#i was playing minecraft forgot about october first post

[rusticottage]

october first 🧙‍♀️

[skittypenguin]

fuck it. gonna long post about how much i appreciate tommyinnit.

so, i used to be into mcyts back in mid 2019, and by early 2020 i kinda lost interest once smplive ended. i remember seeing wilburs tweet about smpe and i kinda was like. Oh cool, and just completely forgot as i moved on to a different hyperfixation.

then, i started following this “tommyinnit” guy. no clue how i actually got there. watched streams in mid-october during the schlatt era, and i was like oh shit, i know schlatt. had no idea he was still in the minecraft scene. 

(more under the cut - this is a long one boys)

around this time i got broken up with by my partner on our 4 month anniversary. looking back, it seems like such a small amount of time, but it really hurt, ykno? i saw it coming and all, but im kind of an emotional person in the first place yadda yadda.

point being, i tuned into a wilbur soot stream for the first time in a year for mcc 11 a few days after. i was like “oh shit, its like minecraft monday” and then sat down and watched the whole mcc. had no damn idea what was happening,  but i haven’t actually felt that much enjoyment, laughed that hard, in such a long time. i knew of quackity and wilbur beforehand, but the brashness yet motivating energy tommy carried on that stream coupled with his positive reinforcement towards quackity really drew me in.

i started tuning in to tommy’s streams more, loving how easily he played off chat as he pulled energetic and lighthearted bits with his friends. because of him, i’m so invested in minecraft roleplay. because of him, i got to connect with so many people over common interests. on bad days, his streams or even just watching a vod would be the reason i got up and smiled another day.

his insane work ethic, his readiness to always communicate with his friends, the little things he does to make others feel more included, to brighten up the casual viewer’s day, inspired me to do better. he works so fucking hard to put out a video every week, balance school, come up with lore/plans to stream with friends, and popping on a bunch of people’s streams.

“the world isn’t ready for tommyinnit”, wilbur said. “i would be sitting at 400 viewers without tommy”, said tubbo. “tommy deserves everything he’s got”, a whole zoom call of his friends agree. i don’t even know him, but i can’t help but completely agree. tommy’s what got me out of my comfort zone - to be more confident, take those shots at communicating with friends that i normally wouldn’t take. my anxiety has it so i can’t sleep without a podcast or someone speaking play in the background, and for months tommy’s vods have been what i play softly on my phone before i sleep, to calm down.

he’s a legend, tommyinnit is. i can’t thank him enough for being an amazing content creator and someone that, even though i’m older than him, i can’t help but look up to.

so thank you tommy. you’ve done so much for me and so many other people. i hope you had a wonderful day at 17 <3 keep it up!

[actutrends]

Tommy Tallarico is making a lot of noise about Intellivision

Tommy Tallarico has been making noise and music as a sound expert and musician for video games for more than three decades.

But lately, he has been leading a retro gaming revival as head of Intellivision Entertainment, which is building Amico, a new version of the famous retro game console from the 1990s. 2020 is going to be a big year in that effort, as Tallarico has committed to launching the new machine on October 10, or as Tallarico likes to say, “10/10/20.”

Tallarico also found himself at odds with Roblox over the Roblox “death sound,” a comical “oof” noise that has become famous to the 100 million kids who play games in the virtual gaming world. Tallarico says he originally created the sound in 1999 for use in the Messiah video game that came out in 2000.

He forgot about it until he learned recently that it has become an iconic sound for Roblox, which never asked his permission to use it. Tallarico is trying to negotiate with Roblox to get some royalties out of the company, but he says negotiations aren’t going well.

Tallarico spoke at the 2020 Kids@Play and FamilyTech Summit at CES 2020, the big tech trade show in Las Vegas last week, and I interviewed him ahead of that session.

Here’s an edited transcript of our interview.

Above: Intellivision Amico

GamesBeat: What’s your update on how things are going now?

Tommy Tallarico: It’s great. Here’s the latest controller. We decided to, in the hardware–we moved the buttons here. This is still a 3D printout, but these are the molds. The buttons light up. The gyroscope is working. You can see all the fun stuff there, the touch screen. The disc, which I don’t think you’ve seen working yet–a normal D-pad is eight positions. Up, down, left, right, and diagonals. We have 64 positions. You can see that there. We have pressure on it as well.

GamesBeat: 64 positions, is that harder to do?

Tallarico: Exactly. When you’re skiiing, for example, and you’re going like this–it’s like an analog stick. But with analog sticks, it always pulls back to the center. When you play a game like Missile Command, for example, or Centipede, in the old days you’d use the trackball and roll it around. In the last 25-30 years, you either had to use a D-pad, which was crap, or you would have to use the analog stick. But the analog stick, it’s always pulling back to the center.

This is the great thing about the controller. For our Missile Command, we can just use this. Now, wherever your thumb goes–it’s so much easier. And this can become a fire button. This can be Centipede. Or if you’re a lefty it can be like this. If you prefer trigger buttons it can be like this. It’s whatever you want it to be. What’s interesting is when we give these to little kids. They hold it like this automatically, because they’re used to a phone. When you give it to millennials, they automatically hold it like a PlayStation controller.

We decided to go with a capacitive touch screen, which bumped our build and materials up. This is a resistive touch, but we’re going with the glass touch as well. It’s just more responsive. We felt like it was so important that this be perfect. We decided to spend some more money and switch over. I tried to get it for CES, but we just couldn’t do it in time.

All of the retailers are super-excited. Wal-Mart and Best Buy and GameStop. GameStop and Wal-Mart are probably our two biggest fans right now. We’re appealing–the whole idea is to bring families together. We’re not necessarily appealing to the hardcore gamer. Our go-to-market strategy is to go after moms who have young kids. Most GameStops are in malls. Who’s shopping between nine in the morning and three in the afternoon? It’s moms with young kids. Even GameStop tells us that moms will walk in at noon with their four-year-old and say, “Do you have anything for my four-year-old?” What are they gonna sell them?

We’re in an interesting time in history in that baby boomers were the number one generation on the planet. Their kids are millennials. Their kids took over last year. Millennials are now the number one age group on the planet. Millennials are all in their early 30s now. As you know, they found their careers later. They got married later, left the home later, had kids later. In the U.S. alone, there are 21 million households that have children between the ages of two and seven. That’s never happened before. In Europe, there’s another 21 million. If you add Canada and Mexico, all of North America and Europe, there are 65 million households that have kids between the ages of two and seven.

In regards to a home console, Xbox and PlayStation are more for teenagers. They start to get the Switch around eight, 10 years old. Even Roblox and Minecraft are seven, eight, nine. A lot of our strategy is, let’s also have games–yes, we have the retro reimagined stuff we’re doing. Yes, we have tons of sports and recreational games. Not only baseball, football, soccer, but cornhole and bowling and darts and pool. All those recreational games. Tons of board games, whether it’s Yahtzee or Farkle or Wheel of Fortune or things like that.

Above: Intellivision Amico controller.

Image Credit: Intellivision

Let’s take a game like Texas Hold ‘Em for example, where everyone has their two cards on the controller and the flop is on the screen. This is the kind of stuff that’s never been before. What if you have dice in a Farkle game? You see the dice and shake it when it’s your turn. You throw it and it goes up on the screen. Every game we’re making is unique to our controller. They cannot be put on a PlayStation or Xbox or Switch or mobile.

All of the edutainment, like all of the hypercasual stuff, is only on mobile. Again, you read the information, the statistics, and the number one concern of parents with young kids is that they give them too much screen time. This becomes the babysitter. The parents give it to the kid, but they want to limit it. Then the kid gets hooked. That’s our whole thing. Play with your children. You’ll be able to play simple, affordable games together. That’s our tagline: “Together again.” You see it everywhere on all our stuff.

GamesBeat: You said more than 100 games?

Tallarico: There’s going to be about 40 games at launch. Then every 10 to 14 days we’ll come out with one game at a time. We’re never going to release two games at once. Keep in mind, it’s a closed system. We’re going to be announcing, at E3, all of our licenses. It’s all the greatest licenses you can imagine in one place. Not only for kids, but for adults. There’s a lot of stuff that people are going to be delightfully surprised by.

GamesBeat: How would you compare and contrast this to competition like the Atari boxes?

Tallarico: They’re in a whole different realm. I still haven’t seen an original game on their system and they’re supposed to ship in a couple of weeks. I think they’re going for this sandbox–I view it as almost like a Raspberry Pi on steroids, a really amazing super-fast kind of tinkerer’s thing. I would love for Atari to succeed so that we can, after 40 years, kick their asses. [Laughs] Round two of the original console war!

I’ll share a little secret with you. We announced that we’re going to do a founder’s edition. We’ll take pre-orders on it at the end of the month, in a couple of weeks. It’s going to be a limited number, and that limited number is 2600. They’ll all be hand-signed and numbered and the whole thing. So yeah, I think it’ll be fun. I say this all with tongue in cheek, but I think it would be fun to relive the original console war. But have fun with it. Of course I don’t have any ill will toward anyone. I think what they’re doing is something very different, obviously, than what we’re doing. We’ll see if there’s a market for what they’re doing too.

The post Tommy Tallarico is making a lot of noise about Intellivision appeared first on Actu Trends.

[matrixaffiliate]

Salient

Chapter Update! FFN and AO3

I'm not going to be posting next week, my wonderful husband is taking us away for a few days to celebrate my birthday while the grandparents watch our kiddos. But, I'll be back with chapter 10 on Friday, October 4th so it's not a full two weeks without my little obscure ship. ;)

Chapter 9

Al and Ellie settled into a sort of routine after he reluctantly dropped her off at her aunt and uncle's home that Sunday night. They'd text on and off Mondays and Wednesdays. Al would have breakfast at the little restaurant Tuesday and Thursday mornings and they usually found time to call each other after classes those nights. And Friday night through Sunday they spent as much time together as possible while still staying on top of their classes.

"You're completely gone, you know?" Craig whispered as Al watched the clock in their last class on a Friday afternoon in early May.

"I'm not using your notes anymore," Al shot back, gesturing to the pages of information he'd written down during the lecture.

"Touché," Craig rolled his eyes, "but when do I get to meet the girl that you've fallen so hard for?"

"Never," Al laughed quietly.

There was no way Ellie was going to meet Craig. Don't misunderstand, Al liked Craig a lot, he was wicked smart and saw to the heart of problems so quickly sometimes it made Al's head spin. Craig was brilliant, but he was a bit...much sometimes. He teased mercilessly. He had a tendency to speak before thinking, and on more than one occasion it had resulted in some mildly embarrassing situations for Al over the past two years.

"Oohhh," Craig grinned, "so it's a challenge?"

Al froze before turning to glare at Craig.

"No! It's not a challenge!" He hissed.

Craig smiled easily and leant back in his chair, linking his hands behind his head. "You know what I'm capable of, Al. If I want to meet her, I can find her."

"That's unethical!" Al had completely forgotten the end of the lecture as he very seriously considered Obliviating the knowledge of Ellie from his friend's mind and asking his dad for a pass for performing magic on a Muggle.

Craig laughed quietly, "Would be so much easier to introduce me yourself."

Al took a deep breath. He knew Craig. Their friendship was built on a love for computer programming and teasing each other.

"I'll talk to her about it; we haven't met each other's friends or families or anything yet."

"Really?" Craig frowned.

"We've only been seeing each other for two months. I haven't even broached the subject of a Star Wars marathon."

Craig shook his head, "Mate, you need to sort out your priorities."

"Do you want to meet her or not?" Al rolled his eyes.

"Of course I do," Craig stood as their professor dismissed class, "but have the Star Wars talk first. I can't believe you haven't established if her loyalties are right. Honestly, Al, what if she's a Trekkie?"

"You're ridiculous," Al shook his head, "See you Monday."

"You're not coming to study group tomorrow night?" Craig frowned.

"We just have our final in two weeks, we said we'd take tomorrow off from studying before the chaos of finals hit." Al zipped up his bag and threw it over his shoulder.

"Right, which means that we'll party tomorrow, especially since the sun is finally deciding to hang around later into the evening."

Al shrugged, "I'm not going to let you lot kick my trash at your favorite video games every chance you get."

"If you played something more than Minecraft then maybe you'd stop getting your trash kicked." Craig laughed and gave Al a weak shove.

"One day," Al laughed, "I'm going to convince you all to play a mod with me and I'm going to show you what it means to get your trash kicked."

"In your dreams, Potter!" Craig called as they separated to walk to their own places.

Al shook his head as he walked to his normal Apparition point. He was surprised to see someone waiting there for him.

"This is a happy surprise," he grinned and pulled Ellie into him.

"My class was canceled last minute," she murmured against his lips. "I thought we could start our evening early."

"I have no complaints there," Al kissed her again and was just about to turn and take them to his place when he heard his name.

"Hey, Al! Wait I forgot to..." Craig stopped dead and sported the smuggest smile Al had ever seen.

"Hello mystery girl," Craig held out his hand, "I'm Craig, one of Al's mates."

Al almost Apparated them away regardless of the consequences. Ellie, beautiful creature she was, handled Craig with grace.

"Hi Craig, and you can call me Ellie, 'mystery girl' is a bit of a mouthful I think." She shook his hand but kept herself safely wrapped in Al's arms.

He was rather glad of that.

"You from the States?" Craig released her hand and Al pulled her closer.

"Nope," She smiled, "I'm from Newfoundland."

"Did you need something, Craig?" Al didn't manage to keep the annoyance out of his voice.

"Just wanted to let you know a bunch of us are going to be at our regular pub tonight. You should bring Ellie, it'll be fun." Craig's smile tilted into a smirk and Al barely suppressed his groan. He might just kill Craig.

"What time?"

It took Al a moment to realize it was Ellie's beautiful voice that asked the question.

Craig looked at his watch, "We'll start heading down there in about three hours."

"Thanks, Craig," Ellie nodded, "It was great to meet you."

Craig waved before heading back the way he came.

"So that's Craig," Al groaned and buried his head in the crook of El's neck.

"He's a bit headstrong," Ellie chuckled and moved her fingernails into his hair.

Al moaned more than groaned this time.

"That's the most diplomatic way of saying he's a cocky prick I've ever heard."

"Let's get out of here," she laughed before turning and Apparating them to his flat building.

"What would you like to do before we head to that pub?" She asked as she pulled him out of the little alley they used.

Al stopped walking, "El, we don't have to go…"

She winked at him and gave his hand a firm tug. "I'm well aware, Mr. Potter."

Slightly perplexed, Al followed her into his building and to his flat.

"You, you want to spend tonight with a bunch of programming nerds?"

Ellie rolled her eyes, "Had it occurred to you that I'm dating a programming nerd?"

"Well yeah," Al pulled her into him as he unlocked his door. "But I'm mild compared to these blokes, and I'm not really a programming nerd, I'm a wizard innovator who happens to need to know how computers work."

"Oh, I beg your pardon mister innovator," Ellie pulled him down to the sofa with her as he waved his wand at the door. "I didn't realize your tirade the other day about Python had nothing to do with you being a nerd."

"Oi," Al tickled her side, "I did not have a tirade about Python."

"Oh but you most certainly did!" Ellie squirmed as she tried to still his fingers. "But if you think that they're worse prove it to me." Ellie gripped his hands in hers to keep him from really tickling her, "Take me to the pub tonight."

Al sighed as he pulled her into him, his hands no longer tickling her. "Why is it so bad that I want to keep you to myself?"

Ellie chuckled, "Because when we share the people most important to us we all grow."

"Is that another of your grandmother's sayings?" Al laid back and pulled Ellie over him, hoping to distract her from the possibility of spending their evening with his useless group of mates.

"Nope," she grinned down at him, "that one is all my own."

Al sighed, trying to figure out a way out of this craziness. "I haven't met your friends, couldn't we start there?"

Ellie grinned, "Sure! Let's go!"

Before Al was aware of what was happening, Ellie had jumped up from his arms and was moving for the door.

"Wait, what are you doing?"

"You wanted to meet my friends first, so let's go." She gave him a far too innocent smile.

"El…" Al moved to sit up.

"Come on," Ellie grinned at him and Al couldn't help but smile as his eyes caught sight of the streak of blue paint in her hair.

It was something that Al had become accustomed to seeing, paint in her hair, paint on her hands, paint on her arms, paint on her face. It felt like the paint was actually a part of her, seeping out onto her skin and hair to prove that she had so much more to offer, more than her art, more than waiting tables, more than living here in the city. Ellie was so alive and sometimes he envied her vivacious desire to experience life. And more than anything he wanted to keep her in his life.

"Alright," Al stood and took her hand, "but I make no promises for us to hang around my mates again after tonight."

"You're a bit dramatic today, Mr. Potter," Ellie squeezed his hand.

Al burst out laughing.

"You just quoted my mum," he smirked at her perplexed stare.

"Does your mom point out your dramatics as well?" She laughed.

"Actually," Al let her lead him out of the flat, "she mostly points out Dad's dramatics."

Ellie laughed, and Al didn't miss the slight tinge that blushed across her cheeks.

The rest of their Friday went fairly quickly after that. Al was introduced to Sara and Lian who were painters like Ellie. Then he met Kya, a sculptor who Ellie met in figure drawing. And finally, Vlora who was a Mathematics major getting a minor in Art. And they were all amazing. Al was mesmerized as he watched El interacting with her friends. She was so incredibly full of love for them that he was amazed she'd had time for him at all. And yet her friends didn't act at all as though they'd been neglected these last two months. If anything they were excited to meet him. Vlora even went so far as to say he was a right side better than the last bloke Ellie had been with.

Al liked Vlora, she had a good head on her shoulders.

But too soon it was time to bid Ellie's fascinating friends goodbye and move on to introducing her to his lot.

"Last chance to back out," Al sighed as they walked to the pub.

"Smile," she pressed a quick kiss to his cheek, "you look better when you smile."

Al chuckled, "It astounds me how calm you are about everything."

"I have my moments," she shrugged, "but I've found that there's a lot about life that I can choose to be upset about or to just smile. Smiling tends to make everything a bit easier."

Al paused before opening the door to the pub, "Painting helps too, doesn't it?"

"Oh yes," Ellie nodded, "without painting, I don't think I'd be able to smile at all."

Al thought about that as they walked in and he scanned for his friends. He thought he understood what Ellie meant, at least in part. He'd been working to merge magic and technology for so long now that it was just a part of him. He didn't think he'd be able to smile without that part of him.

"Al!" Craig caught his attention and Al guided Ellie to sit with Craig and Henrik.

"Anyone else coming?" Al asked as he pulled a chair out for El.

"The whole crew should be here before the night ends," Craig grinned.

"He sent a group text that you were bringing the girlfriend," Henrik chuckled and held out his hand to Ellie. "I'm Henrik, by the way."

"I'm Ellie," she shook his hand and Al glared at Craig.

"Will you please stop looking at me like you're going to kill me?" Craig laughed.

"I swear, Craig, I'm going to find a way to get you back." Al continued to glare at Craig.

"Right," Henrik chuckled, "so Ellie, what are you studying?"

"Art," Ellie pulled Al's hand into hers and Al momentarily looked away from Craig to find El's perfect face smiling at him. That smile seemed to calm a small part of his anxious mind, and Al managed to smile back at the beautiful creature beside him.

"I'd like to know something far more important," Craig pulled Al back from his brief reprieve, "Star Wars or Star Trek, Ellie?"

"Well, I've never seen Star Trek," she shrugged.

"Do you plan to?" Craig pushed.

"Craig," Al growled.

Ellie however, laughed, "Nope. I don't really enjoy sitting in front of a television."

"Ok," Craig narrowed his gaze, "but did you like Star Wars?"

Ellie nodded, "I liked the ones from the '70s and '80s."

Craig grinned, "You pass."

"Oh good," Ellie laughed, "and now we can move on to more important questions." She leaned forward, "tell me, do you find impressionism or realism more moving?"

Craig frowned, "What?"

"Alright, maybe something easier," Ellie's grin slowly morphed into a smirk. "Do you find watercolor a confining medium, or just a medium that art galleries and collectors aren't broad-minded enough in their tastes?"

Al smirked as Craig continued to look at Ellie like she had switched into speaking French to him.

Ellie's smirk only grew. "Not that either, huh? Alright, here's the easiest one. What sort of art do you like?"

Craig's frown, however, only deepened. "I don't like art."

Ellie laughed, "Do you play video games, Craig?"

"Well, yes, but…"

Ellie cut him off, "Do you like the graphics?"

"Yes," Craig furrowed his brow.

"Then you like art." Ellie grinned triumphantly and Al briefly wondered if he could convince Ellie to hold that look until he could get her to his flat. Not only had she left Craig speechless, but she'd also managed to argue him into a corner.

This woman was everything.

"Before you start interrogating me," Henrik chuckled at Craig's perplexed face. "I've always enjoyed good portraiture."

"See," Ellie gestured between the four of them, "we're not so different after all."

And as the evening progressed, Al found she was right. As each member of their group arrived, Ellie managed to find common ground with all his mates, even when they dove into extreme nerd territory. Al learned new things about each of his friends, things that never would have come up if not for El and her reaching out to each of them. Before he knew it, the sun had fallen below the horizon and they were heading back to their flats.

"That was fun," Ellie grinned up at him as they walked to her aunt and uncle's home.

"Because of you," Al paused their walking to kiss her, "Thank you."

"You're welcome," she smiled up at him. "Oh, and I think Henrik will be able to help with figuring out what's going on with your experimenting." She added and began walking again.

Al frowned. "El, how in the world can I get a Muggle to help me when I can't tell them what I'm doing?"

Ellie rolled her eyes at him, "Just ask him about the differences between what's inside a digital watch and a smartphone. He's majoring in Computer Engineering too, I'm sure he'd be able to bounce ideas around with you."

Al shook his head and smiled, "If I ever get this to work I'm going to tell everyone it was really you that did it and I was just the manual labor."

"Nah," El shook her head, "you had the drive and the dream long before you knew me."

Al pulled her into him as they reached her front door. "I didn't have much more than that before you, El."

Ellie didn't respond, she just kissed him.

It was while he lay in bed that night that El's words from earlier echoed in his mind. He had grown as he shared Ellie, both with her own friends and his own.

Now he just had to figure out how to get Henrik's help without infringing on the Statute of Secrecy.