AtariAge Store Last Chance Sale!

[Albert]

1 minute ago, Silver Back said:

Thank you @Albert

You're welcome!

 

 ..Al

[Captain Cozmos]

My curiosity is peaked.

I may do all of this as a hobby but I ran into a disagreement with the author of Dino Eggs so I did not finish the game.
That said, how does this effect any of the other threads?  Colecovision, Collectorvision?

I have several games on the back burner such as Colecovision Millipede, A Miner 2049er Level editor, Bounty Bob Strikes back.
Currently I am working on a version of Shamus and I would hate for all my hard work to be effected.

Or am I barking up the wrong tree and misinterpreting this sale?

[Thomas Jentzsch]

13 minutes ago, Captain Cozmos said:

My curiosity is peaked.

I may do all of this as a hobby but I ran into a disagreement with the author of Dino Eggs so I did not finish the game.

I always had Dino Eggs on my (long) ToDo list, but that sounds like I better skip the game, no? 

13 minutes ago, Captain Cozmos said:

Or am I barking up the wrong tree and misinterpreting this sale?

Unfortunately not. 

[Lord_of_Sipan]

I am definitely going to pick up a few games on this sale but I can't afford to get everything I would like unfortunately. Does anyone know if the roms of Pacmanplus/Bob's games in Trebor's rom pack differ at all from the versions on the AA carts? I own the cart version of Scramble and I can't say I can tell any difference from the version on Trebor's pack.

[+Andrew Davie]

13 hours ago, Philsan said:

Very sad news...

If I am not wrong Boulder Dash licence cost a lot of money, unjustified for a few hundred cartridges.

 

The choice of justification was not yours to make

[+Philsan]

1 hour ago, Andrew Davie said:

 

The choice of justification was not yours to make

I know, with that example I only wanted to point out that there is a lot of work involved (coder, package design, hardware, shipping) and good titles sell hundreds, not thousand of cartridges. Therefore I think IP owners should not ask lot of money.

 

Homebrew games are a labour of love and your work is an example of that.

 

[Mrshoujo]

This sounds like a very bad business move and like the creation of the universe made a lot of people very angry.

What happened which required this series of unfortunate events?

And it's not like Atari Age is the only means by which those games can be produced. It may have been the easiest but doesn't preclude individual authors from making their own stock.

[Nostalgic]

Thank you to @Albert for the explanation and support over the years. It's unfortunate that the excellent work done by the developers in pushing the envelope to make these ports will no longer be available in physical form, but it's understandable as well.

 

I appreciate that the games going away have been put on sale. That makes it a little easier to snag whatever games we've been waiting to pick up!

 

I did notice that Asteroids Deluxe and Space Duel aren't on the Last Chance list. Are ports of Atari games being spared?

 

 

[+Andrew Davie]

4 hours ago, Philsan said:

I know, with that example I only wanted to point out that there is a lot of work involved (coder, package design, hardware, shipping) and good titles sell hundreds, not thousand of cartridges. Therefore I think IP owners should not ask lot of money.

 

Homebrew games are a labour of love and your work is an example of that.

 

 

You get a knock on your front door and the guy there says "hey, I've made copies of that book you wrote a few years back and I'm now selling these online. But because I'm a nice guy I'm going to let you have a few dollars because I know it's your IP and fair's fair - but nonetheless you shouldn't ask me for a lot of money.  After all, the market is small and this is a labour of love. It takes me forever to do the printing, arrange the artwork, advertising and shipping.  I'm doing all the hard work."
 

 

 

 

[Cebus Capucinis]

I guess this new development is the reason Knight Rider 2600 won't be sold in the store (and surely not any other reasons).

[+Muddyfunster]

23 minutes ago, Cebus Capucinis said:

I guess this new development is the reason Knight Rider 2600 won't be sold in the store (and surely not any other reasons).

That would be a lot of HardWork!

[+GoldenWheels]

My 2 cents...if you don't have a Baby Pac-Man yet, I'd prioritize it in your order. Seems unlikely to ever appear in a version like this again. Bob did a lot of unique work there.

 

Popeye also strikes me as one to jump on...I was surprised it even got put in the store in the first place.

 

Both are great games.

 

And just so far as great games...Beef Drop.

[+DrVenkman]

24 minutes ago, GoldenWheels said:

My 2 cents...if you don't have a Baby Pac-Man yet, I'd prioritize it in your order. Seems unlikely to ever appear in a version like this again. Bob did a lot of unique work there.

 

Popeye also strikes me as one to jump on...I was surprised it even got put in the store in the first place.

 

Both are great games.

 

And just so far as great games...Beef Drop.

Good list. I already own Popeye, and Baby Pac and Beef Drop Hokey will both be on my list when I order in 2 weeks.

[PacManPlus]

5 hours ago, Andrew Davie said:

 

You get a knock on your front door and the guy there says "hey, I've made copies of that book you wrote a few years back and I'm now selling these online. But because I'm a nice guy I'm going to let you have a few dollars because I know it's your IP and fair's fair - but nonetheless you shouldn't ask me for a lot of money.  After all, the market is small and this is a labour of love. It takes me forever to do the printing, arrange the artwork, advertising and shipping.  I'm doing all the hard work."
 

 

 

 

Or in my case, "some songs that you wrote a few years back".

[carlsson]

7 hours ago, Mrshoujo said:

And it's not like Atari Age is the only means by which those games can be produced.

Absolutely true. I have realized in the Intellivision community, there are parties that are open about who they are and where they're located, selling original games. Then there are parties who just present themselves with a Gmail address and all the devs work anonymously, producing faithful ports of existing games from other systems. In the end, customers can buy excellent products from both parties, but the anonymous people are a bit harder to track down for anyone who has reasons to do so. I would assume the same exists in various parts of the Atari community. Clearly AtariAge is not an anonymous publisher, so I fully see why Albert wants to steer away from potential or upcoming minefields.

[MateusSolo]

Please, Albert, archive the store pages after the games are out of production, so these pages can be useful on any future research. They have invaluable information about release dates and homebrew authors, besides the pictures of the packages.

[+Andrew Davie]

Aside from publishing, am I the only one who thinks people actually pushing to purchase games using IP that has explicitly been with-held is wrong?  If a company sends a C&D regarding their IP - it's just as wrong to be buying the disputed product as it is to be selling it. In the case where the IP owner has denied use of their IP, then to be ignoring that and buying/selling is wrong and also bad for the community.  We should not be encouraging/supporting 'blackmarket' products!

 

 

[+Gemintronic]

I have NO idea why there is hate for Albert protecting our community from lawsuits and giving us a sale.

 

It's as if all the haters saw the sale and decided to throw shade on social media for the lols.

[+DrVenkman]

56 minutes ago, Andrew Davie said:

If a company sends a C&D regarding their IP - it's just as wrong to be buying the disputed product as it is to be selling it. In the case where the IP owner has denied use of their IP, then to be ignoring that and buying/selling is wrong and also bad for the community.  We should not be encouraging/supporting 'blackmarket' products!

Are you accusing Albert of pushing "blackmarket" goods in contravention of a valid Cease & Desist letter form rights holders? 

[Albert]

2 minutes ago, DrVenkman said:

Are you accusing Albert of pushing "blackmarket" goods in contravention of a valid Cease & Desist letter form rights holders? 

Let me just be clear, that is not what is taking place here. 
 

  ..Al

[+DrVenkman]

7 minutes ago, Albert said:

Let me just be clear, that is not what is taking place here. 
 

  ..Al

I appreciate that. I'm an attorney, so I understand better than most how complicated rights issues are and why anyone might be inclined to avoid dealing with them as much as possible. I *also* appreciate what AtariAge has meant to the fans, the retro-community and to everyone with the slightest smidge of nostalgia in their soul. I'm very glad that this new policy has given us (active fans) a month to get our ducks in a row and our final orders in for these titles. Thanks, Al.  

[JagChris]

1 hour ago, Gemintronic said:

I have NO idea why there is hate for Albert protecting our community from lawsuits and giving us a sale.

 

It's as if all the haters saw the sale and decided to throw shade on social media for the lols.

Yeah. Albert can explain if he wishes but in the end its none of our business. He's a smart man. He has surely weighed pros and cons.

 

I think we should be grateful we've gotten what we have for as long as we have.

 

But ill have to re-read. I didn't notice hate, just questions. Which are natural.

[+Gemintronic]

2 minutes ago, JagChris said:

Yeah. Albert can explain if he wishes but in the end its none of our business. He's a smart man. He has surely weighed pros and cons.

 

I think we should be grateful we've gotten what we have for as long as we have.

 

But ill have to re-read. I didn't notice hate, just questions. Which are natural.

 

Sorry, should have made the "social media" part more prominent.  Forgot that forums could be included in that.

[JagChris]

1 minute ago, Gemintronic said:

 

Sorry, should have made the social media part more prominent.  Forgot that forums could be included in that sphere.

Oh ok. I missed the FB/Twitter etc hate.

 

Unfortunately there will always be that.

[+Andrew Davie]

2 hours ago, DrVenkman said:

Are you accusing Albert of pushing "blackmarket" goods in contravention of a valid Cease & Desist letter form rights holders? 

 

I made no such accusation. I was responding to the comment that "anonymous sellers are harder to track down for anyone who has reasons to do so".  This appeared to be saying that, even if an IP owner objected, we could bypass their objections and ability to take remedial action... by going anonymous/blackmarket.  My point being that if an IP owner has explicitly denied approval for the use of their IP, then buying and selling "copies" is wrong.  If you want my unfiltered opinion; Albert's a straight-up guy who's done wonders for the community. I have always felt uncomfortable about homebrews using IP without licensing. This is one reason why I mostly stick with original stuff, or in the case of Boulder Dash why I  went through many many hoops over several years to get an official licensing agreement in place. Authors make their own choices about using IP belonging to others, and we all have different views on that.