Ex-Activision Designers Launch Retro Game Publisher Audacity Games™

[Thomas Jentzsch]

11 minutes ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said:

I'll make sure to check if they are excluding Audacity releases from nomination eligibility in the 4th Annual Homebrew Awards.

Without a ROM available, they would hardly have a chance anyway.

[+Stephen]

1 hour ago, Pat Brady said:

 

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.

On a tangentially related note:  Was BattleSphere for the Jaguar a homebrew?  Although it was planned to be an official release, it came out after Atari died.  The coders were professionals with fulltime day jobs.  But, they worked on the game at home, in the evenings, etc.  From a quality standpoint, the cart shell, box, manual, and even the game was definitely up to par with any of the top official releases.

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

1 minute ago, Stephen said:

On a tangentially related note:  Was BattleSphere for the Jaguar a homebrew?  Although it was planned to be an official release, it came out after Atari died.  The coders were professionals with fulltime day jobs.  But, they worked on the game at home, in the evenings, etc.  From a quality standpoint, the cart shell, box, manual, and even the game was definitely up to par with any of the top official releases.

Good question. We've never had to run into that situation with a title for the Atari Homebrew Awards yet. I don't immediately have a gut feeling where that would fall since it would have its feet in both camps.

 

- James

[legeek]

10 hours ago, AtariLeaf said:

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

+1

[+littaum]

Just like there's a 4K and under category for homebrew awards, if the folks at Audacity games decide they want to qualify for the awards, perhaps have a separate category for very large memory games.  Doggone It and Zookeeper were impressive in their own way, just like Circus Convoy is.

 

[+Cafeman]

I watched this recent ZPH show,  with the interview, gameplay demonstration and so on, via Youtube .  Then I started to go through this thread to see what people were commenting on, which didn't read like I had expected.        But all that I wanted to add to this thread is a few thoughts on the game itself.  Despite the heritage of the OG Activision guys making this, what did I think of the Circus Convoy game itself? 

 

Mind you -  I'm kind of at a 'burned out' point right now concerning gaming - I've played a lot of Atari era games and because of the AtariAge community, the games have kept coming. So here is another one. That's cool but will I really be interested, I wondered?   

 

But as I saw Tanya play it,  and Messrs. Crane and Kitchens explain some things,  as I saw the breadth and depth of the game, I started to want to play it.  After I watched the game's features, things like the menu system, the game play mechanics of finding stars,  the great variety of convoy cars and graphics and puzzles to figure out, the very professional and solid-looking 2600 graphics that were accomplished, and the winks to older games which fired up my nostalgia ...  I let it all sink in , and I came away very impressed.  I hope the 2nd game gives the same impression because that would be a fantastic start for Audacity Games.    Really, they seem to have made a game worth buying at full price.   

 

Unfortunately for me, as my hardware ages, emulation is my favorite way to play games, and I'd have to fork out $100 to get a cart AND a binary.   I'm not sure I'm ready to do that right now, but I'm thinking about it.    Or have all those $100 Collector Edition serial-no's sold out already?  If so , you snooze you lose, so I'll have to settle for just the standard cart and hope my 7800 keeps working.  

 

Also a question  - is there a place which summarizes info about Circus Convoy gameplay?  Is the goal basically to figure out the puzzles and get all the stars in the shortest time or am I missing something else?   Do you have limited lives? How long is it estimated to 100% beat the game (it doesn't save does it?). Just wondering.  I didn't see much info on Audacity's own site. 

[+sramirez2008]

6 hours ago, Crazy Climber said:

Man, I had the perfect piece to display with all the extra's in the VIP edition if I would have nabbed one, oh well...

 

Now we know what "The Chameleon" really looks like.

[Atariperson23]

What would a 128K Pitfall! or Keystone Kapers look like? You've got to wonder...

[+wongojack]

32 minutes ago, Atariperson23 said:

What would a 128K Pitfall! or Keystone Kapers look like? You've got to wonder...

You may not know about this.  It is only like 32k, but can give you an idea.  It uses an extra chip for sound similar to Pitfall II:  Stay Frosty 2 Demo Released! - Atari 2600 - AtariAge Forums

[+Nathan Strum]

1 hour ago, Cafeman said:

Also a question  - is there a place which summarizes info about Circus Convoy gameplay?  Is the goal basically to figure out the puzzles and get all the stars in the shortest time or am I missing something else?   Do you have limited lives? How long is it estimated to 100% beat the game (it doesn't save does it?). Just wondering.  I didn't see much info on Audacity's own site. 

There's quite a bit of info up there now: https://adgm.us/portal/guide01.html

[Supergun]

1 hour ago, Cafeman said:

...Unfortunately for me, as my hardware ages, emulation is my favorite way to play games, and I'd have to fork out $100 to get a cart AND a binary.   I'm not sure I'm ready to do that right now, but I'm thinking about it.    Or have all those $100 Collector Edition serial-no's sold out already?  If so , you snooze you lose, so I'll have to settle for just the standard cart and hope my 7800 keeps working...

Your not the first person to bring up this point (regarding the rom data) but it’s really not of any concern whatsoever. Reason being, “technically”, the rom data for every cart is indeed “available”.

 

When you buy this game (and they themselves state this very clearly in the video) every single cartridge is given a unique serial number. So whichever package you purchase, your cart will have a unique number that nobody else has. And so by definition, you can dump the binary from your cart and play it on your system, just like anyone else. And they couldn’t possibly have any kind of “moral” problem with this or any “argument” against this, because you have properly purchased the game from them in the first place.

[CPUWIZ]

Do people get the ROM upon purchase?

[+sramirez2008]

Just now, CPUWIZ said:

Do people get the ROM upon purchase?

The ROM is sent when the game is shipped.

[vitoco]

18 minutes ago, Nathan Strum said:

There's quite a bit of info up there now: https://adgm.us/portal/guide01.html

?

 

The website redirected me in an endless loop between 3 different pages. I guess that I should be logged in (or out?) to get the page...

[CPUWIZ]

Thanks for the info.

 

Yeah, that website is crappy, with Firefox and NoScript, that is a completely blank page.  I usually don't allow scripts on blank pages.

[+Nathan Strum]

24 minutes ago, vitoco said:

The website redirected me in an endless loop between 3 different pages. I guess that I should be logged in (or out?) to get the page...

Sorry... www.audacitygames.com keeps redirecting there. I'm not logged in but I can see the page (in Safari... which of all browsers is usually the one that doesn't work).

[+Karl G]

2 hours ago, littaum said:

Just like there's a 4K and under category for homebrew awards, if the folks at Audacity games decide they want to qualify for the awards, perhaps have a separate category for very large memory games.  Doggone It and Zookeeper were impressive in their own way, just like Circus Convoy is.

 

I sincerely hope there's not a separate category. Penult is also 128K, and it's likely to be released this year as well. ?

[+sramirez2008]

3 minutes ago, Karl G said:

I sincerely hope there's not a separate category. Penult is also 128K, and it's likely to be released this year as well. ?

You should be fine. We have them on record stating that they don’t consider themselves to be Homebrew, so no separate category needed.

[Prizrak]

I sincerely hope there's not a separate category. Penult is also 128K, and it's likely to be released this year as well. [emoji846]

Penult may likely kick CC's butt [emoji6] That's a hugely ambitious project and amazing to play on the 2600.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[+D Train]

3 hours ago, Nathan Strum said:

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

getting right to the heart of the matter!

 

 

[+D Train]

2 hours ago, Cafeman said:

Or have all those $100 Collector Edition serial-no's sold out already?

there are 2,000 or so of the $100 level available; there were only 100 of the $140 level available.

 

if you order a $100 level, let us know what your serial number is so that we can continue to track sales volume.

[King_Salamon]

23 minutes ago, D Train said:

there are 2,000 or so of the $100 level available; there were only 100 of the $140 level available.

 

if you order a $100 level, let us know what your serial number is so that we can continue to track sales volume.

You don't need to wait for a new purchase as someone else has done a check to see where current serial numbers are.

 

Over 700 carts sold so far.  Pretty impressive and if they can sell over 1,000 carts in the first week it should do well to see future carts getting a release by Audacity games!  Not only that but perhaps some people who don't know anything about the other carts that have been made over the years by the various artists on AtariAge, there could be a bump in sales as the new market finds AtariAge... one can hope as there are tons of great games on AA!

[Prizrak]

You don't need to wait for a new purchase as someone else has done a check to see where current serial numbers are.
 
Over 700 carts sold so far.  Pretty impressive and if they can sell over 1,000 carts in the first week it should do well to see future carts getting a release by Audacity games!  Not only that but perhaps some people who don't know anything about the other carts that have been made over the years by the various artists on AtariAge, there could be a bump in sales as the new market finds AtariAge... one can hope as there are tons of great games on AA!

If a new market finds AA poor Al is going to have to hire a crew, he's always working double time.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[+TwentySixHundred]

45 minutes ago, Karl G said:

I sincerely hope there's not a separate category. Penult is also 128K, and it's likely to be released this year as well. ?

Another must buy for me whenever digital download purchase is available at the store. Im also another that prefers emulation these days as one: my missus can't complain about my consoles and two: it just runs without aging hardware issues. The third issue is living in PAL50 land but wanting NTSC versions. Id rather support other devs then finding a dump so hopefully this gets sorted at the AA store in the near future.

[King_Salamon]

48 minutes ago, Prizrak said:

If a new market finds AA poor Al is going to have to hire a crew, he's always working double time.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 

It would be a good problem to have though!  I've helped AA out over the years with sending carts and selling a beauty Jaguar to Al for a great price (for showing off Jag games at the various shows).  If I lived nearby Al I would offer some time to build carts or something to help out but that isn't an option.