Intellivision Amico’s trademark changed to ‘abandoned’

[MrBeefy]

1 hour ago, cvga said:

Super Challenge Baseball is very good but it's from MNetwork and based on Major League Baseball so I'd expect it to be similar to it's Intellivision counterpart just like Astroblast, Dark Cavern, etc. I felt like MNetwork did a very good job overall with their ports.

 

There are some big and some subtle differences though. Super Challenge Baseball only fields a team of 8 players (no shortstop). I understand why but the shortstop is an important position so that would take it down a notch. The reason I thought Major League Baseball is revolutionary though is more due to some subtle things in gameplay. I played this nearly every day with my best friend growing up. There are things you can do that people don't realize to give yourself a slight advantage. For example, when you make a throw to first base, you can move the first baseman one step closer to the throw (kind of like a stretch) to receive the ball just an instant sooner. Same with the lead baserunner as you could scoot him over just a tad and he'd still be touching the base (hence safe). The control over baserunners with lead-offs was also amazing. Since many games are low scoring, your ability to take extra bases is often the difference between winning and losing. We were really good at cutting off throws from the outfield (you can change players and intercept a throw otherwise going to the plate) to throw out other runners. It's an outstanding game that probably still doesn't get the credit it deserves for how well balanced it is.

I might be getting my old baseball games mixed up, but I thought you could basically field everything with the pitcher in MLB?

 

The biggest miss IMO is Lock n Chase being a PacMan VS clone. Too bad they designed everything so bad it wouldn't be capable of doing that.

Edited January 22 by MrBeefy

[rayik]

6 minutes ago, MrBeefy said:

I might be getting my old baseball games mixed up, but I thought you could basically field everything with the pitcher in MLB?

 

Yes, you're getting old MrB  😀

[+cvga]

25 minutes ago, MrBeefy said:

I might be getting my old baseball games mixed up, but I thought you could basically field everything with the pitcher in MLB?

 

The biggest miss IMO is Lock n Chase being a PacMan VS clone. Too bad they designed everything so bad it wouldn't be capable of doing that.

Lock n Chase is ok but I wish they were able to do a better job with the locks so you could actually trap the police more often. 

 

My biggest MNetwork disappointment was Burgertime. My best friend owned it for Intellivision and I loved it. I owned it for Atari and didn't enjoy it. 

[+GoldLeader]

No disrespect here of course,  but it seems to me,  that if Baseball is your console's great game,...Well,  that's kind of like when a Metal band's best song is their ballad (Sure, but...Yuckkkk!).  And Night Stalker: The Remake probably could have been something (if the console came out and everything was fully realized,  again just dreaming off in LaLaLand here),  but I'm 99.99% sure they would have screwed it up with Wave FX that make you carsick,  and Particle and Lighting FX that make you snowblind.  They just can't help themselves...(and it would Never be as FUN as Dark Cavern on the 2600.)

[SegaMasterSystemPunk]

1 hour ago, GoldLeader said:

No disrespect here of course,  but it seems to me,  that if Baseball is your console's great game,...Well,  that's kind of like when a Metal band's best song is their ballad (Sure, but...Yuckkkk!).  And Night Stalker: The Remake probably could have been something (if the console came out and everything was fully realized,  again just dreaming off in LaLaLand here),  but I'm 99.99% sure they would have screwed it up with Wave FX that make you carsick,  and Particle and Lighting FX that make you snowblind.  They just can't help themselves...(and it would Never be as FUN as Dark Cavern on the 2600.)

What about when Cornhole with graphics that would have looked dated 20 years ago is your console's great game?

[+GoldLeader]

1 minute ago, SegaMasterSystemPunk said:

What about when Cornhole with graphics that would have looked dated 20 years ago is your console's great game?

 

Please!  This is a Family Friendly Forum.

[+cvga]

1 hour ago, GoldLeader said:

No disrespect here of course,  but it seems to me,  that if Baseball is your console's great game,...Well,  that's kind of like when a Metal band's best song is their ballad (Sure, but...Yuckkkk!).  And Night Stalker: The Remake probably could have been something (if the console came out and everything was fully realized,  again just dreaming off in LaLaLand here),  but I'm 99.99% sure they would have screwed it up with Wave FX that make you carsick,  and Particle and Lighting FX that make you snowblind.  They just can't help themselves...(and it would Never be as FUN as Dark Cavern on the 2600.)

But what if it was just one of your console's great games? I said that I thought it was revolutionary for baseball at the time but I wouldn't have ranked it as my favorite Intellivision game. I have no issue with Advanced D&D Cloudy Mountain (which was amazing), Burgertime, Shark! Shark!, Beamrider, or a myriad of other games being ranked ahead of it (although Night Stalker wouldn't have been one of them for me) but I do think MLB is a great game for the system. Of course, I like Metal ballads also so what do I know lol.

 

You don't know what you got until it's gone. Don't know what I typed that was so wrong, wrong, wrong. 

[+GoldLeader]

3 minutes ago, cvga said:

But what if it was just one of your console's great games? I said that I thought it was revolutionary for baseball at the time but I wouldn't have ranked it as my favorite Intellivision game. I have no issue with Advanced D&D Cloudy Mountain (which was amazing), Burgertime, Shark! Shark!, Beamrider, or a myriad of other games being ranked ahead of it (although Night Stalker wouldn't have been one of them for me) but I do think MLB is a great game for the system. Of course, I like Metal ballads also so what do I know lol.

 

You don't know what you got until it's gone. Don't know what I typed that was so wrong, wrong, wrong. 

 

I guess (to me) saying, "Revolutionary for Baseball",...Is like saying, "as Badass as TeeBall!" or "That's our banjo player's Maserati"...Sometimes my tired brain is just out there creating words...And (What to do?) I write them down so the internet can enjoy them.,  Haa!  But,  Truly I hear ya,  it was just one of many.  (I know what you're saying)...

[Flojomojo]

3 hours ago, SegaMasterSystemPunk said:

What about when Cornhole with graphics that would have looked dated 20 years ago is your console's great game?

bUt gOoD gRaPhIcS dOnT mAtTeR tO mOmS

 

The Amico was never a proper Intellivision retread, it was forever destined to be just a bunch of one weird guy’s childhood favorites. Skipping Space Battle or Space Spartans (It Talks!) for tired G-mode ports and Biplanes always missed the point. 
 

“What’s the fastest growing sport with a license we can buy? Corn Hole? Funny name, make it happen! And put little flags on all the levels and we’ll pretend we are traveling the world.”

[Flojomojo]

From the American astroturf backyard 

To the … uhhh… parched wastelands of Japan?

The Links 386 graphics from the Windows 3.1 era really tie the whole experience together. 

Actually, the 1992 visuals look a bit nicer. 

and the UI seems to make more sense. 

[SteveTheColecoDude]

22 minutes ago, Flojomojo said:

From the American astroturf backyard 

To the … uhhh… parched wastelands of Japan?

The Links 386 graphics from the Windows 3.1 era really tie the whole experience together. 

Actually, the 1992 visuals look a bit nicer. 

and the UI seems to make more sense. 

 

They're using a slightly misleading (pre-downgrade) screenshot of Cornhole on the Intellivison.club website...

 

[Tommy2D]

If you guys want an outdoor retro game, with graphical consistency and unlimited replay value, have you checked out Lee Carvallo's putting challenge?

 

I love that someone actually took the time to make it. https://aaron-demeter.itch.io/lee-carvallos-putting-challenge

 

[SegaMasterSystemPunk]

2 hours ago, Flojomojo said:

From the American astroturf backyard 

To the … uhhh… parched wastelands of Japan?

The Links 386 graphics from the Windows 3.1 era really tie the whole experience together. 

Actually, the 1992 visuals look a bit nicer. 

and the UI seems to make more sense. 

Someone is probably looking for where this forum has a copyright strike button right now!

[roots.genoa]

9 hours ago, SteveTheColecoDude said:

They're using a slightly misleading (pre-downgrade) screenshot of Cornhole on the Intellivison.club website...

That's because you're an elitist gaming racist and you don't have the DATA™️!! 😤 Multiple focus groups showed that people want Amico games with lower graphics, or else they feel like playing on modern systems that have DLC, patches, and microtransactions and that make them vomit!

[MrBeefy]

20 hours ago, rayik said:

 

Yes, you're getting old MrB  😀

True, BUT I'm not in my 40s or 50s like some videogame music hack would want you to believe! 🤣

18 hours ago, SegaMasterSystemPunk said:

What about when Cornhole with graphics that would have looked dated 20 years ago is your console's great game?

This is AA. You will find someone joining "daily" who complain about mew graphics and game play wanting to go back to the good old days of their blocky gaming youth.

17 hours ago, GoldLeader said:

 

I guess (to me) saying, "Revolutionary for Baseball",...Is like saying, "as Badass as TeeBall!" or "That's our banjo player's Maserati"...Sometimes my tired brain is just out there creating words...And (What to do?) I write them down so the internet can enjoy them.,  Haa!  But,  Truly I hear ya,  it was just one of many.  (I know what you're saying)...

Tee Ball is Bad Ass.... like Little League is Badass.

What's sad is that old NES game has more personality and looks better than the crap 70s version with a graphics update.

They are so creatively bankrupt. That is simply horrible looking. And no it would not be fun playing that 8 player. That would amount to at least half the people sitting around doing nothing. Just UG how did people give them so much leeway on this trash?

15 hours ago, Flojomojo said:

bUt gOoD gRaPhIcS dOnT mAtTeR tO mOmS

 

The Amico was never a proper Intellivision retread, it was forever destined to be just a bunch of one weird guy’s childhood favorites. Skipping Space Battle or Space Spartans (It Talks!) for tired G-mode ports and Biplanes always missed the point. 
 

“What’s the fastest growing sport with a license we can buy? Corn Hole? Funny name, make it happen! And put little flags on all the levels and we’ll pretend we are traveling the world.”

It wasn't about moms or casuals etc. It was about getting retro gamers to throw money at them. Yeah there were talking points that moms would agree with, but that doesn't mean it was actually gone through with. Their crap game line up is enough to see that. Once again many gave them a bunch of leeway because like they feel like Nintendo killed their gaming childhood or something.

 

Junior Beef is like an Amico kid. Yet he's somehow not managed to play one porn game on the Switch. Ask yourself why that is? It was pretty obvious that people just wanted to get on the hate Nintendo bandwagon and not ask what is Intellivision ACTUALLY providing? How is it ACTUALLY doing XYZ BETTER than all the things that currently EXIST?

 

Unfortunately, I think the console idea/talking points were developed by a childless Grampa-baby who knows Jack crap about family content, and has a low opinion of women/moms ability to not be idiots.

14 hours ago, Flojomojo said:

From the American astroturf backyard 

To the … uhhh… parched wastelands of Japan?

The Links 386 graphics from the Windows 3.1 era really tie the whole experience together. 

Actually, the 1992 visuals look a bit nicer. 

and the UI seems to make more sense. 

Oh dear lord. The static screens do look better. I'm sure it looks worse when moving. They downgraded Cornhole quote a bit. They will say to make it look more mobile friendly. However, it was probably due to not owning the assets and that the console couldn't handle it.

Which this is another nail in the coffin of them lying about their ability to release 10/10/2020. On that date they still did not have their "app killer" finished. IMO that footage didn't look smooth.

 

 

[SteveTheColecoDude]

9 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

That's because you're an elitist gaming racist and you don't have the DATA™️!! 😤 Multiple focus groups showed that people want Amico games with lower graphics, or else they feel like playing on modern systems that have DLC, patches, and microtransactions and that make them vomit!

 

I'm such a "ding dong" and maybe also a "phony" and a "bully".

 

Just referencing this selection of Tommy Tallarico classics to try and choose the most accurate insults thrown around by the very family-friendly CEO.

 

Edited January 23 by SteveTheColecoDude

[MrBeefy]

3 hours ago, SteveTheColecoDude said:

 

I'm such a "ding dong" and maybe also a "phony" and a "bully".

 

Just referencing this selection of Tommy Tallarico classics to try and choose the most accurate insults thrown around by the very family-friendly CEO.

 

Oh my. It really isn't a surprise nothing got done. He wasted his time and energy on pointless things.

 

Unless the only goal was to extract as much money without doing anything. That is the only way his actions male sense. They weren't those of an individual about making anything.

[roots.genoa]

6 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

Once again many gave them a bunch of leeway because like they feel like Nintendo killed their gaming childhood or something.

💯

Recently, one of the last Amico fans on their Facebook group claimed that Mario Party looks childish while Shark, Shark doesn't. 🤨 If it doesn't instantly prove this guy is a dishonest Nintendo hater, I really don't know what could.

[+GoldLeader]

Phonies, Bullies, and Ding Dongs,

 

Lend me your ears!

 

 

Thinking about it;  I don't think it was an anti-Nintendo focus (around here).  Excluding an optimistic view of future potential;  I think it boiled down to 2 things:  Cheering for the underdog,  and Nostalgia for the brand (Intellivision).  The first makes sense.

 

The second still leaves me partly puzzled.  I get that many Intellivision fans wanted to see a continuation of the brand.  And maybe that's where it stops for a lot of people.  Some may have even quit reading after the part where Tommy said it would include old Intellivision titles (imagining future support for homebrews and new titles based on some vague "Wouldn't that be something?" blurted out haphazardly),... But the rest of it?  The games looked too modern for fans of the blocky (OG Intellivision fans), and not "Pixel Art" enough for people like me who like pretty,  but still want a video game to look like a video game...The poor choices in graphic style, and game titles in general,  were bound to leave many people disappointed.  (Odd analogy incoming!)  It'd be like wishing your favorite band did a cover song of one of your favorite songs,  but then being very disappointed in how they did it.  Could be they didn't put enough of their style into it,  could be they missed out on some of the spirit of the original.  Shills aside,  I wonder if the Intellivision fans around here got too caught up in cheering for the loser (Oops!),  I mean Underdog, and/or let their nostalgia get carried away as they joined the other fans?

[Bill Loguidice]

24 minutes ago, GoldLeader said:

The second still leaves me partly puzzled.  I get that many Intellivision fans wanted to see a continuation of the brand.  And maybe that's where it stops for a lot of people.  Some may have even quit reading after the part where Tommy said it would include old Intellivision titles (imagining future support for homebrews and new titles based on some vague "Wouldn't that be something?" blurted out haphazardly),... But the rest of it?  The games looked too modern for fans of the blocky (OG Intellivision fans), and not "Pixel Art" enough for people like me who like pretty,  but still want a video game to look like a video game...The poor choices in graphic style, and game titles in general,  were bound to leave many people disappointed.  (Odd analogy incoming!)  It'd be like wishing your favorite band did a cover song of one of your favorite songs,  but then being very disappointed in how they did it.  Could be they didn't put enough of their style into it,  could be they missed out on some of the spirit of the original.  Shills aside,  I wonder if the Intellivision fans around here got too caught up in cheering for the loser (Oops!),  I mean Underdog, and/or let their nostalgia get carried away as they joined the other fans?

I'd say the original concepts and intentions were just fine all things considered, but the project became increasingly toxic, tainted, and underdeveloped over time (rather than making necessary corrections over time, including reigning in Tallarico far sooner). Any rational person has, or would have, abandoned ship by now, but I think most of us acknowledge that there's some psychological issues at play for a vocal minority, including being oddly emotionally invested, doubling down on said investment, not wanting to prove the "haters" right, and a rather perverse "us versus them" and "outsiders" perspective that (forgive me for anyone I offend) permeates the conspiracy theory crowd. It's all there in the (relative) open.

[rayik]

2 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

💯

Recently, one of the last Amico fans on their Facebook group claimed that Mario Party looks childish while Shark, Shark doesn't. 🤨 If it doesn't instantly prove this guy is a dishonest Nintendo hater, I really don't know what could.

This shows how muich IE really missed their "family friendly" mark. Of all their games, Shark Shark should be at the top of their kid appealing games.

[MrBeefy]

3 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

💯

Recently, one of the last Amico fans on their Facebook group claimed that Mario Party looks childish while Shark, Shark doesn't. 🤨 If it doesn't instantly prove this guy is a dishonest Nintendo hater, I really don't know what could.

That's moronic. Not only do I think he's dishonest but intellectually deficient. 

2 hours ago, GoldLeader said:

Phonies, Bullies, and Ding Dongs,

 

Lend me your ears!

 

 

Thinking about it;  I don't think it was an anti-Nintendo focus (around here).  Excluding an optimistic view of future potential;  I think it boiled down to 2 things:  Cheering for the underdog,  and Nostalgia for the brand (Intellivision).  The first makes sense.

 

The second still leaves me partly puzzled.  I get that many Intellivision fans wanted to see a continuation of the brand.  And maybe that's where it stops for a lot of people.  Some may have even quit reading after the part where Tommy said it would include old Intellivision titles (imagining future support for homebrews and new titles based on some vague "Wouldn't that be something?" blurted out haphazardly),... But the rest of it?  The games looked too modern for fans of the blocky (OG Intellivision fans), and not "Pixel Art" enough for people like me who like pretty,  but still want a video game to look like a video game...The poor choices in graphic style, and game titles in general,  were bound to leave many people disappointed.  (Odd analogy incoming!)  It'd be like wishing your favorite band did a cover song of one of your favorite songs,  but then being very disappointed in how they did it.  Could be they didn't put enough of their style into it,  could be they missed out on some of the spirit of the original.  Shills aside,  I wonder if the Intellivision fans around here got too caught up in cheering for the loser (Oops!),  I mean Underdog, and/or let their nostalgia get carried away as they joined the other fans?

Oh there was totally some anti-Nintendo peeps in there. Some thought that I owned a Switch because I was more interested in hearing what the Amico could do and less about why Switch was EVIL!!!

 

Yes this site is riddled with many who still can't understand nor accept that the NES sold well, or think it was a miracle that the 7800 didn't beat it. There is way more of that here than you'd think. I mean you have people that think being able to use the touchscreen to aim in Cloudy was revolutionary. Despite twin analogs being around since the PS1. You still have donuts here who think it will magically aim better than dual analog sticks in a run and gun. 

 

Tommy literally promised them every old game they would throw out. It was pretty obvious many were out of touch with how little they knew about gaming past that blocky crap. It's why none of them ever questioned what he would say.

 

I do agree that many didn't listen. Some got mad at me and said I was shitting in the punch bowl because they wouldn't have Metroidvanias. Metroidvanias are not kid or casual friendly. It's the wishcasting console, and people just didn't think.

 

Not going to lie, it soured me on retro gaming. I don't want to be associated with that despite liking my 2600/7800 and enjoying homebrews. I'd rather be seen as the guy who likes playing the porn console because it exists and well my kid and wife enjoy it too (Imagine that)!

2 hours ago, Bill Loguidice said:

I'd say the original concepts and intentions were just fine all things considered, but the project became increasingly toxic, tainted, and underdeveloped over time (rather than making necessary corrections over time, including reigning in Tallarico far sooner). Any rational person has, or would have, abandoned ship by now, but I think most of us acknowledge that there's some psychological issues at play for a vocal minority, including being oddly emotionally invested, doubling down on said investment, not wanting to prove the "haters" right, and a rather perverse "us versus them" and "outsiders" perspective that (forgive me for anyone I offend) permeates the conspiracy theory crowd. It's all there in the (relative) open.

Oh there is something definitely going on mentally. Cults exist because there are people willing to join them. Are all cults bad? No but there are thousands of them. This goes with the idea that old man needed gaming group to belong idea. They needed a cause to show that it was the gaming world that was wrong. Not them stuck in the past.

 

 

[+GoldLeader]

One thing I see I left out (when mentioning Anti-Nintendo rhetoric) was that I was basically excluding outliers and shills.   Yes there's Super Atari Fans,  or a few who Like Intellivision so much they blame Nintendo,  or Europeans who don't get how important Nintendo really was for the time...(And some of them start silly threads where it's not a miracle that almost everybody disagrees with them)... 

 

But the shills!, Hehaaa!...They'd say anything no matter how ridiculous.  I could see them dumping on you for buying a Switch.  (side note:  Maybe I should get one?)  Sure,  if you'd rather have a Nintendo product with all of that porn than an Amico!   It'd be like saying, I guess you could buy a new Rolls Royce,  but wouldn't ya rather have a busted Yugo?

Edited January 24 by GoldLeader
PS: You totally get a smiley for the Simpsons GIF.

[Bill Loguidice]

1 hour ago, GoldLeader said:

But the shills!, Hehaaa!...They'd say anything no matter how ridiculous.  I could see them dumping on you for buying a Switch.  (side note:  Maybe I should get one?)  Sure,  if you'd rather have a Nintendo product with all of that porn than an Amico!   It'd be like saying, I guess you could buy a new Rolls Royce,  but wouldn't ya rather have a busted Yugo?

The porn angle was always an odd talking point, unofficial or otherwise. While it's true there are "adult" games on all of the current platforms, including Switch (it took Nintendo how long to allow such games?), you still have to go a bit out of your way to buy them, as well as not have enabled parental controls, something that should be standard for parents who feel the need to monitor what their kids do. I just don't see any of that as an effective talking point in this day and age because of the parental controls, automated parental monitoring (notifications and summary emails, etc.), etc. I suspect the reason why we do have plenty of ultra-violent and "adult" games on all of the platforms is precisely because of such fine content control options. If anything, it's another indicator of not only many of the people behind the Amico being rather out of touch with modern gaming (and they were, going back to when it was just an idea and they were incorrectly touting various "firsts" for the Intellivision platform that weren't really firsts), but also the platform's/idea's most ardent supporters who acted like there literally weren't existing options for most of the things promised. 

On a side, but related, note, after many months of play, earlier tonight I beat "It Takes Two" with my youngest daughter (9) on the Xbox Series X. That 2021 release is an example of everything right with modern gaming, mixing mature storytelling with gameplay spanning nearly every possible genre and play type. It was a truly wonderful experience and a game that I not only consider one of the greatest co-op games of all-time, but also one of the greatest games of all-time, period. It was truly a special experience with my youngest daughter and something I don't think we'll soon forget, no Amico needed. It's what I was trying to relate to some of the poor souls who went all-in on the Amico to play with a significant person in their life to try and recapture something from their younger days. I stressed they really didn't have to wait for the Amico to do that (especially when it was clear it wasn't happening). As expected, sadly, some of them have run out of time to do just that due to unfortunate, but inevitable, life events. 

[roots.genoa]

11 hours ago, GoldLeader said:

But the rest of it?  The games looked too modern for fans of the blocky (OG Intellivision fans), and not "Pixel Art" enough for people like me who like pretty,  but still want a video game to look like a video game...

It has always been the problem with Amico, having "its ass between two chairs" as we would say in France (well, Tommy found the solution for this recently it seems 😉). On one hand they wanted to cater to retrogamers (since they seemed the easiest to convince initially), who would have probably preferred old school looks, but they also wanted to be the new Wii - which was probably impossible to do for such a small company anyway. That being said, if casual gamers don't care about graphics, maybe they wouldn't have been scared by pixelart anyway! 🤷‍♂️

 

And that's a very usual problem in marketing: should I target everyone, risking getting no one, or focus on a niche? TT was clearly too proud to accept the latter (which is not always successful mind you; the Evercade and the Playdate succeeded, but a lot of others failed).