List of links/websites that offer Atari 7800 homebrew games for purchase?

[eightbit]

Please excuse my ignorance as I did not find a comprehensive list and admittedly while I am a very old 7800 fan I have not been up on the latest and greatest when it comes to the system. That is, other than just purchasing a GameDrive!

 

That said, I have not been a collector of physical carts for any system really in some years. I use devices like the GameDrive to play good and fun games, and of course I am willing to buy them if they are appealing.

 

Is there a good comprehensive list (with links) of 7800 games available in ROM format from the various homebrew developers that I would be able to purchase?

[+Muddyfunster]

Not sure there is a master list but I'll throw mine here for you :

 

 

 

 

[+MattelAquarius]

Thank you for this post!

 

I plan to purchase ROMs in lieu of carts whenever possible going forward.

 

If AtariAge somehow set itself up as a centralized repository for storing my purchased (legal/licensed/authorized by Author) ROMS, similar to how Amazon houses my purchased movies and shows (streaming versions, at least), that would be pretty darn cool and convenient.  Developers would be able to get out of the onesey-twosey transaction game, and just receive their monthly accumulated cut of sales.  Yes, I get that there would need to be a markup for the middleman, but overall, it may really help streamline support for developers.  Even a non-game specific "donation" button for each developer who decides to participate with the AtariAge "Rom Room" program. Such a donation scheme (old school shareware?) will allow me to easily pay my dues to those developers who already released their ROMS which I continue to enjoy on a regular basis (and hopefully encourage more development). 

 

In reality, AtariAge would just track which ROMS I purchased from their approved catalog, making it available for me to download indefinitely.  That would free me from worrying about crashed hard-drives and crushed dreams.

 

Edit:

This could also be a great way to always have access to the latest WIP/Demo versions, without having to make sure I'm following the correct thread(s) or wait for the next release of Trebor's pack. 

 

Edit:  This could also make it "simple" to offer ROM version bundles with physical carts.

[eightbit]

An Itch.io or GOG style purchase system for Atari ROMS would be great. I have used https://itch.io/ to buy Commodore 64 games for use with a flash cart there and that experience has been quite great. Sometimes the disk images come with special extras like a soundtrack and they always come with some sort of PDF manual.

 

I dream of something like that becoming a reality for homebrew vintage console games across multiple consoles really. 

 

As I had mentioned, I just do not collect cartridges anymore much like I do not collect music CD's anymore. I just don't have the space anymore to store game collections and its really convenient to download a ROM, pop it on an SD card and add it to the digital collection. Not only that, the delivery would be instant. No waiting for the game to arrive, no shipping issues, etc. Buy the game, download, play.

 

If there is a fear of the game ROM being "traded" and hurting the sales of the game there are ways to handle that as well. Time the ROM release months or even a year after the physical release could be one. You can also create a method to encode the buyer's name into the rom code so that if it is traded you'll know who did it. Companies have done that in the past on PC digital software purchases.

 

One day I am confident we will have a centralized way to buy ROMS.....one day... 

 

 

Edited February 22 by eightbit

[eightbit]

9 hours ago, Muddyfunster said:

Not sure there is a master list but I'll throw mine here for you :

 

 

 

 

 

 

And yes, you will have a sale as soon as payday hits next week. I will PM you then!

[+Muddyfunster]

5 hours ago, MattelAquarius said:

In reality, AtariAge would just track which ROMS I purchased from their approved catalog, making it available for me to download indefinitely.  That would free me from worrying about crashed hard-drives and crushed dreams.

I can't speak for AtariAge but I'm pretty sure something like this is planned for the future (as in being able to buy and download digital games from AtariAge).

 

5 hours ago, MattelAquarius said:

This could also make it "simple" to offer ROM version bundles with physical carts.

This too

 

51 minutes ago, eightbit said:

You can also create a method to encode the buyer's name into the rom code so that if it is traded you'll know who did it.

Indeed.

[jhd]

14 hours ago, eightbit said:

If there is a fear of the game ROM being "traded" and hurting the sales of the game there are ways to handle that as well. Time the ROM release months or even a year after the physical release could be one. You can also create a method to encode the buyer's name into the rom code so that if it is traded you'll know who did it. Companies have done that in the past on PC digital software purchases.

 

I recall a letter to a computer magazine (Hot Coco?) from the author of a very niche game in about 1984.

 

He had only sold a very small number of copies, and each had the purchaser's name embedded in the code. The point of the letter was that this did nothing to prevent the widespread distribution of copies. 

 

There is also the issue of what about legitimate resale: Back in the early-1990s, I had an original copy of Lotus 1-2-3 (disks, manual) that I had purchased from a local business when it was closing -- they literally sold everything that was not nailed-down for cash shortly before the bailiff arrived to seize the assets 😆. The title screen indicated that it was licensed to Rainbow Distributing, which was the defunct company even though I was the new owner.  

 

I could, for example, purchase an official ROM (at a discount, of course) from someone who bought it directly from AA. The name encoded would no longer reflect the current owner. 

[Trebor]

21 minutes ago, jhd said:

I could, for example, purchase an official ROM (at a discount, of course) from someone who bought it directly from AA. The name encoded would no longer reflect the current owner. 

Not if part of the agreement on the original sale of the official digital ROM is the original purchaser agrees not to share, resell or distribute. 

 

That should always be the case, and to be clear @Muddyfunster already has such terms in place: