bfstats
-
Content Count
689 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
2
Posts posted by bfstats
-
-
21 hours ago, atari2600land said:I didn't know there was a box for Alien Greed II, and I made the game!
All Alien Greed materials can be found here: http://www.atari2600land.com/aliengreed/
On 4/28/2019 at 2:47 PM, high voltage said:Is that Eli's Ladder box based on the original box?
I think ShyOne made that and... I... MUST... HAVE... IT!!! Toymailman, would you be able and willing to reproduce it?
On 4/26/2019 at 11:58 PM, Brian O said:Conquest of Mars will be coming in the (hopefully near) future!
If you produce this box, Brian, I will buy it!
On 4/26/2019 at 10:09 PM, toymailman said:Yep, that's why I did the half-blue / half-red thing on the box to match the cart that came that way.
Also, I did not do all the homebrew boxes in my pic. I did Lady Bug, Astar, Fall Down, Seawolf, and Four Play.
I have Lady Bug (it's SO well done), but I will buy the other four if you produce them!
-
1
-
-
As a long-time Subscriber, I heartily encourage users of this Forum to take to heart Albert's suggestion to subscribe. It is not unreasonably expensive, in my opinion, and doing so provides perks like discounts on items purchased in the AtariAge Store.
Also, even with the changes from this upgrade, this site is STILL the cleanest and easiest to use of any forums I've read and contributed to. It is rare that ANY site does not include ads, and doing so would muddle this friendly, community-based environment.
So please, consider subscribing and help prevent Albert from HAVING to include ads just to keep the site up and running. AtariAge is the remarkable hub of a great community!
(Yes, Al is a friend. No, he didn't ask me to post this. Just needed saying.)
-
4
-
1
-
-
RIP, Pat. Died way too young.
Thanks for the info!
-
A bump of this vexing topic, plus CHECK THESE OUT:
Anyone know who won the bid on both?
-
1
-
-
Just to weigh in, my last correspondence with the "V Development Team" was in February of 2015, and it stated the game was NOT canceled, that a major member of the team had withdrawn, and that "the game is moving forward with a few minor changes and (we're) doing a complete audit on deposits, full payments, etc before the game is finally released to make sure it all adds up."
To their credit, I did eventually get a refund of my 2013 PRGE purchase price - in a roundabout way.
Not sure this will work, but the email used was...
...in case anyone wants to take a whack at an up-to-date update.
Please post any news here.
-
1
-
-
My Excel sheet is not structured that way. You have to read it more carefully. But you can take the results in the .txt or .csv-file and create a different output, e.g. a tree.
It was a half-serious half-kidding suggestion, but thanks for the response. Your and Omega's contributions are inestimable, and I know I speak for the community when I say to both of you PLEASE keep up the good work!
-
Thomas, I'd love to see CloneSpy produce graphical output that resembles Omega's flowchart.
Just a thought.
-
Polite communication, negotiates with class, fast pay. A pleasure to deal with.
-
-
Back in the day, most Atari-cartridge manufacturing companies produced trays, like that shown above, that held the cart in the top half of the box. There are numerous boxes in my collection that have "caved-in" hollow bottom halves due to the usual handling by distributors, retailers, and end-users.
The purpose of the box-centered design that Albert uses is meant to protect the structure of the BOX as well as the cart. This is not a critique of toymailman's design, just an explanation for why AtariAge uses it. The cost-per-box for a hobbyist/homebrewer is much greater than what mass-producers paid for the same thing in the '70's and '80's. It is clear that Albert wants to produce quality, professional-looking game packaging that stands the test of time. Works for me.
-
4
-
-
Always a pleasure to make a friend who lives in another country, and Schitti has been especially so. Great to talk to and to do business with, I recommend him highly. He is an upstanding member of our community who sets an excellent example for us all!
-
...technically, it maybe shouldn't even qualify as a game in the first place.
I think that's fair. Perhaps we should refer to it as a "utility" rather than a game, like the various diagnostic carts or hobbyist carts like Synthcart and Testcart.
-
People buying this were interested in its functionality and in the included manual, not the packaging. They were building electronics projects published in magazines and buying kits (The MagiCard requires to build an additional circuit for the cassette interface to load and save programs and provides schematics and theory of operation for such interface in the manual).
The presence of a case and label was totally irrelevant, and a fancy artwork wouldn't have had the effect of making it look more "professional", but exactly the opposite. It wasn't a toy, and shouldn't have looked like one.
Video Life is a much more niche product than MagiCard (which already is a niche product!). It is something that would mostly interests mathematicians, and it was more interesting to program it on a computer (A reduced version could be coded on the Magicard, and it was in fact one of the example programs on the manual) than having it on a cartridge without the ability to modify the code.
I find reasonable and expected that its sales were just a (very) small fraction compared to Magicard.
MagiCard and VideoLife used the exact same pcb and parts. Just the code programmed in the eprom differs between the two. I see Video Life was a way to help selling the existing MagiCard parts, and it made sense producing it only because it didn't required investments for new hardware.
Excellent insights! Thank you for your significant and well-expressed contribution to this discussion.
A very professional-looking box was made for the MagiCard by an AA member. It can be seen here:
http://atariage.com/forums/topic/270857-atari-2600-magicard-complete/?hl=%2Bmagicard+%2Bbox
-
1
-
-
So now we know that more than 500 copies (first run of 500 sold plus however many were made as part of the second run) of Magicard existed at one point.
And, we also know that a hell of a lot more than just 20 copies of Video Life existed at one point. There's bound to still be at least a few out there in the wild, and among collectors who just don't publicize what they have.
A little more clarity here: The 1984 letter stated "approximately 500 MagiCards SOLD". That was before the white-label re-release, so I think it is quite safe to assume AT LEAST 500 MagiCards exist(ed).
The letter also states THE INTENTION TO PRODUCE a combined total of 700 MORE MagiCards and Video Lifes. Regardless of the intention, Dr. Bronstein told Joe ONLY 20 Video Lifes were produced, and I am confident in assuming they were made only after they received orders (and therefore money). It was 6 weeks between the day I mailed the order blank and the day I received the order, plenty of time to manufacture the cart and print the box and manual. They may have even waited until a certain number of orders came in to begin production of the Video Life boards in order to justify the expense of the "certain parts" mentioned in the letter.
So, despite the wording of the letter, and because we have heard straight from the horse's mouth, NO MORE THAN 20 Video Lifes exist(ed).
And yet despite this half ass & unprofessional production, they still managed to sell 500 of them? Possibly even more if you really take what is written there at face value.
But then, Video Life carts, which all came in cartridges with full color, perfectly normal, completely consistent, production cart stickers, only sold 20?
Something here doesnt add up. Its never made sense to me.
And where the hell is Mission Omega while were at it. How come that never turned up when Sean Kelly & his crew rifled through what was left of CommaVid? I mean we have Rush Hour. And artwork for both.
Anyhow, 500 seems like way too much for Magicard. Far more of them would have surfaced by now.
I can't agree MagiCard was an "unprofessional production". The three founders of the company were scientists and, dare I say, hobbyists who reverse-engineered the 2600 in order to produce a legitimate 6502/6507 programming tool. The 132-page MagiCard manual and overlays are proof that these gentlemen were serious about what they were doing, so much so that the quality of production for all their subsequent releases (from Mines of Minos on) were quite professional indeed, in my experienced opinion. Add to that their games were uniquely sophisticated, again, in my opinion. I have the utmost respect for what CommaVid accomplished during the very brief 4 years they were producing games.
Regarding Mission Omega, Joe told me there was nothing usable in the materials acquired from Dr. Bronstein that could lead to a release. He and the other Digital Press guys were very excited about their release of Rush Hour which was virtually completed back in the day except for some graphics glitches which can be seen in the original ROM but were cleaned up for the released version.
-
2
-
-
...if 20 or less were made I am guessing it still is more rare and fewer copies were made.
Agreed. Remember, MagiCard was released twice, the first time under the company name "Computer Magic" (blue label). And here is the letter, which states the original release of MagiCard sold "approximately 500". I find that surprising but have no reason to doubt the word of the good doctor. However, this letter was written in 1984. Joe Santulli told me of his meeting with Dr. Bronstein in 2010 (a year after DP had acquired the rights) so, for lack of better data, let's say AT LEAST 500 MagiCards exist (over two releases) and NO MORE THAN 20 Video Lifes exist.
-
6
-
-
It would only make sense it's more rare since you had to own magicard to have the option to buy video life.
I'm glad you brought this up. In the interest of historical accuracy, this widely circulated claim is not entirely true. I managed to get on CommaVid's mailing list by writing a letter to the company in 1983 hoping to buy the MagiCard after reading about it in Electronic Games magazine. The response was one sentence: "Sold out and no more are being made." Imagine my dismay.
A FULL YEAR LATER I received a long-winded form letter from Dr. Bronstein explaining the re-release of the MagiCard. The letter from the company was a complete surprise because I had not had any contact in a year and had bought NOTHING. Included was an order blank that I used to buy MagiCard, Video Life, Cakewalk, and Stronghold directly from them. Imagine my excitement when that package arrived. In fact, I consider it the most exciting day in my 36-year Atari collecting history!
The point is, someone at CommaVid had taken the time to put my name on a mailing list despite the fact that I was only a potential customer. Plus there may be others who had equal Good Fortune. I hope this dispels the myth that "only owners of the MagiCard" had opportunity to buy Video Life.
-
8
-
-
https://www.etsy.com/listing/525220914/atari-2600-the-texas-chainsaw-massacre
I asked them for a custom box and they made it.
There is more of them out there
Awesome! Thank you for that.
Maybe we can make a generic box for games that have no boxes? Something like the white box Atari games?
Yuk!
-
There are etsy pages that print one off boxes if you give them a template.
Please post a link.
-
Also isn't video life more rare than magicard?
When the guys from Digital Press acquired all rights and materials from CommaVid founder John Bronstein, Joe Santulli told me that Dr. Bronstein claimed only 20 copies of Video Life were made. I would think that makes Video Life worthy of Blazing Lazers' list.
-
2
-
-
-
Link please...
-
First time communicating with StickerPeeler was as if we had known each other for years. Great thing about this community is the friends we make and I now have a new one! He is a welcome addition to the community, and I hope to do business with him again. Bought my entire Activision collection and the entire transaction was a genuine pleasure. Transact with confidence!
-
Bought a game for me (reimbursed) via Ebay.uk (from a seller who wouldn't ship overseas) and shipped it to me promptly and ever-so-courteously. A true friend of the community and to me! MANY THANKS!
-
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Arkyology - New prototype discovered - Finished Game!
in Atari 2600
Posted
For the manual, I would suggest you include, on the inside of the back page, your own story about your involvement in the development of the game and whatever other history you can remember about the company during those years. Give yourself some credit! It gives us Classic Game Enthusiasts a more personal feel for the game which was sadly lacking back in the day. Consider it a chance to further connect with a community that values very highly those who reach out to us from the past.