Looks like Actionauts is ready

[lucifershalo]

well one is going to Belgium

[Albert]

Is the cart box a typical size? If it's smaller you can send them in plastic VHS cases, which are pretty much everywhere. They'll survive being banged around. All you have to do is cut the excess out in the middle, but it's worth it for me to send something and it get there in pristine condition.

It's a "normal' size 2600 box--the same size as Atari's own releases.

 

..Al

[Mayhem]

Any more than one going to the UK?

[Crazy Climber]

I ordered mine, it will look nice on my shelf Just think of Limited Atari games as "MAN" knick knacks Looks way better to me then some crappy ceramic unicorn or stupid beany baby

 

I do find it very silly that people complain about the price, look at boxed limited 2600 games like Looping, Entity, Save the Whales, Pick up and others that had 500 boxed copies made just a few years ago and are already pulling $100-$150+ per copy on Ebay, etc.. It's the same situation, they were just unreleased prototype games. Anybody who bought those games just to play is high on crack because they are not very fun. They bought (or are still buying) them as collector items. The quality of them was not that great either (cheap B&W manuals, flimsy boxes, DOA carts, etc..) Rob's price of $90 shipped for a well constructed collectible is MORE then fair since it is FAR LESS then what they will be selling for in 5 years, just wait and see

 

Anyways, thanks for the game Rob, I am looking forward to it

[rob fulop]

Any more than one going to the UK?

Yeah, yesterday was cool ... i received multiple orders from Australia, Japan, England, Germany, Brazil, Belgium, and even one from Egypt. I didn't realize that the international community is so into this stuff. Anyway, I took down the BUY NOW button this morning ... I can't take any more orders right now .. the first batch is way oversold at this point.

[tjb]

<rant>I personally don't think the $90 is particularly high. I've ordered my copy and will be more than happy to pick up a copy that was reserved for someone who felt the price was too high. Come on, the package includes a box, manual, original design documentation, not to mention each is signed/numbered. If all that isn't worth the money there is a personalized note as well! If this isn't a collector's item I don't know what is. Let's be honest here. As I'm sure Al can attest to, building carts is no easy task. I seriously doubt that even if he sells 300 copies it is not worth his time from a financial standpoint. This doesn't even consider the fact that not only is he responsible for the materials, production, and shipping but he also designed and programmed it!</rant>

 

Ok, I'll step down from my soapbox now.

 

tjb

[homerwannabee]

Any more than one going to the UK?

Yeah, yesterday was cool ... i received multiple orders from Australia, Japan, England, Germany, Brazil, Belgium, and even one from Egypt. I didn't realize that the international community is so into this stuff. Anyway, I took down the BUY NOW button this morning ... I can't take any more orders right now .. the first batch is way oversold at this point.

Glad to see you had the last laugh. The negative members of this community are a small minority, but unfortunately they are extremely vocal and quite often present a perspective of the community that is quite often not the case.

[+swlovinist]

To respect the community, I will honor what my friend Lord Thag said and keep this post civil. If someone wants to post that they are not getting a game due to a high cost, they have that right. I am in the boat with Lord Thag and others...$90 to me is more than I wanted to spend. I respect the decisions made to make the game available at $90 and this is not a flame towards anyone including Rob. The people who decide to buy the cart at $90 arent "rich collector snobs". The people who decide to not buy the cart and express themselves arent "cheap asses". I have said this before, people collect for different reasons, and have variable budgets.

[DreamTR]

I am still shocked by all this fuss over the cart.

 

Do you go into a Ferrari dealership and argue about the price not being the same as the Honda Civic because the Civic is a better car, better gas mileage, etc, but the Ferrari is for showing off, etc?

 

Some people will be able to buy it, some people won't. People collect for different reasons, and a lot of people are not even going to play this cart.

 

Was everyone arguing when Venture II collector's editions shot up tenfold?

 

Seriously. I want to see people go to the store and argue games that get released (like Jumper) that start at $39.99 and really should be $19.99, but aren't. It's a supply/demand thing here. Rob Fulop's product is going to sell regardless. If you don't like the guy, don't buy this game, simple as that. Someone else will. If you want to buy it and put it aside thinking it will blossom like Cubicolor did, that's your call, but if his product was not selling at $89.99, he would have to lower the price, but anyone who knows this community and all the hype people put behind old programmers, especially one who has been hyped liked Rob Fulop has, knew this was going to sell regardless.

 

I'm not taking anyone's sides here. I don't agree with things from both sides of the equation here, but it's still a product that was going to sell regardless of price.

[StanJr]

Not having $90 to buy Actionauts does not make someone negative. I don't have $90 for Actionauts, but I'm not negative about it. I think it is great, particularly since Rob has very clearly identified that he is selling a "collector's item" and not a game. I think this is a smart move by Rob and I wish him nothing but success. By the response it looks like he is well on his way to selling out. This is great! It puts a really unique piece of Atari history into the hands of 250 people who are going to appreciate it for what it is. How can anyone be negative about that?

 

I'll definitely be checking out the ROM when it is released.

 

 

[rob fulop]

To respect the community, I will honor what my friend Lord Thag said and keep this post civil. If someone wants to post that they are not getting a game due to a high cost, they have that right. I am in the boat with Lord Thag and others...$90 to me is more than I wanted to spend. I respect the decisions made to make the game available at $90 and this is not a flame towards anyone including Rob. The people who decide to buy the cart at $90 arent "rich collector snobs". The people who decide to not buy the cart and express themselves arent "cheap asses". I have said this before, people collect for different reasons, and have variable budgets.

Yippee .. somebody "gets it"!!!! Well said, sir ... finally! Basically I'm serving vegan food here ... and a carnivore like yourself is probably best advised to go have dinner at the Sizzler next door. I can pretty much promise that won't like what's on my menu, and will not wish to pay the price of organic produce. Not to mention, the Sizzler salad bar provides a much better value to you .. PLUS you get steak .. not to mention cheese toast.

 

Now that said, what I really don't understand is that sure, you have the absolute right to walk into my vegan cafe and loudly announce that you prefer dining at the Sizzler. But why bother? Seriously. It was duly noted and put on the record that you prefer the restaurant next door.

[Lord Thag]

Yippee .. somebody "gets it"!!!! Well said, sir ... finally! Basically I'm serving vegan food here ... and a carnivore like yourself is probably best advised to go have dinner at the Sizzler next door. I can pretty much promise that won't like what's on my menu, and will not wish to pay the price of organic produce. Not to mention, the Sizzler salad bar provides a much better value to you .. PLUS you get steak .. not to mention cheese toast.

 

Now that said, what I really don't understand is that sure, you have the absolute right to walk into my vegan cafe and loudly announce that you prefer dining at the Sizzler. But why bother? Seriously. It was duly noted and put on the record that you prefer the restaurant next door.

 

I said pretty much the same thing initially. The reason I 'walked into the restaurant', as you put it, was because there were a couple of rude posts from the 'sizzler' side of the fence prior to mine. I wanted to state that view in a polite, respectful fashion to keep this thread from turning into the last one, which I found to be an embarassment to the community as a whole. Swlovinist is right, there are no real sides here, just different tastes.

 

I am glad your game is selling as well as it is. Hopefully, it will encourage more folks from the era to do something similar. Thanks for taking the time to do what you've done, I know a lot of people here appreciated it.

[godzillajoe]

So this is a fully tested and playable game right?

 

I'm not of the "I need everything ever" camp just for the sake of having it

 

I did sign up for it but am having second thoughts after the "I don't want people to be disappointed about gameplay" comment

 

Nothing to do with price either.

 

I'm sure half of the buyers will try to recoup their investment on eBay in a couple of years anyway

 

That's how these things work

Edited April 13, 2008 by godzillajoe

[Mirage]

Yippee .. somebody "gets it"!!!! Well said, sir ... finally! Basically I'm serving vegan food here ... and a carnivore like yourself is probably best advised to go have dinner at the Sizzler next door. I can pretty much promise that won't like what's on my menu, and will not wish to pay the price of organic produce. Not to mention, the Sizzler salad bar provides a much better value to you .. PLUS you get steak .. not to mention cheese toast.

 

Now that said, what I really don't understand is that sure, you have the absolute right to walk into my vegan cafe and loudly announce that you prefer dining at the Sizzler. But why bother? Seriously. It was duly noted and put on the record that you prefer the restaurant next door.

 

I said pretty much the same thing initially. The reason I 'walked into the restaurant', as you put it, was because there were a couple of rude posts from the 'sizzler' side of the fence prior to mine. I wanted to state that view in a polite, respectful fashion to keep this thread from turning into the last one, which I found to be an embarassment to the community as a whole. Swlovinist is right, there are no real sides here, just different tastes.

 

I am glad your game is selling as well as it is. Hopefully, it will encourage more folks from the era to do something similar. Thanks for taking the time to do what you've done, I know a lot of people here appreciated it.

 

I think quite a few people (including myself) had said the same exact thing, even in the last thread. I even tried to say it in my very first post. It was finding an acceptable way of saying it that wasn't too offensive, apparently. Previously there were a few rude and condecending comments (EDIT: comments that were _taken_ as rude and/or condescending, whether that was their intent or not, which it probably was not) on _both_ sides of the fence by a number of people, unfortunately. That's where it started to go downhill fast. Hopefully now that it's been worded in an acceptable fashion a couple times, everyone can leave it at that. It doesn't really seem like most people disagree about this, with the exception of a couple whiny ridiculous people who feel that this is somehow "ruining" the hobby for them. To that opinion, whatever. If someone doesn't want to buy it at that price, don't. That's really what it boils down to. Those people have no "right" whatsoever to anything. They're damn damn lucky that they'll maybe get the rom to play, as no one is even entitled to that.

Edited April 13, 2008 by Mirage1972

[ATARIPITBULL]

Well I just got surprised! I put my name on the list just a little while ago and got my letter yesterday that I have a copy waiting for me. I can't wait to get it and try this out.

 

[supercat]

So this is a fully tested and playable game right?

 

The game is refined to the point that it should be worth playing. I don't think that it has $70 worth of play value, or even $40 for that matter, but it has some.

 

I would say that Actionauts would be perfectly respectable as a "new" game release with a few minor changes:

 

-1- Make the user interface a little more convenient (e.g. don't always have the robot default to the slowest speed).

 

-2- Add more levels, for a total of about 24-50, and get rid of most of the trivially easy levels and probably the 'goofy' level as well.

 

-3- Either make the robot's bullets do something, or eliminate them entirely.

 

I took Rob Fulup's original code, fixed a couple of user-interface bugs, and added some interesting new levels to show that the engine itself had everything necessary to offer up a real challenge (all of the original levels were pretty trivial).

 

I did not fix the user interface (outside of bug fixes), and nor did I alter most of the original levels (outside of patching the 'goofy' one only enough to make it solvable, and the stupidly easy one enough to offer at least some challenge). I also did not change the behavior of the robot bullets. Were this cart intended as a 'new game' release, I would have done those things, but they would have greatly shifted the cart away from being a Rob Fulup creation.

[rob fulop]

So this is a fully tested and playable game right?

 

I'm not of the "I need everything ever" camp just for the sake of having it

 

I did sign up for it but am having second thoughts after the "I don't want people to be disappointed about gameplay" comment

 

Nothing to do with price either.

 

I'm sure half of the buyers will try to recoup their investment on eBay in a couple of years anyway

 

That's how these things work

Since no more are available right now anyway .. you would be advised to wait for the reviews from people who purchased a copy. The last thing I want is a disappointed customer, especially at this price point. I'm also going to be releasing the binary image after the carts are gone ... and we all know that somebody is going to beat me to it anyway and release the binary without my permission .. so I'd much prefer you to wait and see, before making your decision. I think the people who purchased the game so far are not looking at this as much as a "game" .. but more as a collectible ... a previously unreleased fragment of Stella history.

[+Nathan Strum]

Yippee .. somebody "gets it"!!!! Well said, sir ... finally! Basically I'm serving vegan food here ... and a carnivore like yourself is probably best advised to go have dinner at the Sizzler next door.

The Sizzler? No way man... real carnivores eat here.

 

Anyway, congratulations on finding enough collectors to make your endeavor worthwhile.

Edited April 13, 2008 by Nathan Strum

[supercat]

It doesn't really seem like most people disagree about this, with the exception of a couple whiny ridiculous people who feel that this is somehow "ruining" the hobby for them.

 

I would expect those on the 'buying' side of the fence will probably see most things that drive up game prices as detrimental to the hobby. An understandable viewpoint, though not necessarily entirely accurate.

 

In this market, as in most others, rising prices will cause more people to produce goods to sell. Obviously if prices rise so much that a would-be buyer can't afford anything, the presence of more sellers won't help the "buyer". On the other hand, if the price increase is large enough to attract good quality producers, but small enough that the buyer can still afford some product, the buyer may find the increased quality worth the higher price.

 

Given that N.E.R.D.S. and The Last Ninja seem to have made some money for their producers despite being total garbage, I suspect that many AtariAge games are really underpriced. I would guess that many programmers would spend more time on 2600 development (and thus produce games a lot faster) if there were more financial incentive to do so; some might regard such a thought as 'ruinous' to the hobby, but I think it would in fact be beneficial toward it.

[Elw00d]

Rob,

 

I would like to think that the people that have purchased the game so far won't dump the rom. If somone does dump it and put it on the web, shame on them. Anyways, thanks for making this.

 

El

 

 

So this is a fully tested and playable game right?

 

I'm not of the "I need everything ever" camp just for the sake of having it

 

I did sign up for it but am having second thoughts after the "I don't want people to be disappointed about gameplay" comment

 

Nothing to do with price either.

 

I'm sure half of the buyers will try to recoup their investment on eBay in a couple of years anyway

 

That's how these things work

Since no more are available right now anyway .. you would be advised to wait for the reviews from people who purchased a copy. The last thing I want is a disappointed customer, especially at this price point. I'm also going to be releasing the binary image after the carts are gone ... and we all know that somebody is going to beat me to it anyway and release the binary without my permission .. so I'd much prefer you to wait and see, before making your decision. I think the people who purchased the game so far are not looking at this as much as a "game" .. but more as a collectible ... a previously unreleased fragment of Stella history.

Edited April 13, 2008 by Elw00d

[+Nathan Strum]

Given that N.E.R.D.S. and The Last Ninja seem to have made some money for their producers despite being total garbage, I suspect that many AtariAge games are really underpriced. I would guess that many programmers would spend more time on 2600 development (and thus produce games a lot faster) if there were more financial incentive to do so; some might regard such a thought as 'ruinous' to the hobby, but I think it would in fact be beneficial toward it.

By giving more people incentive to produce "total garbage"?

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Given that N.E.R.D.S. and The Last Ninja seem to have made some money for their producers despite being total garbage, I suspect that many AtariAge games are really underpriced.

Maybe.

 

But IMO those two games prove that collectors buy anything at almost any price. Which is definitely not encouraging to those who prefer quality games over nice packaging.

 

I suppose we will see more and more crap games or hacks sold way overpriced soon. Not exactly a bright future for dedicated homebrewers.

[supercat]

By giving more people incentive to produce "total garbage"?

 

I was thinking of maybe suggesting that a piece of 100% assembly pure genius gaming satisfaction might be worth more than $20-$25.

 

While I can certainly grant that relatively-uniform $20-$25 pricing is nice and simple, there really is a huge range in the quality of games in the AA store. I would consider Thrust+ to be fully worth the $35 price even without the box, because it is such a great game. Likewise Ladybug and a few other titles. If people are willing to spend significant money on garbage, I would hope they'd be no less willing to spend similar money on quality.

[supercat]

I suppose we will see more and more crap games or hacks sold way overpriced soon. Not exactly a bright future for dedicated homebrewers.

 

Experience with those games has, I think, introduced what's probably a healthy 'caveat emptor' attitude, particularly with regard to secret projects.

 

Hopefully people know me well enough to know that I am not one to produce junk. I would have liked to have had a chance to test out my levels on a variety of people, and would certainly hope to do so if there's an Actionauts II, but there's a lot more "there" there than was the case with NERDS or TLN.

[Sayton]

Well, I have my name on the list, but with current events I probably CAN NOT buy the game UNLESS I'm able to get one when that govt check comes next month.

 

My wife was unable to find a job (she NEEDS certain hours). I was sent to the hospital just TWO DAYS ago for low potassium levels...and seeing as how I'm the ONLY income in a family of four, I SERIOUSLY don't see $90 for an Atari 2600 being sent just anytime soon.

 

Do I still want this game? You bet! But with things in my life just getting WORSE and now I have even MORE stuff to pay off...I don't think I need to spend money on video games. Again, when we receive that "economy boosting" check next month, if a copy is still available, yes I'll get mine. Sadly, again, with things going from bad to worse, I'm sorry but I can not purchase the game right now.