Intellivision Amico’s trademark changed to ‘abandoned’

[SegaSnatcher]

So was this ever confirmed a dead project?   I've been out of the loop for a bit. 

No way are they still promising the Amico will release at this point. 

[+Stephen]

11 hours ago, frankodragon said:

If the Amico really did come out, Phil Swift probably would be the pitchman.  Then again he'd saw the thing in half and used his Flex Seal stuff (which doesn't work like it should) and say his usual catchphase.

 

 

 

Holy hell is he channeling Phil Hartman there!

[IntyFanMatt]

46 minutes ago, SegaSnatcher said:

So was this ever confirmed a dead project?   I've been out of the loop for a bit. 

No way are they still promising the Amico will release at this point. 

It’s not 100% confirmed dead, but it’s dead, lol. Total shit show. 

Edited October 18, 2023 by IntyFanMatt

[Matt_B]

[roots.genoa]

4 hours ago, SegaSnatcher said:

No way are they still promising the Amico will release at this point.

[jerseystyle]

9 hours ago, SegaSnatcher said:

So was this ever confirmed a dead project?   I've been out of the loop for a bit. 

No way are they still promising the Amico will release at this point. 

Not only are they saying that, you can still send them money for a pre order (for both the games and the console). And there is the revolutionary Amico Home which will allow you to hit on women at bars.

 

Although I do hope that at least Home comes out.  Why?
 

Mostly for something like this:

 

CHUDS venturing from their basements, squinting at the sun, and lurching towards the nearest dive bar. One slimy hand clutching a wad of moldy bills, the other a cracked phone with Sideswipers droning along on the home page. 

 

They walk inside, scanning the room for a women sitting by herself.  Tapping their Amico AR shirt for good luck, they send her a flirty text through Home- a witty joke about The Little Mermaid. Sadly since no one else has it, she doesn’t receive the message. After a short prayer to TT, they approach, desperately wiping the marinara sauce from their unkempt beard. 
 

She looks up and is taken aback by the smell and multitude of wristbands.  
 

“are you okay? Do you need help?”

 

This is his chance. The first direct human contact he has had since Crayola.  He holds up his phone, his hands shaking.

 

”Cornhole?”

 

He wakes up in the hospital four hours later, after getting hit in the teeth with a barstool.

[+5-11under]

2 minutes ago, jerseystyle said:

Not only are they saying that, you can still send them money for a pre order (for both the games and the console). And there is the revolutionary Amico Home which will allow you to hit on women at bars.

 

Although I do hope that at least Home comes out.  Why?
 

Mostly for something like this:

 

CHUDS venturing from their basements, squinting at the sun, and lurching towards the nearest dive bar. One slimy hand clutching a wad of moldy bills, the other a cracked phone with Sideswipers droning along on the home page. 

 

They walk inside, scanning the room for a women sitting by herself.  Tapping their Amico AR shirt for good luck, they send her a flirty text through Home- a witty joke about The Little Mermaid. Sadly since no one else has it, she doesn’t receive the message. After a short prayer to TT, they approach, desperately wiping the marinara sauce from their unkempt beard. 
 

She looks up and is taken aback by the smell and multitude of wristbands.  
 

“are you okay? Do you need help?”

 

This is his chance. The first direct human contact he has had since Crayola.  He holds up his phone, his hands shaking.

 

”Cornhole?”

 

He wakes up in the hospital four hours later, after getting hit in the teeth with a barstool.

Good story... the Amico now has "fan" fiction!

[digdugnate]

Someone got a refund from Intellivision:

 

 

The part that cracks me up is that Nick is like 'Please note your place in the queue has been forfeited'.  🤣

[roots.genoa]

6 hours ago, digdugnate said:

The part that cracks me up is that Nick is like 'Please note your place in the queue has been forfeited'.  🤣

Exactly! Nobody will get their console anyway, but you will now be the LAST not to get it!! 😤

Edited October 18, 2023 by roots.genoa

[+frankodragon]

9 hours ago, digdugnate said:

Someone got a refund from Intellivision:

 

 

The part that cracks me up is that Nick is like 'Please note your place in the queue has been forfeited'.  🤣

Meanwhile....

 

 

[MattPilz]

10 hours ago, jerseystyle said:

And there is the revolutionary Amico Home which will allow you to hit on women at bars.

Only problem with that dream scenario is... John confirmed Amico Home is not built to support public/guest WiFi hotspots. It relies on UDP packets through a LAN's broadcast IP. (John: "I did not implement any special way to deal with public networks.")

 

This implementation effectively rules out any social play at bars, hotels, game festivals. It also wipes out the concept of simplicity to pick-up and play, since it won't work on cellular networks either. Anyone who wants to experience Amico Home will need to ensure every single device is configured on the same home network, that the router is configured to allow IP broadcasting, that no UDP ports are blocked (or, that necessary UDP ports are allowed/forwarded in the Router admin), and that they have one extra phone handy to act as the console, with the necessary updates and apps installed on all of them.

 

It'd be much more versatile if it supported no-account online play like some other common party apps by launching a game on the "console" and having it display a code for others to join regardless of their device or connection. But that would require a whole network infrastructure that I doubt exists. But the games I've seen previewed on Amico Home, namely Shark! Shark!, already support their own multiplayer functions so I don't really know why Amico Home as a basestation would be a necessary at all.  

 

 

[mr_me]

21 hours ago, SegaSnatcher said:

So was this ever confirmed a dead project?   I've been out of the loop for a bit. 

No way are they still promising the Amico will release at this point. 

What is it that you might be expecting.  Unless a creditor forces them into bankruptcy they can sit on it.  Much of the loans are from themselves.  Iirc there are some other loans due in 2024.

[digdugnate]

2 hours ago, mr_me said:

What is it that you might be expecting.  Unless a creditor forces them into bankruptcy they can sit on it.  Much of the loans are from themselves.  Iirc there are some other loans due in 2024.

 

Honk honk 🤡

[MrBeefy]

On 10/18/2023 at 7:55 AM, 5-11under said:

Good story... the Amico now has "fan" fiction!

Um, wasn't the whole Amico pitch fiction?

 

3.2 billion

Rocket ships

Never losing

Etc

Etc

Etc

 

Glad to see that Astrosmash and Shark Shark are disrupting the world. I'm heard moms and children were lined up at the Steam store waiting for their release.

[digdugnate]

Anybody got them FCC Certifications?  *scratches face*

[jerseystyle]

1 hour ago, digdugnate said:

Anybody got them FCC Certifications?  *scratches face*

[Shawn]

On 10/18/2023 at 8:38 PM, mr_me said:

Derp? Derp! Derp.

 

[MrBeefy]

So for anyone who doesn't know. Amico Home will launch with 5 games. Astrosmash, Shark Shark, Missile Command, Side Swipers, and Dart Frenzy. Amico Home is free but pay per game. Anyone still holding onto a preorder can get those games free.

 

Anyone still holding onto a preorder better read the fine print to get those games "for free". 

[SegaSnatcher]

On 10/18/2023 at 5:38 PM, mr_me said:

What is it that you might be expecting.  Unless a creditor forces them into bankruptcy they can sit on it.  Much of the loans are from themselves.  Iirc there are some other loans due in 2024.

Simple, they refund all remaining preorders without having to be asked.  The project is clearly dead, they need to do the right thing. 

[Razzie.P]

3 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

So for anyone who doesn't know. Amico Home will launch with 5 games. Astrosmash, Shark Shark, Missile Command, Side Swipers, and Dart Frenzy. Amico Home is free but pay per game. Anyone still holding onto a preorder can get those games free.

 

Anyone still holding onto a preorder better read the fine print to get those games "for free". 

Anyone have a copy of that fine print to post?

[mr_me]

14 hours ago, SegaSnatcher said:

Simple, they refund all remaining preorders without having to be asked.  The project is clearly dead, they need to do the right thing. 

I meant what sort of confirmation.  They still owe deposit refunds but they ran out of money early last year.  With about fifty employees and no revenue, it wasn't surprising.

[MrBeefy]

22 hours ago, SegaSnatcher said:

Simple, they refund all remaining preorders without having to be asked.  The project is clearly dead, they need to do the right thing. 

They aren't going to do that. Anyone with a preorder will get free games on Amico Home, "When they become available". The right thing to do would be to refund everyone, AND keep their preorder spot. They have shown time and time again they do not want to do the right thing. Their Amico Physical Trash Games are evidence of that.

 

Considering the launch games do not consist of any but one of the "physical games" and only two of the pack ins makes me think the others aren't quite done or running well. There was a time I heard they were begging devs to work for free to finish games.

 

But if you listened to idiots around here 95% done means they are good to go because they are never done! 🤪🤪🤪

 

Same with the OS. Amico Home = Amico Console OS. They are still testing which means it was never done and still isn't.

 

I'd love to see those people defend those Fundable numbers now, beep boop.

20 hours ago, Razzie.P said:

Anyone have a copy of that fine print to post?

No fine print yet. Just a prediction. Anyone with a reasonable brain cell in them know the hardware isn't coming. They have to be looking for a way out of this to limit their liabilities and not give more money back. That would be a low effort apk rollout and giving games for free with stipulations.

Edited October 29, 2023 by MrBeefy

[Matt_B]

I'm fully expecting them to trot out the "but they're unplayable without the controller" excuse for the missing games. Meanwhile, we're expected to believe that a twitchy arcade game like Astrosmash is going to be fine using an emulated controller on a mobile phone over a Wi-Fi network.

More generally, Amico Home just doesn't seem to have a reason to exist beyond people who want to roll their own console as a vanity project. If they just wanted to bring the games to Android, it'd seem far more sensible to release them directly via Google Play.

[mr_me]

Even if a game is ready on Amico, the new platform although also android based is different, games might have to be recompiled and tested for this platform. They might also want to release games on a schedule to maximise sales, although I wouldn't expect sales to be significant. 

 

A touchscreen emulating the Amico dpad and buttons isn't ideal but who knows if Amico controllers ever become available. And supporting other controllers would mean modifying the games, which is what BBG did. Amico Missile Command does control with the touchpad.

 

I think the idea is to to do this without modifying the games. Therefore a common compatibility platform that also handles their controllers.  The games might still be distributed through google play.  If they share the controller API, a developer might have a go at a multiplayer game making use of controllers with displays.

Edited October 30, 2023 by mr_me

[MrBeefy]

On 10/29/2023 at 8:21 PM, Matt_B said:

I'm fully expecting them to trot out the "but they're unplayable without the controller" excuse for the missing games. Meanwhile, we're expected to believe that a twitchy arcade game like Astrosmash is going to be fine using an emulated controller on a mobile phone over a Wi-Fi network.

More generally, Amico Home just doesn't seem to have a reason to exist beyond people who want to roll their own console as a vanity project. If they just wanted to bring the games to Android, it'd seem far more sensible to release them directly via Google Play.

Amico Home might be a way to circumvent owing money per game sale. It is why you won't see this on iPhone. Iirc Epic Games had issues with Aplle because they wanted a cut of each game sold or something.

 

Releasing directly would make more sense, if they didn't have a proposed console they still have people's money for. That's why if they get the app released I will be interested to hear/read the fine print.

 

Now in other news, Atari will soon own the code for Amico Night Stalker and Amico Cloudy. 🤣

 

So much winning @Tommy Tallarico

 

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2023/10/31/2769851/0/en/Atari-enters-into-an-agreement-to-acquire-Digital-Eclipse.html