[Coco] Suggestions?

[Mark McDougall]

On 22/06/2014 10:49 PM, Bill Loguidice wrote:

> While it's true that Karateka is an active IP, since this is
> not a commercial project, I'm sure like Lode Runner, it will happily slip
> under the radar like the vast majority of these homebrew efforts do,

There's definitely no money to be made, that's for sure. I didn't keep track 
of my time for Lode Runner (though I fully intend to do so on my next 
project, simply for academic curiosity) but if I was charging out at my 
normal rate I'd estimate it cost me somewhere between AUD$24K-30K - and a 
lot of those hours were closer to midnight than midday.

So if *everyone* who still owned & used a Coco 3 bought a copy of Lode 
Runner at 'commercial' rates, I'd still be way short of breaking even! ;)

Of course I do it for the pure fun and challenge, and to give something back 
to the Coco community and help keep it ticking along. I'd love to do a 
cartridge for Lode Runner, but I suspect even that I'd have to sell at a 
loss just to make it affordable for the community. You never know, I might 
be feeling particularly benevolent someday... ;)

> As for Karateka's gameplay, I'd argue that its gameplay is just as well
> remembered as its cinematic qualities. As long as you approach Karateka
> like something of a strategic fighting game rather than a button masher
> (which you really can't anyway), then I think it's very easy to appreciate
> the gameplay.

I'm not going to argue its merits - it's remarkable either way. I've never 
been a fan of the 2D fighters; Street Fighter etc has never held any 
interest for me what-so-ever. I'm more of a vertical shmup and platformer 
guy myself. That said, I did enjoy IK+ on the Amiga! Of course its genesis 
was on 8-bit platforms, most notably the C64. I've considered having a crack 
at it, too!

Here's a question - what would people think of games that had to be played 
on a vertical (rotated) monitor on the Coco? A no-no for CRTs but with 
today's LCDs, it's not so big a deal. Would that put people off?

Regards,

-- 
|              Mark McDougall                | "Electrical Engineers do it
|  <http://members.iinet.net.au/~msmcdoug>   |   with less resistance!"