Opry99er Posted November 23, 2018 Share Posted November 23, 2018 I was wondering: how many fully-packaged homebrews have been produced since the end of the Triton era (1990-ish)? Let's define "fully packaged" first. 1) Physical release on cartridge/disk/cassette 2) Shipped with a manual 3) Had some sort of case (box, bag, sleeve) These don't have to be games-- they can be utilities or artwork as well (such as Disk of Dinosaurs by Gilliand). I am curious about this for a number of reasons, not the least of which is a collector's interest. I am also interested because I am duplicating my Markus of Marinus game right now and am packaging it to the hilt. I just don't see much of that these days, in the era of digital media and emulators. Maybe schmitzi has a list I'm not familiar with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Vorticon Posted November 23, 2018 Share Posted November 23, 2018 The Legends series come to mind although they came in a plastic bag (bought my copies at one of the Chicago Faires in the mid 90's. In more recent times I can only think of Tursi's Mr. Chin which was a full package with a proper box. I would love to see more packaged releases in the future. While they are expensive to produce and might cost $50 to $60 per unit to sell, this would be very similar to what we used to pay for new software back in the 80's without even accounting for inflation. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted November 23, 2018 Author Share Posted November 23, 2018 Agreed. Excellent points, Vorticon. However, I don't believe the Legends games qualify under the stipulations... they were produced pre-1990 and were packaged and shipped by a publishing house (Asgard). To me, that doesn't constitute a "homebrew" as we understand it today. The bag part is fine, as it counts in my above stipulations as "casing." -I think the EKMELSOFT "Search for Bigfoot" is one -Mr. Chin by Tursi for sure. -Lemonade Stand, Werewolves & Wanderers, Markus of Marinus (Oprysoft homebrews) -Max Marvin's Great Escape by DSAPSC (I believe shipped with a manual, but I can't remember for sure.) -I know we spoke briefly at the Faire about this Vorticon, but didn't Panzer Strike come with a label, manual, and poly bag? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Vorticon Posted November 23, 2018 Share Posted November 23, 2018 No bag for Panzer Strike Sorry missed your games, of which I have original copies of each! While bags are fine though, there is nothing like a real box to complete the experience... I think the main barrier would be the upfront cost of creating a boxed package without the guarantee of complete sale of the inventory. But that could be addressed by having buyers prepay for the product and thus bootstrap the production costs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ti99iuc Posted November 23, 2018 Share Posted November 23, 2018 (edited) I also remember that the cartridge like Tex Turbo from Marc Hull was shipped with a manual. and i can confirm that Max Marvin's Great Escape had a manual on paper too. I also printed and sold some manuals for other games, for example Breakfree and some Rasmus games. Edited November 23, 2018 by ti99iuc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted November 23, 2018 Author Share Posted November 23, 2018 No bag for Panzer Strike Sorry missed your games, of which I have original copies of each! While bags are fine though, there is nothing like a real box to complete the experience... I think the main barrier would be the upfront cost of creating a boxed package without the guarantee of complete sale of the inventory. But that could be addressed by having buyers prepay for the product and thus bootstrap the production costs. Wasn't your disk sleeve labeled? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Vorticon Posted November 23, 2018 Share Posted November 23, 2018 No. Just a standard sleeve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+FarmerPotato Posted November 23, 2018 Share Posted November 23, 2018 I was wondering: how many fully-packaged homebrews have been produced since the end of the Triton era (1990-ish)? Let's define "fully packaged" first. 1) Physical release on cartridge/disk/cassette 2) Shipped with a manual 3) Had some sort of case (box, bag, sleeve) These don't have to be games-- they can be utilities or artwork as well (such as Disk of Dinosaurs by Gilliand). I am curious about this for a number of reasons, not the least of which is a collector's interest. I am also interested because I am duplicating my Markus of Marinus game right now and am packaging it to the hilt. I just don't see much of that these days, in the era of digital media and emulators. Maybe schmitzi has a list I'm not familiar with. Packaging games was a bad deal for games studios and publishers by the mid 90s. A few distributors, a handful of catalog printing houses, and brick and mortar stores made the profits, leaving only a fraction of the street price to the publisher. Catalog houses like PCConnection/MacConnection might require 20,000 volume in warehouse and then sold (not returned or remaindered) before paying anything to the publisher. It was an environment geared to A-list million sellers. The situation didn't get much better with direct internet sales of boxes. Only downloadable, electronically unlocked copies made a difference to small publishers in the late 90s, as a majority got Internet. (and this model still piggybacked on CDROM magazines to get the demos out.) Packaging was something special, another opportunity to create art and artefact. If you can do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted November 23, 2018 Author Share Posted November 23, 2018 Yes. This is why it is fascinating to me to see those who put in the time and effort to do it. I have to remove Lemonade Stand from the "Fully Packaged" list because (while it did have a label and a manual) it did not come packaged inside any sort of container.... IIRC, I just rubber banded the disk to the manual. Sadly I don't have an original copy of Lemonade Stand. I think 15 or so were sold in total, and I gave away 5 or 6 more. Didn't think to keep one for myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted November 24, 2018 Share Posted November 24, 2018 No. Just a standard sleeve. Nice package though! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted November 24, 2018 Share Posted November 24, 2018 How about a Panzer Strike Diskette Sleeve? HOT OFF THE PRESS! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted November 24, 2018 Share Posted November 24, 2018 ... and this is what it looks like printed up, folded and glued for use... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted November 24, 2018 Share Posted November 24, 2018 I just paid $40 for Borzork. AtariAge offers a lot of its Atari homebrews with box upgrades for around $10. I would pay $10 for a box upgrade for TI releases. I would like to see more of the open-face style boxes in the traditional TI format with the manual showing through. This is my plan for my cartridge release, and I have thought about making up a limited run for Tiles on cassette. The limitation of that layout, however, is the plastic inserts which hold the cassette, cartridge, or disk. I imagine there are enough of those floating around to be useful, but maybe they could be replaced with a card-paper design, or even replicated cheaply. I am looking at ways to produce TI-alike manuals while I re-work my original GIMP template and make new templates in Publisher. If I cannot make them at home -- the size is a little odd -- then I might see if some print shops could do it. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+arcadeshopper Posted November 25, 2018 Share Posted November 25, 2018 I just paid $40 for Borzork. AtariAge offers a lot of its Atari homebrews with box upgrades for around $10. I would pay $10 for a box upgrade for TI releases. I would like to see more of the open-face style boxes in the traditional TI format with the manual showing through. This is my plan for my cartridge release, and I have thought about making up a limited run for Tiles on cassette. The limitation of that layout, however, is the plastic inserts which hold the cassette, cartridge, or disk. I imagine there are enough of those floating around to be useful, but maybe they could be replaced with a card-paper design, or even replicated cheaply. I am looking at ways to produce TI-alike manuals while I re-work my original GIMP template and make new templates in Publisher. If I cannot make them at home -- the size is a little odd -- then I might see if some print shops could do it. I have boxes.. I can offer you that upgrade for carts I have manuals for.. as long as the manuals are printed properly.. That's the trick.. they aren't 8.5x11 folded. more like 8x10 Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted November 25, 2018 Share Posted November 25, 2018 I have boxes.. I can offer you that upgrade for carts I have manuals for.. as long as the manuals are printed properly.. That's the trick.. they aren't 8.5x11 folded. more like 8x10 Greg Well, there we go! That gives me a little more incentive to get the manual templates done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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