6th Annual Atari Homebrew Awards: Voting Information & Discussion

[Living Room Arcade]

Thank you, Mr. James @ZeroPage Homebrew.

 

Well, that's my idea.  I hope you all will consider it.  IMO it would be easy to do and would make the AAHA's better.  I hope you guys will consider it.  Thank you.  

Edited February 29 by Living Room Arcade

[+Nathan Strum]

I was debating answering this. I still am. We'll see if I hit "Submit Reply" at the end of it or not.

On 2/26/2024 at 3:19 PM, Living Room Arcade said:

What is a homebrew?

 

Personally, I don't consider Champ Games to be a homebrew developer.  I consider Champ Games to be a commercial, 3rd party game developer.  To me, Champ Games is the new Activision.  IMO Champ Games shouldn't be in any awards called "Homebrew Awards."  Champ Games games should be compared instead to other contemporary commercial releases such as Atari's Mr. Run and Jump and Circus Convoy by Audacity Games.  A separate awards program for the commercial releases.  

Speaking (unofficially) on behalf of Champ Games, these games are made on our own time, published at our own expense – and please read this part carefully here – there's absolutely zero guarantee of selling a single copy. Nobody is paying us to develop these. Nobody is paying us to publish these. This is not a commercial enterprise.

 

This is a hobby, paid for out-of-pocket. All of the production costs must be paid for, in-full, up front. Circuit boards, cartridge shells, and printing are all bought and paid for, before a single order is ever taken, whether we end up selling any of it or not. In the case of Champ Games, all of that cost comes out of John's own pocket, with, again zero guarantee of making a penny of it back.

 

Once we start selling the games that we've produced, then and only then do we (and I really mean "he" – since John is Champ Games – I just help out with the art stuff) begin to earn back some of the money that's already been spent. But even reaching break-even is an iffy proposition - especially with our older titles that have been available for years, where most of the market is already tapped-out.

 

Up until last summer, Champ Games wasn't publishing our own games – AtariAge was. Once AtariAge decided to no longer carry those games, we could have decided, "Well, so much for that" and not gotten into publishing. But the reason we make games is because we love making games. This is not a commercial enterprise. It's a hobby. And we decided to take a shot at publishing them ourselves. This was not a trivial nor inexpensive task, nor a decision that was made lightly. But we did it because we wanted people to still be able to play the games we worked so hard to make, and play them on original hardware. Also, publishing games for the 2600 is pretty-much childhood wish fulfillment. For the both of us.

 

Any "extra" money that happens to come in from the sale of homebrews – if we break even – will go right back into publishing our next batch of games, and other expenses like PRGE (which itself is a giant money-suck with no guarantee of breaking even either).

 

We do have a pretty-good idea that there's an established market for our games, and that we will likely sell some minimal number of copies of them. But how many is always a guess, and it's also not sustainable. Sales will hit a maximum threshold pretty soon after release, then fall off rapidly.

On 2/26/2024 at 3:34 PM, Albert said:

I disagree.  I consider homebrew games to be those developed by enthusiasts in their free time.  When John and Nathan have quit their jobs and are working in an office somewhere developing games full-time, then I would consider them closer to third-party publishers from the heyday of the 2600.

Please read Al's comment above carefully, then consider this additional fact: the "when" in this case is "never". Anyone who thinks that it's possible to earn an actual living programming 2600 games in this day and age is at best ill-informed.

On 2/26/2024 at 4:36 PM, Living Room Arcade said:

I don't know the answer, but perhaps here's a clue.  A homebrew developer will typically pay to have a limited number of carts made with his game on it.  He'll announce how many carts were made and that they're for sale, send him a pm and it's yours and when they're gone, they're gone.  That's a typical homebrewer.

 

Now look at Atari, Audacity Games and Champ Games. They all have a brand, a website and an online store.  There appears to be NO LIMIT to the number of games they'll sell.  They may run out of stock temporarily, but, generally, if you keep sending them more money, I think they'll keep making more games.  Like Jay Leno in the Doritos commercial saying, "Crunch all you want, we'll make more!"  

Some homebrew developers make and sell limited-edition games like you describe. But those are intended to be limited editions, built in small numbers typically to sell to collectors. That was certainly more the norm for homebrewing 25 years ago, when technology to reproduce the games in physical form was scarce and the process much more difficult. But publishers/resellers like AtariAge, Packrat, Good Deal Games, Songbird and others are more the norm now. That said, everything is limited, because resources are always limited. Publishing games to a broader audience in a less limited manner does *not* make them any less homebrews.

 

Atari is a corporation, with (presumably) offices, employees, payrolls, etc. So yes, they're a commercial entity. They exist to try to make money off of commercial products. They have shareholders, board members, investors, and paid employees to answer to financially. They have to prove they can be a sustainable commercial entity, in order to convince retailers they're worth the risk of carrying their products. They pay people salaries in order to keep the company producing commercial products. They are absolutely commercial.

 

AtariAge, now owned by Atari, is a commercial entity by extension. But the developers creating the games that AtariAge publishes? Homebrewers. To my knowledge, nobody developing homebrews presently sold by AtariAge are salaried employees of Atari or AtariAge. So those are still homebrews. Nobody is quitting their day job to develop 2600 games full-time for Atari or AtariAge. (At least, none that I'm aware of. If you are... call me!  )

 

Audacity made their singular release effectively the same way other homebrews are made. At home. In their spare time. Self-published. Assembled by hand. They chose not to call themselves homebrewers, likely because those developers did work as professional 2600 programmers back-in-the-day, and it would probably seem strange to them to adopt the "homebrewer" moniker in light of that. So it's by their own choice they aren't considered homebrewers. However, if they had decided otherwise, they certainly would've been eligible and welcomed to have their games considered as homebrews. But again - their choice.

 

Yes, Champ Games has a website. And it has an online store. And a logo. And literally anybody can set those up themselves, to sell whatever they create. This means nothing. They're still homebrews.

 

We can't suddenly make more games on-demand whenever we run out of something. There's no bottomless pit of money we can just draw from to re-publish games. In order to make publishing even remotely cost-effective (which is not the same thing as profitable), we have to gang-up multiple titles together and hit certain minimum quantities, otherwise the cost per game would be so high that nobody would want to buy them. And we have no interest in selling to the collectors' "limited edition" market, either. Our entire purpose in going into publishing last year was to make our games available for people to play and enjoy on cartridge again. Once we deemed that possible, only then did we go into production. And it took months for us to sort all of that out, with no promise of any financial return.

 

For circuit boards and shells, we don't have a big warehouse full of them that we can just dip into when we need more. We have to pay third-party suppliers for them, who are also homebrewers doing this stuff on the side. That includes shipping costs, plus whatever up-front expenses are on their end that they have to try to recoup. The advantage of circuit boards and shells is: they can be used in different games (mostly), so we don't have to be so precise with quantity. We still have to buy unique boards for Elevator Agent and Turbo Arcade, but the other Champ Games use the same board that's interchangeable. That helps to spread out the costs, so if one game sells more than another, we aren't sitting on a bunch of unusable boards. But again - we still have to pay for everything we want to use up-front, and hope we guess somewhat right. Guess too low – we run out. Guess too high – we're sitting on games that we may never sell.

 

Then there's printing.

 

Printing is EXPENSIVE.

 

Here's some fun homework: Take any complete-in-box game from Champ Games or AtariAge (or Audacity, or even an Atari game from back-in-the-day) into a local print shop, and ask them what it would cost to reproduce the following full-color printed materials:

• Box (with custom die-cut)
• Labels (front and end labels, with custom die-cut)
• Poster (10"x14", folded)
• Manual (5"x7" finished size, folded, collated and saddle-stitched, assume 12 pages as a starting point)

Have them add a UV (glossy) coating to the box, label and manual cover for good measure. We'll skip the insert for holding the cartridge. But that would have to be custom die-cut too if you wanted one. Not an off-the-shelf item.

 

Use your imagination for quantity. Ask them to quote for several different quantities, since that makes a huge difference in the per unit cost (most of the cost of printing is in setup).

 

Then take into account this is per game. Champ published 12 different games last year. Ask them how much *that* would cost.

 

And also, figure out how you're going to produce the artwork for the packaging in the first place. That's going to take someone's time and talent. You're either going to have to pay for that, do it yourself, or rely on someone doing the work for free.

 

So no - there is no such thing as "NO LIMIT". It's all limited. Crunch all you want. But we're not Frito-Lay.

On 2/26/2024 at 5:24 PM, Living Room Arcade said:

Three categories: individual homebrews, Atari Age-licensed homebrews and commercial releases.

 

individual homebrews - limited number of carts, no profit motive 

Atari Age-licensed homebrews - a limited number of carts, maybe some profit but profit is not the main motive

commercial releases - unlimited number of carts, profit is the main motive 

Again - there is no profit motive in homebrews, because there's no guarantees enough of any game will be sold to cover the costs of publishing it. If someone enters into homebrewing expecting to make a profit, they need to find another hobby.

 

Homebrew authors are not paid to develop their games. They do it because they want to make those games. They can put in hundreds of hours developing them, on their own time, whenever they can find the time between work, family, and everything else life throws at them. Call it a passion, obsession, curiosity, challenge... but it's still a hobby. At least among the developers I know.

 

If, on the other hand, someone is being paid to develop a game by a commercial entity such as Atari, then that is a commercial game – not a "homebrew". They're paid under contract to develop that game. It's a job.

 

If someone develops a game as a homebrew, independently, without pay or promise of publishing it, and later on they're paid by a commercial entity to publish it, then the line becomes a little blurrier. I'd say in that case it's still a homebrew, because that was the intent behind it when it was developed. It may gain some measure of "official" status if licensing is involved, but if the original author still defines it as a homebrew, then that's what it is. If they'd rather redefine it as a commercial game, then that's their call. (I'd also amend that to say that if they're paid to substantially re-work the game, the end product is a commercial game.)

 

For some, developing homebrews is about the technical challenge. For others, it's to see their favorite arcade (or other) game playable on another platform it never existed on. Everyone has their own reasons. I've yet to work with someone where profit was the motive. This is a spare-time, "I think I'll sit down and work on this for awhile this evening because I had a real cool idea today" hobby. Even Audacity has stated their goal wasn't profitability. They knew the market going into it. They wanted to make their game because they could.

 

As for "AtariAge-licensed homebrews", to my knowledge that would be Boulder Dash and Lode Runner. I'm unaware of AtariAge having officially licensed any other properties (although some ports have been developed with the permission of the original games' authors, and some games based on Atari IP have remained in the AA store, but that's not licensing as such). And while AtariAge has published original homebrews on behalf of developers, I don't believe AtariAge is licensing those properties from any of them. The homebrew authors still retain the rights to those games, and can do with them what they please, provided they haven't signed their rights away.

 

As for "commercial releases" - that would be Atari, because presumably, Atari is paying for the development of those games. Also included would be Audacity, because that's how they choose to define themselves.

On 2/26/2024 at 7:17 PM, Giles N said:

… I’ll throw in here: and that quality really shows! The stuff I’ve ordered from the AA-store is like buying physical new games back in the old days, - not just picked off 

the shelves but like sent from the factory… 

Hard to believe such quality could be maintained without some costs - given time spent, materials used, assembly and all that.

The costs financially are significant, but the costs in time are effectively incalculable. Not just for publishing, but developing. I don't know of any homebrew developer who tracks the time they spend on a given project. It would probably be depressing. I certainly don't track my hours, since it's a hobby and I work on it at my leisure and for my own enjoyment. There are no billable hours. Just hours.

On 2/26/2024 at 7:17 PM, Giles N said:

Moreover, I think the most important thing is to encourage the homebrew-scene to keep it going…

A little encouragement goes a long way.

 

A little discouragement can also go a long way, the wrong way.

 

It was nice to win the award for best graphics for Turbo this year. John and I put insane amounts of work into that game, and it's nice to be recognized for it. We enjoy that recognition as much as anyones else does who wins - and we do not take it for granted.

 

But when I start reading comments implying that somehow it's unfair Champ Games keeps winning, or we're cheating by using the ARM, or maybe we should be marginalized to some other category, or whatever, it just sucks the fun right out of it.

 

This is a hobby. It's supposed to be fun. We do this for fun. The Homebrew Awards are given out by hobbyists to other hobbyists as a means of appreciation. These aren't industry awards. They aren't "official" since there's no official homebrew governing body. James does this because he loves homebrew games and because it's a really nice thing to do. It draws attention to the games and gives recognition to those who work on them.

 

 

As far as the whole ARM thing - nothing is preventing anyone else from using the ARM chip for their games. Some do. Others choose not to. If winning an award is someone's end goal, maybe they should re-think their approach. If it's about making the game, then whether someone else uses an ARM or not should be irrelevant.

 

Our end goal is to always make the best game we can. And if we can use the ARM chip to do that, that's what we do. It's not about awards. It's not about sales. It's about moments like this:

 

The ARM chip doesn't magically make games better or easier to program. Champ Games are excellent games because of John's obsessive commitment to make every game the absolute best it can be, and fully applying his insane talent as a programmer. Go back and look at the original Lady Bug or Conquest of Mars for proof of that - and those were just his first two games. The possibilities of developing using the Melody board and its ARM are what enticed John to return after a 10-year hiatus. It made 2600 development interesting to him again. The fact that Champ Games have won a lot of awards is because of John's ability to program, and also that he's so prolific that he manages to knock out two games in a year at times. It's not the technology in the cart that makes a game great. It can make a great game better. But it all starts with the programmer.

 

As for the "easier" aspect, I've created graphics for dozens of homebrew games, and Turbo Arcade was – by far – the most difficult game graphically that I've ever worked on, and I believe John would echo that. We had to develop an entirely new means of working together to get the graphics into the game, including John having to write (and re-write) custom tools for importing the animation. I probably put more time into Turbo Arcade than every other game that I've worked on combined. Nothing easy about that. If anything, the capabilities we were able to tap into due to the ARM made the graphics harder.

 

On 2/26/2024 at 11:13 PM, Thomas Jentzsch said:

I doubt profit is the main motivation for ChampGames.

It might be if there were any.  

On 2/27/2024 at 6:18 AM, LordKraken said:

We all want a fair competition, and I think James has already made a big step in that direction by creating separate categories for original and license-based games (when it's possible). There's still a debate whether games with special chips should compete against OC games, but other than that I think the competition is pretty fair.

It's already fair. It's fair because James has decided it's fair. If he chooses to change it further, it will still be fair.

 

Programmers are free to use whatever chips, bankswitching schemes, tools, extra ROM or RAM they want. They could even program multi-load SuperCharger games on cassettes if they wanted. But to accommodate all of the variables to fully level the playing field – how much would the categories get fractured to the point where there's just one or two nominees in each? At that point, you risk giving everyone an award just because they made something that didn't fit into an easily-definable category...

 

From my standpoint, I'd love to see the Packaging awards split to cover "Special Editions" and standard editions, since it's really hard to compete with games in custom wooden boxes or that include fancy extras. But there are already enough categories, enough awards, and if I really wanted to compete that badly, I would've put a free Hot Wheels in with each copy of Turbo Arcade, and maybe an autographed greasy spark plug.    But I won one for Mappy, and given the level of talent that's creating homebrew packaging, I'm happy with that.

 

(And David Exton should get a Lifetime Achievement, BTW. Just sayin'. Hint hint.)

On 2/27/2024 at 6:18 AM, LordKraken said:

We are all amateur here, nobody is making a leaving from homebrew dev. At best it pays a nice restaurant once a year, that's it

John still owes me a cheeseburger.  

 

- Nathan

 

(Oh, what the heck... I spent this much time writing it, might as well hit Submit Reply. Apologies if this is too off-topic James. Feel free to delete it.)

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

24 minutes ago, Nathan Strum said:

Apologies if this is too off-topic James. Feel free to delete it

 

Thank you Nathan. What you have written is perfectly expressed and will be linked to by me for years to come. ❤️

 

- James

[Living Room Arcade]

@Nathan Strum, Thanks for sharing all those insights.  I learned a lot by reading them.  Glad you decided to hit the 'Submit Reply' button!  

Edited February 29 by Living Room Arcade

[Thomas Jentzsch]

21 hours ago, m.o.terra kaesi said:

Sounds good in my ears...

think about it: this is a very common category in sports, music, literature or other Arts.

 

Criteria for selection could be:

A) new developers, that never released a game before, or...

B) developers that have never been nominated before, or...

C) developers, that never won before

Or a mix like never won and not nominated more than 2 times.

 

Its complicated.

[Living Room Arcade]

Okay, so, I think for me, personally, one of the big takeaways from @Nathan Strum's post is that he said that Champ Games is homebrew.  ("Crunch all you want. But we're not Frito-Lay.")  Nathan tells us that, behind the scenes of their public image, the reality of Champ Games is (and I don't mean any disrespect, just sayin') that the developers are working day jobs and making Atari games (awesome games!) in their spare time; they are homebrew developers.  (Not commercial like Atari.)  

 

I hate having to retract my statements, it's embarrassing, it makes me feel kind of like a putz, but I feel that I must retract my previous statement when I said, "IMO Champ Games shouldn't be in any awards called 'Homebrew Awards.'"  Now, I see that Champ Games is homebrew and so of course it belongs in any awards called "Homebrew Awards."  @ZeroPage Homebrew

 

In my defense, well, how was I to know?  If you don't know Mr. Champeau and if you don't know @Nathan Strum, and if you only see their public website and download their demo games, then what else would you think?  You would think Champ Games must be a commercial game house.  That's what it looks like on the outside.  

 

Thanks for taking the time to explain that one, @Nathan Strum, I'll know it for next time.  And @ZeroPage Homebrew.  

Edited February 29 by Living Room Arcade

[Living Room Arcade]

Quote

  21 hours ago, m.o.terra kaesi said:

Sounds good in my ears...

think about it: this is a very common category in sports, music, literature or other Arts.

 

Criteria for selection could be:

A) new developers, that never released a game before, or...

B) developers that have never been nominated before, or...

C) developers, that never won before

Or a mix like never won and not nominated more than 2 times.

 

Its complicated.

@m.o.terra kaesi and @Thomas Jentzsch, my thoughts about those options

A) I don't like.  So if you've released a game before, then now you have to beat the usual winners in the main categories.  

B) I don't like.  Imagine you were nominated once in the past but didn't win.  Now, you'll never win, unless you can beat the usual winners in the main categories.  

C) I like.  (That's my suggestion.)  It doesn't matter how many times you've been nominated before.  Doesn't matter if you've released a game before.  As long as you made a good enough game this year (and you never won AAHA before), then you qualify.  So a new developer can be nominated and so can an older developer who has been making games for many years and getting better and better and this year has a pretty great game (as long as these developers have never won AAHA before.)  This new category gives chances to more developers who aren't the usual winners.  

[+Biff Burgertime]

3 hours ago, Nathan Strum said:

Our end goal is to always make the best game we can. And if we can use the ARM chip to do that, that's what we do. It's not about awards. It's not about sales. It's about moments like this:

That's awesome. I love Galaga!

[m.o.terra kaesi]

11 hours ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said:

 

It's an interesting idea, thank you for the suggestion!

 

As per usual with any proposed category there are so many logistics to think about. It's going to be difficult to determine what their "first game" is and I'll have to know the complete programming history of every single developer that has ever released an Atari game. Do WIPs count or does the game have to be completed? Do they have to be the lead programmer/sound/graphics artist/packaging artist or does contributing a little bit to someone else's game count? Does this apply just for programmers or for sound, graphics, packaging as well? Do games from other platforms count towards their first game or does it only count for Atari games? If this is their first Lynx game but they've made 20 Atari 2600 games, are they a 'new homebrewer' for the Atari 2600? Does every platform need this category, adding several new awards, or just one catch-all?

 

Very challenging, I'll keep it in mind! 🙂

 

- James

I don't think you have to dig to deep with your thoughts James. Such a possible "newcomer" category would be enough for the main category. And as such, it would reward the team behind the product (mainly the programmer). It could be even an over all systems category, not necessary for every systems separatly.

 

But there are already enough catergories. I wouldn't expand the existing ones without letting go others. As for me personally, I'm least attachted to all of the WIP categories. I don't see that much sense in those, as the games in these categories have different degrees of completion and even further, they take away some of the excitement for the up-coming year when they are able to win in the "completed" category again, so possibly be displayed twice in a row.

If you would let go those WIP categories, you could save (or make room for) 8 categories! If you take the analogy of movie awards, there is also no "WIP movie award" (but sometimes there is a newcomer award at some festivals ;-))

 

While we're at it: As Nathan said, I also would prefer to see a (second) packaging category for "regular" box art, as it is kind of unfair to compare "special editions" to "standard" box art (and it takes away the focus on the graphic arts, which is kind of sad)

 

What ever you decide James, it will be good.

 

 

Edited February 29 by m.o.terra kaesi

[Thomas Jentzsch]

2 hours ago, Living Room Arcade said:

In my defense, well, how was I to know?  If you don't know Mr. Champeau and if you don't know @Nathan Strum, and if you only see their public website and download their demo games, then what else would you think?  You would think Champ Games must be a commercial game house.  That's what it looks like on the outside.  

ChampGames are highly professional homebrewers.  

 

Since you are quite new to AtariAge, you were most likely unaware of their history. Nothing wrong with that. But IMO you shouldn't make such statements without doing some research first. Or just ask.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

4 minutes ago, m.o.terra kaesi said:

As for me personally, I'm least attachted to all of the WIP categories. I don't see that much sense in those, as the games in these categories have different degrees of completion and even further, they take away some of the excitement for the up-coming year when they are able to win in the "completed" category again, so possibly be displayed twice in a row.

If you would let go those WIP categories, you could save (or make room for) 8 categories! If you take the analogy of movie awards, there is also no "WIP movie award" (but sometimes there is a newcomer award at some festivals ;-))

I would like to keep the WIP categories, but I think Original and Port could be merged here. That would be 3 categories less, which make room for new categories.

[m.o.terra kaesi]

1 minute ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

I would like to keep the WIP categories, but I think Original and Port could be merged here. That would be 3 categories less, which make room for new categories.

what is the main sense in those in your eyes? Because many never reach the point of completion?

[Thomas Jentzsch]

1 hour ago, m.o.terra kaesi said:

what is the main sense in those in your eyes? Because many never reach the point of completion?

Motivation to complete your games. Worked for me.

[Living Room Arcade]

2 hours ago, m.o.terra kaesi said:

I don't think you have to dig to deep with your thoughts James. Such a possible "newcomer" category would be enough for the main category. And as such, it would reward the team behind the product (mainly the programmer). It could be even an over all systems category, not necessary for every systems separatly.

 

But there are already enough catergories. I wouldn't expand the existing ones without letting go others. As for me personally, I'm least attachted to all of the WIP categories. I don't see that much sense in those, as the games in these categories have different degrees of completion and even further, they take away some of the excitement for the up-coming year when they are able to win in the "completed" category again, so possibly be displayed twice in a row.

If you would let go those WIP categories, you could save (or make room for) 8 categories! If you take the analogy of movie awards, there is also no "WIP movie award" (but sometimes there is a newcomer award at some festivals ;-))

 

While we're at it: As Nathan said, I also would prefer to see a (second) packaging category for "regular" box art, as it is kind of unfair to compare "special editions" to "standard" box art (and it takes away the focus on the graphic arts, which is kind of sad)

 

What ever you decide James, it will be good.

 

 

I think the same way about the WIP categories.  Let us evaluate the WIP's when they are finished.  Also, what's awkward is that some WIP's are WIP's for several years, and what's even more awkward is that some WIP's are never finished.  

 

EDIT: 

Quote

Motivation to complete your games. Worked for me.

@Thomas Jentzsch Well, that thought had never occurred to me.  

Here's an idea.  Maybe @ZeroPage Homebrew can show off some WIP's on his livestream show to motivate their developers?  That would motivate them, wouldn't it?  (Maybe he already does this, I don't know.)  Are you sure the WIP's need to actually be nominated for AAHA awards?  

Edited February 29 by Living Room Arcade

[m.o.terra kaesi]

13 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Motivation to complete your games. Worked for me.

well... I would say, therefor should be enough other drives, mainly a seperate forum topic.

The award shouldn't have to serve as a motivational crutch 

Edited February 29 by m.o.terra kaesi

[Thomas Jentzsch]

12 minutes ago, Living Room Arcade said:

I think the same way about the WIP categories.  Let us evaluate the WIP's when they are finished.  Also, what's awkward is that some WIP's are WIP's for several years, and what's even more awkward is that some WIP's are never finished.  

Right, but an award or even only a nomination might push the developer over the edge to continue the project.

[Living Room Arcade]

2 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

ChampGames are highly professional homebrewers.  

 

Since you are quite new to AtariAge, you were most likely unaware of their history. Nothing wrong with that. But IMO you shouldn't make such statements without doing some research first. Or just ask.

I think you are right.  That was my mistake.  I should have researched or asked someone first before making such statements.  

Edited February 29 by Living Room Arcade

[Thomas Jentzsch]

22 minutes ago, Living Room Arcade said:

EDIT: 

@Thomas Jentzsch Well, that thought had never occurred to me.  

Here's an idea.  Maybe @ZeroPage Homebrew can show off some WIP's on his livestream show to motivate their developers?  That would motivate them, wouldn't it?  (Maybe he already does this, I don't know.)  Are you sure the WIP's need to actually be nominated for AAHA awards?  

Yes, I am sure. And ZPH shows a LOT of WIPs in his live stream already. You really should watch it.  

[Living Room Arcade]

@m.o.terra kaesi  Who are you, BTW?  Have we bumped into each other in the forums before?  I'm sort of the "Cheater Guy," I started the 2600 Cheater's Club thread.  

 

EDIT: Although I don't cheat when I participate in the High Score Club.  

Edited February 29 by Living Room Arcade

[+sramirez2008]

42 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Motivation to complete your games. Worked for me.

 

11 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

And ZPH shows a LOT of WIPs in his live stream already.

I'm glad they played this one.😉 Excellent gameplay and David Exton's artwork is amazing.

[Living Room Arcade]

18 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Yes, I am sure. And ZPH shows a LOT of WIPs in his live stream already. You really should watch it.  

A little bit here and there, for sure.  

[Living Room Arcade]

When we're ready to move on, so, do you guys think Penult should have been nominated for best 2600 port instead of best 2600 original game?  I'm just asking.  I have never played either Ultima or Penult and I have no idea whether they're the same game or not.

 

Hippobytes does say it's "an Ultima style game," but then he says, "It's like Ultima 4."  

 

Hippobytes: "if anybody grew up ultima fans richard garriott ultima you might want to check out the homebrew penult uh i'll show you why it's pretty cool."  "but yeah you walk around the world like ultima somebody made an ultima style game with music for the atari 2600 it's like ultima 4."

Edited February 29 by Living Room Arcade

[+Muddyfunster]

29 minutes ago, Living Room Arcade said:

When we're ready to move on, so, why was Penult nominated for 2600 Original Game and not 2600 Port?  

Because it's not a port maybe ?

 

The rules around what qualifies for each type of game (port/original) are freely available for anyone to read.

 

I'd suggest doing that before raising questions that a bit of research would likely answer for you. 

[CPUWIZ]

Karen's 

[Living Room Arcade]

30 minutes ago, sramirez2008 said:

 

I'm glad they played this one.😉 Excellent gameplay and David Exton's artwork is amazing.

Looks like a fun time for the High Score Club one week.  I'd vote for it.