Tips for 2600 game distribution / cartridge manufacturing?

[Fort Apocalypse]

Something I've wondered about but haven't dug into much is how to best distribute completed homebrew 2600 games. In order to get completed titles to the widest audience, what should I be doing?

 

Specifically, for those using the various multicarts like Harmony, Uno, etc.- are there certain places they would look other than the Atari 2600 Programming and Batari Basic forums in AtariAge?

 

Many years ago, I setup a site for my games and I notice some developers have their own sites to host games, but I realized that AtariAge may have more staying power, so I started just sharing things through topic threads in the Batari Basic forum.

 

However, with the VCS, etc. now, I feel like, if I ever do really complete a game one of these days and want to get it to a wider audience, I don't know how to do that through the proper channels.

 

I don't have a lot of budget- I have almost none for it currently- but in the future I might be willing to put in money to hopefully just get it back out at least (without making any net revenue). Given that, at what point should I consider having a cartridge manufactured? Or is there a store where I can distribute my games? Or should I just keep putting them into the Batari Basic forum?

 

I know others that put many more days or years into their games, and they would have a better chance than I would at getting any revenue from the games they write. I tend to just work on things as I feel like it and maybe it works or maybe it doesn't. So, I'm asking this mostly out of curiosity, but if there is a chance that I could get one or more games into more hands to play, even if they are given away for free, that would be nice.

 

Thanks!

Edited August 24, 2022 by Fort Apocalypse

[+Gemintronic]

I know this sounds like rabid fanboy-ing but I have yet to find an online storefront besides AtariAge that can do anything above 4k ROM reliably. 

 

Thingverse has 2600 cart shells you can print.  It does take some elbow grease to get them to look okay.

 

Labels can be made with a color laser and hobby cutting machine like the Cricut.  Hobby stores or even Office supply stores should have clear sticky backed sheets you can use for lamination.

[Fort Apocalypse]

3 hours ago, Gemintronic said:

I know this sounds like rabid fanboy-ing but I have yet to find an online storefront besides AtariAge that can do anything above 4k ROM reliably. 

 

Thingverse has 2600 cart shells you can print.  It does take some elbow grease to get them to look okay.

 

Labels can be made with a color laser and hobby cutting machine like the Cricut.  Hobby stores or even Office supply stores should have clear sticky backed sheets you can use for lamination.

Thanks for the advice about making cartridges! For carts, I wonder how much you have to buy/what you have to do to get them on AtariAge's storefront. I see that these are the prices for the games for the 2600 games currently on the storefront:

 

1 game priced at $20

51 priced at $25

53 priced at $30

19 priced at $35

1 priced at $40

2 priced at $45 (all of those 2 showcased currently in front of storefront)

6 priced at $50 (all of those 6 showcased currently in front of storefront)

2 priced at $60 (all of those 2 showcased currently in front of storefront)

 

I don't know if the game developer sets those prices or AtariAge. I don't know where the break-even is for how much it costs to get it on the storefront vs. that retail price.

 

As far as other storefronts go, it looks like itch.io has some titles for the 2600. I searched for 2600 and games tagged as atari-2600 and found some, though both contain some non-2600 games. Some linked to the AtariAge storefront for the cartridge version and many were listed as "name your own price" for the digital version, some also linking to AtariAge to buy a harmony cart. I noticed one was listed for $1 for the digital version. I didn't go through all of them, but there weren't as many as those listed on AtariAge.

 

I'd hoped that the VCS would provide an easier way to get things on the storefront for 2600 emulation, though I still think the VCS is pretty cool. I found some information for VCS content developers, but I think maybe they could provide a storefront for 2600 as well that we could easily submit games to in order to help close the gap, if they were to want to.

 

That's what I've found so far, at least. I've not looked a lot at it. Any ideas and info are welcome on this.

Edited August 24, 2022 by Fort Apocalypse

[+Gemintronic]

Itch .io only does digital.  Also, you need to be a business to receive payouts.  I suspect there's a sweet spot for digital downloads that I haven't found yet.  Small games get ignored and big games just get pirated.  You also need to keep active and producing new titles on Itch otherwise the games get buried and never seen.

 

If you want to offer physical copies without risking investing in bulk buys there are much easier consoles.  I'm thinking genesis and gameboy.  With the Gameboy one can even re-flash some Asian carts and put your game on them.

 

 

[Keatah]

I've long ago eschewed purchasing physical copies of games. Roms only.

[KevKelley]

I have been looking to make a physical release of my games but have not gotten there yet, only finishing one game. While some titles may be potential for AtariAge, I am not sure if they have a criteria for which games they do sell so I had looked into making my own as well. I figured it could be fun to learn. 
 

as a test I tried a couple carts - one Hoskins cart that I modified to fit a PCB and one 3D printed one off eBay. I had also made one off Thingiverse to compare. 
 

I had the PCB made with the ROM from one of the websites out there that offer the service (cannot recall at the moment). I also found a relatively affordable printer for labels that fit at least the eBay cartridge. 
 

For a 4k game, I think cost of everything may come down to between 15-20 dollars a cartridge. Granted these were one offs, I suppose the costs could go down if I burned the ROMs myself. 
 

These are the 2 game cartridges I made. The white one being the 3D printed one off eBay. It actually surprised me how smooth the label sides were and the layers on the side actually gave a good look. The transparent cart was to see if it would work, as they were sold to be for the 7800. I think in both I just had to clip a piece of plastic or two to accommodate the PCB but both work great. I modified the transparent one to have LEDs inside so when plugged in it lights up. That only increased cost by something like 10-25 cents. 
 

my game Pinfinger was only 4k so was perfect for me to test. 
 

have you ever thought of possible making a multi cart with a larger chip with the first bank being maybe a menu and then jump to each bank for the game?  Then you could put more games on a cartridge and potentially sell at a higher price to kind of make production more affordable. 

[waynel]

On 8/24/2022 at 4:38 PM, Keatah said:

I've long ago eschewed purchasing physical copies of games. Roms only.

I won't download Atari games.  I only buy physical copies.  So I guess my anecdote cancels out your anecdote.

[r_chase]

ngl...I would do both. Download digital copies and get physical cart. I've also proposed digital-only copies for cloud-based 2600 gaming where the ROM is too big to fit onto a physical cart. I think it should be possible because bankswitching and all that. However...if you really want the rom on a physical copy, there is always an SD card option. SD cards can fit almost anything iirc while being big enough to slap a label on to it. Note: I'm talking regular SD, not microSD, though I would get away with using the microSD adapter for elaborate labels.

Anyway, why even attempt to argue over digital vs. physical anyway when there is such as a digital/physical solution such as an SD card? I don't really get it.

[+KaeruYojimbo]

On 8/24/2022 at 12:55 PM, Fort Apocalypse said:

 

I don't know if the game developer sets those prices or AtariAge.

AtariAge sets the cartridge prices, based on things like the size of the game, whether it uses a standard PCB or a Melody board and whether or not it is boxed. AtariAge handles all of the making and selling of carts in the store and pays the author a small royalty for each copy sold. The next store update is supposed to include digital sales, but I don't know how that will work. If you're interested in having your game in the AA store, generally the best way to go is to send Albert a PM with your game. It can sometimes take a little while for him to respond, so be patient.

 

On 8/24/2022 at 8:45 AM, Fort Apocalypse said:

are there certain places they would look other than the Atari 2600 Programming and Batari Basic forums in AtariAge?

There's also the Homebrew Discussion forum, which includes homebrews for all platforms.

 

On 8/24/2022 at 12:55 PM, Fort Apocalypse said:

I don't know where the break-even is

A few years ago I had 25 copies of Ms. Galactopus made by AtariAge for $20 per copy, which included the cartridge, label and an 8-page manual. I made 20 available for sale and easily sold them all at $30 per copy, leaving me 5 copies to keep/give away and recouping my expenses (including paying the artist who created the label art). There may be different rates for larger orders, but I didn't want to end up stuck with a bunch of unsold copies. There are other places that will make carts for less and if you can burn your own ROMs you can DIY it and save even more, but AA makes the best quality 2600 carts out there.