knievel1 Posted July 6, 2020 Share Posted July 6, 2020 Arg! Nearly bought it & figured out it's Windows only on Steam. I've got only Mac Steam & OpenEmu. Boo. Oh well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Sauron Posted July 9, 2020 Share Posted July 9, 2020 On 7/6/2020 at 4:18 PM, knievel1 said: Arg! Nearly bought it & figured out it's Windows only on Steam. I've got only Mac Steam & OpenEmu. Boo. Oh well. You don't dual boot or run Windows in virtualization? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theallknowingsause Posted July 9, 2020 Share Posted July 9, 2020 12 minutes ago, Sauron said: You don't dual boot or run Windows in virtualization? Wouldn't wine also work? (The application not the drink) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knievel1 Posted July 9, 2020 Share Posted July 9, 2020 I had Boot Camp for awhile but had to do a clean install. That - or Wine - might be the answer here. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_hawk Posted July 9, 2020 Share Posted July 9, 2020 What an utterly marvellous game! There's no way I can afford to shell out the $85 to get it shipped to the UK, but I've just picked up the Steam version & it's fabulous. A thing of beauty!! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TailChao Posted July 16, 2020 Author Share Posted July 16, 2020 (edited) Woof! It's been awhile, let's get caught up here... First off, thanks for promoting the game during the Steam Sale - it's sincerely appreciated. We're also down to the last 62 copies of the 7800 version. On 6/30/2020 at 11:30 AM, Crazy Climber said: Aaahhh - this is perfect! On 7/8/2020 at 8:18 PM, Theallknowingsause said: Wouldn't wine also work? (The application not the drink) When we were putting the game through focus testing a few players were running it though Wine on Macintoshes. If I remember right... it worked outside of a few features like gamepad automapping. So probably maybe yes. If the former doesn't work, get a box of the latter and consume it until the game appears to run correctly. This procedure has been tested exclusively with Franzia but will probably work with other brands, too. On 7/9/2020 at 12:41 PM, the_hawk said: There's no way I can afford to shell out the $85 to get it shipped to the UK, but I've just picked up the Steam version & it's fabulous. Thanks, glad to hear you're enjoying it! If you have time, please leave a review - even if you change your mind and it's bad! It helps us deal with Valve's algorithms significantly. Edited July 16, 2020 by TailChao 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_hawk Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 On 7/16/2020 at 6:41 PM, TailChao said: Thanks, glad to hear you're enjoying it! If you have time, please leave a review - even if you change your mind and it's bad! It helps us deal with Valve's algorithms significantly. Absolutely! Review left. Might have to organise another online session with my mate from back home again this evening. Great fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giles N Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 @TailChao How many left in stock by now? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bakasama Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 On 7/8/2020 at 7:29 PM, knievel1 said: I had Boot Camp for awhile but had to do a clean install. That - or Wine - might be the answer here. Thanks! I did put Bupsystem emulator exe into a Mac wineskin and the emulator does work. I didn't try out the game with it, yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TailChao Posted July 28, 2020 Author Share Posted July 28, 2020 13 hours ago, Giles N said: How many left in stock by now? As I type this, 59. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giles N Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 3 hours ago, TailChao said: As I type this, 59. Considering that Atari discontinued the 7800 in 1990 (!!) your game is actually a bit of a smash-hit... ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hastor Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 I've definitely seen it brought up more times than any other title since getting my 7800 less than a year ago. I was raised on the 5200, just recently got into 7800 and loving it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giles N Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 6 hours ago, Hastor said: I've definitely seen it brought up more times than any other title since getting my 7800 less than a year ago. I was raised on the 5200, just recently got into 7800 and loving it. Both the 5200 and the 7800 are super-cool 8-bit consoles! (Yes I have several Sega Masters and NES’s) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TailChao Posted July 30, 2020 Author Share Posted July 30, 2020 On 7/28/2020 at 1:03 PM, Giles N said: Considering that Atari discontinued the 7800 in 1990 (!!) your game is actually a bit of a smash-hit... I'd word it moreso that the game was able to attract players to the hardware who previously wouldn't have been interested in it - a smash hit implies there's a significant number of copies moved and widespread awareness of the product. We didn't really get either, so it was more a firm press of the index finger against the snout. It's a bit cyclic at this point, but I feel the repetition is warranted - when you're doing development full time the requirements both for schedule and sales are extremely strict. We did not need crazy numbers to do another project right off the bat (and not even necessarily on the same hardware), but we needed far more than we got. On 7/28/2020 at 1:44 PM, Hastor said: I've definitely seen it brought up more times than any other title since getting my 7800 less than a year ago. I was raised on the 5200, just recently got into 7800 and loving it. Yeah, it's a pretty good doorstop that can also play Ballblazer and Joust. I don't own a boat that needs to be anchored, so it was already a big improvement in practicality over the 5200. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GaryH917 Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 Waiting for my copy to arrive! Thanks for releasing this amazing game ?. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theallknowingsause Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 I actually got the steam version of Rikki & Vikki and feel in love with it, but didn't love the input lag (it wasn't too bad, I'm just sensitive to that kind of stuff and wanted a reason to get a 7800) so I bought one, then got that one custom controller that looked like an nes controller, then got a 2nd one, plus the 7800 itself, and the game. I ended up spending 300+ just for me to be able to play 1 game in the definitive way.. Worth it! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giles N Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 (edited) 6 hours ago, Theallknowingsause said: I actually got the steam version of Rikki & Vikki and feel in love with it, but didn't love the input lag (it wasn't too bad, I'm just sensitive to that kind of stuff and wanted a reason to get a 7800) so I bought one, then got that one custom controller that looked like an nes controller, then got a 2nd one, plus the 7800 itself, and the game. I ended up spending 300+ just for me to be able to play 1 game in the definitive way.. Worth it! Rikki and Vikki is 5/5 and there’re tons of cool 7800-stuff to get your hands on! Edited July 31, 2020 by Giles N Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giles N Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 13 hours ago, TailChao said: I'd word it moreso that the game was able to attract players to the hardware who previously wouldn't have been interested in it - a smash hit implies there's a significant number of copies moved and widespread awareness of the product. We didn't really get either, so it was more a firm press of the index finger against the snout. It's a bit cyclic at this point, but I feel the repetition is warranted - when you're doing development full time the requirements both for schedule and sales are extremely strict. We did not need crazy numbers to do another project right off the bat (and not even necessarily on the same hardware), but we needed far more than we got. You’re so sober... ... You’re aware your company has released a title for a home-console ... 30 years (!!!) after its official discontinuation...? Its a smash-hit. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+GoldLeader Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 7 hours ago, Theallknowingsause said: I actually got the steam version of Rikki & Vikki and feel in love with it, but didn't love the input lag (it wasn't too bad, I'm just sensitive to that kind of stuff and wanted a reason to get a 7800) so I bought one, then got that one custom controller that looked like an nes controller, then got a 2nd one, plus the 7800 itself, and the game. I ended up spending 300+ just for me to be able to play 1 game in the definitive way.. Worth it! Now you can buy some Homebrews from the AtariAge store! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theallknowingsause Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 (edited) 3 hours ago, Giles N said: You’re so sober... ... You’re aware your company has released a title for a home-console ... 30 years (!!!) after its official discontinuation...? Its a smash-hit. From what I've seen and read he made the game to have the polish of a normal "pixel art Indie game" and was hoping most of the sales would be from the steam and humble bundle versions (bought by people who don't really care too much for older consoles, but the demographic of people who play indie games), but what ended up happening is us nerds ended up showing it to our friends as "a super cool Atari 7800 game" rather then a "super cool indie game" like how he was intending. I'm also guessing his profit of the game wasn't as much as he was anticipating, (because of the small player base the console has). What I am trying to say is you're right in saying it's a "smash hit" but not in the way it was set up to be. Edited July 31, 2020 by Theallknowingsause Added part at the end 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TailChao Posted July 31, 2020 Author Share Posted July 31, 2020 18 hours ago, GaryH917 said: Waiting for my copy to arrive! Thanks for releasing this amazing game ?. Hey, no problem. Thanks for giving it a try! 11 hours ago, Giles N said: ... You’re aware your company has released a title for a home-console ... 30 years (!!!) after its official discontinuation...? Its a smash-hit. Sure, but we're not the first to do so - generally or on the 7800. The only thing in this category I'd classify as a "smash-hit" is Morphcat's Micro Mages - which was both well received and able to net fairly good sales, it's a great product. 7 hours ago, Theallknowingsause said: From what I've seen and read he made the game to have the polish of a normal "pixel art Indie game" and was hoping most of the sales would be from the steam and humble bundle versions (bought by people who don't really care too much for older consoles, but the demographic of people who play indie games), but what ended up happening is us nerds ended up showing it to our friends as "a super cool Atari 7800 game" rather then a "super cool indie game" like how he was intending. I'm also guessing his profit of the game wasn't as much as he was anticipating, (because of the small player base the console has). What I am trying to say is you're right in saying it's a "smash hit" but not in the way it was set up to be. Sort of. When I say the goal was "to make a good game which happens to be on the 7800" it was moreso that players can still enjoy the game without any hardware nostalgia. So the cases like yours where someone found out the game was actually written for some electric dinosaur after playing the Steam version are really cool. That was the point I wanted to make. But if you also enjoy the game because it's running on an Atari wedge - that's great! Mostly I cared that people gave it a try and responded with honest feedback. I think the biggest issue wasn't how the game was covered, moreso that it just wasn't covered sufficiently. If you're targeting something more popular like the NES, SNES, or Genesis - it's not trivial to get good cartridge sales, but it's much easier because of the larger userbase. Promotion is similar. With the 7800 there's basically zero chance of the cartridge sales recovering your budget or paying for another game. You can eventually make back the cost of designing and manufacturing the plastics, boards, yadda yadda - but not the software. So it's not just that I wanted digital sales, but we were entirely dependent upon moving units through Steam and Humble Bundle during the first six months to do, say, a Switch port or fund another project. My expectations for profit were actually quite low - the mechanics and content are unique, but not super accessible. So even if Rikki & Vikki was Windows or Switch exclusive I was expecting more of a niche response. But yeah, what we got was far below that. Where I wanted to go with this was doing more releases for older hardware - but always with an alternate version for modern platforms, and always on a schedule. So a CD-i game? Yeah, let's do it! Jaguar? Why not! Then allocate some of the development time for reverse engineering, designing new hardware, and releasing all this for free. We would eventually have to transition purely to modern platforms, but I thought this was a good deal. If you're not interested in the game content, the cash is still going towards something useful and the digital versions would be pretty cheap. Basically, I don't mean to be overly depressive with the "abloobloobloo, no revenue" shtick - rather to be clear. There's a lot of noise over developers creating solely out of love of the medium rather than for profit or whatever, and that's fine - but that doesn't scale or follow a schedule well. When we're discussing the success of a project, it needs to be both in terms of player response and sales. Because these are the metrics, especially the latter, that net you another game from the same staff in two years rather than ten or never. I don't intended for this reality to take away from your enjoyment of the game, they're separate things. You're allowed to really enjoy a product which was not financially successful. My gold standard for "new software on old hardware" is still M2's Fantasy Zone II DX - which set an unbelievably high bar and gets very little recognition for it. I'm really happy it exists. But it didn't sell well, so I don't expect another one. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theallknowingsause Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 2 hours ago, TailChao said: "new software on old hardware" is still M2's Fantasy Zone II DX - which set an unbelievably high bar and gets very little recognition for it. Oh my gosh I freaking knew you've played this game and it was an inspiration! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giles N Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 On 7/30/2020 at 3:43 PM, TailChao said: I'd word it moreso that the game was able to attract players to the hardware who previously wouldn't have been interested in it - (...) That’s what I’ll define as a retro-smash-hit... ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
veritas Posted August 7, 2020 Share Posted August 7, 2020 I'd like to get a copy for the atari 7800...payment is through the penguinet website, is that right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebor Posted August 7, 2020 Share Posted August 7, 2020 3 hours ago, veritas said: I'd like to get a copy for the atari 7800...payment is through the penguinet website, is that right? http://www.penguinet.net/Games/Rikki_Vikki/Purchase/index.php#Atari_7800 You'll see this towards the top of the screen: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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