Intellivision Amico’s trademark changed to ‘abandoned’

[Rev]

5 minutes ago, Cebus Capucinis said:

Name change request incoming!

Legal incoming!

[MrBeefy]

39 minutes ago, Rev said:

Legal incoming!

Hey don't be a jealous gatekeeping!

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

 

[+CurlyQ]

[roots.genoa]

9 hours ago, mr_me said:

And I wouldn't expect to see him in any videos.  We haven't seen half of the founding partners either.

But the other founding partners were not necessarily 1) Xbox creator 2) Global Managing Director™️.

 

Not only did Allard not appear but he was not even mentioned, and Tommy's signature move is the namedrop from the top turnbuckle.

[digdugnate]

2 hours ago, CurlyQ said:

Actual footage of Intellivision taking the money and running.  Not pictured is a big sack with a dollar sign on it.

[mr_me]

3 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

But the other founding partners were not necessarily 1) Xbox creator 2) Global Managing Director™️.

 

Not only did Allard not appear but he was not even mentioned, and Tommy's signature move is the namedrop from the top turnbuckle.

Allard was part of an Amico interview during Gamescom if that helps you.  And the reason I didn't expect him to appear in videos is because they said he wouldn't.

Edited July 16, 2022 by mr_me

[Jaxivision]

I don't know who/what Allard is, but it sounds like some kind of Sea Bird.

[number6]

41 minutes ago, Jaxivision said:

I don't know who/what Allard is, but it sounds like some kind of Sea Bird.

Assuming serious question, I'll repeat the link which keeps things to the point:

Geekwire

And obviously the discussion in this thread centers on whether Intellivision merely used the prominent name to impress or did he actively participate in the project. Since I see no followup (as intended) to the article above indicating further questions were planned, this seems to all end up in the speculation category.

 

Hope that helps.

 

#6

[Flojomojo]

17 hours ago, digdugnate said:

What contributions specifically did J. Allard make?

He inspired a song!

 

[number6]

35 minutes ago, Flojomojo said:

He inspired a song!

 

Indeed. "not a good fit" from both the article and the video drew my attention.

Quote

overly serious individual might not be a good fit in a laid back, chatty environment (or vice versa)

 

'Not A Good Fit' What Does It Really Mean?

 

#6

[Cebus Capucinis]

I think in this case I highly suspect "not a good fit" meant "expected actual results in production and design" rather than "dick around on YouTube pretending to be Poochy."

 

The "Ferrari Parking Only" spaces are no match for actual, measurable milestones and planning, after all. But it's so much LESS COOL maaaaaan.

[+Lathe26]

13 minutes ago, Cebus Capucinis said:

I think in this case I highly suspect "not a good fit" meant "expected actual results in production and design" rather than "dick around on YouTube pretending to be Poochy."

 

The "Ferrari Parking Only" spaces are no match for actual, measurable milestones and planning, after all. But it's so much LESS COOL maaaaaan.

Unfortunately "not a good fit" can mean anything that would fill in the blank for "I didn't like it there because ...".  Usually the "..." is something bad since most folks would just out and say the reason if it wasn't bad ("... the commute turned out worse than I could handle.").  We'll probably never know exactly what the reason was.  That said, you're guess is a reasonable one given what we publicly saw going on.  The catch is that maybe Allard saw something far worse behind the curtains.

[Cebus Capucinis]

1 minute ago, Lathe26 said:

The catch is that maybe Allard saw something far worse behind the curtains.

Calling @CurlyQ - I'm sure you don't take requests but a big green TT Wizard of Oz Photoshop would be apropos and hilarious. ?

[+Lathe26]

18 hours ago, number6 said:

I'll confirm this is not unique to Intellivision and yes, the fans/collectors will buy such packages.

An Amiga seller/distributor constructed what they called an "AAABundle" which was meant to become meaningful with the release of h/w.

See the pretty box?

Long story short. The computer announced in 2015 is still not available for general sale, but people flocked to buy out the associated collectible package referred to along with the right to be a member of a rather special club.

Granted Amiga is special this way given legal wranglings nonstop since 1994, but it does illustrate a similar track taken.

 

#6

Man, it was hard to catch that you were talking about the Amiga at 6am in the morning.  For a few moments, I thought you were saying the Amico was having legal wranglings since 1994.

[number6]

As an outsider, I'm not going to have the same opinion as people directly affected by all this.

I look at an example like Utah. They could have shown people programming, perhaps some source code on screen, perhaps a question of technical nature being asked, etc.

But no. They chose to show them playing a game. To me the atmosphere of fun is the takeaway I get.

I just see Intellivision from my view as a hobby that was attempting to transition itself -into- a business.

So if I am to believe J. Allard came from a far more serious world, I find it easy to simply see a conflict in what one person expected of a work atmosphere vs what he actually witnessed.

 

#6

[number6]

7 minutes ago, Lathe26 said:

Man, it was hard to catch that you were talking about the Amiga at 6am in the morning.  For a few moments, I thought you were saying the Amico was having legal wranglings since 1994.

Sorry about that. Agreed. It's just that the parallels I see with Amiga here make it too easy to draw comparisons.

 

#6

[mr_me]

43 minutes ago, number6 said:

As an outsider, I'm not going to have the same opinion as people directly affected by all this.

I look at an example like Utah. They could have shown people programming, perhaps some source code on screen, perhaps a question of technical nature being asked, etc.

But no. They chose to show them playing a game. To me the atmosphere of fun is the takeaway I get.

I just see Intellivision from my view as a hobby that was attempting to transition itself -into- a business.

So if I am to believe J. Allard came from a far more serious world, I find it easy to simply see a conflict in what one person expected of a work atmosphere vs what he actually witnessed.

 

#6

For sure a different structure/culture than Microsoft where he spent all his career, other than a bicycle registration project he started after leaving Microsoft.  Allard retired from Microsoft in 2010.  To take on a more active role with Amico would be like coming out of retirement.  And this was a time the company was facing problems during the pandemic.

 

Lots of speculation.  If you want to hear Allard and Perry speak about Amico, here's the Devcom (not Gamescom) panel discussion.

https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/games-industry/intellivision-with-tommy-lDV-u8ZInA2/?

Edited July 16, 2022 by mr_me

[number6]

23 minutes ago, mr_me said:

For sure a different structure/culture than Microsoft where he spent all his career, other than a bicycle registration project he started after leaving Microsoft.  Allard retired from Microsoft in 2010.  To take on a more active role with Amico would be like coming out of retirement.  And this was a time the company was facing problems during the pandemic.

 

Lots of speculation.  If you want to hear Allard and Perry speak about Amico, here's the Devcom (not Gamescom) panel discussion.

https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/games-industry/intellivision-with-tommy-lDV-u8ZInA2/?

Thank you for the direct link. I'll listen to the entire broadcast. 

 

#6

[number6]

20 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

I don't know when he started precisely, but it was announced on May 14th. He was introduced as "global managing director" which sounds like someone who would have a material role, but whatever. We don't know precisely when he left, but it was "during Summer", and he doesn't appear in the August 5th event, which was probably recorded at least a few days in advance.

 

So "several months" doesn't seem accurate. Weeks, not months™️ sounds better.

I am a little confused here. May 14th? and I just listened to a podcast (link from Mr.Me) from December where he's constantly being referred to as on the team and starting every sentence with "we" as if he is speaking as a team member. How does this translate to "weeks"? What am I missing here?

 

#6

[mr_me]

That panel discussion was probably recorded in the summer.  As soon as Allard was announced, it was asked if he would appear in videos, and we were told he didn't want to do any public facing things.

 

Director titles can be meaningless.  There are directors in some organisations that have no role at all.  In Allard's case his role was an advisor, fulltime for a few months and then as needed.  Maybe they talked about a different role, as there's only so much one can advise, but it wasn't a good fit.

 

Edit:

If it matters, here's a tweet about the panel discussion dated August 24.

https://mobile.twitter.com/Intellivision/status/1297979653303316480

Edited July 16, 2022 by mr_me

[number6]

16 minutes ago, mr_me said:

That panel discussion was probably recorded in the summer.  As soon as Allard was announced, it was asked if he would appear in videos, and we were told he didn't want to do any public facing things.

Thank you. Earlier recording crossed my mind. I simply did not know.

btw-excellent point about retirement and the podcast (end) indicated he was not even sure if it had been 10 or 15 years.

Also moving into a less stressful/demanding endeavor with a brother might indicate he did not seek a more complicated life at that juncture.

And thank you again for the link. Maybe the content is old news for everyone here, but I got a lot out of it.

 

No need to explain role/title changes. Happens in many businesses. Sometimes a name appears in a PR about an advisory board and the individual does not even know he's been listed on such a board. heh.

 

#6

Edited July 16, 2022 by number6
Added 2 references

[kevtris]

I suspect Allard was just paid to use his name to market the amico.  You notice the only thing mentioned was his name.  The picture of him they used was from wikipedia!  I don't think he ever visited intellivision once-  we all know how tommy LOVES to take pictures of anyone even slightly famous so he can trot it out when anything they were involved in was mentioned.  "Oh yeah, I know xyz!  see? here's a picture where we're doing pdq!"  Allard had no actual role in the company, and the SEC investigation proved it when INTV said he had no material role.  He was just being used as investor bait and little else.  INTV used his name to entice investors on republic.co long after he was gone, too. 

 

We know the hardware design was mostly complete at the end of 2019, going by the video where they are working in what seems to be nick's back storage room.  The PCB is complete and there's two versions of it hanging on a cube wall along with the other auxiliary PCBs next to it.  The PCB guy has the design for the controller up on the screen and it appears to be the final one or close to it.  So allard didn't do anything hardware wise. 

 

He didn't do anything software wise, and he definitely didn't do anything marketing wise.  So his job was simply to be bait for investors- specifically his name.  His title should've been "master of keepin' it real".   If he was an actual valuable employee, there would've been a non-wikipedia picture of him on their website, and tommy DEFINITELY would've posted several pics of the two of them playing amico or petting giraffes or something like that.

[number6]

21 minutes ago, kevtris said:

I suspect Allard was just paid to use his name to market the amico.  You notice the only thing mentioned was his name.  The picture of him they used was from wikipedia!  I don't think he ever visited intellivision once-  we all know how tommy LOVES to take pictures of anyone even slightly famous so he can trot it out when anything they were involved in was mentioned.  "Oh yeah, I know xyz!  see? here's a picture where we're doing pdq!"  Allard had no actual role in the company, and the SEC investigation proved it when INTV said he had no material role.  He was just being used as investor bait and little else.  INTV used his name to entice investors on republic.co long after he was gone, too. 

 

We know the hardware design was mostly complete at the end of 2019, going by the video where they are working in what seems to be nick's back storage room.  The PCB is complete and there's two versions of it hanging on a cube wall along with the other auxiliary PCBs next to it.  The PCB guy has the design for the controller up on the screen and it appears to be the final one or close to it.  So allard didn't do anything hardware wise. 

 

He didn't do anything software wise, and he definitely didn't do anything marketing wise.  So his job was simply to be bait for investors- specifically his name.  His title should've been "master of keepin' it real".   If he was an actual valuable employee, there would've been a non-wikipedia picture of him on their website, and tommy DEFINITELY would've posted several pics of the two of them playing amico or petting giraffes or something like that.

To me how Tommy may have used J. is a different topic. I was just honestly more interested in hearing the words he spoke while he was involved in whatever capacity.

tbh the podcast is a tough listen. It begins as a Tommy monologue. The interviewer surely sees this and specifically directs a question to J. Allard to attempt to involve the rest of the panel. Tommy immediately says he'll let J. answer, but first...and drones on until even the question is lost. J. who realizes this and is obviously intelligent repeats the question before getting his chance to respond. It takes some work, but if you listen to the rare moments when other panel members can get a word in (the 2nd 1/2 improves), an image of what's going on starts to emerge. But that's just me.

 

#6

[ColecoGamer]

I still need to read the entire thread, so I apologize for asking a question that may have been answered already in a previous post, but - does anyone know what will happen to the investors who funded the Amico? Are we talking a class action lawsuit against TT and IE?

 

Even though I am not an investor, I am upset to see how people were taken for a ride, while IE spent their money like it grew on trees. 
 

I wish everyone involved the very best and I hope a resolve is found for those who trusted IE.

Edited July 16, 2022 by ColecoGamer
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