Toki for the 7800 PAL / NTSC Edition Cartridge POLL

[Andromeda Stardust]

Not saying this is the case with TOKI, but one of the problems that prevent the release of unreleased prototypes is the fear that the prototype owners have of a) the drop in value; and b) no longer being the only person to have something no one else has.

 

Klax, Sirius, Plutos, Chuck Norris: Missing In Action etc were all out there known about but unreleased years before someone generously released them.

 

I wouldn't be at all surprised if someone in AtariAge is quietly sitting on a copy of the Atari 7800 version of Electrocop.

Dump the proto privately and resell it. Wait 2-5 years, secretly leak the ROM.

[CPUWIZ]

Not saying this is the case with TOKI, but one of the problems that prevent the release of unreleased prototypes is the fear that the prototype owners have of a) the drop in value; and b) no longer being the only person to have something no one else has.

 

Klax, Sirius, Plutos, Chuck Norris: Missing In Action etc were all out there known about but unreleased years before someone generously released them.

 

I wouldn't be at all surprised if someone in AtariAge is quietly sitting on a copy of the Atari 7800 version of Electrocop.

 

I think in his case it is more about the fact that he is more focused on other systems, like Lynx etc., 7800 is not his priority. There are more people than just me who have Toki, so nobody needs to be worried about it dying to bit-rot.

 

I dunno about Klax, but Curt found Sirius & Plutos and got help from Bob and some others to get it working, then released it without even making a run of repros. Mitch paid an assload of money for M.I.A. and immediately released it and made a small run with Shawn's help IIRC.

 

I doubt someone has Electrocop, I would most likely know about it, since I am the one supplying the hardware for carts.

 

I have several schemes in my head to protect carts too, if someone is really worried about their proto losing value. It would be an insane task for someone to crack a read protected PLD / PIC combo and reverse engineering a whole PCB, just for one ROM. Not worth it.

[DracIsBack]

I dunno about Klax, but Curt found Sirius & Plutos and got help from Bob and some others to get it working, then released it without even making a run of repros. Mitch paid an assload of money for M.I.A. and immediately released it and made a small run with Shawn's help IIRC.

 

I doubt someone has Electrocop, I would most likely know about it, since I am the one supplying the hardware for carts.

 

I have several schemes in my head to protect carts too, if someone is really worried about their proto losing value. It would be an insane task for someone to crack a read protected PLD / PIC combo and reverse engineering a whole PCB, just for one ROM. Not worth it.

 

Good insight. Klax prototypes were around for years (i even bid on one) before Lee made it available to everyone. And I definitely remember Missing In Action being shown and tried out long before Mitch was so generous to pay for it and share it with everyone. It was actually that game that sparked me to ask "why do people hoard prototypes and several of the responses I got were exactly like what's above. Some people just find a thrill in having something no one else does and view "other copies" out there (repros, roms) etc as a threat to the value.

 

To each their own, I guess. The schemes sound cool though.

[CPUWIZ]

And I definitely remember Missing In Action being shown and tried out

.

 

The DP guys didn't know what to do with it, it is a pretty unusual prototype.

[Shawn]

 

Mitch paid an assload of money for M.I.A. and immediately released it and made a small run with Shawn's help IIRC.

 

 

Correct.

[Jinks]

 

Correct.

That was cool of em!

[+frankodragon]

You could secretly have Toki or any of the other prototypes hidden in a multicart with some insane joystick button code or something.

[Shawn]

You could secretly have Toki or any of the other prototypes hidden in a multicart with some insane joystick button code or something.

 

Nope cause someone would take apart the code in no time. If I can do it, there are much smarter people who could do it with their eyes closed.

[Andromeda Stardust]

The easter egg is encrypted but the button sequence is the decrypt key. so the code looks like gibberish if you disassemble the rom. And without the button sequence / decrypt key, nobody knows what the data is... Things go south with the proto, button sequence gets "leaked..."

[Jinks]

I dont get the easter egg idea.. would be no different than releasing the game.

[+Mitch]

I think I had at least a small part in releasing all of those ROMs. You can probably find the story for all of them if you search the forums. Though there is always more stuff going on behind the scenes that nobody hears about..

 

The easter egg thing was tried with the 5200 Warlords proto. It was on the MHS multicart but you had to use a specific keyboard combo to access it.

 

Mitch

[+frankodragon]

 

 

The easter egg thing was tried with the 5200 Warlords proto. It was on the MHS multicart but you had to use a specific keyboard combo to access it.

 

 

I was thinking about the same thing but using the Video Touch Pad.

[Shawn]

The easter egg is encrypted but the button sequence is the decrypt key. so the code looks like gibberish if you disassemble the rom. And without the button sequence / decrypt key, nobody knows what the data is... Things go south with the proto, button sequence gets "leaked..."

 

Doesn't matter how the code is stored.