Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

[+Tommy Tallarico]

1 hour ago, Atari_Master said:

I know, I just thought it would be cool to also have a joystick option too.

Someone could easily do it.  In fact... if the new AtariVCS joystick comes out and it's Bluetooth... there's no reason why someone couldn't get it to work with our system.   Would probably need one controller to navigate menu screens though.  A lot of our menu screen stuff happens right in your hand. 

 

[mr_me]

5 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

WB has basically told us we can have anything we'd like.  They are big fans of what we're doing and we have a lot of good friends there.  Would probably start with the Williams stuff!  Joust & Robotron first I think!

 

 

Surely you'd do the sixth highest grossing arcade game of all time "Defender".  It's also one of the hardest.  A better game than r-type in my opinion.

[+Tommy Tallarico]

23 minutes ago, vongruetz said:

Having Joust on Amico is my ultimate dream. It is perhaps the greatest game ever.  If it can't be, I understand.  I guess I'll just have to keep playing it on that arcade machine I have standing in the corner.  

A modern updated 4 player Joust is high on my list!!

[Intellivision Master]

2 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Nothing in the works at this time.  

 

But I would respectfully argue that the Atari titles we are doing work WAY better with a touch screen then a joystick.  Missile Command, Breakout, PONG & Centipede all come to mind.  They all work and play way better with touchscreen controls (IMO).  

That's awesome.  Glad to hear it.  I think the touch screen is a good idea and I'm all for it.  😃

[Intellivision Master]

4 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Someone could easily do it.  In fact... if the new AtariVCS joystick comes out and it's Bluetooth... there's no reason why someone couldn't get it to work with our system.   Would probably need one controller to navigate menu screens though.  A lot of our menu screen stuff happens right in your hand. 

 

I guess time will tell.

[+Tommy Tallarico]

1 minute ago, mr_me said:

Surely you'd do the sixth highest grossing arcade game of all time "Defender".  It's also one of the hardest.  A better game than r-type in my opinion.

Yeah...  one of my favs growing up.  Definitely a 2nd or 3rd generation Amico title just because of the control complexity I think.  Would be fun to see how we could utilize the touchscreen for that one!

[Intellivision Master]

17 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Currently not on our "to do" list.  

Never played that one.  Any good?  

No sadly I never played it.  It looks interesting though.

[mr_me]

11 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Yeah...  one of my favs growing up.  Definitely a 2nd or 3rd generation Amico title just because of the control complexity I think.  Would be fun to see how we could utilize the touchscreen for that one!

You can always simplify controls so thrust and reverse are on the disc.  I thought I heard something about Defender controls were the way they were because they couldn't source eight-way joysticks at the time.

Edited February 22, 2020 by mr_me

[bigdaddygamestudio]

Quote

I would love to see a Jelle's marble game but I'm not sure what you would do in it. I don't know if the Amico with their family focus would want a game about gambling on marble racing

Who said anything about gambling? You dont think having up to 8 people guiding their marbles through a race course like that using the controller/phone accelerometer wouldnt be a blast?  Marbles and the accelerometer feature work perfectly together. The ability to keep and track race results and to create your own tracks and pick different marbles for your collection.  You kidding me, the game would be an AWESOME family and game night game. Perfect for Amico as it would take all but 20 seconds to learn to play and understand.

Edited February 22, 2020 by bigdaddygamestudio

[bigdaddygamestudio]

1 hour ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

 Would probably need one controller to navigate menu screens though.  A lot of our menu screen stuff happens right in your hand. 

 

As I'm sure you know, this accessory is cheap and works and just sticks on to your controller making it a joystick. Been around since the 80's. Worked well just had to be careful when storing it or when throwing the controller at your brothers as we did back in the 80s.   Well not exactly throw, growing up with all brothers we never passed a controller civilly, instead you of course pulled the controller as far from the system as possible so when you let go it was like a rubberband and ziinged toward your brother.  You always scored extra if you could hit vour brother in the nuts doing that.  ahh good times.

 

Edited February 22, 2020 by bigdaddygamestudio

[1001lives]

1 hour ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

As I'm sure you know, this accessory is cheap and works and just sticks on to your controller making it a joystick. Been around since the 80's. Worked well just had to be careful when storing it or when throwing the controller at your brothers as we did back in the 80s.   Well not exactly throw, growing up with all brothers we never passed a controller civilly, instead you of course pulled the controller as far from the system as possible so when you let go it was like a rubberband and ziinged toward your brother.  You always scored extra if you could hit vour brother in the nuts doing that.  ahh good times.

 

Yeah, that's what the Intellivision III was going to include standard. But these aren't true joysticks, they are just sticks on top of a D-Pad. 

[bigdaddygamestudio]

32 minutes ago, 1001lives said:

Yeah, that's what the Intellivision III was going to include standard. But these aren't true joysticks, they are just sticks on top of a D-Pad. 

same functionality. Even more so since it still allows for advanced directional control.  Other versions were available around the world as well.

 

Edited February 22, 2020 by bigdaddygamestudio

[Intellivision Master]

Tommy,

 

With the Atari 2600 re-imagined games for Amico, will we see the exclusives from 5200 & 7800 get the re-imagined treatment on Amico?  As long as licensing isn't an issue of course.

[LePionnier]

3 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

I thought Le Pionneir was going to do something like that?  He had a really great post about 10 or so pages back and @jaybird3rd told him he could post it and make it a no comment thread.  But I never saw it happen?

 

 

I did a first part of 3, page 283.

Now in vacation. Should be able to do it in March !

 

[mr_me]

2 hours ago, 1001lives said:

Yeah, that's what the Intellivision III was going to include standard. But these aren't true joysticks, they are just sticks on top of a D-Pad. 

According to blueskyrangers.com, Mattel showed a joystick at ces jan 1984, meant to be a regular intellivision peripheral.

 

No prototype intellivision iii was built (only existed in the lab), any images would have been of a mock-up.  According to blueskyrangers.com the intellivision iii was a mattel marketing driven project so the joysticks might have been their idea.  Mattel cancelled the Intellivision iii in 1983 anyway.

Edited February 22, 2020 by mr_me

[1001lives]

1 hour ago, mr_me said:

According to blueskyrangers.com, Mattel showed a joystick at ces jan 1984, meant to be a regular intellivision peripheral.

 

No prototype intellivision iii was built (only existed in the lab), any images would have been of a mock-up.  According to blueskyrangers.com the intellivision iii was a mattel marketing driven project so the joysticks might have been their idea.  Mattel cancelled the Intellivision iii in 1983 anyway.

This looks pretty real but there's no way of knowing. I'm sure Tommy would have it if it was a real thing anyway.

 

Edited February 22, 2020 by 1001lives

[mr_me]

The website was written by people who were at mattel electronics in 1983/84.  It says there was no intellivision iii prototype like that.  Those images are using a marketing mockup.  There might be a painted piece of wood that looks like that somewhere.  And most of those games never existed either.

Edited February 22, 2020 by mr_me

[Blarneo]

8 hours ago, mr_me said:

Surely you'd do the sixth highest grossing arcade game of all time "Defender".  It's also one of the hardest.  A better game than r-type in my opinion.

Uh' no. I do not accept opinions. So there!😜

[bigdaddygamestudio]

4 hours ago, mr_me said:

 

No prototype intellivision iii was built (only existed in the lab), any images would have been of a mock-up.  According to blueskyrangers.com the intellivision iii was a mattel marketing driven project so the joysticks might have been their idea.  Mattel cancelled the Intellivision iii in 1983 anyway.

The thing is, a joystick like that makes NO sense on a system like Amico that is only 2 ( 2.5) D.  Joysticks like that work in games with a Z axis, No amico game will have a Z axis.

[Intellivision Master]

Tommy,

 

Do you have the license for these games on Amico?

 

Blockade Runner

Dreadnaught Factor 

Hover Force

Pole Position 

Q*bert

Sewer Sam

Thunder Castle

Tower of Doom

Edited February 23, 2020 by Atari_Master

[Intellivision Master]

Tommy,

 

Will the Amico have an option for changing the difficulty in games?

[IntyFanMatt]

Tommy,

 

Are you and your IE team still planning to attend E3?  Websites like IGN are not listing IE as an exhibitor...see link...

 

https://www.ign.com/wikis/e3/E3_2020_Exhibitor_List_and_Participating_Companies

Edited February 23, 2020 by IntyFanMatt

[+Swami]

3 hours ago, mr_me said:

The website was written by people who were at mattel electronics in 1983/84.  It says there was no intellivision iii prototype like that.  Those images are using a marketing mockup.  There might be a painted piece of wood that looks like that somewhere.  And most of those games never existed either.

Oddly, it says Intellivision II (which exists) joystick, not Intellivision III joystick.

[+Swami]

2 hours ago, bigdaddygamestudio said:

The thing is, a joystick like that makes NO sense on a system like Amico that is only 2 ( 2.5) D.  Joysticks like that work in games with a Z axis, No amico game will have a Z axis.

What z-axis? It looks like a normal x/y joystick to me.

[mr_me]

It was probably a 16-way digital joystick, like the intellivision disc-pad.  The Intellivision had no way to take analog inputs.  But analog x/y control would have been great for 2D games, especially sports games.  The Amico disc-pad does function like an analog x/y control

Edited February 23, 2020 by mr_me