Formal Introduction for 8-Bit Widgets website and the future, future, future..

[8bitwidgets.com]

Hi everyone, I'm Caleb and last November I sold my first controller couplers to folks here.  Eventually I opened up listings on eBay, Reverb (for synth rack ears) and Etsy.  It's always best to reach me here though as I always pass on the savings of not going through online retailers to the customer especially if you order multiple items. 

 

The initial couplers I made were for the Intellivision to allow games like Advanced Dungeons and Dragons and Tron Deadly Discs, some of my favorite childhood games to play so much better being able to run / shoot without interruption..  not long after that someone from this site mentioned there were games for the 2600 could use dual joysticks and others as well so I expanded.  Over time I made a couplers and accessories for the Intellivision, 2600, 5200, 7800, NES, SMS, Colecovision, Odyssey 2 and even the Wii (I know, not 8-bit  ) so for a while I was just making them as me.. and it's still just me but I decided to give this unexpected venture / hobby a proper name, so here you have it.   

 

8-Bit Widgets

 

 

www.8bitwidgets.com is a website i've been working on since August.  The partners and friends sections are just a few of the great folks I've been fortunate enough to make things for.

 

Robotron (Robot Ron) Style Coupler and 2600 adapter Cables

 

The site meant to be informational and entertaining.  For some computers with slower GPU it looks flat, but for devices with good graphics cards you will see some CRT effects.  I do a FPS test at the start of the site to detect this.  This usually works well but if you every find its moving slow, my FPS check must have messed up.  You can make the window smaller if refreshing doesn't fix it. 

 

I came up with a lot of couplers for the 2600 in particular due to the variety of official controllers for it.  Some were made without a game for it, but with the hope that maybe homebrew developers might find a way to make a new game that leverages the unique possibilities of a particular coupler.  "If you make it, they will code.."  it's worked with the Odyssey 2.  Robot Ron was created with the Odyssey 2 Coupler in mind which was really exciting to see come to life.  I'm hoping other couplers might do the same for other developers looking for ways to push the gameplay possibilities of their preferred system or systems.  

 

Also the mobile version looks different in some ways than the desktop due to "contact" not working the way i would like it too on mobile browsers and making "Space Mantis" easier to play on a touch screen vs. a computer/keyboard setup.  The website is "done" but I usually come up with something tinker with / enhance.  User feedback is always welcome and helpful because sometimes folks see something or experience an issue that I don't.  

 

This venture has been fun and funny enough I hope that I'll run out of gizmos to make (I have several coming in the next few months) for our beloved consoles and get back to melting my brain learning how to program games.  I am hoping to make ports of "Space Mantis" to the 2600 and Intellivision first depending on how quickly I can understand batari basic and intybasic respectively.  

So thank you everyone for being awesome.  I try to make these products work well and reliably.  I'm just me and I can and do make mistakes, but on those (thankfully) rare cases, you've let me make things right and help me make improvements to the items. 

 

NOTE: Anyone who's bought one of the earlier models (for example the early robotron style coupler) and would like the new / improved models, please feel free to PM me and I can offer you significant discount on the newer versions.  

 

I am always open to collaborating with developers who have ideas for games that could take advantage of some controller accessories or if you're looking for enclosures for cartridges, or media holders for cartridges or CDs..  I can make things custom pretty easily and I try to keep pricing reasonable.  Don't let "custom" scare you either.  Let's talk first then you can decide if I would be a good fit for your next project.  

 

I am going to be posted this under each of the platforms I support so I apologize for the cross posting, but I wanted to make sure I (re)introduce myself to each respective console community.  I'm going to count this one as "Atari" in general so 2600, 5200, and 7800 folks hopefully make it to this  

 

Sincerely,

Caleb

[jimj]

Love the retro themed website.  I normally use Firefox on Linux on an old desktop built way back in 2009.  I wasn't getting the CRT effects, so I loaded your site in Chrome instead and I got the CRT effects. That's so awesome.  Nice little game too.

 

One suggestion, you might want to have some sort of "to buy click here to email me" on the product pages.

[8bitwidgets.com]

12 minutes ago, jimj said:

Love the retro themed website.  I normally use Firefox on Linux on an old desktop built way back in 2009. 

thanks for the feedback!   I do actually hope to make Space Mantis as a homebrew for whichever system(s) i get good at..  starting with Intellivision (inty basic) but i do want to eventually learn to make some O2 games as well down the road.. 

 

I don't have a fix for firefox and sadly being it's the only browser that has the issue, i don't have time or as far as i can tell, a way to detect which browser they are on..   the website is fun and I keep updating / refining it, but sometimes I have manage my time.. believe me.. i'm the king of side quests..  just look at what happens when someone sends me something new..  i drop stuff and make this..  https://www.etsy.com/listing/1637045841/gamestation-pro-controller-coupler

 

next is the Cote Long Play optional dual controller cable..   THEN..  I have the O2 controller adapter kit..  I'm really looking forward to that one..  Definitely will be 1st quarter 2024.  No later.  

 

12 minutes ago, jimj said:

"to buy click here to email me" on the product pages.

Thank you for that suggestion as well..   I'm using a game engine to make this website..  and while this allows me to do so some really fun stuff quickly (I'm not a website guy) it has some issues with interacting with mobile / urls.. 

 

On the PC I could have links work fine..  but unfortunately for me, the world is largely surfing on their mobile devices and tablets more than PC...  so the user experience for PC is different than mobile..   I have made some efforts to distinguish this..  for example the game plays in the main menu on PC but i needed to make special controls for mobile so you go to a separate screen for that..  

 

I did recently discover I can use iFrames easily which might allow me to maybe point to some kind of simple page where a person could submit some kind of message / request and it be fairly seamless..  

 

I'm also currently working on a pinch / zoom feature for the site for smaller phones that might have trouble reading the page.. 

[jimj]

I keep forgetting we live in a mobile world.    I still do 99% of my surfing on my old desktop PC.  Good luck with your side quests!

[8bitwidgets.com]

2 minutes ago, jimj said:

I still do 99% of my surfing on my old desktop PC.  Good luck with your side quests!

yep me too..  i really made the site for PC users, but yea it's like.. bah.. i can't ignore mobile users.. as much as it would make my life much easier if i did.. heh.. 

[8bitwidgets.com]

 

This is interesting though.. not as many mobile viewers as I thought.. still going to give a little more love with the pinch zoom which i think i have a path forward on it..   www.8bitwidgets.com/test/zoomtest. though i need to clamp down on the zoom in / out ranges..  i just added analytics a couple weeks ago.. and now learning what i can learn from Google Analytics..   and i feel a bit better about not missing out on a huge slice of users by not having perfect firefox support..   but my web dev tools don't detect browser.. only if mobile or not..  

[jimj]

Cool stats.  Weird that your web dev tools don't detect browser type.  I'd think that'd be a pretty basic stat to have.

 

Yeah, unfortunately us Firefox users are a dying breed.

[8bitwidgets.com]

yea i was surprised too about not detecting browser.  google analytics can get that info obviously, but my tools can't talk to GA in realtime like that (at least that's beyond my skill set)