Intellivision Amico’s trademark changed to ‘abandoned’

[1980gamer]

7 minutes ago, MrBeefy said:

Whao just chill.....

 

🤣

 

 

Going back to the code in box Games. They are the worst of both worlds in my opinion. They are more expensive than not going that route. They are inconvenient by needing to tap anytime. And they add no benefit to when servers go down.

 

So do you want to pay more for an inconvenient product with no future function, or pay less for a more convenient product with the exact same future utility as the more expensive inconvenient one?

 

Even if transferable, they are worthless. They already start out priced higher than just buying the digital game. Are people going to transfer them for less than just buying digital? Do you want to deal with the fact people can write down the codes and won't jack with it? 

 

Feels more like an O'Sheas type of thing.

You know,  I always hated changing carts in my intellivision!  So, you are correct, having to go through all that effort...  LOL,  Just leave the thing connected.

 

Writing down the code was covered also.  Some people, maybe you will no someone?  Have these things called cameras, you take a picture of the card with current date and time and send it to whoever is handling the ownership dispute.

 

More expensive.  Sure, it is called a collectible.  All of the limited edition games were always going to be available at the digital price and format.

You are paying for the collectible pieces and the ability to trade/sell the game and collectible card and or the other pieces.

 

By the way, it does provide jack.  Lets say for the sake of argument   the servers are turned off.  You will be able to continue playing your game by tapping the console.

 

Sorry, that is snarky for certain, but this has been covered a thousand times in the past.

[SegaMasterSystemPunk]

32 minutes ago, 1980gamer said:

By the way, it does provide jack.  Lets say for the sake of argument   the servers are turned off.  You will be able to continue playing your game by tapping the console.

 

And that just makes it an even bigger fuckup by intellivision, because of course one should be able to play the games when the servers are down.

[Matt_B]

Well, sure, you can take Tommy at his word, but he's been known to spout some complete and utter BS in response to technical questions, and he presumably wouldn't want to contradict his earlier assertion that the console didn't need to be always online.

 

Still, we know that the RFID cards contain URLs and what do you usually do with URLs but go to where they point to on the internet? That's not to say that you couldn't somehow link the URL to a game you've already downloaded in software on the console itself because, at the end of the day it's just a text string. Still, it'd just seem a remarkably odd way of going about it to me.

 

I don't think we can rule out the possibility that they never really thought this stuff through because they were in such a rush to get some product out the door. They sure as hell knew that they weren't even close to being able to deliver a finished console and games, and probably still aren't nearly a year later, so the implementation - with all the potential flaws we've pointed out in it - presumably also remains on the to-do list.

[1980gamer]

Just now, SegaMasterSystemPunk said:

 

And that just makes it an even bigger fuckup by intellivision, because of course one should be able to play the games when the servers are down.

I would HOPE  that if the servers were going to be turned off, they would send a patch that turns off re-authorization.

Also, They talked about NOT using the re-auth. Because of the basic features you lose not connection the console in the first place.

 

[1980gamer]

But I suppose someone would think they are WINNING if they can steal a few $10 or less games.  But can never get another game!  Brilliant....

 

[mr_me]

6 hours ago, MattPilz said:

I recall several indications this would be a continual requirement, so long as the system was offline it'd have to be scanned to play. Below is his initial remark about it, I remember more concrete decisions leaning this way in later discussions and interviews.

 

"What is stopping Intellivision from making an OFFLINE Amico system have to TAP the card again in order to play the game (when the system is offline). RFID doesn't need internet connection to work."

 

If you have any source that indicates it would not be an every-play type occurrence I'd like to see that. It is expected most collectors would scan their physical card in once to download and then put the games back on a shelf. Having to fish them out again to scan even at random intervals would be frustrating.

No, I didn't know, that's why I asked.  It is something that they can reconsider and change if they want, anytime they want.  Sounds like they were debating internally how much leeway to give.

 

It is very rare that people are without internet, so they would rarely need the cards.  And I understand people might take the thing somewhere without internet e.g. cottages, etc, where all the installed games will continue to work if you also take the rfid cards.  If it doesn't suit you buy it digitally and save a few bucks.

 

1 hour ago, rayik said:

 

But they could pay an independent testing lab to do the tests; pass the FCC tests at the lab, get the paperwork saying they passed, and hold off until launch time to file with the FCC for official FCC clearance.  About as logical as anything speculated so far.

Logically, they would submit for certification before manufacturing consumer units.  If they did it twelve months ago or six months ago, there's a good chance they'd have to resubmit anyway.

[MattPilz]

1 hour ago, Matt_B said:

Still, we know that the RFID cards contain URLs and what do you usually do with URLs but go to where they point to on the internet?

And specifically they point to intellivision.com. If the domain ever changes hands or dissolves (as it has several times just in the past decade) that won't be great. This is assuming they get the back-end tech figured out to do something other than redirect to a placeholder page. Maybe that's where NFT can come in and save the day since these game licenses are supposed to be in some blockchain?

 

  

20 minutes ago, mr_me said:

It is very rare that people are without internet, so they would rarely need the cards.  And I understand people might take the thing somewhere without internet e.g. cottages, etc, where all the installed games will continue to work if you also take the rfid cards.  If it doesn't suit you buy it digitally and save a few bucks.

 

I generally agree. Though I can think of other reasons to take it offline including parents concerned their kids might try to buy other apps and so forth. The UI demo didn't showcase any parental modes or account restrictions, and it features store games in the same screen as purchased titles making it easy to wind up in the store. The online leaderboards aren't expected to be live on launch, either.

[MrBeefy]

2 hours ago, 1980gamer said:

Why not?

 

 

2 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

They shouldn't pass their FCC certs either. Don't forget those.

/s

Does that help?

[1980gamer]

1 hour ago, Matt_B said:

 

Still, we know that the RFID cards contain URLs and what do you usually do with URLs but go to where they point to on the internet? That's not to say that you couldn't somehow link the URL to a game you've already downloaded in software on the console itself because, at the end of the day it's just a text string. Still, it'd just seem a remarkably odd way of going about it to me.

I think this is simply the QR code.  So when people try to read the card, it gives you the website.

Clearly, this is not the real data.  The generic URL could not distinguish between games.  The decryption for the card, is in the console.  It will have not only the reader, but the proper decryption key(s).

 

[MrBeefy]

New forum flub

Edited August 11, 2022 by MrBeefy

[MrBeefy]

6 minutes ago, 1980gamer said:

I think this is simply the QR code.  So when people try to read the card, it gives you the website.

Clearly, this is not the real data.  The generic URL could not distinguish between games.  The decryption for the card, is in the console.  It will have not only the reader, but the proper decryption key(s).

 

Each card points to unique numbers at the end. So if I scan my card of moon patrol and you scan your card of moon patrol, a majority of the url is the same, except a run of numbers at the end. That is how it distinguishes, by the numbers at the end (also see code in box ).

 

Edited August 11, 2022 by MrBeefy

[1980gamer]

1 minute ago, MrBeefy said:

Each card points to unique numbers at the end. So if I scan my card of moon patrol and you scan your card of moon patrol, a majority of the url is the same, except a run of numbers at the end. That is how it distinguishes, by the numbers at the end.

 

I haven't tried to scan any of the games.  Based on above.  The URL was Intellivision.Com   So, you HAVE scanned and it is Intellivision.com/xxxxxxxx  ?

 

[MrBeefy]

2 minutes ago, 1980gamer said:

I haven't tried to scan any of the games.  Based on above.  The URL was Intellivision.Com   So, you HAVE scanned and it is Intellivision.com/xxxxxxxx  ?

 

There is more than just numbers after the dot com, but yeah it isn't strictly just a website. It just happened to land you on a certain page until they changed it to redirect. Even though different cards had different numbers you landed on basically the same landing page. Let me see if I can find the string back.

[1980gamer]

Just now, MrBeefy said:

There is more than just numbers after the dot com, but yeah it isn't strictly just a website. It just happened to land you on a certain page until they changed it to redirect. Even though different cards had different numbers you landed on basically the same landing page. Let me see if I can find the string back.

If you have the string, you can bookmark it, and try it from time to time.... When the result changes, the backend is up...   Well, in theory.

 

[Matt_B]

 From what people who have examined the cards have found, you get a URL like the following when you scan the RFID, which isn't even encrypted and can be done without opening the box. E.g.

 

https://intellivision.com/rfid/biplanes?i=###

 

Just put in your number and change the name of the game for different ones. They all point to the same redirect page as of now.

 

The realization that it might have to work offline and require additional security information to not be rampantly abused presumably came later. 🙂

[MrBeefy]

This is what it looks like, but with numbers instead of Xs.

There is no special encryption. The rfid will direct Amico to a wrbpage and the numbers are the activation key. 

 

If they let their domain name lapse you will never be able to use those cards. You could easily clone every rfid without ever ruining the shrink-wrap. The console would never know as long as it has a correct number string in it.

[MrBeefy]

6 minutes ago, Matt_B said:

 From what people who have examined the cards have found, you get a URL like the following when you scan the RFID, which isn't even encrypted and can be done without opening the box. E.g.

 

https://intellivision.com/rfid/biplanes?i=###

 

Just put in your number and change the name of the game for different ones. They all point to the same redirect page as of now.

 

The realization that it might have to work offline and require additional security information to not be rampantly abused presumably came later. 🙂

They can't change it either because they already produced them. 

 

https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkx5_LLiac7AizVzfoHhqQvRjCFUFcKsoe9

 

[Cebus Capucinis]

Why are we talking about this? This has already been discussed.™️

[1980gamer]

I get that this brings you to the location, identifies the game and it's related code.

However, these cards can have a bluetooth element also.  So, the part we can see brings you to the door, but maybe the console and card have the key to the lock?

 

Almost a 2 factor without human intervention.  We have looked into this tech just for employee key card entry.

We haven't made any changes yet, so I don't have any real knowledge first hand yet.

 

Another proposal was literally 2 factory.  YUK.  Scan your card, now tap your phone.  Yes, we all have our phones (Usually,  Forgot mine at home one day last week.  OMG felt necked).

But I can leave my wallet in my pocket and scan it.  While carrying my laptop and lunch etc....  Don't make me go back to the backpack.  LOL

 

 

 

[Razzie.P]

6 minutes ago, Cebus Capucinis said:

Why are we talking about this? This has already been discussed.™️

I think somebody is trying to change somebody's mind about something.

[Cebus Capucinis]

1 minute ago, Razzie.P said:

I think somebody is trying to change somebody's mind about something.

My mind will change when they pass FCC certs.

[1980gamer]

1 minute ago, Razzie.P said:

I think somebody is trying to change somebody's mind about something.

One way or the other.... 

[1980gamer]

Just now, Cebus Capucinis said:

My mind will change when they pass FCC certs.

I think you should wait until the console is in hand!  At least on store shelves.

[Rev]

12 minutes ago, 1980gamer said:

I think you should wait until the console is in hand!  At least on store shelves.

Thrift Store?

[Rev]

These RFID gift card code in a box were a bad idea, not user friendly at all, and need internet every time you tap them. Lame.