox?" topic, AKA the Taco Thread, has been closed after 3 years and 1100+ pages.

 

I have the feeling this is the reply that made the administrators and moderators take the decision:

 

 

Basically, the topic had come to a point where many of the regular posters felt entitled to troll there, as this nice folk explains here. Lies about the Amico were common and, when Tommy appeared to clarify them, he was insulted or even threatened with trolling, as in this case.

 

I hope these forums become a better place and moving forward new users come here motivated with an interest for something, not with a desire to attack something (a situation that this now defunct thread appears to have caused).

 

Well, I guess the good news is that some of the main posters on that thread can now focus ALL their time now on their Amico hate website.

🤣🤣🤣


🏆

On 8/18/2020 at 8:17 AM, Alpha82 said:

So I have to share this just because it was so funny to me I do get a kick out of Tommy’s sense of humor.  I don’t really do much talking with the haters who travel from video to video unless I am in a mood that day.  

 

Hahahhhaa!

😇

Perfect example of someone getting angry because someone likes something they don't.

Obvious personality and maturity issues going on with some of these folks.

 

 

On 8/20/2020 at 9:42 PM, CurlyQ said:

OMG!!!!!!!!!

This is the coolest one yet!!  So many things everywhere!!  I can't wait to find them all!!

 

I'm a HUGE VH fan... he's one of my musical heroes so this is super duper cool.  Freaking LOVE THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

On 8/21/2020 at 6:52 AM, Jaguar 2000 said:

Nice to meet and hear about you Mr.T Tallarico! My first encounter with your work was with Batman: Revenge of the Joker on Sega. Here's to many more years of astonishing video gaming and sound engineering.

 

Thanks!

 

I can't believe that game is almost 30 years old now.  PHEW!!!!!!!!  Where did the years go?!?!?

 

 

On 8/24/2020 at 5:33 PM, GrudgeQ said:

FYI Gogamego interview coming up:

Join us this Wednesday at 7pm CST as we interview Tommy Tallarico, CEO and President of Intellivision Entertainment. We will be talking all things Amico!

 

 

 

Loved doing this one!  Stew & Jeff are super cool and really great!!

 

 

2 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

Well, I guess the good news is that some of the main posters on that thread can now focus ALL their time now on their Amico hate website.

🤣🤣🤣


🏆

 

Can you (or somebody else) share some more details of that "Amico hate website"? (Or perhaps this was a joke?)

 

😇

A podcast I co-produce called Arcane Carolinas (not the one I do for work that @Tommy Tallarico graciously came on) will be doing a special video episode today as a part of the American Sci-Fi Classics track at the one and only DragonCon.

 

I made it a point to bring my Intellivision mug on for the episode to hopefully sow some seeds of "whats that?" among people that might not be aware of the Amico.

Is product placement shilling if I'm not paid, and just do it as a someone that believes in the product 😆?

 

 

This looks awesome!

 

 

playing 4 players would cost a fortune. 4 switches and 4 karts. But what a awesome thing

 

3 hours ago, IntelliMission said:

 

Can you (or somebody else) share some more details of that "Amico hate website"? (Or perhaps this was a joke?)

 

😇

 

No.  Definitely not.

 

 

1 hour ago, themewsh said:

A podcast I co-produce called Arcane Carolinas (not the one I do for work that @Tommy Tallarico graciously came on) will be doing a special video episode today as a part of the American Sci-Fi Classics track at the one and only DragonCon.

 

I made it a point to bring my Intellivision mug on for the episode to hopefully sow some seeds of "whats that?" among people that might not be aware of the Amico.

Is product placement shilling if I'm not paid, and just do it as a someone that believes in the product 😆?

 

 

 

 

Nice!!  

 

 

7 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

I covered stuff from WWI & WW2.  Single and double wings... which doesn't make sense with the name... but they are unlockables and you do start with actual biplanes.

 

Same team that is doing Moon Patrol is working on Biplanes (Wasted Studios).

Any chance there will be a triplane as an unlockable?  Or perhaps a zeppelin?  It would be fun getting to shoot down a zeppelin in the game.  They could be a boss.

2 hours ago, Intellivision Master said:

It would be fun getting to shoot down a zeppelin in the game.

or it can be part of the Karma system, you too good, you kicking grandma and the kids ass all the time,  how about your now a zeppelin...  now grandma is going to get some revenge 

Edited September 6, 2020 by bigdaddygamestudio

Tommy,

 

Any plans to have Thunder Blade on Amico?  Maybe it could be turned into a top down or side scrolling game.  Also, what about something like Desert Strike?

 

 
 
Loved doing this one!  Stew & Jeff are super cool and really great!!
 
 

Thanks, Tommy! We had a blast having you on.

Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk

1 hour ago, Intellivision Master said:

Tommy,

 

Any plans to have Thunder Blade on Amico?  Maybe it could be turned into a top down or side scrolling game.  Also, what about something like Desert Strike?

 

Something along the lines of either one of those games would be awesome!!!👍😃

12 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

Thanks!

 

I can't believe that game is almost 30 years old now.  PHEW!!!!!!!!  Where did the years go?!?!?

 

 

Wow 30 years! i remember first getting that game on NES- and then seeing the Sega version- which is obviously superior to the NES- bigger sprites, movie-like (for the 90's that is comic inspired cut-scenes] full color and detail backgrounds, lots of new detailing , smooth scrolling gameplay and a rocking sound track. Ringler Studios did the work on that. 

Your work on The Terminator on Sega CD was jaw dropping- i especially loved that track called  'Future Shock'. 
It captures everything that made 80s Heavy metal/glam metal popular- were u fan of bands like RATT? 

it's really a feeling looking at the boxes and playing those games and still remembering the excitement one had when one first laid eyes on it. 
Time still seems to be going quickly- my weekend is almost over and Friday night seems like just 18 hours ago. 
 

11 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

 

Very cool!!

Thanks for sharing.

 

You'll be seeing a few of those types of planes in Biplanes!

 

I covered stuff from WWI & WW2.  Single and double wings... which doesn't make sense with the name... but they are unlockables and you do start with actual biplanes.

 

Same team that is doing Moon Patrol is working on Biplanes (Wasted Studios).

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you need any advice on the more popular planes that flew in each war, by country and markings, let me know. 

 

I mean, if you're doing it by strength/weakness it will matter what each plane looks like.  Dr.1, Camel, Emil, Thunderbolt...etc.  But if each plane sorta flys the same, then the look won't matter as much, solid colors for each...etc.  By the look of Moon Patrol, I'd say you could and should do a more detailed looking plane set.  That would be amazing to see a neat little Dr.1 (Triplane) vs a similar sized Sopwith Camel.

 

I do hope that the look is somewhat authentic.  Meaning a German WWI biplane will have that look..not all one color.  They were pretty amazing and very colorful vs the British/French/American counter part.  For WWII it's much more toned down, but very distinct in presentation.  Especially invasion stripes (thick black and white stripes). Those always look menacing on a Spitfire or a 'Stang.

 

Looking forward to it either way.

11 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

 

No worries!!  You're not hijacking at all.  I love hearing about other peoples' projects and lives in here.  Super cool community we've built and love seeing pics and projects!  Keep em coming!

 

What other games have you done?
 

 

 

Thanks for that.  Good to hear it's not disruptive.  

 

- most all war style.  I did minor mods to tanks in "Panzer Elite" and many plane paints for "Wings of War". 

- I was involved with a new Russian game development team at the time, which was working on a WWI simulator called Sikorsky S-16.  Due to language barriers and work styles, it rapidly went south and we broke up into what would become our game (WOFF) and they went on to reform and make Rise of Flight under a new group name.  They already had backing from the IL-2 Stormovick team, hence why ROF has similar aspects to it.

- I developed and coordinated the work of myself and tons of other WWI artists to create one of the most comprehensive and detailed patches for Red Baron 3D called Hells' Angels Super Patch.  I even was able to use the artwork of world famous painter Jim Dietz for my menu backgrounds.  That was a lot of fun having so many artists in on my project.  It was a free release, so it gave many new people that wanted to try modding and gaming a platform to get their artwork out.  I still work with 3 original members on or game now...20 years later. 

- I've done free aircraft paints for many Flightsim.com memebrs for thier Flight Simulator based Cessna's and Pipers and at one point released a whole series of airplane paints for FSX I called "That 70's Plane". All based on the old school look of planes from the late 60's and 70's.  

 

So, games?... Not many, but a lot of simulator stuff.  Although RB3D was very restrictive with only a 256 color palette and a LOT of hex editing required, I never was involved in making a game from scratch.  It's a lot more about artwork and recreating history that drives my work.  It's pretty amazing to me to be able to leaf through a book, and based on a description or a 100+ year old picture to make thar plane and pilot come alive again. 

 

Thanks for letting me tell my story... Have to admit, if it wasn't for the Intellivision, maybe I would never have gotten into PC's...etc.   It's not my primary hobby, I still have many others, but like we all used to build plastic models way back when... Now I made those little models come alive in our little WWI world.  And it's fun.  

 

Cheers!  

 

James.

 

Some FSX plane paints I did and a test shot of color saturation of our WOFF Albatros D.II I am presently working on.  I "painted" something close to 20 aircraft with roughly 2000 individual paints.

 

Edited September 6, 2020 by IMBerzerk

For anyone with Netflix there is a new 6 part series called High Score about the history of video games. I'm on the 2nd episode. Got some interesting stuff that I was totally unaware of. Worth the watch.