[Coco] Re: philosphical ... discussions

[Charlie]

Well if you want new stuff, and have to write it yourself, then the CoCo is
nothing more than nostalgia.
All this new hardware is just cooler faster better ways to store and run the
same old shit.

Not everyone can be or wants to be a programmer. I'm a basic programmer but
I've only written for the MC-10 over the last year (since picking it back
up). And anyway no one gets excited for games written in basic anyway. :)

I'm once again going to point at the Atari console / computer community.
There are new better than anything before games coming out all the time for
the classic consoles. Some are hacks, some conversions, some new ideas. Some
are given away, some are produced in professional boxes with manuals and
fancy cartridges, and sold. It is better to own an Atari 2600 or 5200 today
than it ever was in 1981.

It's not a put down of the coco community, just an observation. The new
hardware is great. Its amazing what we can do with the coco now-a-days. I
mean I'm getting an ide controller with a flash memory thing. So I'll copy
all my OS9 stuff to it and I feel good that its so cool and fast. Then what?
Do I turn around in a month and say well, I copied everything I have on
it.... I guess I'm done ??? I hope not.

The coco community seems to have a lot of hardware tech type people. And
that's fine, (it even helps when you reset your coco during a dsave to your
harddisk) , but it kinda leaves someone like myself who just loves to USE a
coco waiting for the next piece of software to run. :-)

I don't believe I could learn (because of family and other responsibilities)
to write the next Warrior King. Part II. But if Nick did , he would have my
support , money whatever. That's all I'm saying.

Charlie


"James Dessart" <james at skwirl.ca> wrote in
message news:Pine.LNX.4.10.10410071311350.29701-100000 at coatl.skwirl.ca...
>
>
> On Thu, 7 Oct 2004, Charlie wrote:
>
> > I'll say it again, I would support mostly any new CoCo games that get
made.
>
> I think the problem is that there's not enough of a hobbyist mentality in
> the CoCo community. It's still in a consumer/producer kind of mode, unlike
> the C64 community. Piles of free and low cost pops up, simply because
> people are doing it for fun, not for money.
>
> So the barriers to entry are much higher, simply because it costs money to
> get what you need. I have nothing against money being made, it's just that
> there should be free alternatives, even if they're harder to use.
>
> > Personally I'd like to see OS-9 software. A graphical adventure under
OS-9
> > would be great. White Fire of Eternity, or even Dallas Quest as
examples.
>
> What I think would spur a lot of development is a modern C compiler that
> can be hosted on a modern desktop computer. As fun as assembler is, no one
> really ends up learning it these days. Lots of people say they're going
> to, but a) there are only 24 hours a day, and 7 days a week and b) it's
> not easy.
>
> Which is why I've tried to get the gcc stuff going. Unfortunately, because
> of a) above, I can't work on it much, if any. Definitely not the kind of
> rewrite that would be necessary to bring OS-9 support. Then there's the
> sdcc alternative. It might possibly be easier, but it has to be done, it
> wont do itself.
>
> I guess what I'm getting at is, never stop doing something because someone
> else might be doing it, or because there may not be any monetary gains to
> be had, or else some of the things the CoCo might need just aren't going
> to be there. If someone else is doing what you're doing, fine, it doesn't
> matter. Do it for yourself, do it for the heck of it, do it because you
> can.
>
> One other problem is that it seems that those of us with the know how are
> also the ones with the least time to devote to our CoCo projects. But even
> if you're not a professional software developer or hardware engineer, it
> doesn't matter. It's a hobby, it doesn't need to be perfect, or even work
> at all. Sometimes just getting a project started will spur interest in
> someone else who might be missing the skills to get the ball rolling, but
> has the skills to finish it off.
>
> To summarize, if you want CoCo software, you're probably going to have to
> write it yourself. Don't worry if it's a mess, you're not making a
> product, you're having fun. So go out, have fun, learn something new, and
> the CoCo community will love you for it.
>
> James
>
>
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