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In the late 1970s, Mattel Electronics produced a games console to rival the Atari 2600. It was called The Intellivision and apparently wasn’t discontinued until 1990 according to Wikipedia. It’s relevance was before my time. Mattel let the brand go defunct and have licensed its games to various collections over the years. Intellivision’s legacy mostly regulated to being a trivia fact about being one of those ancient pre-NES consoles, the one with the weird lovely dial. Until now. Washed up 90s game composer, former G4 host, and avid Donald Trump supporter, Tommy Tallarico has bought the brand and is the CEO of a company attempting to launch a new Intellivision system called the Intellivision Amiico. What is the Intellivison Amico?  The idea behind the console is to be a family friendly game system with the goal of reviving local multiplayer. All games on the platform must cost less than  , be rated E for Everyone, and must be exclusive to the platform. Games will be mostly 2D, with 3D games discouraged (I heard that open world games are full blown banned.) The controllers are rectangles with a small touch screen, disc dial, RFID, and an accelerometer. Or you can use your phone as a controller.As a concept, that seems fine. A family friendly console isn’t a bad idea. I’m not a parent, but a system where I don’t have to worry about my kid racking up a mortgage worth of microtransactions in a soccer game sounds alright. Modern gaming is a nightmare of world designed to turn children into gambling addicts. However, none of what the Amico wants to do is going to work. The system runs off a midrange Android chipset from around 2014. Every game looks to be a mobile game port with a new feature added to it to meet the “exculsive” new game mandate. At the time of writing, a judge is trying to determine if Apple’s 30% itunes app store cut is too much. Tallarico has the balls to take 50% of the Amiico sales. 50% of a game that developers/publishers aren’t allowed to charge more than ten dollars for. Also, I believe the file size exceed a certain amount. There’s also the cost of the console to consider. It costs $250, a mere $50 less than a Nintendo Switch or Xbox Series S, which both already offer a robust library of games, with established franchises that kids actually want to play from like Mario, Pokemon, and Minecraft. The most prominent game in development for the Amico is an Earthworm Jim reboot with bad flash graphics made by a TERF. Tallarico has posted a “10 Commandments” for game developers.  Sounds like fun system to develop for. The system also has “physical media” in the form of NFC tags to download the games, in conjunction with Topps. So hardly physical media at all. Another problem is the brand. Intellivivision? Intellivision came and went before the current generation of young parents were even born. There is no nostalgia for it among the target audience. It’s either completely unknown or just thought of as ancient old poo poo. The current state of the console: 【ＶＡＰＯＲＷＡＲＥ】 The development has been mired in controversy. Delays upon delays upon delays. The latest ship date, October, has been delayed again until Christmas. Will it release then? Doubtful. Tallarico claims that the system keeps being delayed due to the worldwide chip shortage. While the chip shortage is probably a factor, what little footage of the system has been revealed suggests that that it probably doesn’t even have a firmware, most games aren’t finished, and the state of the controllers are far from finished (lots of input delay, shutting off after tapping the back with a finger.) A recent showing at a Crayola event has instilled less confidence, showing killer app cornhole in a really rough alpha state. Tommy Tallarico Tommy has been the face of this console and very prominent in all aspects of the marketing. As such, he has been very active in trying to silence criticism. He has been out there calling people “gaming racists.” There’s a soundbyte floating around where he insinuates that the Switch is full of games that feature rape and child exploitation.  There's a lot more that I haven't put in the OP, and I'm actually kinda shocked there hasn't been a thread for this yet. Remember how for E3, he reposted an old video of him demonstrating the console, with the only difference being him color correcting his skin tone to be more orange? Or how Finnegan Fox looked a lot better when it was Fox and Forest?
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Aug 19, 2021 00:51
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Let's not forget the J Allard thing that's still ongoing; A while ago, notable former Microsoft guy J Allard, the man who worked on the Xbox, Xbox 360, and was a major factor with developing the XBLA platform, signed on to work for/with the Amico team. At the time, it was all "We got J Allard on our team!" Then, mere months later, he's apparently NOT working on it? He's removed from the list of developers/employees? And I think recently, he's been mentioned as a part of the current team, even though he's not. It's messed up, because that kind of knowledge fucks with investors, which can bring in legal trouble. This entire debacle is a poo poo show, and I am very much  the whole time.Pat Contri's (and Ian Ferguson's) "Completely Unnecessary Podcast" covers the Amico when it's in the news. They've been on this thing since it was announced. I love it.
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Aug 19, 2021 01:18
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That's where I get a lot of my Amico updates from too. I haven't listened to this week's episode yet but apparently NFTs are involved now?
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Aug 19, 2021 01:33
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They're probably just throwing out a buzzword instead of actually using a nft.
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Aug 19, 2021 02:32
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They're going to take us back to the past. To play lovely games that suck rear end.
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Aug 19, 2021 02:37
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Detective No. 27 posted:That's where I get a lot of my Amico updates from too. I haven't listened to this week's episode yet but apparently NFTs are involved now? Oh yes, and I spoiled the J Allard bit they went over today. Sorry! 
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Aug 19, 2021 02:46
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Ooh yay we have a thread for this now, since it looks like it's gonna implode spectacularly. And yes I too recently got semi-caught up with the CU Podcast on it. The guy calling into their phone line pretending to be Tommy Tallarico is hilarious too. Though in light of recent events, I kinda feel retro active shame at having attended one of his video games live concerts. It was slightly disappointing at the time yet I bought a couple of the CDs anyways. This was the push I need to get rid of them, as I haven't listened to them in years. That's my Tommy Tallarico story, thanks for listening. Also at least the Atari VCS released, I'm betting the Amico won't make it and Tallarico will blame all of us haters.
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Aug 19, 2021 03:17
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Yeah I totally want to buy video games from someone who doesn't know the difference between winning and losing
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Aug 19, 2021 03:25
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Rupert Buttermilk posted:Oh yes, and I spoiled the J Allard bit they went over today. Sorry! It's all good, it's a news/current events podcast, not something I'm even sure I can get spoiled on.
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Aug 19, 2021 04:27
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Man it blows rear end that everyone from Shiny turned out to be a brain damaged idiot except for maybe Andy Astor who has the benefit of having passed away
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Aug 19, 2021 04:46
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I will say that this finally got me to read up on the original Intellivision, which I had never really thought much about, despite spending a lot of time researching Atari and Commodore. And goddamn, these assholes couldn't have picked a better brand identify for themselves, from keeping people waiting years for vaporware add-ons, to ripping off their own designers, to cross-project backstabbing, they're guaranteed to keep up Intellitradition.
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Aug 19, 2021 07:17
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Wikipedia posted:Complaints from consumers who had chosen to buy the Intellivision specifically on the promise of a "coming soon" personal-computer upgrade, eventually caught the attention of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), who started investigating Mattel Electronics for fraud and false advertising. In mid-1982, the FTC ordered Mattel to pay a monthly fine (said to be $10,000) until the promised computer upgrade was in full retail distribution. To end the ongoing fines, the Keyboard Component was officially canceled in August 1982 and the Entertainment Computer System (ECS) module offered in its place. Part of Mattel's settlement with the FTC involved offering to buy back all of the existing Keyboard Components from customers. Mattel provided a full refund, but customers without a receipt received $550 for the Keyboard Component, $60 for the BASIC cartridge, and $30 for each cassette software. Any customer who opted to keep the products was required to sign a waiver with the understanding that no more software would be written for the system and absolving Mattel of any future responsibility for technical support.
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Aug 19, 2021 07:23
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Super excited to witness OUYA 2: Electric Boogaloo to be honest.
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Aug 19, 2021 12:31
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Mode 7 posted:Super excited to witness OUYA 2: Electric Boogaloo to be honest. Subbing for the drama
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Aug 19, 2021 13:31
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Turbinosamente posted:The guy calling into their phone line pretending to be Tommy Tallarico is hilarious too. "BEEEWWWWM!!" I sincerely look forward to those voicemails every week. And I get legitimately excited whenever I see anything Amico-related shown in the text description of a new episode.  it's just all so hosed up. It helps ease the disappointment of their likely never being another Tales from the Game Store again, unless Ian is waiting until he's done working at Luna to give us a few more. For me, Pat and Ian went from the "Official Public Battlegrounds G" podcast to the "Amico Trashing show" and I love it. Rupert Buttermilk fucked around with this message at 14:29 on Aug 19, 2021 |
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Aug 19, 2021 14:25
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I've been listening to them since the Coleco Chameleon days. Boy howdy was that a saga. Ever since then they've been following anytime a sketchy new console gets announced. The Atari VCS finally did come out and it ended up being a wet fart. But that was never going to be as fascinating as the Amico. Never had the right ingredients. No lofty goals helmed by an egomaniac. That isn't to say it's not stupid, it's plenty dumb. But at least you can walk into a Best Buy and actually get the thing if you wanted to.
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Aug 19, 2021 14:40
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Detective No. 27 posted:I've been listening to them since the Coleco Chameleon days. Boy howdy was that a saga. Ever since then they've been following anytime a sketchy new console gets announced. Ah yes, the overpriced Linux PC that starts off as some Atari console.  Edit: I remember the first episode I listened to was early 2019, when Pat had some sort of verbal altercation with someone at the post office who was dicking him around about some shipment. Went and listened to a few older ones from there, but generally, I've been a regular listener since then. I don't even know why I started, since I never really enjoyed any of the Pat the NES Punk videos.  The Video Game Years, however, was wonderful. Rupert Buttermilk fucked around with this message at 14:45 on Aug 19, 2021 |
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Aug 19, 2021 14:42
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Man, I thought this was just going to be an updated Intellivision that could play all the old games for it. I had no idea it was such a story...thanks for sharing!
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Aug 19, 2021 14:51
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It's me, I'm the poster in this thread that actually likes the Intellivision. Some time ago, I thought it might be fun to preorder one of these, because I knew it would eventually get hacked wide open and it would be nice to have one with the original firmware sitting around waiting for that to happen. After I saw the preorder price, and read about all the delays (this thing has been discussed since at least mid-2018 and there's no way it's coming out before the end of 2021), I decided that would be an insane thing to do. One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet ITT is the AtariAge forums. I don't post there, but I pop into the Intellivision subforum every now and then to see if any new homebrew has come out. AA is pretty much the only place online to discuss the Intellivision in any depth in the present day. Tommy has been chumming the water there for years and the starstruck / kiss-rear end forum mods are deleting posts and banning users that are critical of Tommy or the Amico. This is especially funny considering that a lot of the people who were initially gung-ho and supportive of the project have been vocally souring on it.  The negative consensus seems to be "we knew this was nostalgia bait for a niche subset of enthusiasts, but that didn't give you the right to completely fleece us." I posted this over in the retrogames thread, but there was a recent incident in which preorderers (again, this nonexistent console will set you back around three hundred dollars) were promised an exclusive gift for their support. A lot of people reasonably assumed this would be games, store credit, physical souvenirs, or whatever ... but it was a download code for a pack of Tommy Tallarico's video game music mp3s "valued at over $200". I've never seen this guy before and his other videos might be terrible for all I know, but if you watch this thing at like 1.5x or something you can get a rundown of how the average Intellivision nostalgic who bought into this thing is feeling presently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzAUABZzFzs&t=32s I cannot overstate how hilarious it is that Tommy Tallarico tried to stave off preorder refunds by giving out a bunch of mp3s that don't have anything to do with the product itself.
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Aug 19, 2021 14:52
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Medullah posted:Man, I thought this was just going to be an updated Intellivision that could play all the old games for it. I had no idea it was such a story...thanks for sharing! Yeah, same- I saw something about the Intellivision on some website or another, thought "Oh, this looks like a neat novelty," and went on with my day. Then I come here and see it's so much more than that
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Aug 19, 2021 15:49
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There have also been issues with the hardware/software performance. A few videos, I can't remember which, had noticeable delay between whomever was demo-ing it and the display that was shown. Not to mention that the console release delays were "explained" by hardware shortages in production, but that doesn't explain how, I think, no one (could be wrong on this) has seen the OS up and running. Shouldn't that kind of thing be readily available to see in any sort of promotional material? Also, I think the number of included games was dropped significantly, but maybe I'm thinking of a different console, like that upcoming handheld with the crank that I forget the name of. This entire thing seems like a scam, and it's either Tommy's in on it, or he's just SUPER naïve. Either way, doesn't look good for him. Edit: oh, also, this bugged me. I love John Riggs. Guy seems super wholesome, I enjoy his tier-list video series (check those out), and especially his Open Cart Surgery stuff, but goddamn... This video is a shill for the Amico. I really wish he would've taken a different approach. Being cautiously optimistic is the most excited I would've expected him to be, but this video... Ugh.... C'mon, John...  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THsaVKOy5Gc It is, despite the misleading title, a pro-Amico video, with the reasoning being stuff like "I won't have any more free time if I buy this thing!" Rupert Buttermilk fucked around with this message at 16:37 on Aug 19, 2021 |
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Aug 19, 2021 16:31
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Rupert Buttermilk posted:Also, I think the number of included games was dropped significantly, but maybe I'm thinking of a different console, like that upcoming handheld with the crank that I forget the name of. That's the Playdate. quote:This entire thing seems like a scam, and it's either Tommy's in on it, or he's just SUPER naïve. At first I thought it was just some doofus with money buying an IP that like 1,000 people actively gave a poo poo about in A.D. 2018 and coming up with an idea that should have remained hanging in the barroom air, but the crowdfunding thing* and the increasingly twitchy behavior on the part of the responsible parties moves the needle way towards scam. *jesus loving christ, people v v v 
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Aug 19, 2021 16:39
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I'm only 2 minutes in, but I already feel that this should be required viewing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8lWbodAJ_8 One more thing... The game cartridges are being, or at least were initially touted, as "physical media!". But the game carts are RFID tagged, and contain no game data themselves, they just unlock or download the games to your console. This means that when the servers inevitably go down, assuming they're up in the first place, you'll be SOL regardless if you still have your physical games, should you be missing those games on the console itself.  Edit: yes, the Playdate. I wasn't trying to imply that that seemed off, they've been refreshingly open about their process, and that console seems like it'll actually be worth a drat. I was just confused by someone else having to change their launch line up number. But didn't Tommy announce that the pack in game list was significantly smaller than initially promised? Rupert Buttermilk fucked around with this message at 16:46 on Aug 19, 2021 |
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Aug 19, 2021 16:41
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Rupert Buttermilk posted:Also, I think the number of included games was dropped significantly, but maybe I'm thinking of a different console, like that upcoming handheld with the crank that I forget the name of. That would be the Playdate, which actually increased the number of included games in conjunction with a bit of a price increase. Nothing scummy going on there thankfully
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Aug 19, 2021 16:44
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It's about time someone made another Ouya. Eagerly awaiting the crowbcat video.
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Aug 19, 2021 16:56
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Detective No. 27 posted:No lofty goals helmed by an egomaniac. Oh, I don't know about thaaaaat...
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Aug 19, 2021 16:58
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Oh yeah, there's an Earthworm Jim thing happening with this thing, so super lovely Doug Tennapel is likely somehow involved.
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Aug 19, 2021 16:58
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Rupert Buttermilk posted:I'm only 2 minutes in, but I already feel that this should be required viewing. Well, having worked in the cartridge era of video games, this does allow them to have physical goods in stores and lowers the cost. But they could be clearer about that.
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Aug 19, 2021 19:12
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See the thing is the Ouya was just an android box so you could just install and watch XBMC and Twitch on it, long before we were awash in cheap android tv/google tv boxes. And once they added support for 360 and PS3 controllers, you could actually enjoy the few good games it had, like Towerfall and Duck Game. And the Atari VCS is just an AMD PC running Linux in an Atari shell. You can install Windows or do whatever you want with it, it's not a great deal but it's plenty capable and it looks nice. But the AMICO, what could it possibly offer? It looks bad, the videos show it running poorly, and the weird proprietary controller setup limits what you could do with it if you installed android or linux or whatever. It's like a negative value.
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Aug 21, 2021 01:34
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You can use it to play with your cornhole
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Aug 21, 2021 01:51
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I guess you could throw it in a landfill, or blow it up at a shooting range if you feel like doing something fun with it. But pay video games? No I don't think so.
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Aug 21, 2021 03:45
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Footbath?
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Aug 21, 2021 06:27
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deep dish peat moss posted:Yeah I totally want to buy video games from someone who doesn't know the difference between winning and losing The Intellivision Wimp Lo
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Aug 21, 2021 07:11
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Vulgar posted:Footbath? Holy gently caress, THAT'S what it looks like, of course! In the back of my mind, I've been trying to figure out what's so familiar about its design and that's it. Wow.
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Aug 21, 2021 11:54
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the very idea of using the fuckin intellivision name for this thing blows my mind intellivision sucks and it always sucked, even the coleco chameleon made more sense from a mining nostalgia perspective
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Aug 21, 2021 16:21
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The United States posted:But the AMICO, what could it possibly offer? It looks bad, the videos show it running poorly, and the weird proprietary controller setup limits what you could do with it if you installed android or linux or whatever. It's like a negative value. Here's the thing: there are some really good games on the Intellivision that weren't on any other platform. People like to talk about "hidden gems" in gaming, but I think a lot of the Intellivision catalog goes overlooked because its controller scheme makes it a gigantic pain in the rear end to emulate - you can't just plug in a gamepad and dig into the catalog like you can with the SNES, for example - and because you really do, in almost every case, have to read the manual and have the overlays handy. What this seems to boil down to is that the people still playing these games are the ones that already like them. So on this system you've got a fair number of interesting, unique games that, for the most part, haven't been revisited or updated or whatever since they came out. I think what people were hoping for, with this system, is for these games to get a fresh coat of paint, modern QOL upgrades, and new ways to play (like Pac-Man Championship Edition). I really couldn't care less about the whole "family friendly, living room multiplayer" song and dance they're leaning so hard on, but I saw like two frames of what looked like a modern remake of Bomb Squad and I thought, yeah, I actually would like to play that.
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Aug 21, 2021 16:56
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I fuckin LOVED the Intellivision, but I do admit it's partially Stockholm Syndrome because it's what we had when I was a kid. Nonetheless, Tron Deadly Discs was a great fun game.
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Aug 21, 2021 16:59
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So I have nothing against Intellivision or it's games. Never played them. My OP is somewhat dismissive of the console but that's mainly to convey how dumb it is to revive the brand in TYOOL 202X thinking the nostalgia is will cary the brand.
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Aug 21, 2021 17:02
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the intellivision had some games with amazing ideas for the time that were often hampered by the technology and/or especially the terrible, awful, bad, no-good controllers
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Aug 21, 2021 17:03
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Detective No. 27 posted:So I have nothing against Intellivision or it's games. Never played them. My OP is somewhat dismissive of the console but that's mainly to convey how dumb it is to revive the brand in TYOOL 202X thinking the nostalgia is will cary the brand. Oh, for sure, I'm literally the target demographic for this ridiculous thing and even I think this is quixotic at best and outright cynical at worst. There is a finite number of people for whom that brand means anything and the marketing strongly suggests that they're counting on those people pushing this thing on their kids / grandkids / etc. in that "I want you to like all the same poo poo I did at your age" way.
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Aug 21, 2021 17:23
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