Why can't you purchase roms for new games??

[Thomas Jentzsch]

5 minutes ago, WishItWas1984 said:

Meh. As a collector (mostly of toys), I put all of the responsibility on the collector.

Maybe. But I am not the kind of person which exploits the weakness of other people.

[WishItWas1984]

1 hour ago, KaeruYojimbo said:

Like I said before, I think the viability is going to vary from game to game. There are probably enough people out there who would pay 5-10 dollars for a Galagon ROM but wouldn’t pay for a cart for it to make sense. But the number of people actually willing to pay even 5 bucks for a Ms. Galactopus ROM is is probably so low that I’m not going to miss the money. And it could just be a difference in philosophy. Maybe you’d go ahead and do it anyway where I wouldn’t.

 

The problem is there isn’t enough real world data yet, so it’s all just speculation. A few lower profile games have tried digital sales and gotten disappointing results. Was that because there’s no market for digital-only 2600 games, or because the market wasn’t there for those particular games? Neo mentioned his games doing poorly digitally, but he caters to the high-end collectible crowd who is willing to pay a premium for bells and whistles, not necessarily people who want a game just to play it, so he’s not the best example.

You're right, it's all speculation. That's completely beside the point though, because how many will buy it and at what price point is irrelevant. 

The overhead and effort of selling digitally can be dropped to practically be non-existent. So even if you sell one, that's one more player and one more sale.

Devs can do what they like though *shrug*

[WishItWas1984]

5 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Maybe. But I am not the kind of person which exploits the weakness of other people.

I get it. You'd be morally awful to release say 100 black carts for $50 and 20 red ones for $100 just to poke at some collector's OCD. 

 

Some people are putting value into this NFT business, but if you feel like it's a bogus enterprise and won't take part in taking advantage of other's (seeming) stupidity, then you have to respect that.

[+KaeruYojimbo]

1 hour ago, WishItWas1984 said:

The overhead and effort of selling digitally can be dropped to practically be non-existent. So even if you sell one, that's one more player and one more sale.

Devs can do what they like though *shrug*

Keep in mind that I'm talking more about selling the ROM vs. giving it away rather than selling it vs. not making it available. Maybe I'm missing the point of this thread (but I don't remember the original post specifically mentioning ROMs that weren't publicly available), but that's where I'm coming from.

 

Completely irrelevant aside related to your avatar: Condor was in my Easter basket in I want to say 1986.

[WishItWas1984]

32 minutes ago, KaeruYojimbo said:

Keep in mind that I'm talking more about selling the ROM vs. giving it away rather than selling it vs. not making it available. Maybe I'm missing the point of this thread (but I don't remember the original post specifically mentioning ROMs that weren't publicly available), but that's where I'm coming from.

 

Completely irrelevant aside related to your avatar: Condor was in my Easter basket in I want to say 1986.

 

Toys for Easter!? I got jipped. I'd have given back a little chocolate and some peeps for a new M.A.S.K. toy

[VectorGamer]

6 hours ago, Serguei2 said:

I think selling roms would get more audience than physical games.

 

Not everybody have classic consoles and prefer playing on computers or other devices instead.

Sold off my collection a couple of years ago while the hardware was still in working condition. Bought a Raspberry Pi to play all the old games. I would be interested in buying ROMs if they were available but at the same time I'm not going to miss what I haven't got.

 

3 hours ago, donjn said:

I think $9.99 to $14.99 is a good price point for these roms.

$10 tops for me.

[+KaeruYojimbo]

29 minutes ago, WishItWas1984 said:

 

Toys for Easter!? I got jipped. I'd have given back a little chocolate and some peeps for a new M.A.S.K. toy

Usually nothing big, and only for a few years. Other years it was something like a G.I. Joe figure, so Condor was actually a pretty big get for an Easter present. Nothing compared to some of the pre-made Easter baskets I see in stores now.

[Keatah]

I have my own collection of digital goods dating back to the mid and late 1970's. It's the only one of its kind in the world. Pretty sure of that.

 

And while it may mean little or nothing to someone else, it sure means a lot to me.

[Jstick]

4 hours ago, Keatah said:

I have my own collection of digital goods dating back to the mid and late 1970's.

I'm sure you mean digital collection of (originally physical) goods dating from that period, right?

 

Otherwise, I'd be very curious as to what digital goods were available in the mid-'70s.

[Keatah]

2 hours ago, Jstick said:

I'm sure you mean digital collection of (originally physical) goods dating from that period, right?

Mostly yes. And a good thing too because some of my floppies are rotted out.

 

Quote

Otherwise, I'd be very curious as to what digital goods were available in the mid-'70s.

In the early BBS era there were some select downloadable upgrades or binary patches for 3rd-party Apple II software. Novation Com-Ware was one. BBS doors and modules and the next version (of BBS software) was another.

 

Anyhow..that predated the PC shareware craze by a good 5 years at least.

 

But for-sale digital goods as we know them today. Pay online and then download or stream? I don't recall any.

Edited March 16, 2021 by Keatah

[zzip]

2 hours ago, Jstick said:

I'm sure you mean digital collection of (originally physical) goods dating from that period, right?

 

Otherwise, I'd be very curious as to what digital goods were available in the mid-'70s.

This is my romz collection from the 1970s

 

Edited March 16, 2021 by zzip

[Jstick]

47 minutes ago, Keatah said:

In the early BBS era

Ha, as I was typing my reply I had a feeling BBSs were going to be brought up.

 

My own personal path was Atari 2600 from '81 straight to Amiga 500 in '87, so I missed the whole BBS thing.  In fact I never went online even with my Amiga, it was strictly sneakernet copies from my friends house. (Although later I did spend hours a day in the university computer labs, downloading stuff from Aminet and Usenet).

[+D Train]

good times.  I remember having to program a punch tape machine in high school.  never made it to using the card reader.

 

now, you can put an entire rom on paper and read it in that way!

 

 

[+wongojack]

I fit the description that has already been shared here.  I will purchase a homebrew (cart or rom) more as a patron than anything else.  I have the money to spend on it as an adult, and I have the skill to try and steal it too, but who has time for that anymore.  If I can't get something easily, I'll just do something else.  What I see in this thread is that there seems to be a mix of what I will ignorantly refer to as "Old" and "New" Atariage members:

 

• New perspective - I can't find the roms. I want to buy roms.  Why wouldn't you want to sell them to me.
• Old perspective - Roms don't sell or they sell in such small quantities, it's not worth it.  Also, the roms are (mostly) right here on AA

 

I will also say that the Atari 2600 is one of the most "fun" systems to spend time on because the developers are so open about their work.  If you spend any time on here at all reading some of the programming forums or just spending time with people who love this stuff you will realize quickly that this place just isn't about profits and "value" the way that almost everything post-crash seems to be.  That is something I love about AtariAge, and it seems to be unique.  Even within the classic systems here, the 2600 is the most open about sharing content and information.  It makes me feel good to participate and talk to people who are so open and ready to share not only their finished work but their techniques and tools to get that work done.  For that reason, I wasn't really interested in being a patron for Circus Convoy (at least not at the $100 to get the rom).  I prefer the interactions here over simply being a software user.

 

 

 

[Keatah]

2 hours ago, wongojack said:

It makes me feel good to participate and talk to people who are so open and ready to share not only their finished work but their techniques and tools to get that work done.  For that reason, I wasn't really interested in being a patron for Circus Convoy (at least not at the $100 to get the rom).  I prefer the interactions here over simply being a software user.

Wait a minute! This Circus Convoy costs $100 for just the ROM. Holy moly! My original assumption about past developers riding high on laurels and coattails is correct after all. Unless I'm missing something?

[+D Train]

3 minutes ago, Keatah said:

Wait a minute! This Circus Convoy costs $100 for just the ROM. Holy moly! My original assumption about past developers riding high on laurels and coattails is correct after all. Unless I'm missing something?

if you get the $60 level, you just get the physical cartridge.  if you get the $100 level, you get the cartridge, some swag and the download.

[JasperAK]

A few points.

 

I bought Wizard of Wor Arcade and Galagon for myself for Christmas. They are in a box with many other retro game carts that I am not currently using. When I want to play either game, I play the demos on my Harmony Plus Cart. I do not regret my purchase, but this has lowered my chances for purchasing other full productions.

 

I don't need boxes or printed manuals, but I do enjoy the physical carts. My son also loves the carts, so I have now all of the carts for the roms he likes to play. He loves the visceral feeling of changing the carts to change the game. He's six. He likes the agency. The look on his face when I took a cart of Battlezone out of a bubble mailer was priceless. What neither of us needs is a box.

 

I enjoy physical carts so much that I am tempted to get custom carts of a few games that I hacked (Canyon Raid, Night Raid, or Pittsburgh vs. Montreal/Ottowa/San Jose/New York Islanders/Philadelphia/Toronto/Vancouver/Washington in Ice Hockey). I also want one for a Berzerk/Dr. Who hack, but I think the author fell off the face of the earth.

 

But back to the roms. A while ago, I had seriously considered reaching out to some developers here to offer to pay for full roms with Venmo or another cash app. I'm glad to hear that that may soon be in the offering here, because I also don't mind supporting this site. I don't mind rewarding the developer, the publisher, and the distributor for games that I enjoy. I don't want to side-track the thread, but I think Amico has it right. I don't think I will have any problem paying $10 for a digital download game. I will almost certainly buy a few physicals if they are around $20 or so. I'm glad to see AA may possibly offer something similar.

 

You know what would make physical purchases so much easier for me? The digital copy for free to put on my Harmony.

[alfredtdk]

I will probably purchase the Standard version, but I am totally in favor of those who want only the paid digital version. I hope that it will become reality and that there will be partnerships in retro stores like Atariage.

[alfredtdk]

Those versions that are entitled to a digital copy will run only on Stella or it will be possible to run it on Harmony or Unocart ?

Edited March 17, 2021 by alfredtdk

[sn8k]

Im down with paying for roms. Problem is you can't trust everybody.

 

Maybe games should have 2 releases... 1st run is carts. Second release is the rom the following year.

 

I dunno.

 

What would be very cool is If AtariAge had PS4/5/XB1/X Switch physical releases. Like Atari Flashback Vol 1, 2, 3..etc but the compilation is who ever here signs on to have their game be apart of the compilation and at which volume.

 

ATARI AGE Volumes 1-5

 

I'd buy that. Atleast twice. 

[donjn]

2 hours ago, sn8k said:

 

ATARI AGE Volumes 1-5

 

I'd buy that. Atleast twice. 

Great idea!

[neotokeo2001]

On 3/15/2021 at 3:02 PM, WishItWas1984 said:

For an NFT release? I wouldn't pay anything. Like I said, I think it's stupid.

 

For a normal ROM purchase of a game, it all depends. $5-20 maybe. Like, Avalanche I can see paying around $10. It's simplistic, but I can see it being addictive and fun with infinite replayability, like with Kaboom. For the new Audacity game, I'd say $20 cause of it's complexity and the talent behind it. I expect above-Homebrew quality.

There is an available way to purchase a BIN/ROM of Circus Convoy, it is $99 and comes with a free boxed copy and some extras...

[WishItWas1984]

1 hour ago, neotokeo2001 said:

There is an available way to purchase a BIN/ROM of Circus Convoy, it is $99 and comes with a free boxed copy and some extras...

[Materion]

I'm going to buy ROMs too. I was doing research of homebrew games for 2600 and felt sad because some really good games have only physical download option when I don't have real A2600 instead I got myself Atari Flashback X. I was about to reach out to some devs to offer a payment for a ROM but I think they would refuse it. Glad AA is going to make it happen for at least some games.

 

Some games are not available to buy in either form. So I'm wondering if dev don't make profit from selling physical cart why he don't at least sell it as ROM.

Edited March 17, 2021 by Materion

[alfredtdk]

The advantage of selling the digital file is that it is instantaneous, paid, received. I don't know if Audacity will open up that possibility someday, taking into account that it could affect sales of the physical cartridge.