New, cheaper SGM clone.

[SiLic0ne t0aD]

23 hours ago, christo930 said:

WHAT?

 

From what I know, ALL of their stuff comes from open source.  Most of the games they publish are unlicensed ports of old MSX games.

 

WHY is it "discouraged" for this guy to create a compatible module using his own engineered plans and publicly available chips?  Is denying the spirit here somehow wrong?

 

I'm sorry but you are just completely wrong. Opcode has not a leg to stand on.  I fully support this guy if he wants to make a coleco product and sell it.

Like I already said, It's discouraged because it's Not a good move and is probably not going to end well for him, if he plans to stick around on AA. I don't think Al and Rob will put up with it.. I've seen people get banned here for far less. Though what he's trying to do is wrong, I hate to see him get the ban hammer when he seems to be a fairly clever fellow, who could possibly benefit the community, using his talents in some other meaningful, more useful way, like making hardware we actually need... Not another SGM, and a clone at that.

 

Why would he even waste his time cloning the SGM, at "cost", in an already saturated market anyway? It just seems silly and doesn't make much sense at all, especially considering the SGM is already a very affordable, high quality product. $90 is not really that expensive, at all! Furthermore, OpCode's 5th run is literally right around the corner.. Trying to sell clones/bootlegs right now is just a total dick move and obviously doesn't sit well with the majority of the community, judging by the comments made thus far. If he made something like that for himself and maybe a couple buddies, that might be one thing, but that's obviously not his intent, unfortunately. He should've just stayed anonymous, but even, it probably wouldn't turn out well for him.

 

The CV community already had to deal with Juice's JuiceBox/Say Game Module fiasco a few years back and it really left a bad taste in everybody's mouth. He was selling bootleg games on eBay and SGMs here (which, BTW, turned out to be a giant POS), so this whole thing reminds me of that and I know I'm not the only one. I just can't get behind something like that. It's about respect and Ed has worked hard to get the SGM out there, to make it the fine product it is today, which was not cheap or easy. An act like that isn't very "spirited" at all and just seems to be more of out spite than anything. He's not doing it for the "community", that's for sure.

 

If Mr Pix wants to clone something, clone Juice's Intellivision RGB board and improve it, because it's currently incompatible with the OSSC, plus they're not made anymore. A lot of Inty fans never got the chance to get one. Or, make a different Coleco RGB mod or even an all new, HDMI solution. A new ColecoVision motherboard would be another welcome addition, spinner controller (that's different than evg2000's), etc. Basically, anything other than the SGM. ??‍♂️

Edited June 30, 2020 by SiLic0ne t0aD

[opcode]

26 minutes ago, christo930 said:

Thanks for clearing that up for us.  Do you have any existing podcasts in English?  If so, can get a link?  I'd be interested in checking them out.

 

We had just announced the podcast a couple of days ago, and I hope to record the first episode today. Someone suggested I should start talking about Opcode's origins, but I think you gave me a good topic to discuss in a future video when I get to discuss the SGM. I will post the link in the Opcode sub-forum when the video is ready.

[Pixelboy]

35 minutes ago, opcode said:

That said, the MSX thing happened. That system had many good games, and the SGM made it easier to port those. However we had MSX ports before the SGM.

If I may add something, I've published many SGM-dependent MSX ports over the years (including many ports of MSX homebrew games) and my angle towards those has always been about the quality and fun factor of the games themselves, rather than the fact that they are "more easily portable" to the ColecoVision. There are a lot of sub-par games on the MSX (and on the SG-1000 too) and I steered clear from them, publishing only the games that I believed players would have actual fun playing. I would have gladly published several more MSX ports, like Parodius or King's Valley II, if the SGM had been capable of outputting SCC sound.

 

So when I encounter people putting off MSX ports on the ColecoVision, it makes me believe those people can't tell a good game from a crappy one. If the games are genuinely fun to play, that's what matters.

 

[128Kgames]

7 minutes ago, Pixelboy said:

If the games are genuinely fun to play, that's what matters.

Amen to that brother!

[opcode]

12 minutes ago, Pixelboy said:

If I may add something, I've published many SGM-dependent MSX ports over the years (including many ports of MSX homebrew games) and my angle towards those has always been about the quality and fun factor of the games themselves, rather than the fact that they are "more easily portable" to the ColecoVision. There are a lot of sub-par games on the MSX (and on the SG-1000 too) and I steered clear from them, publishing only the games that I believed players would have actual fun playing. I would have gladly published several more MSX ports, like Parodius or King's Valley II, if the SGM had been capable of outputting SCC sound.

 

So when I encounter people putting off MSX ports on the ColecoVision, it makes me believe those people can't tell a good game from a crappy one. If the games are genuinely fun to play, that's what matters.

 

 

I second that, and I think a lot of people in this community also appreciate some of these MSX games. Let me just say the the best seller game I had isn't Pac-Man Collection or Space Invaders Collection, but rather Gradius, when the sales of both runs are combined. By far. That said, most of the good MSX catalog is now available, so for me, it is time to go back to the arcade stuff. That is where I think I can contribute best.

 

EDIT: Pixelboy of course also covers something that I don't, MSX homebrew, some amazing stuff, with no sign of slowing down. So that someone doesn't interpret my post as a suggestion that we should stop releasing MSX material. A lot of super talented MSX developers out there, some are in this very forum, and they keep producing amazing stuff.

[christo930]

6 minutes ago, Pixelboy said:

If I may add something, I've published many SGM-dependent MSX ports over the years (including many ports of MSX homebrew games) and my angle towards those has always been about the quality and fun factor of the games themselves, rather than the fact that they are "more easily portable" to the ColecoVision. There are a lot of sub-par games on the MSX (and on the SG-1000 too) and I steered clear from them, publishing only the games that I believed players would have actual fun playing. I would have gladly published several more MSX ports, like Parodius or King's Valley II, if the SGM had been capable of outputting SCC sound.

 

So when I encounter people putting off MSX ports on the ColecoVision, it makes me believe those people can't tell a good game from a crappy one. If the games are genuinely fun to play, that's what matters.

 

The ports I have seen or played are mostly good fun games at least some of which are not available in other formats.  FTR, I was not saying that this was some kind of short-cut to port crappy msx games for profit.  More games, especially good ones are always a good thing.

 

26 minutes ago, SiLic0ne t0aD said:

Like I already said, It's discouraged because it's Not a good move and is probably not going to end well for him, if he plan to stick around on AA. I don't think Al and Rob will put up with it.. I've seen people get banned here for far less. Though what he's trying to do is wrong, I hate to see him get the ban hammer when he seems to be a fairly clever fellow, who could possibly benefit the community, using his talents in some other meaningful, more useful way, like making hardware we actually need... Not another SGM, and a clone at that.

 

Grant all premises.  OK, why should anyone be banned for bringing new hardware to the CV or talking about it on AA?

 

27 minutes ago, SiLic0ne t0aD said:

Why would he even waste his time cloning the SGM, at "cost", in an already saturated market? It's just silly and doesn't make much sense at all

Why does that matter?  YOU think it is silly.  OK, that's your opinion and you are entitled to it.  So, grant the premise, why should it not be done, or, more precisely, why is it 'bad'

 

29 minutes ago, SiLic0ne t0aD said:

The CV community already had to deal with Juice's JuiceBox/Say Game Module fiasco a few years back and it really left a bad taste in everybody's mouth.

OK. No more hardware by anyone.  After all, if juicebox left a bad taste, all hardware will leave bad taste and we wouldn't want bad tastes in our mouths, now would we.

 

 

Putting aside the combativeness and obvious butt-hurt eating away at his soul, why is such a project not allowed?  Nobody has explained that to any reasonable degree. It's just you can't do this because your intentions are bad and we don't like that.

 

Despite all the [empty] posturing, NOBODY is going to actually fully engineer a new expansion module and build it and sell it at cost all to spite someone who rejected his unsolicited offer of "help."  Nobody is that much of a sperg. Talking shit on a message board is a lot easier than delivering the goods.

 

He has explained that he has added several very useful features that would offer things like SD save states on original hardware, joystick substitution and a pause button.  I don't think these are "unneeded" features nobody is asking for.  I think everyone would like that.

 

 

What this looks like to me is "you can't do this because...REASONS"

 

[doubledown]

12 minutes ago, opcode said:

Let me just say the the best seller game I had isn't Pac-Man Collection or Space Invaders Collection, but rather Gradius, when the sales of both runs are combined. By far. 

That really surprises me honestly.  Granted I don't know how these were sold...limited to x number, or all pre-orders welcomed or what, but I don't think that I have ever played Gradius, which means, initially in my brain, I have very little interest in it...whereas I have been playing Pac-Man and Space Invaders all my life (basically), so I bought those as an obvious no-brainer.  I've seen videos of Gradius on YouTube, and the game looks great, but I can't get over the choppiness of its scrolling, which I know is a limitation of the ColecoVision, and possibly the 1 or 2 videos I watched weren't "good video captures" adding to this.  But as I have no "fond childhood" memories of Gradius, its not on my radar personally.  Obviously no negative criticism, or malicious intent intended here, just explaining my surprise to you mentioning Gradius being your best seller...I wouldn't have guessed that in a million years.  

[SiLic0ne t0aD]

I don't know why a lot of people dog on the MSX ports.. They're totally revamped games, all around. The controls, graphics and sound are all improved, plus they're translated! Sure, I could play the originals, in an emulator (I don't own an MSX and doubt I ever will), but it's not particularly fun, trying to figure out what something in Japanese says, whilst in the middle of gameplay, all while fighting with some atrocious controls at the same time. They're games that people probably wouldn't have ever known about (like myself). So I'm glad to play some of these 'undiscovered gems' for the first time on a ColecoVision, because I admit, I wasn't hip to the MSX at all, before stumbling back into the CV scene a few years back.. So I've got to give it up for the publishers here, for making these great games more readily available and a great game is a great game, no matter the platform it originated on.

[digress]

There is always room for more people here bringing new stuff. 

 

No one here is innocent wither we make, re-imagine, re-release or purchase said products. 

 

it's keeping a 40 year old childhood favorite alive. Don't chase everyone away who might have something interesting to add...

 

 

[SiLic0ne t0aD]

31 minutes ago, christo930 said:

Grant all premises.  OK, why should anyone be banned for bringing new hardware to the CV or talking about it on AA?

 

Why does that matter?  YOU think it is silly.  OK, that's your opinion and you are entitled to it.  So, grant the premise, why should it not be done, or, more precisely, why is it 'bad'

 

OK. No more hardware by anyone.  After all, if juicebox left a bad taste, all hardware will leave bad taste and we wouldn't want bad tastes in our mouths, now would we.

 

Putting aside the combativeness and obvious butt-hurt eating away at his soul, why is such a project not allowed?  Nobody has explained that to any reasonable degree. It's just you can't do this because your intentions are bad and we don't like that.

 

Despite all the [empty] posturing, NOBODY is going to actually fully engineer a new expansion module and build it and sell it at cost all to spite someone who rejected his unsolicited offer of "help."  Nobody is that much of a sperg. Talking shit on a message board is a lot easier than delivering the goods.

 

He has explained that he has added several very useful features that would offer things like SD save states on original hardware, joystick substitution and a pause button.  I don't think these are "unneeded" features nobody is asking for.  I think everyone would like that.

What this looks like to me is "you can't do this because...REASONS"

 

Dude... You just don't get it. That's fine, whatever.. I'm over it, but don't go making assumptions and putting words in my mouth. There's been enough drama here already and this conversation is obviously going nowhere, so we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one. That's all I'm going to say - Have a great day.

[christo930]

5 minutes ago, SiLic0ne t0aD said:

I don't know why a lot of people dog on the MSX ports.. They're totally revamped games, all around. The controls, graphics and sound are all improved, plus they're translated! Sure, I could play the originals, in an emulator (I don't own an MSX and doubt I ever will), but it's not particularly fun, trying to figure out what something in Japanese says, whilst in the middle of gameplay, all while fighting with some atrocious controls at the same time. They're games that people probably wouldn't have ever known about (like myself). So I'm glad to play some of these 'undiscovered gems' for the first time on a ColecoVision, because I admit, I wasn't hip to the MSX at all, before stumbling back into the CV scene a few years back.. So I've got to give it up for the publishers here, for making these great games more readily available and a great game is a great game, no matter the platform it originated on.

Flicky, Warp Warp and Thexder all come to mind.  Great fun games not on any other console, at least not in America. Here's a video of 35 addition titles

 

1 minute ago, SiLic0ne t0aD said:

Dude... You just don't get it. That's fine, whatever.. I'm over it, but don't go making assumptions and putting words in my mouth. There's been enough drama here already and this conversation is obviously going nowhere, so we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one. That's all I'm going to say - Have a great day

Cool.  Just keep one thing in mind and that it is I am neutral and do not have an axe to grind with anyone. I am not dissing anyone or anyone's work.

[opcode]

christ0930: I will try my best to give you my take on this, beyond the obvious reasons.

 

Although you can see and read some disagreements between myself, CollectorVision, and Pixelboy here and there, I am pretty sure we do our best to not step on each other's toes, or at least to find a visible solution at the end that is reasonable for everybody. I made a lot of work for them in the past, and they also helped me with the SGM, Pixelboy was part of Opcode team at one point. We try to do different things so we don't enter in this kind of destructive competition. Did CollectorVision have to pay for a license for the SGM? Technically probably no, but they did so for the respect of the community, and I appreciate that. When I know someone is working on something, I don't touch it. Do any of us have the license for a particular arcade game? Probably not, but it doesn't matter. If someone is working on a game, that is now his game. What is point of have two people working on the same game at the same time? How does that help anyone here? (in fact someone contacted me the other day about that, to check if I was working on something). Not to mention, releasing a game is a very expensive proposition. We are talking about a 100 copies average thing. Do you have any idea of the cost to produce that? I don't make a living from Opcode, not even close. If I used the time a spend with Opcode to get a second job at, let's say, McDonalds, I would make a ton more money. I don't get paid what I am worth doing Opcode. But I don't care, I do this because I truly love this. But all things involve money to get done. I know pretty well Pixeboy invests a lot of money in his projects, and I assume CollectorVision does the same. I try not to sabotage their efforts because I don't want them to do the same to me, and because there is no point in doing that. So yeah, sometimes we fight, sometimes we disagree, and sometimes we spend long periods without talking to each other. And yet we still do our best to respect each other. A couple of years ago I was working on Prometheus, my ColecoVision compatible console. Then CollectorVision was also working on a similar thing, but using a different approach. When it became clear they would have theirs first, I just dropped off of the whole thing. What would be the point of two CV-compatible consoles at the same time? Who would benefit from that? You can say competition is good, but not this kind of competition, in such a small niche scene. Competition to see who can produce the best games is good, two teams investing money and time working on similar thing isn't good, there isn't enough people to buy that, is not good for us developers, is redundant for the community. My recent argument with CollectorVision regarding club and controller, that is another example. That has been sorted out, there was a misunderstanding of intentions, and we restated our deal to not step on each other's toes. Why? Do we need to? No, but because there is no benefit to anyone if we dive into head to head competition for something that in the end is worth what?  

 

Fact is, I created the SGM. If it was so trivial, why didn't someone do it first? Where was this guy years ago, since he says he was doing CV stuff since the 90s. I am still making SGMs, I am still here, I am still contributing. While I may not be able to stop someone from copying the SGM, I don't think it will go well with the community that someone who just arrived decides that in order for him to be successful he needs to piggyback someone else's creation. That isn't the principles we have been living for here for so long. 

 

So that said, he can do whatever he wants, create whatever he wants with his insuperable skills, but use that to do something new, something that doesn't use something that I created and still make, so we can keep the fragile balance between contributors in this community. And finally, truth is that this thread was created with the purpose of revenge because of something he couldn't have his way. To announce something and say that you will sell it at cost if necessary to destroy someone else, because that someone rejected an unsolicited offer is just very questionable to say at least. In my book that is a new low here since Fred. 

 

 

[doubledown]

2 minutes ago, christo930 said:

Flicky, Warp Warp and Thexder all come to mind.  Great fun games not on any other console, at least not in America.

Flicky and Thexder (their original versions) are 2 of my all time favorite games.  I had Thexder for my Tandy 1000EX when I was a kid, and I found Flicky (Arcade) on Mame years and years ago, which I then found out was available for the Sega Genesis as a near arcade perfect port, and I've had it ever since.  Unfortunately, if you're use to the Arcade/Genesis version of Flicky...you may be disappointed with the SG-1000 version.  It's the "same game", but maneuverability is so radically different, I find it hard to play.  

[opcode]

35 minutes ago, doubledown said:

That really surprises me honestly.  Granted I don't know how these were sold...limited to x number, or all pre-orders welcomed or what, but I don't think that I have ever played Gradius, which means, initially in my brain, I have very little interest in it...whereas I have been playing Pac-Man and Space Invaders all my life (basically), so I bought those as an obvious no-brainer.  I've seen videos of Gradius on YouTube, and the game looks great, but I can't get over the choppiness of its scrolling, which I know is a limitation of the ColecoVision, and possibly the 1 or 2 videos I watched weren't "good video captures" adding to this.  But as I have no "fond childhood" memories of Gradius, its not on my radar personally.  Obviously no negative criticism, or malicious intent intended here, just explaining my surprise to you mentioning Gradius being your best seller...I wouldn't have guessed that in a million years.  

 

Yeah, I was surprised as well. First run was already very good, a full sold out on release day. SIC took years to sell that. Even PMC took probably a year. Then I started receiving requests over the years, and we decided to created a pre-order list a couple of months ago. And it exploded. Same numbers as 1st run. So people seem to love Gradius. Or they were just impressed by having Gradius running on a CV. 

[MrPix]

2 hours ago, 128Kgames said:

I wish you were into the Astrocade, if ever a system needed a drop in replacement motherboard let alone an "enhancement" other than expanded RAM (which it already has) its the Astrocade.  I've been trying to get people interested in it for years but nothing ever seems to stick. 

I've got to be honest, I have never heard of the Astrocade. Taking a brief look at the specs, it looks like it has a very unique video system that might be quite difficult to replace.

2 hours ago, 128Kgames said:

I can understand you wanting to create an all in one fantastic device for the Coleco, but I'm not sure there is a place for it.  This is coming from me, the Coleco guy, the player and collector, not from the Opcode friend and product defender.  

 

I'm really asking do we really need yet another hardware device for the Coleco?  I'm not sure it wouldn't just get lost among everything else.  Really, its games I think we need at this point, arcade ports, etc.

Well, yes, but that applies to anything. Do we really need a Phoenix? Or a SGM2? Or a Mega Cart? Each one of those things by itself is really meaningless. It's all the things combined together that make for a rich and varied community with something to be a community over. The common shared love of the games. 

2 hours ago, 128Kgames said:

We've got the SGM, we've got the Phoenix, we've got the Atarimax flash cart, I still think something new would be better suited to what we don't have (voice synthesis, multi-tap might be cool but you'd need games to support it, etc.).  

I think it's ironic. If I did an FPGA implementation of the CV straight off, it would be functionally very close to the Phoenix. I'd probably be able to get it to market for $99 or less. It wouldn't introduce a single new thing, but I don't think anyone would consider it a threat to the Phoenix' business model. While it would work identically, nobody would think they own the CV. I could package up a MiSTer CV core on a little custom board and write the HDL for controller support and probably get that out for $50. But that would do nothing for the community, hurt the Phoenix (which is quite nice, if a little less than it could have been) 

 

Opcode has in two separate places stated that this might be the last batch of SGM. If that's the case, what support would those games have in the future? If it's really true, and not a marketing gimmick, that's a threat to the sales of anyone who makes or ports games that use the SGM. If people genuinely are worried that Opcode will stop porting games, but Opcode is signaling the intent to stop making the hardware it runs on... Already, if people want one and they don't appear at the right time, they're looking at a year+ wait. It's not a stock item. It's so essential to the community it needs to be a stock item, cheap and readily available - like the multitude of joysticks, controllers and gamepads that can be bought for $10 from every street corner.

Like I said before. It's complicated, and shades of gray.

 

[christo930]

12 minutes ago, opcode said:

christ0930: I will try my best to give you my take on this, beyond the obvious reasons.

I very much appreciate the detailed response.

 

13 minutes ago, opcode said:

Fact is, I created the SGM. If it was so trivial, why didn't someone do it first? Where was this guy years ago, since he says he was doing CV stuff since the 90s. I am still making SGMs, I am still here, I am still contributing.

At the time this thread began, I was under the impression the SGM was at the end and that when back orders to make new ones finally reached the point of reasonable cost of manufacturing, that would be it and there would be no more available after that. So it seemed reasonable to me that someone might pick up slack. 

 

Your explanation clears up a lot for me. Thanks again.

[MrPix]

36 minutes ago, opcode said:

Fact is, I created the SGM. If it was so trivial, why didn't someone do it first?

There are at least three commercially released products before the SGM that had additional RAM and a sound chip.

36 minutes ago, opcode said:

So that said, he can do whatever he wants, create whatever he wants with his insuperable skills, but use that to do something new, something that doesn't use something that I created and still make, so we can keep the fragile balance between contributors in this community. And finally, truth is that this thread was created with the purpose of revenge because of something he couldn't have his way. To announce something and say that you will sell it at cost if necessary to destroy someone else, because that someone rejected an unsolicited offer is just very questionable to say at least. In my book that is a new low here since Fred. 

*sigh*

I don't know you. I don't know what kind of person you are. You seem to think everyone is out to get you or screw you or get revenge on you. They're not.

I've set a price half yours, to sell half of what you're selling. That's a 1:1 match. That's not revenge. That's fair pricing for what you get. I'm looking to build on other people's work and ideas, just like you did. I'm not making a literal SGM clone - I am making something more, that is SGM compatible. If you're threatened by that, compete. Develop an improved SGM too. Or find a way to make it a bit cheaper, because $90 is not cheap, and keeps it to existing users and not new users and kids who buy a console and maybe grab one of your games and then doesn't understand why it's slow or has weak sound or won't work at all.

I also deliberately chose to start selling these only after you sold through your fifth batch, which is all pre-sales anyway. So again, where is this revenge you keep talking about? What am I getting revenge for? All slights that exist only in your imagination. Just leave me alone. 

If I get banned, so be it. That achieves the CV community losing a developer right in the middle of releasing a new RGB adaptor that's *excellent* and open hardware, and a group of Adam expansions and spares. It removes me from the market. Which is the forum's right if they think I'm doing anything illegal (which I am not) or because they just feel like it (which they might). And that would be exactly what I predicted would be your goal in an earlier post - to control who enters the market and has access to customers.

Yesterday I lost a $9,500 wholesale CV hardware order because of this closed system. The problem is very real.

[opcode]

Just now, MrPix said:

There are at least three commercially released products before the SGM that had additional RAM and a sound chip.

*sigh*

I don't know you. I don't know what kind of person you are. You seem to think everyone is out to get you or screw you or get revenge on you. They're not.

I've set a price half yours, to sell half of what you're selling. That's a 1:1 match. That's not revenge. That's fair pricing for what you get. I'm looking to build on other people's work and ideas, just like you did. I'm not making a literal SGM clone - I am making something more, that is SGM compatible. If you're threatened by that, compete. Develop an improved SGM too. Or find a way to make it a bit cheaper, because $90 is not cheap, and keeps it to existing users and not new users and kids who buy a console and maybe grab one of your games and then doesn't understand why it's slow or has weak sound or won't work at all.

I also deliberately chose to start selling these only after you sold through your fifth batch, which is all pre-sales anyway. So again, where is this revenge you keep talking about? What am I getting revenge for? All slights that exist only in your imagination. Just leave me alone. 

If I get banned, so be it. That achieves the CV community losing a developer right in the middle of releasing a new RGB adaptor that's *excellent* and open hardware, and a group of Adam expansions and spares. It removes me from the market. Which is the forum's right if they think I'm doing anything illegal (which I am not) or because they just feel like it (which they might). And that would be exactly what I predicted would be your goal in an earlier post - to control who enters the market and has access to customers.

Yesterday I lost a $9,500 wholesale CV hardware order because of this closed system. The problem is very real.

 

Oh, you made that clear. You created this thread for revenge, and you can spin whatever you want now, since your stance on things keep changing by the minute.

 

I am still making SGMs, and considering that I just placed a PCB order for twice the pre-orders I have so far, that makes it safe to assume that I will still have SGMs available for the rest of this year and beyond. And if by then there is still a demand, you can bet I will make more. And there is no more demand, then this whole thing no longer matters. 

 

So please don't play the victim, there are ton of things you can do. People here are requesting things, you are ignoring them. if you are banned, that is your fault, not mine. You are causing the trouble, people are suggesting you what to do and yet you choose trouble. 

 

 

[retroillucid]

1 hour ago, opcode said:

My recent argument with CollectorVision regarding club and controller, that is another example. That has been sorted out, there was a misunderstanding of intentions, and we restated our deal to not step on each other's toes. Why? Do we need to? No, but because there is no benefit to anyone if we dive into head to head competition for something that in the end is worth what?  

^THIS^ 
?

[retroillucid]

2 hours ago, Pixelboy said:

So when I encounter people putting off MSX ports on the ColecoVision, it makes me believe those people can't tell a good game from a crappy one. If the games are genuinely fun to play, that's what matters.

I'll speak for CollectorVision 
All the MSX ports we've done were done by programmers (outside of CollectorVision)
They want their ports being sold CIB, and that's what we did

We've not released that many, but we're happy with the ones we did 
We prefer doing original games or arcade ports anyway

I don't really understand people complaining about MSX ports, I mean.....just don't buy them?
If you already have a MSX, then good for you!
All I know is there's alot of people who are happy with MSX (or SG-1000) ports

[crisalan44]

6 hours ago, opcode said:

Our friend Jimmy at Ruggers Customs can get your PCB repaired and reconditioned with nice new video options in no time. 

I agree 100% this is like getting a new board. It is done professionally and the quality and workmanship is BETTER than the original(I have one he has worked on). The price is also better than the original. 

Edited June 30, 2020 by crisalan44

[MrPix]

6 minutes ago, opcode said:

Oh, you made that clear. You created this thread for revenge, and you can spin whatever you want now, since your stance on things keep changing by the minute.

I've stated my motivation repeatedly, consistently and unwaveringly. There's no revenge to be had. I'm really not interested in you commenting on matters that can only impact you in a positive way. Frankly, you sound insecure and as if you're projecting. That's how it comes across. I'm trying to make new hardware that's different and distinct from yours, and you don't want me to. It's really that simple.

6 minutes ago, opcode said:

So please don't play the victim, there are ton of things you can do. People here are requesting things, you are ignoring them. if you are banned, that is your fault, not mine. You are causing the trouble, people are suggesting you what to do and yet you choose trouble. 

I'm not ignoring them at all. I'm noting them down, googling, finding out what's involved, and wondering just how frosty my reception would be no matter what I tried to do. People can reasonably request what they like. I, as a business owner, will maybe do some of them, or not at all. I decided it was important to make an expansion that was compatible with the majority of existing software. You don't want me to. Why not? You don't control the right to be compatible.

Let it go, dude. I just want to get on with designing things, and this is just a huge waste of everyone's time.  This has reached the point of absurdity and it's just super destructive for everyone involved.

[MrPix]

7 minutes ago, crisalan44 said:

...it just seems like Mr. Pix trying to steal Opcodes customer base and that of Collectorvision as well...

I don't think it seems like that. People are free to buy anything they want. Opcode is about the full new CIB experience with great artwork, high quality ports and content, and no expense spared to make everything perfect. That's not the customer I appeal to. People who bought Opcode products may or may not buy mine. I dunno. I'm not going to go after them (although I do spend a lot on advertising and tend to spend it where my competitors are - that's how advertising works.) I don't keep lists of customers, don't mail or interact with past customers or try to build relationships with them - it's a single sale, a warranty period, and no strings. It's a completely different kind of market than Opcode and establishments like that are running. So really, we don't have the same customers at all.

Ironically, anyone who bought my SGM-compatible upgrade would be more likely to spend money at Opcode - and have more free money to do so.

[crisalan44]

2 minutes ago, MrPix said:

I don't think it seems like that. People are free to buy anything they want. Opcode is about the full new CIB experience with great artwork, high quality ports and content, and no expense spared to make everything perfect. That's not the customer I appeal to. People who bought Opcode products may or may not buy mine. I dunno. I'm not going to go after them (although I do spend a lot on advertising and tend to spend it where my competitors are - that's how advertising works.) I don't keep lists of customers, don't mail or interact with past customers or try to build relationships with them - it's a single sale, a warranty period, and no strings. It's a completely different kind of market than Opcode and establishments like that are running. So really, we don't have the same customers at all.

Ironically, anyone who bought my SGM-compatible upgrade would be more likely to spend money at Opcode - and have more free money to do so.

I edited my quote because I do not want to be involved in drama, my bad. I support Opcode, Ruggers and Collectorvision and have given all of them my money to show where my support is. Peace!

[TPR]

15 minutes ago, retroillucid said:

I don't really understand people complaining about MSX ports, I mean.....just don't buy them?

All I know is there's alot of people who are happy with MSX (or SG-1000) ports

Myself included! I have said this before and I’ll say it again, had the crash not happened, I think we would have seen Coleco as well as other 3rd party companies porting those MSX games in the 80s. We already were starting to see examples of it with games like Antarctic Adventure, Monkey Academy, abs and Cabbage Patch Kids. 
 

So in a way, the homebewers porting MSX games, many of them receiving upgrades, and putting them into high quality packaging reminiscent of the 80s games is just continuing what Coleco would have done anyway. 
 

And isn’t that one of the points of home brewing for a retro 80s console?