Intellivision Amico!

[nosweargamer]

Happy Intellivision Amico Ship Date Announcement Day! (or so)
No ship date is expected today, but don't worry! Phil Adam said on Sunday "I’m dedicated to making some announcement by the end of this month”.
Reminds me of when they were determined to deliver pre-orders by Q4 2021.

[RickR]

That one debtor that gets $100 per console is probably the straw that broke the camels back.  There is simply no way to make money on this project.  Debts are too large. 

Maybe those folks that bought the boxed software will have a valuable collector item in the future. 

 

[nosweargamer]

11 minutes ago, RickR said:

That one debtor that gets $100 per console is probably the straw that broke the camels back.  There is simply no way to make money on this project.  Debts are too large. 

Maybe those folks that bought the boxed software will have a valuable collector item in the future. 

 

It'll be interesting to see their value if the Amico never launches. Currently, when someone posts an Amico game for sale on ebay, it's gets $30-$40, but games rarely show up for sale. If it's never released, and the game cards become glorified pieces of plastic, will it gain value as a collectors item, or will the value lower since you can't play them. Time will tell.

 

[nosweargamer]

This is not looking good. 3 Days in, less than 50 investors and they have only raised about $53k, or 1% of their goal, despite early bird perks. FYI they spent  $47,881 per week on expenses on 2020, so this covers about a week of expense without addressing debt or manufacturing. Compare this start to their Republic campaign 3 days in, where they raised over $7 mil, almost half of that goal, and had 2.6k investors. 

[RickR]

I was going to invest, but I found this bootleg version for $24.99.  It's very refreshing!

 

Edited February 11, 2022 by RickR

[Sabertooth]

21 minutes ago, RickR said:

I was going to invest, but I found that bootleg version for $24.99.  It's very refreshing!

 

They saved a bundle by reusing foot bath molds for the plastics!

[Justin]

I wonder why they went so strongly in the direction of the Wii branding. Same colors, similar concepts.

[btbfilms76]

On 2/8/2022 at 11:32 AM, nosweargamer said:

I love how the NES and Genesis are called too complicated in this picture from their StartEngine page.

Amico controller totally simple lol - 4 misplaced shoulder buttons and a laggy touch screen… and let’s double down on that disk, the worst part of the original controller, yeah let’s do that again.  All of these cheap games can be played on your Apple TV for a few bucks.  Go on your phone‘s App Store right now, and see how many different versions you can play at this very moment, that are very similar to the six launch titles. 

[nosweargamer]

 

[btbfilms76]

If you go into your phones App Store you can latterly get the 6 “pack in” games - or very similar, if not the exact same thing for free, or a couple bucks each. Here are the beloved pack in’s Skiing, Astrosmash, Shark Shark!, Cornhole, Farkle and they still haven’t announced the party game - I’m guessing it’s Emoji Charades.  See for yourself… 

 

[RickR]

1 hour ago, btbfilms76 said:

If you go into your phones App Store you can latterly get the 6 “pack in” games - or very similar, if not the exact same thing for free, or a couple bucks each. Here are the beloved pack in’s Skiing, Astrosmash, Shark Shark!, Cornhole, Farkle and they still haven’t announced the party game - I’m guessing it’s Emoji Charades.  See for yourself… 

 

I had this exact thought since the very first "demo" video was released.  It totally looks like something on a phone or tablet.  I didn't say anything for fear of being lambasted by the zealots. 

 

[Justin]

6 minutes ago, RickR said:

I had this exact thought since the very first "demo" video was released.  It totally looks like something on a phone or tablet.  I didn't say anything for fear of being lambasted by the zealots. 

I think there have been a lot of comparisons to the Ouya because of that, it shares that basic Android architecture without much else. I feel like if this is released without a -serious- push from third party publishers, it will end up with a similar library to the Ouya and fade away within a year.

Say what you want about the Ouya, at least it made it to the store shelves in Target. At this point, Amico will be fortunate to get that far.

[Justin]

5 hours ago, btbfilms76 said:

If you go into your phones App Store you can latterly get the 6 “pack in” games - or very similar, if not the exact same thing for free, or a couple bucks each. Here are the beloved pack in’s Skiing, Astrosmash, Shark Shark!, Cornhole, Farkle and they still haven’t announced the party game - I’m guessing it’s Emoji Charades.  See for yourself… 

If AppleTV (or Amazon or whatever) included a gyroscopic / motion remote, a lot of these mobile games like "Cornhole" could be played on the TV at home and deliver a similar experience to what Intellivision Amico would.

Amico would be more appealing to me if it were launching with some of the more notable titles that had been announced and now seem to have disappeared from the list, games like Earthworm Jim and Toe Jam & Earl.

[nosweargamer]

Just a quick video discussing the ownership of Jungle Hunt & Bump n Jump by Intellivision.

 

[btbfilms76]

18 hours ago, nosweargamer said:

Just a quick video discussing the ownership of Jungle Hunt & Bump n Jump by Intellivision.

 

This was great, the onion is peeling and we’re seeing more and more of how this company operates. Thanks for the update. 

[Justin]

19 hours ago, nosweargamer said:

Just a quick video discussing the ownership of Jungle Hunt & Bump n Jump by Intellivision.

 

 

Good sleuth work @nosweargamer! You were right in thinking there is a difference between copyright law and trademark law. The name of a game is different than the copyrighted works of the software program and any patents that may also apply to the game itself. Two different things.

 

 

1 hour ago, btbfilms76 said:

This was great, the onion is peeling and we’re seeing more and more of how this company operates. Thanks for the update. 

 

Agreed @nosweargamer has had the best coverage of this imo.

 

[nosweargamer]

I plan to do a livestream tonight at 10:30pm est discussing the Intelivision Amico, Psychology and The Cult. 

 

[nosweargamer]

Within a week, Intellivision is supposed to be giving us a ship date update. However, based on their history, I wouldn't be surprised if they miss another deadline.

Why anyone would take them at their word at this point is beyond me.

[nosweargamer]

Had a good talk with Gaterooze, Jenovi, SmashJT and Tony last night discussing the Amico announcement that's supposed to happen soon. 

 

[Atari 5200 Guy]

I watched this early in the morning after it went live.  I enjoyed it.  I sort of wish I could have chimed in from a street perspective but I have not been keeping up with it as well as I should have.  When it first appeared on scene I was excited for it.  It sounded promising.  But now, hearing what all has been going on, I'm skeptical.  I was under the impression this system, once pre-orders were filled, would be sitting on store shelves.  Now it sounds like that it might not even get close to that point.

And after hearing the podcast I sort of get a flashback to the movie Tucker.  Practically the same scenario only with different products and, so far, no court involved with the Amico.  But knowing that the world did hit a pandemic mark I could sort of understand the lack of getting the processors that they were after, even if they were on a clearance price.  COVID has had its way of changing a LOT of things which could have made it very difficult for Intellivision to secure the parts they were trying to get. I say "could" loosely.  Just like in the movie how Tucker had to come up with 50 cars in a set time frame while getting parts for those cars was a nightmare and investors were going against him. Everything he was trying to do someone or something was going against him.  One step forward, two steps back.  On paper something looks good, sounds good, intrigues the mind.  Tucker's car did that when the prototype shown was falling apart before the curtain opened (if that part in the movie was true).  

No matter how true it is, there are a lot of, let's say theories, from that movie that could also be true with the Amico.  Almost.  If Intellivision, I mention no names, has not been staying truthful to those interested and invested in the project then they really need to step up their game and let everyone know what is actually going on.  Bottomline, no more BS.  If you are trying your best and can't get seem to be getting anywhere, reach out to the public.  Someone, somewhere, might actually know of something that can help.  

I also agree that Amico, while cool and all on paper, might have been too huge of a project to start with.  Retro gaming is a community that loves the brands we grew up with.  Playing around with those names has a way of upsetting things when a promised project does not go right.

 

Edited March 1, 2022 by Atari 5200 Guy

[Justin]

Appreciate your thoughts @Atari 5200 Guy but I have to disagree. Tommy Tallarico is not Preston Tucker, nor have big corporate and governmental entities felt threatened enough by Amico to where they colluded to quash the little upstart Intellivision. 

 

15 hours ago, Atari 5200 Guy said:

But now, hearing what all has been going on, I'm skeptical.

I think it's always a good idea to be skeptical of people asking you for your money, particularly with Kickstarter projects where they aren't close to shipping a final product. We've seen this time and time again dating back years. It's why we don't allow paid pre-sales on Atari I/O.

 

15 hours ago, Atari 5200 Guy said:

No matter how true it is, there are a lot of, let's say theories, from that movie that could also be true with the Amico.

Remember that Tucker wasn't just a movie. He was a real person, and those events, although simplified for the movie, actually happened to good hardworking people.

 

15 hours ago, Atari 5200 Guy said:

If Intellivision, I mention no names, has not been staying truthful to those interested and invested in the project then they really need to step up their game and let everyone know what is actually going on.  Bottomline, no more BS.  If you are trying your best and can't get seem to be getting anywhere, reach out to the public.  Someone, somewhere, might actually know of something that can help.  

I also agree that Amico, while cool and all on paper, might have been too huge of a project to start with.

I think people are overthinking this, or rather thinking about it too much. Most projects are crazy and hectic until they get launched. Passionate people who are deeply invested in their ideas and dreams are going to do whatever it takes to make their project successful. It's not always easy and it's not always pretty - usually it's pretty ugly. Missed deadlines, long nights, uncertainty. Most of the time though, the rest of the world isn't privy to this. Most projects aren't created with the world watching every step, examining every decision and discussing it endlessly on YouTube. But Intellivision invited the world in when they campaigned on nostalgia and asked regular "mom & pop" people to pony up $1,000 investments - which is a very small amount in investment terms for what is needed to get the project done, but is a very large amount for most regular people. They should have sought private capital from groups of accredited investors who can lose $100,000 in a project and walk away unscathed as if it never happened. Instead they went to the public with their Kickstarter campaigns etc. and asked regular people - namely classic gamers - to "invest" in their childhood dreams. If it's an investment you're after, longing the S&P 500 or hanging onto SPDR ETFs for a decade or two would be a much safer bet (and likely more profitable!) than "investing" in Amico. It seems like most of the people "investing" in Amico shouldn't be investing at all. The people behind Amico should see that and know better.

Because they've taken money from classic gamers and regular "mom & pop" people, they've opened themselves up and invited the world in to watch what they're doing. Everybody gets to follow the events, the updates, discuss them at length, create "Amico news" and pick apart decisions. This doesn't happen with other products like Legends Pinball, AtGames Atari Flashback 10, 1UP Arcades, or a new kind of toilet paper dispenser. Simply because those projects never asked regular people for small investments, and they never invited the world in to see what they were doing.

There are some exceptions to this - one of the closest to the Amico being the Evercade VS. Beautiful system, reasonably priced, no "dog and pony show", no grandstanding, and they're shipping their product and get positive reviews.

None of this is Preston Tucker though.

[RickR]

4 minutes ago, Justin said:

Because they've taken money from classic gamers and regular "mom & pop" people, they've opened themselves up and invited the world in to watch what they're doing.

BOOM!  This is the insight that I hadn't put together yet to help me understand why this mess gets so much attention.  The same for the old Chameleon too. 

 

 

[Sabertooth]

Just now, RickR said:

BOOM!  This is the insight that I hadn't put together yet to help me understand why this mess gets so much attention.  The same for the old Chameleon too. 

 

 

💯!

@Justin you really nailed it!

[nosweargamer]

So if you didn't hear, yesterday, a day when many where expecting an announcement that never happened, their StartEngine campiagn ended early with no communication. This looks bad. I did a chat with SmashJT about it.

 

[RickR]

6 minutes ago, nosweargamer said:

So if you didn't hear, yesterday, a day when many where expecting an announcement that never happened, their StartEngine campiagn ended early with no communication. This looks bad. I did a chat with SmashJT about it.