What is the CommaVid secret?

[Kid Ice]

I'm intrigued....

the kid

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Whatever it is, I'm sure it's something interesting. After all this build-up, y'know, it's kinda gotta be.

[Raccoon Lad]

Here's my guess: ya see this whole thing happened at Sean kelly's place, and Sean is known for happening to find unreleased prototypes just laying around in his ominously enormous collection. So here's what I think...Joe found the entire original staff of Commavid and ALL their original source codes AND 35 unreleased prototypes in a box in the corner of Sean Kelly's garage.

[CPUWIZ]

That is dead funny. :lol:

[Queen Of The Felines]

* Insert Evil Laugh Here *

Kristine

[wberdan]

please lord- let it not be a case of video lifes !
*crossing fingers*

willie

[CPUWIZ]

How about the carts to the boxes that Sean is selling on eBay right now ? :shock:

[digitalpress]

Sorry for the delay!

Here's the full story:
http://www.digitpress.com/commavid

[rolenta]

Less than 20 Video Lifes? That doesn't sound right! That's less than Cubicolor!

So who has these Video Lifes? I have one. Where are the other 19?

[CPUWIZ]

I know my friend "RiffRaff" has one and I believe Marco K. owns one as well.

[wberdan]

Rolenta- I have one. that makes 18.

you know what i find unusual... why havnt there been more video life boxes? you would think that if a person went to all the trouble of getting video life back in the day AND saved it all those years, that they would have kept the box too... or did the game not always come with a box? a friend told me that some video lifes have no label... is that true?

willie

[digitalpress]

I have a Video Life with box and label.

You might be thinking of MagiCards that have no box.

[wberdan]

yeah, but how many boxes have been found to date? 3 or so?

willie

[rolenta]

What I can't understand is why would they print boxes, labels, and instruction manuals, if they weren't going to mass produce the cartridges.

[digitalpress]

Len, it doesn't seem as though they mass-produced the boxes and manuals at all. There were just a handful of Video Life boxes, and 2 or 3 Rush Hour boxes. Seems they had a "sampler" run made for those. We can't figure it out either but I can tell you with certainty that they did NOT mass-produce them, this is based on first-hand information. :)

[rolenta]

Joe,

My question is why did they produce boxes and manuals at all if they didn't plan on mass-producing Video Life? And it's not like they came up with Video Life at the end of Commavid's existance. That was their second title.

I mean it's not like they sat down and printed the label and manual on a printer each time they manufactured a cartridge. The labels and manuals are professionally printed.

[Sean Kelly3]

Len, I think the Video Life box may have been an afterthought. The guys weren't able to recall some of the minor details like this, but one thing that suggests the Video Life box came long after the game was initially sold is the size of the box. The original Cosmic Swarm and Room of Doom boxes were what CommaVid had planned on using. Then, several months later, when their distributor suggested they revamp their packaging, they went to a larger, more standard size box. Video Life, despite the fact that it was game #2 in their library has the larger box. I would suspect the game was never sold with a box originally. Those who wrote and asked to purchase a copy well after it was originally sold, may have just been lucky enough to get a box with theirs....ie Al Backiel. This would also explain why only one other box has been found to-date.


Sean Kelly

[digitalpress]

One kinda weird addition to that... the Video Life box, while correct in size to later CommaVid titles, is inconsistent in FONT. Not sure why that is. I have to go along with Sean on this though, it makes sense that the boxes for these were printed later, after the original Cosmic Swarm and Room of Doom.

[rolenta]

it makes sense that the boxes for these were printed later, after the original Cosmic Swarm and Room of Doom.

None of this makes any sense if they only produced 20 or less cartridges.

[wberdan]

This would also explain why only one other box has been found to-date.



..... greeeeeaaat. there goes the hope of getting that box. my dreams are shattered! :)

willie