jaybird3rd

Since you posted this here in the Q&A thread, is there anything in particular that you wanted to say or ask about it? Setting aside for the moment my other issues with "Atari" (their multiple delays, their lack of communication, their involvement in multiple lawsuits and other shady business dealings, etc.), one of my main problems with the "VCS" is that they seem to be relying heavily on an amalgamation of existing third-party services and offerings—Antstream, AirConsole, Game Jolt, etc.—to fill out their game library and their feature list. As others have pointed out, all of these services are already available for a multitude of other platforms and devices, so their inclusion with the "VCS" does nothing to differentiate it. The core components of the "VCS", such as its commodity PC hardware and its Linux-based OS, are similarly generic and "off-the-shelf." About all that is unique about it is the plastic case—which others seem excited about, though I never particularly liked it—and the controllers, and even these were the work of outside contractors. This whole approach strikes me as haphazard and lazy. "Atari" is doing as little of the engineering work themselves as possible, and because they went the crowdfunding route, they don't even have to do it entirely with their own money. Their approach also strikes me as unfocused, since they don't appear to have a clearly-defined vision of who their target audience is. The result is a "platform" that is not really a coherent platform in its own right; it's a loose collection of borrowed bits and pieces "flying in formation," aimed at everybody in general and nobody in particular. Other than serving as a minimal effort to fulfill their obligations to their backers, I see no reason for the "VCS" to exist. If "Atari" were to ship their controllers in a decorative box, along with a self-booting USB flash drive that has the exact same distro of Linux and the exact same collection of third-party applications already installed, their users could get the same experience with the PCs they already have in their homes. (It would probably be a better experience, since even an inexpensive consumer PC would likely be cheaper and a better performer than the low-end hardware that the "VCS" is using.)

Thank you. I haven't had to do much moderating in here recently, but I've been preoccupied with interviews today and haven't had the chance to check in very often. I would only direct everyone back to my earlier post: it's better to ignore the critics than to needlessly antagonize them.

Thanks for bumping it, and thanks once again for the great work you've done with your replacement labels! I'm been enjoying mine ever since I finished re-labeling (most of) my collection, and I'm still very pleased at how nice they look!

I've moved this to Auction Central.

I know what you mean. I was already aware of the game, of course, but I didn't know that it was also called "cornhole" until I heard some of my students talking about it. The ACL has only been around since 2015, so the game was apparently developed into a professional sport relatively recently. The name was probably chosen because the bags were originally filled with corn kernels, but I'm sure the fact that it's also a bit of a double entendre helps to make it more memorable.

Yes! I mentioned it in another thread, but two students at my university won the ACL's College Cornhole Doubles National Championship last year. I agree with Brett Weiss's latest video (and thanks to @Intellivision Master for posting it!): it would be a mistake to downplay the Cornhole license, because the game is bigger than most may realize.

I agree! Go ahead and finish it.

Yes, it's a real thing! Two students at my alma mater won the ACL's College Cornhole Doubles National Championship last year.

@re-atari: I've granted edit permissions to Post #4 as you requested.

When exactly did this happen? After a quick search of the Q&A thread (where any such "switch" surely would have been discussed), the closest thing to a "confirmation" that I could find was this post: That's hardly a "switch of the target audience"; that's extending their marketing outreach to one of several potential audiences. Just because they decide to start marketing to one group doesn't mean that they have to stop marketing to all the other groups.

The best response to the day-to-day "mud-slinging" is to avoid it as much as possible. Unfortunately, much of the anti-Amico "criticism" is tantamount to sealioning, a hostile behavior which looks like "simple question-asking" or "expressions of concern" but is specifically intended to grind you down and to sour positive, good-natured discussions; see these links for more about what sealioning is, and how to recognize it. People who behave in this way—and are called on it—will often take the stance that the target(s) "just can't take the criticism," but if this is what is meant by "criticism," then nobody should have to take it; it is an inherently dishonest practice which would be toxic to any community. As I've said before, attempting to engage at all with these people is a losing proposition. What everyone chooses to do outside of AtariAge is their own business, but I think we would all do better not to respond or reciprocate or even to link to their videos and posts, and I certainly don't want to see any of that drama brought in here. When the Amico is ultimately released, much of this current negativity will likely disappear on its own anyway; having failed to "bring down" the Amico, they'll simply move on to someone else's idea that they can amuse themselves trying to tear down. For our own good, especially in these times, let's instead spend our time and energy on constructive activities, and remain focused on the positive.

That's Pat's and Ian's video, which has already been addressed elsewhere. Put briefly, they're misinterpreting the language in the Intellivision Entertainment job posting, which is for additional hardware/firmware engineers to work on peripherals and accessories for 2021/2022. The references to "working on the Amico console" were intended to refer to the system as a whole; even if one were to read that differently, it only takes a few minutes to find that they've been demonstrating the hardware, in various stages of development, since March. To look at that job description and to conclude that "they do not have a viable prototype at all" is to read way too much into it; you need to dig a little deeper than one video from a single source (which we already know to be biased against the Amico) before making claims of this kind.

Judging from their commercials, the name is properly pronounced "Wicko," which is the way I always pronounced it: (And yes, I'm a big fan of their controllers, too. The joystick I used the most with our Atari 800 as a kid was the Wico "Bat"—I still have them, too, albeit with replacement cables. I like their trackballs as well; I have the Atari and TI 99/4A versions.)

Not to derail the topic, but how do you reach that conclusion from that job listing? The job description states that the candidate will be "working with the lead firmware and hardware engineers" and will "report to the lead firmware engineer," so clearly their lead engineers haven't left. (Some have concluded from this listing that the Amico hardware/firmware must be unfinished, but I think that's an unwarranted conclusion also.)

For whatever it's worth, I don't think it's fair to disparage these independent developers. They may be small, but we've seen plenty of instances where individuals and small independent publishers, even those just starting out, have produced high-quality games. For evidence of that, one need look no further than the homebrew programmers right here on AtariAge, or publishers like Songbird Productions. All that matters is whether the games are good, and whether they and the platform make sense as an overall value proposition. I'm also perplexed by the continuing comparisons to the Amico. The Amico and the VCS are both video game consoles, but that's about where the comparison ends: the business model, the target audience, and just about everything else about them are very different. The Atari VCS also started at least a year earlier than the Amico, and as you say, the Amico has had much more to show in that time.

You're welcome. As you say, if anyone has any COVID-19 data that would be interesting and helpful, they are more than welcome to post it in the appropriate areas of the forums; it just doesn't belong here. Also, in case there's any misunderstanding, I should point out that the decision to remove a post has nothing to do with agreement or disagreement with any viewpoints that may have been expressed in the post. However imperfectly, I have tried to remain resolutely non-political—or non-ideological, if you prefer. You won't learn anything about my ideology or political views from my moderating decisions, which to me is the way it should be. We're here to keep the peace and to keep everyone on-topic and within the bounds of our community guidelines (which forbid politics and religion) as best we can, not to take sides over any issue of ideas.

I never said that all of the posts that were removed were political. I try to be selective in removing posts; some were merely off-topic, while others had the potential to provoke an argument, whether they were entirely factual or not. We're trying to avoid politicized, hot-button issues; unfortunately, there are too many people who are looking for reasons to argue about them, even though that's not what they should be coming to a place like AtariAge for.

I just cleaned up a bunch of political posts related to COVID-19. Similar posts have gotten several other threads locked, and if that experience is any indication, I think it would be better if we avoided the subject altogether. Too many of us are not yet in a place where we can rationally discuss it directly, and I don't want it to derail this thread (or any others) any further.

I believe it was someone else who originally brought it up, but yes, it was a quote from an interview that Renoir gave to Jaques Rivette in 1966. Here is the quote: I'm also reminded of a related observation that Steven Lisberger made during his audio commentary on TRON (it's at about 54:28 on the Blu-ray, for those who are curious): To tie all this back to video games ... ever since the Atari 2600, I've been taken with the idea that severely technically constrained environments can be used to create more immersive gaming experiences than environments where those constraints do not exist. Many of the games that I found most absorbing as a kid (which would have included Intellivision games if I'd had one at the time!) seem highly abstract and primitive today when viewed in isolation—in a YouTube video, for instance, or even sandboxed in an emulator—but when experienced in their "native environment," with the original hardware and controllers, and with beautiful box art and the snippets of backstory in the manual providing just enough extra input to prime the imagination, I still find them to be totally immersive. This is one of the things that struck me about the approach that was taken with the Amico's architecture and design: instead of getting stuck in the same rut as its contemporaries, trying to one-up the competition with beefier specs and a longer list of bullet points, the Amico seems to have rejected that approach, embracing instead that same philosophy of creative limitations. (Incidentally, that's why I think it's a mistake to judge the Amico game library too hastily based on the video samples we've seen so far. Those videos are works in progress, yes, but out of necessity, they can also convey only part of the experience. They can't capture the player's interactions with the controller or with the other players, nor can they convey the participation of the players' own imagination "in the moment" during gameplay. I also think it's a mistake to belittle the "retro games" which will comprise about 20% of the Amico library. Those games had to be honed and tuned to perfection within the stringent limitations of their original platforms, so the best of them represent a time-tested formula which should work just as well on the Amico. Like a good restaurant, the Amico will have its "staples" based on its own proven recipes, augmented by a steady stream of new items to keep the menu fresh and varied. I think it's exactly the correct approach.)

I've noticed this, too. The term "video games" has been stretched to include a multitude of different entertainment products, whose only common trait is that they offer some degree of interactivity. I'm reminded of the taxonomy suggested by Chris Crawford in his book "Chris Crawford on Game Design" (which I'd highly recommend): By his definition, many of these interactive video experiences aren't really video games in the sense that we have always understood the term; they would be better classified as "toys" or "puzzles." That's not to say that they're "bad" or that there isn't a market for them; it just makes it difficult to discuss video games qua video games, because so many other forms of entertainment are being lumped into the same category.

Thank you! I read Family Computing for years; my grandfather had a subscription, and I got one myself for a short time during the "Family & Home Office Computing" era. Looking forward to the interview! I might take you up on that! My remaining back issues are in pretty bad shape.

I think it would be better if we avoided discussing COVID-19. Discussing how it is impacting this project is one thing, but if the other COVID-19 threads we've had here are any indication, too many of us are not yet in a place where we can rationally discuss the subject directly, and I don't want it to derail this thread any further.