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solidcorp

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Posts posted by solidcorp

  1. Posted

    I saw the video and it looks nice, but I get weary when anyone says they improved the gameplay on a game they didn't originally make, especially for a classic game. I'm no expert on Star Castle, but I have been disappointed with some remakes that tried to improve things and made things worse instead. This is probably not the case here and it looks like an impressive port, though.

     

    I understand this is your project, but it's not often when someone in the professional gaming industry makes a game for an older system. Ed Fries made Halo 2600, it was shown to bungie, sold at CGE 2010, and still got a rom release. Selling the game at a high price and not letting any company make another cart, limits who can see and try the game. The high bidder doesn't make the game more of less legal. The extremely high price for a brand new game that is not a prototype or unreleased game will make sure most won't be albe to play the game for a long time. Not to mention that if someone does buy and decides not to release the rom to the public, but still dumps it, may make piracy more likely.

     

    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.

    • Like 1

  2. Posted

    solidcorp, could I ask what the endgame is here?

     

    In other words, I'm sure you know no one here is really able to shell out almost $33k for a video game, especially in this economy. Most folks here are middle-class at best (in terms of their income), and would be quite hesitant to spend $327.68 on a single game, let alone 100x that much. So I find it hard to see this thread as a good-faith sales attempt. If I'm wrong about that, my apologies.*

     

    Otherwise, I'm left wondering what your intentions are. You've made something that's exciting, that's guaranteed to attract attention, people would buy if they could afford it -- but which is clearly going to remain out of reach.**

     

    Is the point to teach "us" a lesson -- and by "us" I mean the pirating masses, the parasites who allegedly consume other people's work without paying for it -- by holding out something "we" might want, but not allowing us to have it under viable terms? Are you trying to make "us" feel the same frustration you feel, when you've had your work pirated in the past? Is the similarity of your asking price to the selling price of the boxed Air Raid meant to underscore some point about how we value the works of the past vs. the works of the present?

     

    This isn't intended as an attack, BTW, and I hope it doesn't read as one. I'm just trying to understand what you're expecting to accomplish, and what the value of these interactions are for you -- that is, besides the praise for your work on Star Castle, which is obviously well-earned.

     

    Maybe another way of asking the question is: besides acknowledging that you're clearly an accomplished programmer who's done great work on this Star Castle port, what else are you looking for us (or "us") to do for you?

     

    *(I accept that your time, effort, and handiwork is potentially worth $33k. Certainly, if Thomas Jentzsch had released Thrust in 1982, or John C. had programmed Ladybug back then, one would hope they'd be making at least $33k for their efforts -- in 1982 dollars, that is! But they're participants in our "gift economy", sharing their work for a miniscule fraction of its true value, because the appreciation, respect, and -- dare I say it? -- love*** they get in return makes it worthwhile to them.)

     

    **(And again, that's your prerogative: if you'd decided to produce a run of carts, aiming to make a few thousand bucks out of it, you might find that the warmth and gratitude of our community would be sufficient compensation for the difference between that and $33k. But then again, you might not: there are always complainers and fun-ruiners, after all, and anyone can decide that the existence of those people wrecks everything. More to the point, warmth and gratitude don't pay the rent -- at least not directly...)

     

    ***(Not the sexy-time sort of love, mind you. Just fraternal love for one's fellow human beings who sacrifice that one irreplaceable resource -- their time -- to make the world a slightly more fun and exciting place.)

     

    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.

    • Like 1

  4. Posted

    Loved Roadblasters and S.T.U.N. Runner, hated Toki, not your fault though I just don't like that game on ANY system :D Can still remember opening Roadblasters out of the shrinkwrap and eating toaster struddel with a red baron pizza, also purchased Warbirds that day, awesome!

    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.

     

    My thoughts on Star Castle...

    I used to get mad when programmers did not release there games. Well, the more I thought about it why would I even want to purchase a game that the programmer obviously does NOT want me to play. There is no money in homebrewing, the talented homebrew programmers we have around here do it for the admiration. If somebody makes it clear they do not want anyone to have the game then why drag it out by begging or getting mad? Just say "okay, thats fine, let us know if you change your mind" and purchase one of the games from people who DO want you to enjoy there work, there is plenty of them out there. My Atari will keep on rocking with or without Star Castle :)

     

    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.

    • Like 1

  6. Posted

    So if that's the case, then the fact of downloading the Star Castle rom doesn't really hold a candle to your argument then that you presented earlier.

     

    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).

    • Like 1

  7. Posted

    Who is the current copyright holder? It looks like Williams from a brief trawl through the wiki entry for the game.

     

    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.

    • Like 1

  8. Posted · Edited by solidcorp

    Once bought everyone could download and share it LEGALLY.

    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.

     

    In any event, I'm sure it's a great port, and while I think a lot of people would get great pleasure from playing it, I respect your right to set a high monetary threshold on releasing it. For those of us who create things -- a game, a piece of music, a story, a work of art -- sharing our work with the world has always meant, and will always mean, relinquishing complete control over how it's used, received, disseminated and interpreted. That's not something that troubles me; after all, I've had my work shared for free on the Internet before, both with and without my consent, and if I'm lucky it'll happen again.

     

    Thanks so much.

    • Like 1

  9. Posted · Edited by solidcorp

    It's cool if you don't want to participate, but nobody is "stealing" anything as the norm. It's given away for love of the hobby.

    Sharing your games and source in communities like this is one thing, but homebrew games are downloaded without discretion alongside of the classics.

    Also, homebrew isn't a disparaging word, and it doesn't describe the quality of a work. There are very few commercial games that reach the depth and polish of the homebrew titles in the AA store.

    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.

    • Like 1

  10. Posted

    I just got Star Castle on Mame, and it is an ok game.

     

    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.

    • Like 1

  13. Posted

    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.

     

    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

    Howard Scott Warshaw: We used a VAX system to compile/assemble, and then downloaded the code to an emulator box for execution, patching, and debugging. I was given the system’s manual and, after learning it, was assigned to do my first game – a version of Cinematronic’s Star Castle. I soon realized that a decent version couldn’t be done, so I took what I thought were the top logical and geometric components of Star Castle and reorganized them in a way that would better suit the machine. This eventually became Yars’ Revenge.

    From Atari Times: http://www.ataritimes.com/article.php?showarticle=522

    How did you get the job for Yars' Revenge? Did Atari need a clone of Star Castle and you simply came up with a better game?

     

    Yes, I was the next person on the list to get an assignment and Atari needed a Star Castle clone. I went back to them and said "I don't think this is going to work." But I analyzed the game and found what I thought was fun about it. I reconfigured it and made a few modifications in a way that would work on the 2600. And they were cool about it because there weren't to many arcade hits at the time and Star Castle wasn't all that.

    From ED interview:http://www.playmountain.net/forum/e-t-the-extra-terrestrial/howard-scott-warshaw-interview-on-atari-dumped-e-t-cartridges/

     

    Jogos 80 Magazine: Yars´ Revenge, one of your brilliant creations, was a major hit at the time. In fact, It´s still enjoyed by so many players and collectors worldwide. We know the game was supposed to be a home version of Star Castle, right? When did you decide to make Yars´ Revenge out of Star Castle? How did that happen?

     

    Howard Scott Warshaw: Well, when I started to evaluate Star Castle for conversion to the VCS I realized very quickly that it would really suck. So I proposed a different game play which I felt incorporated all the fun game play elements of the coin-op but would work much more cleanly on the VCS. Fortunately they let me run with it and that is how Yars' was born, initially. Many other details and many hours of work went into making it the game and the story that it became, but that's how it all started.

     

    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.

  14. Posted

    I dont know if it is just me

    but it sounds just ...wrong....

    it is like putting money on a passion

    trying to exploit people

    I mean, I know we are collecting it

    and everything has a value

    but it will be better if the rom was ditribute free like most of the other programmers and then trying to sell one exclusive cartridge

    but that selfish attitude bothers me

     

    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.

  15. Posted

    Since none of us are ever going to see/play/own this version, we should start a bounty for Star Castle. Plenty of great homebrew programmers here that could pull this off. Star Castle today. Boxing Bugs tomorrow :)

     

    [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.

  16. Posted

    Pffft, I'd do it for free just to see the game get done!

     

    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.

  17. Posted

    Awesome. I thought you were gung ho about never ever selling this thing?

     

    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.

    • Like 1

  18. Posted

    I just got Star Castle on Mame, and it is an ok game.

     

    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 mean nothing super spectacular or anything. I guess that's because I'm on an I'Robot kick right now.

     

    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.

  19. Posted · Edited by solidcorp

    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

    • Like 2

  22. Posted

    Jose is a collector of Atari 2600 items, and seems to have money. He bought Air Raid boxed for upwards of $30K.

    edit: if there's a bidding war for this, he's likely to win.

     

    I wouldn't rule out the McGrail factor on this one....

     

    'ULTRA RARE 2600 HOMEBREW - BUY IT NOW $1,000,050'

     

    Hah, I have to ask, who is McGrail? Did he get his $1M?

     

    (See, StarCastle is a bargain)

  23. Posted

     

    It's a joke. Sort of.

     

    No it's not. Sort of.

     

    I don't get it.

     

    ( ? )

    Jose is a collector of Atari 2600 items, and seems to have money. He bought Air Raid boxed for upwards of $30K.

    edit: if there's a bidding war for this, he's likely to win.

     

    That's a hell of a coincidence, The price I announced at VGS is $32,768.00 USD ($32k)

     

    That's just 50 cents a byte for the whole cart, or $4 a byte for the 8K Star Castle runs out of.

     

    No bidding war, first come first serve, cash, cashiers check, or wire deposit only.

     

    But, there's a little more to it than that... If someone does eventually purchase the cartridge, they can tell me if they think I should make another physical cartridge (serial number 00002 of course) and withhold the source for some number of years or if I should release the source and playable binaries (F8 bank switch for Stella and my custom 64K cart versions) immediately.

    • Like 2
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