Elansar Jaguar

[ggn]

Aaaaaand they're gone - just got the confirmation from Heavy Stylus!

[sh3-rg]

Sold out in 24 hours... looks like RGCD are going to have a busy few days!

[ECWfan]

Looks like I missed out on another release. I'm not having much luck lately. Is there going to be another run?

[Clay]

That availability bar is interesting. Would you say they're half way gone so far..? Jeez, if you've been wanting this title, get a move on!

 

Reboot Facebook page says that the initial order is 75 copies. Way too few. For a game like this I am guessing maybe 200 would be more like it.

Edited July 29, 2013 by Clay

[Orion_]

And of course you need money to finance the 200 carts

and be sure to sell all those !

 

ECWFan > Yes

I will probably produce another run of 100 carts, mixed between Elansar and Orion_'s Jag Collection

Edited July 29, 2013 by Orion_

[Clay]

And of course you need money to finance the 200 carts

and be sure to sell all those !

 

ECWFan > Yes

I will probably produce another run of 100 carts, mixed between Elansar and Orion_'s Jag Collection

 

I certainly understand your reasoning.

 

I would be willing to bet that Console5 would like to buy a small quantity of both for his store. Good Deal Games has been stocking some of the new games lately too. I'll send the owner of Console5 a PM and see what he says.

[FABombjoy]

Yes, I would love to stock these.

 

If a second run happens I'm in! Especially since I missed out.

[sh3-rg]

I would be willing to bet that Console5 would like to buy a small quantity of both for his store. Good Deal Games has been stocking some of the new games lately too. I'll send the owner of Console5 a PM and see what he says.

 

Financials are pretty tight on a release like this. To make this one happen, Orion had to purchase a batch of jagtopus carts (a dual order with Reboot for 200 to get a better unit price) this is done up front and at the expense of the game maker. When they arrived they were flashed and tested individually, placed it in a shell (also purchased in bulk up front), fastened down with screws (sold separately! ;O) and pre-printed labels applied. Once complete they all went from France to RGCD in the UK where Heavy Stylus created the box inlay, manual, added his goodies in the baggie and then handled the individual sales directly. To add another link in that chain on already very tight margins would likely be very hard to achieve I'd have thought. As far as my own calculations have gone for doing similar it's simply not an option as RGCD are not operating on any kind of meaningful profit making basis (we're really talking a few pounds here and there, not anything like a respectable percentage of the sale price). I think people would be very surprised to see how those involved actually see out of the asle price of each copy sold after everything is taken into account. It's a totally different proposition than producing CD-based games for all kinds of reasons, most notably individual unit value, cost to replace, weight and outsourced volume production of a final product needing no further work, that played off against a lower unit price covered by standard postal insurance by default.

 

tl;dr version : I'm not sure there's a way a 3rd party could be added to the mix with the already very tight finances for boxed carts produced this way. Loose cart releases might be a different proposition for obvious reasons, but it'd need some careful planning and costing.

[+save2600]

Came very close to pulling the trigger on the Jag version this morning, but ultimately could not justify the $73 difference. Gotta say, love being able to sit back and enjoy this on my Mac. Wireless mouse, 40" LCD and nice sound system. Speaking of which, the sound effects - wave crashing et al, are incredible and in stereo! Such immersion really adds to the atmosphere of an already pretty game. Back to it now...

 

[Orion_]

For those who missed it, please send me an email so I will inform you when the second run is on sale -> onorisoft [at] free.fr

(this goes for Orion_'s Jaguar Collection too)

Edited July 31, 2013 by Orion_

[+Stephen Moss]

Reboot Facebook page says that the initial order is 75 copies. Way too few. For a game like this I am guessing maybe 200 would be more like it.

The fact that some of us have clearly missed out would appear to support that statement however, "way too few" is perhaps a little harsh as...

a) creating hardware is expensive especially at small volumes and few people will want to risk spending more than they think they can recover - the 200 copies you suggest could require an outlay of around £3000 ($4500), would you want to lay out that much?

b) If they got the same impression I have from polls and answer to "which games to buy" then Myst/Myst like games do not seem to be very popular among Jag owners thus precluding a large run.

c) Their only indicator of likely demand was the number of poll responses (59)

 

Taking all that that into consideration and factoring in a small 20-25% overrun to allow for any unknown extra demand I would say 75 was a reasonable number to make provided individuals would only be allowed one copy each.

[Guitari]

Picked up mine this morningfrom the post office. Looking great! I did wonder if there would be an ' only use as a last resort' section to the manual!

 

All being well I'll load it up at the weekend.

 

Cheers.

[Orion_]

Picked up mine this morningfrom the post office.

That was fast ! RGCD rox !

 

I did wonder if there would be an ' only use as a last resort' section to the manual!

I added it in the last ... moment

Edited August 1, 2013 by Orion_

[Clay]

The fact that some of us have clearly missed out would appear to support that statement however, "way too few" is perhaps a little harsh as...

a) creating hardware is expensive especially at small volumes and few people will want to risk spending more than they think they can recover - the 200 copies you suggest could require an outlay of around £3000 ($4500), would you want to lay out that much?

b) If they got the same impression I have from polls and answer to "which games to buy" then Myst/Myst like games do not seem to be very popular among Jag owners thus precluding a large run.

c) Their only indicator of likely demand was the number of poll responses (59)

 

Taking all that that into consideration and factoring in a small 20-25% overrun to allow for any unknown extra demand I would say 75 was a reasonable number to make provided individuals would only be allowed one copy each.

 

Let me say upfront sorry because I had told myself not to reply to any of these replies to my prior post because no matter what we say it has already happened. And this does not really effect me(In this case, but could for other games coming up) because I was one of the 75 lucky people to get a copy. Each programmer is going to handle their game a little different and we have to accept that.

 

I do understand and respect Orion's, sh3-rg's and your thoughts on this. Would I put up 4500 dollars or more of my own money not knowing if I would at least break even? NO. Not even if I could afford it.

 

Of all the cartridge games sold in the last year or so, I liked the way it was handled for Another World using a pre-order method. You can tell by the Another World thread that it is not perfect but seems to me the best method for a limited market like the Jaguar.

 

sh3-rg: I know you said that is almost impossible to do, but it can only be a good thing for the Jaguar community to allow any vendor in the world to carry Jaguar games. The vendor is taking the gamble on carrying the games and will get bulk shipping so even if a vendor pays full price for a game and marks it up a little the total cost including shipping will probably be less for the customer.

 

Now I give anyone here permission to hunt me down and flog me if I say another word on this subject here on this thread.

[Guitari]

That was fast ! RGCD rox !

 

 

I added it in the last ... moment

 

[Heavy Stylus]

Hi there! Just a quick post to say I have now posted half of the orders. Will try and get another 20 done tomorrow, but the rest will be sent out next Monday. I had hoped these would sell out over a week - not in one day!

[sh3-rg]

sh3-rg: I know you said that is almost impossible to do, but it can only be a good thing for the Jaguar community to allow any vendor in the world to carry Jaguar games. The vendor is taking the gamble on carrying the games and will get bulk shipping so even if a vendor pays full price for a game and marks it up a little the total cost including shipping will probably be less for the customer.

 

Yeah, I just didn't want anyone to get their hopes up if it wasn't going to be financially possible. It'd have to be something they spoke with RGCD about if they wanted to see if it's possible, for our own future cart games it doesn't seem practical with the numbers I have.

[Chilly Willy]

Your only other choice is like what Watermelon did for Pier Solar, take pre-orders. That allowed them to do quantities that allowed for a lower unit price. Of course, that was the Sega Genesis and an RPG, which means the audience they were selling to was substantially greater.

[Heavy Stylus]

Yeah, I just didn't want anyone to get their hopes up if it wasn't going to be financially possible. It'd have to be something they spoke with RGCD about if they wanted to see if it's possible, for our own future cart games it doesn't seem practical with the numbers I have.

 

I'm very transparent about the way RGCD operates and the fact is that I make £5 'profit' per sale, around 10%. That basically pays for the time it takes for me to handle the payment and accounts, prepare and pack the game and contents, wrap and package the parcel, and take it down to the post office. Now, sure 70 x £5 sounds like a lot of money to make in one day... but in reality it has already taken all my free time (outside of my normal working hours) this week to pack and post 50 or so copies. I'm NOT complaining at all, but for me to work with a 3rd party would just mean more work for me with less reward - and it would ultimately end up with the games becoming MORE expensive for you guys, with the reseller adding a markup.

 

I have exactly the same issue with the C64 carts - I get approached regularly from people wanting 'trade prices', but the profit RGCD makes on each of those is even less (below £2 per sale).

 

Cartridges are not cheap, and hey, devs gotta eat...

Edited August 2, 2013 by Heavy Stylus

[sh3-rg]

Now, sure 70 x £5 sounds like a lot of money

 

For boxes, printing, packaging, assembly, sending off and record keeping... no, it doesn't sound a lot, it sounds almost impossible to achieve. The C64 guys owe you a huge debt for doing the same for less than half that!

 

As for doing it in "1 day", I think some of us know how much time and effort something like this takes well before it actually goes on sale.

[Heavy Stylus]

That £5 is after all materials are paid for Kev

[masematte]

From the view of a gamer/Collector.

Im very happy that i can play games on my fav videoconsole 20 years after the release.

Thx for that to all dev and other people who are involed in the process.

And if some one earn money with that to handle his cost or put it in the next project and buy some food, is in my opinion fair enough.

 

So please give me/us more games in the future:)

[sh3-rg]

That £5 is after all materials are paid for Kev

 

lol, my bad.

[Felyx]

Came very close to pulling the trigger on the Jag version this morning, but ultimately could not justify the $73 difference.

 

Of course this is the same game but does the comparison make sense between a cartridge in box, a CD in crystal box and a direct download?

 

Maybe the right question is: can the Jaguar benefit the same formats than others systems as unfortunately cartridges remain the most expensive one to produce ?

 

Whats about the idea of a Jag Store where buying by direct download files to burn on Cd or to transfer to the Jag by BJL or Skunk to prevent having to buy a cartridge when it is possible to use an alternative format?

 

I believe than some people will stick to the cartridge for the retro aspect it offers or to complete a collection but for others who just want to play new games on their good old Jag, it could be a very interesting solution.

Edited August 2, 2013 by Felyx

[+save2600]

Of course this is the same game but does the comparison make sense between a cartridge in box, a CD in crystal box and a direct download?

 

Yes, for those that mostly care to just play the game. This was an excellent release and unique in that it is offered across a broad spectrum of systems. It was smart and not only that, you can tell the author is a gamer that wanted to share his *work* in the truest sense.

 

That said, a JaguarCD release would be nice and:

 

a) help fill the price gap

b) fulfill demand for those that missed out on the cartridge

 

...I'd probably spring for a CD release if it were in the $20-$30 price range.