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Ex-Activision Designers Launch Retro Game Publisher Audacity Games™


jaybird3rd

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Well from some the comments i see, guess some have returned to classic gaming or just new to the whole thing. Personally i never left and yes as one who was born in 83 my family wasn't rich. So my first console was the 2600Jr for my 5th birthday and ever since played my old systems for ever and a day till now. Modern games (PS2 and beyond) never sparked my interest besides a handful.

 

So before i started learning how to develop games myself 11 years ago, i looked up to this community in the early to mid 00's (had an older account and email that i lost the passwords for). Obviously after i learnt these things myself, and even though i use bBasic along with 7800Basic, i still class myself a half decent developer these days. As good as Crane and the OG's are, i believe there is many here of equal experience and knowledge and in some cases maybe even more.

 

I looked up to members back in the 00's like batari, Darrel, Andrew and Thomas just to name a few, so to me they're just as good as the OG's from back in the day. All these members can code 6502 asm fluently and as i have mentioned previously there isn't much left that hasn't been discovered already on the 2600. As good as this new game looks and id like to play it myself, there really isn't anything mindblowing or groundbreaking. This is what i was trying to put across in earlier comments before the criticism was shut down.

 

My clarification and 2cents anyway

 

PS: Im still waiting for the ability to purchases digital copies from the AA store as i want Aardvark, Stay Frosty 2, Boulder Dash, Millie and Molly along with many others ect ect.

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43 minutes ago, TwentySixHundred said:

Well from some the comments i see, guess some have returned to classic gaming or just new to the whole thing. Personally i never left and yes as one who was born in 83 my family wasn't rich. So my first console was the 2600Jr for my 5th birthday and ever since played my old systems for ever and a day till now. Modern games (PS2 and beyond) never sparked my interest besides a handful.

 

So before i started learning how to develop games myself 11 years ago, i looked up to this community in the early to mid 00's (had an older account and email that i lost the passwords for). Obviously after i learnt these things myself, and even though i use bBasic along with 7800Basic, i still class myself a half decent developer these days. As good as Crane and the OG's are, i believe there is many here of equal experience and knowledge and in some cases maybe even more.

 

I looked up to members back in the 00's like batari, Darrel, Andrew and Thomas just to name a few, so to me they're just as good as the OG's from back in the day. All these members can code 6502 asm fluently and as i have mentioned previously there isn't much left that hasn't been discovered already on the 2600. As good as this new game looks and id like to play it myself, there really isn't anything mindblowing or groundbreaking. This is what i was trying to put across in earlier comments before the criticism was shut down.

 

My clarification and 2cents anyway

 

PS: Im still waiting for the ability to purchases digital copies from the AA store as i want Aardvark, Stay Frosty 2, Boulder Dash, Millie and Molly along with many others ect ect.

Very similar story as myself! I was born in 85 and my first system we played growing up was around 1991 with my dad's 2600 that had been previously forgotten in the basement sometime around when I was born. (I actually just RGB modded it this past year. Still works!) I also got into collecting Atari games as a kid as they used to pop up super cheap at every garage sale. I think I originally found this site in the early 2000s when looking up carts in the rarity guide.

 

I started looking into writing games for the 2600 around 10 years ago but didn't get passed making a color bar using straight ASM. It wasn't until this past year that I started writing some stuff thanks to learning batari Basic.

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2 hours ago, fdr4prez said:

If it is one thing that learned in this thread is that there are many AA users that are using Firefox 

Because it's not tied to a multi-billion dollar global business conglomerate like Google, Microsoft or Apple. I swore by it until the update they released a few years back was broken for most of a year. The word was that you don't want your operating system or search engine in bed with your browser. There was also talk of Adobe Acrobat having its tentacles deep into your varieties of computer functions.

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9 hours ago, Omegamatrix said:

That brings it to (299-10)+275 = 564 confirmed sales. Yeah there will certainly be more sold but overall the surge is over and sales are slowing.

When adding a new standard edition and collector edition to my shopping cart on AudacityGames, I get #002346 (Std. edition) and #000390 (Coll. edition).

So I think that means 389-10+345 = 724 confirmed sales as of now.

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8 hours ago, BassGuitari said:

That's exactly what I'm saying. There's no reason they shouldn't be considered third-party releases among the likes of games from Imagic, Activision, etc., or that they should be held in different regard or have an asterisk next to them.

 

It's not about whether "homebrew" is insulting (it's not; didn't say it was), just whether the term really applies--to, say, Champ Games--in the actual sense of the word.

All I know is there are a lot of very talented people making Atari games today. Whatever label you want to put on them we are in the middle of a great time period to be an Atari fan and collector and I'm glad we have Audacity as part of that fold

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2 hours ago, Swami said:

Because it's not tied to a multi-billion dollar global business conglomerate like Google, Microsoft or Apple

Unfortunately it is, seeing as most of their funding comes from google. It's also wasted on god knows what, while features are being cut and they keep losing market share. Even so, Firefox is still a much better option than outright spyware such as Chrome or Edge.

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31 minutes ago, Dionoid said:

So I think that means 389-10+345 = 724 confirmed sales as of now.

  

On 3/10/2021 at 12:01 PM, Thomas Jentzsch said:

But customers also fall for names. Just look which is the best selling Atari 2600 homebrew game. It is a good game, no doubt about that. But there are better ones.

 

Therefore I am pretty sure they will sell a LOT of copies (most likely more than any other homebrew in the store), no matter how good or bad their games turn out to be.

Guess I was right.

Edited by Thomas Jentzsch
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8 minutes ago, Karl G said:

It's possible also that some serial numbers were skipped for orders that were initiated but never completed. 

I can confirm that serial numbers for skipped orders are reused, as yesterday when I tried to add three copies in my basket, I got two sequential serial numbers, and one number that was lower, apparently from an abandoned order.

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6 hours ago, fdr4prez said:

If it is one thing that learned in this thread is that there are many AA users that are using Firefox 

I use it because I started with Netscape which eventually turned into Firefox.  It's also what comes installed with most Linux distributions.  Up until now I've never had a problem with it.

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Watched the complete interview on ZPH now (many thanks for hosting this in such a great way, btw.)

I think these three gentlemen did an amazing job.

It shows that they are each still deeply connected with the start of their careers programming for the VCS in the old days.

Their love for the Atari 2600 shines through every little detail of this project and IMO it's that affection that links all of us, no matter if you're a player, collector, home brewer or archivist. 

8)

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9 hours ago, jaybird3rd said:

From my understanding of what Crane said in the ZPH interview, his definition of homebrew versus commercial games is more about the developers' motivation than it is about their level of professional experience or the quality of the games.  A professional developer can make a homebrew game, or try to, if they're doing it primarily for fun.  A novice developer can make a commercial game, or try to, if they're doing it primarily as a commercial venture.  There is a bit of fun and a bit of commercialism in everyone's motivations, however, and in many cases the categories tend to collapse one into the other, so I think it's mostly pointless trying to argue about whether a given game should be considered "homebrew" or not; in the end, it doesn't make that much of a difference.

Interesting points.  I don't think there's really any way to distinguish the two anymore, at least in the modern era.  Then again, does it really matter?  Professional homebrew vs amateur homebrew.  It's all just semantics.  Personally I see this as a homebrew being made by some original Atari programmers, but it doesn't change the fact that it's still a homebrew. 

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Everyone that has contributed to the release of an Atari game both original or modern is a Rock Star in my book.

 

When I was a kid I wanted to be David Crane and design games.  My career took a different path, but I have enjoyed the last 25 years with all of the talented individuals who fulfilled those dreams.  There are so many great games now, doing things we never thought possible on the 2600.  The innovation is as exciting as it was in the 70's and 80's.  The fact that there is a market for these games at all is crazy.  Welcome to the cult of Atari.

 

Thank you to everyone that works and contributes to this hobby, you are appreciated.

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Audacity has gotten some mainstream (or at least mainstream gaming) press and I've seen comments posted by people wanting to buy who think Circus Convoy is the first new 2600 game in 30 years (not the first new "commercial" game or whatever, the first new game period), so they're definitely reaching an audience beyond the community here. There's also at least some sales boost from people buying multiple editions, so it's hard to be sure how many individuals the sales numbers represent and how that compares to big sellers here.

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13 hours ago, Omegamatrix said:

TPH I don't find much difference between what they are doing and what @Albert does. I guess the only thing is they did different is having new shells made, but I believed Al has looked into that before too. AA does use new circuit cards ( @batari's Melody board, etc..), has boxes and manuals professionally made, and so on...

 

Also, the sheer volume of releases by AA is astounding. AA is an amazing publisher. These are some of the best games in 2600 library, and I'm sure it's the same for the other systems AA has games for. We wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for the homebrew scene. They recognized that, and were thankful for it keeping the system alive.

 

 

Bold emphasis added by me because I agree.  If you don't recognize AA as one of the top 3 Atari publishers of all time then you are crazy.  Personally, I put AA (aka Albert) at #1 for many reasons.  If we can thank Activision for creating a system where 3rd party publishers can release games then we can (at least partially) thank AA for the reality we live in today which is that homebrews or new games for old systems can lead to projects that create enough interest in this hobby to get things like the Atari Flashbacks, NES Mini, and of course Circus Convoy.

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2 minutes ago, hizzy said:

Will cosign this - Atari Age is the number 1 Atari publisher of all time. The quality is insane. I would put the homebrew forums, separate from the AA store, at 2, Atari Co. at 3. The forums got Pac-Man right.

 

I third this.  I'm in awe of what Albert does here.  

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6 hours ago, Tempest said:

Interesting points.  I don't think there's really any way to distinguish the two anymore, at least in the modern era.  Then again, does it really matter?  Professional homebrew vs amateur homebrew.  It's all just semantics.  Personally I see this as a homebrew being made by some original Atari programmers, but it doesn't change the fact that it's still a homebrew. 

 

For the record, David Crane's exact words, at 8:58 on the youtube video if you want to re-listen, were: "We love homebrew. I mean, I think it's great that people who have never done it before figure out how to work on the 2600 and draw the pixel art and put together some games, but I think the definition is, we are a retro-game publishing company, and homebrew is somebody at home. I think that's really the biggest difference in my opinion."

 

As far as I can tell these guys are at home — as are many developers in all areas of software in 2021. For whatever it's worth, they specifically stated they all have day jobs, and that they don't expect to make a big profit.

 

To me, the homebrew designation is not a mark of quality or of sales numbers. It's more like a badge of honor. They are eligible but have chosen not to wear it. I will respect that decision.

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31 minutes ago, Pat Brady said:

To me, the homebrew designation is not a mark of quality or of sales numbers. It's more like a badge of honor. They are eligible but have chosen not to wear it. I will respect that decision.

So presumably they're excluding themselves from eligibility in the 2021 Atari Homebrew Awards then? :ponder: 

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