Sorry for the wall of text.
It's fine if this doesn't appeal to you, and It's true that this may impinge a bit on the market share. If I'm in the wrong for improperly using the brand of "action53" please tell me.
I'm doing this because the goal product (the combined volume) was what my motivation on participating from the start, and for various reasons I feel like this is a "now or never" opportunity.
The lack of appeal I heard is the reason why I kind of wanted to distance this a bit from the compo cycle (which is a great thing that's going on), and be neither a strict superset nor fully a subset of the numbered volumes. While I do feel like the current ratio of 1:1 for included games vs excluded games is good mix, I am still trying to pull from other sources. Maybe that'll make this a better exclusive mix? Already in my draft list, many notable things are missing like most of the compo winners from volume 3. Additionally most of volume 1 is included, which would be good for those who haven't been able to get their hands on that yet.
M_Tee wrote:What motivation would a user have to purchase intermediary or back versions when they know this "master version" is in the near future?
With the exception of volume 1, which is out of print, all the back versions combined have at least twice as many titles, and all the cool box art and posters that come with those releases.
M_Tee wrote:What motivation would a user who already has previous versions have to purchase the Master Version? (Will there be exclusives to it? If so, how would inclusion of said exclusives be determined?)
What I've thought of So far; Getting most of volume 1, Having a set of tools that deal with the NES hardware all on a single cart, and getting a few games that didn't make it due to lack of effort or being outside the compo cycle.
At the risk of sounding selfish, I'll be in charge of curtailing this collection. I'll consider any and all suggestions, and adjust my judgments when right to do so.
M_Tee wrote:What's going to happen with the NESdev competition entries from the current year of Master Version release? Will they be on A53v6 (and not included on the Master Version). Will some of them also be included on the Master Version? Will the Master Version be released in direct competition to that year's competition anthology release?
My goal will be to I'll get everything prepared around January 2020 so that physical copies can actually be ordered at November 22. So it's likely that all titles from that 2019 compo would be completely absent from this.
M_Tee wrote:What's the plan for future NesDev competitions after the release of the Master Version? Do future versions of Action 53 continue to be released?
Yes of course, I imagine the competitions will continue as they are now. Please don't stop because of me. I also imagine Action 53 will continue to be the brand for those cartridges.
tepples wrote:By "horizontal rule of spaces in game list", you mean a blank line that the cursor skips, correct? What would that be used for?
Correct. for aesthetics like to separate the single about entry from the end of the games list. Low priority.
Suggestions for gathering copyright statements, and implementing technical mechanisms for unpacking compilation are noted.