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Is the Amico dead?


Tinman

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1 minute ago, 5-11under said:

I'm getting confused (or people are confusing me)... I'm talking about the 8 boxes, basically... background color is light blue. Have people received those, are those also in the "hopes and dreams" category?


Yes, the 8 boxed codes/trinkets have shipped and are in peoples hands.  

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41 minutes ago, Hydro Thunder said:

I don't think it works anymore, but there was a thing on Xbox Live Arcade that let you build your own virtual arcade and you could buy Atari games (including Activision games), arcade machines, and Intellivision games that would then show up as their own cabinet that your Avatar could step up to.  I just ADORED the project, it's actually what got me back into retrogaming.  It was super cool.

It was called Game Room.  Microsoft stopped supporting it, but I had it on Windows and Xbox 360 and loved it.  I bought a bunch of $1 Intellivision games and remember levelling up to where I had a three-story arcade.  I wish that would make a comeback.

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55 minutes ago, Zendocon said:

It was called Game Room.  Microsoft stopped supporting it, but I had it on Windows and Xbox 360 and loved it.  I bought a bunch of $1 Intellivision games and remember levelling up to where I had a three-story arcade.  I wish that would make a comeback.

Can you still load it and play the ones you bought?

 

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9 hours ago, youxia said:

Their latest fundraiser has raised 50k out of the 5 million target and got canceled early. Their moves seem increasingly desperate and ending a fundraiser two months early really indicates that they are so cash-starved even 50K would do. I am also not sure why would anybody want to buy them, unless at some really rock-bottom price to perhaps secure some trademarks.

 

They didn't get that 50k even. So the only thing gained by the Start Engine campaign is an actual transparent look into their financials. 

 

I need to double check the time frame but iirc when they gave out all those loans was roughly around the same time they asked for $100 deposits on the Founder Editions. Which those and the "not yet games" sold look like an attempt to have a money injection.

 

There was also recent news that the team who was making Moon Patrol and Bi-Planes is no more. What is weird about that is I think footage was shown in Aug of 2021 with Star Fox text in it and the team dissolved in July 2021. Makes me think they possibly ran out of money to have the game finished. And maybe it is but with everything else it doesn't look great. Same with the stolen assets.

 

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When I first got wind of a new Intellivision console coming out I immediately envisaged it running all the old classics. The more I learned about what was planned I lost interest. Not my cup of tea.

 

FWIW as a conscientious consumer - I was taught to never pre-order anything from an unproven company. Sound harsh? Maybe. But I figure that they're the smarter ones and know how to get money if needed. So let'em have at it! Finance your operations. Make your product. I'll buy your product when it's real and in the store. With real support, warranty, and return policy.

 

I'm not entirely sure those boxes will be worthless. There's always gonna be some flunky willing to pay a premium price.

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1 hour ago, Mik's Arcade said:

I've lost all hope, which is a shame.  I doubt I will see my deposit returned, and I bought all the fancy 'boxes' so those will be a worthless reminder of the failure.

I know people who have requested their refund but not got their money back. They said they were processing it but have yet to actually give them the money back. I think that it's been around a month now since initial request.

Edited by MrBeefy
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I have no idea if the Amico is dead. If you add up all the red flags that popped up along the way during the past 4 years, it would be easy to assume the Amico is dead.

 

It’s mind-boggling how IE p*ssed through $11 million. They had too many non-essential employees on their payroll too. You don’t open up as many offices as TT did, and expect your new upstart not to be broke. The money wasted on nonessential employees (i.e. the Amico hardware/software teams notwithstanding), literally bled the company dry. Why have so many secretaries (for example)? 

 

If you ask me, the Amico’s delays were from the company having  financial issues; Covid was the excuse imho. While there were delays, Evercade releasesd their VS console during the height of the pandemic and during the microchip shortage. So…. That’s a red flag there, that something was seriously wrong at IE. Again, imho.

Edited by ColecoGamer
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2 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

I know people who have requested their refund but not got their money back. They said they were processing it but have yet to actually give them the money back. I think that it's been around a month now since initial request.

I know one person in this thread that requested a refund and got his money back in around 6 days. Maybe he was the last one. 

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1 hour ago, Keatah said:

Anyone have an idea what the original Intellivision console (and perhaps 5 games) cost to develop back in 1980?

 

In 1978 Mattel paid APh about $30k for development of each cartridge.  That's about $131k today.  Multiply that times forty games would be over five million dollars.

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26 minutes ago, cmart604 said:

Why is this thread in the Intellivision forum and not in the modern gaming forum? 

I think that the reason is that most of us Intellinerds don't venture out of this subforum ;)

 

Come on guys there's a big world out there - go see it 

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2 hours ago, ColecoGamer said:

I have no idea if the Amico is dead. If you add up all the red flags that popped up along the way during the past 4 years, it would be easy to assume the Amico is dead.

 

It’s mind-boggling how IE p*ssed through $11 million. They had too many non-essential employees on their payroll too. You don’t open up as many offices as TT did, and expect your new upstart not to be broke. The money wasted on nonessential employees (i.e. the Amico hardware/software teams notwithstanding), literally bled the company dry. Why have so many secretaries (for example)? 

 

If you ask me, the Amico’s delays were from the company having  financial issues; Covid was the excuse imho. While there were delays, Evercade releasesd their VS console during the height of the pandemic and during the microchip shortage. So…. That’s a red flag there, that something was seriously wrong at IE. Again, imho.

Some things are getting manufactured some things aren't.  One of the things that had been an issue for manufacturers was very inexpensive display driver chips for small LCD displays.  Each Amico has two of them.

 

They might have too many employees but the number of offices has nothing to do with that.  The European and ME offices might be one guy each.  The European guy was key in getting government subsidy for the development of eight or so games.  The Salt Lake office is where their QA / game testers are.

Edited by mr_me
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5 hours ago, mr_me said:

Some things are getting manufactured some things aren't.  One of the things that had been an issue for manufacturers was very inexpensive display driver chips for small LCD displays.  Each Amico has two of them.

 

They might have too many employees but the number of offices has nothing to do with that.  The European and ME offices might be one guy each.  The European guy was key in getting government subsidy for the development of eight or so games.  The Salt Lake office is where their QA / game testers are.

I feel like your reply is technically factual, but what you choose to talk about is decidedly non-neutral.

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7 hours ago, mr_me said:

They might have too many employees but the number of offices has nothing to do with that.  The European and ME offices might be one guy each.  The European guy was key in getting government subsidy for the development of eight or so games.  The Salt Lake office is where their QA / game testers are.

Their office in SLC went from an empty office to now a home address. There is no office for game testing anymore. I would not be surprised to see any of the SLC workers putting their resumes out in the wild here soon.

8 hours ago, cmart604 said:

I know one person in this thread that requested a refund and got his money back in around 6 days. Maybe he was the last one. 

That's good to hear they got their money back. How long ago did they request it?

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Just now, Gemintronic said:

So, when does the conversation change from "Is Amico Dead?" to how does the community create our own unbranded Inty clone for ourselves?

Maybe Kevtris can do it!  He has a proven track record right?  

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10 hours ago, cmart604 said:

I know one person in this thread that requested a refund and got his money back in around 6 days. Maybe he was the last one. 


 

I believe you are referring to my refund.


What event will have to happen for you to cancel your preorders?  

Edited by Rev
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There's already an open source core for Intellivison. Works on MiSTer. I guess all you need now is a casing and some sort of wiring for controllers (not sure if there is an INTV Snac adapter).

 

But, in all due fairness, being an Intellivision clone is not what Amico was ever aiming to be...

Edited by youxia
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33 minutes ago, Rev said:

Maybe Kevtris can do it!  He has a proven track record right?  

He already did; Nt mini Noir has it. No support for controllers or carts, though, just ROMs. I never figured out how to get the damn thing working, though.

Edited by Steven Pendleton
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1 hour ago, MrBeefy said:

Their office in SLC went from an empty office to now a home address. There is no office for game testing anymore. I would not be surprised to see any of the SLC workers putting their resumes out in the wild here soon.

If that's the case it could explain why refunds are slow to process as their customer service is in Salt Lake.  They claim their launch library is ready, so they can re-hire game testers whenever needed.

 

32 minutes ago, Gemintronic said:

So, when does the conversation change from "Is Amico Dead?" to how does the community create our own unbranded Inty clone for ourselves?

The Amico was never an Intellivision clone.  It can potentially software emulate an Intellivision like any computer.  Mister fpga does have an unofficial Intellivision core.

 

30 minutes ago, Rev said:

Maybe Kevtris can do it!  He has a proven track record right?  

Kevtris has already done Intellivision in fpga.  I think it's available for one of the Analogue units.

 

5 minutes ago, youxia said:

There's already an open source core for Intellivison. Works on MiSTer. I guess all you need now is a casing and some sort of wiring for controllers (not sure if there is an INTV Snac adapter).

 

But, in all due fairness, being an Intellivision clone is not what Amico was ever aiming to be...

The mister fpga works with an intellivision controller usb adapter but a snac adapter would be better.

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