bloodline wrote:
If the IP holder doesn't matter - why does Cloanto exist and retain the lone rights to the ROMS, and make a profit selling their keyed ROMs?
Cloanto have a licence to sell the ROM images. And as I keep sayign unless you use AROS you will have to licence that too. This is a non issue, I don't know why you keep bringing it up.
Because you're the dummy who keeps saying the IP doesn't matter FFS!
Again, do you have any concept of what IP is? Why isn't AUE or Amiga in a Box sold as a retail product? (Because it can't legally be sold as such.)
It's because you can't sell GPL'ed IP... I thought you understood about IP?
You can include UAE in a retail product (as long as you provide the source code), as Amiga forever show.
Bzzzt. Wrong.
Cloanto can sell their package and include UAE because they have the current exclusive rights to produce/reproduce the ROMS. Name another legal UAE retailer. ?
Somehow Tulip has been manufacturing C64 ROMS, CPUs and other chips from old technology. Yes, I realize it's different tech - but its also 5-10 years older... so how the hell did somebody produce those? A time machine? No, they just found the right fab.
No, they either used a 6502 compatible microcontroler, or use an ARM runing an emulation. Though, looking at the Nintendo and other units, they seem to be recreations of the games, i.e. recoded just using the old graphics and audio. And running on modern, cheap, hardware.
Excellent... you chomped right down on that one.
EXACTLY!! They are using a current customized chip(s) to run the 64 TVGamer, and have modified the games (hey, what do you know they somehow modified TWENTYFIVE YEAR OLD games. Wow, but you said up above that's impossible because the source code would all be gone...)
"
Trivia details - Jeri spent hundreds of hours developing the ASIC for the C64= DTV. In her quest to get the C64 DTV just right, she traveled to China and stayed there for a week, making daily journeys between her hotel in Hong Kong and the Mammoth Toy factory, working usually until 10 at night. ...
She also went to Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada for a few days to partner up with Robin Harbron, who worked on converting the games for the DTV"
No, my point about ADFs is that you will need a special loader on your hardwareto handle loading the ADF's either onto your machine or into the emulator you choose... and there is the issue of disk swaping... some thing that the user doesn't want to be bothered with... that will require a simple and powerful loader + a nice pretty menu...
BZZZT wrong again.
Who said anything about providing the games in adf format? I don't think you have the ability to think past step one of every idea presented. I said an Amiga emulator can currenty read Amiga games from multiple data sources - sources that did not exist when an Amiga was around.
That was in response to why you thought you couldn't use a cartridge. Now you're changing it to cost (which I mentioned on PAGE ONE of this thread). Come on man, you're trolling pure and simple.
THe games are ALL out there in ADF format - so, you load em up in your hand dandy Amiga emulator, and you save them in some other format. OR, you load em up on your handy dandy real Amiga and you save them in some other format. (not a hard concept, work with me here)
The reason why you wouldn't use USB Cartridge is not for piracy concerns, but because adding USB host support to your device would cost a lot! But then adding any kind of Cartridge support to the design is going to cost you...
You want something proprietary so people don't grab games offline (in the initial first year of the product's lifecycle) and use them with your game device. You want somethig that generates sales. I don't care about expandability, portability (other than it's physical size), etc. I want something that sells, and resells. I already know (I've sourced them) that I can buy 16MB USB "carts" for $0.98 each from Taiwan (lots of 5,000). I'm sure if I bought 100,000 of them I could get them for $0.35 or $0.40 each. If it were possible to put an interface on the GameTV device that accepted those USB "carts", and it didnt cost $2-$5 to do so, then maybe it would be an ok idea.
But it's not an ok idea from the company's point of view: because you can also plug that USB 16MB cart into your PC or Mac and potentially run other games on the GameTV -- games that people didn't pay the company for. (I'd give it 30 days for somebody on the internet to come up with an "ADF to GameTV converter" if you used USB).
However, you're right about the usb-hc cost being too high (about a buck fifty) if you're trying to make these for under $10 each. The biggest problem then ,though, would be power - you couldn't expect this to work without an AC adapter if you included USB, batteries just wouldn't cut it (or you'd need expensive battery packs).
Although... including a USB port would allow you to use a mouse. But there again, a huge power sucker when it comes to the size of what we're discussing here. And you'd need two ports if you wanted to use a game cart and a mouse (even more expense).
You only offer games that use a joystick. Wow, what a concept. Think that one through. I mean sure, that will limit the selection to a mere 10,000 titles, but I'm sure there's 10 or 20 worth picking in there. . .
Ahh that ok then... I though you'd want to include Lemmings and Worms + the countless RPG's that Amiga users spent most of their time playing, and made the Amiga famous.
[/quote]
Yes, you're right there. Dungeon Master, Settlers, etc... But that fare really isn't suited as a "TV" game is it. You want a bunch of shoot em ups, beat em ups, and drive em fasts. (Remember, the primary market wouldn't be old Amiga users, it would be today's kids).
Including a mouse "emulator" and remapping the buttons and the joystick (just like you do on an XBox when emulating an Amiga) would solve that and not add anything to the cost. It wouldn't be as playable though (joystick emulating a mouse never is), perhaps a mouse-port is in order... bah added expense again!
The beauty of selling these as an all-inclusive 10 games per GameTV device is you can customize the controls based on what games you bundle. That's the concept (single stand alone ~10 game GameTV devices or "Amiga RetroGamer"). I've bandied about the idea of a cartridge version and I suppose it could be handled in the same sort of way - the "emulator" pulls the controller information from whatever cartridge is installed.
