Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

4 hours ago, GrudgeQ said:

Sounds good on the surface but I already know how this is going to work out: "Happy Birthday Grudge! You Get a Free Game!". "Thanks Amico, let me open the store and get my free game... Hmm already purchased, already purchased, already purchased, oh what about... already purchased, already purchased, already purchased...."

same for me !! I’ll have to control myself and not buy a game a month before my birthday !

Hmmmmmmm ..Maybe Snafoo will be the 7h pack in ( if there is a 7th) 

1 hour ago, Steven Pendleton said:

You're backwards here!

 

A free game on birthdays is awesome! If the FE launches/gets shipped on April 3rd, that means I'll hopefully have a free launch game since my birthday is on the 7th. Hopefully it makes it to me in time!

 

Anyway, yeah, I played the Breakout demo for a while. I wish there was more to it, but that's what demos are for, so I guess that's a good sign.

Nice. I have the same birthday. 

2 hours ago, Cranker said:

I want it all !! Lol 

Assuming I get 6 extra controllers and there are no charging stations at launch, would I have to charge them all on the Amico ? 

 

 

You can use a usb charger.

18 hours ago, IntelliMission said:

I didn't watch the event. Can anyone here post the most important things that were said outside the two Youtube videos? Lode Runner, Bump N Jump... (I know one of these things was the Breakout demo).

I quote myself to see if someone has an answer for that. Anyone can give a quick brief of what Tommy announced outside the two videos?

Playdate Digital was announced as a developer of a series of children's educational games for Amico.  Lode Runner, Burgertime, and Bumpnjump were mentioned before but Amico Locknchase might be new.  There will soon be another video showing the amico user interface.

Watched the latest video Saturday and noticed a couple of things as they've been evolving...

1) certain games seem to be a lot more "busy" graphics or camera wise, especially Breakout and Missile Command. Borders on distracting IMO. 

2) Bi-planes screen zooming in/out too often IMO. Rather see more of a static, zoomed out perspective on such a game. Of course, when a plane appears from either side of the screen, camera would quickly zoom back out - just seems there's too much camera play going on. 

I must be getting too old for some of this stuff as the highlight of the video for me was at the very end, when Baseball was showcased. Loved the zoomed out perspective so you can see the entire field, and the game genuinely looked fun in that 'good old fashioned' way!     

5 hours ago, Alpha82 said:

Haven’t played Breakout yet but very much looking forward to it but I’ve got a bad back most days I’m good for one lengthy activity a day today was rearranging my room to replace a shade tomorrow the plan is Breakout 

It's good. I like it. I wish there was more to it, but I suppose I'll have to wait until launch.

5 hours ago, Utopia said:

Nice. I have the same birthday. 

The chances of at least 2 people in a group having the same birthday are actually higher than you'd expect! Hopefully they make it to us quickly once they ship!

14 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Check it out!  Let me know if you have any questions and what you think the product should be called!

Someone in the video comment section mentioned “Intellibrations”, seems perfect to me.

14 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

There is even an epic life sized statue garden downtown outside the history museum!

Hopefully they will be doing the annual Northeast RV show in Feb (probably not this year though) at the Eastern States Expo Grounds I’ll have to go check that out.   As I mentioned before we go every year, but we have never gone downtown.  The RV show is in West Springfield so we never cross the river over to Springfield proper. 

6 hours ago, Cranker said:

Hmmmmmmm ..Maybe Snafoo will be the 7h pack in ( if there is a 7th) 

You never know.  Wouldn't that be something?

7 hours ago, Cranker said:

I want it all !! Lol 

Assuming I get 6 extra controllers and there are no charging stations at launch, would I have to charge them all on the Amico ? 

 

 

5 hours ago, mr_me said:

You can use a usb charger.

@mr_me is correct but I just wanted to add the controller has a USB C port on the side, so one of those multi-port USB chargers (I like Anker and Ravpower brands) and a handful of USB C cables will let you charge a gaggle of controllers

Is it just me or did the back of the Amico change? The USBc port seems to now be able to move data now. I recall that Tommy said it was power only for a long time. There were two USB3 ports as well. The delay may have at least brought us more capable expansion.  No arguments here!

My previous posting of the videos didn't seem to stick. Odd. But not going to complain. More articulate people than I have given there thoughts. To some up - So far, I like what I see. A good portion of the games will end up on my Amico. Even the games that I'm not so sure of, I think that Tommy and company will be able to pull out the right mix of gameplay and graphics in the end. Currently no small children in the household, so the educational stuff isn't for us, but for the extended family.. i could see it.

I think you have the name already for the app. Our Celebrations. My Celebrations. or just plain Celebrations. As long as "Talk like a Pirate day" gets some fun interactivity. I wonder if you can make the Amico smell like Pancakes for "National Pancake day"? "Floppy disk day" is on the 20th. The startup noise alone would be amazing. Watch a video to one of those people who program diskette drives to make music. That will get you. If you haven't seen any, search imperial march floppy drive on youtube. I could go on. With all the individual fun days that there are, I'm sure the whole company could help in the design process for those days. I can think of at least one or two in the forum here that would be right up their ally as far as graphics design go. I'm also sure a good portion of us would love to help out in some way with them. I can see the Amico end up with a different start up screen every day of the year. Some days. Multiple.

6 minutes ago, woobman said:

Is it just me or did the back of the Amico change? The USBc port seems to now be able to move data now. I recall that Tommy said it was power only for a long time. There were two USB3 ports as well. The delay may have at least brought us more capable expansion.  No arguments here!

 

 

The back of the Amico did change. It used to have the two USB ports but dropped them in favor of 1 USB-C port. This makes perfect sense to me, and might have shaved a few pennies of the cost of production. The other big change was that the internal storage jumped from 16gb to 32gb. I'll be curious to know what other changes happened throughout the design process.

I really like how the HW video spent time talking about this machine was built to last. My only concern would be the battery in the controllers. They will fail one day, even if it's years from now (I have a 10 year old iPod and it's battery still holds a charge for a few hours of use, but it too will one day die). I wonder if there will be a way to replace the batteries.

Overall, I'm still blown away by the incredible value of Amico. $250 and you get the console, two full controllers, six free games, and a free game each year on your birthday. You get a curated store of quality games which will come with no IAP or paid DLC. This thing is literally solving all of the problems I've had with gaming over the last decade.

Amico All Access (with Tommy) repost

Easter Egg Shirt:

1 hour ago, GrudgeQ said:

 

@mr_me is correct but I just wanted to add the controller has a USB C port on the side, so one of those multi-port USB chargers (I like Anker and Ravpower brands) and a handful of USB C cables will let you charge a gaggle of controllers

Nice ! Any link to one you like best that will charge 6 controllers ? That’s a better idea than having 3 charging stations maybe ? As in it will take up less space ?

1 hour ago, vongruetz said:

a free game each year on your birthday.

Was this a recent announcement? First time I see this.

8 minutes ago, IntelliMission said:

 

Was this a recent announcement? First time I see this.

Tommy talks about it in the latest video.

55 minutes ago, Cranker said:

Nice ! Any link to one you like best that will charge 6 controllers ? That’s a better idea than having 3 charging stations maybe ? As in it will take up less space ?

New Wave Toys has this one I charge 6 mini arcade machines at once with for $60.

Its awesome!

1 hour ago, Cranker said:

Nice ! Any link to one you like best that will charge 6 controllers ? That’s a better idea than having 3 charging stations maybe ? As in it will take up less space ?

I personally like Anker and Ravpower brands you are just looking for a 6 port USB charger like this: https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Charger-PowerPort-iPhone-Galaxy/dp/B00P936188

or this: https://www.amazon.com/Charger-RAVPower-Charging-Multiple-Compatible/dp/B07SNBS395

$25 to $35 bucks for these typically and then you would need 6 USB C charging cables (short or long depends on if you want to charge as you play or just make your own 'dock' near the TV)

EDIT @wolfy62 charger is way cooler than these

1 hour ago, woobman said:

Is it just me or did the back of the Amico change? The USBc port seems to now be able to move data now. I recall that Tommy said it was power only for a long time. There were two USB3 ports as well. The delay may have at least brought us more capable expansion.  No arguments here!

 

 

The USB-C port could always move data, but the dual USB-A port was charge only. We got rid of the charge-only ports for a couple of reasons:

1. We thought having the USB-A ports being charge only would be confusing, and in keeping with our SAFE goalposts (Simple, in this case), we try to remove as much confusion from the user experience as possible. 

2. With the cost savings from removing the dual USB port, we could upgrade to 32GB of storage... a much more useful feature, we think!

2 minutes ago, GrudgeQ said:

I personally like Anker and Ravpower brands you are just looking for a 6 port USB charger like this: https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Charger-PowerPort-iPhone-Galaxy/dp/B00P936188

or this: https://www.amazon.com/Charger-RAVPower-Charging-Multiple-Compatible/dp/B07SNBS395

$25 to $35 bucks for these typically and then you would need 6 USB charging cables (short or long depends on if you want to charge as you play or just make your own 'dock' near the TV)

 

EDIT @wolfy62 charger is way cooler than these

Wouldn't It Be Something^(tm) if the extra controllers came with a short USB charging cable?!   (In other words, don't buy extra cables just yet, unless you want long ones.)

6 minutes ago, RxScram said:

Wouldn't It Be Something^(tm) if the extra controllers came with a short USB charging cable?!   (In other words, don't buy extra cables just yet, unless you want long ones.)

Putting needed accessories in the box, what sort of crazy talk is that?!? You should follow the new Apple motto: "charge lots and don't put a charger in the box" (not!, that would be awesome if a cable works out in the final packaging).