Clock Posted September 10, 2003 Share Posted September 10, 2003 If eproms suffer from bit rot - then surely homebrews & prototypes make a bad investment for the collector in the long term. As a lot of people buy them, I guess they dissagree or just haven't thought of it like that. Has anyone else thought of this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phosphor Dot Fossils Posted September 10, 2003 Share Posted September 10, 2003 Not really, we just want to play some new games on our old hardware. Is that so wrong? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted September 10, 2003 Share Posted September 10, 2003 If eproms suffer from bit rot - then surely homebrews & prototypes make a bad investment for the collector in the long term. As a lot of people buy them' date=' I guess they dissagree or just haven't thought of it like that. Has anyone else thought of this?[/quote'] NO storage medium is permanent. They all suffer from various degrees of degradation. I have a 1976 handmade computer with EPROMs with the BIOS burned on 'em. Still works fine. That's nearly 30 years. I think this bitrot paranoia is a bit of... rot. If you think collecting is about "investment" then I think you have your head in the sand. Collecting is about the hunt! And if you're buying the games for investment, then you really are talking about a much shorter turnover period than the likely lifespan of any EPROMs you might come across. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cupcakus Posted September 10, 2003 Share Posted September 10, 2003 Imagine if in 10 years you have the only Thrust+ that hasn't died from bit rot, you could sell it for tons! So it's only a bad investment if yours is the first to go :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chadivision Posted September 10, 2003 Share Posted September 10, 2003 Since most of the games are $20 to $30, you can hardly complain if you get a decade of so out of them (which is a fairly conservative number from what I have heard). The other thing to consider is that as long as people are still into collecting, someone is still going to be making carts. Unless the original programmer decides to stop granting permission to make the carts, but that 's probably not very likely to happen. I think that your best option is to buy 10 copies of every homebrew available (or 100 copies in the case of Backfire, but I might be a little biased) to increase your odds of having a working copy at all times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sku_u Posted September 10, 2003 Share Posted September 10, 2003 In short, homebrews are an excellent investment in gaming. I love opening a *new* game and popping it into one of my systems. The fact of the matter is most homebrews are very enjoyable games. Don't collect them to turn a profit, it'll bit you in the ass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atarius Maximus Posted September 10, 2003 Share Posted September 10, 2003 If your EPROM game stops working, couldn't you just have someone (like AA) just erase it and redo it with a fresh image of the game? As long as the ROMs are available, you can make your cart last forever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted September 10, 2003 Share Posted September 10, 2003 If your EPROM game stops working' date=' couldn't you just have someone (like AA) just erase it and redo it with a fresh image of the game? As long as the ROMs are available, you can make your cart last forever. [/quote'] Exactly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JB Posted September 10, 2003 Share Posted September 10, 2003 If your EPROM game stops working' date=' couldn't you just have someone (like AA) just erase it and redo it with a fresh image of the game? As long as the ROMs are available, you can make your cart last forever. [/quote']Or get an EPROM burner and do it yourself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cschell Posted September 10, 2003 Share Posted September 10, 2003 If this is really a concern of yours, I suggest not buying any modern electronics. A lot of modern electronics are made with flash or eeprom based parts, and all of these have a limited lifetime as well. Or at least wait until later in product life cycles when enough bugs have been removed that everything has gone to mask to reduce costs. And if we want to talk gaming in general, the disc mechanisms of modern gaming systems are likely to wear out long before the eeproms in the homebrews start to fail, so all modern games are an even worse investment. But I agree with the rest. Buy toys for fun, not as an investment. Chad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Player Posted September 10, 2003 Share Posted September 10, 2003 Homebrews are for playing. Stocks, bonds and mutual funds are for investing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JB Posted September 10, 2003 Share Posted September 10, 2003 And if we want to talk gaming in general' date=' the disc mechanisms of modern gaming systems are likely to wear out long before the eeproms in the homebrews start to fail, so all modern games are an even worse investment. [/quote']Dang moving parts. And cheap parts too! (conclusion reached after realizing that there's still a lower failure rate among SegaCDs than PlayStaitons) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liveinabin Posted September 10, 2003 Share Posted September 10, 2003 You could get run over by a bus tomorrow, go on, buy a homebrew:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted September 10, 2003 Share Posted September 10, 2003 You could get run over by a bus tomorrow' date=' go on, buy a homebrew:)[/quote']No, buy all homebrews! Or at least mine... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariDude Posted September 10, 2003 Share Posted September 10, 2003 Homebrews tend to be quite good and it is fun to play with a new game that has some original thought as opposed to a constant rehashing of the same idea over and over again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clock Posted September 10, 2003 Author Share Posted September 10, 2003 I agree, we should all play with our toys. But so far everyone is talking about homebrews, but what about half finished games that were put on cart which people pay lots for when they can buy the completed game for much much less. Is that a good investment? Because you don't pay big bucks to play a half finished game when you can play the full version for a tenth of the price. Now that is just bought for the collection/investment. I posted this topic after seeing that Spyhunter cart on the eBay forum. I ask this as a person who does not have any prototypes or homebrews, just normal released (and some pirates) carts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chadivision Posted September 10, 2003 Share Posted September 10, 2003 Does this mean that I shouldn't refer to my Atari collection as my "portfolio"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keir Posted September 10, 2003 Share Posted September 10, 2003 Imagine if in 10 years you have the only Thrust+ that hasn't died from bit rot' date=' you could sell it for tons![/quote']Have you read the bottom of the Thrust+ Platinum box? :wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted September 10, 2003 Share Posted September 10, 2003 [deleted] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nesman85 Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 but what about half finished games that were put on cart which people pay lots for when they can buy the completed game for much much less. Is that a good investment? Because you don't pay big bucks to play a half finished game when you can play the full version for a tenth of the price. Now that is just bought for the collection/investment. colleting and investing are completely different. some collector's have no intent to ever sell their collections, others buy stuff specifically to sell it later on. yes, you're right, people don't pay tons of money to play half-finished games, they buy them to own a one of a kind (or few of a kind) collectible and maybe get some enjoyment out of comparing it to the released version too. others spend thousands on protos just to dump them and let everyone play them because that is what makes them happy. as an investment though, i think protos are a good idea because there are so few of them for each game... very little supply, if mixed with high demand the prices will sky rocket. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sylentwulf Posted September 13, 2003 Share Posted September 13, 2003 Hard-Software (as I like to call it) like Eproms, will last longer than pretty much any other form of software out there. The CD and DVD media supposedly last for 100+ years, but come on... I keep mine IMMACULATE, and they still seem to degrade after 5-10 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
san-d-2000 Posted September 13, 2003 Share Posted September 13, 2003 If you want to make money, there are better ways than starting an Atari 2600 collection. The fact some people spend lots of $$ on collecting is just because they love Atari, not because they want to invest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homerwannabee Posted September 13, 2003 Share Posted September 13, 2003 I would say if your looking to make money on homebrews in the future, this would probably be a bad investment. The main reason is that people will be making homebrews for atari 2600 for eternity, even if there are only 100 made for the system, you have to realize that there could eventually be over a thosand homebrew games that only have 100 made. Best bet is just to invest in the "original stuff" . If you mean invest as far as getting your moneys worth in play value than it is a major yes . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Slocum Posted September 13, 2003 Share Posted September 13, 2003 Some of the limited edition homebrews have turned out to be pretty good investments like the Cuttle Cart and Venture II. And from Fish's auctions, it appears that most homebrews at least retain their original value. But if homebrew bitrot does someday become a big issue, the classic gaming community is very resourceful, and I'm sure someone will come up with a solution. I believe it should be pretty easy to design a clip on adapter for an EPROM programmer to reprogram EPROMs in place without desoldering (in some cases 2-3 pins might have to be cut and resoldered). -Paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted September 13, 2003 Share Posted September 13, 2003 I believe it should be pretty easy to design a clip on adapter for an EPROM programmer to reprogram EPROMs in place without desoldering (in some cases 2-3 pins might have to be cut and resoldered). -Paul I've made a clip-on adapter for EPROM's already, it's dead easy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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