At 06:43 PM 3/5/97 -0600, you wrote:
>Personally, I favor producing actual carts.
<rest deleted>
Ed, I can understand your points, but in my opinion, not only the
development system, but the inconvence of cart distribution are responsible
for the dearth of new 2600 wares. Home computer orphans, being open
systems, by and large see more active programming because of this.
So realize that there are plenty of cons to cartridge distribution:
1) Carts take up more physical space in your home than .BINs would. For
some people, this is an issue.
2) Swapping carts is less convenient than clicking on .BINs or .WAV files.
3) Not all developers are going to want the hassle of manfucturing carts,
and not all developers will want to limit their games so that they fit in a
standard Pac Man PCB, and won't have the resources to make custom
banked-ROM carts.
4) In an effort to fix the above, some of the more worthy banked ROM
cartridges may wind up being cannibalized for new games just because it's
cheaper that way (kinda like people stealing Pokey chips from 7800
Ballblazer vs. ordering them from Best Electronics). Pac Man, okay, there
are enough of those. But I wouldn't want to see Solaris and the like get
trashed like this.
And exclusive plusses to .BIN distribution:
1) Close to no cost (time or money) associated with internet distribution.
2) Instant global distribution (vs. snail mail).
3) Helps to popularize the Supercharger, which in turn creates a new
standard programming environment as opposed to the highly limiting 4K ROM
Pac Man PCB standard.
----
#3 above was most important to me. To me, writing for a 4K ROM standard is
just foolish if you have an alternative like the Supercharger. It's just
making things harder for you, and God knows the 2600 doesn't need an
imposed limitation that was broken way back in 1981 when it is 1997 and 1mb
may cost what 4K did then. For SoundX and Okie Dokie, fine, but once you
get to the point where you are banging your head against the wall over the
limited RAM et. al., why bother-- just for the sake of holding a physical
cartridge in your hand? Just because you think "shareware" is just another
word for "freeware" and noone will send you dues?
There are other ways to make a game an attractive and full-fledged
experience other than having it in a cartridge. Distribute your games as
ZIPs with multimedia artwork and an RTF manual or something. Be creative...
But if you want to make carts, be my guest. But please don't ignore the
electronic distribution options now available.
--Glenn
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