Re: What GSE-Reactive Really Needs to Make

[Mark McDougall <msmcdoug@no.spam.iinet>]

omashiroi@yahoo.com wrote:

> I think the lack of new add-ons is part of the reason the A2 enthusist
> market has died. Look at this newsgroup, it has basically been the same
> people for 5 or 6 years. VGA and ability to use modern keyboards are a
> must.

I disagree entirely. A2 enthusiasts are, for the most part, die-hard A2 fans 
that just don't want to lose that sense of nostalgia. Sure, add-ons 
certainly extend the usefulness of the A2, but it's not make-or-break for 
those still playing around with them - and it never will be.

> Why is it that the C64 still has a huge following and the A2 does not?
> You can basically buy a brand new C64 with the joystick thing and hook
> up your original disk drives and keyboards too it. Why don't we have
> anything like that?

Quite simply because the C64 sold the most units of any computer in the 
(pre-PC) history of personal computers! More units sold means more users 
means more die-hard enthusiasts. Did you know that there are *commercial* 
releases of new C64 games even today?

Not sure what the origin of most users of this group are, but I'm betting 
it's US-centric??? The A2 really didn't have that much of an impact outside 
the US - at least not anywhere near the impact it had in the states. I've 
got almost every issue of "Retro Gamer", and the A2 rarely even rates a mention!

Why no A2 joystick? It's not because it's difficult to do - an A2 in an FPGA 
has already been done several times. It's just not commercially viable. 
There's simply not enough people interested in the A2. Given the 
previously-mentioned patronage of this newsgroup, world-wide sales would 
number 5 or 6 units! Well, not quite that bad, but you get my point?

And, at the risk of starting a flame war, I might offer this observation... 
as a collector and owner of many retro arcade games, consoles and micro 
computers, IMHO A2 games just don't cut the mustard as far as appeal to the 
casual observer goes. Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying they're no good, 
(Lode Runner is one of my all-time favourite games, and it *has* to be the 
A2 original!) but I think you have to have been raised on an A2 to 
appreciate the quality and appeal of A2 games. For instance, I'm a TRS-80 
die-hard myself, and I'm the first to admit that TRS-80 games look *really* 
sucky, and I wouldn't expect anyone seeing them for the first time to look 
twice at them - but there's dozens of high quality, very fun games to play 
there. You'll just never see a TRS-80 joystick either.

That aside, I'm impressed with what the small A2 community has achieved, and 
only wish the TRS-80 community was as active. To some degree, I'm an A2 
'newbie' myself - although I always had friends with A2's when growing up. I 
recently acquired a complete AIIe system myself, and I'm certainly 
interested in following, or even participating in, community efforts to 
develop further hardware for the A2.

The VGA card sounds particularly interesting, as I've already in effect 
developed a crude version in my very WIP A2 FPGA implementation myself. It 
really wouldn't be very difficult to do. The 'bus snooper' idea (Ed 
Eastman?) is brilliant!

Regards,

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