Ok, so all the games that were pulled from the AA store...

[John Stamos Mullet]

I'm a little confused.

 

I understood that Bob's games were being removed because of his post about it, but I wasn't aware that all the games that were on sale were being removed permanently. I know it's my fault for not buying them sooner, but this is a major bummer, because now the ePay gougers are going to destroy this scene.

 

Is this because of C & D's received from the copyright owners, or because these games are going to be sold elsewhere?

 

If they are being sold elsewhere, is it in physical form or otherwise?

[+DrVenkman]

This has been discussed extensively elsewhere including the fact that it was indeed the last chance for these games.

 

The tl;dr is Al didn’t give a specific reason and at this point I doubt he will -his site, his Store, his rules. That’s kind of the bottom line.

 

 

[John Stamos Mullet]

19 minutes ago, DrVenkman said:

This has been discussed extensively elsewhere including the fact that it was indeed the last chance for these games.

 

The tl;dr is Al didn’t give a specific reason and at this point I doubt he will -his site, his Store, his rules. That’s kind of the bottom line.

 

 

Not everybody reads every thread, or visits this site every day. Using the search feature didn't yield any useful answers, and now I know why - because one was never given.

 

I wasn't attempting to question Al's decision, or anyone else's reasoning, just wondering if everything was being moved elsewhere. If it hasn't, so be it. I have a concerto, so I can play most of these games fairly well on real hardware.

[+DrVenkman]

3 minutes ago, John Stamos Mullet said:

Not everybody reads every thread, or visits this site every day.

The thread in question was posted like 5 weeks ago and was usually one of the most active threads in the 7800 forum so … don’t know what else to tell you. 

[Silver Back]

They aren't going to be sold elsewhere and no formal reason was given.  And obviously one isn't required.   I think most people can come up with the logical answer themselves. 

 

Al was kind enough to give all users the chance to get these games at A REDUCED PRICE FOR 30 DAYS!  He could've simply announced they were going away and sold them at full price or just take them down, but he wanted to give everyone a chance to acquire what they wanted. 

 

Outside of this website it was promoted on several Facebook groups, YouTube videos, discord and of course the community was buzzing about it (word of mouth).  If you somehow completely missed it then unfortunately there's nothing else you can do.  Just one of those things.  Keep an eye on ebay or maybe ask on the looking for section of the forum here. 

 

Roms are either available for free on the forum here or being sold by the developers at their discretion. 

Edited July 28, 2023 by Silver Back

[+groundtrooper]

1000% This ^^^^^^ 

 

I don't know how anyone who is in the scene right now didn't know this was going on. The news was out there for just over 30 days. Granted there were two people who popped up in the Popeye 7800 thread yesterday wanting to know how they could buy it. 

 

As you said @Silver Back, the news was everywhere. YouTubers talking about it, Twitch Streamers talking about it, threads in the forums, a post on the front page of the Atari Age site, and Facebook and Twitter were a buzz with the news and all of the speculation of why how it was BAD timing for a lot of people. 

[John Stamos Mullet]

19 hours ago, groundtrooper said:

1000% This ^^^^^^ 

 

I don't know how anyone who is in the scene right now didn't know this was going on. The news was out there for just over 30 days. Granted there were two people who popped up in the Popeye 7800 thread yesterday wanting to know how they could buy it. 

 

As you said @Silver Back, the news was everywhere. YouTubers talking about it, Twitch Streamers talking about it, threads in the forums, a post on the front page of the Atari Age site, and Facebook and Twitter were a buzz with the news and all of the speculation of why how it was BAD timing for a lot of people. 

Ok -

 

Let's be clear here - I understood Bob's games were going away permanently because Bob's post about it was explicit on that, presumably because they're being moved elsewhere. (which is fine)

 

I was aware the AA store sale was going on. I wasn't aware ALL of the games that were on sale were going to be gone from the store permanently, including the games not made by Bob (Ken's, Daryls, Champ games stuff, etc.)

 

It's on me because I didn't read it in detail. I half read it when it was posted, and understood that Al was putting a bunch of games on sale, and that part of that was Bob's games because they were going away. Again, my fault for not reading it more closely to see that all of the games on sale were going away.

 

As for the "It was posted everywhere else!" stuff -

 

I'm not a member of any Atariage related Facebook groups - I have around 100 facebook "friends" and they are all family members or actual people I spend time with in real life. I spend about 5-10 minutes a week looking at Facebook. 

 

I closed my account and stopped reading/posting on Twitter a while ago for reasons not worth getting banned from here for posting about, but I'm sure you can figure it out.

 

Youtube is a cesspool of nonsense and argument bait, and I only ever use it for looking up DIY instructions for things. 

 

I have literally never logged onto Twitch, not once. I'm not into online gaming or modern games, so it holds little attraction for me.

 

Maybe I'm just a curmudgeon, but I'm 50 something years old. I like Atari2600/7800/80's Arcade era video games pretty much exclusively. I don't have any consoles newer than PS3. The only online gaming I've ever done is GTA 5 on PC, and that was a complete disaster of modders and griefers and essentially unplayable. Not everyone who is into retrogaming is on every social media/gamer site. This stuff is an occasional hobby at this point in my life, and takes up very little of my free time, and I tend to go weeks or months without looking at or touching it.

 

None of that is to say that me missing out on these games going away is anyone's fault but my own.

[MrBeefy]

I love the arcade remakes and Bob made the 7800 library great.

 

That being said there are a bunch of talented homebrewers and I never understood why sometimes those talents weren't focused on something more original, as opposed to a direct port (or as close to) of someone else's IP.

 

It stinks that I will never have the full set of Bob's 7800 Pac-Man games but I got what I felt were the best. Which was everything but Super Pac. 🤷

[+Muddyfunster]

18 minutes ago, MrBeefy said:

That being said there are a bunch of talented homebrewers and I never understood why sometimes those talents weren't focused on something more original, as opposed to a direct port (or as close to) of someone else's IP.

I can't speak for other developers but to me, porting games and creating games are different skillsets. Sure there are a ton of crossovers in those two creative processes, but I think that they are different. Some developers are good at both, some developers may feel that their strengths lean one way or the other. Personally I hated the idea of doing ports until I did Koppers, then I warmed up to them abit. I probably still prefer to do original projects as I have 100% creative freedom and with ports, that's usually not the case.

 

In my humble opinion, ports also tend to have a nostalgia factor that makes them more appealing to folks to buy/play.

 

Just my 2p.

[BydoEmpire]

5 minutes ago, Muddyfunster said:

I can't speak for other developers but to me, porting games and creating games are different skillsets. Sure there are a ton of crossovers in those two creative processes, but I think that they are different. Some developers are good at both, some developers may feel that their strengths lean one way or the other. Personally I hated the idea of doing ports until I did Koppers, then I warmed up to them abit. I probably still prefer to do original projects as I have 100% creative freedom and with ports, that's usually not the case.

This is very true. I'd be terrible at making a port, it's just not something I have the patience and attention to detail for in that way. I have dozens of ideas for original games queued up, though, and I don't think I'd have any trouble developing them if I had the time.

[Silver Back]

1 hour ago, Muddyfunster said:

In my humble opinion, ports also tend to have a nostalgia factor that makes them more appealing to folks to buy/play.

I feel that ports are usually a great introduction to the independent games you guys make.   It's fun buying a game that you played elsewhere because you generally know what your going to receive but you also get to experience it with a new console.   

But for me at least, the more homebrews I started getting the more excited I got for the EXOs and Dragons Havocs, etc.   They are all new experiences that can leverage the console strengths and present something that the 7800 was initially missing: awesome new games that you can't (usually) get anywhere else! 

[John Stamos Mullet]

3 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

I love the arcade remakes and Bob made the 7800 library great.

 

That being said there are a bunch of talented homebrewers and I never understood why sometimes those talents weren't focused on something more original, as opposed to a direct port (or as close to) of someone else's IP.

 

It stinks that I will never have the full set of Bob's 7800 Pac-Man games but I got what I felt were the best. Which was everything but Super Pac. 🤷

Talented programming, and game story/plot writing are two very different things.

[roots.genoa]

Most homebrew games are made by sole programmers, and they don't necessarily know anything about game design or graphics. It's less a problem on 8-bit systems and especially the 2600 since graphics won't be fancy anyway, but it's clear that it's impossible to create a decent, original game on the Genesis (for instance) without a full team, hence a lot of ports on that console as well.

[MrBeefy]

10 hours ago, John Stamos Mullet said:

Talented programming, and game story/plot writing are two very different things.

It's 2600 amd 7800. How much story do you really need?

 

I mean I know this is the write up for Toyshop Trouble.

Quote

Ah, the Bahamas. Toyshop elves Patrick, Quincy, and Robert are laying on the beach, relaxing in the sun. Nothing could be finer than listening to the surf while enjoying a cold drink. A great reward for having gotten all of Santa's toys painted in record time. Unfortunately for you, Patrick's idea of "painting" toys was dumping them all in a bucket of gray paint. While this technically fulfilled his associates' obligations (thus their trip to the Bahamas), the toys--alas--still have to be painted properly.

It's now your job to clean up their mess, which means properly painting the toys in time for Santa's departure Christmas Eve. You must paint the toys as they move along five conveyor belts. Ahh, but only if it were as easy as it sounds! Toys must be painted the proper color, and some toys require two coats of paint (with different colors), and if that wasn't bad enough, some must have their coats applied in the proper order! And not that you needed the additional pressure, but you also have a daily quota to meet. You must properly paint all the toys that appear on the conveyor belts each day before the whistle at the end of your shift sounds!

Santa's counting on you to ensure that all the toys are painted correctly! Can you get the job done before Santa's sleigh is loaded up on Christmas Eve? You don't want to be responsible for children waking up Christmas morning without toys under their trees, do you? Time to juggle those cans of paint and get moving!

Which could be made down into... It's your job to make toys to help Santa make Christmas a success.

 

[Jinks]

Games will be sold somewhere eventually. Probably a half dozen other sites where they are sold. Just have to wait. Ebay will be one place I will never go. Or just simply do not buy them problem solved!

 

[+Muddyfunster]

48 minutes ago, MrBeefy said:

It's 2600 amd 7800. How much story do you really need?

 

I mean I know this is the write up for Toyshop Trouble.

Which could be made down into... It's your job to make toys to help Santa make Christmas a success.

 

I guess I should scrap the 13k word novella that will accompany the physical release of EXO as it's only a 7800 game  

 

Fly spaceship. Rescue people. Win game. 

 

There, I saved 12,994 words.

 

 

[Razzie.P]

1 hour ago, Muddyfunster said:

I guess I should scrap the 13k word novella that will accompany the physical release of EXO as it's only a 7800 game  

 

Fly spaceship. Rescue people. Win game. 

 

There, I saved 12,994 words.

 

 

Most impressive efficiency editing ever!   Like Chuck Norris + Marie Kwondo level!

[MegaManFan]

FWIW (and probably less than two cents) I'd love it if there was a simple way to dump 7800 carts to make your own roms. I don't expect the game creators to necessarily sell the roms for the discontinued games, because (let's be honest here) we all know they will show up on rom dump sites in no time flat, even if the sellers watermark them.

[Razzie.P]

18 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

That being said there are a bunch of talented homebrewers and I never understood why sometimes those talents weren't focused on something more original, as opposed to a direct port (or as close to) of someone else's IP.

 

 

17 hours ago, Muddyfunster said:

I can't speak for other developers but to me, porting games and creating games are different skillsets. Sure there are a ton of crossovers in those two creative processes, but I think that they are different. Some developers are good at both, some developers may feel that their strengths lean one way or the other. Personally I hated the idea of doing ports until I did Koppers, then I warmed up to them abit. I probably still prefer to do original projects as I have 100% creative freedom and with ports, that's usually not the case.

 

In my humble opinion, ports also tend to have a nostalgia factor that makes them more appealing to folks to buy/play.

 

Just my 2p.

 I've often felt the same as MrBeefy, but I understood why they'd choose to port an existing game over new IP.   I think Muddyfunster's answer is pretty much it, though.

 

I'd love to see the killer programming talent (who struggle with game design) more often collaborate with the killer game design talent (who struggles with programming) -- but historically, that type of attitude causes a lot of ruffled feathers.

 

 

[MrBeefy]

4 hours ago, Muddyfunster said:

I guess I should scrap the 13k word novella that will accompany the physical release of EXO as it's only a 7800 game  

 

Fly spaceship. Rescue people. Win game. 

 

There, I saved 12,994 words.

Haha Exo reminds me of Blaster Master. I didn't have a manual for it and when you watch the opening it's like...

 

Kid loses pet frog down. Pet frog mutates on radioactive waste in kids back yard and falls down hole. Kid jumps down hole to find/stop him, and stumbles on ship underground. IT'S GO TIME!

 

53 minutes ago, Razzie.P said:

I've often felt the same as MrBeefy, but I understood why they'd choose to port an existing game over new IP.   I think Muddyfunster's answer is pretty much it, though.

 

I'd love to see the killer programming talent (who struggle with game design) more often collaborate with the killer game design talent (who struggles with programming) -- but historically, that type of attitude causes a lot of ruffled feathers.

I've enjoyed many of the ports, don't get me wrong. But there is also a point where I can get/play many of those games elsewhere close to their original form.

 

That's why for this last chance sell I went with Baby Pac over Super Pac. I can easily play Super Pac. I don't know of many/any ways to play Baby Pac. I'm sure there is, but it's more unique IMO.

 

[zzip]

On 7/28/2023 at 8:07 PM, groundtrooper said:

 

As you said @Silver Back, the news was everywhere. YouTubers talking about it, Twitch Streamers talking about it, threads in the forums, a post on the front page of the Atari Age site, and Facebook and Twitter were a buzz with the news and all of the speculation of why how it was BAD timing for a lot of people. 

You do realize social media shows you content based on what you normally engage with, right?   I have not seen anything in any of my feeds.   I can make a good guess what the reason is, but whatever the incident was that sparked it, I have not heard about.

[+H454]

3 hours ago, zzip said:

You do realize social media shows you content based on what you normally engage with, right?   I have not seen anything in any of my feeds.   I can make a good guess what the reason is, but whatever the incident was that sparked it, I have not heard about.

^ This.

If I didn't scroll thru the "unread content" option on the forum, I probably wouldn't have known about the last chance sale.

[Trebor]

Going forward, following the forum is another option:

 

This includes selecting notification frequency:

[NE146]

I didn't really understand what was going on either.. all I know is I read about it somewhat while travelling for the past 5 weeks, and now am home as of tonight and ready to buy some games, but don't think I'm able to (?) lol (correct me if I'm wrong)

Edited July 31, 2023 by NE146

[MrBeefy]

On 7/31/2023 at 11:34 AM, zzip said:

You do realize social media shows you content based on what you normally engage with, right?   I have not seen anything in any of my feeds.   I can make a good guess what the reason is, but whatever the incident was that sparked it, I have not heard about.

I found out via some friends who saw it on AA. Otherwise I would have missed it possibly. I heard nothing of it anywhere else.