Ex-Activision Designers Launch Retro Game Publisher Audacity Games™

[neotokeo2001]

There is really no reason to try to purchase right at the deadline unless you want the VIP edition.

[Crazy Climber]

3 hours ago, Shawn said:

I found it odd that David Crane said there wasn't 2600 PCB's or shells to be purchased new in large numbers and that is why he had to make his own? 

I'm no expert, but LARGE NUMBERS seems to be they key words. This game alone has a run of 3000? More?

 

More games are planned for release, who knows how many PCBs were purchased up front.

 

These guys seem to pretty serious...as a machinist i know it's a different ballgame when you start buying things in 20000-100000 units. Price and availability take on a whole new meaning. Not saying they did, but if they did buy REALLY BIG, would that change things?

Edited March 14, 2021 by Crazy Climber
Spelled my damn job title wrong lol

[Jstick]

51 minutes ago, neotokeo2001 said:

There is really no reason to try to purchase right at the deadline unless you want the VIP edition.

...or if you are interested in the "free gift" that goes with the first 250 preorders.

[+fdr4prez]

4 hours ago, Shawn said:

I found it odd that David Crane said there wasn't 2600 PCB's or shells to be purchased new in large numbers and that is why he had to make his own?

I found it an odd statement, too, but it looks like their board is using the two prongs for something - probably in the programming of the game to the chip - so even if there was a ready source of boards, it doesn't look like they'd use them anyway.

 

 

 

I'd imagine that someone would be taking their cart apart, so we'll be seeing the other side fairly soon

Edited March 14, 2021 by fdr4prez

[jaybird3rd]

4 hours ago, Crazy Climber said:

I'm no expert, but LARGE NUMBERS seems to be they key words. This game alone has a run of 3000? More?

 

More games are planned for release, who knows how many PCBs were purchased up front.

 

These guys seem to pretty serious...as a machinist i know it's a different ballgame when you start buying things in 20000-100000 units. Price and availability take on a whole new meaning. Not saying they did, but if they did buy REALLY BIG, would that change things?

If they're planning multiple releases, and if their research indicates that they can expect to sell thousands of copies per game, I can easily see them wanting to go with a large initial order, along the lines you suggest.  Tooling a new injection mold is not cheap, as I'm sure you know, so it makes sense that they'd want to spread that cost over as many games as possible.  It also makes sense to me that they'd want to create their own boards and shells: it may seem like a duplication of effort to do so when other boards and shells have already been made, but by making their own, they're locking in their costs and keeping their inventory under their control as much as possible.

 

As @fdr4prez points out above, they also seem to be rethinking the way that cartridges are designed.  After surveying the field, they may simply have decided that the existing designs didn't suit their needs.  In particular, I really like those cartridge door key prongs built right in to the PCB.  Unless I'm mistaken, this is the first time that has been done in an Atari 2600 cartridge—(EDIT: not quite; see below!)—and it is a novel solution to the problem of finding a replacement for the (complex and costly) spring-loaded interlocking dust doors that Atari originally used.  As everyone here knows, Atari later switched to a cheaper two-piece shell design that had the key prongs molded directly into the top half of the shell; the tradeoff was those cavities under the face labels that everyone hates so much, as well as brittle key prongs that were too easily broken.  It's a lot harder to break a PCB, which is one reason this approach is such a good idea.  Another is that shells made for these boards could be used with the 7800 as well, if they wanted to; all they would need is a revised version of the board.

[+batari]

2 hours ago, jaybird3rd said:

If they're planning multiple releases, and if their research indicates that they can expect to sell thousands of copies per game, I can easily see them wanting to go with a large initial order, along the lines you suggest.  Tooling a new injection mold is not cheap, as I'm sure you know, so it makes sense that they'd want to spread that cost over as many games as possible.  It also makes sense to me that they'd want to create their own boards and shells: it may seem like a duplication of effort to do so when other boards and shells have already been made, but by making their own, they're locking in their costs and keeping their inventory under their control as much as possible.

 

As @fdr4prez points out above, they also seem to be rethinking the way that cartridges are designed.  After surveying the field, they may simply have decided that the existing designs didn't suit their needs.  In particular, I really like those cartridge door key prongs built right in to the PCB.  Unless I'm mistaken, this is the first time that has been done in an Atari 2600 cartridge, and it is a novel solution to the problem of finding a replacement for the (complex and costly) spring-loaded interlocking dust doors that Atari originally used.  As everyone here knows, Atari later switched to a cheaper two-piece shell design that had the key prongs molded directly into the top half of the shell; the tradeoff was those cavities under the face labels that everyone hates so much, as well as brittle key prongs that were too easily broken.  It's a lot harder to break a PCB, which is one reason this approach is such a good idea.  Another is that shells made for these boards could be used with the 7800 as well, if they wanted to; all they would need is a revised version of the board.

The PCB with the fingers is nothing new. The Krokodile Cart did that and I have seen it done in other prototype boards.

 

The reason other PCBs haven't done that is because of cost, as the price of a PCB is measured from the smallest rectangle that can enclose it. Unless the board is already big, that could add far more cost to the overall cost of the cart than a shell design with fingers molded in.

[alex_79]

4 minutes ago, batari said:

The PCB with the fingers is nothing new. The Krokodile Cart did that and I have seen it done in other prototype boards.

The Supercharger did this too.

[+Andrew Davie]

2 hours ago, jaybird3rd said:

Unless I'm mistaken, this is the first time that has been done in an Atari 2600 cartridge, and it is a novel solution to the problem of finding a replacement for the (complex and costly) spring-loaded interlocking dust doors that Atari originally used.

My 3D-printable shell tackled this problem sometime back. Very strong. Easy to print and assemble. No supports needed.

Just throwing this up as an example of an alternate solution.

 

 

 

[jaybird3rd]

55 minutes ago, alex_79 said:

The Supercharger did this too.

 

1 hour ago, batari said:

The PCB with the fingers is nothing new. The Krokodile Cart did that and I have seen it done in other prototype boards.

 

The reason other PCBs haven't done that is because of cost, as the price of a PCB is measured from the smallest rectangle that can enclose it. Unless the board is already big, that could add far more cost to the overall cost of the cart than a shell design with fingers molded in.

Thank you!  I appreciate the correction.  I was just thinking back through the ROM cartridges I had seen, all of which used plastic prongs of various types.  (I haven't taken apart any Krokodile Carts or Superchargers.)

[Supergun]

8 hours ago, Crazy Climber said:

I'm no expert, but LARGE NUMBERS seems to be they key words. This game alone has a run of 3000? More?

 

More games are planned for release, who knows how many PCBs were purchased up front.

 

These guys seem to pretty serious...as a machinist i know it's a different ballgame when you start buying things in 20000-100000 units. Price and availability take on a whole new meaning. Not saying they did, but if they did buy REALLY BIG, would that change things?

Agreed.

And this higher then usual, (well hell, higher then ANY previous known aftermarket cartridge release) “mass production”, is the KEY thing that truly does separate the Audacity “team” from any and all previous “aftermarket” (Homebrew if you will) 2600 publishers.

 

These guys are clearly VERY serious about doing this and they do deserve to be seen in a different light then all previous aftermarket game efforts.

 

I was finally able to see the entire video from start to finish last night. And I agree, not sure how/where the “elitist or arrogant” comments stemmed from, all 3 were just as friendly, honest, humble, and entertaining as I found them to be in person when I met them. To the point where I regret having chimed in with my comments before having seen the actual video for myself.

 

Look at it this way. These guys put quite a bit of time, money, and effort into this venture. (far more then any other “Homebrew” author has done thus far) And it’s a venture that has no guarantee whatsoever of ROI for them, thus, by definition, a labor of love. And they were basically revealing all of this publicly for the first time. So even if they misspoke a couple of times, how could anyone hold it against them. Most of it was clearly attributed to their true love and excitement for what they do; designing, programming, and producing Atari 2600 games.

 

I signed up at their site late last night. I will definitely be buying their game, and likely buy the others that they make in the future. Not just to support them and their efforts, not just because it’s a great game, but because I truly feel their carts will compliment my Atari collection.

[insertclevernamehere]

I might hold off buying this until Casey's Gold is released and buy both at once, unless it looks like it's selling out before then.  Shipping on 2 games isn't usually double the shipping for one and it's the shipping costs that push these games into too expensive territory.  Hell, I might even wait until there's 3 games from Audacity.  I have a 6 game order from AtariAge I'm still waiting on, which'll probably arrive around the same time as Circus Convoy if I ordered it now so there's another reason not to bother now.

[mos6507]

15 hours ago, 5-11under said:

Is the quantity limited?

Well, the serial number is only six digits.  So limited to 999,999.

 

[Atari_Bill]

I normally would try for a limited edition for something like this, but funds are a little scarce now and I’ll just be happy with a nice complete copy for something this amazing.  

[Crazy Climber]

1 hour ago, Supergun said:

Agreed.

And this higher then usual, (well hell, higher then ANY previous known aftermarket cartridge release) “mass production”, is the KEY thing that truly does separate the Audacity “team” from any and all previous “aftermarket” (Homebrew if you will) 2600 publishers.

 

These guys are clearly VERY serious about doing this and they do deserve to be seen in a different light then all previous aftermarket game efforts.

 

I was finally able to see the entire video from start to finish last night. And I agree, not sure how/where the “elitist or arrogant” comments stemmed from, all 3 were just as friendly, honest, humble, and entertaining as I found them to be in person when I met them. To the point where I regret having chimed in with my comments before having seen the actual video for myself.

 

Look at it this way. These guys put quite a bit of time, money, and effort into this venture. (far more then any other “Homebrew” author has done thus far) And it’s a venture that has no guarantee whatsoever of ROI for them, thus, by definition, a labor of love. And they were basically revealing all of this publicly for the first time. So even if they misspoke a couple of times, how could anyone hold it against them. Most of it was clearly attributed to their true love and excitement for what they do; designing, programming, and producing Atari 2600 games.

 

I signed up at their site late last night. I will definitely be buying their game, and likely buy the others that they make in the future. Not just to support them and their efforts, not just because it’s a great game, but because I truly feel their carts will compliment my Atari collection.

Yeah, I’m not sure what the highest selling current homebrew is...I’d be surprised if even thrust and syhthcart have sold over 1000 units. I don’t know the exact numbers of course but it’s clear these guys are going all in based on “numbered” quantities. It goes beyond our current definition of homebrew for sure on the production end of things.  
 

6 minutes ago, insertclevernamehere said:

I might hold off buying this until Casey's Gold is released and buy both at once, unless it looks like it's selling out before then.  Shipping on 2 games isn't usually double the shipping for one and it's the shipping costs that push these games into too expensive territory.  Hell, I might even wait until there's 3 games from Audacity.  I have a 6 game order from AtariAge I'm still waiting on, which'll probably arrive around the same time as Circus Convoy if I ordered it now so there's another reason not to bother now.

Sounds like the first few games are kind of a “proof of concept” to possible get other old school legends on the audacity team. Buy now! lol  

[+wongojack]

Did I read somewhere that every version will include a ROM for download or do I have to get at least the $99 option?

[Thomas Jentzsch]

21 minutes ago, Crazy Climber said:

I’d be surprised if even thrust and syhthcart have sold over 1000 units.

The total AA sales of Thrust are still below 500.

[hizzy]

With newly made games, could a new 2600 console be far behind? That would be a dream!

[+MrZarniwoop]

39 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

The total AA sales of Thrust are still below 500.

Rikki & Vikki for the Atari 7800 sold 550 cartridges in 21 months, which felt like an unprecedented hit especially considering it wasn't for the more-widely-available Atari 2600. I have to think the pandemic changed the market somewhat, as evidenced by the rise in prices across the board in retro hardware and cartridges.

 

Their release had similarities though, in that it looks like a custom cartridge shell, custom PCB with custom audio processor (BupChip), 512KB of game and 256K of music, box, and custom inserts (manual/tour guide with "tickets"). 

Edited March 14, 2021 by MrZarniwoop
Correction: R&V sold out in 21 months

[+DrVenkman]

6 minutes ago, MrZarniwoop said:

Rikki & Vikki for the Atari 7800 sold 550 cartridges in 9 months,

Wasn't more like a year and 9 months? I got my copy pretty early in the run and it was still available for a good while afterwards.

[+MrZarniwoop]

Just now, DrVenkman said:

Wasn't more like a year and 9 months? I got my copy pretty early in the run and it was still available for a good while afterwards.

Yes, you are right, mixed up year.

[+Andrew Davie]

Qb would have sold about 500 units total, I think.

 

[Ben_Larson]

I watched most of the show and I feel like most of the negativity is unwarranted - I feel personally that it's like the old saying goes: "a rising tide lifts all boats".

 

That being said I think the market is quite limited (right now anyway) for people willing to pay 'real money' for a boxed Atari game so I hope they get their investment back and then some.

[+cvga]

35 minutes ago, Ben_Larson said:

I watched most of the show and I feel like most of the negativity is unwarranted - I feel personally that it's like the old saying goes: "a rising tide lifts all boats".

I agree. Reminds me of a saying I tell my kids... Sour grapes make sour whine

 

[Mr SQL]

45 minutes ago, Supergun said:

not sure how/where the “elitist or arrogant” comments stemmed from, all 3 were just as friendly, honest, humble, and entertaining as I found them to be in person when I met them. To the point where I regret having chimed in with my comments before having seen the actual video for myself.

X2! I didn't watch the review because from the tone of the thread I thought they may hold up signs insulting the OG's as a publicity stunt:

 

I'm glad they stopped doing that. I think the 32-bit games should be enough of an equalizer against 8-bit games and not need signs to help them compete  

 

[+D Train]

I looked at that photo really quickly and it almost seemed like darcy was not wearing any pants...