Tavi

Wow! It brings to mind the old 'Super Sprint' arcade game I used to love to play in our local arcade back in the day. But with some seriously updated graphics! Haha, I am glad we are getting a gift card with the FE as I suspect I am going to burn though that credit rather quickly. I have yet to see an Amico game I am not excited for. I do not think I have ever said this on a Friday evening before, but I cannot wait for Monday to come! :D

Wow... sporting a pair like that, I am shocked Arzt can even walk. Atari is now months (not weeks) behind on fulfilling their Indiegogo commitment with absolutely no idea if/when they will be able to start production, and they decide to announce a new wait list where people can sign up to be third in line to receive a unit after the 10K+ backer units and existing pre-orders are manufactured and delivered. You would think they would be a lot more concerned with how they are going to fulfill their existing and very overdue obligations rather then trying to eke out a few more sales for a product that they already cannot deliver.

I was thinking of the original, as Tommy had said after the Amico had established itself (and thus would not become mis-identified as just another retro console) original Intellivision games would be eventually released for the Amico; starting in 2021 I believe? I had completely missed that they were working on a remake of Microsurgeon, but reading up on the linked posts it does sound like it could be quite fun as well!

It was a dinosaur, but it still had some value I think. One of the things I enjoyed was watching the streams of those just walking around checking out the various announcements and exhibits. You would often see something interesting outside your usual gaming/console bubble that we all have. Now, if everyone is doing their own thing this year, the Nintendo guys are only going to watch the Nintendo feeds and so forth. Which I also expect everyone will be releasing on their own schedule now. So there will be no general overviews or accidental exposure because you will have to now seek out the information on whatever platform/developer you have interest in. I expect no E3 will not be a huge problem to the major players, but for the smaller guys and up and comers like the Amico they are all going to have to work extra-hard now to get themselves noticed.

That is actually quite cool! I would want them just for the cover art, but I imagine they command a pretty hefty price with collectors.

It is one of the Intellivision games I have always wanted to try. Once I get this Tandyvision I purchased working I will see about finding myself a copy. Hopefully with inserts as they seem to be essential to being able to play the game. Worst case scenario I can wait a year and a half for it to come out on the Amico. I am pretty sure Tommy has mentioned Intellivision has the rights to the entire Imagic library; so I would hope at some point it will be released as one of the 2021 retro title games on the system.

The old and those with existing heath problems are always the ones worst effected by any illness, this is not something new and exotic just for COVID-19. I would be 100% behind hospitals and care homes taking a zero tolerance towards chances of infection, and having any potential staff self-quarantine rather then risk spreading it to the most vulnerable. That is just common sense. That said, I do not see the point to nation-wide panicking and shutting down public events and gatherings. Statistically, this is practically no more communicable or deadly then most colds and flus are; it certainly is nowhere near being into Ebola or Black Plague territory. You have about the same chance of being infected with TB as dying from COVID-19. I do believe the media is intentionally over-hyping it, just like they did with SARS, Bird Flu, Swine Flu/H1N1 and probably a few others that do not immediately come to mind. Perhaps I am wrong this time, but when the media bleats 'Global Pandemic! Panic! Panic!' every few years like clockwork, you get desensitized to it. Intellimission is also correct, again according to the CDC (whom I presume know their stuff on this topic), COVID-19 is just the most recent strain of the Coronavirus (Covid-19 is literally just labeling this as the 2019 strain). An infection that the CDC say most people have had at some time been infected by one or more strains of, and because it it is symptomatically much like a cold, the vast majority never even know they have had it or required treatment for it. So the 3.4% number is misleading as it is not of the total population, but 3.4% of those sick enough to require medical attention and are then tested. As to the toilet paper craze, perhaps people are expecting in the event of a total collapse of civilization that it will become the new currency? Perhaps instead of Yen and USD we will be using squares of Charmin and Angel Soft, and their net value will depend on how many plys they have? Anyways, as this is supposed to be an Amico thread I should make mention again that no E3 will be a blow to the Amico. With Sony stepping aside, the Amico had a chance to steal the spotlight and get some serious word of mouth and free media promotion. It seems Intellivision might have to dip into their advertising budget a bit sooner then expected to replace the expected E3 coverage?

If E3 pulls the plug this year, this might just be the end of them. Which would be a pity. I have never attended, but I do enjoy watching the various streams of the event and reading the industry announcements coming from E3. It is also 4 months from now, in June. I would be hoping the hysteria about Corona/COVID-19 would be well settled down by then and people would realize despite the non-stop media fearmongering, it is essentially just a type of cold and about as deadly. The CDC has stated a .2 to .4% mortality rate for those between the ages of 10 to 50. I would think the majority of those are from countries with poor heathcare and people with pre-existing heath conditions. So we are not exactly into Bubonic plague numbers here. On average the regular strains of flu are responsible for 12-30K deaths globally a year, and for hundreds of thousands of cases of hospitalizations of those seriously ill with it, and one does not see this level of panic over those statistics. Or mass toilet paper buying *eyeroll* Seriously, that is the thing here right now; people panic buying a decades worth of toilet paper. Why? No one knows. There are no announced (or even rumored) shortages, and unlike electronics China is certainly not the main source of it. I do believe Tommy has said he has plans in place if E3 was cancelled, but it is still unfortunate that he might have to fall back on his 'Plan B' as I am thinking the Amico would have been a hit at E3. Announcements, videos, system specs are all great for promoting the system but I suspect that some actual hands-on time really would help sell the console and get it some serious media attention and chatter. E3 would have been the perfect place for letting regular people, influencers, and the various article writers all try the system out for themselves. I guess we will have to wait and see what E3 themselves has to say on this, but 'E3 to be cancelled' is now being reported by multiple sources so I suspect it is under serious consideration, if not actual fact.

I was googling Atari today to see if there was any news on the Atari Box, and I came across this recent article (plus a very informative 20 minute video) on the various Atari 2600 computer peripherals. They discussed and showed information on several announced (and eventually cancelled) components to adapt the 2600 into a home computer. The last half of the video is showing one that actually made production, the CompuMate. The video is very nicely done. Showing off the box, the unit, internals, and the 2600 computer in operation. Very high quality video as well. I thought this might be of interest to some, as at least for myself I certainly have little familiarity with the Atari 2600 computer line. https://hackaday.com/2020/02/29/converting-an-atari-2600-into-a-home-computer-did-that-ever-work/

So the short version of this is that Atari is expecting, by the end of March to early April, to have on hand enough parts at their factory to build 500 Atari Boxes. Which is roughly 5% of what they need just to fulfill their Indiegogo commitments. Depending on how long it takes for their factory to assemble 500 working units (such a small production run I expect would be hand assembled), and considering the slow shipping time to the US from China and you are looking at end of May/early June before any of these 500 units would likely be available to ship to backers. Even then, the huge majority (95%) would still have nothing. That is if Atari even does this very small run of Atari Boxes in the first place. It would make more sense (and be more cost effective) for them to just sit on the parts they have and wait for a larger portion of components to arrive before starting manufacturing rather then to knock off and ship multiple smaller batches. It was a joke at the time when I said it half a year ago 'I will be playing on my Amico before Atari Box backers ever get their units' but it is honestly looking more and more like the truth. Atari is still nowhere close to ready to even begin manufacturing units in a quantity to deliver to their Indiegogo backers, and the the Amico should be starting their manufacturing in just a few months time to be ready for its October release. There is a rapidly increasing possibility that I may just be right this time.

It is all scripted, but there is no way to fake falling 20 feet onto a table. Mick Foley is just insane :D Always entertaining to watch, but absolutely zero sense of self-preservation.

Umm, this seems very unlikely? As the Intellivision customer service rep would have no way of linking your actual name with your AA forum nickname, I find it somewhat implausible that they would just up and ask you to delete your posts on the forum. Or perhaps if you had mentioned to them that you posted about not receiving a refund on the AA Amico forum, they then replied with something along the lines of 'As we have now completed your refund, you can delete your request in the Amico forum'. Which would not be a demand, but more like the Intellivision staff member trying to make sure that your requests in various formats for a refund are all showing as being properly resolved. i see nothing nefarious in that kind of request. Regardless, only you and Tommy are the ones with all the information on this. If it this much of a problem for you, it might be more practical just to DM Tommy directly about it rather then you two doing a 'I said, they said' back and forth in the forum over it.

It does sound like this is hitting the entire gaming industry hard. Nintendo is reporting having production problems with production of the Switch and expects shortages and delays, XBox and Playstation are also reportedly pushing back their new consoles due to production delays as well. Hahaha, the hardcore gamers could be rioting in the streets by the end of the year over these shortages

Seeing this topic has veered temporarily into Atari Box territory, I will point out that this touches on a an excellent point of the large differences between Atari and Intellivision. By my understanding, Intellivision has multiple investors and partners helping shoulder the expenses until production starts and the units hit the market. If manufacturing costs along the way go up, the final price of the console can still be adjusted to compensate. So while it is hard perhaps to nail down exact pricing for an Amico currently, I have no doubts it will be produced and available. For Atari, the only money they have to work with is the Indiegogo backer money; 3 million. Every expenditure Atari has comes out of that, there is no additional funds available or going in. So every production delay means more of the backers money being spent on things other then the direct production of the units. Likewise increased costs such as material and labour also have to come out of this 3 million; again reducing the amount available to actually produce units. After three delays, and number four to be announced at any time (No chance of Atari meeting their March 31st delivery date); if I were a backer I would be having serious concerns about how much money Atari has left at this point to actually produce the units to fulfill their Indiegogo obligations to their backers. Every delay or increase moves Atari that much closer to 'This is a difficult letter to write... Indiegogo means you were buying into a vision, not into a product...' territory where Atari just walks away. So in my opinion, Intellivision is the much more secure company financially and the one more likely to actually produce an actual product. Anyways, long-winded rant aside, any rough idea about when the reveal of the new Amico games will happen? I loved the Astrosmash and Night Stalker trailers (I still want to call them Astroblast and Dark Caverns; my 2600-ness showing though), and eagerly await to see what is coming up next!

Oh I feel you on this one! It is going to be a long, long wait until October. Thankfully Tommy is bridging the gap with constant updates and information, still....

Well, I suppose seeing as Atari already has the backers Indiegogo money and it is now 100% completely up to them if and when they deliver; with absolutely no recourse for said Indiegogo backers if Atari fails, bails or in the quite fitting words of Darth Vader 'I am altering the deal, pray I don't alter it any further' then I suppose comforting self delusion is considerably less stressful then facing the reality that Atari has had substantial problems with the Atari Box, is horribly behind schedule and is very soon going to have to post about yet another delay. Or that by their own metrics they are still not any closer to production then they were six months ago (still in prototype stage, with small batch test unit runs only).

It is hard to tell from the photo, and they only posted the one, but I would say it is brown? I would go with the majority opinion here, and say at some point someone made this themselves out of two parts machines. It seems sensible, but it does make me a little curious at to what someone did to a much newer INTV System III to render the console itself inoperative so that they used the controllers from it to repair an older model of console. Ah well, it is a bit of a mystery! I was just curious if INTV was at some time using up any existing old Intellivision stock and making hybrid systems, but it seems it is just someones do-it-yourself repair job. Still looks rather interesting though, if a bit odd.

I was doing some snooping online and found this Intellivision listed for sale somewhat close to my location. What jumped out at me was the number pads are black and the direction discs are silver, rather then both being the usual gold. Doing some additional digging around online, the controllers look like they are very similar (if not identical) to the ones designed for the Intellivsion System III. The console itself is certainly not a System III. Which now has me curious if old existing console stock was being used up with new hardware (in this case controllers) as needed, or if someone just Frankensteined a console together themselves at some point out of the two different systems? I might nab it just as a curiosity, if nothing else. The price is seems very reasonable, and they say it is in working condition. Plus, my cousin could use one to replace his system which quit working about 20 years ago.

It looks a little like Omega Race; if the developer had access to modern technology and a fair bit of LSD Hahaha, honestly as a huge fan of Omega Race, I could absolutely get behind playing a game like this on the Amico.

The news here this morning was running a story about a staff member at a New Hampshire hospital, who had tested positive for Corona was was supposed to be self-quarantined, decided to break his quarantine to attend a conference. As there seems to be always a few who cannot act responsibly, I do hope you are keeping the handshakes to a minimum and/or using plenty of sanitizer at your events! To bring the conversation back to Amico (and consoles in general) I am wondering how many people are keeping up on the news and foreseeing an industry-wide console shortage due to China's Corona quarantines and related manufacturing problems/delays? I would imagine there are more then a few people wanting to get in on special editions/pre-orders to assure they get themselves one in case of limited availability. Resellers on eBay might make a mint this year if there is indeed a console shortage.

It the pack-in for this by any chance 'Call of Doody'? I'll just see myself out now. Seriously though... wow. I mean I keep Angry Birds on my phone just in case for extended WC stays; but this level of bathroom gaming is more then a little disturbing.

Well, they certainly would not be ordering another Founders Edition. Tommy had mentioned he has quite the waiting list of people for any free units that became available. This demand being no small part of what is driving this very discussion of having a VIP Special Edition. Much like cancelling your reservation at a very popular restaurant, that spot is instantly gone and issued to someone else as soon as you say you don't want it anymore.

As one of the backers of the FE (and proud possessor of the bragging rights for the closest guess to the FE sell-out time) I am quite cool with a VIP edition. If the VIP package is not replicating the FE perks, I do not see it as devaluing my Founders Edition. If there is a high and consistent volume of requests for another special edition from those who missed out on the FE, it would be both poor customer relations and an insane business strategy to ignore this demand for your product. I would also say that around E3 would get you the most bang for your buck. It is a high profile event, and you could promote the availability of the VIP Special Edition to those checking out the Amico display. It might catch the interest of attendees who are now impressed with the system after having a bit of hands-on time with the demo consoles and games. But that is also 4 months away, which a long time to wait and put off those currently expressing interest in ordering now. Hahaha, it is a tough call! I certainly do not envy you having to make these decisions!

Haha, I guess I stand corrected then. Apparently at least some are quite pleased by this news; which I find rather surprising. I would have suspected there would have been at least a few 'So where are our games for the Atari Box?' queries.

A bit of Atari news today. It seems they are releasing a mobile version of Missile Command, being called 'Missile Command: Recharged' and is being released this spring. I am willing to bet the Atari Box supporters are going to be rather irate that Atari seems to have found the staff, time and resources to design new games to chase that big mobile gaming market money; but have absolutely nothing for designing anything 'exclusive' for their Atari Box system. It certainly does not look promising for the longevity of the system when it is not even out of prototype stage yet and it seems Atari is already moving on to developing other projects. It seems for Atari that chasing new revenue is a much higher priority then honouring their existing commitments is. Addendum: There is a short animated GIF in the article that shows the mobile Missile Command app. Not personally appealing but I imagine they will still make a few bucks off it. https://www.polygon.com/2020/3/3/21162288/atari-missile-command-recharged-android-ios