Independent Amico Discussion Thread

[Michael Garvey]

45 minutes ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Is this the first time we have seen these renders?

 

 

They keep looking better and better. 

[Steven Pendleton]

Just now, Michael Garvey said:

They keep looking better and better. 

The white controller and the black controller are slightly different sizes in these renders. The black controller is also the same size as the woodgrain controller. It will be great to see the final production models.

[+Swami]

1 hour ago, Juice said:

I don't think this was a very good day for the Amico there is a few negative videos today and Pat's video has gotten an insane amount of comments which means that video is going to stay on the top of the relevancy page when anyone searches intellivision Amico.

 

[MrBeefy]

2 hours ago, Juice said:

I don't think this was a very good day for the Amico there is a few negative videos today and Pat's video has gotten an insane amount of comments which means that video is going to stay on the top of the relevancy page when anyone searches intellivision Amico.

Yeah it looks like not a ton of the trailers got much traction in terms of views. As I said earlier I was disappointed with the Shark Shark one. As someone mentioned in the other thread, Cornhole had 'Conhole' on the start screen. There was also a lot of 'placeholder'/unfinished things. And this is really more of a tech demo but I just noticed on Farkle that the dice on the phone are colored red and when rolled they are white.

 

I'm hoping for a another video that will knock our socks off before the next preorder opens.

[MrBeefy]

1 hour ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Is this the first time we have seen these renders?

 

 

I wonder if the red and purple ones will change some from what they've shown in renders too?

[Steven Pendleton]

42 minutes ago, MrBeefy said:

Yeah it looks like not a ton of the trailers got much traction in terms of views. As I said earlier I was disappointed with the Shark Shark one. As someone mentioned in the other thread, Cornhole had 'Conhole' on the start screen. There was also a lot of 'placeholder'/unfinished things. And this is really more of a tech demo but I just noticed on Farkle that the dice on the phone are colored red and when rolled they are white.

 

I'm hoping for a another video that will knock our socks off before the next preorder opens.

That was me.

 

Yes, it does seem the day did not go as well for IE as they might have hoped. I also am not sure about what time of day it is in other parts of the world, so I imagine some people are still at work or whatever. I got the email about the trailer with all of the games at 0955 JST, so yeah.

 

As for the games, I'll just say my thing again. I'll judge them when they are released and not rip apart IE for what they show now. Anyone who has tested real alpha builds/beta builds/whatever (not EA's "betas", which are actually demos of the full game and not betas since they don't include the entire game for testing like a proper beta does and they are already more or less finished at the point at which they are made available) knows that placeholders/broken stuff/typos/not implemented stuff/other errors will be there. This is to be expected and I'm not worried about it.

 

Upon release, though, anything is fair game and I will judge it accordingly. I think most people around here that have read my thoughts on certain things know that I am an extremely harsh critic with high expectations. Although I'm a realist, I try to remain positive in this case and I don't hide that I am a fan of Tommy and have a lot of respect for him, but for now, as I have said before, the best thing for everyone who does not work for/with IE to do is to wait.

 

I should add that it is perfectly fine to criticize things, as we have the right to do so, but it is still best to wait for launch and then see what becomes of it unless you're actually working for IE developing games/the system itself or one of the 3rd party devs working on a game (or games) for the system.

Edited March 28, 2020 by Steven Pendleton
grammar

[MrBeefy]

5 minutes ago, Steven Pendleton said:

That was me.

 

Yes, it does seem the day did not go as well for IE as they might have hoped. I also am not sure about what time of day it is in other parts of the world, so but I imagine some people are still at work or whatever. I got the email about the trailer with all of the games at 0955 JST, so yeah.

 

As for the games, I'll just say my thing again. I'll judge them when they are released and not rip apart IE for what they show now. Anyone who has tested real alpha builds/beta builds/whatever (not EA's "betas", which are actually demos of the full game and not betas since they don't include the entire game for testing like a proper beta does and they are already more or less finished at the point at which they are made available) knows that placeholders/broken stuff/typos/not implemented stuff/other errors will be there. This is to be expected and I'm not worried about it.

 

Upon release, though, anything is fair game and I will judge it accordingly. I think most people around here that have read my thoughts on certain things know that I am an extremely harsh critic with high expectations. Although I'm a realist, I try to remain positive in this case and I don't hide that I am a fan of Tommy and have a lot of respect for him, but for now, as I have said before, the best thing for everyone who does not work for/with IE to do is to wait.

We are not quite 7 months out from release. When do you think we should start seeing (assuming they show more) footage of complete games?

 

I think it would have helped to have their own sounds and music too in the trailers.

[Steven Pendleton]

3 minutes ago, MrBeefy said:

We are not quite 7 months out from release. When do you think we should start seeing (assuming they show more) footage of complete games?

 

I think it would have helped to have their own sounds and music too in the trailers.

I'm not a dev, so I can't say, but I will go ahead and say "when it's ready". I know that's kind of a cheating answer, but given my lack of knowledge, I'm not the best guy to answer this from a technical point.

 

It would be nice to have some actual in-game sound and stuff, though.

Edited March 28, 2020 by Steven Pendleton

[+Swami]

28 minutes ago, MrBeefy said:

We are not quite 7 months out from release. When do you think we should start seeing (assuming they show more) footage of complete games?

 

I think it would have helped to have their own sounds and music too in the trailers.

I'm no expert but it does seem like they are red-lining a bit on the schedule. I hope they have the time and money to put that 90% of the work that goes into the last 10% with these new projects. Still, they are releasing information a lot earlier than most gaming companies would, but towards a much more niche audience. So, hard to say. Lots of people begging for more.

[Steven Pendleton]

6 minutes ago, Swami said:

I'm no expert but it does seem like they are red-lining a bit on the schedule. I hope they have the time and money to put that 90% of the work that goes into the last 10% with these new projects.

This is probably (definitely) a better answer than my semi-dodging answer. I do seem to remember that these games were stated to/supposed to have shorter development times than what is typical, but I may be wrong.

 

There have been some changes to the hardware that we do know about, like the placement of the buttons. Maybe there are other changes being implemented that we do not know about that could cause stuff to fall behind schedule, and Snafoo is SNAFU right now from what we know.

 

7 minutes ago, Swami said:

Still, they are releasing information a lot earlier than most gaming companies would, but towards a much more niche audience. So, hard to say. Lots of people begging for more.

This is very true, and it is a very welcome difference from most companies, for sure!

Edited March 28, 2020 by Steven Pendleton

[mr_me]

7 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

Yeah it looks like not a ton of the trailers got much traction in terms of views. As I said earlier I was disappointed with the Shark Shark one. As someone mentioned in the other thread, Cornhole had 'Conhole' on the start screen. There was also a lot of 'placeholder'/unfinished things. And this is really more of a tech demo but I just noticed on Farkle that the dice on the phone are colored red and when rolled they are white.

 

I'm hoping for a another video that will knock our socks off before the next preorder opens.

The pack-in reveal videos are unlisted on youtube.  I wouldn't call them game trailer videos.

 

For me, the shark is moving a little slow.  What were you expecting with shark shark.

Edited March 28, 2020 by mr_me

[roots.genoa]

I really like the visual style of Shark! Shark! but since I've never played the original game, I don't know what to expect.

 

I still dislike Astrosmash's art style though, mainly because HD 2D graphics only work for me if they're animated very smoothly like in Cuphead and the Dragon's Trap remake. Effort was clearly made to give it more life than in a Flash-based game, but it still looks a bit 'stiff' to me. Of course it can be improved in the following months, and I'm sure it will look a lot better when player ships get animated - for instance when they fire and change direction.

 

Cornhole looks good but I'm not necessarily a fan of that kind of games. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of opportunities to play with other people these days...

 

But Skiing is probably my most anticipated Amico game with Night Stalker, so I'm OK with that pack-in line up. However, I have no idea if it these trailers will convince early adopters to preorder. It's obviously more exciting for retrogamers in North America, but I find hard to interest my French readers. 2d gen consoles were not very popular in Europe and especially in France; my big article about the Amico was a success but the latest trailer with 23 games was mostly ignored. 😕 Once again, at my web site and other, bigger ones as well, most people were wondering "who would buy a system to play mobile games?" 😑

Edited March 28, 2020 by roots.genoa

[Steven Pendleton]

13 minutes ago, roots.genoa said:

Skiing is probably my most anticipated Amico game with Night Stalker

From what we have seen so far, these are the games that I am most interested in as well. Earthworm Jim is still maybe #1, but that hasn't been shown yet aside from Jim's running animation.

 

I was just thinking that if Skiing was available on another system I'd go buy it right now. Of course, it isn't, so no choice but to wait.

[Michael Garvey]

Watch "A Fat Guy Talks to People - Episode 1: Tommy Tallarico" on YouTube

 

At about the 1 hour mark Tommy states that most games take 6 to 9 months (maybe a year) to create.

 

So even if they had to restart from scratch ALL the current games they've shown why wouldn't they have a decent chance of making the deadline in October?

 

I for one had to re-train my mind to understand that these are not big budget titles or even the jrpg niche games I like.

 

These are simple fun games that they can crank out and produce in relatively quick development times.

 

My thoughts on the matter anyway.

Edited March 28, 2020 by Michael Garvey

[Michael Garvey]

Speaking about development times and companies revealing things.

 

Wouldn't it be cool if there was a page on the game that was a facts sheet about it?

 

Not only listing the people who worked on it but when it was first started, how long did it take to create, early screen shots compared to later ones, what game engine they used, etc.

 

I for one would geek out on that.  Itd be like those channels that play music - often they provide additional information on the side which you never knew about the song or artist. 

[mr_me]

8 minutes ago, Michael Garvey said:

Speaking about development times and companies revealing things.

 

Wouldn't it be cool if there was a page on the game that was a facts sheet about it?

 

Not only listing the people who worked on it but when it was first started, how long did it take to create, early screen shots compared to later ones, what game engine they used, etc.

 

I for one would geek out on that.  Itd be like those channels that play music - often they provide additional information on the side which you never knew about the song or artist. 

Have you seen any of the GDC post mortem presentations.  They're fascinating.

[Michael Garvey]

7 minutes ago, mr_me said:

Have you seen any of the GDC post mortem presentations.  They're fascinating.

I haven't but I think I just found a new hobby

 

Thanks for the recommendation. 

[MrBeefy]

2 hours ago, mr_me said:

The pack-in reveal videos are unlisted on youtube.  I wouldn't call them game trailer videos.

 

For me, the shark is moving a little slow.  What were you expecting with shark shark.

In case you didn't know these are unlisted and put together. 

 

 

I thought it looked slow too. I think obscuring the view will be a great way to mess with players but should have been held for a longer trailer.

[MrBeefy]

1 hour ago, roots.genoa said:

I really like the visual style of Shark! Shark! but since I've never played the original game, I don't know what to expect.

 

I still dislike Astrosmash's art style though, mainly because HD 2D graphics only work for me if they're animated very smoothly like in Cuphead and the Dragon's Trap remake. Effort was clearly made to give it more life than in a Flash-based game, but it still looks a bit 'stiff' to me. Of course it can be improved in the following months, and I'm sure it will look a lot better when player ships get animated - for instance when they fire and change direction.

 

Cornhole looks good but I'm not necessarily a fan of that kind of games. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of opportunities to play with other people these days...

 

But Skiing is probably my most anticipated Amico game with Night Stalker, so I'm OK with that pack-in line up. However, I have no idea if it these trailers will convince early adopters to preorder. It's obviously more exciting for retrogamers in North America, but I find hard to interest my French readers. 2d gen consoles were not very popular in Europe and especially in France; my big article about the Amico was a success but the latest trailer with 23 games was mostly ignored. 😕 Once again, at my web site and other, bigger ones as well, most people were wondering "who would buy a system to play mobile games?" 😑

Yeah as a preorder push I'm not sure this is what they wanted. I like the looks of Skiing and Shark Shark too. And the uphill battle for getting those casuals will be why do I need to put my phone down to play this instead. It will be exciting as the October release gets closer.

[MrBeefy]

1 hour ago, Michael Garvey said:

Speaking about development times and companies revealing things.

 

Wouldn't it be cool if there was a page on the game that was a facts sheet about it?

 

Not only listing the people who worked on it but when it was first started, how long did it take to create, early screen shots compared to later ones, what game engine they used, etc.

 

I for one would geek out on that.  Itd be like those channels that play music - often they provide additional information on the side which you never knew about the song or artist. 

That would be pretty neat to see how long etc.a game too.

[+Tommy Tallarico]

11 hours ago, Juice said:

I don't think this was a very good day for the Amico there is a few negative videos today and Pat's video has gotten an insane amount of comments which means that video is going to stay on the top of the relevancy page when anyone searches intellivision Amico.

 

In my ongoing burden and mission to ensure things in this thread are corrected...

 

Actually it was the exact opposite.  It was an AMAZING day and we received thousands of pre-order and mailing list sign-ups.  So a HUGE win once again for us.

By "insane" amount of comments you mean about 300.  With a percentage of those telling them to give it a rest and they look bad (from their own fans) or a good majority coming from the same 4 taco blowhards that got banned from the Amico threads because they were incapable of following the simple forum rules.  Y'know... the same guys who constantly bad mouth the AA forums, create fake accounts on YT and declare to the outside world that I have the mods in my pocket and they are protecting me.  Anyone here like to question that?  Please do so.

 

I don't know... I still kinda like our 62,000 views with only 150 dislikes. 

 

All of those pack-in videos yesterday were unlisted except the last one and it came out at 9pm eastern on a Friday night.  For the roughly 3,000 people who saw it... only 16 dislikes.  Again... I like our odds.  We weren't expecting a ton of traffic on any of those (especially the last one as it was just a recap of the unlisted videos that went our earlier throughout the day) as our pre-order numbers are already way over expectations and we still have 2 major days next week before it opens.  We have probably spent about $100 on advertising over the past week (boosted a post on Facebook & Instagram to ensure all of our followers saw it).  Again... absolutely off the chart numbers.  Imagine how it will all be multiplied when we start our multi-million dollar marketing campaign to families.

Pat & Ian continue to commit YouTube suicide as all other YouTubers have started attacking THEM for what is pretty obvious to anyone who is not a fanboy of theirs.

Here are just a few examples just from our GREAT day yesterday...
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If folks aren't aware and you don't want to watch the videos (I'd recommend the top one from Tipster as it has the most relevant and detailed info), it all started when they gave wrong information about Amico on one of their podcasts and I politely and respectfully corrected the bad information via Twitter.

 

Their fragile and immature egos took that as "criticizing" them and from that point on they trash me and machine every chance they get by continuing the lie that I attacked them and continuing to get information about Amico WRONG because (as everyone knows) they are too lazy to actually do any kind of research on the things they are talking about. Much easier to just sit around with all their stuffed animals and spout off whatever comes to their elitist and biased brains. I've asked them repeatedly to just talk with me about the system (either on or off air) or to just interview me on their show and ask me any and all the tough questions that they complain that no one else does (most folks will ask me the tough questions and I've answer them... but they always leave that out as it doesn't fit into their narrative). Of course... they refuse to talk to me. People should ask themselves why that is. I guess they don't feel they are able to match wits with me... especially considering how much they talk out of their asses and refuse to listen to anyone giving them proper information about the console. The entire thing is a rouse because they think that the more they crap on it the more money they will make on YouTube. They've already admitted it on air and those clips are referenced in some of the videos above. They talk about other people being "shills" yet they purposely trash us just so they can make an extra $10 a week on their YT channel. Pathetic. 

 

If anyone is at all interested in seeing the unlisted video response I posted to them (and showing the timeline of their lies) you can view the very detailed video here: 

 

 

Anyway... so yeah... we had a GREAT day yesterday.

 

 

 

[+Tommy Tallarico]

35 minutes ago, MrBeefy said:

Yeah as a preorder push I'm not sure this is what they wanted.

No need to worry about us so much.  We know what we're doing. 

 

[+Tommy Tallarico]

2 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

I was just thinking that if Skiing was available on another system I'd go buy it right now. Of course, it isn't, so no choice but to wait.

 

Now... multiple that by about 40 in the first few months of release... and now ya got something special.  

 

Every game won't be for everyone of course... but we have only shown approximately half of the games we're working on.  Some incredible things on the horizon.

 

 

[+Tommy Tallarico]

2 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

I still dislike Astrosmash's art style though, mainly because HD 2D graphics only work for me if they're animated very smoothly like in Cuphead and the Dragon's Trap remake. Effort was clearly made to give it more life than in a Flash-based game, but it still looks a bit 'stiff' to me. Of course it can be improved in the following months, and I'm sure it will look a lot better when player ships get animated - for instance when they fire and change direction.

The Astrosmash art style (like anything art or music related) isn't for everyone and is always subjective.  That being said.. you are correct.  This is a very early demo that isn't even 25% completed.  When we showed it the first time it was about 10% complete and there are noticeable differences between the first and second times it was shown.  Correct... haven't animated the ships or how they will fire the shots, etc.  It's being worked on by some of the Earthworm Jim team so rest assured... we get it even more amazing. 

 

 

[mr_me]

1 hour ago, MrBeefy said:

...

I thought it looked slow too. I think obscuring the view will be a great way to mess with players but should have been held for a longer trailer.

I don't think Amico Shark Shark looks slow.  Only the shark should at least be as fast as you to start.  When it comes on the screen you really want to get out of it's way.  At more difficult levels the shark gets faster and hungrier.  It's also agile and turn on a dime.

 

What's the inkblot about; is it the end of a round?

 

1 hour ago, MrBeefy said:

Yeah as a preorder push I'm not sure this is what they wanted. I like the looks of Skiing and Shark Shark too. And the uphill battle for getting those casuals will be why do I need to put my phone down to play this instead. It will be exciting as the October release gets closer.

As you know the angle with Amico is multiplayer.  Couples who want to play games together, parents who want to play with their kids. 

 

Edit:

I should have added that there's a fair point there.  In today's world people have a lot of options for entertainment and different tastes too.

Edited March 28, 2020 by mr_me