jaybird3rd

Again, I think you're getting stuck on minutiae here. To the Amico's target audience, it does not matter whether Nintendo's stance on mature games is new or whether they've had mature games on their platforms for years, or whether those games represent a tiny fraction of the Switch's library or not. The fact that those kinds of games are on the Switch at all is a total dealbreaker; for them, to buy a Switch is to potentially open doors that they don't want their kids to go anywhere near, which is more than enough of a reason for them not to buy it. I also don't see why it's such a big deal that Tommy "always" picks on Nintendo (if that is indeed what he's doing). He's making a larger point about adult content in video games; who cares whether he cites Nintendo or Sony or Microsoft as an example?

I was just trying to be generous to the podcasters. But yes, your numbers are probably much closer. As much as I love the work that podcasters do, their output will be dwarfed by more mainstream outlets, just because of sheer numbers. I don't get the Chameleon comparisons, either. Certain people here have been so insistent about squeezing the Amico into that mold (so to speak) that they went completely berserk. Fortunately, most of the world has never heard of the Chameleon, and you'd lose most peoples' interest in about five seconds if you tried to explain it to them, so I don't think it will hurt in the long term. True, but I was just using her show as an example. I never watch these shows myself, so hers was the first that came to mind.

Fig.co is not crowdfunding; this has been discussed extensively before, both here and elsewhere. If fig.co is "crowdfunding," then every preorder and every investment ever made would also be "crowdfunding," and the term "crowdfunding" would have no meaning. So it is your opinion that Tommy is not behaving in the way that you think a CEO should, and that this will be a turnoff to the Amico's target audience. I think we get that; this isn't exactly the first time we've heard it. But remember two things: one, Intellivision Entertainment has advisors and a board of directors who are industry veterans, and who all understand marketing better than most of us in this thread, including you and me. If his board saw the same problems with Tommy's manner of engaging with the community that you seem to see, you may be sure that he wouldn't be doing it; a CEO of a corporation is not a lone wolf or a dictator. Second, the people here on AtariAge—and in the audience of video game podcasts on YouTube—are most assuredly not the Amico's target audience; if we were, the Amico would be in big trouble, because we're not anywhere near large enough of a population to make a venture like the Amico viable. It's easy for us to forget that sometimes, since we too are wrapped up in our little bubbles, but we're a vanishingly small segment of the total market. Nothing that has happened in our little corner of the world will have any impact on the market's perception of the Amico; one appearance by Tommy on "Ellen" will get ten times as many eyeballs as every retro gaming podcast put together.

Of course. This is why, contrary to what you may have been told, we actually invite different opinions and different points of view here (again, as long as everyone is respectful and stays within the rules). Discussion threads like this one mostly tend to attract enthusiasts—which is unsurprising, since the Amico has not been released yet, and the people following it at this early stage would naturally be the ones most enthusiastic about it. But we certainly don't want to create an "echo chamber" where everybody always agrees and nobody is allowed to say anything critical; if nothing else, that would quickly become terribly boring. We've been accused of doing that anyway, usually by those (very few) people who could not remain respectful or within the rules, but the fact that we're having a peaceful discussion right now should put the lie to that. I understand, and perhaps this is another example of the kinds of "bubbles" or "blind spots" that I mentioned. I find that people who have these kinds of disagreements don't actually disagree as much as they think they do; they're usually just triggered by the way something was said, or by the implications that they see in what was said, or else they're just talking past each other without taking the time to listen. Yes. Video game ratings exist for a reason; they're ostensibly there to help consumers identify the categories of games which would (or would not) appeal to them, so they can choose accordingly. Adult-only or 18+ is a highly restrictive category, by definition and intention. I don't personally enjoy those kinds of games, so when I see that label, it's a sign that this is a game that is probably not for me—but I don't resent that, because I recognize that there is a market for those games, and I'm also a big believer in "live and let live." The Amico seems to trigger resentment in hardcore gamers, as if they see its very existence as some sort of repudiation of the kind of gaming they enjoy, but the Amico's family-friendly category of games is actually the most inclusive of all. Someone in the Amico's target market would never buy an 18+ game; they'd rather play Night Stalker or Skiing. But on the other side of the coin, there's nothing preventing a hardcore gamer who loves 18+ games from also enjoying Night Stalker or Skiing. I see more choices as being a positive for everyone; introducing more choices for a segment of the market that had no satisfactory options before need not diminish any other choices.

I'm going to isolate this quotation because it typifies something that I've always found frustrating about these debates over adult content in video games, and specifically over why the Amico has taken the approach that it has taken with regard to this issue. (Disclaimer: just because I'm using your quotation to address a larger subject does not mean that I am "attacking" you, so cool your jets.) Whenever Tommy or anyone else brings up the issue of adult content in video games, I notice that those who are critical of the Amico tend to start picking nits over the way in which this content is characterized, while completely missing the larger point. I find that their arguments often boil down to bickering over whether the acts depicted in these games are or are not illegal, or whether or not they are tantamount to rape, or whether the participants are or are not of legal age, or whether or not the game designers intended for them to be of legal age, or whether this content serves a legitimate narrative or dramatic purpose in a story or if it's merely there for titillation. And so on. One of the serious problems we have as a society is that we have become increasingly balkanized. Aided in part by technology, we have separated ourselves, in some cases without even fully realizing it, into self-selected groups. The people in different groups tend to get their news from different (and often contradictory) sources, they watch different movies and TV shows, they read different books, and their various online feeds conveniently and transparently screen out views or perspectives that they are not already inclined to agree with. One consequence is that many people have serious blind spots when it comes to the people in the other groups: the way they really live, what they really believe, how they really think, etc. Another consequence is that many have never developed the discipline to dispassionately entertain opposing points of view, and have never really learned the art of listening⁠—listening to understand, not merely listening to respond. This balkanization is even reflected in our geography, to the extent that people living in certain areas never even have to personally encounter those who live significantly different lives from them. (This has a political dimension that I'm not going to get into, but suffice it to say, I think we can all recognize this phenomenon.) I bring all this up because I'm reminded of it whenever I hear arguments like the ones in my second paragraph, which attempt to rationalize—or justify, or mitigate, or explain away, or make excuses for, or whatever one chooses to call it—adult content in video games. It seriously makes me wonder whether the people making those arguments have ever even met the kinds of parents that the Amico is targeting, parents who have strong moral convictions and whose approach to parenting is governed by those convictions. If they did, they would realize how hopelessly beside the point those kinds of arguments actually are—they may be right, as far as that goes, but they're splitting hairs over distinctions without a difference. To these parents, the issue is very simple: They don't want their kids exposed to adult content. At all. Not to any extent, for any purpose, through any medium, or in any way, shape, manner, or form. Nintendo permits such content on the Nintendo Switch. (That's the broadest way I can think of to describe Nintendo's policy, so whatever else one might say about the games in question, I hope we can at least agree on that much.) Therefore, these parents will not buy their kids a Switch and will not allow one into their homes. That's all there is to it. (If anyone feels that I'm unfairly picking on the Switch here, feel free to substitute the Xbox, or the PlayStation 4, or any other mainstream platform you wish. The principle is what's important, not the platform.) I previously mentioned Chris Crawford's quote about how we should let the marketplace decide, instead of concluding in advance that the Amico is destined to be a "failure." I would add that the people making that prediction are among the least-qualified to do so, because from their arguments, it's evident that they fundamentally do not understand the people for whom the Amico is being made; merely being a parent oneself is not enough. This is not to say that they're stupid; they're simply unaware of the extent to which they're living in a bubble. What these parents do not currently have, and what the Amico is intended to give them, is a platform which shows them the courtesy of RESPECTING THEIR WISHES AS PARENTS, while providing them and their kids with a place where they can safely enjoy the kinds of high-quality games that they want to play together. I find it odd that these critics—who should be celebrating the Amico for giving players more choices—instead react to it with such hostility, as if the people behind the Amico are out to "censor" video games or somehow "exclude" them or ruin their fun.

I'm surprised that initial orders have been so slow, but I wonder if that's partly because the Memorial Day holiday had people traveling and spending time outside—for the first time in a long time, in some cases. (I admit that I was late getting my order in, but in my case I can blame an early morning power/internet outage!)

I'm not a fan, either; in fact, I earlier asked everyone to avoid the temptation to do that. As I've said before, AtariAge is not the place to relitigate feuds and drama from other venues, but anyone who wants to come here in good faith to have a reasonable discussion is free to do so ... as long as they can keep it respectful, on-topic, and in agreement with our community guidelines.

That looks like the Atari 8-bit computer (400/800) version. The 5200 has a lot in common with the 8-bit computers, but its cartridges are totally different.

It's pretty trippy. Their Pole Position and Centipede commercials were bizarre too, as I recall. I love the original game artwork for the same reason, including everything from the paintings on the boxes to the stories in the manuals. Atari's artwork in particular was criticized for being much more elaborate than the actual games, but as Tim Lapetino's "Art of Atari" documents, those criticisms missed the point. The artwork was a catalyst for the players' imaginations, giving them visuals and environments that they could superimpose onto the (relatively primitive) games as they played, just as the games themselves were catalysts for fun interactions between parents and children. To me, that special combination of ingredients was what made the classic video games so immersive and so memorable, something that I hope the Amico can recapture for today's families.

Yes. I still remember when Atari "died" as an independent company, when the "reverse merger" with JTS happened in the summer of 1996. It's been a long and sad decline ever since, with Atari's ashes being passed around from owner to owner, each one more desperate to squeeze some residual value out of them than the last. (The only bright spot along the way, in my opinion, was the Hasbro Interactive era. They had their hits and misses with their Atari-branded retro remakes, but the best of them were really good games that I still enjoy playing today. They actually managed to add something positive to the Atari legacy, which is certainly more than I can say for the current owners.) I think the "Atari spirit" is to be found today in communities like AtariAge, particularly among the hardware engineers and homebrew programmers, who still practice that special mix of creativity and technical prowess that Atari—and Mattel Electronics!—had in their prime. I wasn't one who grew up with the Intellivision, but I quickly fell in love with it after seeing the first version of "Intellivision Lives!" on CD-ROM, probably in 1998/1999. What struck me immediately was that, unlike Atari, the Intellivision had never really gone away and had always remained close to the people who originally made it great, and I was very impressed by that. Keith Robinson was truly a visionary, and he was looking beyond hardcore gamers at least as far back as the Intellivision Productions 10-in-1 and 25-in-1 handheld TV games in the mid-2000s. They sold millions of those handhelds, and won awards and endorsements along the way from the likes of Parents Magazine and Grandparents Magazine ... the very same market that the Amico is pursuing now.

... and if someone actually does a Joust movie adaptation, I just hope it has a scene like this ...

... and I think we're all getting sick of pushy, rude collectors who demand that independent/homebrew publishers conform to their personal preferences, even though they evidently understand nothing of the economics of production or distribution. We could use a lot less of that.

I just removed a bunch of posts related to the XE keyboard, and the keyboard upgrade offered by Best Electronics, because they have nothing to do with the topic of this thread. There is already a thread devoted to that upgrade, but because it has been inactive for a while, I decided to move the keyboard-related posts from this thread into that one. If you wish to continue discussing the keyboard upgrade, please do so in the other thread. Thanks!

That's my impression as well. A few coworkers got Zune players when they were new, and from my limited experience with them, they did indeed seem to be perfectly good media players. Viewed in retrospect, it's easy to forget that a lot of these "failures" were in fact good products that were simply the victims of bad timing. Another example that comes to mind (from Intellivision's own history) is the Aquarius Home Computer System. In retrospect, it seems like a hopelessly misguided decision for Mattel to even try to get into that market, but as Mattel alumnus "catsfolly" helpfully explained a few years ago, the Aquarius made perfect sense on paper at the time. The late release date was what ultimately killed it; by the time it came out, the market had moved on and the intended price point had disappeared.

But you see, that's the worldview of people who confuse cynicism with realism. According to them, to be "realistic" or to "speak the truth" is to expect the worst and to approach every endeavor with an attitude of cynical, scornful skepticism, whether it's warranted or not. If you're willing to step outside of your preconceived notions, and to appreciate the potential of something new and different—while doing your due diligence along the way, of course—you're "unrealistic," or "unsophisticated," or "naïve," or a "pushover," or "blind," or "in denial," or whatever. I can't imagine going through life with such a sour attitude, and I have a hard time respecting people who do, because those are the people who only know how to attack anything that doesn't fit into their comfortably accepted status quo, when they're not sitting on the sidelines and sulking. To paraphrase Crawford, the future belongs to the doers, not to the idle talkers. I agree. I realize that I didn't exactly help with my previous post, but as I've said before, I would much prefer to remain focused on the positive. I think it is useful to note their attitude from time to time, if only to contrast their mindset of failure with our successes. But as you said earlier, these people are "smallminded manchildren" who are beyond being persuaded or reasoned with (Lord knows we've tried!), and we don't need more of their negativity.

Congratulations to Tommy and to Intellivision Entertainment for making such an excellent and exciting addition to the Amico team! Looking over the various videos about this latest development, and reading through the comments, I've noticed a recurring theme. I've addressed it here before, but I feel as if it bears repeating now. (Now, before anybody starts whining ... I've already stated that we shouldn't use these forums to "call out" specific individuals, or to post their external comments for the purpose of ridiculing them, but the following is a composite of several commenters' arguments, so nobody is being individually "targeted" or "attacked" here.) The argument goes something like this: "It's ridiculous to attack any and all critics of the Amico as 'haters.' I don't want the Amico to fail; I just don't think it can succeed. I've seen the games, and I'm just not impressed by them, and I don't see why anyone would want to buy a $249 console to play them, no matter who you add to the team. How is that being a 'hater'?" Well, if that's your genuine opinion, that's fine**, but realize that you're making a statement about yourself, not about the Amico. In other words, if you still can't understand the potential appeal of the Amico as a product, even with the team behind it and the attention building around it, you should at least consider the possibility that it may be because of a failure of imagination on your part, not because the product itself lacks merit, and that this may be a time to step outside your bubble and expand your horizons a bit. The most sensible thing to do at this point is to sit back and be quiet and let the marketplace decide whether it succeeds or not ... and if you're not content to do that, maybe you really do "want the Amico to fail" after all, and if that isn't being a "hater," what is? Something to think about, preferably before you fire off yet another tiresome batch of bellicose YouTube comments. I've said before that these "critics" remind me of the critics of Purple Moon, the company that Brenda Laurel founded in the 1990s to produce entertainment software for girls. She too came under attack from hardcore gamers and others in the gaming industry who had a vested interest in the status quo and felt threatened by her work, and I think Chris Crawford's remarks about them apply equally well to these "critics" of the Amico: Simply replace "Brenda Laurel", "girls", and "Purple Moon" with "Tommy Tallarico", "families", and "Intellivision Entertainment", respectively. I think the observation fits perfectly. ** (Just do the whole world an enormous favor and please don't beat other people over the head with your opinions, or claim that they're "not critical thinkers" or that they're "cheerleaders" or "Kool-Aid drinking cultists" who are "blind to reality" just because they happen to disagree with you.)

It's actually page 669 ...

Me too!

I'm sure I'm in the minority, but the controls never really bothered me. When I played my first home version of Q*Bert—almost certainly the Atari 800 version—I don't know if I was even aware at the time that it was originally an arcade game, but I quickly figured out that the controls were rotated 45°, and that's just the way I learned to play it. I still configure the joystick the same way when I play arcade Q*Bert in MAME and elsewhere. Speaking of Q*Bert ... while I'm digging up 2.5D/3D classic game remake videos, here's a sample of the Q*Bert remake that Hasbro released in 1999/2000. Warren Davis—the creator of Q*Bert—has said that he would have designed this version differently, but I can't help but wonder if an Amico version might be something like this, only in HD. (This is footage from the PlayStation version, but the PC version that I played was mostly the same.)

The closest that I know of would probably have been "Dig Dug Deeper" from the early 2000s:

I posted a mini-tutorial on the CAQ2WAV tool in my 32K RAM Modules thread. See here. (This is one of the tutorials I'll be updating and posting to my Aquarius website, when it's finally ready.)

I've granted edit permission to your earlier post, and the post by "MrMartian" which precedes this one, so you should both be able to revise your earlier posts as needed.

Glad to be of help! If you have any questions, let us know; that's why we're here! (Just be sure you post your questions in the 5200 forum that I linked to earlier, since that's where they are most likely to be noticed and answered!)

You added the image to the paragraph as an inline element, instead of putting it in a separate paragraph. (I fixed it.)