solidcorp

Thanks for having me, the show was GREAT as usual.

It's more like a good but not famous studio vocalist records a song that Elvis couldn't sing, but led to the song Jailhouse Rock. The studio vocalist hangs on to their recording but plays it publicly. Afterwards several people are interested in buying a record of the song, but not enough to make it commercially viable. The artist decides to keep the recording to themselves, but later realizes that for enough money they would be willing to sell the record and give away the mp3's. Everyone could have come and seen it at VGS in 2010 and 2011. It's exactly what it promises to be, a faithful port of the Cinematronics Star Castles coin op. No more no less.

It has also been suggested that I just put the cart on eBay with a high reserve (higher than my asking price to account for the eBay and paypals exorbitant rates, but then again, they provide a valuable service by providing a marketplace and painless transactions).

Your analysis matches almost exactly what I heard last year. Once again, didn't do it for the money, don't want to have it stolen, but there is a figure I can't refuse.

Basically I agree, but I can't say either is superior. New games are a totally different animal, they need to be richer and deeper. You can't really sell those old twitch coin-op or vintage cart experiences any more no matter how you try to rewrap them - unless they are unmodified in some retro collection. Star Raiders on the Atari 400 (where I started programming) was and is one of my favorite games. I never liked it on the 2600, though it was a good effort and the ST version was ugly and klunky.

Who cares? Nobody is going to support these shenanigans at all, not even that Wonder dude, it's a simple game of "Look at my shiny ball, you can't play with it!". Reminds me a bit of those Jaguar weirdos, like Gorf. S1500 and Cebus brought up Jaguar Gorf last year. That must have really struck quite a nerve.

Thanks, the version exhibited last year did not have difficulty like the coin op, it started too hard but never got harder. Now as the levels progress, the cannon in the center increases it's rotation speed, the three sparks turn and move faster to track you. As far as controls are concerned, there was an overflow branch bug in my thrust code that caused the trajectory to straighten out unnaturally at max speed which has been fixed. All of these improvements made the game more like the original coin op. I did take the liberty of adding LEDs to the cartridge and flashed them in different ways for different types of explosive events, but that doesn't interfere with gameplay and its pretty cool. I couldn't agree with you more. The original works are popular because of what they are, they don't need to be reinterpreted. I am a purist when it comes to coin op ports, hopefully you can see that in my other work: RoadBlasters Lynx Toki Lynx S.T.U.N. Runner Lynx BattleZone/Super Breakout Gameboy I really fought design changes made to Arctic Thunder by the original designers at Midway. They were trying to make the home version less of a "rental" by adding grappling hooks and smoke screens to a finished balanced game and in my opinion they disturbed the balance. I would caution against purchasing any game for $32,768 then preventing the game from being released only to share it... 1. It's illogical and foolish 2. At that point the value of the property has been established, raising the stakes considerably for those sharing the title. 3. It's not like I won't know who bought it which makes picking a defendant in a copyright infringement lawsuit pretty easy. Whether I win or not, lawsuits are ugly and expensive. I'm not saying I would or wouldn't sue over something like this, I'm just saying it's risky and silly.

Deep and fair. Other than make and show the game, everything else has been in reaction to the reaction. I'm not teaching anyone a lesson, our lives are no different than if I had never tried to make Star Castle, and I'm not keeping anyone else from trying. I'm not asking anyone to do anything for me and I am grateful for the praise I have received here, at VGS, in the press, from my friends, and from my professional peers. I improved the gameplay and replay value of the product by improving the controls and adding difficulty, put it in an awesome clear cartridge with flashing lights, and exhibited the product in the same venue in which it premiered in 2010. I also announced that I would be willing to sell it as a one of a kind item and if sold I'd be willing to release the source and binaries. Once again I am defending myself.

Thanks!

Thanks a lot man. Roadblasters was a real trip for me, I was brought to tears when I saw it in the Sears Wishbook (Christmas catalog were used before the internet). It was the first game I wrote on my own that was released comercially. I didn't make it for money, I was driven by the challenge (and maybe the prospect of old school bragging rights). I was really taken by surprise at the response from people in the 14 page forum discussion that resulted from it's debut last year. Since then, I've done some reflection and even though I would be frustrated releasing it conventionally, I found a figure at which I would be comfortable giving it to everybody and announced that at VGS.

Raw Thrills is 3 miles from my house. They may have staff but no way do they have the rights to an old coin op Eugene didn't write.

Touche' with respect to the Star Castle coin op ROMS... But there are some fundamental differences: one being that I tried to contact the owner to get permission, and the other being that the vast majority of titles in any "classic gaming preservation project" are likely not to be dead but rather stolen properties. Never the less, I stand by my assertion that piracy is commonplace (particular those that will run on free emulation software) and that it is reasonable to assume that a product released on the 2600 is more likely to be pirated than purchased (not to take anything away from the honest people who would buy the game, they are just vastly outnumbered).

Star Castle was done by Tim Skelly at Cinematronics which was bought by Tradewest which was renamed Leland corporation which was acquired by Williams (WMS) which merged with Bally/Midway and has subsequently split leaving Midway with the coin op licenses who filed for bankruptcy in 2009 and was bought by Warner Brothers Entertainment. As it turns out, the interactive software licensing liaison at Warner Brothers is an old friend of mine who also was the producer at Midway for Arctic Thunder PS2 which one of my companies, Inland Productions, ported and on which I was one of the lead programmers. He is in possession of "THE list"; a list of ALL interactive properties Warner Brothers owns. Star Castle is not on "THE list". I also inquired at WMS and Atari (Infogrames) just to be thorough but have turned up nothing.

This is an interesting assertion. Is the Star Castle IP in the public domain? I know the Vectrex version is in the public domain (as are all Vectrex games from BITD), but I'm not sure of how that works vis-a-vis the licensing that allowed them to make the port in the first place. EDIT: Or, do you (solidcorp) own the Star Castle IP, or have a license to the name? That is a good question, I was hoping someone would ask, As a matter of fact I have aggressively pursued the rights to develop Star Castle for the Atari 2600 via telephone and email for about a year and a half... basically since I figured out how to do it and decided to write the entire game. I have developed many licensed properties, several of which being coin-op ports. At some point I had to decide whether to code it or not without the rights and decided to finish it anyway. I am fairly certain that the current copyright holder either does not know they own the rights or does not care. As far as I can tell, it is a dead property. If, by chance, the copyright holder is reading this, please contact me immediately. If a copyright owner comes forward and can clearly prove legal ownership, I will either enter into an agreement with them to sell the cartridge, or if we can't come to an agreement I will keep it. I am within my rights either way. Thanks so much.

Sharing your games and source in communities like this is one thing, but homebrew games are downloaded without discretion alongside of the classics. I didn't mean to take away from the fine finished titles in the AA store, I only meant to say that the phrase "homebrew" conjures images of amateur, lower quality, hackish work, and to its credit, many titles reach professional levels. I personally feel they should be distinguished from the many many efforts that don't reach such depth and polish. It is merely my opinion and I certainly am not suggesting other titles in the AA store or anywhere else are of inferior quality.

So you downloaded the Star Castle ROMS and ran them in an emulator - this is exactly why I didn't release the 2600 version on a melody cart, and presumably why my not releasing the game frustrated more than a few people. Actually I should say that I had them downloaded years ago. As part of my classic gaming preservation project. A time capsule if you will. This is a digital archival project to help ensure that the classic gaming code survives into the next century long after we're dead. I have different drives than what are available at retail, much lower density and much slower speeds. These are expected to go 40-50 years without a refresh. And I have a drive from 1980 that still works perfectly too with no refreshing. But that is from a different project. It really depends on how they are stored. All that aside, I just fired it up in mame to see what the fuss was all about. To check the accuracy of conversion between the arcade and 2600. If I seriously played any more than a handful of these games it would consume far too much time to do anything else. My pc gaming mostly consists of X-plane and Orbiter. Perhaps a few select 2600 & Arcade games. But nothing more. Yawn... <sarchasm> Aaaaaaaaah, so you have a classic gaming preservation project do you? Do you have the rights to Star Castle? Have you purchased the ROMS for all your games? Do the current copyright owners know of your preservation project and have Atari, Midway, Sega, Taito, Konami, Warner Communication... given you permission to possess their copyrighted property? I've got news for you, there are probably millions of "preservationists" just like you, and believe it or not these games are still viable commercial properties. Just look in the iPhone App store, they're in there for sale, where emulators are not allowed. It doesn't matter when you did it, it doesn't matter why you did it, it doesn't matter if you even play them, but if you didn't purchase the games and if the copyright owners haven't given you permission to possess them it's stealing, it's against the law, and you did it... and it sounds like you've got a nice collection if you can just go pull a less than popular game like Star Castle from the archives to "fire it up in mame to see what all the fuss is about". Look, I'm not here to single you out or even come down on piracy so hard. I'm a professional game developer and piracy is a very serious issue in our industry. The bottom line for me is that piracy is not only rampant but commonplace, and there is nothing I can do to protect my work, particularly on a naked system like the Atari 2600, so if I'm going to sell it I'd better make damn sure I get all the money I want up front. After that, I want everyone to have it, legally, for free. That's the way it is, thanks for making my point.

Thanks Jess! (I made S.T.U.N. Runner too )

NP, it's all good. You and others make fine points. It just takes one sale and everyone has a chance to have it... or, I'll keep it and never get any money. Either is fine, it's the norm of "I make a little money and everyone steals it" that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

In his defence maybe HSW felt flicker was an unacceptable compromise AFAIK it's not used in any of his games - supercat outlined how a nice version could be done with 30hz flicker a few years ago - http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/142/entry-5136-star-castle-anyone/ - I think it's quite similar to your implementation? I know you didn't suggest I was attacking Howard but I want to be clear, he does not require defense, I am not trying to take anything away from his wonderful work. It's possible, but it's not what he said in his many interviews. Multiplexing was used in several games prior. From DG Presshttp://www.digitpress.com/library/interviews/interview_howard_scott_warshaw.html From Atari Times: http://www.ataritimes.com/article.php?showarticle=522 From ED interview:http://www.playmountain.net/forum/e-t-the-extra-terrestrial/howard-scott-warshaw-interview-on-atari-dumped-e-t-cartridges/ My interpretation of these interviews and others was he didn't see how it could be done in a quality way, so he took the elements he thought made the game fun and reorganized them into a game for the 2600 hardware. The result turned out to be a superior product. I set out to prove that making a quality port of Star Castle for the 2600 was possible on hardware available at the time.

I'm offering to release the source and binaries if it's okay with the buyer. It's like saying I want to sell 1000 cartridges all at once for $32.77 apiece. Isn't that better than just keeping the cartridge to myself forever? Once bought everyone could download and share it LEGALLY.

[i read some of your more verbose edits yesterday ] I made Star Castle on the 2600 because Howard Scott Warshaw made Yars Revenge instead of a port of Star Castle and repeatedly said that a "decent version couldn't be done" or "it would suck" in subsequent interviews. I did it to prove it could be done. I think this project passed "homebrew" a long time ago - and to be clear, I feel all projects started without a publisher begin as homebrew, but whether you are a professional game developer or an anonymous talented programmer, at some point when you create a complete quality salable game you cross a line from a hobbyist to something else. Frankly, I prefer Atari's vector Black Widow to Boxing Bugs and I don't think either lends themselves to the 2600 due to their controls, but I'm not here to tell you what to like or do. You should get those projects started.

You totally should. Seriously. I've always suggested that people try to do this or any other game they like. Thomas Jentzsch offered last year. I suggest you both do it, after all now you know it can be done and you have a pretty good template to follow. I discussed how I approached some of the thornier issues in the forum posts last year, you have youtube videos and screen shots to boot.

After our conversation last year, I looked back and asked myself if I would accept an offer of a million dollars for the game, and the answer was of course yes, then $100,000, $50,000 and so on. Eventually I found figure that I was uncomfortable with. I was surprised and flattered at the response it got here on Atari Age and found that creatively I would like to share the work, but I don't want to give it away nor have it stolen. So, here is the perverted perspective I find myself having today: Even though I didn't make it for money (I did it to prove it could be done), there is a figure that I would accept (regardless of what others think its value is), but I don't want to have worked so hard on something to have it stolen, so if I were to be paid that figure I would be comfortable releasing it all. Frankly if someone really did come forward, it would be really difficult for me to hand over the cartridge, but I would. After all, I'd still be the person who after 30 years made a great port of one of my favorite coin op games, the game that HSW said "would suck", that indirectly led to the creation of Yars Revenge - a game who's innovation and success made history in our industry.

So you downloaded the Star Castle ROMS and ran them in an emulator - this is exactly why I didn't release the 2600 version on a melody cart, and presumably why my not releasing the game frustrated more than a few people. I liked the game because it was in the arcade with Battlezone, Asteroids, Missile Command and Space Duel when I was growing up, but I ported the game because the man who made Yars Revenge was supposed to do it and said "a decent version couldn't be made" and "it would suck", and frankly, if he did do it, we probably wouldn't have Yars Revenge which would suck more. I've said it over and over, I made it to prove it could be done and done well.

I played this quite a lot in Galaxy World (Now a Brunswick Zone) in Carol Stream. I always thought it was a Rockola game that never made it out of test into production. I remember flying loops and stuff over the scrolling V terrain catching falling diamonds. I remember it was a very cool game and played it a lot, it was right next to Zaxxon, and back to back with Reactor, I think I gave it up for Tempest. I *may* be remembering it as better than it was just because I haven't seen it in so long, as was the case with QB-3. Scott