TokyoBatman

Me too. Such a great project! Can you let us know if anything has changed or even not changed.

Hello again, Actually, can you put me down for 2 instead of 1? Thanks a lot!

Hello, I would like to be in for 1 screen. Thanks!

The book by Marc, from atariage. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/268168-games-for-atari-1977-to-1995-book-project-on-kickstarter/page-1

And an easier work around would be to use the cart reader to dump the rom to flash memory and then send it to the newest version of stella. I'm just wondering, as I'm sure, many others, if Atari is trying stop them with a court order... Or tie things up in court... Less competition to their upcoming ataribox? They shut down the Atari book out of the blue... That was on Kickstarter. A lot of speculation until we hear an official statement.

Can't wait to see the list. Any rough estimate on when we can pre-order?

Thanks for the clarification. I'm excited about the product. Hope they can get it sorted. They may be focusing on the SNES stuff thinking it'll be the bigger money maker. Not sure,but keeping my fingers crossed.

You lost me a little bit on this part. You mean, They explained how they were still... or that they gave you a unit to play test and you explained your findings of the system... How long ago was this?

Going out in left field here. Maybe they paid for the older version license, put all of their research/development costs into having the cart reader work in tandem with the software. They made a pre-production model and that's where we are at? Them not wanting to share the changes to get the newer version of stella. As you've said, they could have gone the route of atgames where it seems as if it dumps the rom first... then pushes it to the emulator. This could be a simple, don't want to start over and waste the r/d, time, and money (as well as not wanting to share to keep it proprietary). But I agree that your idea sounds very logical and the plan they should have run with from the start of development.

From their last statement and what we've heard, it seems opposite of that. They want to get the latest license for the newest version of Stella. Users have posted that this will be nearly impossible with how many contributers of Stella will need to give the green light. Hyperkin has been quoted as saying they will leave open a back door for users to do as they like in the event that they can't secure a newer license, considering Stella is open source. Be it legal, we've discussed the ethics of hyperkin doing something like this.

Well, from the pics it looks like they are doing a usb power. That was all the nes classic needed to be hacked. Nothing seems to be unhackable these days and if something is said to be, it gives the hackers more drive to hack into it. I bet a lot of the hackers don't even game, they just enjoy the hardware/software/programming aspect of the endeavor. If hyperkin don't have an opening though and decide to go with an ac adapter, no sd card slot, no connection wifi, basically a closed unit... You're right. Not a lot of people will be hard modding these things.

I agree completely. When we look at how the times have rolled with emulation and where we are at today... If hyperkin doesn't secretly put it out there... Someone else more than likely will. It took a Russian hacker, Clusterm, a few months to crack the NES classic, which had sound lag issues. Lots of people signed onto that knowing or not knowing what they were doing. They just saw a problem and wanted it fixed... Especially since Nintendo wasn't doing anything about it. The Retron 77 is in a different bag though. People may go as far as to Google Stella. When they see open source... That'll be a green light right away. I can't see them digging into a license issue. Just my opinion on the matter.

Curious about the Flashback Activision pre-order. Was the initial time set for the end of August? Any updates on that?

Oh no. Were you initially putting this book together under "fair use"?

Thanks for your input into the matter. You don't sound abrasive, but you do sound pationate. I appreciate open dialogue and have learned quite a bit on this topic. In response, I agree that following the law and complying with a license are both equally important. In my experience it would be naive to say that casual gamers or people picking the retron 77 up for the first time would be familiar with the areas you've highlighted or areas that have been highlighted in this post. As someone who is pretty familiar with retro games, hacked systems,and emulators, I have found a lot of new things to think about. A 45 year old, Bob, picks this retron 77 up and it can't play his favorite game. He looks to the internet and finds he needs an updated open source emulation called Stella. He puts it on and starts remembering those childhood days. Are we really gonna fault him for not digging deep into the licensing matter? The fact is, this happens all the time. Hackers hack hackers. Emulation is very openly accepted these days. Everything is being put up to be enjoyed. Obviously you have pointed out a clear line that shouldn't be crossed. How many people do you think know about it, will find out about it or even care about it when they do? Personally I have been enlightened and do care. I wonder how far reaching this info can get though and whether it'll be a deterrent.