In article <199801091658.LAA07212@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, you wrote:
>I think there was even a hack of a game that was sold on cart (the
>Bira-Bira's revenge or whatever), though I believe there was some debate
>over just how much of the price was actual profit.
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"Rescue Bira Bira". A graphics hack of "Jungle Fever" available as a
.BIN file on my webpage and a number of ROM archives as well as in
cartridge form from Hozer Video Games at $16. $10 profit altogether
with $5 of the profit going to Randy and $5 going to me.
The first and only 2600 Hack I've done. Created as both a learning
experience and a RGVC in-joke, not originally intended to be released
as anything other than a .BIN but after getting requests for it in
cartridge form and finding out how easy it is to distribute a cartridge I
decided, "What the heck."
I no longer really have any desire to do 2600 Hacks as I can't really think
of much point to doing one now. If I could think of another joke hack
I might do it but in actuallity the only type of hack that really
intrests me now is something like Brik-Kik.
I would be fun to take an existing 2600 game and try to turn it into something
completely different by modifying as little of the code as possible.
Brik-Kik was a Pengo clone made out of the code for Pac Man.
Actually, from what I've heard on RGVC, large chunks of Pac Man code show
up in a number of 2600 games.
Other than this I can't really think of anything that would inspire me to
do another hack...
... oh, wait a minute... yeah, I can think of one other thing. Last year
a guy on RGVC was talking about how he'd take 5 carts as a kid and
string them together into a game. He'd play breakout until he reached a
certain score and pretend he was breaking out of a POW camp, then
he'd play night driver and have to reach a certain distance before he
ran out of gas and pretend he was driving a get away car to a rocket
lauch pad. Then he'd play astroids and pretend he was trying to escape
back to his home planet and trying to lose the enemies chasing him by
flying through an astroid field. Then he'd play space invaders and
pretend he made it back to his home planet and was defending it from
the enemy. Then he'd play star raiders and pretend he was leading
an attack on the enemy. (those may not be the exact games but it
gives you an idea what he was doing. He'd have to reach a certain
score before he'd move on to the next game)
It would be fun to take some classic 2600 games and string them together
into a Supercharger Multi-load story like that (probably modify the
graphics too to provide more continuety)
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>If, in the next decade (this mess is a pain! ;), I get a SC version of a
>platform game, I very well might go ahead and try and sell 50-100 nicely
>packaged tapes with manuals, with my selling that number being a
>requirement before I release the code. And then _I_'ll be the one
>worried about piracy!# Welcome to the world of computer game
>developement!
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I think you're safe in releasing the code. The classic collectors seem
to be a pretty good lot when it comes to items currently in print.
I haven't seen any pirate releases of Ed-Tris, and Bob released Okie Dokie
as a .BIN and easily sold his 100 carts.
Infact, I think Bob has pretty much set the standard of what future 2600
cart releases will be (I've been using the term "Colbert Release" when
describing plans to release 2600 carts).
A .BIN form available on the net.
A limited edition release with a fancy label and/or manual.
A more generic release.
Collectors will instantly snap up the limited edition release for it's
value as a collectable and then you'll get trickle sales of the more
generic release. And the .BIN is available for people to try before
they buy.
This is how I plan to release any original works I create for the 2600.
I could have released RBB like than and likely have sold 100 limited
edition copies of it overnight (making an easy $500 minus the cost of
labels and manuals) but I don't really want to turn a hack into a
collectable. RBB has a nice colour label and a manual (and bonus Bira Bira
stickers) but these features will be on all carts not just the 1st 100
and the production isn't limited so they'll never be a rare or valuable
collectable (well maybe in 100 years... but that's different).
Actually, I may have unintentionally created some rare RBB carts. I didn't
have the software to make the label or the manual when the cart first went
into production. Randy made a generic Hozer Video Games label for the
cart and the first 7 RBBs went out with that. After I got the means together
to produce the colour labels, I sent those people who bought the generic
label RBBs a new label, manual, and the bonus stickers. So I suppose
technically, those first 7 RBBs could be considered UR variations if
the buyers didn't peel off the generic label and attatch the colour one.
Plus to make up for the inconvienience I included an autographed message
on their manuals.
But I don't think that'll really make any difference.
CRACKERS
(But you never know from hell!!!)
--
Accordionist - Wethifl Musician - Atari 2600 Collector | /\/\
*NEW CrAB URL* http://www.hwcn.org/~ad329/crab.html ***| \^^/
Bira Bira Devotee - FES Member - Samurai Pizza Cats Fan| =\/=
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