Is their a market for new games on old platforms?

[atarilux]

On 3/28/2022 at 11:36 PM, Gemintronic said:

It sounds like you're Atari oriented but willing to explore other platforms.  In that case, you might consider these two options:

 

https://lemonspawn.com/turbo-rascal-syntax-error-expected-but-begin/

 

https://8bit-unity.com/

 

Are there any licence restrictions on shipping games built with these tools?

[+Gemintronic]

4 hours ago, atarilux said:

 

Are there any licence restrictions on shipping games built with these tools?

 

Not that I know of.  8-bit Unity itself is GPL3.  TRSE hardly has any mention of licensing.  Some of its docs are CC0

 

The developers are. er, active so you may be able to catch them via Facebork or email to be sure.

[juansolo]

15 hours ago, atarilux said:

After a battle with my modern TV and the PAL switch on the 7800 I finally got it working this evening. I have to say the games that came with it suck, with Asteroid being the best. I need to buy some titles, or get something to the emulator I have. Any tips on excellent new titles would be welcome, it would be good to see what I may be up against.

All IMO of course:

 

OG Releases:

Asteroids
DigDug
Food Fight
Joust
Robotron 2084 (NTSC only)
Ms Pac-Man
Galaga
Pole Position II

 

Homebrew:
Rikki & Vikki (OOP, very expensive now)
Donkey Kong PK (Talk to Tep392)
Armor Attack II
B*nQ
T:ME Salvo
Froggie
Frenzy (Includes Berzerk)
Dungeon Stalker
Asteroids Deluxe (Includes Asteroids)
Astro Blaster
Moon Cresta
Pac-Man Collection
Space Invaders
Knight Guy in Low Res World

 

Complete but not yet released:
UniWarS
Galaxian
Penta
Popeye
Keystone Kapers
EXO

 

There’s loads of WIP stuff also (the forum and ZPH are your friends). 7800 has a lot of really good games.

Edited May 23, 2022 by juansolo

[BydoEmpire]

On 3/25/2022 at 4:41 PM, atarilux said:

I would not be looking to make a living from it, but making some money from having fun is a good thing. Also, I used to work in the software industry, so I'd quite enjoy such a challenge. 

You can make a little money, but it's a LOT of hours to see an unknown amount of money 6-9 months after your effort.  You'd likely make more per hour bagging groceries.

 

Let's say you sell 50 copies and you net $20 each.  How many hours will it take to get that game done and shippable, to the degree of quality that anyone wants to buy it? Maybe 200 hours, minimum?  That's not a great return. Then again, the hours are flexible, it's a heck of a lot of fun, and a good learning experience.  There are better ways to make money.

 

To answer your original question, there is very small, niche market.  People are overwhelmed with choices for games and other entertainment these days.  It's a small (but awesome) community that will spend $50+ on an Atari cartridge when you can go download AAA games for free pretty much every week.

Edited May 23, 2022 by BydoEmpire

[atarilux]

On 5/23/2022 at 12:51 PM, BydoEmpire said:

You can make a little money, but it's a LOT of hours to see an unknown amount of money 6-9 months after your effort.  You'd likely make more per hour bagging groceries.

 

Let's say you sell 50 copies and you net $20 each.  How many hours will it take to get that game done and shippable, to the degree of quality that anyone wants to buy it? Maybe 200 hours, minimum?  That's not a great return. Then again, the hours are flexible, it's a heck of a lot of fun, and a good learning experience.  There are better ways to make money.

 

To answer your original question, there is very small, niche market.  People are overwhelmed with choices for games and other entertainment these days.  It's a small (but awesome) community that will spend $50+ on an Atari cartridge when you can go download AAA games for free pretty much every week.

Thanks for your reply. I suspect per hour it is not a big money spinner. But it is more to have some fun, also I won't do just Atari versions. My plan is to do a basic game engine (probably in C) which can be used across platforms (hopefully also the 7800, although I have heard some warnings about the memory limit here). And then optimise graphics/sound for certain platforms but use the same overall level design. I don't want to end up with lowest common denominator graphics, but that looks like being a job for assembler.

 

The end result will hopefully be games for the XL, 7800, C64 and Spectum. I may explore a few others, but as they say one step and one platform at a time. The first being the 8-bit line, as the 7800 graphics system is slightly beyond my limit right now. Also going from 6502 to Z80 will also require some magical work

 

 

Edited June 14, 2022 by atarilux

[orange808]

FYI, 8 bit unity appears to be BSD. That most definitely is not GPL.

https://github.com/8bit-Dude/8bit-Unity/blob/main/LICENS

 

A nice clean choice. Copyleft licenses can be tricky business.

[The Usotsuki]

Yeah, I got turned off to GPL by a zealot 20 years ago, and now use UIUC as my preferred license.

[atarilux]

Things are now progressing,  as I have started in CC65. Anyway, now a question for potential end-users. Since I had my Atari back in the 80s, the storage devices have improved. We don't have to rely on such painfully slow devices as tape, the limited capacity of floppies or cartridges. Devices such as Side 3 and Fujinet allow us to provide a solution with many more loadable options. e.g. levels etc than could ever have been dreamed of on tape or floppy etc. So my question is, should I write the game with these in mind? For example having many more levels etc that can be loaded from SDCard or should I stick with the initial limits? There could be different versions, but that also increases work. What would you prefer?

Edited June 15, 2022 by atarilux

[atarilux]

18 hours ago, orange808 said:

FYI, 8 bit unity appears to be BSD. That most definitely is not GPL.

https://github.com/8bit-Dude/8bit-Unity/blob/main/LICENS

 

A nice clean choice. Copyleft licenses can be tricky business.

 

Thanks I may look at this as well, for now though I have embarked on CC65. I would be interested to know what experiences people have of using it on here?

Edited June 15, 2022 by atarilux