Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!amdahl!pacbell!att!ihlpe!kimes
From: kimes@ihlpe.ATT.COM (Kit Kimes)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: Financial aspects of new 8 bit software
Message-ID: <3918@ihlpe.ATT.COM>
Date: 13 Dec 88 18:28:01 GMT
References: <3916@ihlpe.ATT.COM>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois
Lines: 83

> I am curious about the aspects of software production for the 8 bit 
> ATARI machines.  As we all know, there is a considerable lack of new
> software for the 8 bit machines.  However, there seems to be continued
> new software for apple, C64, etc.
> 
Survey's that I have seen show that a typical new computer owner purchases
a great percentage of his software in the first six months with dollar
spending dropping off dramatically after that.  This indicates that
there has to be a constant supply of new owners to really keep the software
market healthy.  Unfortunately, that isn't the case with Atari, except
for the XE Game System, and they don't seem to be buying many disk
drives.  This means the best market is for cartridge based software.
Atari seems to be the only company willing to supply this market and
even they have been slow to bring out promised cartridges.  I have been
waiting for six months for (to name a few) Crossbow, Crystal Castles and
Mean 18.  If anyone reading this is going to the Winter CES next month,
try to find out what happened to all the software and try to find out
what new software is promised in the next six months :-) .  I have
sent private mail to a couple of people at Atari, but never received
an answer.

> It seems to me that once a piece of software is developed for the other
> 6502 machines (especially the C64) that the conversion to the XL/XE
> machines would be fairly easy.  Surely there are a lot of us professional
> types that would be interested in doing something like that.
> 
If you want to take full advantage of the graphic capability of the
8bit (with the GTIA chip), there is a lot of work involved.  Many of the
people who know the 8bit best have moved on to the ST or Mac and seem
reluctant to spend their time on the 8bit Atari.  Word was that Origin
was looking for someone to do Ultima V for the 8bit but couldn't find
anyone.  They have now stated that they won't be doing an Atari 8bit
version.  

> The question I do not know the answer to is what is the pay back for 
> converted software?  How much would the original author get?  How much
> would the converting author get?  How many copies would need to be sold
> to at least break even for the effort?
> 
I think the pay for such a job is fairly low and is an upfront
pay with no royalities for the programmer doing the port.  It is the
software company that is taking the financial risk and few seem willing
to support the Atari 8bit.

> There are a lot of 800's, XL's, XE's, and XE games out there.  I can't
> believe the market is not there.
> 
I can state for sure that there is a market (although I don't know how
big).  I belong to a Users Group and we have a merchandiser at the meetings.
Many 8bitters are buying older software simply because there isn't anything
new to buy.  What is new (such as some of SSI's war simulations) isn't to
my liking.  What bothers me is why doesn't some company that does support
the Atari 8bit market bring in some European software.  There wouldn't be
any conversion work involved (unless it was written specifically for PAL
systems, as some is now) and the only risk would be the shelf space and
distribution work involved.  Thunder Mountain was supposed to bring in 
Winter Challenge for the Atari 8bit, but I have never been able to find it
and my source hasn't been able to get it from his distributor.  I have written
several letters to Access, Accolade, BroderBund and MicroProse with few
answers and what I got was pretty terse and unencouraging.

The only encouraging words I have heard came from ANTIC magazine who state
that they are trying to add to the 8bit catalog by bringing back more old
APX titles and adding some out of production commercial software that they
can find and being a distributor for small companies or individuals who
still support the Atari 8bit.  If you think this is a good idea, at least
drop them a note and thank them profusely.  And, by the way Daryl, they
have had more ACTION! typein software lately (as has Analog).  The January
issue has an 8bit shoppers guide with 8 pages of software/hardware and
the addresses of 65 companies that still support the 8bit computer (although
some of their offerings are getting pretty old now).  Some of the software
ANTIC is carrying in their catalog are TurboBase form MicroMiser, Super
3D Plotter II from Elfin Magic, some Infocom text games, StickyBear software
for kids, MIDI Track II and III from Hybrid Arts and AdvanBASIC along
with the modules such as the Optimizing Compiler for it.  I applaud
their efforts and hope they are successful.  It will only work if we
8bit users support them though.  They have also had some very good and
worthwhile software on their disks lately.  A subscription with disk is
only $59.95 ($5 per issue).  An excellent deal.  When my magazine sub
runs out, I am going to get the disk option.

					Kit Kimes  
					AT&T--Bell Laboratories
					...att!ihlpe!kimes