opcode

And btw, I wasn't insinuating that you were trying to mislead people. I just said that from your initial presentation, I assume your hardware was going to be some sort of retro inspired hardware because you were talking about sprites and in fact I remember seeing a spec sheet with sprites mentioned. From the screenshots I saw recently that does't seem to be the case. For me that was a surprise, and the reason why I posted.

Tommy. You seem to worry too much about my opinion, which doesn't go beyond this forum, and surely isn't going to put the smallest dent on your $11M marketing budget. But I believe I am also entitled to an opinion. I gave my opinion as a retro gaming fan, Amico isn't for me. As for me, there is indeed a distinct possibility that OMNI may never happen. And if it does happen, my audience would be a few hundred hardcore retro gaming fans here. I am not your competitor, you shouldn't waste your time treating me as such. I am just a fan that likes to make things happen, and if you check my profile you will see that I have been around since way before retro gaming was a hot thing... Now, if you want to help me with licensing, that would be very much appreciated. Perhaps your fans here would appreciate that as well. I of course don't mind paying. Ed

That isn’t possible for a number of reasons, one of them being the fact that an OMNI cartridge has 100+ pins. And that there is no OMNI core, since OMNI isn’t FPGA based. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hm, that is interesting. See, no worries. That isn’t the plan. I am not creating content exclusive to Phoenix. I am just saying that if you have a Phoenix you can enjoy enhanced color palettes, no flicker at all, improved sound, etc. Nothing is being subtracted, just added. For exemple, the CV offers a fixed palette of 15 colors. There is nothing we can do about that. But if you happen to have a Phoenix (or F18A), you get custom palettes that better represents the original arcade palettes etc. You can still enjoy the same game on a regular CV though. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The controller fully supports the standard CV controller, but adds 2 extra buttons. How those two extra buttons are going to be used is yet to be decided. We could offer partial SAC compatibility, but then very few games use the SAC controller, and the way Coleco implemented the extra buttons was questionable (extra buttons are mapped as extra keys of the keypad, and pressing any keypad keys will interfere with them, as will pressing both 3rd and 4th button simultaneously). So another option is to offer those extra buttons as a new scheme that actually works. We will also offer new faceplate overlays for games. So hopefully Pac-Man and others. No spinners though. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Perhaps the easiest way to understand IX IY is to think about objects and properties. Lets say you are making a game. Your game has enemy characters. Those enemies have common properties, like coordinates, sprite pattern, speed, direction, etc. So you can define your enemies as "objects" with "properties" in a particular order. That way you can create common routines that manipulates your enemies, independent of which particular enemy you are processing. For example, you can define coordinates as the first 4 bytes of an object memory area, followed by speed, etc. Using IX,IY you can set those to the starting memory area of a particular enemy and let your common routines deal with it. Better yet, you can keep adding enemies as you see fit, as long as you still have free memory, and everything will still work. Instantiating new enemies (objects) becomes easy that way.

UPDATE: the plan is to present the final controller later this year. Two possible scenarios: 1) Things go really well and we can present it in final beta form, with working prototype 2) Things go not so well, and we present the final design, a 3D printed version, but not quite fully beta functional yet. We made quite a few changes to the design based on the feedback we got.

I don’t think it is a problem if a comment on the terms of the deal here. I will be adding Phoenix enhanced modes to my future CV games. In exchange CollectorVision has agreed not to compete in the controller space. Deal was made in very friendly terms, and I am glad that we all are finding our places to contribute in the scene. In are a small scene, and competition makes things harder to accomplish, as it fragments an already small base. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes, sure. But if you have a Phoenix you get improved color palette, perhaps better sound, things like that. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have started getting quit a few requests for the boxes. Thank you for those who sent me emails. I will contact you shortly with details. In the meantime, I am happy to announce that I have struck a deal with Collectorvision to support Phoenix. Pac-Man DX and others should benefit from the additional hardware features available in the Phoenix hardware.

I would appreciate some input. I am looking for 50 and only 50 people that would be interested in getting my printed boxes for DKA and SGM Pro. No actual game or module, only boxes. Boxes are in new shinny state, and no more will be sold or made available, remaining stock will be discarded (for the game, even if when it get released, I won't be able to offer boxes anyway). The money would go to fund a very special project that I would present later this year. I want to speed up thing with this project and I know a lot of people have been waiting. Please contact me if you be interested. Eduardo [at] opcodegames [dot] com

If you got the email with payment instructions, yes. Otherwise please wait, since I am sending those emails in a first come first served basis.

That is correct.

I am sending in batches. Only 50 copies available this year, first come first served

I was just surprised that during their first presentation they talked about sprite specs, thousands of sprites in screen, and that is why I was expecting something more retro inspired in terms of hardware. But from the screenshots it seems to me they are using some generic 3D chipset with no dedicated sprite generator. Sort of misleading. Anyways, I don’t think it would be a good idea to go to the Intellivision forum to discuss this. Any negative comment coming from me would sound self-serving, but my humble opinion is that I would be very surprised if they pull this off. As software for an existing platform or as a service, maybe. But requiring a new platform, I just don’t see how it can work. Comparing to Wii is a stretch, as is comparing their controller to the Wiimote. There is no recognizable brand involved. People want familiar nowadays. That is the nice about hobby. You can just do what you love and believe in, no pressure. As long as you can sell enough to pay for all the costs involved, that is good enough. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That is why I will be expanding the gameplay with new modes and areas. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I will. Zaxxon is already running on rev 1 board. Totally playable. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So here is the plan, for Q1 2020. Release Pac-Man DX and a certain long waited game. Long waited game will require a very unusual distribution method. It will involve sending me a particular original CV cartridge that isn't working properly and that requires fixing. I will then fix the cartridge and send it back to you. Luckily you will be able to play your beloved pack-in again. Hardware wise I will be beta testing Super Game Controller and SGM2. After those I will have to decide: I can get one more major SGM1 release, or I can focus 100% on the SGM2/OMNI. Will see and CollectorVision may have a saying on this.

All of that is nice if they were aiming a very niche market of a few thousand people. Today’s entertainment world sells at the strength of familiar brands. None of that is. There is a different between a couple of guys doing this as a sort of hobby, and a team of seasoned people, with a full company infrastructure doing this as a business. You have to sell at least hundreds of thousands to make it work. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This seems to make more sense to me than using buttons to aim. Buttons are slow and confusing. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I wonder, how are they planing to convince average to casual players to expend $150+ on this instead of, let’s say, a Switch? To play Moon Patrol and Atari classics? I mean, one thing is to sell this to the retro gamer enthusiast that visit AtariAge every day, or the die hard Intellivision fan, but what is the size of such a market. Can they live from just that niche group? Not to mention that many purists may be turned off by the modern graphics. Anyway, very different demographic they are going after. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No matter how they want to call it, it looks definitively modern, not what I was expecting. What is good news for me I guess. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sort of off topic, but I don’t want to cause any major stir, so I will post here anyways. I just got Retro Gamer magazine #200, and the very first feature is about Amico. And for my surprise it has mostly nothing to do with OMNI. They said it was going to be 2D only, so I was expecting the same retro style pixel graphics as we are using in OMNI. Instead what I see is a bunch of screenshots that look all sort of 3Dish, like something created for smart phones. So no matter how they spin that I will have to say: I have my doubts they can pull that off. And from the specs alone, that isn’t the same experience we are getting from OMNI or Phoenix. Looks like they are using some generic smart phone chipset. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ok. Let me see what can be done Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Tell me how you want the new scheme to work and I will see if it can be done at a reasonable timeframe. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk