Date: Mon, 25 Aug 97 09:47:07 CST
From: "Gary Sutton" <otter@oz.net>
X-Minuet-Version: Minuet1.0_Beta_18A
X-POPMail-Charset: English
To: cturley@grin.net
Subject: Re: School Research Update


Gary Sutton
CMPT-110 Information Systems Concepts
M / W 1645 - 1945


While most programmers are racing to produce the ultimate software packages for
the latest and greatest computer systems, an alternative market, which has
received very little public notice, has slowly been growing, an untapped
potential source of 

These old systems did not require massive amounts of RAM, blinding CPU speed, or
gigabytes of hard drive space to meet their masters' and mistress' computing
needs. Software bloating was usually not a problem and was in fact a very rare
occurance 
I have found that despite the slower clock speed, applications and games on the
GS run faster and smoother than similar packages on the 486, and packages that
require several megabytes to run on a Windows machine fit easily into a 1.25
megabyte o 

"But why even bother with dead computer platforms when everyone who is anyone
uses Windows or Windows-95?" you may ask. The answer is, "Not everyone believes
that these old systems are truly dead, contrary to what was reported in a recent
issue o 

I recently took a poll on a variety of UseNet newsgroups catering to classic
gamers and collectors to find out what they would like to see for their various
systems and whether or not there would be a viable market for development. The
response I The first question I asked in my survey was: For classic video game
systems such as the Atari 2600/5200/7800, Intellivision, Colecovision/Adam, and
any others, what types of games would you like to see produced? 
The majority of the users I heard from wanted to see practically any type of game
possible written for the various systems. Running a close second were people who
felt that there are already enough games floating out there to make development
Gamers would also specifically like conversions of arcade titles to the extent
that the old systems' capabilities would allow, and re-releases of cartridges
that are officially listed as extremely rare, such as Swordquest Waterworld or
the titles for the Atari 2600 that were produced by Mystique.(#3) 
As a final note to the first question, several people suggested creating games
that utilize modern programming techniques, especially in the areas of graphics
and sound routines. Adding my own opinion here, I heartily agree that it should
be possibl player.

The second question asked was, "Do you feel that there is a niche for a hand-held
video game unit that would play collections of classics?" The yes votes
outnumbered the no votes by a ratio of nearly four to one. Those who voted no
pointed out that there are already emulators for many of the old systems
available on Windows and other modern platforms. However, I have looked at some
of Those who voted yes gave a variety of reasons for the development of such a
hand-held system. At the top of the list were references to the TV Boy, an
obscure little hand-held unit about the size of a video cassette. It still
requires a television 
The next question was the most sensitive. I asked what price ranges people would
be willing to pay for new cartridges for the classic systems as well as for the
hypothetical hand-held unit. The responses ranged from nothing due to so many
good c 

My little survey was not targetted solely at the users of dedicated video game
machines however. Also included were similar questions for the classic computer
users. When asked what games and applications they would like to see produced for
thei The applications most desired for classic systems seem to be overwhelmingly
in favor of Internet connection programs such as diallers, TCP/IP drivers, news
and mail readers, and most importantly VT-100 terminal emulators. Several people
pointed o When asked what prices users would be willing to pay for games,
applications, and programming tools, responses ranged from $10 up to $300
depending on the quality of the product. The average price was $45 - $50. Prices
for games were considerabl I also asked what form of distribution would be best
for any programs released for classic systems, giving three choices: 

Full Commercial	--	Pay before Play
Traditional Shareware --	Try first, then pay if you like it
Commissionware --	This is my own term, inspired by the old PC-Write (#4),
which was
shareware, but registering could earn you a commission if you
distributed copies which were subsequently registered.

Although there were a few votes for commercial, the majority of those who
responded felt that traditional shareware was the best route, pointing out that
there are very few retail stores that would even consider using valuable shelf
space for soft Commissionware was viewed as an interesting idea, but unworkable
due to the bookeeping involved and potential for abuse. However, I didn't go into
any in-depth explanation of how I would keep it in control, otherwise, the idea
may have received m 

I even went as far as to venture into markets for computer hardware. There is
definitely a demand for a wide variety of modern hardware for the classics.
People would like to see SCSI and IDE interfaces to allow use of larger hard
drives, CD-ROM Several of the so-called "dead" systems are still being supported
by third-party hardware. Examples include the Second Sight Super VGA card for the
Apple IIGS, the Super CPU for the Commodore-64 which boosts its speed up to 20
MHz, with a version Earlier this year, the rights to the Amiga were acquired by
Gateway-2000. In a news release which caused considerable excitement among the
well-established Amiga community, the management of Gateway announced their
desire to: 

a -- Support the existing Amiga community. b -- Leverage the existing Amiga
technology through broad licensing. c -- Assist in developing new Amiga-based
products based on open standards for the home computer and video/graphics
market.(#5) 

This implies that we may one day see Gateway Amigas on the shelves at our local
computer stores, although they would probably be under the Amiga International
label, which is the department Gateway turned over Amiga development to. 

The final question that I asked was mainly for statistical purposes. I asked,
"What systems do you use on a regular basis and what systems would you like to
see supported?" There was a large variety of systems mentioned in the responses I
received, including a few which I had never heard of. The list follows: 

Acetronic
Amiga	All flavors represented.
Amstrad
Apple II	This would include the II, II+, IIe, IIc, IIc+, IIGS, and the
compatibles such as the
Franklin and the Laser-128.
Atari 2600
Atari 5200
Atari 7800
Atari 8-bit	400, 800, XL, XE series.
Atari ST	520 and 1040.
Atari Falcon
Colecovision/Adam
Commodore 64
Commodore 128
Commodore VIC-20
Commodore +4
Intellivision
Luxor
Odyssey^2
Sinclair Spectrum
Sinclair ZX81 Known in the States as the Timex/Sinclair-1000. Spectravideo
TI-99/4a
TRS-80	All models including the Color Computers.
Vectrex.

So just from this quick little survey I took, it appears that there is a viable
market for programmers and hardware hackers who wish to support the classic
systems. Users want a wide variety of software and peripherals for their beasts,
products The demand is there. Are you willing to go against the mainstream and
meet it with products that could rival the abilities of the newest and hottest
systems on the shelves? If properly implemented, we could see a rebirth of many
platforms.