PlaysWithWolves

I wonder if any of this is applicable? The SEC recently indicted Charlie Javice "on securities fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy charges." She hired hired someone to create a fake email database of 4.25 million users while she only had 300,000 when she sold it to JP Morgan. Granted, that's a step or two further than just making the claim.

Most people @Tommy Tallarico designated "haters" were people who were originally interested or tried to help him. He proudly proclaimed early in the Q&A thread he was an "East Coast Italian with a Napoleon Complex". That may have worked in his favor as a 1990s bad boy, but not so much as a 2020s family-friendly console maker who has zero consoles to his name. I know I got into righteous indignation mode back then and probably could've handled things better (three years later I'm still on "temporary" mod preview), but I'm not sure people realize the complete shift in AtariAge policy enforcement that happened with crowdfunded consoles of questionable existence with the Amico.🥴 Some of us got booted from the Q&A thread just for asking why SmashJT flip-flopped on his Amico views after meeting Tallarico.

I think you guys are forgetting that Kennedy got to start with a completely clean slate with Chameleon, despite having basically the same idea with RetroVGS. And while the Amico should have been easy from an Android box perspective, they designed (then redesigned) the controllers, wanted custom guts and some 60-odd or so LED lights; that is to say unlike the Chameleon, his challenge was mostly in the hardware itself. Atari was headed down the exact same path until they got an eleventh hour influx of cash. Personally, I always knew the Amico wasn't for me but was happy watching the process. I didn't even care if Tommy Tallarico--who I'd never heard of before--embellished too much, because I knew one day the product would have to stand on its own. A CEO who couldn't take criticism while promising the world just added to a growing sense of something not being right. I also tend to care less if someone lies to venture capitalists than "Regular Joes" who send pre-order or crowdfunding monies, just because the latter is rife with problems. It's basically the "Duck Test". If you don't want to be called a duck then stop looking, sounding and acting like one. And boy was he a loud quacker.

In July 2021 he claimed there were forty-two ratings approvals and showed a few in a graphic in his thread and elsewhere. That's Tommy math that fourteen games got three ratings each; PEGI, USK, ESRB. I don't know how complete a game needs to be to submit for ratings, but they weren't all 100% finished. That very day he posted a video showing they were redesigning pack-in game Cornhole's controls, and a later video had downgraded graphics. Around Crayola Experience time in late August, even Tommy and Mike Mullis were admitting bad lag in Dynoblaster. I'm not sure but I think I heard similar about Moon Patrol from a former fan, but by October's Thanksgiving Point show it still wasn't 100% (Starfox text). I can believe some of the games were complete since IE got them in nearly finished states and tacked on multiplayer. Evel Knievel and Rigid Force Redux Enhanced come to mind. Brain Duel was probably a simple Einstein Brain Trainer reskin. It's indeed hard to tell because of the former CEO's penchant for embellishment and questionable relationship with the truth. So, that's basically a bunch of words to say, "I don't know either!"

Yeah, I've often thought it could've been a showcase game for the Amico. It had potential to use all of the quirky, expensive and seemingly-unneeded aspects of the console like the LED lights and a controller screen used more than just a button. Maybe even the 64-point controller disc, if they put enough thought into the game design. But really, they needed more than just a single game showing off those features and it probably should've been a pack-in. Imagine getting the NES Deluxe kit with the light gun and R.O.B. and having to buy Duck Hunt and Gyromite separately.

Yeah, It wouldn't be a good look for a company that used to brag about how big their expenses were and that they were multi-national; not to mention videos of big parties.

@Buffalo Biff Burgertime

And it turns out neither will a "the real marketing hasn't begun" strategy either!

IE was short-sighted and it still amazes me there are defenders even after all that's happened. Also, money is a finite resource--meaning that all of those companies are competing for that money. I didn't understand the argument either.

Oh, right. I'd forgotten they opened up the Founders list later on to fill canceled spots. Unfortunately, @Morpheus still isn't in that group unless he specifically contacted Intellvision and got put on "the list" and was accepted.

The first half of this is the raw Patel video on Amico with none of Ninja Kitty's well-done commentary:

No, sorry. There was that first campaign for ~2600 "Founders Editions" run solely from the Intellivision website. It was in Jan. 2020, I think.

I'm not sure why so many retro gamers imagine the definition of "scam" only means "take the money and run". Also, this excerpt:

I wasn't aware their 2021 financials were made public for you to make such an assertion. Link, please?

Hey, that's me! Thanks for posting.

Hard to tell what's true and what's not. Most stories I've seen have him at a age 21, with this one even saying that he just turned that age. The pier rebuilding was started Oct. 1990 and finished July 1992, per wiki. It probably doesn't matter if any sort of curfew was enforced. I do appreciate trying to figure out the truth. I don't have any interest in lying when I feel he does that well enough on his own. BTW, I have doubts that a Fiero that was 3-8 years old was "beat up".

Destroyed in '88 and started rebuilding in '90. He got there in '89. Hmm, I'm starting to wonder... 🤔

Hey, there was an overzealous fan of Tommy's who was also a mod that was overly-protective of him. He'd also have an interesting (to be polite) way of viewing one's words in a way different than intended. I can understand if they wanted to keep Tommy's main thread a "safe space" for him, but it bled into other threads where people tried to have an honest discussion about Amico. Other fans would come in and literally get the thread shut down instead of simply ignoring it. Tommy himself couldn't stay out and despite some other mods threatening to thread-ban him, it never happened. His posts that got deleted were arguably a bad look and could easily be interpreted as once again protecting him (from himself). I'm not saying both sides did it perfectly--I, myself, went too far in my righteous indignation (mostly toward that moderator) a few times. I'm just saying that the skepticism was mostly off AtariAge and there was a reason for it not being here like it was for RetroVGS and Chameleon and some other crowdfunded products. The turn was so sharp it felt like a record scratch. I think in a statement Albert even admitted things could've been handled better.

It's a regional Emmy outside of their normal market and, I'm told, about as meaningless as an Orange County award for Best Innovation. I think it's important to note we'd not even be talking about this if Tallarico hadn't woven it and many other tales into Amico's lore. I'd suggest it's these kinds of things that get us to "Trust us! We have 600+ years experience!" (paraphrased). [Edited for grammar.]

It seems very strange for a litigation-happy former CEO to freely use others' copywritten[sic] materials for marketing.

Thanks for following up with this. Background on the joystick controller would be nice, since it seemed to be the only thing Atari had working before their crowdfunding campaign. Also any thoughts on the ribbed console design since there's not much out there.

Possibly from Atari themselves at E3 2019 (emphasis, mine): https://www.pcworld.com/article/3402456/whats-inside-the-atari-vcs-ryzen-emulator.html E3 2019 was where they had a bunch of empty Ataribox cases made to look working, one transparent mockup and a black box that only we at AtariAge called them out as using a PC:

Get well soon, @CPUWIZ. ?

Hurry up and get one before Atari buys 500 of them!

Did younbuy your AtariTokens yesterday? https://www.atarichain.com/#/