Ex-Activision Designers Launch Retro Game Publisher Audacity Games™

[+DrVenkman]

45 minutes ago, chad5200 said:

Have games really started to ship?

I am VIP #67 and have not received any notice.

Curious to know who here got the notice or the actual physical game already.

 

8 minutes ago, holygrailvideogames.com said:

I have one of the lowest numbers for both the VIP and the standard version and I have not received a shipping notification.  The download is not available for me either.  

Yes. See my post above:

21 hours ago, DrVenkman said:

My number is 2006. I just now got a shipping email with tracking number.

 

My tracking number is live and I should have my copy by Saturday. 

 

 

[King_Salamon]

I received an email yesterday stating my game would be shipped by the end of the day (Tuesday).  I haven't logged in for the digital copy but it should be there now for me as per the email.

 

On another note, I don't think a youtube video should be released with full spoilers this soon.  I don't want to watch it and spoil the surprises in store.  I also wonder what Audacity thinks of the game being spoiled on the same day that the digital editions are starting to make their way out.  I would think the video could have been held back for at least a few more days.  Oh well, like I said I won't watch the video as I bought the game to enjoy and play through.  I do understand that there's a segment of the population that only watches videos like this and likely would never purchase the game.  

 

Anyway, I hope to have my cart in the next few weeks (I'm in Canada) and will fire it up on my 4 Switch Woodgrain... it'll be like when my new carts from Atariage arrive only this one has a little added nostalgia to it. 

 

Happy gaming everyone!

[Thomas Jentzsch]

The video felt quite early for me too. But I am sure @ZeroPage Homebrew is acting aligned with Audacity Games.

[Crazy Climber]

25 minutes ago, King_Salamon said:

 

On another note, I don't think a youtube video should be released with full spoilers this soon.  I don't want to watch it and spoil the surprises in store.  I also wonder what Audacity thinks of the game being spoiled on the same day that the digital editions are starting to make their way out.  I would think the video could have been held back for at least a few more days. 

 

21 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

The video felt quite early for me too. But I am sure @ZeroPage Homebrew is acting aligned with Audacity Games.

 

Pretty much every video game ever, even brand new games for current gen systems, will have an "ending" video posted on youtube within 24 hours of it's release these days.

 

Basically, if you don't want to see spoilers, don't watch...but yeah, if zeropage didn't do it someone else surely would

 

Not trying to be harsh but thats just the way it is these days

[+GoldLeader]

ZPH is usually pretty Awesome!  And I don't watch too many videos of video games online anyway.  What I liked was the Warning about spoilers,  right there before you even click on it.   And wanting to see it for myself, as I play it...that's how I've felt,... since forever anyway.  When I was younger I really liked magazines, as they could tell you what's coming or show screenshots of what's out there without ever really giving everything away...Anticipation was half the fun.

 

So,  I agree with everyone who says, don't watch it if you don't want any of it spoiled.  Easy enough.

[john_q_atari]

2 hours ago, Propane13 said:

Honestly, I was a little bit surprised that a spoiler-filled playthrough was released BEFORE anyone got the game. 

 

2 hours ago, Propane13 said:

I personally am going to ignore the video, play the heck out of the game, and try to figure out its secrets myself.  Maybe if I have questions, I'll try to ask in a non-spoliery way, but it would take a while to get to that point.

You and me both. I hope that spoilers are never posted to this thread and instead are kept in a separate game playthrough related thread.

 

[cubelindo]

 

Has anyone received a confirmation email after the purchase?

 

My paypal has been charged but I have nothing from Audacity besides the marketing emails. I even asked for confirmation using the contact form on the website.

[+GoldLeader]

TBH,  I even thought their teaser trailer showed too much (but I get it)...So I made sure I only watched it once.  Perhaps unfortunately,  my brain is so good at forgetting, that I won't remember much about it anyway...

[chad5200]

I love ZPH, but I guess my problem with posting a "walkthrough" video the moment anyone got their digital copy of this brand new game is odd in this specific case.

 

ZPH was one of the beta testers so he already knows almost the entire game inside and out.

 

Imagine if David Crane released a "here is exactly how to play this game and see all it's secrets" right now.  That would be crazy!

 

I would MUCH have preferred to watch a video of him discovering all the secrets of the game for the first time.  Maybe if he invited Darcy or Aerlon over (or anyone who hasn't played it at all) and had them record their game playing/discovery session.

 

But anyways... this video seems more like a "FIRST!" type video.

 

I am hoping this will be handled differently with any future big releases.

 

[chad5200]

13 minutes ago, john_q_atari said:

You and me both. I hope that spoilers are never posted to this thread and instead are kept in a separate game playthrough related thread.

 

Yes!  Please, everyone... NO SPOILERS IN THIS THREAD!  Start a new thread if you are going to discuss spoilers.

[Mockduck]

You're not going to stop video of a new video game from being blasted across the Internet on the day of release, but I for sure don't want to see it until I plug in my cart. 

[+Nathan Strum]

2 hours ago, chad5200 said:

I would MUCH have preferred to watch a video of him discovering all the secrets of the game for the first time.  Maybe if he invited Darcy or Aerlon over (or anyone who hasn't played it at all) and had them record their game playing/discovery session.

Fully agreed. ZPH is much more entertaining to watch when they're discovering a game for the first time and working their way through it. Waiting for Aerlan or Darcy would've been great. (Although it's frankly annoying when they don't read the instructions at all beforehand... programmers put a lot of thought, time and effort into those.)

 

When I know ZPH is going to do a play-through of a full game (any full game) I tune out. I get that one of James' passions (okay... obsessions) is completing games, but I have zero interest in watching complete play-throughs. The exception being if I've already played through a game, and want to see if I've missed anything.

[+splendidnut]

Hmmm... the Audacity of some people!  Seems fitting though, given the definition.

Definition of audacity

1 : the quality or state of being audacious: such as

  a : intrepid boldness - knights admired for their audacity

  b : bold or arrogant disregard of normal restraints - had the audacity to defy his boss

2 : an audacious act —usually used in plural Her worst audacities did not seem to surprise him.— Edith Wharton

 

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

Hi @Propane13! I don't normally respond to criticism of my videos as there's usually no need but I thought I should respond.

 

5 hours ago, Propane13 said:

Honestly, I was a little bit surprised that a spoiler-filled playthrough was released BEFORE anyone got the game.

This is incorrect, I waited until I saw a video posted on YouTube of somebody else playing a binary copy of the game they purchased. I don't find it surprising that I would be doing a full playthrough of a new 2600 game on ZPH, a show that is entirely dedicated to playing new 2600 games. I promised Dave, Garry and Dan on the world debut last week that I wouldn't play more of the game until it was in the hands of the people who bought it. I waited until others had access to the game, and now that they do, I should hopefully be able play the game just as much as anybody else.

 

5 hours ago, Propane13 said:

While it was bound to happen once the carts were released, this seemed pretty fast.  The way the designers were talking on the Interview made it sound like some secrets were pretty deeply buried and may take some time/trial/effort to figure out.  But, if everything's already known-- well, that's a bit of a shame (at least to me).  Does that mean it's not as difficult to finish the game as the Designers thought?

The game has a huge amount of replay value and I still don't know everything that is to be found in the game. It will definitely take you many, many hours and many replays of the game to figure everything out.

 

5 hours ago, Propane13 said:

It would have been cool to see some collaboration threads on atariage like "hey, I tried X on screen Y and got a widget. Anyone have any ideas?"  That will likely still happen, but since a bunch of people can just reference a video now, I have a feeling that sort of collaboration won't happen as much as it could have.  Since I didn't watch the video myself, did they show how to get every star? If so, that makes getting the "perfect" patch a bit less of an achievement (although, you do have to have a PERFECT run, so it's still hard, just documented).  That said, promoting a full playthrough opens the door such that Speed Runs are the new achievement, which isn't a bad thing.

My video shouldn't deter anyone from starting a thread on AtariAge about trying to collaboratively figure out all the secrets in the game. I see people post about games that have been out for decades, of which full walkthroughs exist for, asking for hints for certain difficult areas in a game. Feel free to ignore my video and all other videos that will inevitably come out in the next days and weeks of people playing through the game, there is no reason to watch these videos if you or anybody else doesn't want to. There are plenty of videos made by other people doing 100% runthroughs of games that I plan to play (offline for other systems) in the future and I'm definitely not going to watch those videos in case I spoil any surprises for myself. As stated above I also did not do a perfect run of the game so there are still secrets to find and a large number of ways to play the game, my way is only one.

 

5 hours ago, Propane13 said:

I have a feeling this is more of a "me" problem, since I'm old-school where maps / videos / etc... didn't exist when games came out when I was younger, and I'm nostaligic as heck for this game.  In the very old days, the only way out was through-- that or waiting a few months for a magazine that may have had tips and tricks.  I personally am going to ignore the video, play the heck out of the game, and try to figure out its secrets myself.  Maybe if I have questions, I'll try to ask in a non-spoliery way, but it would take a while to get to that point.

 

I do want to mention that I think ZPH does AWESOME work, and I totally get the marketing aspect of a full video in order to help get the word out / drive sales / get speedrunners engaged.  It all makes sense to me, and the more sales they can get, the more games we're likely to get down the road.  But, as for me, I... may just hide for a while until my copy gets here.

Thank you for the your kind words about the show, I appreciate it.

 

What you've said is incorrect, this was not a marketing video, I don't work for anyone except myself and the show is just something I do for fun in my free time. I have been playing new Atari 2600 games for several years on ZPH and regularly do full playthroughs of games including last night for the game Ature, so full playthroughs are nothing new to the channel. I made sure to label the post, the video and mention it constantly throughout the video that there are massive spoilers and you shouldn't watch it if you want to find all the secrets yourself.

I hope this didn't come off as combative, as there was no intent to be, I just wanted to correct some information and put my own perspective on the video.
 

- James

 

[keithbk]

1 minute ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said:

I hope this didn't come off as combative, as there was no intent to be, I just wanted to correct some information and put my own perspective on the video.
 

- James

 

Hey, I enjoyed the video; the others have the choice not to watch, so there is no point in complaining. Having a video like this available BEFORE you get your game is great because if you REALLY get stuck and need to see what to do, you can get some tips. It appears the game allows you to stop playing/moving in numerous areas in order to safely look for a solution, run to the restroom, eat a meal, etc. Sure, you will crank up time on the clock, but that is no big deal on initial play-throughs. Or, if you want to explore and fail repeatedly, that is certainly an option as well! I know that Raiders of the Lost Ark frustrated me no end as a kid because I couldn't figure certain parts of the game and no one could help. Personally, I appreciate someone providing some tips

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

43 minutes ago, Nathan Strum said:

Fully agreed. ZPH is much more entertaining to watch when they're discovering a game for the first time and working their way through it. Waiting for Aerlan or Darcy would've been great. (Although it's frankly annoying when they don't read the instructions at all beforehand... programmers put a lot of thought, time and effort into those.)

I'm unlikely to do a full playthrough like this again given the reaction I've got from several people and leave it to someone else to do it first so they can deal with it.

 

- James

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

I've taken the video offline.

 

I only play games because I enjoy them and want to spread that joy to others and not for any kind of negativity. This is causing too much stress for me and I no longer wish to deal with it.

 

- James

[+sramirez2008]

13 minutes ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said:

This is causing too much stress for me and I no longer wish to deal with it.

 

- James

James please don't let the comments stress you out.  You clearly provided a warning (as per below) on your thread as well as several warnings throughout the video.  We're all big boys & girls, we should be able to read your warning and decide whether/not to proceed with watching the video.  This really shouldn't be an issue.

 

[+splendidnut]

5 minutes ago, sramirez2008 said:

James please don't let the comments stress you out.  You clearly provided a warning (as per below) on your thread as well as several warnings throughout the video.  We're all big boys & girls, we should be able to read your warning and decide whether/not to proceed with watching the video.  This really shouldn't be an issue.

Fully agree!  I was trying to figure out what to say, and it appears that @sramirez2008 captured it perfectly.

[+Karl G]

2 minutes ago, splendidnut said:

8 minutes ago, sramirez2008 said:

James please don't let the comments stress you out.  You clearly provided a warning (as per below) on your thread as well as several warnings throughout the video.  We're all big boys & girls, we should be able to read your warning and decide whether/not to proceed with watching the video.  This really shouldn't be an issue.

Fully agree!  I was trying to figure out what to say, and it appears that @sramirez2008 captured it perfectly.

/signed

 

I'll also add that I definitely don't think James would do such a video just to have bragging rights for having done so first. He should really get some benefit of the doubt by now.

 

@ZeroPage Homebrew - I just want to say that I appreciate what you have contributed to the community over the years. Your show has filled a need that I hadn't realized was there before. 

[+Propane13]

Hello!

 

1 hour ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said:

I hope this didn't come off as combative, as there was no intent to be, I just wanted to correct some information and put my own perspective on the video.

 

I figured I'd jump on this comment first before the others.  Don't worry-- you're not coming across as combative at all.  I'm sorry if it caused a bit of a ruckus from my side.  One of the great things about atariage is that I feel like in most cases we can talk about stuff like adults here.  Nobody's really going to judge anyone; we're all a bunch of gamers that frankly love the hobby.  Honestly, I'm glad you responded.  Your channel is a valuable asset to the community, as it is a way for players to communicate with homebrewers, while also generating new buzz in the hobby.  Heck, I would never have come back to these message boards at all if you hadn't found one of my old demos and started playing it.  I had some dormant alert waiting in case anyone ever tickled any of my long-dead threads on here, and that's what brought me back into the hobby.  FYI - it's a surreal feeling to have somebody play something that you abandoned years ago, and have it received as fresh and interesting.  I want to thank you for that.  So, yes, I'm happy to have the discussion.  And, I want to say I'm glad you answered some of my questions, because frankly-- well, it's hard for me to know the answer to some of them without watching the video.  For example,

 

1 hour ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said:

Quote

While it was bound to happen once the carts were released, this seemed pretty fast.  The way the designers were talking on the Interview made it sound like some secrets were pretty deeply buried and may take some time/trial/effort to figure out.  But, if everything's already known-- well, that's a bit of a shame (at least to me).  Does that mean it's not as difficult to finish the game as the Designers thought?

The game has a huge amount of replay value and I still don't know everything that is to be found in the game. It will definitely take you many, many hours and many replays of the game to figure everything out.

 

I am glad to hear that.  The only data I had at this point was the "STREAMING LIVE ON YOUTUBE: FULL PLAYTHROUGH OF CIRCUS CONVOY" post.  I wasn't sure if I should interpret a "full" playthrough as 100% completionist, or just "a path from start to finish".  I've seen it go both ways.  Unfortunately, the only way I could verify was to ask somebody who watched it.  It's a relief that it doesn't share everything, so thank you for clarifying here.  Also, my apologies for assuming based on the tagline.

 

1 hour ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said:

7 hours ago, Propane13 said:

Honestly, I was a little bit surprised that a spoiler-filled playthrough was released BEFORE anyone got the game.

This is incorrect, I waited until I saw a video posted on YouTube of somebody else playing a binary copy of the game they purchased. I don't find it surprising that I would be doing a full playthrough of a new 2600 game on ZPH, a show that is entirely dedicated to playing new 2600 games. I promised Dave, Garry and Dan on the world debut last week that I wouldn't play more of the game until it was in the hands of the people who bought it. I waited until others had access to the game, and now that they do, I should hopefully be able play the game just as much as anybody else.

 

For what it's worth, I bought the game / digital copy within the first 5 minutes of it going on sale, and my physical copy hasn't shipped and my digital copy hasn't arrived yet-- and that's okay; these things are going to take time.  What confused me was that it looked to me like the only confirmed shipment on this thread happened an hour before the twitch stream, so I was mostly just really confused on the timing.  It didn't appear that the digital copies were out yet, but a full run-through was happening.  But, I stand corrected with that youtube video-- apparently others have it, and I didn't know that.  I can see how you're caught in the middle here-- it wasn't my intention for you to take the video down.  But yes, you are right-- you have as much right to play the game and stream whenever you wish.

 

1 hour ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said:

My video shouldn't deter anyone from starting a thread on AtariAge about trying to collaboratively figure out all the secrets in the game. I see people post about games that have been out for decades, of which full walkthroughs exist for, asking for hints for certain difficult areas in a game. Feel free to ignore my video and all other videos that will inevitably come out in the next days and weeks of people playing through the game, there is no reason to watch these videos if you or anybody else doesn't want to. There are plenty of videos made by other people doing 100% runthroughs of games that I plan to play (offline for other systems) in the future and I'm definitely not going to watch those videos in case I spoil any surprises for myself. As stated above I also did not do a perfect run of the game so there are still secrets to find and a large number of ways to play the game, my way is only one.

 

You make a good point.  Maybe I was a bit whiny here; I can own that.  This release does feel a bit special, though, compared to other 2600 releases.  I think this is a very rare occurrence where it's actually going to transport some of us back to feeling like young kids again.  But, I have to admit that the world has changed.  This isn't a situation where a kid who recently saw "The Empire Strikes Back" is ruining the ending for everyone in school for fun and you can't avoid him; as you said, we can just switch it off.

 

1 hour ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said:

What you've said is incorrect, this was not a marketing video, I don't work for anyone except myself and the show is just something I do for fun in my free time. I have been playing new Atari 2600 games for several years on ZPH and regularly do full playthroughs of games including last night for the game Ature, so full playthroughs are nothing new to the channel. I made sure to label the post, the video and mention it constantly throughout the video that there are massive spoilers and you shouldn't watch it if you want to find all the secrets yourself.

 

Thanks for clarifying that Audacity didn't ask for the playthrough-- that was a question I (and others) had.  Again, that idea stemmed from the "well, it's not out for people yet-- why is he playing it?" mindset.  The only thing I could think of was to promote the game a bit more for them.  Again, I had no idea the game was out-- I still don't have my digital copy.  It wasn't my intention to make ZPH look bad or portray this as a channel marketing thing.  I know that's not how your channel operates.  Your channel is well respected, and is a great way to bring new people into the hobby.  Keep doing what you're doing, and don't feel stressed because a random person on the internet (me) was a bit confused.  And again, no malice here-- I feel that atariage is a comfortable place to ask questions, have discussions, etc... It's one of the things that makes it very special compared with other corners of the internet.  With that said, thank you for taking the time to respond to my concerns and questions; I welcome open discussion on stuff like this and am glad you chimed in.  ZPH is fantastic, and an important part of the community.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[+Nathan Strum]

1 hour ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said:

I'm unlikely to do a full playthrough like this again given the reaction I've got from several people and leave it to someone else to do it first so they can deal with it.

I hope you don't stop doing what you enjoy. I personally avoid spoilers, and know enough to not watch something involving them. If you're doing a playthrough of a VHZC game for example, that's fine - but I tune it out because I want to discover the game for myself.

 

I find the show far more engaging when you're discovering a new game, because that's what interests me the most about the Homebrew scene. But the show should be what you want it to be, and people can choose to watch the parts they connect with.

1 hour ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said:

I've taken the video offline.

 

I only play games because I enjoy them and want to spread that joy to others and not for any kind of negativity. This is causing too much stress for me and I no longer wish to deal with it.

You certainly put up enough spoiler warnings about it. I didn't watch it for that reason (so thank you for doing that). Similarly, during the reveal, when Tanya was playing the game, I hid that part of the screen behind another window so I could hear the interview, but not spoil the game for myself.

 

It's up to people to choose to watch something that may spoil a game for them or not. You shouldn't have to censor yourself if people can't control their ability to not play a video.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

2 minutes ago, Nathan Strum said:

You shouldn't have to censor yourself if people can't control their ability to not play a video.

/signed

[Thomas Jentzsch]

32 minutes ago, Propane13 said:

I am glad to hear that.  The only data I had at this point was the "STREAMING LIVE ON YOUTUBE: FULL PLAYTHROUGH OF CIRCUS CONVOY" post.  I wasn't sure if I should interpret a "full" playthrough as 100% completionist, or just "a path from start to finish".  I've seen it go both ways.  Unfortunately, the only way I could verify was to ask somebody who watched it.  It's a relief that it doesn't share everything, so thank you for clarifying here.  Also, my apologies for assuming based on the tagline.

How would that be relevant for you at all? If you do not want your fun to be spoiled, do not watch the video. It is really that simple.

[+KaeruYojimbo]

13 minutes ago, Nathan Strum said:

You shouldn't have to censor yourself if people can't control their ability to not play a video.

 

This. If a video has spoiler warnings and someone watches it and gets mad about having the game spoiled, that's not the video's fault.

 

That said, it seems like there were really only a couple of posts complaining about spoilers. Everyone else seems to understand that they can just not watch the video if they don't want anything spoiled. I'm sure that there will be enough playthrough videos posted eventually that one won't be missed by those who want them (or eventually need them when they get stuck), but it's a shame that James felt the need to take down a video he (presumably) put a lot of time and work into.