After the C4CPC, is there a demand for "classic" plus cartridges ?

[Shining]

I've read people speaking about releasing stuff on plus cartridge here and there. And as I'm also one of them and for me a non existent real new "classic" cartridge is a little bit of a hen egg problem, I wanted to start this topic to eventually join forces. I searched for a shell solution for a long time and now I'm very satisfied with my 3D-printable solution. So next thing will be a pcb. Bryce and I brainstormed this some time ago and we came to a price of about 20€ for a PCB including all the needed stuff and a 512KB EPROM, but only when we manufacture a minimum of 100 PCBs.

Also, Bryce and I are able, to assemble, burn and built them together, but I'm not able to stem this initial-costs alone.
So perhaps, when other people are interested in a pcb and/or shell-solution we can join forces and I want to query how many carts one eventually needs.


Also when there are people out there, who are only interested in 1-2, wanting a special system cart or something else, please report.

[ComSoft6128]

I am interested in any new (or newish) games on cart. I am also interested in getting serious software on this format. I have always thought that the cartridges were a much underdeveloped format on the Plus. To put it simply, if you produce it, I will buy it.

Cheers,

Peter

[mr_lou]

I'm split on this topic.

On one hand I like the idea of having a physical copy. In general I'm in favor of physical copies. I'll always pick the physical Blu-ray Disc version of a movie for example, rather than the streamed (or pirated) version. And for that reason I also like the idea of holding a physical cartridge in my hands with a nice label and such. It just gives the game something extra. Something it deserves.

My problem is, that the only time I have time to play these games nowadays, is when my mates and I get together for a retro-gaming evenings. This is where everyone brings their own retro-computer, and then we just chill with retrogames for the whole day or weekend. The problem here is, that bringing physical copies of the games means a lot more to carry. Having everything on an SD card is just much more convenient.

Although, showing off new physical games at these retrogaming events could also be a thing.... 

In conclusion, I'll probably buy a physical copy just to support the project.  Then I imagine I'll probably appreciate me doing so later.

[ComSoft6128]

Well put.

[rpalmer]

I too like holding onto the physical item, but is becoming a problem when the item itself does not last. I nearly lost my entire DVD collection (some 150+ DVDs) to ants (yes, who would have thought that) which thought they would make a nice home to breed. There were literally 100's to 1000s of the little buggers. Thankfully I got rid of all of them, but some discs had to be cleaned (using IPA and gentle scrubbing) and dont know how much damage the ant may have caused.

For the old software for our beloved CPC, discs/tapes are becoming old and susceptible to ageing. The same can be said for EPROMs which had not covered the window since UV light can enter to disrupt the bits of data. Cartridges on the other hand (covered the EPROM with a housing to protect it) were few in number so that may mean they can be little need for them in quantity for a viable cost.

Meaning we are going to face the problem of storage media becoming unusable as time goes by.

The only viable solution right now are archives of software loadable via disc/tape images along with copies of the ROMs as loadable images into hardware like MegaFLASH.

However, there are some programs (on magnetic media) with special "formats" which are likely to not be copyable and lost forever if they cannot be copied at all. The most difficult was (if i remember) was a car driver game (like Lotus Turbo Esprit) which had to enable write on a disc to detect if a sector would be written to and read back with errors in particular parts of a sector (physical holes by laser). This is less of a problem for cartridges with ROMS, since the cartridge can reverse engineered to make copies to again make them likely to last longer.

rpalmer

[tjohnson]

Wow Ants!

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[CraigsBar]

I'd be up for physical carts of new plus only games, or enhanced remakes. Ghost n goblins physical cart, hell yes please!

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[Gryzor]

I try to buy every new title that comes out, but only if it's worth it to some extend (which, thankfully, means virtually all of them ). Even though I don't have a GX or a Plus permanently set up. But not if the title released is the same old Plus/cartridge money grub - if it's just a normal game I'll just get the disk, thank you very much