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RxScram

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Posts posted by RxScram

  1. Posted

    3 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

    Yo!,

     

    Just wanted to let everyone know that today we hired an absolute game industry LEGEND as our Managing Director of Intellivision.  The game industry and press are gonna FREAK when they find out who is helping to work on Amico now!  Talk about a mic drop moment!

    He's a friend who contacted me a few weeks ago.  He's been retired for over 10 years (yet still a young guy) and didn't think anything would ever get him out of retirement... until he saw what we were doing with Amico.  He was just calling to congratulate me on everything and 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).  Him and his brother grew up playing Intellivision and it's the inspiration behind his gaming career and one of the most famous gaming products on the planet.  I said why don't you come and work with me on it!  He was blown away by the idea.  This is a guy who doesn't do things for money... but out of sheer passion.  By the next morning after speaking with his finance, he was all in and ready for the adventure!

     

    The bad news is that I can't tell anyone who it is right now as we're putting together a big press release about it which should be out over the next few weeks.

    But WOW! WOW! WOW!  Even hardcore gamers aren't gonna believe this one.  :)

     

    @RxScram & @nurmix know who it is... I'm pretty sure they are over the moon and are both extremely ecstatic and impressed... but I'll let them talk about it in their own words (without giving any hints of who it is!!)

     

    Score another BIG point for Intellivision today!!

     

    Can't wait to share this info with the rest of the world!

     

     

    Oh man, @Tommy Tallarico is right. It blew my mind when Tommy sent out the intro email to the company, and everything I've seen since has just validated and increased my excitement! I've got to be extremely careful about how much I say, because it's so easy to want to sneak a little hint into my post. Let's just say that it's a huge deal, and leave it at that!

    • Like 13
    • Thanks 1

  2. Posted

    10 minutes ago, save2600 said:

    ...but will it someday soon? Been said if there's enough interest, but how is that gauged? Think I can speak for most of us here at AA when I say we'd surely appreciate such a feature.   :)

    It won't be soon... I wouldn't expect 2020 or 2021, and my personal thought on it is that I'd prefer it wouldn't ever be supported. It drastically increases the development costs of games, and again it gets away from the mission of the console of bringing people together in the same room. Of course, if @Tommy Tallarico does want to do it, I'd be 100% behind it!

    • Like 7

  3. Posted

    19 hours ago, Battlefish said:

    Would USB headphone support be possible? (Or even a headphone jack on the console itself?)

    USB headphone support is more likely to be happen than bluetooth support. Again though, it might not be supported immediately because the firmware and software teams are focused on core functionality, rather than supporting 3rd party peripherals. We will likely add support for all sorts of peripherals in the future. (Please keep in mind that any statements I make about what we may or may not support in the future are my own conjecture, and not company policy. For that, talk to @Tommy Tallarico.)

     

    Headphone jack is not going to happen.

     

    There are 2 main reasons for no headphone jack ->

    1. It gets away from the vision of Amico, which is bringing people together. We want to get away from the solitary gamer wearing headphones!

    2. It is an extra part (actually many extra parts, but only one part that is visible to the end user) that few people would use, and would unnecessarily increase the cost of the system.

    • Like 8
    • Thanks 3

  4. Posted

    5 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

     

    Great question.  That's never come up as we're always talking about family & friends together.  Not sure if that would be possible.

     

    This sounds like a question for the amazing and wonderful @RxScram!

    Take it away Jeff!

     

    Possibly, but it's not something we'll support right away. We're already pushing the limits for the number of connections and the amount of data we can push through a single bluetooth host. Perhaps a future firmware update will add support, but we'll probably be busy adding cool new accessories instead!

     

    With that in mind though... a lot of tvs nowadays already support bluetooth audio. Why not pair your headphones to the tv?

    • Like 13
    • Thanks 3

  5. Posted

    10 hours ago, Jeffrey Bouchard said:

    Apparently, they do exist FYI. https://www.amazon.com/Micro-Memory-Card-Adapter-Slot/dp/B07SSDVGJ9/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=2tb+micro+sd+card&qid=1588044389&sr=8-5
     

    How many times over would that hold the Amico library?

    Those are fake... basically, they format the descriptor table to fool the computer into reading 2 TB, but if you actually use it it will fail horribly. There's a reason it costs ~$80, but the Sandisk 1TB costs ~$229.

    • Like 14
    • Thanks 2

  8. Posted

    12 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:


    I don't think a 128GB micro should be an issue.  @RxScram??  Can you confirm??

    In regards to the phones as controllers.  They work great for party games.  I wouldn't recommend them for action games though... although the button attachments do make them a LOT more playable.  Especially games like Skiing, Shark! Shark! and even Night Stalker!  @nurmix will confirm!

     

    Hey @Tommy Tallarico,

     

    Yep, 128GB is not a problem!

    • Like 10
    • Thanks 1

  9. Posted

    1 minute ago, IntelliMission said:

    Hey @RxScram, I live in Spain. As of today, what are the release dates and number of units for this country?

    Hey IntelliMission,

    Unfortunately I don't know! I do know that we're working with some of the biggest and best distributors in Europe, but as far as actual numbers dedicated to each country that's being handled by Hans in our Nuremberg, Germany office.

    • Like 6
    • Thanks 2

  12. Posted

    3 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

     

    Not familiar with Fluxx.  Will check it out.

     

     

     

    @RxScram is probably better qualified to answer this question.

     

    Jeff??

     

     

    It would be fine either way. Just to keep track of everything I'd leave it on the console. There are 2 independent safety circuits built into the controller and also the battery itself to prevent overcharging or other safety issues.

    • Like 6
    • Thanks 1

  17. Posted

    14 minutes ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

    one question I would like Tommy to answer if he cares to is this ( as what he has said in the past doesnt really add up)

    I love the idea of not allowing devs to get their games lost upon release, and Tommy has said that every game will have the spotlight for a week or so. Now perhaps that was just a mispeak or I misheard a couple times since there is only 52 weeks a years and the Amico has to release way more than 52 games per year after its initial release especially considering there are 5 classes of games.  10 games a year per category cant be right.  So perhaps Tommy can clarify what he means by the spotlight. Perhaps each category of game gets a game spotlighted for a week or 2 or until a new one hits in that category?

    I'm pretty sure the intention is just to release 50-ish games per year. Quality, not quantity.

    • Like 8

  18. Posted

    On 4/4/2020 at 5:27 PM, Michael Garvey said:

    @RxScram

     

    How is Tommy to work for?

     

    Is he as fun a boss as he seems?

     

    Is there a lot of ball busting and joking?

     

    You all seem very professional but also very relaxed in the videos (though some look like Tommy's bugging them and they want to just get back to work)

     

    😂😅🤣

    Hey @Michael Garvey,

     

    Sorry it took so long to answer this. I had to make sure @Tommy Tallarico wasn't looking over my shoulder when I answered.  😛

     

    Tommy is the best kind of boss... he's passionate about the project, hires people who are passionate (and damned good at what they do), and then gives directions (sometimes REALLY out there!) and then lets the team go to work. No need to micromanage, just an expectation that the people he hires is going to do what they are good at. Then, for the things he does, it's really eye opening to see somebody with his vision get to work. Audio, music, game design (more from the standpoint of "wouldn't it be more fun if this happened"), aesthetic design, etc.... he's just really damned good, plain and simple.

     

    The overall atmosphere is relaxed and fun, but with an expectation that you'll get done what you need to get done, and that you'll help the team achieve overall success.

    • Like 9
    • Thanks 4

  23. Posted

    2 minutes ago, Starpaddler said:

    Probably more important is the durability of what I am assuming is a pliable conductive material. Over time this could wear and decrease sensitivity, but I also know there are some kick ass materials for this out there.

    That's what I assumed he was asking about, and answered the question for.

     

    The disk contacts themselves use a carbon resin that should handle 10 million or so presses. Since there is no abrasion, just a pliable material that gets pressed over it, we see extremely low risk for that to be a point of failure.

    • Like 4

  24. Posted

    1 minute ago, Swami said:

    I was wondering about the polymer that covers the disk contacts to make it pressure sensitive. How resilient is that to being repeatedly compressed and deformed?

    FEA solver for elastomers puts it around 4.2 x 10^14 deformations at any point on the ring. When we do the mechanical testing we'll probably put it through a million or more, but I doubt we'll seriously stress any part of the ring.

     

    • Like 4

  25. Posted

    2 hours ago, vongruetz said:

    I happened to be looking at the XBOX website and noticed that a lot of the information about the Series X is about its fan and cooling features.  In fact, most of the information is all about the power of the processor and how great its cooling system is.

     

    This got me wondering, is Amico going to even have a fan?  Does it even need one?  

    And if it doesn't, does it have any mechanical moving parts?  I only wonder because those are always the things that fail in consoles. Disc drives break down. Hard drives fail. Fans stop spinning. I don't see anything like that on Amico and was wondering if I was missing something.  Are the buttons on the controller about the only thing that could mechanically fail?

    Currently the design intent is for natural circulation airflow. There is no fan. We still have to do environmental chamber testing to see how it performs in hot environments, but our models all suggest that it will not need active cooling. We do have design provisions in place in case it does become necessary, but we're pretty confident.

     

    The console has the power button, and the controller has the buttons and the disk assembly. Other than that, there's not much that can mechanically fail. 🙂  We're currently working on some mechanical stress testing to cycle the controller buttons and the disk assembly to the point of failure. The buttons are rated for a million cycles, and the disk is a unique enough design that it shouldn't have any failure mode at all.

    • Like 5
    • Thanks 2
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