Some rare homebrews are up on ebay right now

Space Patrol is currently selling on ebay for an absurd price ($399). I saw posted elsewhere that there are indeed boxed copies of this game left and that will be getting released soon. I sure hope so because I want to get this game but I don't want to pay such a high price for it.

Space Patrol

I do not blame you at all.

Yeah, that price is absurd. I think that both Space Patrol and the Christmas Carol game will go on sale at the same time soon - I'm basing that on the fact that at CGE at the LFO/Electronite booth they were selling both of those along with DIIK. I had limited funds but picked up Space Patrol for the regular price. Be patient and you won't pay an arm and a leg... although at some point we've done that for a game that we really, really wanted.

mojotv67 wrote:Yeah, that price is absurd. I think that both Space Patrol and the Christmas Carol game will go on sale at the same time soon - I'm basing that on the fact that at CGE at the LFO/Electronite booth they were selling both of those along with DIIK. I had limited funds but picked up Space Patrol for the regular price. Be patient and you won't pay an arm and a leg... although at some point we've done that for a game that we really, really wanted.

I wish I had been able to go to CGE. I would have purchased it right then and there!

I really blew it by missing when these games were released originally. I certainly don't blame people for selling the games for so much - more power to them, I'd do the same, i'm sure. $300 for a game though - ouch!!!

It is remarkable how prices bump up for these games after they are sold out. I try to keep an eye out for any releases that I'm interested in so I don't miss them.

I had a boxed copy of Space Patrol once and foolishly traded it away, not knowing I wouldn't be able to get another copy. I missed Christmas Carol entirely.

If you look in Atari Age, there were competitions for three years for Christmas Carol. The ROM was made freely available so folks could compete. You should be able to still get it.

I have the ROM, which is crippled to disallow high score saving. It was the cartridge that I missed.

I happened to get the last physical copy of Princess Quest from CollectorVision, and I did get a copy of Sydney Hunter and the Sacred Tribe, but it wasn't the deluxe version.

With such low print runs of indie games, I don't have any expectations of getting all of them. I'm happier making new games anyhow.

Yes, I hate it when the runs are limited, though I can understand given this costs involved in making the carts, etc. One example of that is Ghostbusters that was recently released.

My hope is that the Amico revitalizes interest in the Intellivision to the point that lay people start buying up games, both commercial and indie. With a spike in demand for more indie game production, somebody might come along and offer some talent and resources that we don't currently have. Then we can have more production runs, especially for older games like Stonix.

Here's one of those rare homebrew titles:  Intellivision game Ghostbusters Homebrew Limited Edition copy number 41 of 50

There's a game that could use an additional production run. I don't feel bad about those Blix carts after seeing only 50 copies of Ghostbusters get made.

Why didn’t they make more?

More copies of Ghostbusters? That's anybody's guess, if it wasn't due to production limitations.

They should consider making a second run, perhaps not numbered or just looking different in some way so the folks who bought the limited release still have something special.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of numbered releases. That's why the registration flier bundled with each copy of FUBAR has a code instead.

intylab wrote:I have the ROM, which is crippled to disallow high score saving.  It was the cartridge that I missed.

Wait, what???

The ROM is the same* as in the cartridge.  There was never high score saving in the game.

*The only difference in the ROM is that the "Easter eggs" were removed, to leave them as an extra for the cartridge version.  Still these were just lame messages that get shown when you enter a secret code, which nobody really tried to find.  *shrug*

There were 300 units of Christmas Carol produced, and they seemed to have gone mostly to actual user and players of Intellivision; as evidenced by the participation in the contests and user feedback.  (This is probably the reason very few make it into eBay:  there aren't many "extras" lying around sealed, in speculators' closets.)

I appreciate that some latecomers missed out -- especially those attracted to the platform recently by the new resurgence of IntyBASIC games -- but please understand that a 300 unit run is a rather large one.

By the time we stopped producing the game, there were very few sales, if any at all.

All that said, I'm working on a related project that I hope will see the light of day this year.  The original Christmas Carol may make its way back into cartridges as an extra.

However, the original production ran its course and will not come back, sorry.

  dZ.

Okay. I thought the physical release had JLP hardware. I was dark during the years that Christmas Carol was in circulation. Those High Score contests I saw were pretty neat.

intylab wrote:Okay.  I thought the physical release had JLP hardware.  I was dark during the years that Christmas Carol was in circulation.  Those High Score contests I saw were pretty neat.

You are right, that Christmas Carol was one of the first JLP releases, along with its contemporary D2K.

However, we ran out of time before any JLP features could be built in, so they are not used.

Well ... that is not exactly accurate. There is one feature which uses JLP's nvram: By default, the practice menu only lets you practice the first 7 stages, which prevents you from practicing the Boss Level. If you try to select it, it will just scroll past. This was intended, so that the new mechanics and structure of the Boss Level arrive as a surprise with a bigger impact.

However, once you complete the game the first time and "save Christmas," the state of completion is stored as a flag in nvram, enabling the Boss Level in the Practice Menu.

Yes, this is a feature only available in the cartridge edition. That and the "easter eggs."

Fun Fact: Joe Z. did create a high-score table for Christmas Carol, complete with character selector. I just ran out of time before our production deadline for CGE, and didn't get to integrate it into the mainline code.

Joe then re-purposed the high-score table code for an Elektronite game released afterwards, although I do not recall which one. The very first Intellivision game with nvram highscore table released (whichever one it was), used it.

-dZ.

[quote="dz-jay"]

intylab wrote:

Joe then re-purposed the high-score table code for an Elektronite game released afterwards, although I do not recall which one.  The very first Intellivision game with nvram highscore table released (whichever one it was), used it.

    -dZ.

I think, Match 5 was the first game with permanent highscore.

Intymike wrote:

dz-jay wrote:

intylab wrote:

Joe then re-purposed the high-score table code for an Elektronite game released afterwards, although I do not recall which one.  The very first Intellivision game with nvram highscore table released (whichever one it was), used it.

    -dZ.

I think, Match 5 was the first game with permanent highscore.

I think so too. That's what I had in mind when I was writing the above comment, but wasn't sure I remembered correctly.

-dZ.