godslabrat

Cool. Let me know how that goes for you.

Is it? A bulk of the Amico's games are mobile ports. Asking if porting them to a traditional console is fair, As far as I can see. Granted, the OP didn't add the other ports of things like browser games, but I can see why that would be a different conversation.

I don't know. I'm not in charge of the Amico, and have had no input as to their decisions on which games to port.

Which means even less is changing. Not a convincing point if the games aren't great in the first place. And since the OP was talking specifically about subpar mobile games, that's by definition the case.

The question was, how will the games be improved by adding multiplayer. I contend they won't be.

1- The Free-To-Play-Pay-To-Win model. I don't mind free games, and I don't mind paying for games, but free games that expect me to pay on the backend in order to tilt the challenge in my favor are toxic. 2- Controls that only work for tap-centric games. That's a small minority of the games I like to play. Good controls are really important and can't be overstated. 3- Games with zero depth, running generic engines with minimal graphic flipping. Granted, these are not limited to mobile, but the economics of mobile games makes them multiply in number. None of these gripes magically go away when you add the option of more players.

I think that's the OP's point.

Just to be clear... is l'Atari now supposed to be shipping the alleged 96 they made for "dev kits", or are these supposedly going to people who paid for them?

Who spends the time reporting an unboxing without actually powering it on? That screams either "fake" or "idiot".

I agree, $99 is a fair cap on novelty items, which is what any 'throwback' console would be right now. You can expect people to grab those just for laughs. But when you talk about what the VCS is charging... you really need to be able to show that is a viable platform.

And then, ironically, said company will literally have more use for actual dogshit than the Atari logo.

Well, the excuse is that people will buy them. Except, I don't really think that's true anymore. The recently announced products probably *won't* sell well, because their value is being massively overstated. Does someone out there want Pong? I'm sure of it? Is it worth more than a fast-food meal in any form? I doubt it.

There is no reason that anyone should be selling Pong in a stand-alone form in 2020. It should be part of a $14.99 compilation pack for a console or be a $1.99 app for a smartphone. Trying to sell such a weak IP in hardware form now is pathetic.

When I think about all the things I don't like about mobile games, none of them are improved by adding additional players. Misery does not love company.

Today's episode of my podcast has UKMike in the hot seat, talking about the book. If you prefer your podcasts in Audio form, go here: www.linktr.ee/HungryTrilobyte

CPUWIZ-- I always appreciated your help around here. I only hope your get the help you need to pull through this. All my best to you and your family.

We also have a major problem, particularly in the realm of hardware, of companies completely misrepresenting how close the product is to completion. Risking $300 for a box that's fully designed and ready to be pumped out of a Chinese factory is one proposition. Risking $300 for a system with no OS, firmware, and arguably not even a finished hardware design is quite another. At the very least, potential backers have the right to know exactly what category their purchase falls into BEFORE they make their pledge. If you want to claim transparency and communication, start from BEFORE the pledge happens. Less marketing jabber and more about it the specifics of what will be in the gizmo you fancy yourself selling.

Indeed. I realize crowdfunding can be applied in many ways, but it seems it was DESIGNED to be most effective to help produce large quantities of an item at once. It's when you try and translate that into an ongoing production model that things start to get hairy. I mean, it doesn't matter how successful your campaign was... there's still an absolutely excellent chance that the people who pledged were all the customers your product was ever going to have. We all talk about how the Ouya made it into Wal-Mart. No one talks about how many Ouyas actually SOLD at Wal-Mart.

Companies in excellent financial shape habitually leave their invoices unpaid AND pay their CEO 30% of their total net worth. Got it. Is crowdfunding evens valid measure of demand? Seems like it would be a really good way to sell directly to a very small sliver of diehards (ie, suckers) who will buy anything with a certain logo... but that has no bearing on how popular the item will be outside the crowdfunding campaign.

Have there been any gaming partnerships about hot sauce?

The Atari VCS: "So innovative, people are finding ways to use anything OTHER than our software!"

So... let me get this straight... this guy's really impressed that a cheap PC can load an OS intended specifically for cheap PCs?

Man, Shelly's box gets around...

I don't interject textwalls about my personal projects in the Amico thread. Can we please keep Tommy from doing that here? I have no intent to troll, but it's getting harder and harder to ignore him when he won't stay in his own playground.

Tommy, I'm really trying hard to ignore you, because while I have my concerns about the Amico, I don't consider you an outright scam artist, like Freddy Cheesy, Mike Kennedy, Bryan Bernal, etc. But if you won't stay in your own thread, I am going to keep saying dumb stuff to wind you up. Because I'm positive that'll amuse me far more than the Amico ever will.