Quote Originally Posted by Rob Fulop View Post
The whole pricing thing is sadly very misunderstood. I did start a discussion on AA as a way of doing current 'market research'. It became clear very quickly that there are two totally distinct markets for 2600 carts. I break them down into 'gamers' and 'collectors'. Actionauts would not appeal to a 'gamer' ... it is UNFINISHED ... it is UNPOLISHED ... and most of all .. it is from a time when I was shifting away from traditional games of the era, and exploring other forms of interactive entertainment. So in that context, even if I were to ask $29.95 .. I'd sell a bunch to a disappointed customer base who recieves much better play value from any of the better homebrews.


So that's why I priced the game out of the 'gamer' range .. because the 'collectors' have a very different orientation .. they are older typically .. they have a lot of nostalgia and a deep connection to the 2600, and they don't have a problem in the slightest paying $100 for a game that 'they will never play' .. but one of historical interest to them.

I do believe I've done people like yourself a service by pricing it out of your 'range' .. you would have been disappointed paying what you consider top dollar .. and recieving a game that doesn't deliver as much play value as a 'competitive' homebrew.

ACTIONAUTS is NOT a homebrew .. it was an experiment which led me to the C64 which was appropriate for that time (1984). When you play the game in emulation, later this year, you will no doubt agree with me that you would not have been happy paying even standard 'homebrew prices' for the game. You are simply NOT the customer, it's that simple.
I don't really think there is any misunderstanding about pricing, nor do I think you understand that the collector's marlket for the 2600 is often the very same as the gamer's market. Many of us on this board and on Atari Age are both collector's and gamers. To wit, I have attended all but one CGE and bought one copy of just about every game that was released at the show for my collection. I never opened them, nor did I play them. I did it because I think they are neat collectibles and because I think it's good to support people who are providing a service to gamers who wanted to play these games as well as those of us who collect. The reality is, I've purchased a lot of crappy games and stuff that was less than professionally done and I would never resell them or attempt to profit from what I have collected, but I just feel it's important to keep this community alive by supporting these efforts.

To be honest with you, I was not all that intrigued by Actionauts as a game and I doubt many others were either, but as someone who owns many of your games on a number of systems, I was more than happy to spend $50 for something that would essentially sit on my shelf unplayed for the next 30 years. I would have done so because I wanted to support your project and because it sounded like you were planning to do a professional job of packaging it and I felt this support would have resulted in your continuing to go through your archives to release other things.

Going on Atari Age and telling people that you have some expectation that you should be paid more than an assistant manager at Jack in the Box for the time you spent on the game is a slap in the face to every other programmer who has ever released a homebrew or collectible game for the 2600 and earned next to nothing for it. My personal feeling is that I paid full price for a lot of your games over the years at a time when I was living off an allowance of $20 a month or earning minimum wage and I made my own sacrifices to buy your games. Truthfully, most of your games were great, but I'm pretty sure I have some PFMagic titles that were not worth the sacrifices I made to purchase them. Still, they all sit on my shelf because I appreciate your efforts.

I consider myself to be a very fortunate person. I make a very good living doing something I love everyday and buying a $90 game is not going to make much impact on my discretionary income. Having said that, I'm not going to be exploited because someone who I look up to wants to appeal to my sense of nostalgia and overcharge for something that really isn't that amazing to begin with.

In closing, I wish you luck with your sale, but I feel pretty confident that they're aren't 250 people who are willing to pay what you are asking for this product and frankly, I think you have generated quite a bit of ill will as a result of how this entire thing has been handled.