Preserving NZ-designed Games

Reminisce about those old games and dedicated gaming hardware

Re: Preserving NZ-designed Games

Postby lizardb0y on Thu Mar 29, 2012 9:01 am

Harvey wrote:The reason why the Atari Home Computers failed to be popular in Australia and New Zealand, would be due to the pricing and how they were distributed here. Ozisoft the importer - I think? - could not get wholesale purchasing of them.


I picked up a bundle of advertising astuff a week or so ago and found the Monaco NZ retail price list for Atari from spring 1984. Check it out:

http://www.vintage8bit.com/content/atar ... pring-1984
lizardb0y / Andrew
Just another 8-bit hustler

blog: http://www.vintage8bit.com
twitter: @vintage8bit
google+: http://gplus.to/lizardb0y
trademe: andrew9 - over 500 positive trades.
lizardb0y
 
Posts: 549
Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2008 8:50 am
Location: Wellington

Re: Preserving NZ-designed Games

Postby tezza on Thu Mar 29, 2012 1:24 pm

Andrew, are those NZ prices? Or maybe just suggested retail prices from the distributor

The buyer's guide in the November 1984 issue of NZ bits and Bytes (page 17) lists the Atari 400 at $399. That's one of the sources I used for this article.
http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blo ... ly-80s.htm

Mind you the Atari 400 was old in the tooth by then and I'm sure that was the maximum retail price. It reality it probably went for a lot less as retailers went on to clear out their stocks.
Tez (Terry Stewart) (Administrator)
Collection: https://www.classic-computers.org.nz/co ... /index.htm
Projects and Articles: https://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/index.htm
Twitter: @classiccomputNZ | YouTube: Terry Stewart
Trade Me: tezza5
tezza
Site Admin
 
Posts: 2382
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 pm
Location: Palmerston North, New Zealand

Re: Preserving NZ-designed Games

Postby lizardb0y on Thu Mar 29, 2012 3:28 pm

tezza wrote:Andrew, are those NZ prices? Or maybe just suggested retail prices from the distributor


Those are suggested retail prices from the distributor - implying that the retail buy price is lower than those.
lizardb0y / Andrew
Just another 8-bit hustler

blog: http://www.vintage8bit.com
twitter: @vintage8bit
google+: http://gplus.to/lizardb0y
trademe: andrew9 - over 500 positive trades.
lizardb0y
 
Posts: 549
Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2008 8:50 am
Location: Wellington

Re: Preserving NZ-designed Games

Postby Harvey on Thu Mar 29, 2012 4:30 pm

Somehow I got it stuck in my head - somewhere around 1982 - or maybe a few months earlier? That an Atari 400 in New Zealand, costing around $1295? Which I guess would be only 16K? The Atari 800 was around the $2000 mark?

The oldest price I have a note of is - The Atari 800 with 16K at US$1080 - via Microcomputing, April 1981. Listing also a 16K add board for US$120 and a 32K board for US$320. The Atari 800 was initially to be shipped with only 8K - but was quickly revised to 16K - because of how useless it is with 8K. Early Atari's had a CTIA chip, and this was superceded by the GTIA chip.

The oldest English price I have is - Atari 800- 16K for 399 Pounds, and 48k for 440 Pounds - and I would guess this is for late 1983? I purchased my Atari 800 a year earlier, which was around 600? Pounds. I knew it's price was starting to drop downwards. A disk drive at this time - was very expensive - costing around NZ$1000

As I said - the only way to explain the insanely high Ozisoft prices - was that they could not import the hardware/etc at wholesale prices, but only via retail - and added their own profit margin/etc on top of that. Meaning also - it was better to import the equipment/etc yourself overseas directly.

When Monaco took over - the downward reduced prices trend had fully blossomed - and we know now in respect, that when electronics reach the mass market - the greater numbers encourage lower and more affordable pricing, etc etc. The computer changed from a hobbyist/enthusiast market towards a more general mass market - who would also only afford a cheaper price.

Harvey
Harvey
 
Posts: 54
Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2012 11:02 pm

Re: Preserving NZ-designed Games

Postby Harvey on Sat Mar 31, 2012 12:46 pm

If anyone has some old Atari 400/800 etc computers and peripherals, etc etc around (that are not working at all) - I am making the suggestion that they could donate it to the Otago Early Settlers Museum - so that they can put together a decent Laser Hawk and Hawkquest display - for when they re-open - around mid-year?
I will have submitted a video for them to display the actual games running (as this is the best way of showing them running, within a short space of time - that a visitor may look at the display...) - but I feel that the actual original computer equipment should be there, too - on display. Even if they are non-working equipment. It would be good to see an Atari Home Computer (400/800/600XL/800XL/65XE/130XE) on display with disk drive (810 or 1050) and cassette recorder (410 or 1010) and joystick.

I will guess that almost anyone could run these games via emulation - on any number of variety of devices? Maybe even on cellphones and tablets?
I did test it on a Sega Dreamcast console with a keyboard plugged in - and it ran just like the original.

Harvey
Harvey
 
Posts: 54
Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2012 11:02 pm

Re: Preserving NZ-designed Games

Postby Carcenomy on Tue Apr 03, 2012 6:01 pm

They could borrow one of my Ataris, I've got a neat 800XL with cassette deck, and a XEGS. No floppy drives though.
Just the local Commodore hobo and middle-aged PC hoarder.
eisa on Trademe. A lasting reminder of a Compaq fetish when I was younger.
Carcenomy
 
Posts: 782
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2008 10:59 pm
Location: Invercargill

Re: Preserving NZ-designed Games

Postby Harvey on Wed Apr 04, 2012 9:23 am

I guess I would be tempted to purchase an Atari 8-bit computer - if I can find one at a cheap enough price. And a disk drive...
My preference would be an Atari 800 (unlikely - because it's so rare in NZ, and probably won't be cheap enough) or Atari 800XL - and a SpartaDOS compatible disk drive (most likely a 1050?) - because I have a few old disks in this format. Probably the reason for getting one, would be so that I can try doing a videocapture of Laser Hawk and Hawkquest - that is of a high quality - because I only have a poor quality capture on old video tape from many years ago. I should be able to do this better? via emulation and a videocapture program, on PC... but have not looked into it yet.

The same for a C-64 with a fast disk drive...

I don't have the desire for an Atari ST, or Amiga computers...

Harvey
Harvey
 
Posts: 54
Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2012 11:02 pm

Re: Preserving NZ-designed Games

Postby Harvey on Wed Aug 29, 2018 1:26 pm

I do have a NTSC Atari 800XL given to me - for testing purposes - which I use with the Atarimax 8mbit carts - with programmer cart. Lots of games are on the Atarimax website in the forums - which you can download to have an instant library of the best titles that were released at one time or another.
New homebrews are easy to add onto the carts in their .xex format (renamed from .exe so that they won't be confused with Windows .exe files).
You can do without disk drives altogether with this system - other old computer platforms probably have adopted this approach too - the latest using current SD cards.

I still like to add an Atari 400 and an Atari 800 - and just run them a few times each year - to keep them in running order.
But these need to be at a cheap enough pricing - so that I can afford them. I'm happy to wait up to 10 years before finally getting them...

I've been fortunate to have worked on the graphics for -
Blowsub, Strictly Gone Bananas, AtariBlast! - and lately - Scramble.
HawkQuest has been modified so as to run off an 8mbit flashcart (eliminating all disk swapping in this 4 sided disk game) and to work in NTSC too.

Harvey
Harvey
 
Posts: 54
Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2012 11:02 pm

Previous

Return to Vintage Computer Gaming

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests

cron