Intellivision Amico: Great retro hope, deeply fallen – Reportage

The Intellivision is famous among enthusiasts these days because it shaped a lot of modern standards - including the directional pad, which on the Amico had even more directions than the NES controller back then.

Imagine a home console that offers all the advantages of a modern platform, but satisfies your retro hunger: Graphically enhanced new editions of absolute Atari and Mattel classics such as Moon Patrol, Asteroids or Warlords are accompanied by brand new games in the style of the 80s and 90s . Evel Knievel and his motorbike are there, as are Finnigan Fox and the Care Bears. Of course, that also means the console is fully family-friendly, with each of the games being suitable for ages 10+; some even as young as six years old.

And best of all: none of the games should cost more than ten euros, while the console is available for just 180 euros – and the manufacturer even states that in its “10 Gaming Commandments”! Ready to fire that thing up and have some retro fun already? No wonder, we ourselves are very enthusiastic about the promises. The super console of the hour bears the name Intellivision Amico and represents the intellectual and technical successor to the Intellivision from 1979. As if that wasn’t enough, the project is none other than Tommy Tallarico, the maker of “Video Games Live” ( SEE). That’s right, THE Video Games Live!

So why don’t we recommend you at this point to drop everything and secure a pre-order? Well, some of the reasons for this are that the console should have been in stores as early as October 10th, 2020, costs up to 340 euros these days, their games are no longer exclusive and the device has only been available for a while with a 100 upfront payment euros could be pre-ordered at all.

As you might have guessed, there are a couple of big issues with the whole thing that we want to address in this article. We’ll start with the premise and key information behind the Intellivision Amico and how it was initially conceived, then move on to founder Tommy Tallarico and then look at how the project has evolved over time.

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Finally, we take a look at the project’s funding and explain why the Intellivision Amico is unlikely to ever hit the market. Here we go!

The original Intellivision: The world’s first 16-bit console

In 1979, the 16-bit Intellivision was the direct competitor to the successful Atari 2600. Compared to the Atari’s one-button joystick, the Intellivision had downright revolutionary controllers: the input devices connected to the console by cable not only had a numeric keypad from 0 to 9 including Extinguish- and inputbuttons, but also shoulder buttons on opposite sides of the controller to allow left-handed gamers smooth gaming enjoyment.

As if that wasn’t enough, the Intellivision came up with a circular D-Pad (“control disk”) that could distinguish 16 directions and thus be used both as a directional pad and as a paddle. An explanation for the uninitiated: Paddles are the rotating discs that were used to play simple titles such as pong.






The Intellivision is famous among enthusiasts these days because it shaped a lot of modern standards – including the directional pad, which on the Amico had even more directions than the NES controller back then.

Source: Intellivision



Smart gamers will have noticed that Intellivision’s control disc preceded Nintendo’s D-Pad by three years. The Japanese invented the cross-shaped D-Pad with the Game&Watch variant of Donkey Kong in 1982. As the icing on the cake, there were special plastic cards for the Intellivision that you could slide over the keypad and in this way you could see which button did which action was occupied.

Later, the console even got real speech output with the “Intellivoice” add-on module (in at least five games). An amusing detail by the way: Today the Intellivision controller regularly appears in the top 3 of the worst controllers of all time. The 16x directional input was extremely notchy.

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Anyone who has ever pressed UPPER LEFT instead of FAR LEFT and was then allowed to start the level from scratch knows what we mean. Nevertheless, years before the NES, the Intellivision and its controllers showed us what modern video game consoles would look like later and is therefore rightly considered a milestone in video game history.




The Intellivision can still be played by dedicated collectors today, for example by accessing the



The Intellivision can still be played by dedicated collectors today, for example by accessing the “Intellivision Flashback”, which is similar in function to the NES Classic.

Source: Intellivision



If you want, you can even try to get hold of one of the countless plug and play mini-consoles that have inspired Intellivision over the years: the “Intellivision 10 Game System” represents a controller with 10 games that plugs directly into the television, while the famous “Intellivision Flashback” is practically the NES mini variant of the Mattel console: 60 games, original controller and authentic look included.

We could write much, much more about the legendary console here, but that is beyond the scope of this article. The only important thing in this context is that many people care deeply about Intellivision, which is why the discussion about the Intellivision Amico project is so emotionally charged. By the way, if you want to find out more about the original Intellivision, we strongly recommend our article on this topic.

The Pitch: A console for gamers young and old

The concept of the Intellivision Amico is quickly explained, because the platform is supposed to be a re-edition of the original Intellivision from Mattel that is not entirely true to the original. The console emulates its great role model in many ways: the appearance is based on the original, at least in the basics, it has two controllers ex works and the gamepads themselves resemble the original controllers in their appearance.

With three important differences: they are wireless, have much more precise controls and the keypad has been replaced by a small LCD touchscreen. A microphone with loudspeaker and force feedback complete the features of the Amico controller. And yes: the controllers are still equally suitable for right- and left-handers.




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The Intellivision Amico should still cost 180 euros when it was announced and, as a family console, fascinate young, old, hardcore and non-gamers alike.



The Intellivision Amico should still cost 180 euros when it was announced and, as a family console, fascinate young, old, hardcore and non-gamers alike.

Source: Intellivision



The console itself was supposed to cost €180 when it was launched, while none of the games were priced at more than €10. As mentioned at the beginning, the Intellivision Amico should also be a very family-friendly console, because according to the specifications, every game available on the Amico must have an ESRP rating of E to a maximum of E10+.

In America, the “Electronic Software Rating Board” has a position similar to that of the USK in this country; the rating corresponds approximately to the releases from 6 years and from 10 years. Other specifications such as “games must be 2D or 2.5D”, “games must be playable with very little instruction” and “games must be Intellivision exclusive” can be found in Tommy Tallarico’s own “10 Commandments of Game Design”.




Tallarico's



Tallarico’s “10 Commandments of Game Design” sounds very good at the beginning. However, the result was a design-technical corset that only a few developers wanted to squeeze themselves into.

Source: Intellivision



And to all appearances, the Intellivision Amico is indeed his heart project. In an interview with website Venturebeat, Tallarico revealed of his experience with the Intellivision: “I played it with my mum, dad and brother.

Reference-www.pcgames.de