The best fighting game you'll NEVER play...

[ManekiNeko]

http://www.atariage.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=18620&start=0

I don't know if you guys have been paying attention to Atari Age, but apparently someone wants to release a cutting edge fighting game for the Atari 2600. This would be terrific... if it weren't for the fact that this person also intends to release just ten copies, without offering the ROM on the Internet for free use. This really rankles me. There's enough elitism in this hobby as it is... why worsen matters by releasing a game in such limited quantities?
It's times like these that make me wish I could program in 6502 Assembly. I'd write a fighting game so good that nobody would ever think twice about this other guy's manufactured holy grail.

JR[/url]

[buttasuperb]

wow, that's pretty lame.

just another fighting game I won't be able to get.

[Sniderman]

....without offering the ROM on the Internet for free use.

So you're unhappy that you'll be unable to play it for free? Do you find this at all ironic? I say, if he only wants to make 10, let him only make 10. He could make only 1 for all I care. Why get worked up over a game I may not ever play/own? It's no different than Quadrun, Waterworld, Cubicolor and a host of other games I'll never have. And, unless Andrew was planning on charging $500 for each of these gems, I can't see him profitting in this "artificial rarity" scheme at all.

Personally, I think he's screwing with the "gotta/wanna haves." More power to him, but I'm not going to get worked up over him not sharing what is essentially his and his alone.

[portnoyd]

I think the point MNeko is trying to make is that why code the game at all if only 11 people can play it?

dave

[NvrMore]

True Sniderman, but he's diminishing the credibility of the other 2600 developers by placing such an elitist stamp on his release, which in turn could easily discredit the value and worth of collecting such homebrews in future (e.g. people lose respect for the work because of people pulling stunts like that and in turn a mini crash ensues).

From a developers point of view, doing something like that is completely off base, because you're making the game for entirely the wrong reasons.. simply, for the sake of seeing people left out.

True it's his work, but he's developing a game and advertising it, not because he is a games developer, but because he's a wannabe snob.

*is glad he doesn't collect 2600 right now*

[digitalpress]

This reminds me very much of a similar battle that occurred about 18 months ago over a game called "Venture II".

Everyone's got strong opinions about this.

I say if the owner wants to make 10, they make 10. If they want to make 500 or even distribute it for free, great for them. My support is behind the game designers regardless of how they distribute their games, and we should support them. Someone chastised for being "elitist" today may very well lose their motivation entirely, and we'll never know what they may have had up their sleeve next - perhaps the next great classic game that EVERYONE can enjoy.

[NvrMore]

My support is behind the game designers regardless of how they distribute their games, and we should support them.

I've got to disagree with you on this point DP. If a game developer is developing a game for such poor reasons as this, then they are entirley undeserving of support, especially from those whom they are lording such a point over. A good games developer creates games that they want others to enjoy, that is the motivation and it is, in part, what makes great developers so great, whereas this person is doing this to boost his own ego (he wants his game to be the rarest and for everyone to plead for a copy (stroke his ego)).

I agree with you that if a developer wants to create only a very limited number of copies, then that's fine, I agree that it's upto them. But in such cases it should be between the developer and the few who s/he chooses to give a copy to. Throwing it in people's faces and calling for them to plead for a copy is nothing more than elitist egotism. He's hoping to make his game the rarest and most sought after and is doing such in an entirely artificial manner by letting everyone know about his game and then throwing it in their faces that they (the vast majority) won't get to play it.

A notable point of game collecting is that the majority of high priced games aren't rare, they're just highly sought after because (usually ;) ) they're great games and people revere them because of such. This person is trying to generate such revere atificially rather than allowing the qualiy of his work find it's own value in the community. He's not concerned with creating a great game, he's concerned with boosting his ego and generating elitism through it. Such developers aren't worthy of support because a good developer also considers and supports their fans / community.

[Sniderman]

This reminds me very much of a similar battle that occurred about 18 months ago over a game called "Venture II".


<<<And, somewhere in the United States, Sniderman clutches his head and begins screaming, frightening his co-workers in the cubicle next to him....>>>

[Nature Boy]

It's hard to support somebody who thinks he/she is doing *me* a favour by letting me play his game. I have to give him a "very good reason as to why I should be one of the owners?" Ummm, okay... :roll:

I do think that *not* releasing the binary is the way to go for homebrewers though. But at the same time I think allowing people to sample your game would be good for sales.

I do wish people wouldn't get caught up in Rarity (with a capital R) though. If it were just about playing games nobody would bother with a short run unless they couldn't afford larger ones (which is definitely understandable).