Re: Expensive Software
Re: Expensive Software
"carlsson" wrote:
>> $79 bucks does seem a bit expensive for software
>> that age.
> Some people believe if there is money to make out
> of something, then let's try to make money out of
> it. All of us suckers who are stuck in the 70ties or
> 80ties computing have a hobby with a potential to
> be profitable to anyone who has the right things to
> offer.
Something I worry about is the programs I write are
for free, yet I might say they are freeware which
unlike PD, I have copyright over, I'd rather see my
programs going to people who use them for
non-profit than some shareware or commercial
software which charges you $50 bucks to use it.
> Although I would not pay $50 for a 10 year old
> software plus another $20 for a recent upgrade,
> somehow I prefer this solution over not being able
> to get the software at all (as many software
> publishing houses both deny free redistribution and
> the possibility to buy their own titles which since
> long has ceased from the back catalogue).
>> I could be wrong about my Amstrad, but I
>> haven't seen any commercial development
>> for quite some time
> I believe Cronosoft have a few newly produced
> games for the Amstrad, just like they have titles
> for the Spectrum, C64, BBC etc. Personally I
> don't believe in their concept, but good luck to
> the programmers who license their works to
> them.
I'm not familar with them, but if they do sell new
games for those systems, then it's up to the Zines
to buy the games & review them! (well maybe
that's going too far)
Or maybe it's the other way around & Cronosoft
should send their games to these Zines so at
least know about them.
>> However, I can't quite understand how the
>> C64 has still had quite a large user base, but
>> it's the reason why there are still software
>> companies still making new software for it.
> It might have something to do with the C64 was
> released in 1982 as a follow-up to the PET,
> VIC-20 etc, so it had many years to become
> popular. The Amstrad line was at least released
> in 1984 or early 1985, and had to battle an
> already crowded market. Actually the only
> Amstrad related machine I've ever seen live in
> Sweden was a Schneider PC, and that was on a
> flea market two years ago.
The Amstrad CPC464 was the first to come out in
April 1984, then the Amstrad CPC664 (with the 3"
Disk Drive) late 84 & the Amstrad CPC6128 a few
months down the track. The Amstrad CPC664 was
scraped first (though I'm not sure when), which
left the CPC464 & CPC6128 being sold up to 1989
or 1990 when the new Plus machines were
released.
I guess the real break though with the CPC464
when it came out, was the price & the combinations
which you could buy. Since you could have either
a Green Screen Monitor or Colour Monitor, Disk
Drive or No Disk Drive. The CPC464 had a built in
tape deck (to load your games in) which I'd image
would have been a fairly attractive machine with
an attractive price (depending on how much you
wanted to spend!)
>> Surely there must be a 3.5" drive for this machine.
> Yes, the 1581 is a 3.5" unit and has later been
> followed by CMD's FD-2000 and FD-4000 (IIRC).
> The 1581 was released quite late, about 1988.
Oh geez, after the updated C64!
>> There maybe still a lot of 5.25" disks out there,
>> but ASAIK they have stopped making them
>> (unless this C64 company makes the disks
>> themselves).
> As a matter of fact,
http://www.jschoenfeld.de
> announced on December 10th, 2003 that
> production of 5.25" DS SD 48 TPI (hmm.. I
> remember 48 TPI disks labeled DD?) has
> been restarted in a factory in California, and
> those can be ordered from Jens for 10 EUR
> (approx 12 USD) per 25 disks plus shipping.
Yes, I thought that 5.25" DS DD 48 TPI were
doubled sided. I have a 5.25" drive on my
Amstrad since, however it's a Double Sided
Double Density drive. An ol' friend of mine
which had a C64 also gave me some of his
disks, which were DS DD (for me to have for
my XT at the time).
> As I see it, the commercial Commodore scene
> mainly consists of:
> * Tulip (IP holders) together with Ironstone
> Partners (IP developers)
> * Click Here Software, selling the Creative Micro
> Designs (CMD) hardware/software:
> SuperCPU/SuperRAM, CMD FD-2000/HD-1000,
> JiffyDOS and GeoWorks software in form of
> GEOS/Wheels
I've actually seen this SuperCPU/SuperRAM thing,
the SuperCPU as I recall, is a Cartridge.
> * Protovision, selling various hardware, games
> and other software
Are they still going? I thought they would have
been long gone!
> * Individual Computers, producing and selling
> hardware (of which some is sold through
> Protovision)
> with honorable mentions to Cronosoft, the X1541
> shop w/partners and a few liquidation warehouse
> webshops, who mostly set insanely high prices
> and then grunts about no customers but great
> costs for storing the stuff.
Where've had people who still sell stuff for the
Amstrad (mostly Second Hand), but the prices
they sell them for are ridiculously high, in that
they are the same prices or even higher for a
piece of software which was new in it's day.
When the Amstrad was going through it's phase
from being a commercial games machine to
public domain software, I was able to get some
games through the UK at extremely cheap prices.
Some of them were as cheap as £2->£3 & I was
buying buget games on tape for as low as £1.99
or 5 for £7.50. I also got lots of 3" disks (since
they were so rare here & costed nearly $100
dollars for 10. I brought around 10 ex-commercial
(which were just as good as the new ones) for
£20 for 10 (which at the time worked at about $40
dollars).
Cheers,
CP/M User.
