Halloween demo cart stolen from AA at CGE 2010!

[Emehr]

Just put an audio chip and speaker in it so that when it's removed from the system for more than 5 seconds it makes that crying baby sound from Yoshi's Island.

[Retro Rogue]

Sounds like Al needs some bubbles like Marty used in his museum.

 

AX

 

I'm actually moving away from those for a lot of the playable stuff next year and doing sealed tabletop kiosks I'm building. With almost 5,000 people at this year's show, it's to much of a hassle to keep an eye on stuff that's playable where people are expected to actually be standing and play around it for a time.

 

Honestly though, with these types of demo carts Al might consider a reusable cartridge casing with a hole in it that he can run a cable/lock through to the back of the table. Not a permanent solution but it'll be a good and noticeable action for someone to try and undo that.

[gdement]

Swap two of the Dx lines on the cartridge port.

That's a good solution to break the game for a petty thief, without being very hard to implement.

It won't really deter people who would steal a proto to dump it though, as they'd probably be knowledgeable enough to figure it out, or find somebody who is.

 

A more aggressive solution would be to encrypt part of the code, and put the key in the console BIOS. The modded BIOS would decrypt it into RAM before launching the game. As a generic solution for multiple games, there could be a standard location in the cartridge ROM that indicates the encrypted range, and what address it wants the BIOS to copy it to.

 

There's more work involved setting this up though. But it would prevent demos getting dumped even if the thief has high technical knowledge. The only workaround they'd have is to rewrite the missing code, and that's not likely to happen.

[gdement]

Honestly though, with these types of demo carts Al might consider a reusable cartridge casing with a hole in it that he can run a cable/lock through to the back of the table. Not a permanent solution but it'll be a good and noticeable action for someone to try and undo that.

That might be easier.

[the.golden.ax]

I vote for blue dye that explodes when you leave the proximity of the vault.

 

AX

[Cliff Friedel]

Can't go wrong with ninjas. As soon as they see the cart leave the Atari, the blowguns come out and down goes the thief. They dissolve back into the shadows and no one is the wiser. Just remember to pay them. It could get ugly if they have to come collect.

[Bruce Tomlin]

and put the key in the console BIOS

Yeah, that's going to work on 2600 games.

 

You could make it a RAM cart that has to be "injected" with the code, and has a weak battery or supercapacitor that lasts like 2 days, but then you'd have a RAM cart that someone might find more interesting than the game itself...

 

...or use one of those really rare game switcher things under a plastic shield and people wouldn't even have to swap the cartridges...

 

...or yeah, just drill a hole and use a cable lock.

[potatohead]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i6OrOZwtmA

 

 

Maybe at the next show, have a picture of the cart, and an exhibition of some tunes like this, mixed with a "win a free demo cart" raffle.

 

(yeah, I'll turn down the "evil" a notch)

[Rik]

I really don't think we'll see this cart turn up on Ebay, or anywhere else.I think whoever stole this cart, did so because he/she, (is it positively determined to be a he who stole it?), is a classic gaming buff, and wanted it for himself to keep.A heads up should be posted everywhere possible, so that in case he is stupid enough to sell, the potential buyer would report it as stolen.Lets just hope whoever does see this cart and is about to buy will have enough god given moral standard and decency to report it.But like i said, the chances of the thief selling is slim, but if he was stupid enough to steal it, then can be stupid enough to sell!, you never know.Lets just hope he is stupid enough to sell!So 3 things can happen,1- he can sell to a person who reports it.2- Sell it to someone else of equal scumbag character, and not get reported. 3-He keeps it as his prized collection locked away and will never be seen again.Even if a buyer buys it and knows its stolen property, will they feel guilty and report it later?Chances are slim for fear of prosecution.Possession of stolen property knowingly or unknowingly are the same punishable crime.

Edited August 29, 2010 by Rik

[Tempest]

I'm guessing some kids stole it on a dare or because they were bored and ditched it somewhere. I doubt someone stole it to sell it.

 

Tempest

[Jinks]

Do you have any screenshots? Was this going to be a expansion module type of game? Just wondering cause I want to purchase,

[jwierer]

Do you have any screenshots? Was this going to be a expansion module type of game? Just wondering cause I want to purchase,

There is some info on the CGE Preview Page.

 

-Jeff

[Lord Thag]

IT looks pretty sweet man. Sorry it got nicked. I also will buy this, just like I have your other games.

 

Nice work, as always.

[SlowCoder]

Dupe post. Using my Droid, and somehow double saved.

Edited September 5, 2010 by SlowCoder

[SlowCoder]

I didn't read through the whole thread, but maybe you could set up some sort of state requirements at startup for the demos to work. For instance, joystick must be in up-left position and fire pressed at power up time, otherwise the cart pretends to be dead, rendering it useless to the thief and any potential buyers.