Famicom Cart Availability of Homebrew Titles

Started by M-Tee, March 08, 2018, 07:05:59 am

Previous topic - Next topic

80sFREAK

Oh, nice! Another holywar  ;D

QuoteI'd imagine 100 carts would be more than enough for the Famicom, probably even less, but we don't know unless we put out a release and see what happens.
Much less.

MaarioS, sorry, but let me disagree with you. Recycling unwanted games is not that bad. At least it can solve problem with shells at minimum cost. About $5 expenses per homebrew cart. And you are right about risks, plus you must have stock anyway and the most - famicom market is much smaller.

Please ask yourself, how much you would pay for homebrewed game in recycled shell?
I don't buy, sell or trade at moment.
But my question is how hackers at that time were able to hack those games?(c)krzy

VegaVegas

Well, the topic went much farther than I expected but alright, the topic expands and many of those last posts sound reasonable. Probably I will not give any new information on this topic but I will try, in this case let me expand my opinion:

Personally if you build any carts for yourself, you are free to do the hell everything you want with your own things, you can use recycled PCB boards, produce new ones, use purchased once and the same applies to cart shells and you can use any type you want because everything is yours. The problem starts to arise once you want to promote something on a large scale and in this case I think releasing a new homebrew title in cartridge form is a perfect example. Look how huge all social media are like facepalm, twitter etc. and youtube, naturally when you promote something like this, you want to push as much carts as you possibly can and satisfy as much people as you can because this is the whole point of it

So in this case, when you want to run a project like this, the most reasonable solution is to build all hardware using 100% new parts, meaning manufacturing entire carts the same way as Nintendo originally did 20-30 or over years ago. Technically speaking, PCB boards are relatively cheap to produce these days although the toughest part to overcome is definitely the Famicom 60pin cartridge shells. Let me refer to the previous example I mentioned before- so what happens if you want to promote a project like this on social media, although you want to recycle cartridge shells from old carts?? This is actually what I think "controversial". I think you wouldn't want to mention it and you probably wouldn't want to discourage and rush people by saying something like "LIMITED QUANTITY ONLY, ONLY 100 CARTS WILL BE AVAILABLE AT MAXIMUM!!!" because you are short on old shells. By respecting all opinions, this is actually very problematic and I think some people would agree, or maybe not after all

The debate regarding hunting and recycling old carts has been floating all around the internet for a long time. I think the most reasonable quote I can remember looked something like this: "the entire point is if we want to do any projects, we can't just go forever destroying old carts to repurpose them, if we were doing this all the time then we probably will not see almost any original carts in next 3-5 years, so this is the entire point to go the hard way and manufacture completely new carts"

Well, this topic is actually very difficult to discuss, although I personally think it should be because the entire thing about "destroying old carts" may sounds stupid but might potentially cause more harm than good, I don't indicate it will for 100% sure but it might

Overall after all of this I absolutely support the idea to reproduce 100% new Famicom cart shells if this is ever going to happen. Again, I personally would like to do this to happen if only the demand is high and reasonable to start this project and if the engineers will be confident enough they will not be harmed financially on this at the end

80sFREAK

Quote from: MaarioS on March 31, 2018, 04:19:05 am... The problem starts to arise once you want to promote something on a large scale...
Not at all. "Large scale" in this case is batches of 25-30 carts - remember everyone always talking about "smaller than NES market".

QuoteSo in this case, when you want to run a project like this, the most reasonable solution is to build all hardware using 100% new parts, meaning manufacturing entire carts the same way as Nintendo originally did 20-30 or over years ago.

No, thanks. If it is cost efficient to use donors everyone will use donors.

Quoteso what happens if you want to promote a project like this on social media, although you want to recycle cartridge shells from old carts??
Nothing.

QuoteThis is actually what I think "controversial". I think you wouldn't want to mention it and you probably wouldn't want to discourage and rush people by saying something like "LIMITED QUANTITY ONLY, ONLY 100 CARTS WILL BE AVAILABLE AT MAXIMUM!!!" because you are short on old shells. By respecting all opinions, this is actually very problematic and I think some people would agree, or maybe not after all

Technically i can produce batches up to 100cart per month at the price $40/unit plus shipping in nearly mint condition standart black shells. Whats next?

QuoteI think the most reasonable quote I can remember looked something like this: "the entire point is if we want to do any projects, we can't just go forever destroying old carts to repurpose them, if we were doing this all the time then we probably will not see almost any original carts in next 3-5 years, so this is the entire point to go the hard way and manufacture completely new carts"
Not at all.

QuoteOverall after all of this I absolutely support the idea to reproduce 100% new Famicom cart shells if this is ever going to happen. Again, I personally would like to do this to happen if only the demand is high and reasonable to start this project and if the engineers will be confident enough they will not be harmed financially on this at the end
Div. by zero error.
I don't buy, sell or trade at moment.
But my question is how hackers at that time were able to hack those games?(c)krzy

P

About how many shells would you need for an injection mold to be possible? 30 is probably not even close to near enough. Krikzz can produce them because his Everdrives sells like cookies, maybe the best bet is to use Everdrive shells after all and cover the Everdrive logo with a label.

Lum

I'm not particularly fond of donors myself. But they help test the waters. Sort out what shells are fair quality, most reproducible, and appeal to customers.

Once a healthy market materializes, then homebrew authors can work on pooling funds to get production moving.
*bzzzt*

M-Tee

Action 53 Vol. 3 is available.

$50 CIB


$38 Loose Cart:


This has 23 great games and programs, including the 2016 NesDev Coding Competition entries.

I designed the cart label, poster, and cover art. I highly engourage the CIB option as it not only utilizes StoneAgeGamers' Bitboxes (which are a durable and gorgeous clamshell), but also includes a poster, showing the cover art in detail on one side and a write up on each developer featured on the other.

fcgamer

It's not available until tomorrow, but I will order one then.
Family Bits - Check Progress Below!

https://famicomfamilybits.wordpress.com

M-Tee

According to INL, "only a single Famicom (copy of Action 53 Vol. 3) sold outside of contributors" (link), so I reckon the demand is even less than I'd expected.

famiac


M-Tee