Bob's Game

[Kaepora Gaebora]

Not sure if anything has come to fruition, but came across these articles where the dev said that he might be working on a port for the Pandora. I also heard he has been working on the nD, but has anyone heard any news about a port of Bob's Game?


http://kotaku.com/5128206/%5Bupdated%5D-bobs-protest---and-bobs-game---is-over


http://kotaku.com/5036261/what-15000-hours-of-ds-homebrew-development-looks-like

 

[WizardStan]

Robert and Bob's Game are test cases in insanity.


I do not expect anything to come of it. He's highly deluded. While he was going on about how great he was for being a sole developer working on such a highly polished game and how much money was going to be made if only Nintendo would give him the API he needed, Notch released the beta of Minecraft. While he tore his room apart in some kind of bid for advertisement, VVVVVV plowed through the indie world. While he threatened Nintendo that he would release his game on flash carts and it would be so popular that it would drive the sale of flash carts to new heights and thus piracy would run rampant indie devs in teams of as few as two or even singles were releasing their games across PC, XBL, and iOS and making money hand over fist.


There is nothing special about Robert Pelloni except how deluded he is and how big of an opportunity he missed: if he had released his game years ago as the indie scene was just starting, when the game was done and all he needed was official blessing from Nintendo he could have been a king among them; even if he had released it after the months long sit in he would still have been near the dawn of the era, his future still bright.


Cave Story has probably made more money for Pixel than Bob could have ever hoped for: an opportunity squandered because he was too arrogant to accept that Nintendo wanted nothing to do with him.


It's best to forget about Bob. If Bob's game is ever actually released, it will be because he is a broken man making one last bid for limelight.

 

[craigix]

He is now busy pretending to make a hand held games console which will 'cost $10'.


He is completely deluded about how much it costs to make handhelds and seems to believe it's all one big price conspiracy,


that the Pandora (or DS, or PSP etc.) really costs about $20 to make and we artificially increase the price.


http://the-nd.com/


Hilarious.

 

[Prometheus]

if only Nintendo would give him the API he needed

I remember cringing at the notion that they just needed to "let him buy a CD", since I've known for some time via some acquaintances that he just needed to get it signed by an already-licensed publisher. That's how a number of late GBA titles got to market, for example.

 

[quartercast]

Bob wouldn't be the first one to do it.

These Zeno handheld game console went on sale in retail stores in Sydney on Dec 15th, I got to the store on the 17th and they were completely sold out. It mostly has kids game on it apparently with a 2.5" TFT display and 3D chip. The Zeno appears to be an updated version of this.


If Zeno or Arctic cooling can do it for AU$25, what's to say the nD can't be produced and sold for $19.95?

 

[Nintendo]

He should start making games for Vita, lol.

 

[Prometheus]

If Zeno or Arctic cooling can do it for AU$25, what's to say the nD can't be produced and sold for $19.95?

Isn't the nD, which is alleged to be meant to sell for $10, supposed to be using an i.MX283 SoC, though? The last time I checked, which admittedly was back during the time of this old thread (which is worth reading all of, since it covers a fair bit of ground about the nD), that was the one that had been mentioned.


Is that what this hardware from (or just rebadged by? That seems to be pretty frequent with these types of handhelds) Zeno is using, or is it somewhat closer to this?

 

[-Tj-]

Hey, I remember this debacle. I was wondering what became of him. Considering the requirements Nintendo outlined in their requirements to get the stuff he was asking for, I had thought it was going to be a long, tough, and ultimately fruitless road for the guy. Really, he could have been better off releasing for a more open platform, and he likely would have reached a much wider audience in the process.


I admire his tenacity, but his approach was just awful.

 

[Blue Protoman]

Bob wouldn't be the first one to do it.

These Zeno handheld game console went on sale in retail stores in Sydney on Dec 15th, I got to the store on the 17th and they were completely sold out. It mostly has kids game on it apparently with a 2.5" TFT display and 3D chip. The Zeno appears to be an updated version of this.


If Zeno or Arctic cooling can do it for AU$25, what's to say the nD can't be produced and sold for $19.95?

Those aren't programmable, and they're probably much weaker.

 

[Caine]

From what I've seen of Bob's game, it wasn't all that special either.


He spent a lot of time and effort on exactly the wrong things. By victimizing himself he has only proven to be a person which should not be taken too serious.

 

[craigix]

Bob wouldn't be the first one to do it.

These Zeno handheld game console went on sale in retail stores in Sydney on Dec 15th, I got to the store on the 17th and they were completely sold out. It mostly has kids game on it apparently with a 2.5" TFT display and 3D chip. The Zeno appears to be an updated version of this.


If Zeno or Arctic cooling can do it for AU$25, what's to say the nD can't be produced and sold for $19.95?

That $25 system bares no resemblance to what Bob is trying to do - and it's over twice his estimated price.


I went to his forum, explained in detail why what he wanted to do could not be done, and he deleted my post and banned me.

 

[Binky]

The problem with a cheap gameing handheld, is that for casual gamers, their smartphone is enough, and does a heap of other stuff, and plenty of older kids have smartphones.


I think something like a pandora is a much better idea, because it can actually displace a smartphone


Or an iCP which can extend a smartphone.


Whats the point in a cheap(o) device with an unneeded screen, battery and controls, taking up extra space, when people are already carrying smartphones?

 

[Exophase]

If Zeno or Arctic cooling can do it for AU$25, what's to say the nD can't be produced and sold for $19.95?

Because these handhelds use tiny ASICs with slow 8-bit CPUs, simple GPUs and APUs, and embedded SRAM that's at most in the tens of KB. These ASICs are then mass manufactured in the millions and solder globbed on a PCB without even being packaged. Then it's paired with a NOR flash in the 10s of MB that the ASIC can execute instructions from and DMA graphics from directly. The whole thing is designed to run straight off of AAA batteries and is paired with a super low quality 256x240 or so LCD. That's practically it as far as active components on the board, other than that it's just a few passives with BOM totals running in the cents. The total IC cost is probably dominated by the NOR flash and stays well under $5.


They started life as NES clones. The ASICs are literally expanded NESes on a chip. Graphics get a lot better by upping the color counts, allowing more sprites per line, and providing direct connections to huge ROMs. Nothing too major in terms of die real estate, I'm sure a lot of it just comes naturally from using much better process technology than NES tech was developed on.


Compare with what nD promises: a several hundred MHz 32-bit SoC, 32+MB of external SDRAM, 2MB of external NAND flash, a 320x240 screen that isn't awful, wifi chip, and built-in rechargeable battery.

 

[Prometheus]

^ You're not a fan of honeycomb-aligned LCDs, then, Exo?

 

[MarkoeZ]

Well it MIGHT be possible if he had massive amounts of money or investors lined up, and focuses on production in the millions straight away. Then maybe, just maybe, production and parts could get cheap enough to get within the 10$ range. And even then, packaging and shipping would make it more expensive anyway.


But he himself obviously does not have that kind of money, otherwise he would probably have had other means to get his game released by Nintendo than locking himself up. And no investor will take the risk of producing millions and millions of those devices, and then not make a profit on it (would be impossible at that price)


Just my 2 months. Errmm, cents ofcourse.