At 10:11 PM 8/25/00 -0700, Glenn Saunders wrote:
>I know some of you may be wondering why Hasbro hasn't released a 2600 emu
>yet, and now you know. They just don't think the numbers add up. We could
>have plopped this into their lap with little effort on their part but they
>chose not to do it at all.
How well did Activision Classics do? It seems to me that TPTB would look
at that project, regardless of its technical merits - or utter lack thereof
- and go, "No one bought that one, why would they buy more of the same from
us?"
Then again, I've gotten all the Hasbro 3D revamps in the cutout bin after
6-8 months of release (in some cases cheaper than the e-games knockoffs)
but never any of the emulation-themed stuff like Activision Classics or the
MS or Hasbro Atari game packs. So maybe my perception is wrong. (tangent:
Frogger and Asteroids kind of blow, Pong, Qbert and Space Invaders are
wonderful updates... I like the now-hard-to-find e-games Pac-Man ripoff as
well, but will get the Hasbro one when it comes down too... sub-tangent:
wonder if whoever owns Taito now will sue Hasbro for their Arkanoid-ripoff
3D version of Breakout the way Hasbro sued e-games ;) )
Though I understand the drive to make some money off of our hobby, I myself
don't see what advantage a Hasbro emulator release would have over the way
things are right now, considering that after about a day of using the
Intellivision Lives "rich information and history blah blah blah" front
end, I wrote a VB applet to just let me play the games off a menu, and when
I'm curious about the history I go to the Intellivision website rather than
hunt for the CD. (tangent: Anyone gotten the Intellivision Rules CD yet,
and is it any better that way?)
When you can pack every released 2600 game onto a floppy, and all the
variants and hacks and protos on another, making the whole shebang
downloadable by cable modem users in about 3 seconds, and you release 20
really old games for 30 bucks, you're just not going to be able to compete
with those who ignore copyright. People like me will buy it, and maybe the
dozen old game enthusiasts who still aren't on the net, and that's about it.
I really dig SGANBv2, it was worth every penny and more, but it's a product
with a plainly hobbyist appeal, not mass-market. And in 2000, that's
probably as it should be. Now, a 3D update of Communist Mutants.... too
bad about the title, but I think it would kick ass. And Survival Island -
could you ask for better timing for an update? Think of the free publicity
when CBS foolishly tries to sue you and ends up paying you big bucks ;)
You could even get under their skin by putting "The Original Survival
Game!" on every package. (No, I'm not volunteering, though I've been
looking for a Linux 3D project for a while to teach myself OpenGL
programming.)
As for the videos, I haven't seen a frame of them (having read and written
about videogaming and its history since I was literally 10 years old, I
feel I've heard it all) but it seems to me they're a natural for Discovery
Channel or TLC or even Sci-Fi (look at their weekend morning programming to
see what I mean.) It's too bad there isn't simply a "Geek Channel" (soon,
I hope) because S@20 would be airing endlessly already and you'd be getting
rich. Maybe in another year or two there'll even be a Web outlet for this
sort of program (like atomfilms but for unbought documentaries or tech
material) which will actually result in income.
>But then one individual at CG Expo told me he had a 1:1 throughput 2600
>emulator for Playstation in the can and Activision still chose not to use
The Playstation AC can't do full-speed 2600 emulation? Ewwww. Then again,
it is only 33MHz, so go figure.
Rob
kudla@xxxxxxxxx ... http://kudla.org/raindog ... Rob
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