BiffMan

Hey, if you are deliberately misleading us to protect an announcement, I am totally cool with that. You didn't have to be dropping hints ahead of time at all, so just getting to feel like we're 'on the inside' and having fun analyzing who it is, has been a complete delight these last few days! Also, if it is really J Allard as @bigdaddygamestudio guessed, that is such a delightful, perfect addition and a complete slam dunk/wake up call on the elitists and haters. So I'll just keep enjoying the sliver of hope that's true, and be happy whoever it is because of how excited you are. 🙂

It's also a delightful bit of game balance... Green fireballs are when you finally start to use up lives more than ever, and the saucers help you restore shields quickly, but also munch on them. So you need shields more than ever, saucers both give and take them away, and you have to take additional risk darting out from under cover to get the saucers, also taking you off what you should be doing, which is picking off columns of enemies. It's fantastic, and starting at the 1st level after the full invis levels would have made a hell of a 'hard' mode. Pity that most people who played that, never saw the game in its full glory. Very glad you stuck with it and got to enjoy those levels!

Agreed. He also didn't say he hasn't talked to him in years like he did with everyone else. J's efforts to make XBLA a thing and his focus on multi-player gaming seem to make him a really good fit. As I said before, if it's not him then Tommy should really get him engaged as well. Can't think of anyone better to sort out online multi-player for Amico in 2022...:-)

JON here... Couldn't properly spell it with the 'H' in only 3 letters, but preferred it over my initials. Made me very happy to enter and felt 'cooler' and more eye-catching than straight initials.

Fantastic! Those green fireballs definitely up the ante, eh? The diving saucers are such a lovely surprise as well. Kudos to the dev for keeping some surprises till later. 🙂

In drift mode, you don't try to kill every enemy, you just wait until one is heading your general direction, try to get in front of it, or parallel and wail away on it. I definitely don't try to reverse 180 degrees on them, a 90 degree change is about the most I would bother with. Mostly just more relaxing/interesting and allows to to concentrate on aiming and firing while moving instead of constantly thrusting spastically all over the place. For me, drift mode makes the game feel a little unique, direct mode feels bland and frustrates me that I can't thrust and fire at the same time.

I just saw that myself and couldn't help but think how much more interesting it will be when Amico enters the broader discussion. That article nicely sums up how MS and Sony have painted themselves into a corner.

Absolutely more fun for me that way too, and that's the mode I'll use in 2055 when I next play again. Can't deny how much higher scoring it is in direct mode, even though it saddens me to admit.

Peak score 1,040,030 - disc speed, single shot, direct mode (grrrr), quick aiming, no pause, done with game for another 35 years.

Okay, I must concede direct drive mode is the superior scoring control method. Can't say I like it at all, but hard to deny what a difference it makes.

Tiny improvement over your original score...

Nice!!

Okay, regardless if he's not the current topic, when are you going to get J to join IE? All the time spent looking him up today just further cemented how great a guy he is and how great a fit he would be to IE. Make it so! 🙂

Agreed! So is this a preview of what that 6th game is going to be like? Some insane hybrid of Guess Who and internet scavenger hunt with a full on stalker vibe? System seller indeed!! 😁

Google is fun! Here's more! 🙂 ""I wasn’t burned out, just not the right person to get excited about Kinect, Windows gaming and VR,” he said." https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/319256/ExMicrosoft_exec_J_Allard_speaks_to_the_game_industrys_inherent_burnout_problem.php Sounds like a guy who might feel gaming was drifiting away from what made it fun for him.... If only there were some new product that would invigorate him and bring him back to his formative years gaming roots... Of course, Tommy is enjoying the hell out of this and probably laughing his ass off wondering why we stopped considering John Carmack so quickly... Lol

Credit to @bigdaddygamestudio on the guess, it just clicks and feels so right on a number of levels. And. Is. Hilariously. Awesome. (mic drop) 😁

"These games are easy to get into and a total blast, which makes them perfect for the gamer who doesn't have a lot of time and just needs a quick fix," said J Allard, chief XNA architect for Microsoft's (MSFT: Research, Estimates) Xbox team. https://money.cnn.com/2004/05/13/commentary/game_over/e3_column_gaming/index.htm Certainly a guy with a soft spot for classic gaming... Also he's 'top of the list' (alphabetically) of that Wiki list or company officers, per Tommy's other hint about his placement in the list being amusing.

It was trying to do the same thing in spirit, get people playing together. Entirely possible someone like that would be involved in couch co-op now. That said, I think the J Allard guess is on the money. What better way to 'mic drop' on the hardcore elitist than have one of the biggest Xbox guys on the Amico team.

The time line fits really well, he left Microsoft almost exactly 10 years ago and hasn't been doing any video game stuff since. I change my guess to J Allard as well. 🙂

Rob Pardo could be a possibility... Can't find reference of his being married, he's the right age, hasn't done much recently... And certainly having the World of Warcraft guy involved in Amico would be a tremendous vote of confidence.

I think that's likely. Many pioneers in Online Gaming have discussed that the driving force behind their creations was getting people playing together... Online was just a new way to do it at the time.

Congrats! I couldn't understand why a friend of mine was all freaked out about Crokinole until I saw his board and played a few games. It's completely awesome and having a good quality board really enhances the fun. Kudos also to the other excellent boardgames photobombing your new toy. Some great choices lurking in the background there! 🙂

It's not just a typo, it's a marketing strategy! You heard it here first, Tommy wrote "...Amico... to come with 17 pack-in games!!!" Paraphrasing is fun! Who needs responsible or accurate journalism these days? 😁

There are 2 of those "full invis" levels back-to-back and then it gets "easier" in as much as the following levels don't have invis enemies for a while. They do have other exciting treats to offer though. 🙂 Those 2 full invis levels are a real choke point to getting a decent game. Hang in there and don't forget the practice feature to replay your last level if you want to work on those levels a little bit.

Unofficial standings after Frogger (just trying to help out in case Jacob is busy with Life Stuff) (HIGH SCORES) 1. 62,910 IntyFanMatt [+11] 2. 37,910 Ace24 [+10] 3. 33,180 cmadruga [+9] 4. 30,510 cparsley [+7] 5. 29,900 gezkc [+6] 6. 27,980 BiffMan [+5] 7. 16,250 JasonlikesINTV [+4] 8. 15,510 dpisicane [+3] 9. 14,750 JacobZu7zu7 [+2] 10. 14,700 PlayerOne [+1] 11. 14,180 fakecortex [+1] 12. 12,510 wolfy62 [+1] 13. 11,460 ed1475 [+1] 14. 9,470 jblenkle [+1] 15. 6,550 roadrunner [+1] Rankings (through game 9) 1. BiffMan [+70] 2. gezkc [+66] 3. IntyFanMatt [+48] 4. cmadruga [+47] 5. JacobZu7zu7 [+43] 5. JasonlikesINTV [+43] 7. mr_me [+35] 7. wolfy62 [+35] 9. cparsely [+31] 10. Ace24 [+29] 11. dpisicane [+27] 12. Player One [+23] 13. jblenkle [+17] 14. fakecortex [+16] 15. m-crew [+13] 16. Intelligentleman [+12] 17. Intellfan [+10] 18. hoosierdadee78 [+7] 19. roadrunner [+5] 19. ed1475 [+5] 21. S.BAZ [+3] 22. t0spmad [+2] 22. Mister-VCS [+2]