Intellivision Amico’s trademark changed to ‘abandoned’

[+GoldLeader]

Tell you what,

 

If I had taken my $100, and Not bought the Evercade (handheld to start with), and had instead given it to IE for a "Pre-Order" on a Flounders' Edition...Well,  I would be kicking myself...Kicking my own arse repeatedly, only calming down and falling to the floor, worn out, and covered in bruises and cuts, and my own fistprints...Until I sat there in loneliness and depression, singing sad songs through a veil of tears, and pulling out every hair off the top of my head,  one by one,  until only a few hair formations remained and those remaining hair follicles would spell out the word DIMWIT in bold, capital letters across my forehead for all the world to see!*

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Well maybe not,  but I'd still feel like a sucker...

[roots.genoa]

I would spell "AMICO" by drilling holes in my forehead! 😤

[mr_me]

19 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?

A lot of the people who were most active with Amico discussion here had come and gone along with the Amico forum. Much of the People that are here for Intellivision discussion weren't all that active with Amico discussion. The Amico followers included those with little or no connection to the Intellivision.

 

The retro video game community is primarily about the old classic games. And new games for old systems, i.e. homebrew games, is a very active subset of that community. Modern remakes/sequels of old games is another smaller subset. A lot of the Amico titles for remakes weren't Intellivision titles but those from other systems, and some of those titles brought Amico followers. Any people with anti-nintendo tendencies might be carry overs from the Sega Genesis era. So it's not surprising that a lot of the people here weren't active in the discussion.

 

 

7 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

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).

They probably should have focused more on the ultra-casual, local multiplayer aspect. The graphics style more for younger children. For example, a one player game like Finnegan Fox seemed out of place for what they were targeting, despite efforts to make it easier. That was an existing game ported over. But there's no reason a remake of an old title couldn't be designed to suit their focus, with casual local multiplayer part of the game design. Still I was expecting more in the style of casual board games or party games, in addition to the retro titled action games. No doubt, they made mistakes, but regardless it would have been a high risk project.

[roots.genoa]

3 hours ago, mr_me said:

For example, a one player game like Finnegan Fox seemed out of place for what they were targeting, despite efforts to make it easier.

Finnigan Fox was indeed a huge mistake imho. I think that game was made because 1) Bonus Level Entertainment had developed Shark Shark for them 2) it's a German company so it could be financed by the Bavarian fund 3) the game was already done, so it required less work.

But not only is Fox n Forests a one player game, but it's also a game that was specifically made to look and sound like a SNES game - and also feel like one, which means old school challenge. So not only did they have to change the gameplay to make it playable on an Amico controller (the original game uses more buttons than a SNES controller features btw), but they had to deface Henk Nieborg's superb pixelart. So instead of butchering it, it would have been easier to create a new game from scratch imho - they could have retain the lore and some gameplay ideas though. A 2-player spin-off for instance.

[MrBeefy]

22 hours ago, GoldLeader said:

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?

The shills still say ridiculous things. 

20 hours ago, Bill Loguidice said:

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. 

Yeah but are YOUR PARENTS alive and how great it would be to play with them? Your daughter is a hardcore elite gaming racist.

 

But to be a little more serious, the idea of Amico was also about acting like moms were stupid and incapable of using parental controls. I would have loved to see Tommy mansplain stuff to all those more technology savvy women at Mom 2.0. 🤣

 

The dude couldn't even navigate Clubhouse Games and thinks he had the solution for anything is quite rich. 😅

14 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

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).

It was totally a retro grab with the promise of it being bigger than the Wii. The perfect blend of getting old retro gamers suckered in thinking their old games would be popular again like ye ole days of their youth.

[MrBeefy]

For anyone interested in the DATA of those who posted in the Q&A thread I have some data points here.

 

It's a pretty even number of AA regulars vs not AA regulars who posted there who are in the top 40 of posters.

[Flojomojo]

I love a good histogram! Me-me also right though, for every “regular,” there was a person who only posted in Tommy’s threads, to the point where it really seemed like paid shilling/astroturfing. 

 

It hardly matters now but it was disturbing to see it unfold at the time. 

[MrBeefy]

2 hours ago, Flojomojo said:

I love a good histogram! Me-me also right though, for every “regular,” there was a person who only posted in Tommy’s threads, to the point where it really seemed like paid shilling/astroturfing. 

 

It hardly matters now but it was disturbing to see it unfold at the time. 

I would love to see how many IPs were from California and Utah. 😉

 

They had their interns watching social media to gather information on people. Only make sense they'd have them and marketing astroturfing.

 

They astroturfed on Reddit. Tried to get the shills to astroturf StartEngine. Only stands to reason that a chunk of the AA Amicolytes were astroturfers too.

 

There was no grassroots and this definitely wasn't organic. Their engagement was always lackluster and it's why Tommy got mad when Al shut down that thread. It was the one spot he had where he had Intellivision heads that would buy anything with that name. It gave him legitimacy as this is a huge retro site he could direct buyers/investors too. The Facebook hugbox and closed cult discord are just sad and not a good look.

[MrBeefy]

So, if I pay money for a meet and greet does that make those people my friends? I'm curious and just asking for a friend.

[roots.genoa]

28 minutes ago, MrBeefy said:

So, if I pay money for a meet and greet does that make those people my friends? I'm curious and just asking for a friend.

No, because you're not Tommy Tallarico. He instantly befriends everyone he meets, because people love his charisma! 😤

[SegaMasterSystemPunk]

On 1/25/2024 at 1:26 AM, MrBeefy said:

For anyone interested in the DATA of those who posted in the Q&A thread I have some data points here.

 

It's a pretty even number of AA regulars vs not AA regulars who posted there who are in the top 40 of posters.

Tommy wins again!

[MrBeefy]

15 hours ago, SegaMasterSystemPunk said:

Tommy wins again!

I hear he never loses.

[SegaMasterSystemPunk]

2 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

I hear he never loses.

He will prove that in July!

[mr_me]

On 1/24/2024 at 7:38 PM, Flojomojo said:

I love a good histogram! Me-me also right though, for every “regular,” there was a person who only posted in Tommy’s threads, to the point where it really seemed like paid shilling/astroturfing. 

 

It hardly matters now but it was disturbing to see it unfold at the time. 

Is there any evidence for this. The company engineer that was here answered technical questions like an engineer prior to knowing who he is.

 

On 1/24/2024 at 10:45 PM, MrBeefy said:

would love to see how many IPs were from California and Utah. 😉

 

They had their interns watching social media to gather information on people. Only make sense they'd have them and marketing astroturfing.

 

They astroturfed on Reddit. Tried to get the shills to astroturf StartEngine. Only stands to reason that a chunk of the AA Amicolytes were astroturfers too.

...

The two employees on reddit disclosed their positions with the company. Asking customers to comment on a public forum isn't the same as asking employees to comment as customers.

[roots.genoa]

10 hours ago, SegaMasterSystemPunk said:

He will prove that in July!

What happens in July? 🤨

[Razzie.P]

35 minutes ago, roots.genoa said:

What happens in July? 🤨

Amico will be on the launchpad and with just a few more suckers dedicated fans willing to part with a couple million dollars, they can finally take some more vacations have enough fuel to make it to pre-formal manufacturing!

[Flojomojo]

11 hours ago, SegaMasterSystemPunk said:

He will prove that in July!

LOL, deep cut 

54 minutes ago, roots.genoa said:

What happens in July? 🤨

Tommy Tallarico personally signed a lease on the Amico office furniture, then defaulted on it. It will probably be settled, or he will lose, because he is obviously in the wrong. 

16 minutes ago, Razzie.P said:

Amico will be on the launchpad and with just a few more suckers dedicated fans willing to part with a couple million dollars, they can finally take some more vacations have enough fuel to make it to pre-formal manufacturing!

“Formal manufacturing” haha

 

@mr_me it’s hard to prove because the thread was removed but at least one employee was “outed” after posting internal only pictures. He had behaved as though he were just another interested fan. I think that might have been the former NASA affiliated person. There were plenty of other people who were more enthusiastic than the facts should have suggested. An admin with IP logs could probably find some interesting threads to pull on. 
 

It’s mostly moot now, though — the only question that really matters is “is it out yet?” and nobody needs to have a big debate about that. That’s what was so weird about @Tommy Tallarico‘s belligerent attitude. He was here to sell something, but unwilling to let his work speak for itself. 

[Flojomojo]

Sorry for the extra post, my browser extensions were not letting me paste YouTube links here. I’ll put them inline instead. 
 

Here’s the background for that comment about the July court case, depending on whether you’d rather read, listen, or both:

 

The complaint and a video about it 

Tommy’s “kitchen sink” response and a video about it

 

I looked up some other legal cases involving Amur Equipment Finance, and they don’t seem to be messing around. They’ve dealt with many deadbeats before and Tommy’s smooth-talking charms will not work in a setting where only facts matter. 
 

At the heart of the dispute: Intellivision Entertainment LLC took out the loan, but Tommy Tallarico co-signed it as a personal guarantor. It sounds like Intellivision didn’t respond to Amur so they served Tommy personally. Now he wants to wriggle out of the obligation and pin it on the company he was once so proud to lead. 

Pride goeth before the fall!

 

[+GoldLeader]

I've seen some people mention that the company (Amur Equipment Finance) might settle for a lesser amount...But Why?  I personally hope they don't!  If they have an iron clad contract in writing,  I hope they get their full amount...I don't know any details,  but I hope they get their full amount and maybe any legal fees they've accrued.

 

 

 

PS:  They oughta get "Pain & Suffering" too!  Since when should you have to take someone to court just to get that which you are rightfully owed?

[jerseystyle]

11 hours ago, mr_me said:

Is there any evidence for this. 

Isn’t it a tad disingenuous for you to ask for evidence after YEARS of saying “it’s true because random IE guy said it?”  

[Flojomojo]

I’m no lawyer but the thinking is, lawyers and lawsuits are expensive, and Amur receiving something would be preferable to receiving nothing, so a compromise avoids all that unpleasantness. 
 

If you read TT’s lawyer’s responses, they’re all rather lawyerly and technical, and don’t pass the smell test. “But but but Covid!” doesn’t make the leasing company whole again, and $100K doesn’t seem like much when the company blew many times that on rent, salaries, licenses, travel, and who knows what else. 
 

Tallarico said he they spent that much on Barnstorming Games’s small updates to the Evel Knievel mobile app. 

 

[Tavi]

51 minutes ago, GoldLeader said:

I've seen some people mention that the company (Amur Equipment Finance) might settle for a lesser amount...But Why?  I personally hope they don't!  If they have an iron clad contract in writing,  I hope they get their full amount...I don't know any details,  but I hope they get their full amount and maybe any legal fees they've accrued.

 

 

 

PS:  They oughta get "Pain & Suffering" too!  Since when should you have to take someone to court just to get that which you are rightfully owed?

I am willing to bet the finance company will settle. Mostly as it would appear to be a lot of haircut wiggle room as Tommy/Intellivision seems to have signed up for the '600$ toilet seat' premium pricing package.

If the finance company could only sell a supposedly 180K worth of leased equipment for $5,544.48, there would appear to be some merit to the claim that the value of the equipment was grossly overinflated.

Absolutely there is money owed, and a signed contract. But I expect there will be a settlement made between the two for considerably less then 180K and assorted fees.

[Rod]

On 1/22/2024 at 7:54 AM, 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.

Not too surprising, as most of the M-Network ports were made by the same outside contractor that created the original Intellivision versions. According to the Blue Sky Ranger's website, both Baseball games you mention were written by David Rolfe. Even though Astrosmash was created by a Mattel employee named John Sohl, Sohl apparently did so while working at the contractor's offices and under the direct supervision of its management.

[jerseystyle]

1 hour ago, Tavi said:

If the finance company could only sell a supposedly 180K worth of leased equipment for $5,544.48, there would appear to be some merit to the claim that the value of the equipment was grossly overinflated.

 

Not necessarily (note: been involved in these sort of rentals before). No one wants to rent used office furniture, or buy it for that matter. So, once rented, the price always drops pretty drastically. By renting it to TT, that seriously impacts the price, and that loss is made up by the rental cost. Do the argument of inflated value probably wouldn’t hold. I do agree they might settle, as something is better than nothing.

[Flojomojo]

5 hours ago, Tavi said:

If the finance company could only sell a supposedly 180K worth of leased equipment for $5,544.48, there would appear to be some merit to the claim that the value of the equipment was grossly overinflated.

Absolutely there is money owed, and a signed contract. But I expect there will be a settlement made between the two for considerably less then 180K and assorted fees.

You know how they say a new car loses a big chunk of its value the moment you drive it off the lot? This kind of furniture has to be the same way, but more so. It comes in unassembled flat packs which are easy to move, but once assembled is meant to be used and age in place. The leasing company did Intellivision a favor by repossessing it and crediting back the amount they could fetch in an open auction— at a time when real-world demand for office furniture must have been at an all-time market low. There’s still a nationwide glut of office space even now, a few years post-pandemic. 
 

It’s not the leasing company’s fault that Tommy Tallarico bought a bunch of pumpkins the day after Halloween, and unloaded them right around Christmas. That wouldn’t be his first Homer Simpsonism, either. 
 

Edited January 28 by Flojomojo