Tavi

Ouch >_< That is a terrible deal. I am thinking they must have been starstruck with the once-prestigious name 'Atari' and failed to do any due diligence into what the company has actually been doing (or failing at, to be more accurate). At this point I am not sure Atari could find a way to turn a profit selling ice cold water in a desert, so WonderOS banking on anything resembling a cut of these non-existent Atari profits is a grim prospect. Either that, and perhaps slightly hilariously, each one signed with the expectation the other will bail them out of their companies problems. That at least has the potential for some serious entertainment!

The big problem is the controllers are proprietary to the Amico. It is not like a Nintendo or PlayStation where if they give you a cheap controller, you can just get one you like better and use it instead. Tommy had mentioned many times the controllers are unique, and Amico games are going to be specifically designed for them. While you can use a cellphone or alternate controller, and I believe mention at one time was made Bluetooth controllers can link to the console, you will not be getting the full experience. In short, the console at launch is going to sink or swim in no small part by how the controllers work. The Amico can have the best games ever made, but if the controllers are poor and there is no real alternative to using them, the system is going to rapidly get bad reviews and for a smaller company looking to get themselves (re)established that kind of talk can hurt their sales badly. I would think that the consoles controllers are one place they absolutely cannot cheap out on.

I like that at around 24 minutes in Tommy shows off a Tandyvision One and declares it the best vintage Intellivsion console. Growing up one of the neighbour kids had a Tandyvision, and I always loved the woodgrain look to it as well. I was ecstatic that just a few weeks ago I finally found one for a really reasonable price. I know it is just a different shell to make it a Radio Shack model but damn it looks nice! The FE Amico and it are going to match wonderfully.

There is nothing wrong with adding features or updates to add content to a game to extend its life (and sales, of course). Fallout 3 or Borderlands 2 are excellent examples of this. A great and 100% complete core game with several completely optional DLC's to extend playability being released later. What I object to is supposedly 'complete' games like Crusader Kings II being sold, that play more like a demo of a game then an actual game. Which I see they have finally made Free to Play on Steam; but for years it was being previously sold for around 40$ (though a few times a year it was on sale). Still, at the time you spent up to 40$ to buy the game. Then you quickly realized you need the 50$ DLC package just to make it playable. If you want to play something resembling the full game, now you are shelling out around an extra 200-300$. It is an extreme example, but I feel the trend is games are moving slowly towards this model; piling on those profitable micro-transactions and not-very-optional DLC's on top of an already hefty AAA title price.

To completely derail this topic, but I am wondering if this system does have a 'VCS on a chip' if these units could be a suitable replacement for those looking for the holy grail Jr. 2600's with the single chip? From my understanding they are quite rare, and also difficult to discover if a system actually has one or not short of opening the case up.

... this comment by VM pretty much nails this latest Atari 'Good News Everyone!' (It helps if you read that with a Professor Farnsworth voice) announcement right on its head. In reading it it seems Atari is pleased to announce their buying a platform to get their foot in the door with the mobile gaming market. Which Arzt is probably ecstatic about as his driving motivation seems to be getting Atari stock values up just long enough for him to cash out and scamper. Reading a few of the Indiegogo posts it seems at least some of the Atari Box backers are a little less then impressed with Atari looking at expanding into new markets when they have yet to deliver anything to those still waiting on their already much delayed 'un-console'. Perhaps as was suggested, Atari should concentrate on finally producing an Atari Box before worrying about the potential for cross-platform sales. At least that is how you would do it if you were honestly trying to build a system you intended to support. If you are just continuously and desperately chasing a buck then of course you are always looking for the next sale rather then worrying about those who's money you already have pocketed. I certainly would be worried as a backer that Atari is already seemingly back-burnering their own product before it is even finished. It certainly does not look promising for how well or long they intend to support it; provided it does even reach market.

I am thinking there are a lot more kids that can figure out how to plug a console cord back into a wall socket then can hack a console password. Plus, depending on how it is handled, say if they include something like a countdown that pops up occasionally in the corner of the screen 'You have XX minutes of playtime left' it would ease the kid into it and be a little less traumatizing then having someone just shut the console off abruptly and tell you your time is up. You can always yell, argue and plead with a parent, but it is considerably less effective doing it with a console. I imagine kids understand that so there would be less direct conflict when the programmed time limit is reached.

You are skipping over one feature of parental control that I suspect will be very practical and of interest to some parents, the ability to limit play time on the console. While TV and gaming is almost expected to entertain children in lieu of parenting attention, the ability to set limits like 'Only X amount of hours a day' or 'Console turns off after 9PM' can be a useful feature to help make sure the kid(s) also spends time doing their homework, chores, eating, attending to personal hygiene (bathing, brushing teeth), and the like. Some young kids (Heck, some adults do at that) lack an ability to self regulate time between work and play. Given the choice I imagine many would rather spend the entire day playing games and doing nothing else.

This is why the last few years I outright refuse to buy any new AAA title on release. You pay 40-60$ for what is all to often now a barely playable bare bones base game. Then they immediately start with a stream of exclusives, DLC's, scenario/add-on's, skins and anything else they can think of to hit you in the wallet with. It is a lot more economical to wait until everything is released, and then buy it as one complete package. But unfortunately there seem to be a too many people all too happy to drop 100-150$ into a single title buying it a piece at a time, so studios keep developing games to this formula because it is highly profitable for them.

E.T. might just be now the one satisfied backer of this project? It would be interesting to hear if he had been demanding a refund (in which case, good on you for getting it!) or if they forced one one just to get him out of their hair? I am still waiting for Atari to announce their third delay, which I expect will have a few more howling for their money back. Just 6 days ago their 'big news' was a limited run of pre-production development test units. Though to be completely fair their accompanying video of the Atari Box actually powering on and functional was an unexpected reveal. I would be absolutely astounded and more then a little concerned if their next announcement (supposedly there will be one today?) was for full production. I would question if anyone has even received their dev kit Atari Box in only six days from China; let alone had a chance to thoroughly test it and put it through its paces prior to greenlighting for production.

I expect that is exactly why he is doing this? Hoping to make a name for himself and get 'youtube discovered' for his relentless bashing of Tommy and the Amico. I would have never believed it if I did not see it for myself, but sometimes you can become a professional asshat (like Logan Paul) and rake in the fans and money just for being a complete idiot online. Thankfully, this does not seem to happen successfully very often. Like wining the lottery, chances are it will never happen to the majority all wanting it to happen.

Don't knock FTL's Dungeon Master until you try it. The graphics are pretty 'meh' by today's standards, but the game itself holds up beautifully. Huge dungeons, challenging puzzles and monsters. Hidden treasures and passages.... This game and Chaos Strikes Back was what put Atari ST gaming on the map, it was basically their 'Halo'. It also invented the 3D dungeon crawl. There are still fan sites running for this series, and more recently spawned a very well received spiritual successor series of games, the 'Legend of Grimrock'. Not too shabby for a thirty year old game! Once certainly could do a lot worse then to emulate the Dungeon Master style of dungeon crawl.

The ones listed here on AtariAge are called 'Stickler''s I believe? https://atariage.com/forums/topic/295803-happy-40th-intellivision-pre-interest-thread-for-limited-edition-custom-stickler-sets/ As of January it seems they still had a few sets left, if you were interested.

I found a video that was posted today on Youtube by Tim's Tiny Arcade where they review 'Intellivision Lives!' with some talk about the Amico and about the re-imagined AstroSmash and Night Stalker games while playing the originals. No real new information, but it is nice to hear people excited by the Amico console and what we have been shown so far in games. I am also rather envious of his Pac-man and Atari collection, and his video intro is done by Jon St. John (Duke Nukem) which is pretty awesome in itself! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBh6AOu24xI

Looks like your VCS is now functioning perfectly! Missile Command is I think one of the more enjoyable games to play for the system, it works surprisingly well with a joystick. Glad to see you are up and running!

In reading the text from the update, it seems they have a functional design but are limiting the production so far to some 'dev kits'. I presume so the GUI can be built and tested on the actual hardware; and so that any ̶h̶o̶r̶r̶i̶f̶i̶c̶ ̶f̶l̶a̶w̶s̶ undocumented features of the unit itself are hopefully discovered before they go into full production. It does appear while they do have an operational system (which was certainly my big shock of the day), they are still not advanced enough with it to move out of the prototype stage and into production. Atari is quite a bit further ahead with the Atari Box then I thought; but I still cannot see them meeting their latest deadline for manufacturing and delivery.

I have to admit to being a little impressed. I honestly had some serious doubts that they were anywhere close to having a functional Atari Box. They still have absolutely no chance of meeting their March delivery deadline, and my 5 years old laptop can do everything the Atari Box just showed; but it seems Atari does at least have built an operational product. This is the the kind of meat-and-potatoes update they should be producing for their backers rather then 'No news is good news'. There would be a lot less worried and angry people if they did so.

I am always a little disappointed when eating at my local Taco Bell by how the tacos I get actually look. But they are cheap and do taste good, which are the truly important factors I suppose. ... and now I want some Taco Bell!

I would say Tommy has been showing mostly re-imagined retro games here because AA is for the most part a retro forum, so that is what is going to spark the most interest here. When he does Mom 2.0 I imagine he will show off a completely different set of games and talk console strengths that will appeal to to that demographic. While my mom might be truly excited by the revelation of a version of Yahtzee on Amico (Seriously; that is her 'must have' game on any system) and my sister would likely be interested in the time limiting parental controls, detailed information on either would not generate the same hype here I expect. Likewise I expect when he hits E3 the gaming talk will be more on the exclusive EWJ and the totally-not-Ecco games for the Amico, because these are games more well known across multiple platforms where a concentration on showing off retro games might get it unfairly labelled and dismissed as a variation of a Flashback console. You cannot fault Tommy for playing to his audiences, and sharing tidbits that he feels will generate the most interest for the upcoming console in these various groups.

There is 20 minutes of my life totally wasted. I kept waiting for someone, somewhere in this video to mention anything about the Amico. Instead it seems like an uninterrupted video stream of some guy just wandering around a gaming swap meet and making small talk with various people there. Clickbait title pretty much sums it up. The description beggars belief that the poster actually expected to somehow slide that by Youtube. Reported, and I feel pity for someone so angry and petty about Tommy and the Amico to actually do something so insanely immature and futile.

There are a lot of good card and board games out there to be sure. My brother and I play Catan when time allows (You usually need a few hours for it). I suppose part of what I found attractive with 'Once Upon a Time' is that the rules are not an absolute. There is no 'You rolled a 3, and needed a 4 or better; you lose'. It is I believe mostly up to the other players that decide if/when to interrupt the story or when a turn ends. So parents could easily play a lot more forgiving and less competitive game with their kids then say a group of teens or adults playing against each other. To be fair, I can see where this style of flexible rules could be causing serious problems with a group of kids trying to play this without some adult supervision. Still, there is no lack of excellent choices to look at when it comes to adapting card and board games to play with a console.

It seems Atari is finally being forced into producing another status report soon; that should be an interesting read. If I were a Atari Box backer, I would be fairly incensed at the sound of goalposts being dragged by Atari for the third time on a delivery date. "Weeks, not months' and 'March' were repeated promises; now that the deadline is almost here, suddenly the delivery date is 'still this spring'. Conveniently extending their deadline from anywhere between March to May. I had said this a week or two ago half in jest, but I really might be playing on my Amico before Atari finally manages to produce and ship their Atari Box. Months past their original shipping date, and still no real sign they are anywhere near ready for mass production. I am not shocked that even the more die hard supporters are starting to get upset at this point.

I was doing some random snooping online today (looking at Intellivision cartridges on eBay) and found something quite unexpected and very interesting, and might be right up the Family-Friendly theme of Amico. There is it seems a card game called 'Once Upon a Time' that is I would say is best described as friendly competitive. The object of the game is to create a good story, and to do so each player is dealt a hand of cards containing characters, objects, places, and events. It seems you tell a story based on these cards, and if you mention a character/object/place/event on a card another player has, they can 'interrupt' and then take over telling the story. The game ends when one player uses up all their cards (It seems every player also has an Ending 'moral of the story' card to be played last) and the story is then finished. I am not sure how interested they would be in offering a digital licence, but it does seem to be a popular game (with a few awards and nominations), they say a game runs from 20 to 60 minutes; so not a huge time sink, and it is family friendly. On the Amico there is the potential for things like animating the cards, having them interact with each other as the story goes on; and perhaps even an option to watch the completed story being told at the end? ... plus, Will Wheaton! https://www.atlas-games.com/onceuponatime/

Stocks and Bonds looks like a bit more complicated version of a board game that our family used to play called 'Stock Ticker'. It was quite simple to play. Essentially, you rolled three dice; one was to select a stock, one would be if it moved up or down, and one for how much it changes. The winner was decided after X amount of time or turns by who had the most money. Not terribly exciting, but it was easy enough my sister and I picked up how to play easily as kids and could play with the adults. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2680/stock-ticker

I do not know how to link/copy posts from another forum topic, but there was a modified .bin that works perfectly with Harmony (I have played it myself a fair bit with no problems). I will try to copy the link to the file for you at least: https://atariage.com/forums/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=669907