Jump to content
Have You Played Atari Today?
2600|5200|7800|Lynx|Jaguar|Forums|Store  

Alex

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content Count

    1,100

  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Alex

  1. Posted

    One thing such a disclaimer <i>will</i> do is give AtariAge some ammunition against arguments that its ratings are responsible for inflated prices. If someone complains, you can point to the disclaimer and say, "See... we warned you not to judge the value of a cartridge based solely on our rarity ratings."

     

    Fair enough. Never hurts to CYA.

  2. Posted

    Heh, well to me it's obvious but I guess new visitors to the site might not understand that rarity is not a direct indicator of value. The introduction to the guide states this:

     

    "The rarity scale is a general indicator of easy or difficult it is to come across a game."

     

    It says nothing of value. I have no problem adding a line that says rarity is not necessarily an indicator of value, and that a cart is only worth what someone is will to pay. I don't know if that will really make a difference, but it won't hurt anything.

     

    For people that overpay without knowing what they're buying, I don't have a whole lot of sympathy. There is only so far we can hold someone's hand. If anyone reads just a small bit of information regarding BB carts, they will see exactly what we know about them and they will be able to make an informed purchase.

  3. Posted

    Seeing a rating of 10 has given at least two people (the buyer and the seller of the fake Beagle Brothers Basketball) a false impression of value.

     

    Let's assume it was a real cartridge for the sake of the debate. How does seeing a 10 give a false impression of value? Where has the "value" been determined? If a game consistently sells for $100+, isn't that the "value" of the game, not what some people think it should be? I don't think I've seen a real Beagle Bros cart sell, so I have no idea what the "value" is.

     

    I think Thomas Kincade paintins are ugly and sophomoric, and I wouldn't hang one on my wall for free. But people pay thousands of dollars for them on a regular basis. What is their "value"?

  4. Posted

    I understand what you're saying, but I don't think that we should be making judgements about what is valuable and what isn't. The game is worth what people are willing to pay, and we are very clear about what the games are. Just because they're worthless to some people, doesn't make them worthless to all. Who gets to decide which games have "value" and therefore a rarity?

     

    You are suggesting we hide the rarity so that someone doesn't buy the game and regret it later? Why would they regret it? They changed their mind about what it's worth? That can happen with anything. At what point to we hide the rarity? 10's only? 9? 8? 5? Do we hide only the pirate companies? What about games like Lochjaw, which is essentially a label variation? Do we hide that? It's rare, but who's to say it has any value? Nobody complains about that. What's the difference?

  8. Posted

    I just talked to ex-Beagle Bros employee Warren Ernst, and here is what he had to say:

     

    Alex,

     

    Yup, I am indeed the ex-beagle employee you seek. I did tech support for all of beagle's products during those glorious years between 1988 to 1991, and was also the sysop of the BBS for about a year.

     

    As it happens, I also own a first generation 2600 (three toggle switches on each side of the console), a Vectrex with every game ever made for it, along with 6 full size arcade games (Space Duel, Centipede, Pole Position, Sinistar, Vindicators, and Elevator Action). So I also happen to know a fair amount about old games.

     

    So, with that said, I can say very confidently that Beagle Bros NEVER made atari cartridges. If you don't know, Beagle Bros wrote software for the Apple II, and later, for the Mac. It went out of business in 1991. The only games that beagle bros ever made were "I.O. Silver", and a collection of small games written in BASIC called "Beagle Bag." Though I.O. Silver was written in assembly (and thus probably incomprehensible to most folks), both products were on unprotected disks that were completely copyable and listable. So with this in mind, I can't believe that any beagle bros product would say "we care...about your money."

     

    Beagle Bros was a small company - no more than 25 people at the most - and there was no cartridge club when I was there. Beagle Bros was established in 1980, however, so I suppose it is possible that there was one before I was there, but I would be very surprised if it were so.

     

    Finally, Beagle Bros was located in San Diego, CA. If that cartridge came from anywhere else, that would really suggest that someone was just using the name as a goof.

     

    I just checked out your website, and am extremely impressed. I've spent all evening browsing and reliving memories. Good job.

     

    I hope this information is helpful to you. Please feel free to use any, all, or none of this information on your site. If you do, kindly provide a link to my personal site of http://www.warrenernst.com/.  

     

    Thanks, and keep up the great work.

     

    Virtually,

    Warren Ernst

    Contributing Editor, PC Magazine

     

    You can check out his web site here: http://www.warrenernst.com. Also, Albert and I have decided to list it as an Unknown company, with Beagle Bros in the cartridge description.

  9. Posted

    I posted over at DP as well, but here agian are my thoughts on the matter.

     

    We have never indicated the value of a Beagle Brothers cart, so to say that we have misrepresented the value it is not possible. We have only stated that they exist, we are unsure of their origin, and they are very rare. To blame us if someone makes a fake is unfair.

     

    Why should we not give it a rarity rating? Because it's unlicensed? So all unlicensed games should be left without a rarity? Unlicensed games have been given a rarity for years yet we have never heard of this until now.

     

    I believe there are two questions here:

     

    1) Are the Beagle Brothers games really from Beagle Brothers, or are they pirate games from the black market? The answer to this will determine under what "company" they are listed - either Beagle Brothers or "Unkown". Now, it has never been proven either way whether they are legitimate or not, so we are taking a guess by placing them in either category. Now, I can understand putting them in an "Unkown' category, but does that mean that all unlicensed games should go into an "Unknown" category? Traditionally this has not been the case, and I have never even heard this suggested before.

     

    2) Should all unlicensed games be unnassigned a rarity? Again, this has never been the case and I have never heard anyone suggest it. Do you only want the Beagle Brothers games unnassigned rarity for some reason? Because they are easy to fake? I don't think that's a good reason.

     

    I'd like to hear anyone's thoughts on this.

  11. Posted

    I have to admit, I never thought the ranks would cause so much discussion. It's just meant to be fun, but I can understand if people don't like it.

     

    One change is to bring back custom status. We have already decided to do it, it's just a matter of getting to it (every little thing takes time!).

     

    Another option would be for users to enable/disable rank status in their profile. So those who like ranks can display them and those who don't can just use their avatar and a custom title. I think this is a good solution, and we should be able to do this as well although again we have some other issues to get to first.

     

    We could also do away with rank names and just use joysticks.

  12. Posted

    This isn't entirely true though, and was the source of some of the complaints. There are some lurkers/low posters that are veteran collectors that have been in the 'scene' for a long time.

     

    Another thought is using some of the Activision patch names:

     

    Flying Ace

    Beamrider

    Chopper Commando

    Crackpot

    Decathlete

    Roadbuster

    Save the Chicken Foundation

    Grand Prix Driving Team

    Order of the H.E.R.O.

    All-Star Hockey Team

    World Class Dragster Club

    Secret Society of the Dolphins

    Friends of the Dolphin

    Frostbite Bailey's Arctic Architect

    Activision Bucket Brigade

    Billy Club

    Federation of Laser Blasters

    Megamaniac

    Oinker

    No Plaque Pack

    Explorer's Club

    Cliff Hangers

    Short Order Squad

    Super Sleuth

    Sub Club

    Activision Ski Team

    Sky Stars

    Space Shuttle Pilot

    Space Shuttle Commander

    Spider Fighter

    Trail Drive

    Starmaster

  13. Posted

    So far I like this idea above the best. The names can be unique and fun, and don't make it seem so personal like "Novice" or "Pro" or whatever. Even if it's hard to make a logical heirarchy, the joysticks will tell the tale. Any other comments abou this?

  16. Posted

    Yes, they are bootlegs. Whether or not they have any value is up to you. If it's silly to you, then just ignore them and buy one from Hozer later on if you just want the gameplay. Lots of people like the packaging.

     

    It takes a lot more effort to actually program a new game though, than to produce packaging for an unreleased prototype. And they come from different groups of people so I don't think we're missing new games because of it.

  17. Posted

    Okay, a number of people have complained about the new ranks. I'd like to point out that these were not meant to be permanent, and we did not mean to offend anyone by labeling them "newbie". The ranks are meant to be fun, and we didn't intend for anyone to take them personally.

     

    Why did we change them? We wanted something different than Atari Pro I, II, III for example, which is rather boring. We wanted each rank to have a unique name. So we quickly came up with something (bad idea).

     

    Anyway, we're brainstorming for a real ranking system, so if anyone has any clever suggestions, please post them here. We currently have 7 levels (could be 8 if we start people on 0 joysticks). Here are some suggestions so far:

     

    Atari Visitor

    Atari Fan

    Atari Enthusiast

    Atari Worshipper

    Atari Maniac

     

    Atari Visitor

    Atari Fan

    Atari Enthusiast

    Atari Maniac

    Atari God

     

    Atari Newcomer

    Atari Fan

    Atari Enthusiast

    Atari Devotee

    Atari Freak

    Atari Maniac

     

    Comments and suggestions are welcome. Perhaps we should say "AtariAge Newcomer" for example, instead of "Atari Newcomer". Maybe that would be more accurate for people?

  18. Posted

    visited link color!!

     

    On the old board, I could look at the forum list and see which threads I have just finished reading by looking for the purple 'visited link' color. Now everything is blue all the time! This makes it very hard to know which threads I've already seen, and which ones I have yet to read. Trying to remember the titles of all the threads I've read isn't going to work, either.

     

    PLEASE bring back the 'visited link' color. It's one of the most basic tools for finding your way around on the web.

     

    Other than that, I *love* the new forums, they're great!

     

    We will address this also. The PHPBB templating and CSS methods are not entirely clear to me right now, so we'll have to play around with it but we'll get it eventually.

  19. Posted

    Pfft, except I just noticed I've been demoted to a Newbie from a Snr Atari Fan :)

     

    We did reset some of the ranking levels as you all have noticed. We're not terribly thrilled by our rather uninspired rank titles, so we may hold a contest for people to submit rank names.

     

    Maybe I am the only one who has a strong dislike for this new board then... I doubt it tho, if you take the time to look at all the little things that are just... wrong... boundless enthusiasm for all that is new can be a big mistake, learn to be jaded and cold like me and you'll live longer :)

     

    Nick, we'll be taking all your comments into consideration. Please keep in mind this is day one of the new software, and we expect to be modifying things based on feedback (and things we just forgot).

     

    Ok this maybe a stupid question, but how do I view all recent posts?  I see an option for all unanswered posts, but not one for all posts posted today.

     

    This option is not installed right now. It does exist, and we had set it up initially but it was very slow. So we'll be looking into how to speed that up and bring it back.

  24. Posted

    Yes, that's a part number. But just because they assigned a part number doesn't mean work was ever begun. They may have just reserved a number for each title across platforms in case they ported it. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if work was started at some point. Same with Lady Bug. Cosmic Avenger would be tougher I would think.

AtariAge
Forums
Store
General
Follow AtariAge

Copyright ©1998-2021 AtariAge

×
×
  • Create New...