New Aliens v. Preditor "Reproduction" auction on E

[bergbros]

I saw this auction come up for bid on Ebay.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...item=1363488531.

 

The seller has a good feedback number but I find the auction questionable. A reproduction rather than prototype? How did he come by this card? Is the card like the recent proto of A v. P that was bid to such ridiculous levels before? How finished is this one? How good is the game? I am very leery of these auctions

[Videology]

I sent him an E-mail I hope he will answer. I wonder how is it a "reproduction" and what is the history behind the cart(s)

[CPUWIZ]

Hey guys,

 

the cart was made last year some time, I got it and a few others like it in a trade. It's basically the same thing as Hozer or Songbird Productions making carts.

 

By no means is this a prototype cart, the content of the cart is a game in prototype stage not the cart.

[bergbros]

The auction is now up to $91.00. Way too much for my blood especially if its a reproduction. I emailed Carl Forhan at Songbird to see if he can burn the Rom on a PCB. The seller is going to make out like a bandit. Prediction: The card will settle on $250.00. Anyone want to make a prediciion?

[Harry_Dodgson]

...and the worst part is the people who programmed it get $0.00 from the sale.

[CPUWIZ]

Harry,

 

I set the starting bid really low to recover my investment in it, I am not ripping anybody off. You are the guys who are setting the price and I didn't expect it to go this high. Do you have contact information for the guys that programmed it ? I've been making games for a living for over 15 years and I completely agree with you.

 

I have some more repro's coming up for sale, 2 of them aren't even available as a binary here and I will dump them for Al when I get the time (have to rig up an EPROM clip cable to read it), so everybody can enjoy them using Handy or something.

 

Regards

[Nimtene]

Anyone else looking to capitalize? No one, oh wait, there is someone!

Why am I not surprised? But this ones on a "real Atari Prototype board:"

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...item=1364495778

[CPUWIZ]

Wohooo, the cable I made works like a charm, expect some more Lynx binaries to show up here shortly (if one of the Al's has the time to upload them).

 

Here is the rig:

 

 

[bergbros]

Well, that repro sold for $110 and change. To the seller, I say congratulations. You sold the "repro" for double than it is really worth. These "repros" can be made by anyone with the right technology. Heck, Hozer Video does this all the time with the 2600 and sells them for $30 a pop. This prototype thing is getting out of hand and the sellers are lick ing their chops. Any coincidence that there is another one of these auctions on Ebay right now? That guy just put the game on a "real prototype" card just to jack uo the interest. Want to bet that more of these A v. P auctions will spring up? From the response of the vendor above, you bet A v. P will not seem as rare as it once was.

[Punisher5.0]

I bet this game is one of Songbirds Secret projects. And if I am right all those people are going to be really mad that they spent that much money on a game that wasnt complete. So I am going to wait and see before I spend that much money. Also, Have any of you played this game? How is this good or mediocre. I thought this game for Jaguar was mediocre mainly because the game was kind of slow and repetitive.

[CPUWIZ]

Picture pulled - binaries deleted !

 

NFC.

[Nimtene]

Double Dragon - Reproduction

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...item=1365065098

 

Isn't a reproduction nothing but a pirated

copy, when it's of a game that has been

commercially released?

 

Sorry, but I draw the line here. You may

have "came across this a while back",

and didn't personally make it yourself,

but I still don't think it's appropriate for

you to be selling it.

[bergbros]

Nimtene, I am with you. The vendor pulled his picture of his copying technology from this message board in a huff. Came across the cart indeed. The auction for the A v. P said he pulled another prototype and copied A v. P on top of the card. I think the sellers are getting wise to this as his auction went for half the first auction. Hey, I believe in capitalism and what the market will bear and all that, however, I blame the BUYERS who rush headlong into these auctions without doing due diligence. A collector who thinks they are getting the real deal or thinks they are going to get resale value on this stuff will be sorely be disappointed.

BTW, I got a response from Carl at SOngbird and he will not put A v. P on a PCB. I admire the stance. BTW, Carl, I got Lexis and I love the game. I love scrablle and word games. I think the game bears more resemblance to Klax than Tetris. I love the scoring.

[CPUWIZ]

See what I mean Alex ?

[Videology]

Nothing for nothing, and not wanting everyone to attack me, but I say congrads to CPUWIZ for selling his carts for so much! I don't understand the bidders! No one hid the fact that the carts were just copies of the proto types!

 

As for if it's illegal to be selling these, I ask this... If I buy the original Proto type and choose to make copies of it and sell them with all knowing that they are just copies, isn't that my choice? Am I not the owner of the original Proto type now??? I can understand if I buy a Songbird game and try to copy and sell it, that I am doing something illegal, but what about If I am the owner of the Proto type???

 

It's also a shame that we pissed off CPUWIZ, because I would have enjoyed trying the emulations of the games (which is also a legality issue which WE ALL do)!

 

To Quote the Al’s about emulations:

Is it legal?

Yes and no. The emulators themselves are legal, as they are simply reverse engineered hardware. ROMs are another issue. If you do not own the actual game cartridge itself, you probably are not legally entitled to own the ROM. In the case of Atari games, nobody seems to care because they are so old.

 

PLEASE!!! Understand that no toe stomping is intended in what I have said!!!

[CPUWIZ]

Cheers Videology !

 

For the rest of you who either hide or have bad things to say:

 

Think of me the next time you play one of the SNES, Genesis or TGFX16 ROM's that I programmed !

[Pie]

I don't see that this is all that bad. Firstly the games are abandon ware, as Atari is no longer here to support them, and even if Atari still produced games, they wouldn't be selling Lynx games, and so no one would be depriving them of profit.

Secondly the games are prototypes, which would never have made money anyway. Passing off copies for the prototypes themselves would be wrong, but simply selling on copies as copies means that people can play the games on the Lynx and not on an emulator.

[Nimtene]

I can understand the logic behind making copies of real

prototyped games such as AvP, that never made it to the

market. There are many people that might want to try it,

but it is not avaliable to buy anywhere else.

 

But does anyone else here realize that Double Dragon

for the Lynx is not a prototype? It was a general release.

It can be purchased from Telegames, or various other

Lynx retailers.

 

You all saying that it's alright to copy a 'commercially

avaliable' game onto a new board, and resale it?

[ren.dhark]

I saw this auction come up for bid on Ebay.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...item=1363488531.

 

The highest bid came from a guy in Germany. He is now selling this cart in Germany at ebay.de.

 

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewIt...item=2037442027

 

Part of the description is "I payed US$ 600 for it".

 

Günther

[CPUWIZ]

Haha,

 

dead funny - he didn't even pay for it yet

[MattyXB]

Bad thing, I have bid, but now I have cancle my bid. He can't have it yet, and lied what he pay.

And this is no real Prototype, so I have cancle my bid.

[CPUWIZ]

Sehr schlau Matty, der hat mich noch nicht bezahlt und hat die Auktion Regeln nicht gelesen. Er versucht meine Bank Information zu bekommen um das Geld zu ueberweisen aber die info gebe Ich nicht raus. Vielleicht kannst Du ja mal die anderen Leute warnen.

 

Bis spaeter

[CPUWIZ]

Hehe, it get's better, the high bidder on that auction is the name of the guy who won it. How stupid could you possibly be ?

 

Definately needs to be added to everyone's blocked bidder list !

[MattyXB]

He stop now the auction and mean, he has not know, that this is not a Prototype. He also mean, that his english is so bad, that he has not understand all from the english text.

 

But how can he put in on ebay, when he has not get it yet.

 

So a bit strange is it all, but it sound like a good ebayer at all.

If you look at his feedback is all great.

[bergbros]

That Phantasy Star can apologize nine times til doomsday, however, his auction would never have been pulled if an alert and conscietious Atariager did not flag it and notify the community. This whole mess just points out what Nimtene and others have said before although I could not believe how extreme the depths of stupidity of the buyer turned overly enthusiatic seller. This guy could not even understand English, yet overbid and then thought he got the real deal on the auction and tried to sell it and made some bold faced lies in his description. This points out again that the sellers are having a field day on Ebay as they can always count on some ill-informed people out there to place some outrageous bids. How many times have you seen a "Rare" California Games or Power Factor on Ebay? Battlewheels carts are now coming out of the woodwork as the word comes out that it is Rare. Videology is right and as I said before there is nothing wrong with making a profit. However, these repro auctions, especially reproductions from games THAT ARE STILL LICENSED AND CURRENTLY SOLD are questionable, shady, self-interested ventures and no amount of posturing on how selfless you are to the Atari community will change that.