Well guys, I emailed Randy to see where these carts were coming from, and
whadya know? they _are_ from him. Randy actaully gave me a quite
detailed reply and readily agreed to my request that I be allowed to post
this reply to the list. He also asks some very compelling questions at
the end of his email to me (eg, who should get INV royalties if it is
released?). I'll probably CC: the list when I reply, and hope that if
you email a response to the list regarding Randy's questions, you will CC
him as well. He also makes some interesting points regarding withholding
your games while in developement and afterwards. Quite an interesting,
well thought-out email, imo! ;)
I still wonder about the pictures on the Dungeon site that are obvious
rip-offs from others' web sites and also the directions that he's mailing
out, but I'll leave that footwork to someone else!
Ruffin Bailey
rufbo@xxxxxxxxxxx
==============================
Hey Ruffin!
no problem, I understand your concern. First let me tell you that
Al, the owner of the Computer Dungeon, definately buys all those games he
sells from me, at full $16 price no less. So Piero and everyone else is
getting the royalty they deserve for each cart. Al does not make carts,
is
not interested in making carts, and has placed large orders of carts with
me
and I'm happy to say is already making noise about placing another order.
You can feel free to post this to the Stella list, perhaps this will clear
up some of the uneasiness.
I get orders all the time from people who want the cart in their
hands and not just some image on a disk. True collectors know that the
ones
made by me are the only "official" copy that has any value down the road,
so
they are snapping them up as fast as I make them. I would point out that
Edtris is still not availiable on the net as an image (at least not
openly)
and sales of it are still strong after 3 years of it being availiable. Do
you have a copy of Edtris? Every single cart has its own serial number
right
on the title screen, and because of a checksum that Ed does the cart will
not
work at all if anyone tries to go in and change that number. Thus, if an
Edtris image ever did appear on the net we all would know exactly who let
it
get out (I have a full master list of everyone who ever bought a cart, of
course!). I am sure this is a big factor in why Edtris is still such a
popular
cart to buy.
Most people that order games from me know the images are on the net.
They also know that INV, Tetris26, Minesweeper, etc are also out there.
Almost
everyone that wants a copy of these games asks me "Randy, I know you make
copies of Oystron but do you make the freeware games too?" so it seems
that
there is this common feeling that any rom availiable is just freeware. I
can't
argue that, however I don't think it would be right for people to make up
carts and sell them for a profit of these games. If Al at the dungeon
ever
did this, or any one else did, I would be quite annoyed. I make these
"free"
carts for $11, but see I make EVERY cart for $11, I don't sell the image
just
the service. That's why all the royalty carts go for $16, I just tacked
on
$5 extra in royalty that goes directly to the game author. I also ask for
permission to make even the freeware carts (well, I usually do!) and find
that
most authors have no problem sharing their games around.
As a side note, yes, I send him copies of the instructions with the
carts. Since I am not treating him special, and instead as just another
cart
buyer, he gets everything everyone else does including the Hozer Video
Spring
Catalog. Ha ha I doubt though he sends that on to customers - the $16
price
per cart is quite obvious in the catalog, as well as my e-mail address for
those who might have net access and want additional games made.
Hey Ruffin, you never bother me when you ask polite questions! If
you came at me guns blazing demanding to know why I was letting someone
else
make carts and a profit without a royalty (like I could stop that if I
wanted,
since the image is obviously out there on the net) I would be bothered.
You
may certainly feel free to post any or all of this message to the stella
list if you think others will profit from the info. I will tell you
though
that I am undecided if I would post the bins of a game that I am writing
to
the net or not. It was obviously profitable for Ed not to, and he made
sure
that if anyone did we'd know who to hammer. However, if you get 80% done
with
a game and get hit by a truck who will ever see your game? Not to be
morbid,
but hey I see these things lasting basicly forever as collectors stuff and
the more carts the better. Have you noticed that most lists put Edtris
and
SoundX at ER? When I ask why, the answer is always the same: "Randy, you
will NEVER make thousands of anything so there will always be just a small
number out there floating around". So any cart you write will be an ER.
That
is cool! So is it going to be a fun ER, like River Patrol, or a sucky one
like Chase the Chuckwagon? Even so, how many times do you see ER games
being
sold for only $16? Cool beans, eh!
And as always, if you are done with a game and want someone to do
the manufacturing of the carts, I am always dying to get more games in my
catalog. Any idea who should get the royalties for INV?
Now I have a question for YOU!!! People are always wanting every new
image made, no matter what it is. As I told Greg, I actually had some
people
(well, two) interested in getting the christmas demo that he and Piero did
on a cart. Here is my dilemma, people want copies of INV before it is all
done. Do I put them off for 6 weeks waiting for it to be finished (it's
been
a long time already) and run the risk that it never gets finished? Or do
I make them as the images become availiable? Several people wanted TPS
and
Oystron before they were done, because they knew the image was out there
on
the net and it was almost done. I put them off because I had "agreements"
in progress with Greg and Piero and I knew they were going to finish, but
I
do get orders for even stuff like the Zep Demo off Nick's page! I don't
see
that being finished or enhanced any time soon. So my question to you is
this,
what do you think is a solution to this? I'd love it if every cart
started
was finished. With TPS, Greg wanted to go on and make the game even more
awesome but he polished up a "4K version" and it became the official 4K
release.
I like this because now he is free to go on and make a 16K version and the
two are distinctly different. Just some thoughts as a cart builder.
Small
wonder there are so many prototypes of games like Dukes of Hazzard, etc
out
there floating around.
Randy
(randyc@xxxxxxxxxxxx)
"Figures don't lie. Of course, that doesn't stop
liars from figuring."
- my Dad
--
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