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Intellivision Entertainment launching a NEW Intellivision console


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Holding the controller sideways, I can see one side button working okay. It's best to hold it vertically and it will work as a two button controller.

 

There shouldn't be any constraints of using the disc and keypad at the same time for the new games, so if the game is specifically written for the controller to be held sideways, then maybe you would be using only the keypads and not the barely accessible side buttons.

 

If the game requires both keypads and side action buttons, then I don't see any advantage of turning the controller sideways.

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I understand that they want to stick with the "original, but better" Intellivision controller concept, but I'd be really curious to know if any other controller concepts were even considered.

There have been quite a few mockups done here over the years.

New Intellivision Controller Concept

A New Intellivision Controller Possibility

Find me an old mock up of a new Intellivision Controller Concept


since the keypad area will now be an LCD touchscreen, so the keypads can be laid out as needed (or as desired) per game and no overlays needed, then this means that creating a compatible third-party controller will not be very cost effective - or practical

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I reread the topic and back in July, there were discussions about a possible cartridge port and two sides the modern and the legacy side. Hopefully, this is still the plan. I am just wondering why none of this was brought up in the reveal or the press release? I think this is the best of both worlds and hopefully will be in the final plans.

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I was hoping for a bubble overlay on the touchscreen. A flat touchscreen would be fine for games like utopia, sea battle, and las vegas texas holdem but not so much for baseball and basketball for example.

 

With the led lighting they can finally release the disco dancing tutor program they had planned in 1979.

 

Edit:

My understanding is that all the legacy intellivision games that they have the rights to will be included for free with a built-in emulator. I don't think they mention it because they don't want to look like another retro console that seems to be popular now. Eventually we will see the focus move to all new game concepts.

Edited by mr_me
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I'm excited for a new system and will definitely buy one.

 

However, I think that this will mainly appeal to the people who bought the Intellivision Flashback. I would be very surprised if they sold more of these than the Flashbacks, and I suspect Intellivision Entertainment is counting on selling way more of the new system. Unfortunately I doubt that young families who don't have any nostalgia for the Intellivision will pick this over a well-entrenched Nintendo system. Hopefully I'm wrong because I'd love to see this succeed...

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I don't know who the audience for this is. I work at Walmart (yeah, yeah) and we somehow sell a lot of these cheap 2d handhelds that have like 100s of lousy games built in them (not retro consoles, but original games developed in China or someplace). But those are like $25. This is close to the price of an Xbox One ($200-ish) and by the time it comes out, the Switch might be around that price as well.

 

And realistically, kids today are mostly on phones and tablets or playing Minecraft. A remake of a 40 year old Intellivision game with better graphics isn't going to lure them away from that.

 

The Ouya sort of covered this same ground as well. While that had a good Kickstarter, it never really materialized at retail.

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Also, yes, Tommy or Paul did explicitly say you can turn off the lighting effects -- I thought he said there would be switch to do so, but it could be in the settings somewhere too I suppose.

 

Oh yeah, that's right, Tommy did mention a switch on the console for the lights. I felt that fit with the "make it easy and don't bury obvious stuff in config menus" ethos. (I draw that last bit from his negative comments about Nintendo Switch's parental controls being buried in a config menu and easily missed/forgotton.)

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I was hoping for a bubble overlay on the touchscreen. A flat touchscreen would be fine for games like utopia, sea battle, and las vegas texas holdem but not so much for baseball and basketball for example.

 

I asked about that, as I had a similar concern. There are some affordances to help with games like Baseball, such as haptic feedback, and a raised home "dot". It's not completely flat. I imagine that will be refined based on gameplay feedback as the system comes together.

 

 

My understanding is that all the legacy intellivision games that they have the rights to will be included for free with a built-in emulator. I don't think they mention it because they don't want to look like another retro console that seems to be popular now. Eventually we will see the focus move to all new game concepts.

 

I think they were absolutely correct to downplay emulation, and leave it out of the announcement. From my perspective (and I say this based only on what I've seen and heard during the announcement), they seem to be using the past titles as a springboard, but want to be clear they're looking forward, not backward. I expect the focus to shift to new game concepts as well over time.

 

Don't get me wrong, I think it'll be cool to have jzIntv in there (assuming that it all works out and the current plans hold). I think it'd be downright weird if it were the star of the show.

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I reread the topic and back in July, there were discussions about a possible cartridge port and two sides the modern and the legacy side. Hopefully, this is still the plan. I am just wondering why none of this was brought up in the reveal or the press release? I think this is the best of both worlds and hopefully will be in the final plans.

 

There is no cartridge port on the unit, nor will there be. AFAIK, the plan is still to provide emulated versions of the originals, in addition to the handful of reimagined, updated versions. As for a cartridge port add-on, they've said they're open to it. There are USB ports on there in the current plan, and I know how to use them. ;-)

 

 

There shouldn't be any constraints of using the disc and keypad at the same time for the new games, so if the game is specifically written for the controller to be held sideways, then maybe you would be using only the keypads and not the barely accessible side buttons.

 

If the game requires both keypads and side action buttons, then I don't see any advantage of turning the controller sideways.

 

The side buttons act more like shoulder buttons in the sideways orientation.

 

And, of course, emulated Intellivision games will still have the keypad-vs.-disc limitation. The reimagined titles and new titles won't, though.

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I attended Tommy's speech about this thing, and came away cautiously optimistic.

They do have a decent business strategy: aiming to make simple (i.e. arcade era) games that anyone can pick up and play, and make the interface something your dad can figure out. What the Wii did, only not stopping with just the Wii sports. The console (as presented) has some cool features, and the price point is really good. Also, $3-$8 games.

Would I pay $150 for a wireless console that plays remakes of my favorite retro/intelly games running on a custom 2d chip? If the remakes were good, you bet. ...however, I have heard this pitch before. I'll wait and see if this even happens before getting interested.

The thing is, my wife would love this, if it ever gets released. She loves games, but hates the complex, dual analog, 25 button nonsense of modern games. She likes Burgertime and Pac Man. She'd play the hell out of something fun but simple like this. If they get this right... it could be a big deal. IF.

Edited by Lord Thag
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That's right - if they get it right. And "they" (Intellivision Entertainment and their investors) are taking that risk. Perhaps I'm still blinded by nerdy fandom because it's got Intellivision in the name (and in the box!), but the fact that this isn't​ Kickstarter / GoFundMe / IndieGoGo and that they've got some top-shelf talent on board in so many areas of this effort ratchets up my optimism several notches. There have been a lot of great things done on those platforms, don't get me wrong. Then again we also know that some spectacular failures and outright shady things happen on those platforms, too. This is different - IMO in a lot of the right ways.

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I already made a post on that Ataribox Taco thread, but I will say I would love the idea (in theory) of a console that's a 2D powerhouse, and maybe it'd be a great place to have a resurgence of old school genres to thrive in this day and age that have long died off or have pretty much become strictly indie genres (Shmups, Beatemups, Shooters like Contra, Metal Slug, Gunstar Heroes and the like) If it could have a decent library of games like those i'd be thrilled. I love shmups, whether it be Radiant Silvergun on the Sega Saturn or something simple and old school like Sky Shark on the NES. The thought of having shmups in the same vein as Radiant Silvergun makes my mouth drool just thinking about it. I also would love some 2D style Zelda and Metroid games as well (Good ones, i'm well aware of all the indie Zelda and Metroid style game that are out there, but every one I have played has paled massively in comparison to Super Metroid and Zelda A Link to the Past)

 

I won't lie, I am much more pessimistic then I am positive, and honestly predict that at best, it will be as successful as the Ouya in a best case scenario. But they're not crowdfunding it, so all the power to them. It's a big uphill battle, and if they pull off an unlikely outcome and create something worth buying i'll more then gladly fork over my money for it. I would love to be wrong and they come out with some kick-ass, 2D powerhouse machine.

 

My biggest concern as of right now, this early in the whole thing, is that if they want it to be family friendly. Will they deem Double Dragon/Streets of Rage/River City Ransom/Golden Axe style beat-em ups or shooters like Contra or Metal Slug as too violent and won't want those things on their console?

 

Anyways, here the post I made in that Taco thread

 

Claims to be a 2d powerhouse and will be better at 2d games then Playstation and Xbox, yet games will only cost $2-8. Are they targeting kids with all games being E10+ and E? But the Intellivision came out in 1979 and anyone that remembers it and has any positive nostalgia for it will be, at a minimum, in their 40s. There aren't any kids that will know what an Intellivision is, or much less be a big enough fan of it that they'll go giddy at a new console using the name.. All games exclusive to the system? Who will develop games exclusively for it? Theres some positives to being a big fish in a small pond, but an install base of a couple ten thousand (Heck, even a couple hundred thousand consoles) is way, way, WAY, WAY too small that any semi-competent dev won't even bother and waste their time to develop something worthwhile (exclusive, or a multi-plat game) for an install base that small. (Whis has already been discussed very, very in depth throughout this whole thread many times)

 

And yeah, the thing resembles a foot massager. Or a bathroom scale. Or something that you'd see in a hospital and/or clinic.

 

 

post-42460-0-92121300-1540415982_thumb.jpg
Edited by Pink
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Touting the power of the 2D chip is interesting and something I didn't really give much thought to until now. Frankly, I don't see how it will be more powerful than what PS4 or Xbox One brings to the table in terms of 2D. I have trouble thinking of AAA 2D games that have trouble running on or are limited by the power of those systems (and heck, even the Switch or older systems like the 360 or PS3) - in fact, the 2D games that are on there run beautifully. I struggle to see how indie developers will somehow push the Amico beyond what something like Cuphead, as just one example of a non-bullet-hell shooter, already brings, and even then, somehow don't think most things will even be in range of a game like that or even an older game like Rayman Legends. Even those types of games have hefty dev budgets.

 

So I guess the question is, just what will this supposed extra 2D horsepower actually bring us other than a bulletpoint on the box?

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Touting the power of the 2D chip is interesting and something I didn't really give much thought to until now. Frankly, I don't see how it will be more powerful than what PS4 or Xbox One brings to the table in terms of 2D. I have trouble thinking of AAA 2D games that have trouble running on or are limited by the power of those systems (and heck, even the Switch or older systems like the 360 or PS3) - in fact, the 2D games that are on there run beautifully. I struggle to see how indie developers will somehow push the Amico beyond what something like Cuphead, as just one example of a non-bullet-hell shooter, already brings, and even then, somehow don't think most things will even be in range of a game like that or even an older game like Rayman Legends. Even those types of games have hefty dev budgets.

 

So I guess the question is, just what will this supposed extra 2D horsepower actually bring us other than a bulletpoint on the box?

I could care less about whether or not it'd be capable of "better 2D" then the PS4 or Xbox One, if it could have a library in terms of quality that's on par or somewhat close with the Super Nintendo SNES, that's what i'm interested in.

 

I care about the quality of the games. I could care less if the 2D is "better" then the PS4 or Xbox One (whatever that means, who knows)

 

Graphics, specs, processors, blast processing,pixels per square inch/centimeter/millimeter, RAM, Gigabytes, Terabytes, Gold & Platinum HDMI connectors, 1080P/60FPS, 4K, all completely and totally irrelevant. If it has a library of games on par with the Atari Jaguar, I won't buy it for a penny, regardless of how good the internal specs are or how many Ram sticks they stuffed inside of the plastic case. Wouldn't even touch it with a 100 foot pole.

 

If it has "worse specs" but has a library of games on par with the Super NES, or at least has a handful of games on par with say Super Metroid or Zelda A Link to the Past, then i'll be all over it.

 

So overall, when I say I want a 2D powerhouse, I want a console with a library of kickass 2D games. I don't care whether or not it's capable of producing "Better 2D" then the PS4 or Xbox One. Using my definition, the Super NES is still the greatest "2D powerhouse" of all time. Heck, it's probably the greatest "Video game powerhouse" console to this day. It's library of games stands the test of time and the classic titles on the console are still incredible to this day and remain some of the greatest games of all time.

Edited by Pink
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I could care less about whether or not it'd be capable of "better 2D" then the PS4 or Xbox One, if it could have a library in terms of quality that's on par or somewhat close with the Super Nintendo SNES, that's what i'm interested in.

 

I care about the quality of the games. I could care less if the 2D is "better" then the PS4 or Xbox One (whatever that means, who knows)

 

Graphics, specs, processors, blast processing,pixels per square inch/centimeter/millimeter, RAM, Gigabytes, Terabytes, Gold & Platinum HDMI connectors, all completely and totally irrelevant. If it has a library of games on par with the Atari Jaguar, I won't buy it for a penny, regardless of good the internal specs are or how much the brand name Ram inside the plastic case cost them. Wouldn't even touch it with a 100 foot pole.

 

If it has "worse specs" but has a library of games on par with the Super NES, or at least has a handful of games on par with say Super Metroid or Zelda A Link to the Past, then i'll be all over it.

 

No, we get all of that, it's all about how the games play, whether they're fun, who cares about graphics or power, etc., but they're touting it as superior, right? So I'm wondering what that could possibly mean. They must have something in mind, right? I'm having trouble envisioning what form that might take. We already have cartoon-quality 2D games, we already have 2D games with practically unlimited bullets filling the screen, etc. So what does more power mean in this case, i.e., what could that translate to in terms of a tangible game? (and even if we ignore the limits of indie studios in terms of budget)

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...

 

Intellivision just simply doesn't have the brand power to get enough worthy developers on board to create quality experiences and limiting the type of content that gets released on the platform is very stupid.

 

A couple dudes in their 50's might get excited for this and thats about it.

LOL what? You'd have to be a special brand of stupid to make a statement like that. Hopefully no one that would come to a place like Atariage would be that dumb. . . would they?

 

;)

 

If you think this is going to appeal to the market that matters (i.e.18 - 35 age group) then you don't understand the gaming market at all. Again, Intellivision doesn't have strong brand power. The majority of people who owned an Intellivision are in their 40's and 50's. Thats not enough to push this console to success. Like what does this system offer that is so great? You want new 2D games then go support some quality indie titles found on Steam and the current crop of consoles, or support the homebrew community that are making new games for old consoles that you already own.

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No, we get all of that, it's all about how the games play, whether they're fun, who cares about graphics or power, etc., but they're touting it as superior, right? So I'm wondering what that could possibly mean. They must have something in mind, right? I'm having trouble envisioning what form that might take. We already have cartoon-quality 2D games, we already have 2D games with practically unlimited bullets filling the screen, etc. So what does more power mean in this case, i.e., what could that translate to in terms of a tangible game? (and even if we ignore the limits of indie studios in terms of budget)

That's what I was thinking too. "2D" Powerhouse but all games will cost $2-8. And everything will be exclusive. What competent or semi-competent developer is going to waste their resources on developing something worthwhile that isn't a piece of shovelware that will sell for $2-8 to an install base of a couple ten thousand or couple hundred thousand (Let's be honest, a couple 100 thousand is probably best case scenario for this) They also said no micro transactions or DLC, so no chance for any developer to make any additional money after someone buys/downloads their game. While consumers would like that (I personally love it) Theres a lot of developers that won't like it.

 

I believe the Android and iOS ports of Square games such as Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger are like $15.99 regular price. $2-8 isn't a lot.

 

That brings up a good point. No DLC/Micro transactions, what kind of games are they anticipating people are going to develop as exclusives for this thing for $2-8? I'm foreseeing it'll have games similar to the free and $1-3 smartphone shovelware junk, and probably a ton of "educational" garbage since it's "family friendly" Just like that number munchers game i'm sure we all played in the computer lab back in elementary school. An educational Ouya, ughhh please God NO!!!!

Edited by Pink
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No, we get all of that, it's all about how the games play, whether they're fun, who cares about graphics or power, etc., but they're touting it as superior, right? So I'm wondering what that could possibly mean. They must have something in mind, right? I'm having trouble envisioning what form that might take. We already have cartoon-quality 2D games, we already have 2D games with practically unlimited bullets filling the screen, etc. So what does more power mean in this case, i.e., what could that translate to in terms of a tangible game? (and even if we ignore the limits of indie studios in terms of budget)

 

 

I agree, what kind of stuff are they envisioning people are going to develop for $2-8 with no DLC or Micro transactions and still be able to turn a profit?

 

Ouya sold what, 1 million consoles (Or so I heard) And the best selling Ouya game only sold 7000 (i'm sure most sold under a thousand or probably just a few hundred)

 

7000 sold with an install base of 1 million consoles.

 

7000 multiplied by $8 is $56,000. I'm sure we all know what people tend to ask for on Kickstarter and Indiegogo when trying to raise money for a game and how much money some of those projects pull in from backers pledging money toward them, and if you don't you can go take a look and browse their websites. It's usually much, much, much, more then $56k.

Edited by Pink
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There is no cartridge port on the unit, nor will there be. AFAIK, the plan is still to provide emulated versions of the originals, in addition to the handful of reimagined, updated versions. As for a cartridge port add-on, they've said they're open to it. There are USB ports on there in the current plan, and I know how to use them. ;-)

 

 

 

The side buttons act more like shoulder buttons in the sideways orientation.

 

And, of course, emulated Intellivision games will still have the keypad-vs.-disc limitation. The reimagined titles and new titles won't, though.

With emulation you can cross-map the keypad if you want. I'm doing it now with jzintv, it works fine as long as it's not a standard intellivision controller. Whoever sets up the emulation on the Amico might not give you that option.

 

So, do you think you can make a usb cartridge port add-on that's compatible with 100% of all cartridges, old and new. Will Intellivision Productions want to lock out any third-party cartridges.

 

Touting the power of the 2D chip is interesting and something I didn't really give much thought to until now. Frankly, I don't see how it will be more powerful than what PS4 or Xbox One brings to the table in terms of 2D. I have trouble thinking of AAA 2D games that have trouble running on or are limited by the power of those systems (and heck, even the Switch or older systems like the 360 or PS3) - in fact, the 2D games that are on there run beautifully. I struggle to see how indie developers will somehow push the Amico beyond what something like Cuphead, as just one example of a non-bullet-hell shooter, already brings, and even then, somehow don't think most things will even be in range of a game like that or even an older game like Rayman Legends. Even those types of games have hefty dev budgets.

 

So I guess the question is, just what will this supposed extra 2D horsepower actually bring us other than a bulletpoint on the box?

Maybe what they mean is that their development system will be geared for 2D development. So 2D games will be easier and cheaper to program.

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Touting the power of the 2D chip is interesting and something I didn't really give much thought to until now. Frankly, I don't see how it will be more powerful than what PS4 or Xbox One brings to the table in terms of 2D. I have trouble thinking of AAA 2D games that have trouble running on or are limited by the power of those systems (and heck, even the Switch or older systems like the 360 or PS3) - in fact, the 2D games that are on there run beautifully. I struggle to see how indie developers will somehow push the Amico beyond what something like Cuphead, as just one example of a non-bullet-hell shooter, already brings, and even then, somehow don't think most things will even be in range of a game like that or even an older game like Rayman Legends. Even those types of games have hefty dev budgets.

 

So I guess the question is, just what will this supposed extra 2D horsepower actually bring us other than a bulletpoint on the box?

 

The whole deal w/ the 2D chip is one of the few big alarm bells for me. There's a thread for this on another forum (ResetEra), and one of the posters there named Krejlooc had a couple of really good posts about how 2D hardware worked in the old systems and how systems like the PlayStation changed all of that because of them having a full framebuffer you could access, and just enough RAM to work with. I'll try my best to summarize but I might not have the details as well-put as them. If you're interested just check out their posts https://www.resetera.com/posts/14013694/ , https://www.resetera.com/posts/14015829/ , and https://www.resetera.com/posts/14042432/ (in fact I recommend reading those b/c I might have certain things misunderstood below that those posts correct)

 

Basically, older 2D systems used vector quantization, a form of data compression. Pre-PlayStation (and Jaguar) systems never had enough RAM to ever directly address the full pixel range of a framebuffer, and/or were too slow processor-wise to do so, so an older 2D game's backgrounds would be built based on tile sizes (like 8x8, or 16x16) and each of these tiles could have certain ranges of color defined to them, depending on resolution and color-depth modes being used. This is where other concepts like palettes came from, and clever devs could accomplish effects like waterfall animations etc. by essentially composing base tiles for the waterfall pixels out of tilesets, composite them into a waterfall, then cycle the palettes using various hardware features to make the effect look like its a convincing animation.

 

Stuff like that saved immensely on the RAM footprint that would otherwise be eaten up without vector quantization being enforced at the hardware level; it also helped alleviate the CPUs of some cycles which was sorely needed since game CPUs were generally slower compared to microcomputer and PC CPUs (even of that time). The idea of sprites came about to define assets that could be moved and positioned anywhere on the screen on a more pixel-based basis instead of tile-based, otherwise all games would have "snapping" with animations that wouldn't allow for smooth scrolling (since each frame of movement would be on a tiled bases of every 8 pixels, every 16 pixels etc.).

 

What all of this meant was that 2D systems of the past could never access their entire framebuffer ranges completely, be it to either read or write to pixels. It also meant that many of those systems had ranges in their framebuffers that could only be accessed (either read or write) as a range of pixels, instead of individual pixels. The Jaguar was the first system in gaming (that I'm aware of) that had a direct framebuffer memory access, but it had a range of other problems negating this innovation. The Saturn had a lot of custom support for 2D graphics and enough RAM to technically have a full direct framebuffer memory to access, but that was only in terms of reading; it would still need to access certain ranges of pixels in a framebuffer to write to certain ranges of pixels (you can think of this as basically duplicating all the pixel values in that accessed range except for the specific pixels you KNOW you want to change, which would be altered when the framebuffer image was replaced for the next frame cycle), but in this case the memory bandwidth, CPU bandwidth and system RAM amount mitigated that as an issue. However, the Saturn did 3D a bit odd b/c its geometry and transformation hardware for manipulating sprites into 3D objects was in the other VDP, which would then pass the transformed sprite back to the first VDP to put to the final framebuffer image.

 

The PlayStation had all of its polygon generation and transform hardware on a single GPU IC (integrated circuit), so it didn't need to go through the steps the Saturn did. The system had enough RAM, bandwidth, and CPU/GPU speed to also have a direct framebuffer memory, BUT it could ALSO write to individual pixels in the framebuffer, unlike the Saturn. This and other issues is why it was generally better at 3D graphics, while the custom 2D hardware and bigger RAM pool gave the Saturn a better performance in 2D games (PlayStation did not actually do "sprites" like older systems or the Saturn did; sprites on PS1 were basically flat polygons with textures slapped on them, like how 3D polygons on Saturn were basically transformed sprites).

 

Now the thing to take from this is simple: while specialized 2D hardware was still important with the 5th gen systems, nowadays current 3D systems have enough RAM and are fast enough to do 2D games in a way much more accessible than older systems ever allowed. Plus, GPUs these days have programmable shaders, which just make it that much easier. So technically you can make any of the current systems today act like 2D systems from the past without any issues other than perhaps if you're doing sprites at certain large sizes and resolutions pushing them to hundreds of MBs each one, and you need like a dozen of them uncompressed in a system's RAM (nevermind the space you'd need to store music, sound effects and other game assets).

 

If there's anything the Amico could be looking at to make modern 2D more doable, it could be that, and maybe they're working with something based around SVG (Scaleable Vector Graphics)-like techniques but for raster images? Because there is definitely a certain "look" to raster 2D that vector-based 2D does not have, and vice-versa, and if they're working on a processor to bring the benefits of vector-based 2D to raster-based 2D (namely, flexible scaling with lossless compression, artifacts or pixelization, and path-like features to aid in animations...there is actually some Japanese animation product on the market ATM which does this sort of thing, but that's in terms of art production), then we could be looking at something pretty interesting there.

 

...otherwise, the whole "21st century 2D" talk is just for marketing, because there's nothing hardware-wise making PS4, XBO or Switch any worst for 2D than SNES, Saturn or Neo-Geo. Hell, they're actually better at 2D than those systems ever were, the real issue now is lack of budget allocated to producing 2D graphics and animations. People seem to forget that at some point, games like Chrono Trigger, Alien Soldier, Metal Slug and SF3 were the "AAA" games of their day, meaning they had pretty big teams (for the time) put on them, and big resources as well. 2D games these days generally don't have that caliber of a workforce involved, or that amount of budget, meaning what budgets and team sizes (and/or talent) are involved usually lack the time and money to pour into comparable 2D artwork for their games. It's not a tech issue, it's a budget/time issue.

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...Whoever sets up the emulation on the Amico might not give you that option.

Well, since we’ll be using JzIntv that question can be best answered by IntvNut.

 

...Maybe what they mean is that their development system will be geared for 2D development. So 2D games will be easier and cheaper to program.

In reference to the Amico’s 2D performance vs current consoles, that’s exactly what was meant. Unfortunately, that was not communicated well during the PRGE keynote.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my Keyboard Component using Jack's Conversational Intelli-talk cassette

Edited by nurmix
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With emulation you can cross-map the keypad if you want. I'm doing it now with jzintv, it works fine as long as it's not a standard intellivision controller. Whoever sets up the emulation on the Amico might not give you that option.

 

I'm sure we'd work toward optimized maps for each game. "Cross-mapping" only works for the games that ignore the controller number, letting you use both controllers to manipulate the player.

 

 

So, do you think you can make a usb cartridge port add-on that's compatible with 100% of all cartridges, old and new. Will Intellivision Productions want to lock out any third-party cartridges.

 

I don't think anyone would promise 100%. At least, not anyone sane.

 

The Intellivision itself doesn't even achieve 100%, given that the Keyboard Component requires an Intellivision 1, while the System Changer requires an Intellivision 2 (or modified Intellivision 1, modified in a way that makes it incompatible with the Keyboard Component). And, we've seen homebrew cartridge board designs that work on Intellivision 2 and then fail on Intellivision 1 until they're fixed.

 

FWIW, I have zero plans to support the System Changer, PlayCable, and the IntelliExpander (should it be revived), for example. (decle's impressive work with the PlayCable notwithstanding.)

 

And if Bee3 or the Hive ever come back to life, I would need to work with GroovyBee to ensure compatibility with his non-standard extensions. That's really not up to me. I can do my best, but I won't make promises that aren't mine to keep.

 

I'm not as sure about the Keyboard Component, but don't hold your breath. (But hold mah beer! 8))

 

 

Maybe what they mean is that their development system will be geared for 2D development. So 2D games will be easier and cheaper to program.

 

I definitely think "2-D ethos" is the key here. I imagine they're exploring their options. Even the nominally 2-D Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, NES and SNES had 3-D-ish games. (Esp. car racing games, Space Harrier, and World Runner 3-D.) Heck, even the original Intellivision had Zaxxon, Turbo, and Grid Shock. Granted, I wouldn't list any of those three as great games... Maybe a better example is Treasure of Tarmin or Star Strike.

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