At 12:15 PM 3/3/97 -0700, you wrote:
>Before long, one or more of us will yearn to break free of the 4k or 6k
>barrier. Unless someone can design an 8K Supercharger. An 8K Supercharger
>would be wicked beyond recognition.
>
>If I had any electronics skills, that's what I'd be working on.
No, any modern Supercharger would need at least 64K, and why not static RAM
instead? It's 1997. RAM is cheap and there should be enough bank select
logic in the Supercharger model to support it.
There is a small possibility of a mass-produced run of carts of this type
(which would also have Bankzilla-type functionality) to accompany the
commercial Supercharger CD run (if that happens).
The problem with introducing a new standard, though, is that not everyone
will follow suit. (It's going to be hard enough to make 6K Supercharger
games (let alone multiloads) the standard for prospective 2600 programmers
who want to also make LCD 4K cart versions.) The advantage of the
Supercharger is that it is still readily available for less than $20. A
new cart of this type can't really be marketed for less than $50, which is
probably too much for even diehards to want to invest in their 2600s,
especially if they already have a perfectly good Supercharger on hand that
they bought to play the existing catalog.
And programmers want to know that their wares will reach a large audience.
The 2600 userbase is small enough as it is. Writing a game for a
hacker-project cartridge format is going to reach only a small percentage
of this userbase because of the format.
That's why I think the Supercharger format should be the standard for now.
If we can get a few thousand Supercharger+ cartridges manufactured, and
people actually buy them, then we can have ourselves a new or dual standard.
But all indications point towards the existing Supercharger as the best mix
of power, convenience, availability, and price. Any other solution
sacrifices one or more of these crutial factors. All you need to do is
look at games like Survival Island or Dragonstomper to see that the
Supercharger is more than adequate for advanced games with depth on par
with custom banked ROM jobs like Doug Neubauer's games.
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