Sequel to Donkey Kong arcade?

[Bones Brigade]

A Harmony 2 cart with a built in pokey slot like the CC2 has would be great. I have no idea if Batari will ever release it since he hasn't said anything about it in ages. Otherwise no one really wants to front the huge upfront cost for a new pcb which includes a pokey slot unless you mean you were willing to do it.

From what I understand, the H2 won't need actual Pokey chips, because the plan is to emulate Pokey in the FPGA itself like they did with the Pitfall II DPC chip in the original Harmony.

[GroovyBee]

No need to be condescending. It was done one for the 2600, so I'm having difficulty with the idea that it's impossible or unfeasible for the 7800.

 

I wasn't being condescending. If you want something done and you don't have the skills needed then you have to find people who do have those skills and bring them together in a team or you learn the skills that you lack. In the real world you'd pay market rates and get on with the project. In the retro world you have to find people who share your vision and passion for the project because its all done on a shoe string and for the love of the hobby. If its not done for the passion then the end product will end up too costly because of the economies of scale.

 

When you start looking within a niche community your pool of available talent is much smaller than normal. People who can "do it" are, more often than not, busy with their own team projects or personal projects they already deem beneficial to the platforms they like working on. Getting a "look in" with those people may take some time and then they might not be interested in your project.

 

You might be very lucky and find people who "want to have a go" but might need to learn new stuff along the way. Projects can succeed that way too.

[Jaynz]

Groovy, how new to this do you really think I am?

 

Besides, let me call this out then. Can you tell me, right now, what the current hold up with the XM is, and why there hasn't been any communication to his buyers (yes, guys who paid money) for over a month now (and even that last one was "I've been sick")? You want to denigrate Best for "getting them out of tubes and putting them in your delivery box" yet my only question was how viable it would be to make carts using them - nothing more than that - because the XM really doesn't seem to be coming.

 

Even if it IS coming, does it really make sense to be on hold indefinately for people who are losing interest in homebrewing because the hobby is effectively 'on hold' for it? I don't see why you feel the need to denigrate anyone looking for alternatives when confronted with the very real prospect that the XM just ain't gonna be there.

[GroovyBee]

Besides, let me call this out then. Can you tell me, right now, what the current hold up with the XM is

 

The XM status page is the official place to get information.

[Jaynz]

So... no, then.

[Jinks]

Just checked said oct 12 last update.. Curt's weekly update not coming thru. At least Mark is not hiding/lying to us.

I think it will be done some day/year but not soon.

To ask about when the projected date would be is a bad thing as it always falls thru due to unexpected problems..

How about a estimated idea based on what you know about the XM Mark? Like I am saying first half of 2013?

I know projects take time but if us investors in your endevours have some slight communication it would give us a better understanding as why things take as long as they do.

Curt did say after the book. 100% XM time..?? So this last sentence is BS??

[Jinks]

Curt always hides and comes on here after things go to a boil from the lack of respect to his customers and then wonders why.. Maybe you guys are smart as hell but that quaility alone does not make a great businessman..So for crap sake please stop jerking us all around..

[gorfcadet]

nm

Edited November 14, 2012 by gorfcadet

[Jinks]

Yeah thats right gorfcadet I maybe a little to frank/assholish.. I also know that the XM is probably the largest/complex homebrew project to date. The whole not keeping updates is what baffles me.

I prepaid Boulderdash and they had delays from their projected release date by something like 6 or more months. But they kept everyone in the know and there was very little unrest... Just too bad this XM can not be handled the same way.

Does Curt enjoy all this uneeded drama? I sure think it sucks... Maybe its what drives him for Vol two? Keep the remarks coming boys I am running outa script!!

[Jaynz]

Contacted Best about bulk orders for POKEY chips - they can fill a few hundred as needed, but they do not offer bulk discounts. $10 is pretty close to their margin. So, if a POKEY is going to be on a new 7800 board, there's $10 of the cost no matter what it looks like.

[sh3-rg]

Contacted Best about bulk orders for POKEY chips - they can fill a few hundred as needed, but they do not offer bulk discounts. $10 is pretty close to their margin. So, if a POKEY is going to be on a new 7800 board, there's $10 of the cost no matter what it looks like.

 

And now I expect Bones Brigade sees the point GB was attempting to make before he went off on his little rant about customer service nonsense. Maybe he will now take back all his emo "bad form" whining and STFU? Doubtful.

[fernando marrin]

Curt always hides and comes on here after things go to a boil from the lack of respect to his customers and then wonders why.. Maybe you guys are smart as hell but that quaility alone does not make a great businessman..So for crap sake please stop jerking us all around..

 

Curt's last update was basically : "NO updates,again"

[Bones Brigade]

 

 

And now I expect Bones Brigade sees the point GB was attempting to make before he went off on his little rant about customer service nonsense. Maybe he will now take back all his emo "bad form" whining and STFU? Doubtful.

Hardly. Jaynz confirmed that Best can actually deliver exactly what GB tried to claim they couldn't. Not only is he being rudely condescending to current and potential customers, but he's flat out lying about parts suppliers ability to deliver. The guy said that people who don't travel to the UK to go to tiny retro game shows aren't putting in enough "effort". WTF is that?

[GroovyBee]

Hardly. Jaynz confirmed that Best can actually deliver exactly what GB tried to claim they couldn't. Not only is he being rudely condescending to current and potential customers, but he's flat out lying about parts suppliers ability to deliver. The guy said that people who don't travel to the UK to go to tiny retro game shows aren't putting in enough "effort". WTF is that?

 

UnderBall you really crack me up. That is who you are isn't it? So 5000 people is a tiny show . This is the Saturday morning queue to Play Expo in October this year where the XM was at in the Indie/Retro section (some swearing so may not be safe for work) :-

 

[sh3-rg]

Hardly. Jaynz confirmed that Best can actually deliver exactly what GB tried to claim they couldn't.

 

He said no such thing. He advised you go check what ordering a large quantity would result in - and the response? No quantity discount, practically the same price per unit no matter how many you want.

 

The idea of having a Pokey in the XM is simple - you pay that $10 once for a Pokey and not every time you buy a game... 1 game $10... 10 games it's still $10, not $100. DO + THE = MATH.

 

The guy said that people who don't travel to the UK to go to tiny retro game shows aren't putting in enough "effort". WTF is that?

 

WTF it is seems to be you making stuff up and going off on one in a rather spectacular way for some reason only you could explain. Again, he said no such thing.

 

GB lives in England, UK. He took the proto XM to shows in England, Germany and France and demonstrated the unit and his software. BTW, I think you're getting well-respected and established European retro events confused with some of those back-room-of-a-pub-fests they have over here, again - your bad. XM was at ejagfest 2011, AC2012 and Re:Play 2012. Proper events attended by hundreds of people, in some cases for over a decade. Nobody stuck a huge wad of cash in GB's back pocket to put him on a plane/train to do this, he did it himself at his own cost. One trip consisted of 14 hours on the road/ferry, less that 2 hours sleep and late-night soldering session, just so he could show a room of Atari fans the XM. Anyone who has a problem with that can merrily slap a Kraft Cheese Single to their forehead and Keep On Trollin' as usual

 

[Jaynz]

Well, my purpose for the POKEY chips was for Harmony/Melody-style carts for homebrew games. A $10 markup for a homebrew that uses them doesn't seem to out of line for me. So the remaining question for my purposes is what would go into new 7800 carts with either 64K or 128K on board and POKEY. I'm actually struggling to find reasonable prices on RAM amounts that low. Anything under a meg these days is difficult to get a hold of...

[kenfused]

At the time I released the original Beef Drop, POKEY chips only went for around $5.00 each (even though I went the Ball Blazer recycling route). At one point I had a few hundred I bought on ebay for about half the $5.00 price . I eventually sold them all (at a profit) a few years later though when I hadn't used them and POKEYS were approaching the $7.00-$8.00 range. I can't remember the last time I have saw a lot come up on ebay. You can probably expect the price to continue to go up as they become more scarce over time.

[UberArcade]

I have Beef Drop VE on the 7800 and it I love it. I am sure the sound is better with the POKEY chip, but I don't see why everybody gets so worked up over those chips. I would rather just play Beef Drop VE without the POKEY sound and not have to wait on extra hardware, ordering special chips, or recycling other carts. This is an Atari 7800 afterall. If I want the true arcade experience I will play something else.