The Intellivision was my first gaming experience, so the brand has a special place in my heart. But from the start to the finish of this new console idea, I think the whole gaming industry kinda knew this wasn't it; even in its best form, even if it could come to market in the end.
I was about 4 years old when I first laid my hands on its awful controller. It was the very early 90s and my parents had just got a NES, so this very basic platform didn’t stand a chance of keeping my attention, but my parents (when they were still together) loved the thing for its couch co-op style games it really excelled at. Games that come to mind are the likes of Triple Action, Snafu, and a handful of popular sports titles. And this was during the beautiful 80s, when arcade and the whole newness of the medium still had its shine. The whole era must have been fascinating.
The memories of these games, and the era that spawned them, clearly left a mark on the Intellivision Amico creator Tommy Tallarico. It's clear through his general conversation about gaming, he places games that were birthed in the years of 81 to 98, in pretty high esteem. I remember watching Electric Playground back in the day and remembering how this man would go on about "Root Beer Tapper!" and games he used to play back in the golden era of the 90s.
As a result, though, via living in the past, he takes his time, money and energy, and earnestly resurrects the Intellivision. With a new i n n o v a t I v e twist: A motion touchscreen controller that will bring families together with its simple and casual appeal.
The whole thing when it was first announced sounded a whole lot like the Wii. The only issue being that it was 2018 and the novelty of this whole concept had already run its course ten years ago. What’s more, the Wii U and the 3DS clearly demonstrated that the casual market had moved over to the more accessible smart phone. And, just to make things worse, most smart phones, arguably its main competing platform in some respects, have stronger specs than the Amico itself!
Tommy seemed to be out of step with the current gaming market and his re-invention of Amico was a lot less novel than he was led to believe.
This was further exemplified by that low resolution livestream update he had sent out of his company, almost as if he was trying to prove its existence. My brother and I were watching this livestream of his company, and you can sense the uneasiness of his developers' making projects that were landing on an unviable platform. And just to add insult to injury, the games that were really drummed up as “exciting” looked like indie game jam rehashes of the very simple / dated games from 1982. As for the presentation as a whole of that unfortunate livestream, think, "it's ridge racer, RIDGEEE RACERR" level, but worse.
My little brother naturally also grew up with the Intellivision, because back in the mid-nineties, you just played anything you could, even if it was shit. There was no such thing as emulation (well not really) or Steam sales back then. We owned about 15 or so carts for the Intellivision, so the platform does something for us when we hear its very low-end sounds effects, catch a glimpse of its slightly uncomfortably smooth jank graphics, or observe its wild controller. We even ended up getting Intelliviision Lives for Gamecube when that came out, but let’s be real, I think we played the extra games in Animal Crossing more than that ‘anthology’... and we’re fans, kinda.
I turned to my brother during the livestream and said to him, "You know, you might be the only 25-year-old, watching this right now, who even knows what those original Intellivision games were. Tommy really thinks he’s doing something here.” He really thought people could relate to experiences he had as a kid when he first played Triple Action, Armor Battle or Burger Time, almost 40 years ago.
My brother laughed. The whole presentation lacked a lot of promise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg2aZHV1u-s
(Looks like the video is deleted off youtube, but think about this, but way worse.)
I'll give credit where credit is due, he 'attempted' to resurrect the Intellivision name, believed in his gaming market opportunity, and brought a team together to reinvent the classics on that platform, but from where I'm standing in 2023, the best this plastic box called the Intellivision Amico can hope for, is another hacked Ouya-style emulation box, so I can play some real games on it.
Looking forward to Earthworm Jim 4 coming to all platforms when that fateful day arrives. Edit: Nevermind!
