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Post by hcmffm on Jun 30, 2013 13:54:43 GMT -5
EDIT: Successor of ClassicGameCreations (John Donzila) is Packrat Video Games, LLC. ___ I've just visited John Donzila's webpage www.classicgamecreations.com/ and found this: "Classicgamecreations.com will be closing down on December 31, 2013.
I have been very busy with work and many other projects and have not
had the time to maintain the site and continue building games.
Thanks for over 17 years of support - John"For me this is shocking and sad news. John did an excellent job in developing Vectrex games and later by selling those for many, many years. He was the first homebrew developer and broke the silence around the Vectrex. It will be a challenge to close the gap that will open up once he stops building games. Would be good if... ...many people all over the world could contact John and thank him for his longterm work and effort. ...some dedicated Vectrex person(s) located in the U.S. thought about picking up the production and building of Vectrex games. |
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Post by VectorX on Jun 30, 2013 14:40:40 GMT -5
^He definitely needs to do the latter. There's a lot of good homebrews that he distributed but didn't make himself that many of us still need, like Revector for myself. After all, he took over Mark Shaker's business from him (maybe Mark could take it back again?). Definitely surprising news indeed  |
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Post by TrekMD on Jun 30, 2013 18:48:45 GMT -5
That is sad news indeed. I do agree that the second alternative above would be great if it is feasible. There're still several months to until December, so maybe a solution can be worked out.
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Post by VectorX on Jun 30, 2013 19:21:40 GMT -5
Yeah, I feel like I've been stabbed in the heart myself  I do agree that the second alternative above would be great if it is feasible. There're still several months to until December, so maybe a solution can be worked out. ...I'm sure if two years went by and someone picked it up it'd still continue, just with a bit of a delay, hence is why I think is one of the reasons John gave a big advance warning in regards to this, as he's willing to entertain offers and teach everything someone needs to know in regards to the business. |
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Post by 50TBRD on Jul 1, 2013 9:28:07 GMT -5
John has been consistent, always continuing to make his games available to enjoy, keeping them affordable and making new games in the first place. We've been lucky. I'd like to see them continue to made available for everyone to enjoy, so people are inspired to play and even make new games for the Vectrex.
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Post by sj on Jul 1, 2013 10:33:03 GMT -5
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Post by gliptitude on Jul 1, 2013 14:01:31 GMT -5
Painful to hear about this for sure. ... Nice though that it causes us to reflect on and appreciate his robust and seminal contribution to modern Vectrex programming.
Also nice of him to be so clear and upfront about his intentions, to give a dated warning etc.
Probably he'll be bombarded with orders in the coming months.
... My biggest fear is I will lose theopportunity to get my own ROM program burned for $15, since I won't be ready in time. So cool that he did that for so cheap.
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Post by VectorX on Jul 1, 2013 14:41:03 GMT -5
Probably he'll be bombarded with orders in the coming months. Yeah, I figure that too. |
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Post by dgo on Jul 2, 2013 10:51:24 GMT -5
That is just too bad. The cheap cart service he offered together with the others involved is just unsurpassed. Hope he will not stop writing games?
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Post by VectorX on Jul 2, 2013 10:56:48 GMT -5
It'd probably be a while before he did another game, as Vecmania and Gravitrex Plus were huge, then he did Space Frenzy, which was pretty simple (maybe not with the voice and all, but the gameplay was), and that was like in 2006 or 2007 (Vectopia was also very big as well, but it was mostly unfinished demos though).
I just wonder what will become of his site if no one offers to carry it on for him by Dec. 31. Will he keep it up for the time being as an archive? I don't see why it would have to go away, and without people ordering that would keep the site maintenance down a bit, I'd think.
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Post by 50tbrd on Aug 2, 2013 9:28:59 GMT -5
I wonder if this company would be interested in picking up production of John's games as well as the vectrexcarts games. At anyrate, seems like a good resource if you wrote a game for Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, C16 + Plus / 4, ZX Spectrum, VIC-20, or PC and would like it to be available for people to purchase. It would be nice if they did break into the Vectrex scene.
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Post by VectorX on Aug 2, 2013 10:38:04 GMT -5
Which company? Did you mean to do a link?
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Post by Mayhem on Aug 2, 2013 14:27:52 GMT -5
I'm guessing he either means RGCD or Psytronik.
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Post by 50tbrd on Aug 2, 2013 15:05:02 GMT -5
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Post by Mayhem on Aug 3, 2013 7:49:18 GMT -5
Psytronik only do tape and disk releases. RGCD do cart releases, which is why I suggested them. |
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