Tavi
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Posts posted by Tavi
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I would think adding a cartridge slot would be impractical, as I expect only a niche group of Amico users would actually use it.
That said, I would certainly not object if the Amico is a hit to see at some point something like a USB add-on peripheral being offered that would allow the classic Intellivision game cartridges to be plugged in and used with the system.
Extra points if the design looks like the System Changer :D-
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Oh, really? I am surprised. I would have thought this was someone selling off their collection; you would think it would be quite difficult to find that much vintage electronics to be able to make repeated listing for it. Must be well connected then!
But reading though his feedback, you seem to be correct as there is a lot of similar types of sales in his history.
Ah well, still fun to look at his latest batch then! -
As the title says, I found a new listing that looks like someone is selling off their complete vintage electronics collection. Mostly handhelds, tabletops and consoles, with a few game cartridge lots thrown in. There is Atari, an Odyssey 1, a Tandyvision and an Intellivision, plus a few interesting things like an Atari keyboard controller with Basic Programming and a Yars' Revenge patch. A gorgeous collection, everything looks boxed, complete and mint. I expect most will go for far out of my price range, but it is still fun to look!
https://www.ebay.ca/sch/speedyshipper/m.html?item=114235123661&hash=item1a98f1a7cd%3Ag%3A2J4AAOSwLllek76t&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562
ADDENDUM: It looks legitimate as well. They have a 18,758 feedback rating, and a top rated seller. -
2 hours ago, TACODON said:I guess this is news.
I wonder if this is going to be used by Atari as one fulfilling one of of their Indiegogo 'Backer Updates' that they put out every 5 weeks or so. Seriously stretching their obligation to Indiegogo backers: "Indiegogo expects campaign owners to post updates on their Indiegogo campaign at least once a month, both while your campaign is live and after it ends until all perks are completely fulfilled."
The did manage to milk announcing having the parts to build 500 units (and that no backer was getting one of them) into covering two updates; 'Good news! We have parts to make 500 Units!' and then 'Good news! We have now decided to assemble the parts to make 500 units!'. Oh, and 'Good news! Indiegogo backers will not get any of the 500!
Which brings me to an interesting aside, if I can wander into Amico territory for a bit. Tommy has stated in a recent OEB Pete interview (May 18th, 2nd video at 19:25) that there are going to be around 100 test units manufactured; including their Dev Kit units. This makes me very curious as to why Atari wants 500 test units; or around 5% of what they need to produce to fulfill their Indiegogo commitments. Granted I have never manufactured a console before (But then neither has Arzt), but reserving 5% of your production run for testing and development purposes seems highly excessive.
Two scenarios come to mind to explain this. A) Atari is pulling off a massive coup, and is planning on coming out swinging with building five times the consoles and developing five times games of the Amico, or B) Atari is once again being highly misleading about what they are really up to.
I know which choice I would put my money on.-
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On 5/16/2020 at 10:31 AM, Agillig said:If they had 500 systems to send out to developers, I'd say it was pretty darn close to completion. I'll grant it may not have been 100 percent, but there shouldn't have been much left to finish if they had systems to send to third parties.
Certain electronic devices, like Xbox One controllers are in short supply, so I don't have an issue with the actual hardware being AWOL, but if people can work from home, it stands to reason they would have SOME kind of progress to show on the software side since the hardware is all but finished.
Does anyone else think it's strange we don't know who those developers are? Usually when a new console is announced, the creator is all about letting everyone know who's on board. If Atari was sending out 500 systems to developers, that means they should have at least 50 third party companies on board, right? And we don't know a single one? That's not something there would be any reason for secrecy. But, oh well.
I certainly agree something does not add up.
You would think for the number of dev kits they are building and sending out, that there would also be something out there about who is working on it and what they are making. It is not like it needs to be a secret after all.
Pure speculation and personal opinion on my part here (so don't sue me Arzt), but seeing that Atari is already almost a year and a half behind schedule on their Atari Box and Corona is now making the needed parts more expensive; I am wondering if at this point Atari simply does not have the money needed to produce the Indiegogo backer units.
So with that in mind it is possible that the silence around the 500 'dev kits' is because they are going out to potential investors in an attempt to raise needed funds, and not to actual software developers for the console.
It would explain why they need so many units, and yet refuse to say anything about who or what they are being used for. You would think Atari would be promoting the hell out of any actual development taking place; seeing that Antstream seems to be the only one so far. Contrary to the opinion of Atari, no news is not good news. No news makes it look like you have nothing to offer; and/or something to hide, either of which is not exactly a big selling feature.-
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The cartridges all look to be in pretty decent shape surprisingly, but those Coleco controllers are in terrifying condition though.
One looks like it has considerable mold and water damage, the other may as well (I see the disc sticker is gone, and white residue on it).
Thankfully, they are removable and replaceable if the console itself is salvageable. -
1 hour ago, Tommy Tallarico said:We won't know the full effects of COVID until after the lockdown is over. Los Angeles county just said that businesses can't open until August now. If that happens in Orange County (we are the next county over from L.A.) I can tell you that it won't be ready by October... or even by the end of the year! We need to be in the same room in order to complete hardware. Especially to the level we're doing. Imagine telling a car manufacturer to make a car but everyone needs to stay apart in different places. Being apart for smaller games doesn't affect the software/games... but the hardware. Yes. 2 of our guys are literally hand building controllers from scratch to get to our many developers around the world. And parts are very late and delayed from China and of course need to be quarantined the second they arrive and are opened. But if it takes 2 people to build a controller... how can you accomplish this when everything is in the office? One guy comes in and does what he can do, then another comes in after that, etc. How can we all test the different parts of the hardware when each machine part needs a ton of testing and companies that do it are closed and the hardware we have is limited. It's crazy, but we're trying our best given the circumstances and health/lockdown laws that the state of California has placed upon everyone. It is what it is. Nothing we can do except try our hardest and work as long as humanly possible. We were really hoping California would be "opened up" by May 1st. And now they're talking about being closed til August? Impossible to get hardware done in that time. I refuse to put out a product that isn't the best it could be. We're not going to rush it or cut corners and take shortcuts. Part of the reason J Allard is such an important part of the team now. He's been through the "red ring of death" and knows why and what happened. Not enough time for heat and component testing was a big part of that. I'm doing everything in my power to keep the promise I made to my mom, dad & brother about honoring my sister Karen's birthday on 10/10. They keep telling me over and over not to worry. And if this crap continues for another month... it's out of my hands.
But maybe if 10/10 slips I can do something super special on 10/10. Maybe have a huge public showing where the general public can play all the games for the first time (like what we had planned for E3 and Gamescom). Maybe we do one on the west coast (LA?) and one on the east coast (NYC?). I don't know... I really don't feel like thinking about it or discussing that at this point. 10/10 launch is still our #1 goal right now.
Founders Editions would be a few days before launch I would imagine... not a few weeks.
Road Rash would be pretty cool. EA would need to be on board. Probably wouldn't happen til 2022.
@jaybird3rd Tommy is making me haz a sad.
So could you please censor him for being open, forthright and honest? I mean he is developing a console here so he should be telling me exactly what I want to hear, and blowing smoke up my butt until I think I am a chimney!
Haha, in seriousness though it is perfectly understandable if there are some delays, Covid is throwing everything for a loop globally. I would be a little disappointed if October got changed for a delivery date but again as someone who is still waiting on 'Space Venture' since 2013 I know sometimes unexpected things happen and all one can do is just roll with it.
Still, please do not make me wait until 2027 for an Amico; October alone is already killing me with anticipation!-
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Now that is quite the impressive addition to the Intellivision team! I am expecting to see a lot of coverage of this announcement in the next while, that is a big name in consoles!
Having an industry legend like J Allard sign on board with the Amico console will hopefully quell some of the naysayers who think this is all some kind of gigantic con job. With the impressive background and resume he is sporting, I am pretty sure he can tell if a project is going to be a winner or not. It is always an uphill fight for the new guys, but if he has confidence in the Amico enough to work with Intellivision on it, that should quell a lot of the fence-sitters as to the legitimacy of the Amico.
This was an announcement well worth the wait to see!-
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3 hours ago, IntelliMission said:I think one key aspect that many of the persons proposed lack (including the ones I've brought up) is "how passionate he was about the entire concept behind Amico and how he's been banging the same drum since the 90's! (i.e. bringing people together and reaching a wider audience)".
Many of the designers mentioned over the last pages have created mostly solitary gaming experiences and/or games for hardcores.
As GrudgeQ has also mentioned, what one does professionally to make a living and what one actually wants to do can often be very different things.
So just going by resume alone might present something of a red herring.
I have to say, I am intensely curious now as to who it actually is!-
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I have tried a few different joysticks on my Atari 2600 and I have to say the one I keep going back to is a Quickshot II.
It is comfortable to use, has both a top thumb and trigger fire button, and has mechanical contacts so it is quite solidly constructed. I also find it to be a very responsive joystick. A quick look on eBay shows them at around 25$ plus shipping.
However, if you are looking for something a bit more like the original Atari joystick, I have a pair of Gemstik controllers and I find they are quite decent to use. As a bonus they are quite common and relatively cheap. Another quick search on eBay I see them anywhere from 10-25$ plus shipping, and quite a few listings I see are part of a joystick lot; meaning you would get a few other joysticks to try out as well.
Of course, ask ten people what is the best joystick and you will likely get ten different answers!-
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3 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:Isn't it great!
This nutjob leaves multiple comments on every video, every day.
Check out this screengrab from earlier today. All evidence I'll need to report at some point I'm sure.
Well, this seems disturbingly familiar for some reason....
... I'm sure it will be just fine though!
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7 hours ago, Chopsus said:This is curious,
I have been locked out of commenting on IGG again, so I lodged a complaint. Here is their response:
Hi Chopsus,
Thank you for checking in about this campaign. At this time, the campaign, ‘Atari VCS: Game, Stream, Connect Like Never Before’, is under review to ensure that it adheres to our Terms of Use.
So what happens now? We will include the information you have provided along with all other information at our disposal in our review of the campaign. In some cases, we will contact the campaign owner for more information or have them edit their campaign and it will remain on our platform. If we find the project or campaign owner doesn't follow our rules, we may remove the campaign. We may also restrict the campaign owner's future activities on Indiegogo.
To protect our users' privacy, we're unable to share the action we take. At Indiegogo, we take the trust and safety of our community very seriously and we greatly appreciate your patience and understanding throughout this review process.
To learn more about Indiegogo’s Trust & Safety effort, please visit: www.indiegogo.com/trust. Thank you again for taking the time to get in touch with us and for helping to keep Indiegogo a safe and secure platform.
Regards,
Brian
Trust and Safety
Indiegogo|
Atari it seems is a very slow learner.
They already got their hand slapped on Reddit for doing this exact same thing; muting and deleting anyone who dared to speak of the Atari Box with anything less then fanatical praise, leading to the rather hilarious situation where Atari was stripped of mod status in their own Reddit for abusing it.
It would be nice if Indiegogo rapped Atari's knuckles as well, but I really cannot see Atari caring much. They already have the backers money, so anything Indiegogo does at this point is likely going to be met with little more then a shrug by Atari.
Update #28 is pretty underwhelming. Five weeks since update #27, and the update is essentially Atari announcing they are finally getting around to assembling the parts they have been sitting on for the last month and some. Oh, and a reminder that no backers are getting a unit from this batch.
"These important Atari VCS Onyx systems are mainly earmarked for additional content developers, merchant and distributor samples and other critical business uses such as standard reliability testing, in advance of the full 10,000 unit run"
One year, four months behind schedule and still no word from Atari when backer units will be produced and shipped. I am not surprised a few of the Atari Box backers are getting a little irate.-
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1 hour ago, Cranker said:It’s all about perceived value. I would rather pay 500 for an Amico than 500 for a PS5 because I will have more fun with it. It’s as simple as that. I don’t care if it’s the newest tech or the oldest tech. I just want to have fun. I understand how someone may feel the the opposite. All good 😊
This is exactly why I jumped in on the Amico at the first opportunity. The hardware and graphics are not nearly as important to me as the 'but is it fun?' factor. From what I have seen so far the Amico is going to scratch that itch perfectly.
This is also why I still play on my PS2. It is basically an obsolete console, but it has a huge library of games available and more importantly to myself I continue to enjoy playing many of those games. I could get a PS4 (or a PS5 later this year) and technologically it would be superior to my PS2 in pretty much every way measurable, but would I enjoy playing it more the my old PS2? I expect not, so I have never upgraded.
I do likewise get that for some people things like improved graphics are a big selling feature to them in a console. Different people look for different things in their gaming; there is not really a right or wrong to it, it is just personal preferences.-
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Just installed a set of controller membranes in my Tandyvision today.
They work perfectly, I have absolutely no complaints! -
Just a bit of an update.
I bought two sets of controller mylars from SellMyRetro, and they arrived Wed. I installed them today and it seems that was at least one of the problems with the Tandyvision. Both controllers work perfectly now!
Now I am going to settle in and play me the hell out of some Cloudy Mountain and Lock and Chase :D
Thanks to everyone for all the help, I am up and running 100%.-
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3 hours ago, Shaggy the Atarian said:I'm surprised that this hasn't been posted here yet:
https://www.theregister.co.uk/AMP/2020/04/08/atari_vcs_architect_sues/
While some is the same info we knew about, there was this new tidbit that you can throw onto the enormous pile of examples of "Atari refusing to pay out promises"
Granted, I'm 100% sure that the King of the VCShills will just dismiss it all as "nonsense" and "garbage," since he lacks the intellectual capacity to refute any of the accusations.
It seems to be a reoccurring pattern at Atari, refusing to pay their bills and/or re-writing signed contracts to their advantage, forcing it to go to court and then settling out for less then what was actually owed.
I can see why Atari does it, why pay everything you owe someone when you can force them to settle for considerably less rather then the hassle of fighting it out in court forever, but you would think soon they are going to burn enough bridges that they will get to a point where no-one will be willing to sign a deal with them. If you know they will quite happily knife you in the back first chance they get if they think it will save them a buck, that reputation would make it challenging to find people willing to work for you I would think.-
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54 minutes ago, root42 said:I modded my Vader about a year ago with a simple single transistor composite out mod. The quality is okay, but I currently have some artifacts, like horizontal bands running up the screen. See attached video...
What measures are useful in minimizing those artifacts? Better video cables? Shielding the internal wiring? Putting ferrite cores around the cables?
Or a different mod altogether?
For some reason your video shows up as an audio-only clip on my computer?
But I would suggest that trying a better video cable is an excellent place to start for interference problems. From personal experience I found a lot of my RCA cable problems came from less-then-great quality cables.
You might try just moving the cables around a bit as well, as the current routing might have it too close to something it is picking up some signal noise from? I find that can help as well.-
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52 minutes ago, The Historian said:New video up.
The only thing I find interesting out of this whole demo is ...
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I would say for serious competitive head to head action, Joust, Wizard of Wor, hockey or Warlords.
For light competition gameplay I would say try Fishing Derby.
For cooperative, Mario Bros (you can't bump-grief each other like in the arcade version).
This would be my short list anyways!-
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7 minutes ago, IntellivisionDude said:The Pat & Ian video was hard to watch. So much pure hatred. They claim they are only being objective, but you can tell they get excited pretending to be right and know it all's. Na na na na na, i told you so.
I found the Cornhole segment to be highly entertaining.
You could tell they both liked it, and were struggling to find some reason; any reason to dump on it.
'The Switch must have already done it, and done it better', oops it seems it didn't. Then the entertaining grasping of straws begins. 'Well, it's motion control, what if you accidentally throw the controller playing?'. As if Intellivision had never considered the need for a controller strap *eyeroll* 'Well, mobile offers similar gaming'. Similar titles, but certainly not even remotely similar gameplay I am expecting. A quick browse though the Google Play store shows titles that offer multi-player also have complaints about their matchmaking system.
My personal favourite 'But you can buy a Cornhole set for around 100$, so why buy an Amico?'. Skipping over the fact that it is quite safe to say the vast majority of people are not considering buying an Amico to play exclusively Cornhole on it, I challenge you to find any family that will set an actual fullsized Cornhole game up in their living-room and proceed to allow kids to then start tossing beanbags around the room. I hope they have exceptional insurance :D
Hating on the Amico and everything related to it seems to be their thing, but it is getting quite repetitive rather like watching 'Everything wrong with..' but they keep reviewing the same movie.-
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6 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:I wanted to share this with folks in here and then ask a question...
*SNIP*So here's the question I'd like to pose...
Why can't people come to terms with the fact that some people may like different styles of video games than others? Why are these types of folks only able to think in absolutes? Is it because maybe they don't have families and friends themselves to play with in person? Is it jealousy? Immaturity? Stupidity?
*SNIP*
I would honestly have to say it is more that some people take brand loyalty to an extreme. To the point where say if they support Nintendo, they would rather crawl a mile across broken glass then say something positive or touch another system. Being vocal and visible about this dedication (fanaticism?) to their chosen brand is I suppose a way to set themselves apart (and above) from the other hundreds of thousands of, lets say again Nintendo, other system owners with their 'Look how hardcore I am!' attitude.
I am not a psychiatrist or psychologist; but that would be my guess.
As to the Atari Box, I readily admit to taking a few jabs myself occasionally in the AA thread dedicated to it. It is hard to resist! From their supposedly not paying critical staff and having them publicly walk off the job, to repeatedly missing project deadlines, the downgrading and backpedalling on project promises, and 'no news is good news' weeks of silence from Atari it is an embarrassment of riches to find a topic to poke a bit of fun at them. I do feel bad for the backers, and more then a little relief as to be honest here as a 2600 owner and supporter from way back I likely would have been in on this if I did not completely miss the news about the Indiegogo campaign for the Atari Box.
I suppose there is also the misconception that you are trying to dethrone one or more the Big Three; and install Intellivision and the Amico in its/their place (insert your preferred 'The king is dead, long live the king!' meme here). So with the hardcore fanbase, they could see the Amico as a challenge and threat? Which is odd as you have been quite open in that Intellivision is targeting a completely different market, family and casual gamers, rather then trying to elbow in with the Big Three.
Regardless, it does seem to be only a (very?) vocal minority opposed to the Amico. Most seem to either like what they are seeing.-
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2 hours ago, The Atari Creep said:In response to people losing their minds about 2 mobile games seen in the most recent Amico trailer I spoke with Tommy directly about this. Here is what he had to say.
This is an excellent video, and big kudos to Tommy for always being available and happy to answer questions about the Amico.
I honestly was not too worried about the revelation that the Evel Knievel and Emoji Charades games were both previously released on mobile. Tommy has said multiple times that everything released on the Amico is either going to be an exclusive game, or have exclusive content. I just automatically assumed this fell into the 'exclusive content' category and never gave it a second thought.
It is excellent though that both you and Tommy took the time to talk about and fully explain this, and that hopefully puts some concerns to rest. Personally, I think its pretty cool that Tommy went to the developers for both and said 'I love what you have done with your game, how would you like the support to fully create the game you always wanted to make?'. So Evel Knevel exclusively on Amico gets more levels, more costumes, more stunt equipment and Emoji Charades gets new icons and new categories (like retro-gaming) and will include a kid-friendly play mode.
For myself, that sounds pretty cool (I can see my little nieces and nephews really getting into playing the charades; so making it kid-friendly is a big addition) and I really have zero problems with games like this on the Amico, updated and expanded games with exclusive content. They both look incredibly fun to play, and that is really the important part I think rather then getting caught up in a debate if the games are exclusive enough for the Amico.-
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3 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:
Yeah. I agree.Mark is a friend... but that was a disaster. Almost 50% DISLIKES on the video already. And what's up with the fake audience, bad green screen and the fact that it obvious it was pre-recorded. No gameplay? No hardware or controller peak?
Just goes to show how disassociated with average folks these hardware companies are.
I am already hearing some pretty vocal complaints over that the PS5 is seemingly not going to be compatable with most of the PS4 catalogue (let alone anything older).
At the cost of an AAA title, that is a pretty big hit when you just told everyone looking at buying a rather pricy PS5 that their previous games are for the most part going to be useless.-
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The trailer is amazing! It was well worth the wait to see it I think.
Skiing looks like it will be a lot of fun, and has the potential to also be quite challenging (avalanches, jumping chasms and crumbling snow packs; wow!)
Astrosmash already looked great, but I love seeing more of it. It is likely going to be my go-to game for quick casual gaming. Just like the original was (though I had to settle for playing Astroblast on the 2600).
Oh, Cloudy Mountain! Such a quick tease, but I love what I am seeing! I do believe I saw at one point the Runningman's bow aiming independently from direction of movement; it will be interesting to see how that works with the Amico controller. I am definitely looking forward to playing this game!
Super Sprint, now there is a game I have not played in decades. It was fun to play solo, but the real enjoyment was in when you got a few friends and went head to head. This is another 'must have' game for myself. So, the question I have now is when is the Amico getting a steering wheel adapter?
The Evel Knievel game is going to be an almost criminally level of enjoyable to play. As a kid I loved and was thrilled by watching his outrageous stunts. He was so popular he he was basically a franchise into himself; inspiring cartoon series and spoof characters like Super Dave Osborne.
Everything you have shown so far is spectacular; I have yet to see something I would not want to play. The curating of titles is impressive.
You are making it very difficult to wait the remaining six months, three weeks until the Amico is released!-
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Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A
in Intellivision Amico
Posted
I am fairly convinced you are just trolling this tread to get a rise out of the posters here, but on the off chance you are not I will take a shot at answering this.
Amico is finding its place in the gaming world, while there is some content for the retro-gamers (which is a group I am in), the main focus for the console is in being family friendly, easy to play, and offering couch co-op. It is not just another retro-console, and Tommy is working very hard to avoid his system being pigeonholed and misidentified as being just another retro console.
Which brings us to point two. Tommy is not attacking Nintendo. What he is attacking is the repeated statements that Nintendo is already family friendly, and offers good couch co-op, making the Amico redundant. I am certain there is a fair bit of content that meets these two criteria, but there is also a lot of M-content games, single player and online-only multiplayer games. Meaning parents still have to sort though and vet what their kids are playing and seeing from Nintendo.
The Amico is 100% E or E10 games only. Which is a huge difference from Nintendo. So there is no worry about a kid somehow viewing or accessing mature content; it is impossible because there not any to be had on an Amico.
He also has never changed the definition of an exclusive game. Right from the start he said a title is either exclusive to the Amico, or it will offer exclusive content only available to the Amico. At no time did he say there would never be ports, only that there would never be ports without some content exclusive for the system.
He is trying to market to soccer moms. Which is exactly why he is vocal in taking on comments stating his console is just another retro machines, or that Nintendo already does everything he is offering. He is trying to bring something new and different to the console market. If it is to succeed he needs to highlight what the Amico offers that the 'competitors' do not. Correcting misinformation and willful misunderstandings being put out there is not attacking anyone.
Otherwise when he does start the advertising in earnest, he will be fighting existing wrongful preconceptions that the Amico is just another flashback or a console for playing flash mobile games.