Intellivision Amico’s trademark changed to ‘abandoned’

[82-T/A]

9 hours ago, Bill Loguidice said:

Fair enough, but I hope you also appreciate how odd it seems for a person such as yourself to come out of nowhere and proclaim ignorance (and then immediate support?!) for the past 3 years of both the Amico and Evercade, both of which received tons of coverage, and the latter of which is an actual thriving platform with three different hardware systems - two handhelds and one console - including the recent EXP handheld and even a limited edition Duke Nukem variation of the VS console. I mean, you'd have to truly be actively avoiding ANY gaming news to have so little knowledge of either. 

 

The last time I got "gaming news" outside of e-mails from Atari Age, was when I had my subscription to GamePro magazine back when I was 13 in the early 1990s.

 

Since this year began, I have a total of 20 hours playing video games. That includes 4 hours of the new System Shock, 5 hours of Dragon Warrior 1 for the Game Boy Color on the Retron cube, and then Rimworld.

 

 

7 hours ago, rayik said:

@82-T/A  It's long, but read the archive of Tommy Tallarico's original Amico thread here at Atari Age.  It's been made non-public here at AA and you have to go to offsite to find a backup of most of it.  You be surprised at the behavoirs of TT and supporters of the Amico thread.  As you read TT's post, remember this is being marketed as a "family friendly" console targeted at mothers and young families to play with their kids.    Link:  https://amicoage.neocities.org  There are more sites that provide a better synopsis of what occurred

 

I used to spend a lot of time on the Jaguar forum and remember you as a regular there was did not troll.

 

Hah, that's wild, I didn't even know Al had a feature to disable certain threads.

 

 

8 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

In case you aren't trolling here are two videos worth watching to explain Amico.

 

 

Man, that sucks...

 

5 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

I'm pretty sure he's aware of that old thread and may have commented in it even.

 

 

I searched for my name in there... doesn't look like I ever posted in it.

 

 

3 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

To be fair, you're not exactly the first one to be "late to the party" but as others said, it's always a bit surreal to us, especially at a stage where there's a very thin probability this thing will ever come out. Personally, I'm also always surprised that 'old' gamers, that probably played a lot of games, knew a lot of systems that succeeded and failed, can still be strongly optimistic about such ventures. Yeah, there were a few good ideas about the Amico on paper, but I was convinced from day one it would be a very tough battle to release this thing.

 

Things are a little bit different today... the ability to manufacture things like this are no where near as complicated as they were when the original Intellivision came out. You consider the fact that most of these things, like the controllers, can be built off of Arduinos or Raspberri Pis... or some other small form factor SBC. There are at least a dozen online manufacturers now where if you have a board schematic, they'll print them for you, and even soldier the components on for an additional fee. If you go to China, Taiwan, Vietnam, or even India... you can supply these same schematics and have boards produced en-mass. Building the shells, or even the packaging, are all things that can be done much easier today than back when this old hardware was built.

 

Over the past several years, I've bought a few neat little devices that were produced this way. Recently, I bought the Retron cube, which plays GameBoy games. Super simple... and probably made the same way. To be honest, if you have investment money, and you even slightly know what you're doing, there's no reason NOT to succeed. If the Amico is truly dead, then it can only be marked down to sheer incompetence. 

 

The Atari VCS is a very quality system for having been produced on somewhat of a shoe-string budget. Every aspect of development and the product was done to a fairly high level of quality. They deserve all the credit they can get... and honestly, I don't think they missed the mark. No one believed the Atari VCS would take on the Playstation or Xbox or whatever. It was geared towards aging Gen-Xers like myself who want to have something new, that allows them to play some nostalgia and some other new things as well. I think the VCS team did a great job... and I realize that "team" was probably like 3 people...

 

So, I guess that's why I just immediately assumed Amico would actually be a thing when I saw this thread, and then when I saw all the shitting on it, I remembered the 1,000+ page of people shitting all over the VCS... and figured this is just par for the Atari Age golf course.

[82-T/A]

Just found this... there's enough here to show that they've at least built a successful prototype...

 

 

What are your thoughts... or can you direct me to which page of the 307 is the one where we're trashing this?

 

 

[MrBeefy]

Meh, to lazy to change the name.

[digdugnate]

12 hours ago, Creamhoven said:

What ever you do,  do not talk positivly about Tommy Tallarico.

 

Since this is a popular thread I want tao say, that I was gone for a few days and tired to catch up with all the posts. If I per chance missed one, and not responding I am sorry. Concerning my wanting to do better thread, I am sorry that I cannot adress the points raised there. Please understand.

[MrBeefy]

13 hours ago, 82-T/A said:

I saw Moon Patrol on there... what are the chances it's some ultra-modern new version of the game? That would be pretty awesome.

Thought I should help you out with this. Here is a link to buy their ultra-modern new version of Moon Patrol.

https://intellivisionamico.myshopify.com/

[Flojomojo]

1 hour ago, 82-T/A said:

The last time I got "gaming news" outside of e-mails from Atari Age, was when I had my subscription to GamePro magazine back when I was 13 in the early 1990s.

In the case of Intellivision Amico, staying offline caused you to completely miss the boat. @Tommy Tallarico hypnotized a bunch of moderators here and used the forum as his personal advertising and ego gratification platform for 3 years. Anything remotely critical, such as simple questions like, "how do you plan to attract developers when you have a minuscule market share" were met with bullying and bans. It's the main reason people think the Amico is a cult. 

 

You're absolutely right about the democratization of hardware. The late 2010's were probably the easiest possible time to built a hobby electronics project with a niche crowd but Intellivision completely flubbed it. Then they went begging for more money, which they promptly squandered on big offices and outdated pop culture licenses. 

 

This was NOT a normal product from a competent company, and it makes "Atari VCS" (2020 version) look like a Playstation in comparison. And that product had some serious flaws in its concept, communication, and execution. 

 

41 minutes ago, 82-T/A said:

Just found this... there's enough here to show that they've at least built a successful prototype...

 

 

What are your thoughts... or can you direct me to which page of the 307 is the one where we're trashing this?

I'm going to assume you're what you say you are, a 21st century Atari fan who hasn't been paying attention. That "unboxing" video was a year ago. That was 2 years behind where they were supposed to be, having taken all that money and set expectations sky high. It's unclear what the purpose of making that video was, because the project was dead by then. Maybe they need to show some sign of life to keep Republic.com or other partners from pursuing legal action. 

 

At one point, Intellivision Entertainment had an office, millions of dollars in the bank, and several dozen employees including engineers and programmers. They couldn't close the deal on their android box back then, when they had resources and the benefit of the doubt. Now that they're just a skeleton crew with a bad reputation and no money, I don't see how they deliver anything except the traditional, "this is a very difficult update to write" message. 

 

The unit in that video is one of the samples, similar to what was sent to some YouTubers earlier this year. There are many old discussions of it here but this video summarizes them if you'd rather watch than read. 

 

 

If you'd like to catch up with the story, here are 3 old news articles that should help.

What the heck’s an Intellivision Amico? Console’s leaky dev portal offers hints

Meltdown prediction: Intellivision Amico doesn’t seem long for this world

Intellivision asks fans for more money, reveals massive Amico debts

 

or more bluntly,

The Intellivision Amico Is In Deep Shit

[Flojomojo]

12 minutes ago, MrBeefy said:

Thought I should help you out with this. Here is a link to buy their ultra-modern new version of Moon Patrol.

https://intellivisionamico.myshopify.com/

Dude what are you doing? You should at least warn him about the scammy scam. You already KNOW he's susceptible to believing their bullshit. "Intellivision E-Commerce Policy"

Edited June 20, 2023 by Flojomojo

[number6]

@thread

 

I maintain what I wrote about 3 times last year.

All the failures noted are real and many backed up with legal paperwork. But the irrefutable fact that discretionary spending has plunged into an abyss over shadows all of that.

If IE is waiting for economic recovery to reverse the current situation, then I'd argue they need to acquire some professional advice. Clearly they did not understand the long term effects on Covid in the marketplace either.

 

#6

[Flojomojo]

@Bill Loguidice you were right ... @82-T/A is having a bit of fun with us

 

first he posted this

 

but now it looks like this

 

EDIT: never mind, this site doesn't render right on my browser for some reason. I don't have this problem anywhere else. I withdraw my accusation of trolling! 82-TA is simply ignorant, not malicious as far as I can tell. 

Edited June 20, 2023 by Flojomojo

[digdugnate]

1 hour ago, 82-T/A said:

Just found this... there's enough here to show that they've at least built a successful prototype...

 

 

What are your thoughts... or can you direct me to which page of the 307 is the one where we're trashing this?

 

 

 

Where do you want me to begin?  The unboxing video is from a year ago and full of inaccuracies.  There are three 'prototype' units in the wild and in the hands of three low-view YouTubers (Mullis, DJC, Atari Creep).  The company is out of money and cannot make actual production units.  The company is selling their IPs.  They laid off 95% of their workforce and the remaining 5% is dubious.  They're being sued for defaulting on office furniture.

 

I mean... what more can be said?

 

Edited June 20, 2023 by digdugnate

[Flojomojo]

5 minutes ago, digdugnate said:

I mean... what more can be said?

 

Well, there's the matter of the former CEO, who was held up as a god around here for reasons I'll never understand. 

 

  

[82-T/A]

 

25 minutes ago, Flojomojo said:

In the case of Intellivision Amico, staying offline caused you to completely miss the boat. @Tommy Tallarico hypnotized a bunch of moderators here and used the forum as his personal advertising and ego gratification platform for 3 years. Anything remotely critical, such as simple questions like, "how do you plan to attract developers when you have a minuscule market share" were met with bullying and bans. It's the main reason people think the Amico is a cult. 

 

I don't know that I've really missed the boat. There are billions of people in this world who have never heard of the Amico and go on to live successful happy lives, hahah. I still can't get over how shocked and pissed people are in this thread that a normal person wouldn't have heard of the Amico because I own a couple of arcade machines. Like... I do not listen to podcasts about gaming, or watch YouTube reviews about games... rarely, I mean, rarely do I watch anything about games, unless it's a promo video that comes out of GOG. I have like 380 games on Good Ole Games, and I've maybe played 10 of them over the last decade that I've had an account there.

 

I really wish I did have time. I joke with my wife all the time that I would love to go to prison for a year for some innocuous crime that I was unjustly charged with that no one will hate me for, but that I'm forced to sit in a room and play video games, eat 3 square meals, and be let outside to lift weights and play basketball... only to be let out and I get all my wealth back. This would be fantastic, so long as my family could visit me. I have so much going on in my life... literally the only time I post on here is when I'm trying to take a break from work to clear my mind.

 

I'm 45, which seems insanely friggin' old when I say it on here, damn... there are so many games I played as a kid in the 80s and 90s that I never got to beat, never had time to finish... and that's why I buy up these games. I have a shit-ton of expendable income, which I shouldn't be bragging about, but it's why I like / want to buy a lot of these retro systems, even if I never have the time to play them. The thing is... I'm willing to bet that when I do get old enough to retire, I'm probably not going to let myself play these games anyway. The idea of a 60 year old man playing video games seems so incredibly pathetic in my mind... I'll probably instead be traveling with the wife, or rebuilding an old 1800th century Queen Victorian in New England... who knows. I really do want to play this old shit... I just never have time.

 

 

25 minutes ago, Flojomojo said:

At one point, Intellivision Entertainment had an office, millions of dollars in the bank, and several dozen employees including engineers and programmers. They couldn't close the deal on their android box back then, when they had resources and the benefit of the doubt. Now that they're just a skeleton crew with a bad reputation and no money, I don't see how they deliver anything except the traditional, "this is a very difficult update to write" message.

 

or more bluntly,

The Intellivision Amico Is In Deep Shit

 

Man, this is their biggest problem right there... and it's apropos for what happened during the .COM bust in 1999. A "startup" should never spend money on fancy offices and lavish resources. They should be renting a shitty warehouse with a barely functioning air conditioning unit. Investors will absolutely respect more someone who has cash in the bank, and working out of a very modest office / facility, without a row of Juiceros set up for their employees.

 

Thanks for the link.

 

 

23 minutes ago, Flojomojo said:

Dude what are you doing? You should at least warn him about the scammy scam. You already KNOW he's susceptible to believing they're bullshit. "Intellivision E-Commerce Policy"

Don't worry... I have no interest in all that shit that comes with it. I just want the game.

 

About ~15 years ago... I threw everything out. I had all the original boxes to all the Ultima games, System Shock, Wing Commander... you name it. I had all that stuff. I took out all the CDs, put them in a huge case logic sleeved folder, put all the diskettes in a case, and threw all that shit out. Not only that, so that I could get them to fit in the trash bags, I even stomped the boxes so I could get them flat. Imagine doing that to perfect Ultima game boxes. I feel bad about it now... but I really wanted to get rid of all that crap because I felt like it was holding me back. I gave away half my computer and video games here on AtariAge for free... sometimes I even paid for the shipping... sending out like 20 pounds of whatever I could come up with and sending them out to the first person who send me their mailing address. Only a few things I sold, like my NEC TurboGraFX-16, but mostly... I gave away almost all my Atari, Nintendo, and other stuff... keeping only the bare minimum.

 

I just want that game... it looks awesome, and I love Moon Patrol. I've considered buying the actual arcade cabinet, but I don't know where I'd put it in my house... and I try not to let my house look like something a bunch of immature adults live in. I already have a payphone in the living room, which people are like WTF. But I'd imagine it would be awesome to have a Moon Patrol that runs normally, with a MAME switching board so that I could switch to something like a Raspberri Pi and then have that new version play on it. Would be pretty sweet...

 

 

Bottom line... if they ever do come out with a system, and they are actually SHIPPING the units out, I'll buy one in a heartbeat, but beyond that, I won't lose sleep over this.

 

 

EDIT: Out of all my games, the only boxes I saved was my original Starflight "LP" folder, and the boxes to all the original Gold Box Series AD&D games... e.g., Pool of Radiance, Champions of Krynn, etc...

Edited June 20, 2023 by 82-T/A

[digdugnate]

8 minutes ago, Flojomojo said:

Well, there's the matter of the former CEO, who was held up as a god around here for reasons I'll never understand. 

 

  

 

There's also the timeline of the project here- https://bit.ly/AmicoTimeline but I got lazy and stopped updating in November.

Edited June 20, 2023 by digdugnate

[MrBeefy]

51 minutes ago, Flojomojo said:

Dude what are you doing? You should at least warn him about the scammy scam. You already KNOW he's susceptible to believing their bullshit. "Intellivision E-Commerce Policy"

Just trying to give @Bill Loguidice a chance to sell his boxed codes in boxes at a discounted rate to recoup.

33 minutes ago, 82-T/A said:

I just want that game... it looks awesome, and I love Moon Patrol. I've considered buying the actual arcade cabinet, but I don't know where I'd put it in my house...

Yeah Flo is right don't buy those boxes. All they are are codes in a box which were sold under the implication they were ready to release a console.

 

If you want to see what the Amico Moon Patrol would look like, you could always download the Amico Clun app and play the demo.

[MrBeefy]

48 minutes ago, number6 said:

@thread

 

I maintain what I wrote about 3 times last year.

All the failures noted are real and many backed up with legal paperwork. But the irrefutable fact that discretionary spending has plunged into an abyss over shadows all of that.

If IE is waiting for economic recovery to reverse the current situation, then I'd argue they need to acquire some professional advice. Clearly they did not understand the long term effects on Covid in the marketplace either.

 

#6

I don't think they understood much of anything. I still find it baffling that after $17 million spent all they have is a basic android box prototype that amounts to a cheap 2016 cell phone but not as capable.

[number6]

47 minutes ago, 82-T/A said:

 or rebuilding an old 1800th century Queen Victorian in New England... 

You don't need to travel quite that far.

Most existing Victorians are in Kentucky. 

But there's a huge difference between a renovation and a restoration, as you likely understand. heh.

 

#6

[82-T/A]

10 minutes ago, MrBeefy said:

Just trying to give @Bill Loguidice a chance to sell his boxed codes in boxes at a discounted rate to recoup.

Yeah Flo is right don't buy those boxes. All they are are codes in a box which were sold under the implication they were ready to release a console.

 

If you want to see what the Amico Moon Patrol would look like, you could always download the Amico Clun app and play the demo.

 

Yeah, don't worry... I won't buy the boxes. I would like the game though, I just don't play stuff on mobile devices.

 

8 minutes ago, MrBeefy said:

I don't think they understood much of anything. I still find it baffling that after $17 million spent all they have is a basic android box prototype that amounts to a cheap 2016 cell phone but not as capable.

It's unbelievable to me that with what they have produced (games / content), that they aren't trying to save themselves somewhat by selling this on things like Atari VCS. I would buy this tomorrow on the Atari VCS (Moon Patrol). I assume there are other play stores for PlayStation and Xbox (I don't have either so I don't know), but I'm sure they could manage to make it work for that.

 

Just seems wildly irresponsible. Most investors today, require some sort of self-appointed project manager. If they got all their money from something like Indiegogo, then that's part of the problem. These people, unless they've managed start-ups in the past... they act like kids in a candy store and eat themselves sick.

[82-T/A]

21 minutes ago, number6 said:

You don't need to travel quite that far.

Most existing Victorians are in Kentucky. 

But there's a huge difference between a renovation and a restoration, as you likely understand. heh.

 

#6

 

I've "renovated" a few homes, all of which, as you express... were much easier because it had solid bones. It didn't require me to fix the foundation, just paint, tile/flooring, scraping ceilings, replacing all the receptacles and switches, plumbing when I add new fixtures, things like that. I mean, I've done it all, but I've always started with good bones and foundations. Maybe tearing down a few walls and building new ones... but all within the existing foundation.

 

I really want something that was already designed with electricity... so largely something early 1900s. But obviously I'll replace all the knob and tube and plumbing. Wife will kill me... because we've moved every 4 years... and every house we buy, I renovate. She gets to live in a fully-renovated home usually within the last year and a half, haha. But my daughter wants to go to college in MA, so if that happens, we'll likely get something in New Hampshire or Massachusetts. I work from home, so access to an office isn't really an issue, just access to an airport. I'm looking forward to it. I grew up on This Old House, and love old American homes. I live in a modern Craftsman. It was built in 2007, but is down to the detail 100% accurate to an authentic Craftsman. Really, it's what's called a Kansas City "Shirtwaist." It has a detached 3-car garage in the back, and a long driveway that goes down the side. The entire front of the house is a very large porch (that doubles as a large outdoor family room), with a third floor with dormers (really, just an attic, but if I get my other projects done, I'll finish part of the attic). The whole neighborhood has craftsman, tudors, arts and crafts homes, carolina shotguns, New Orleans revivals, all the homes that have porches. The neighborhood was designed to look like something you'd see in the mid-west town square in the 40s... so all the people walking down the side walk or playing in the park will walk by and say hi. It's pretty cool.

 

I really miss my house in San Antonio though, I restored it using the "Hill Country Modern" style... which is basically like Chip and Joanna Gaines kind of BS... but with an emphasis on modern. Lots of oil rubbed bronze, high-end appliances, large kitchen, etc. We were only in that house for 3 months... it was an awesome house.

Edited June 20, 2023 by 82-T/A

[number6]

14 minutes ago, 82-T/A said:

 

I've "renovated" a few homes, all of which, as you express... were much easier because it had solid bones. It didn't require me to fix the foundation, just paint, tile/flooring, scraping ceilings, replacing all the receptacles and switches, plumbing when I add new fixtures, things like that. I mean, I've done it all, but I've always started with good bones and foundations. Maybe tearing down a few walls and building new ones... but all within the existing foundation.

 

I really want something that was already designed with electricity... so largely something early 1900s. But obviously I'll replace all the knob and tube and plumbing. Wife will kill me... because we've moved every 4 years... and every house we buy, I renovate. She gets to live in a fully-renovated home usually within the last year and a half, haha. But my daughter wants to go to college in MA, so if that happens, we'll likely get something in New Hampshire or Massachusetts. I work from home, so access to an office isn't really an issue, just access to an airport. I'm looking forward to it. I grew up on This Old House, and love old American homes. I live in a modern Craftsman. It was built in 2007, but is down to the detail 100% accurate to an authentic Craftsman. Really, it's what's called a Kansas City "Shirtwaist." It has a detached 3-car garage, and a long driveway that goes down the side. The entire front of the house is a very large porch, with a third floor with dormers (really, just an attic, but if I get my other projects done, I'll finish part of the attic).

 

I really miss my house in San Antonio though, I restored it using the "Hill Country Modern" style... which is basically like Chip and Joanna Gaines kind of BS... but with an emphasis on modern. Lots of oil rubbed bronze, high-end appliances, large kitchen, etc. We were only in that house for 3 months... it was an awesome house.

Enjoyed your history. 

Sadly we'd be way off-topic to continue discussing this in the current thread, but if you can locate an appropriate forum here on atariage, please let me know.

We share a similar interest obviously.

 

#6

[Razzie.P]

32 minutes ago, 82-T/A said:

It's unbelievable to me that with what they have produced (games / content), that they aren't trying to save themselves somewhat by selling this on things like Atari VCS. I would buy this tomorrow on the Atari VCS (Moon Patrol). I assume there are other play stores for PlayStation and Xbox (I don't have either so I don't know), but I'm sure they could manage to make it work for that.

 

Can't happen because Amico games could NEVER work with any other controller.

 

 

 

 

[davpa]

Just as a side note, I'm in talks with BBG Entertainment and it is very likely that Dynablasters, Astrosmash, and Shark! Shark! will hit the Atari VCS 800 store.  I say "very likely" as they could turn around and say "No," but I'm not sure why they would when they are porting to other consoles (so we are part of the development pipeline vs opening up an old project).  Also, the games are all made in Unity so that makes it a dirt easy port to the new VCS, so they have practically no reason to say No to porting.

 

Would having games that were meant to be on the Intellivision Amico appear on the Atari VCS 800 count as an "insult to injury?"

[Bill Loguidice]

20 minutes ago, davpa said:

Would having games that were meant to be on the Intellivision Amico appear on the Atari VCS 800 count as an "insult to injury?"

The major injury was already selling off the IP and not having a path to produce the console, so I'm not sure there's much to add to it at this point. I'd just like refunds for the console and empty game boxes, but I doubt they'll be able to do that. I don't really care about these frankly low budget games ever seeing release on other platforms, though I acknowledge a handful of people are excited by them and a handful of people will want to play them on the VCS. Unless Intellivision gives us suckers free digital codes, I doubt I'll ever bother to play them on anything (and I have everything) unless they're included in one of the game services from Microsoft or Sony or included as part of a Humble Bundle for Steam. 

[davpa]

That is the worst part about all this (at least to me), that the Intellivision identity is now being parceled off piece by piece.  When everything was falling apart, I was hoping there was going to be a sale to some eccentric billionaire that would have kept Intellivision IPs together as Keith Robinson did.

[Bill Loguidice]

1 hour ago, 82-T/A said:

 

It's unbelievable to me that with what they have produced (games / content), that they aren't trying to save themselves somewhat by selling this on things like Atari VCS. I would buy this tomorrow on the Atari VCS (Moon Patrol). I assume there are other play stores for PlayStation and Xbox (I don't have either so I don't know), but I'm sure they could manage to make it work for that.

 

The issue is is that these games have minimal market value. They're all casual experiences with modest (at best) production values. To me, the only value was having them on the Amico with the various - and mostly - controller-based gimmicks. Those types of games are a dime a dozen, and often free, on other platforms.

 

The VCS is an ultra-niche platform that itself is on life support (kudos to Atari for still sticking it out despite heavy financial losses related to it), so selling hundreds (?) of copies of each game on that won't move the monetary needle much. Same thing on the major platforms. Those types of games will just get lost in the noise of cheap or free games of similar quality. The only way out of their current situation is to go back in time and not squander the original investments. 

 

7 minutes ago, davpa said:

That is the worst part about all this (at least to me), that the Intellivision identity is now being parceled off piece by piece.  When everything was falling apart, I was hoping there was going to be a sale to some eccentric billionaire that would have kept Intellivision IPs together as Keith Robinson did.

Exactly. The IP they had wasn't exactly high value in the first place, but what little did have value is now going to be used elsewhere. They no doubt got decent cash infusions from the sale of the IP to Atari and BBG Entertainment, but there's no indication that those funds will be used for anything more than paying off some of the accumulated debt and keeping the proverbial lights on just a bit longer. At this point, it's probably just a holding company to keep certain people getting paychecks (whatever can be diverted from debt payments) from any modest royalties gained from what are going to be modest game sales.

[82-T/A]

Let's do Coleco Vision next!