WILL CLOAK AND DAGGER EVER GET FINISHED?

[Supergun]

Well, technically, there is the Atari 400/800 proto.

[+x=usr(1536)]

39 minutes ago, Supergun said:

Well, technically, there is the Atari 400/800 proto.

 

True.  Dr. Boom approves

[Tidus79001]

On 12/11/2020 at 2:17 AM, Lynxpro said:

I'm just going to mention here that it was Dave Comstock who was assigned the duties of making Cloak & Dagger for Atari 8-bit and the 5200 back in the day. He has the source code. He's also started and stopped several times trying to finish it.

 

You can listen to his 2 part interview in the Antic Atari Podcast.

 

He seems to have gotten frustrated over the lack of Dual POKEYs and RAM and graphical limitations of A8 versus the original arcade hardware. It would be great if someone could tell him about options like POKEY Max  or the Dual POKEY hardware upgrades so he could map a second POKEY into the code. Perhaps that would get him over his frustrations. Although he also said in the interview that he's kept busy with his professional duties still.

 

On 12/11/2020 at 8:03 AM, x=usr(1536) said:

 

While his frustrations are understandable, it's difficult to say how much interest there would be in a game that requires additional hardware in order to be able to play it.

 

Maybe doing an enhanced mode or similar if a second POKEY (or equivalent) is detected would be an option, but there's not much that can be done about the A8's graphics modes.

 

Not hard at all to say.  Die hard retro fans tend to be willing to pay big buck to get some rare title.  Put in the AtariAge store and it will sell like hotcakes.  I see it all the time with home brews where they have is limited 1 production run and then eBay poachers gouge those fans who will pay any price to obtain that said game on a system from yesteryear.

[+x=usr(1536)]

2 minutes ago, Tidus79001 said:

Not hard at all to say.  Die hard retro fans tend to be willing to pay big buck to get some rare title.  Put in the AtariAge store and it will sell like hotcakes.

 

Serious question: what is your definition of 'selling like hotcakes' and at what price point?

 

2 minutes ago, Tidus79001 said:

I see it all the time with home brews where they have is limited 1 production run and then eBay poachers gouge those fans who will pay any price to obtain that said game on a system from yesteryear.

 

Sure, and that's been happening for about as long as homebrews have been around.  However, consider this: every time a game (homebrew or otherwise) is resold at an increased price, the pool likely to buy it shrinks proportionately.  Eventually, all but a handful of people will be unable to afford the title, so its price is effectively irrelevant at that point since so few have the ability to purchase it.

 

That's not mentioning that sales on eBay (or non-store / private sales on AA) benefit neither the author of the title nor this website, so likely have little to no bearing on the decision to place a homebrew game for sale in the AA store.

[Tidus79001]

9 minutes ago, x=usr(1536) said:

 

Serious question: what is your definition of 'selling like hotcakes' and at what price point?

 

 

Sure, and that's been happening for about as long as homebrews have been around.  However, consider this: every time a game (homebrew or otherwise) is resold at an increased price, the pool likely to buy it shrinks proportionately.  Eventually, all but a handful of people will be unable to afford the title, so its price is effectively irrelevant at that point since so few have the ability to purchase it.

 

That's not mentioning that sales on eBay (or non-store / private sales on AA) benefit neither the author of the title nor this website, so likely have little to no bearing on the decision to place a homebrew game for sale in the AA store.

Hocakes reference aside since I have no metrics for it some big name titles keep selling (Adventure II for example) and as you said if it is kept on AtariAge then programmer keeps getting paid for each sale as opposed to the bloated eBay resells.

[+x=usr(1536)]

6 hours ago, Tidus79001 said:

Hocakes reference aside since I have no metrics for it

 

Fair enough.  I probably should have been clearer in how I asked my question, so let me spin this a bit differently: what motivation is there for someone to pick up the game as a project and work on it through to completion, unpaid, on their time, for an unknown return on the investment of the portion of their life that they dedicated to it?

 

Don't worry about sales at this point; without code to place into a physical product, sales are academic.  But someone needs to want to make it happen before it can happen, so what - apart from being willing to altruistically dedicate their time and effort to the project - might make them do that?

 

BTW: I love the 'hocakes' typo above.  It's a brilliant description of one long-ago ex- I dated for a single-digit number of days before dumping her.

 

6 hours ago, Tidus79001 said:

some big name titles keep selling (Adventure II for example) and as you said if it is kept on AtariAge then programmer keeps getting paid for each sale as opposed to the bloated eBay resells.

 

Right, but there's no way to really predict what will and won't be a big seller.  Usually there's an initial rush, followed by a tailing-off in sales where only a few might take place in a given month or even year.  Some games sell better than others, and for reasons that can't always be predicted.  But each cartridge also represents an investment in time, effort, and now money, since they have to be manufactured.  About the best that can be hoped for is to break even on sales, the volume of which isn't always reflected in initial interest.

 

(Note for anyone who may be reading this: I am not speaking for Atariage in the above paragraph as I simply have no right or authority to do so, but rather in a general sense based on personal past experience.)

 

I'd love to see Cloak & Dagger see a home release as well, but it's not one I'm holding my breath on.

[leech]

I bought the movie on Amazon, and pretty sure I'd last seen it when it'd been released, so... it's been a while.  Things I noticed.

1) Dabney Coleman as a Spy is one of the most hilarious things ever.

2) This was practically an advertisement of Atari (800s, 1050s, 1200xl, 5200, all very prominently displayed.  Though there were a couple of Colecovision boxes as well.  Also, a whole lot of TSR / D&D books!

3) They kept referring to the 5200 cart of Cloak & Dagger as 'a tape' 

4) All villains should have huge mustaches and wear sweats when chasing the hero.

[unoclay]

I usually can get any title pre-2000 from my local Philly library system (extensive!! collection of DVDs) but they only appear to have the gary cooper 1946 C&D film in this instance.  Is it worth finding an online copy of this movie?  i mean, is it good? or bad-good? or mediocre (outside of atari refs).  Just curious...

[leech]

10 minutes ago, unoclay said:

I usually can get any title pre-2000 from my local Philly library system (extensive!! collection of DVDs) but they only appear to have the gary cooper 1946 C&D film in this instance.  Is it worth finding an online copy of this movie?  i mean, is it good? or bad-good? or mediocre (outside of atari refs).  Just curious...

I bought the digital copy on amazon for like 7 dollars.  It is decent for an 80s flick.