AtariVox

[ZillaRUSH]

With a few homebrews coming out that utilize the AtariVox...any plans to have more for sale?

[Deteacher]

Albert announced in another thread that he hopes to re-release the AtariVox+ in coordination with Champ Games' release of Wizard Of Wor Arcade.

[+groundtrooper]

I miss the days when people would search for an answer. There have been about 5 threads about this in the past 30 days. [emoji849]

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[+save2600]

Albert announced in another thread that he hopes to re-release the AtariVox+ in coordination with Champ Games' release of Wizard Of Wor Arcade.

Since you brought up the coordination, reminds me... sure hope the new standard with new releases in general, isn't that they're held back for these game shows that most of us can't, don't or rarely ever attend in far away States. Forum members who've followed threads, provided feedback, helped test and otherwise support these new releases end up waiting longer than we should for some of this stuff - while complete strangers, passerby's and the random sumguy or sumgirl get first dibs. Just feels like we're "treated" to the leftovers or sloppy seconds as early adopters. The stuff that didn't sell at these shows is then made available (upwards of a month+ after the show sometimes for various reasons) and in my experience, boxes often comes slightly damaged due to the excess handling. Hate to bitch about this sort of thing, but am disappointed by what's seemingly become a pattern here.

[+Nathan Strum]

Since you brought up the coordination, reminds me... sure hope the new standard with new releases in general, isn't that they're held back for these game shows that most of us can't, don't or rarely ever attend in far away States. Forum members who've followed threads, provided feedback, helped test and otherwise support these new releases end up waiting longer than we should for some of this stuff - while complete strangers, passerby's and the random sumguy or sumgirl get first dibs. Just feels like we're "treated" to the leftovers or sloppy seconds as early adopters. The stuff that didn't sell at these shows is then made available (upwards of a month+ after the show sometimes for various reasons) and in my experience, boxes often comes slightly damaged due to the excess handling. Hate to bitch about this sort of thing, but am disappointed by what's seemingly become a pattern here.

 

 

Wow. That's some whiney entitlement.

[KevKelley]

I suppose the shows serve a variety of purposes, from generating excitement to gauging demand. I do feel somewhat the same about the lack of shows in certain areas. I would love to get a good one down here in Orlando. I want to research how to put on a convention so that maybe one day I could organize one for the southeast.

[Trebor]

I suppose the shows serve a variety of purposes, from generating excitement to gauging demand. I do feel somewhat the same about the lack of shows in certain areas. I would love to get a good one down here in Orlando. I want to research how to put on a convention so that maybe one day I could organize one for the southeast.

 

You mean like, Free Play Florida?

[KevKelley]

Yeah. I love Free Play Florida. It is already marked in my calendar. I kind of envision a slightly different event, with more booths for retro gaming products, inventions, homebrews, etc. I kind of view FFP as more of an arcade/pinball appreciation and educational event that is super fun. But I lack the know-how and time to organize one.

[+save2600]

 

 

Wow. That's some whiney entitlement.

 

Really, that's the take-away here? Normally not a person to ever feel "entitled" to anything, except when it comes to expectations as they relate to purchases. You know... standards and that whole thing. Maybe this wasn't the best place to vent about this and suppose if I had a real problem with whatever, I'd address it with whomever. And just may one of these days as I'm sure anything/everything would be easily rectifiable.

 

Believe me... I get game shows, promotions, generating hype, gauging "interest" (which starts in and what we declare in the threads in the first place) and all that. Everything has its place.

[Albert]

Since you brought up the coordination, reminds me... sure hope the new standard with new releases in general, isn't that they're held back for these game shows that most of us can't, don't or rarely ever attend in far away States. Forum members who've followed threads, provided feedback, helped test and otherwise support these new releases end up waiting longer than we should for some of this stuff - while complete strangers, passerby's and the random sumguy or sumgirl get first dibs. Just feels like we're "treated" to the leftovers or sloppy seconds as early adopters. The stuff that didn't sell at these shows is then made available (upwards of a month+ after the show sometimes for various reasons) and in my experience, boxes often comes slightly damaged due to the excess handling. Hate to bitch about this sort of thing, but am disappointed by what's seemingly become a pattern here.

 

Really? It's an incredible amount of work to make physical games available for sale. Each game release is its own little project, usually involving several people, and there isn't typically much overlap in those "teams". It's also quite expensive when you are printing manuals, labels, boxes, and sometimes posters for games. To help bring the per-unit cost down for some of these items, it's advantageous to print them together in batches. As well as having sufficient stock of circuit boards, chips, cartridge shells, and other materials needed for physical releases. A show like the Portland Retro Gaming Expo is a nice, hard deadline as a target to release games.

 

Having said that, my goal is to have more releases of a smaller number of games several times per year. I'm working on a new batch of games now for the 2600, 5200, 7800 and Jaguar. And hope to have more games released towards the end of the year as well. And I'm trying to do this while also spending a great deal of time to move AtariAge to a new server while working on upgrading the forum to a significantly newer version (current forum software is about four years old now). There's only so much time in a day, and for me a good portion of it is related to AtariAge.

 

As for "boxes being damaged", if boxes are damaged during transit to/from the show, I do not sell them in the store. I have thrown out a fair number of boxes that have had scuff marks, been slightly crushed, or suffered other damage after going out to a show and back, and I've been more careful about how they are packed to help prevent that since it's a big waste of money for me to throw away boxes. I certainly am not shipping boxes I know to be damaged to customers. This is literally the first time I've heard anyone make this specific complaint.

 

The "various reasons" for the delay between my attending a show and getting games into the store isn't because I'm just sitting around on my ass taking a break. I sell considerably more games online than I do at shows, so it's in my best interest after dumping a ton of money into a big batch of releases to get them into the store ASAP. I have to take (and process) tons of photos, write up descriptions for all the games, make sure I have screenshots, sometimes videos (many of which Nathan creates), and more. When you're doing this for a large batch of games, it's a big time sink. Not to mention that after coming back from a show I have to also catch up on store orders and many other things I've neglected due to all the time spent getting ready for the show, making games, driving out to the show, setting up and attending, then driving back.

 

Finally, there are quite a few AtariAge members who attend shows like PRGE. Some of them even kindly help setting up or tearing down the booth, help man the booth during the show, or help in other ways, and I'm hugely appreciative of that. It's not just "sumguy or sumgirl" who gets "first dibs" on whatever is made available at a show for the first time. But even if it was, does it really matter that you have to wait an extra month (or more) to get new games?

 

..Al

[Albert]

With a few homebrews coming out that utilize the AtariVox...any plans to have more for sale?

 

Yes, more will be available soon.

 

..Al

[+Nathan Strum]

Well, I was halfway through this when Albert posted... but I'll finish it up anyway.

 

Really, that's the take-away here? Normally not a person to ever feel "entitled" to anything, except when it comes to expectations as they relate to purchases. You know... standards and that whole thing.

 

Yeah, that was the take-away. Homebrews are a hobby. Nobody makes any real money from this. It's not a commercial, retail enterprise. Programmers make games because they enjoy doing it. Albert is the guy paying for materials and producing them, and the production costs are paid for in advance. To reduce costs, he has to group releases together (he could probably charge more money and do more frequent releases, or do poorer quality and smaller runs, but then people would complain about that.) Also, the games are finished when they're finished, and sometimes having a big show like PRGE provides motivation for the programmers to finish up a game because it gives them a chance to go out and meet people who are homebrew fans and see their games played in person. That's incredibly rewarding. Game expos cost time and money to attend and aren't big money makers. You might break even by the time you figure in travel costs, vacation time, booth costs, shipping, printing, promotional materials. If anything, they're community outreach opportunities.

 

Nobody is obligated to produce homebrews, and certainly aren't obligated to produce them under a particular schedule. We're lucky to get homebrew releases at all, much less of the caliber that AtariAge produces. I'm not just referring to the quality of the games themselves, but the attention to detail Albert puts into every single release to make sure everything from the label to the manual to the box is of the absolute highest quality.

 

So... complaining about having to wait a little while for something you had no actual hand in creating?

 

Yeah. I'll stand by that take-away.

[ZillaRUSH]

Great...thanks Al! I'll get one as soon as they are available.

[high voltage]

Who did/make the AtariVox (+)?

And why is mine with a blue/white label? (purchased from Marc)

 

Edited May 28, 2019 by high voltage

[Marc Oberhäuser]

I went through my emails but couldn't find anything, but if I remember correctly they were from the.golden.ax (but I may be wrong).

[Albert]

I went through my emails but couldn't find anything, but if I remember correctly they were from GoldenAxe (but I may be wrong).

 

Yes, that is correct.

[high voltage]

Thank you both, added to my database

[ledzep]

 

...

 

As for "boxes being damaged", if boxes are damaged during transit to/from the show, I do not sell them in the store. I have thrown out a fair number of boxes that have had scuff marks, been slightly crushed, or suffered other damage after going out to a show and back, and I've been more careful about how they are packed to help prevent that since it's a big waste of money for me to throw away boxes. I certainly am not shipping boxes I know to be damaged to customers. This is literally the first time I've heard anyone make this specific complaint.

 

...

 

..Al

 

If I may suggest, I would think that a few people might be in the market for those damaged box games if the price was reduced vs. no box at all (assuming a limited run of the boxed version where no more boxes will be printed but more loose carts + manuals might still be sold). A couple pics posted of the beaten examples would be enough for those buyers to decide. I prefer a perfect box as much as the next guy but I've bought a few eBay boxed games that weren't in the greatest shape but were, legitimately, real boxed games from the '80s or whenever. Maybe offer them once all the good boxed versions are sold?

 

And as someone who had waited years for the 5200 Tempest and some Vectrex homebrews, I don't mind so long as I actually end up with the game. I mean, it's not like I have a hard deadline to play the game today, or X will happen, right? I appreciate the effort to get these boxed versions done at all. Of course now would be best-case but I live in the real world so I understand the multitude of reasons for why cool shit gets delayed.

[eightbitwhit]

Great...thanks Al! I'll get one as soon as they are available.

 

Same here - I'm looking forward to them becoming available again. Thanks Al!

[high voltage]

 

If I may suggest, I would think that a few people might be in the market for those damaged box games if the price was reduced vs. no box at all (assuming a limited run of the boxed version where no more boxes will be printed but more loose carts + manuals might still be sold). A couple pics posted of the beaten examples would be enough for those buyers to decide. I prefer a perfect box as much as the next guy but I've bought a few eBay boxed games that weren't in the greatest shape but were, legitimately, real boxed games from the '80s or whenever. Maybe offer them once all the good boxed versions are sold?

 

 

 

I agree, I don't mind a damaged box at all