Why aren't more homebrew games sold as ROM only?

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WhiteHat94
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Re: Why aren't more homebrew games sold as ROM only?

Post by WhiteHat94 »

Demos are cool and useful for getting a taste of the game and seeing if it's something you will like, but still doesn't solve the problem of not being able to get the full game as a ROM if you aren't interested in a physical release, for convenience or even monetary reasons. I'd love to get more games to play and probably run, but at 40-50 bucks a pop for a cart, that just isn't going to happen for me. $5-10 is a no brainer compared.
Erockbrox
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Re: Why aren't more homebrew games sold as ROM only?

Post by Erockbrox »

I'm the type of person who owns a flash cart for my NES and even if I purchase a NES homebrew on a cart I still want the rom file so that I can play it on my flash cart and never have to remove my flash cart from my actual NES.

So, if I bought a physical release of an NES homebrew I would also like it if I got a download link to the rom. Of course I know that there are tools and equipment that allow you to rip your own rom from the cartridge, but seriously just give me the rom so I can use it if I need to.

I like the idea of using the rom of the game so that I can play with save states on an emulator, or create a TAS run, or use other tools that only an emulator can provide to look at the game. What if there is a bug in the game that is annoying and I want to hack the rom to fix it? I need the rom an order to do that.

The other day I using the FCEUX NES emulator and was looking at the PPU viewer on a NES game and just by looking at the PPU option in the emulator I learned how the developer pulled off some layering tricks with sprites on the NES.

Also when it comes to piracy, while some think it's bad, sometimes it can actually be good. What if some popular youtuber pirated your game and played it and got millions of views. Those views can equate into cart sales/rom sales. It's strange how it works sometimes.

I think a low entrance fee for anyone playing your game is a good idea and that reminds me of Wikipedia. Wikipedia is free so it has a low entrance fee, but every now and then they have a big donation drive where people donate to fund the site. It kind of works on the premise of, "I gave you free information so give back a little". Almost like a guilt trip.

You could even do a game like this. For the paid version of your game, it's just your game, but the free version of your game has a big splash screen at the start stating that it is a free game, but here is my paypal if you choose to make a donation if you want me to keep making games and doing this in the future.

The only problem is that Wikipedia has a user base in the millions, while NES homebrew is very niche.

But if Wikipedia hadn't have been free, then it probably wouldn't be a big as it is today.

Also I don't know if this exists, but you can create a holiday or holiday week where people celebrate homebrew games. Like for example, lets say that this holiday week is in the first week of July and during that week everyone gives deals on games, releases roms/demos for free, and its something where the whole homebrew community tries to give out a lot and there is an emphasis on supporting developers buy purchasing games and/or making donations.
WhiteHat94
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Re: Why aren't more homebrew games sold as ROM only?

Post by WhiteHat94 »

Kind of just wanted to bring this up again. The Micro Mages campaign just finished and had over 1400 backers for the ROM only. So I really hope people take notice and keep doing ROM releases for future projects, as well as go back and sell the the ROM for older projects too. There are a bunch of games that were already released that I would immediately buy if the ROM was available. I want to play your game and I will give you money for it if you just make it so I can play on a flash cart.
calima
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Re: Why aren't more homebrew games sold as ROM only?

Post by calima »

After 1400 sales, piracy won't matter. They were superstars though, you're not going to sell 100 for an average NES KS.
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dougeff
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Re: Why aren't more homebrew games sold as ROM only?

Post by dougeff »

Maybe the average homebrew developer could sell 100, if the price was right. They had it at €8. A lesser known developer might have to price it at 5 or 4.
nesdoug.com -- blog/tutorial on programming for the NES
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Sumez
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Re: Why aren't more homebrew games sold as ROM only?

Post by Sumez »

calima wrote:After 1400 sales, piracy won't matter. They were superstars though, you're not going to sell 100 for an average NES KS.
You can't just say the sales don't count because "they are superstars" though. In fact, a popular Kickstarter is a much better indication of realistic sales than a failed one. If you aren't expecting to sell well at all, how you sell your product honestly doesn't matter as much. This result shows a much more generic audience.

34% of the backers chose the digital only option, which is actually less than I expected. But it's still a sizeable amount and it proves that many people will choose supporting the developer over piracy.
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Zepper
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Re: Why aren't more homebrew games sold as ROM only?

Post by Zepper »

Rahsennor wrote:Piracy is unavoidable. End of discussion.

If you are selling offline software, you are a charity case.
Right, but you can't copy your digital PS4 game copy into another console, for example.
SkinnyV
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Re: Why aren't more homebrew games sold as ROM only?

Post by SkinnyV »

I've ask one developer about it a while ago, and the answer was that they had a deal with RetroUSB and the contract was prohibiting it or something like that.
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