Re: Poll about Mockingboard h/w clone

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

"Donald C. Lee" writes ...
> 
> Out of curiosity, what's the motivation in producing a
> phasor/mockingboard clone?
> 
> I still have my phasor card lying around somewhere.  It was great for
> the Ultima series, Skyfox, and a few other games that used the card.
> 
> The Phasor card also had some good music tunes provided on disk
> too...like Popcorn.  :D
> 
> Don
 ....

     I have my original Sound II Mockingboard, too. It usually resides in the
II+. Would be nice to have one for the IIgs.

     One motivation for a clone is making money selling them. Quite a few II
and IIgs users would like having a Mockingboard.

     Getting the music and effects for Ultima III-V makes a big difference in
the fun of playing. That includes playing on a IIgs for Ultima IV-V. (Don't
think anyone has done the patch for Ultima III, yet.) Also, the Mockingboard
versions of the music are better than the midi versions I've come across.

     Some other significantly-better-with-MB games are Lancaster and SkyFox;
Thunderbombs has great effects. And MCS is a pretty nice music composer
utility for 8-bit users. Actually, Mockingboard sound is pretty darn good.

     Wouldn't be hard, either. The circuit is dirt-simple with no special
IC's required. Plus, docs and piles of support software are available from
public archives.

     Two big 'make or break' decision points are probably: Include Speech?
and Selling price.

     Having speech would be kind of nice; but, as far as I know, speech was
not a significant component of any popular game. It might be of interest to a
few users. Big problem is that Including Speech could nearly double
manufacturing costs; and, selling price is very important.

     Right now, just about every newly developed piece of Apple II hardware
is priced high with correspondingly low sales numbers. That's too bad. 
Miniscule volume passes up on cashing in on the positive feedback effects
which come with getting a product to mobs of users.

     That's especially true for something like Mockingboard. Sell a hundred--
everyone yawns and goes about their business. Sell a couple thousand and
you've got a market for new games and other software that uses a Mockingboard
... which means the Mockingboard maker is going to sell even more units.

     What would be kind of cool is for A2Central to have one or two good
Mockingboard games and utilities ready to sell.

     Something many people overlook is that there really is money to be made
selling to 'vintage' computer owners. With so many boring products flooding
the PC and game machine markets, that's more true than ever.


Rubywand