Arcadia / Super Charger woes...

[curtishart]

Argh! My 2 year old somehow got a hold of my "Escape From the Mindmaster" tape and it's ruined Now I only have Phaser Patrol (Which is a great game) but it got me thinking, whats with the taboo on even mentioning posting .wav or .mp3 files for these games?

 

Everywhere I've looked for a replacement copy of Escape all mentiones the Stella CD (Which from what I hear is out of print)

 

Maybe I'm being cynical, but I can't believe the "retro-community" haven't taken a "F*ck 'em, I can post whatever games I want" seeing as how they've done it for practically everything else. If (And I'm generalizing, I know) the community DOES have some sort of ethics for distributing these, then I must say, I'm pretty impressed about it.

 

...I think I'm just ranting since my Starpath SuperCharger collection just got whittled down by 50%

[Pitfall Harry]

[deleted]

[NovaXpress]

Maybe I'm being cynical, but I can't believe the "retro-community" haven't taken a "F*ck 'em, I can post whatever games I want" seeing as how they've done it for practically everything else.

 

I believe that this is because the owners of the copyrights are still attempting to make money off the games. You notice that Activision games aren't available here for the same reason. No one feels any problem with distributing a game that is completely out-of-print and never going to be again. Such games should be in the public domain. However if the Starpath owners still want to make use of the programs, that changes the matter into pure copyright infringement.

 

However, we also have the issue that most of us will never have a prayer of owning a Supercharger, and therefore can only play these games through an emulator. I really don't think that the Starpath guys would lose a single sale from distributing the ROMs. If I ever get a Supercharger then I will be begging for a "Stella" CD and collecting any reproduction tapes they might make, even though I obtained the ROMs years ago. We always argue that distributing ROMs won't hurt the sales of collector-worthy editions. Do we really believe that or not?

[tkarner]

I can understand why Activision wouldn't want us exchanging bin

files because they'd like to sell us the games on a CD for our

Playstations. I might not agree but I understand. As for this

Starpath situation, it's totally ridiculous. As I understand it, Starpath merged/morphed/evolved into what is now a religious book company.

I don't know what their objections could possibly be, unless they

believe software "pirates" will burn in hell.

[CPUWIZ]

I can understand why Activision wouldn't want us exchanging bin

files because they'd like to sell us the games on a CD for our

Playstations. I might not agree but I understand. As for this

Starpath situation, it's totally ridiculous. As I understand it, Starpath merged/morphed/evolved into what is now a religious book company.

I don't know what their objections could possibly be, unless they

believe software "pirates" will burn in hell.

 

You might want to read some of this, you may understand why.

 

http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/1698/cy...faq.html#sec5.1

[Nukey Shay]

If you can find a site that has .bin images of the games, you can use the bintowav program on theoldcomputer to make new cassettes.

 

Best I can do...since I'd already gotten yelled at

[mos6507]

This topic keeps coming up.

 

There is no reason to find these files online or dub hissy dropout-ridden tapes to CDR.

 

There are still HUNDREDS of Stella CDs leftover. Randy Crihfield has them now and as far as I know, he is still selling them for almost nothing even though he shut down his website. If and when Randy is unable to sell them, if he has stock leftover, Russ Perry has agreed to continue to sell them. So these should satisfy remaining demand indefinitely.

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/viewtopic.p...=starpath+hozer

[NovaXpress]

If he's still selling them then the ROMs shouldn't be distributed. That CD would work on a Cuttle Cart too wouldn't it? Interesting. That's an incredible CD they put together.

[Rob Mitchell]

That CD would work on a Cuttle Cart too wouldn't it? Interesting. That's an incredible CD they put together.

 

Yes! The CD is awesome .. and it came with my Cuttle Cart!

 

Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

[mos6507]

I can understand why Activision wouldn't want us exchanging bin

files because they'd like to sell us the games on a CD for our

Playstations. I might not agree but I understand. As for this

Starpath situation, it's totally ridiculous. As I understand it, Starpath merged/morphed/evolved into what is now a religious book company.

I don't know what their objections could possibly be, unless they

believe software "pirates" will burn in hell.

 

Maybe you should call them up and ask them what their stance is before jumping to this conclusion?

 

They are aware of their ownership of these rights and regardless of how far it is from their current business, it's still considered a potentially valuable asset to them.

[slapdash]

I can't believe how often this comes up... Don't believe the CD is out of print, as there are plenty left. And for $5 shipped, it's cheaper than the time it would take to rip or download the games and print out instructions.

 

Randy Crihfield

P.O. Box 1332

Pepperell, MA 01463

[The Hat]

Got my "Stella Gets A New Brain!" cd in the mail today!!! This is now by far the coolest piece of my atari collection. If you don't have one already, GET ONE! you won't be disappointed. Complete with instructions and extras on the cd. I got a supercharger with phaser patrol a couple of weeks ago and have been waiting for the cd. WELL worth the wait!!! (can you tell I'm excited?) Anyone wanna come over and play 4 players on Party Mix???

[NovaXpress]

So can someone confirm that this disk will play on a PC using an emulator like Z26? If so then I am sold.

[Nukey Shay]

Emulator

I've already said where to get .bins

[NovaXpress]

I have all the games already running on my emulator, but I like the whole packaging of the Cyberpunks' disc. Between that, a Cuttle Cart, and those mouth-watering UA releases (damn you for tempting me AtariAge) I'm gonna blow a bundle on the hobby this summer.

[slapdash]

So can someone confirm that this disk will play on a PC using an emulator like Z26? If so then I am sold.

 

I'm unaware of any emulators that play Supercharger games off of CD... That would be an interesting feature, but possibly pointless. Dunno.

[xredmenacex]

I can't believe how often this comes up... Don't believe the CD is out of print, as there are plenty left. And for $5 shipped, it's cheaper than the time it would take to rip or download the games and print out instructions.  

 

Randy Crihfield  

P.O. Box 1332  

Pepperell, MA 01463

 

Ok, I sent this guy a check for five dollars over a month ago and he has not cashed it, contacted me, or sent me a CD. I sent a check figuring that if he was no longer selling these he could just throw it away and neither of us would be out anything. So what now? Where can I get one of these for a reasonable price?

Thanks!~Matt

[Dolt]

From what I understand, there are two versions of the Stella CD; I have the first one which I bought after writing about it in Replication News way back when, but I am curious--what's on the second version? If it's noticably different, heck, maybe I'll blow $5 to get it.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I sent a check figuring that if he was no longer selling these he could just throw it away and neither of us would be out anything.  So what now?  Where can I get one of these for a reasonable price?

Thanks!~Matt

If nobody sells them anymore, who owns the copyright then? Glenn?

 

Maybe the owner can give you or somebody else the permission to make one or more copies.

[Dan Iacovelli]

From what I understand, there are two versions of the Stella CD; I have the first one which I bought after writing about it in Replication News way back when, but I am curious--what's on the second version? If it's noticably different, heck, maybe I'll blow $5 to get it.

 

the second version doesn't have polo game on it,plus I think there are some other items on it(not too sure though) maybe Glenn or Russ can enlighten us.

Dan Iacovelli

[slapdash]

Matt: mail him a reminder. It's possible that the check was lost in the mail, or that he's just been too busy with other things. Ask him.

 

Thomas: Bridgestone still owns the copyrights, whether or not the CD has sold/will sell out.

 

Dan: Yup, Polo is not on version 2, nor are the Vectrex BINs (since, unlike version 1, version 2 was for profit); we added more PAL versions and a couple of homebrews whose authors allowed it.

[Gregory DG]

Ok, I sent this guy a check for five dollars over a month ago and he has not cashed it, contacted me, or sent me a CD.

 

This isn't the first time I've heard of this and it's exactly the reason I haven't bought one. The guy appears to be totally incommunicado.

[Rick Weis]

in all my dealing with Randy, some were a bit slow but i ALWAYS got my order! i NICE reminder e-mail should work!

 

Take Care,

 

Rick

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Thomas: Bridgestone still owns the copyrights, whether or not the CD has sold/will sell out.

I know, but how was the deal about allowing to make the CD? Was the number of copies limited? Does anybody still have the right to make more CDs?

[Thomas Jentzsch]

The guy appears to be totally incommunicado.

Well, if one of us would stop (unlikely! ) with this hobby completely (and feeling backstabbed like Randy probalby still does), we probably wouldn't be very interested in those kind of deals anymore too.