RetroMania

[CaryMG]

There's this most wonderful website ....

"RetroGamer" magazine's a smash success ....

The classicgaming store from ours truly is but a week away ....

People are still making "Jaguar" cartridges ....

"IntelliVision Inc." has made new cartridges for Intellivision decks.

Messiah is releasing a freshly-built NES ....

It's been said over & over again that the intertainment business isn't about sentimentality or craftsmanship -- it's all about the money.
Classic gaming is a HUGE moneymaker.

There's only one more step to take .....

The major companies making new
games for thier classic systems.
Nintendo> NES & SNES
SEGA > Genesis
ATARI > LYNX
Just a handful at first to gauge the market ....

Now that desire & profit have met do you guys see any chance of this happening?


Later!
:) :) :)

[CartCollector]

Now that desire & profit have met do you guys see any chance of this happening?
Desire and profit have met? The best selling homebrew so far is Thrust with 200 units.

ATARI > LYNX
ROFL

[swlovinist]

I am trying to find out more info on the new intellivsion games, any help? When are they available?

Any news on the new coleco console?

[Sothy]

I call bullshit on the comment "the best selling homebrew game sold 200 copies" statement.

Im im wrong ...well prove me wrong...

[video_game_addict]

200 may not be far off. I believe because of the expense of producing the Silver boxes (Combat II, Elevator Action, 3D Rubik's Cube, Saboteur, and the like) that most of these were printed in minimum quanities of 200 or more. Whether all are packaged with carts & sold is another matter. But I think around 250 copies of Combat II were sold. These were also numbered.

I think I read somewhere that 500 copies of Rush Hour were sold, but I do not believe this as this game rarely comes up for sale anywhere. :(

But in the post above he states 'homebrew' not repo, so if you make the distinction, then Thrust, in all it's incarnations, has probably sold the most of any homebrew, still relatively small at around 200 units.

[boatofcar]

"RetroGamer" magazine's a smash success ....



Might want to check up on that. Retro Gamer magazine is no more. :(

Gamestm has a great Retro Section though...

[Pantechnicon]

The major companies making new
games for thier classic systems.
Nintendo> NES & SNES
SEGA > Genesis
ATARI > LYNX
Just a handful at first to gauge the market ....


One of the common thread running through these systems is that they are all cart based. IMHO, the problem comes down to the modern infeasability of producing games in that medium.

1. Nintendo will apparently be capitalizing on the retro market by offering large chunks of their NES through N64 catalogs available for play and download on the Revolution. Doing this all in the realm of software means that there's no business sense in resurrecting a 12-year-dead manufacturing system to produce cartridges for a defunct system when a new system will do the same thing.

2. Sega, having exited the hardware market, has no up-and-coming system on which to build a "legacy buzz". They seem to be content releasing compilations on disc for other systems. Additionally, the Genesis isn't exactly a "retro" system yet. "Old" is not always the same as "retro". And Sega does not, and never will, have nearly the same amount of universal recognition as the Big N. Sega is to Nintendo as Intellivision is to Atari: the better hardware console, but culturally stuck as second fiddle to its counterpart.

3. Lynx? That's an interesting choice. I'm a huge Lynx fan but I'm well aware that this system had nowhere near the market share (and therefore, by implication, retro-recognition) as the Gameboy. In any case, Lynx and Jaguar rights were released into the public domain when back when Hasbro was controlling Atari's intellectual properties. Atari's retro market lies squarely on the 2600, and they've tested and penetrated the waters more than adequtely with two releases of the Flashback.

We can always dream, but men in suits carrying charts will always have the final word.

[video_game_addict]

"RetroGamer" magazine's a smash success ....



Might want to check up on that. Retro Gamer magazine is no more. :(

Gamestm has a great Retro Section though...


I thought this got picked up by another publisher? Damned broken search engines. :(

[Julio III]

"RetroGamer" magazine's a smash success ....



Might want to check up on that. Retro Gamer magazine is no more. :(

Gamestm has a great Retro Section though...


I thought this got picked up by another publisher? Damned broken search engines. :(

Last I heard Retro Gamer is coming back under a different publisher.

[CaryMG]

Last I heard "RetroGamer" is coming back under a different publisher.



It has indeed been purchased by another company! > "RetroGamer" Magazine (http://www.livepublishing.co.uk/content/retro.shtml)


Later!
:) :) :)

[slapdash]

200 may not be far off.

I think this number comes specifically from AtariAge, i.e. it is their best-selling homebrew.


I believe because of the expense of producing the Silver boxes (Combat II, Elevator Action, 3D Rubik's Cube, Saboteur, and the like) that most of these were printed in minimum quanities of 200 or more. Whether all are packaged with carts & sold is another matter. But I think around 250 copies of Combat II were sold. These were also numbered.

I think I read somewhere that 500 copies of Rush Hour were sold, but I do not believe this as this game rarely comes up for sale anywhere. :(

I'm pretty sure Sean still has copies of it for sale. They may have made as many as 500, but I'm pretty sure that they haven't sold them all.

Sothy, as far as OLD classic system homebrews go, seriously, a couple hundred units is a big success. I'm not so sure about more modern systems' homebrews (like Goat Store's Dreamcast homebrews or Songbird's Jaguar and Lynx homebrews/repros) -- they may have sold more -- but I am not aware of any 2600, Vectrex, Intellivision or Colecovision homebrew selling over 300 copies, or even NEARLY that many.

[Mayhem]

Might want to check up on that. Retro Gamer magazine is no more. :(

Gamestm has a great Retro Section though...

Maybe not for much longer though... as Retro Gamer is back under a new publisher and the new editor is the (now former) GamesTM retro section head ;)

[CaryMG]

New "ColecoVision" Console On The Way (http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000110066601/)

Look out, Sony, Microsoft & Nintendo!
Coleco has promised that they’re working on a NEW version of the console.
No other details are available.

The "ColecoVision" brand is now owned by Chicago-based River West Brands LLC, a company started in 2001 by former Kraft executive Paul Earle Jr.
The company’s business model is to revive dormant brands that still have a significant amount of mindshare.
For instance, the company purchased the "Nuprin" name then released a new over-the-counter painkiller bearing the "Nuprin" name. That’s what the company plans to do with the Colecovision relaunch.

In the words of the company’s founder, ”’Old’ has become ‘classic,’ and classic has become cool. Unless hundreds of different marketers are all wrong, the conclusion must be that brand revival works”.

That means that we’re not likely to see any major technical feat with the new "ColecoVision".
It’ll be a low-tech retro relaunch that appeals to fans of the original "ColecoVision".
It may very well offer an authentic "ColecoVision" experience....

************************************************** **********

Oh .... My .... GOD !!!!
First Messiah, now River West ....
And I heard a couple of years ago there were whispers of someone manufacturing a new "Commodore64" computer, too!

The floodgates have been officially released !!!

If there is an "IntelliVision" recreation console, it'll just fly off the shelves !!

A new remodeled "AMIGA 500", anyone?


Later!
:) :) :)

[Flack]

Don't take this the wrong way, but I think your enthusiasm exceeds the facts here. All ColecoVision has done is put up a website with their logo stuck on some shirts, and I think a re-released Coleco console would sell horribly. I don't know how well the Atari Flashback sold but at least it had solid name recognition. Ask the next random ten people you see at school or work to tell you one thing about ColecoVision and see what they say.

As for making new games for old systems, it's a pretty tough business venture that requires quite a bit of technical know how and connections for not much payoff. I'm guessing the average person off the street doesn't have what it takes to assemble Atari carts in their garage. And even if you could, why? Sure it's neat, but big companies do stuff for big bucks. Atari is never going to make a new Atari game so that they can sell 200, 2,000, or even 20,000 copies. They want big numbers and big profits.

Let me ask you this, Cary. You have stated that "desire and profit" have been met, and you are decidedly the most enthusiastic person in this thread about these items. So, just to gauge the market, how many of these items do you own:

New Jaguar Carts?
Subscription to RetroGamer?
New Intellivision games?
An NEX?

[n8littlefield]

I wonder how Nintendo plans to utilize the online library of NES/SNES/N64 games. It would be really neat if they would open it up at a small price to independant developers. I would love to see things like NES homebrew available for purchase on the Revolution. I don't know if it will happen, but Nintendo did say this generation they were all about low priced development...

[goatdan]

Trust me, for the most part desire does not equal profits. I've gone through the math on these boards and elsewhere before when this topic comes up, and it simply wouldn't make sense unless you are a smaller company who does it because they love it.


I'm not so sure about more modern systems' homebrews (like Goat Store's Dreamcast homebrews or Songbird's Jaguar and Lynx homebrews/repros) -- they may have sold more --

Just as a note I always bring up, I really don't consider our games to be homebrews, as they are completely new products, pressed at a real plant and distributed through full channels. That, and people within the industry have told me that I should stop referring to them as that, especially since I've been in contact about porting some rather high profile stuff, most of which came down to just costing too much money up front.

I used to call them homebrews (Feet of Fury even says it is in the case), but an independant release is probably a better name for it.

Anyway, while we don't release our sell-through numbers, I can say that we have sold thousands of copies of the Dreamcast games so far. Our main market, believe it or not, is Asia where games have still been coming out. Because of that, I've had a few people send me pictures when they find our games on store shelves in various places in Asia.

Unfortunately, thanks to a low profit margin, lots of legal wrangling, all the screw ups with the last production thanks to the company that purposely screwed us and all of that, not including time spent, we're still out a bunch of money on it. But, as I've always said about them -- I do it because I love the system, and I want to continue it's legacy. A lot of people are extremely happy about this, and as I've mentioned a lot of surprising people have contacted me and asked about working with us on stuff.

We'll keep going as long as I can keep it going. Of course, that doesn't mean that we'll make any sort of profit doing it ;)

[CaryMG]

"... I think a re-released Coleco console would sell horribly."
lol
I was kinda/sorta thinkin' the same thing! lol
But mean just that the console was being made made me think that now console remaking was going "top shelf", if you will.


"As for making new games for old systems, it's a pretty tough business venture that requires quite a bit of technical know how and connections for not much payoff."
I'm going to do it because of my absolute love of the SNES deck rather than seeking my fortune.


" ...you are decidedly the most enthusiastic person in this thread about these items."
Thank you, Flack!
What a SO nice thing ta say! 8^ ]


Later!
:) :) :)

[Lady Jaye]

The problem with the Colecovision console à la flashback is, what will they put on it? Daniel Bienvenu's (and other homebrewers') catalog of games? The Coleco, as great a machine as it was, depended on licensed games. I'm not saying that there wasn't any Coleco-made original games on the CV (there might be, but I can't think of any right now), but these are few and far between (if there are any). Even the classic CV titles like ladybug and Pepper II were licensed ports of arcade games... That's why I'm really skeptical too about that console, unless they've made a deal with certain licensors for the rights to republish certain ported games with the new colecovision, in the same way that Atari was able to include certain Activision titles on the Flashback 2, like Pitfall and River Raid. :/

[Flack]

According to the DP online guide, there were less than 150 US released games for the ColecoVision. Taking out arcade ports, you might have a tough time coming up with 20 classics that people would pay for (or even remember).

[Charlesaway]

I'd be willing to bet Qb (and if you count them, the variants) would number more than 200.

There were 50 originally released at Philly Classic, followed (IIRC) with a 100 copy limited edition release (tasmanian softwood and such - the one I have), plus a subsequent release (atari age store), and a Qb holiday edition that was the christmas ordering bonus (last year?) at atariage.

[CaryMG]

"DreamCast" Being ReReleased (http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000790071989/)


Later!
:) :) :)