Just Curious...

[Underball]

I understand the element of surprise and all...but why are some 7800 Homebrewers so secretive and over-protective of their projects, when others clearly aren't?

 

One of the things I always hated about the 7800 when I was a kid was that Atari had all these fake/mockup screenshots on their catalogs for games that mostly never came out. It was eternally frustrating practically knowing that every time I went to Sears/Toys R Us as a kid, NONE of these promised games would ever be on the shelf.

 

Fast forward to 2008 - and I see lots of vague *wink wink* chatter about well guarded "in process" homebrew, but unlike some previous masterpieces like 7800 Beef Drop/b*n-Q/Pac-Man Collection - we get no real screenshots, no WIP demos, nada.

 

The thing that really brought me back to the 7800 was being able to be an active daily/weekly part of a great homebrew in progress. It felt great to test the crap out of them and see how we could break it while the coder improved on it.

 

Now it just seems like there's this "Secret Squirrel" little clique of coders who do everything off the board, and regular users input is no longer valued/included in the process.

 

What's with all the secrecy?

Edited October 9, 2008 by Underball

[Bryan]

I tend to hide my WIP projects simply because I have no idea how much time I'll be able to spend on them. I hate to tease everyone with a bunch of pictures then disappear for 8 months. I'd rather save my reputation and show it when it's ready.

 

Early screenshots seem to almost be a guarantee that the project will stall out along the way. Some people just want the attention and have no idea what it really takes to finish a quality game.

Edited October 9, 2008 by Bryan

[Atarifever]

I agree with Bryan's assessment. I prefer not to be teased too much about games being developed, as I never play test them, and am only interested in final products. I don't mind a lable contest, or someone like Bob, who always finishes everything, putting up a fairly well developed ROM, but if I had to go through what the Jag community does, I'd stop paying attention. Too many "coming soon" posts followed by nothing for two years would drive me nuts.

Edited October 9, 2008 by Atarifever

[PacManPlus]

I also agree with Bryan and Atarifever's comments. I never know when I'm going to be able to work on something, and I prefer to finish the things I *know* need to be worked on/finished, etc. Before I give it out publicly. This way I don't have my 'list' of bugs and a whole bunch more from the people who are kind enough to play-test and give feedback. I can become quite overwhelmed that way.

 

That being said, I'm wondering if this was somewhat directed on my 'Super Pac-Man' port that I've been fairly secretive about. It's almost completed (about a week to go) and I will post a bin when I'm not ashamed of my work.

 

Bob

[Underball]

Not really directed at you bob.

 

Just kind of in general.

[the.golden.ax]

You can't show off WIP on ideas

 

AX

[Crazyace]

I'm having fun just playing with the systems, so the code can go out straight away - if someone wants to run with it - or argue about something thats great.

( I still haven't got around to finishing tetris26 or the magical drop cowboy idea on 2600 - and they went up years ago... )

[+Allan]

Read the 5200 Cloak & Dagger thread and you will understand completely.

 

Allan