Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

17 hours ago, insertclevernamehere said:

I have a game question for TT.  I'm a fan of having physical copies and I know at least some of the games will get a physical release as well as digital.  Will all the games get a physical release or just the more major ones? Moon Patrol I'm guessing, or should I say hoping, will get a physical release but I understand if some of the smaller games are digital only.  If so, is there a plan to compile those smaller games in theme packs for a physical release at a later date and essentially that way, everything will eventually get a physical release?  Apologies for typing a whole paragraph for one question.  I'm too verbose for my own good.  And that's after I edited it down too!

what you mean physical release??

what would be the physical support?

20 hours ago, mr_me said:

If you have your first finger on the top side button and your middle finger on the bottom side button, you can press them both at the same time.

 

Trying to use left and right side buttons for two button games is awkward, so the horizontal orientation will be the way to go.  It's still reversible for left or right handed use.

It's so interesting to me how many different ways people hold the original controller.  The way you described above is definitely a popular way.  I actually never held it like that.  I'm a bit weird as I tend to hold it facing downwards and on it's side and use my left thumb for the disc and my thumb for both buttons on the same side.  I'm right-handed.  My brother holds it like that as well.  At one of the conventions we watched a bunch of people play the original machine and we saw about 4 different ways that people held the controller.  Pretty interesting.

 

19 hours ago, insertclevernamehere said:

I have a game question for TT.  I'm a fan of having physical copies and I know at least some of the games will get a physical release as well as digital.  Will all the games get a physical release or just the more major ones? Moon Patrol I'm guessing, or should I say hoping, will get a physical release but I understand if some of the smaller games are digital only.  If so, is there a plan to compile those smaller games in theme packs for a physical release at a later date and essentially that way, everything will eventually get a physical release?  Apologies for typing a whole paragraph for one question.  I'm too verbose for my own good.  And that's after I edited it down too!

Initially the plan is just to do the more major ones.  But if physical media becomes a huge hit... there's no reason why would couldn't do more... or, for the smaller games do "packs" like you mentioned.  For example... we could do a "puzzle" pack or "word games" pack or "brain teasers" pack, etc.
 

18 hours ago, Lathe26 said:

What's the time marker for the motherboard's appearance?

For the "official"record.  That particular board is about a month old and was just the board.  No chips, etc.  It's not the final one.  We had some made up to test a few things and the team wanted to surprise me by doing it in red (because they know it's my favorite color).   

18 hours ago, Lathe26 said:

Wow, your own parents won't let you run your own company?  Talk about strict.

HAHAHAHAHHAHA!!!

Whoops!  Cover blown.

That typo is too good not to keep it.  I can't possibly edit that.  Hahaha!

 

18 hours ago, Swami said:

Any of these early 2000s, basically unreleased, homebrews or unreleased 80s games up for re-imagining with the 2020 2.5D treatment? Granted, a couple on the list are not so great, but just included all reasonable contenders.

Old Skool, The Lost Caves of Kroz, Hotel Bunny, King of the Mountain, Spina the Bee, Adventures of Tron, Blow Out , Deep Pockets, Hard Hat, Land Battle, League Of Light, Magic Carousel, Robot Rubble, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Scarfinger, Space Cadet, Super NFL Football , Takeover, Yogi's Frustration

 

Yeah... we're open to anything as long as it's fun and hits all of our Commandments. 

"Beat 'em & Eat 'em" and "Space C*nt"  .... not so much.



 

11 hours ago, Swami said:

Thank for the in-depth explanation. I watched like four hours of your interviews yesterday. One thing I was unclear on that is a big part of the focus is the motion control games. It sounds like you are going the Wii Motion Plus route without the sensor bar that allows positioning on the screen. I’m not sure how necessary that ever was for motion sports games on the Wii. I believe the original Wii remote had just the positioning sensor bar and the accelerometer and they added two gyroscopes to the Motion Plus. Can the  gyroscope in a cell phone/amicontroller replace the sensor bar for motion control games like bowling and corn hole or was the accelerometer alone enough for the first Wii Sports games like bowling and Tennis. Phones have another device that measures altitude, as well. I was also wondering if the Amicontroller has an altitude device, even if it may be just for 0 to 8 feet. 

Yes... the gyro & accelerometer is all you need for games like bowling, cornhole, etc.  The IR bar was so you could use the Wii controller as a pointer and to measure distance from the screen.  We actually don't need that.  Also important to note... Nintendo was sued and LOST because of that.  $10M!

https://fortune.com/2017/09/01/nintendo-wii-lawsuit/
 

We don't have anything extra that measures altitude.  Haven't had a need for anything like that so far.

 

9 hours ago, IMBerzerk said:

I couldn't resist... there's a little shade tossed in this one... lol.

 

 

Hahahhaha!   Perfect!!!!!!!!

The shades really made it!

9 hours ago, Papy said:

 

I'm not sure how this placement may harm the original games. If we hold the controller horizontally, we still have a direct access to three buttons (for right-handed people : left index on upper left button, left thumb on bottom left button, right index on upper right button, right thumb on disk, right pinky to hold the controller in place) and the "keypad" is still accessible. So games like B-17 Bomber or Bomb Squad which use all three buttons are still playable. I agree the feeling will be different compared to the original controller, but the feeling would have been different even with the old button placement anyway.

 

Personally, I feel holding the controller horizontally (I'm using my Flashback controller and imagining the new buttons to give me an idea) seems a bit more ergonomic than holding it vertically. First, the hands are farther apart, which relax the pectoralis major. Second, if I try to hold the controller vertically and flat in front of me (left hand for buttons, right hand for disk), the thumb of my left hand naturally falls into a higher position than the index and middle finger. In order to correct that, either I tilt the controller and hold it almost sideways, which is obviously not good to see the screen, either I put stress on my left thumb to put it in a lower position, which can become tiresome, or last solution is I put my left hand more to the back of the controller and then tilt my wrist, wich put a slight tension on my forearm.

 

tldr : Even though I never had a problem with the original controller, I guess I will be among the people who will hold the new controller horizontally because I feel it will be more comfortable. Of course, I'll know that for sure only in 383 days (damn 2020 for being a leap year and making me wait one more day).

 

OK. Now I have to listen to the the 3 hours (!) video...

 

Yeah... that's what we were finding as well.

It's funny... when Paul & I were discussing it I made the decision to split the buttons I said... "The AtariAge folks are gonna kill us!"   Hahaha!

Good to know everyone is keeping an open mind.  I was worried there may be a revolt. 

 

2 hours ago, vprette said:

what you mean physical release??

what would be the physical support?

Info to be released at E3 next June.  I can't say because of Patents... but there WILL be some type of physical media products. 

29 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

It's so interesting to me how many different ways people hold the original controller.  The way you described above is definitely a popular way.  I actually never held it like that.  I'm a bit weird as I tend to hold it facing downwards and on it's side and use my left thumb for the disc and my thumb for both buttons on the same side.  I'm right-handed.  My brother holds it like that as well.  At one of the conventions we watched a bunch of people play the original machine and we saw about 4 different ways that people held the controller.  Pretty interesting.

 

Yeah I knew people that held the intellivision controller like you.  But in a game of Intellivision Sea Battle, two fingers beats one thumb.  : )

------------

With the horizontal Amico controller and shoulder buttons there is another change that happens.  Rather than one hand disc and one hand buttons, it's one hand one button, one hand disc and button.  Another reason to use the touchscreen rather than buttons with the new layout.

The 10 Commandments of Game Design for Amico.  (updated from that poster from the SmashJT video).





 

Tommy those a great commandments, as long as they are stuck to, Amico will be an amazing experience.  My opinion, put these in stone and hit anyone who tries to break them with the stone commandments!

Can you elaborate on #4? How does the Intellivison Quality scale work? Can you cite classic intellivison games that would fit on that scale? 

I honestly wish all game companies would have had this types of commandments, we would have to ensure soo much less garbage.. at least Amico is going the right direction.

8 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Info to be released at E3 next June.  I can't say because of Patents... but there WILL be some type of physical media products. 

 

 

as a collector.... I did like you before, now Im in love

8 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Info to be released at E3 next June.  I can't say because of Patents... but there WILL be some type of physical media products. 

 

 

it would be great if there were some physical media in stores at launch..there was nothing cooler than going to the store and buying a new system and picking out the first games you wanted to buy with it 

9 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

It's funny... when Paul & I were discussing it I made the decision to split the buttons I said... "The AtariAge folks are gonna kill us!"   Hahaha!

I believe you have won the trust of a lot of people, so no pitchforks.

Surely none here would cast any stones.  

Thou shalt be forgiven if a Commandment gets broken. Just need to kneel down in front of the AtariAge shrine and say 5 Hail Albert's.   🤣

On 10/3/2019 at 10:11 AM, Tommy Tallarico said:

...

 

I had a long discussion with resident Intellivision expert Paul... and we both agreed that moving the buttons may harm some of the original games... but it was worth the trade being able to access both when holding horizontally.  Even original games like Baseball feel better horizontally because the landscape mode of the screen is easier to represent all the players on field.

 

Also... small hands couldn't even hit the 1st shoulder button in horizontal mode. Moving them closer to the edges makes a big difference.  It also enables a 3rd input by holding BOTH buttons down at the same time.  Something that was pretty much impossible in the original setup.

 

When holding vertically (like our beloved original) you don't feel the button in your palm (as we've inset them more into the controller) and disable them to ensure no accidental button hits.

 

Please discuss!!!

How did the vertical controller test in your focus groups?  Unlike the touchscreen, shoulder button placement has to fit either vertical or horizontal orientation; can't be both.

This is the Level 857 interview with Tommy about the Amico with the audio fixed. They broke it into 3 segments for Youtube:
Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

On 10/3/2019 at 8:02 AM, Tommy Tallarico said:

So... for example... when I play Moon Patrol in vertical mode (most people play horizontal, but I personally like vertical).  It's actually much easier and quicker to hit the screen to shoot and jump (screen input split into 2 halves of the screen... top & bottom) as opposed to the side buttons.  You can get off way more "shots".  You quickly forget about tactile buttons.  Having a "real" tactile disc for motion and the screen for shooting is really cool actually.  It's one of those things that may be hard to imagine... but when you play it... you get used to it immediately and find that its actually more fun, forgiving and quick to use the screen to shoot because you're tapping rapidly as opposed to waiting for the tactile button mechanism to engage and disengage.  Which of course doesn't take long... but it's just "quicker" when there's nothing there except your finger and a surface.

Maybe this is just the old school Intellivision guy in me, but I also prefer playing Amico Moon Patrol it in vertical mode.  And with the touchscreen split into two halves, you don't have to look at it to tap it - it's basically two VERY LARGE and responsive buttons.  Shoot and jump.  Of course the side buttons are an option too.  And that's one of the things we've been working with developers on.. to encourage them to utilize the controller to the fullest.  Take advantage of its additional features.  Allow multiple ways to control games.

Just to be clear can we use the controller either vertical or horizontal for every game or will it be up to the game maker? Thank you very much. 

8 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

The 10 Commandments of Game Design for Amico.  (updated from that poster from the SmashJT video).





 

On last ding at Wii game developers, regarding rule 4: For a game like EA's Boogie, that was promoted as being one kind of game and got a lot of critical praise, but then turned out to be something very different when it was released, and got mostly panned, I'm assuming your group's supervision would pull it even if it was in the beta stage? 

13 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Yeah... we're open to anything as long as it's fun and hits all of our Commandments. 

"Beat 'em & Eat 'em" and "Space C*nt"  .... not so much.



 

And no weird sex scenes in the Dungeons and Dragons remakes like they do nowadays.

3 hours ago, mr_me said:

How did the vertical controller test in your focus groups?  Unlike the touchscreen, shoulder button placement has to fit either vertical or horizontal orientation; can't be both.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Do you mean that when holding the controller vertically then only two buttons are accessible?

25 minutes ago, Papy said:

I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Do you mean that when holding the controller vertically then only two buttons are accessible?

It's not a matter of being accessible; they should be comfortable.  For example, an intellivision controller has four side buttons but only two can be used comfortably.  Cartridges that use all three side buttons are awkward (e.g. Vectron, Bomb Squad, World Cup Soccer). 

The Amico controller effectively has two shoulder buttons horizontally.  Vertically, both Tommy and Paul commented they don't even bother with the buttons, using the touchpad instead.