To: im14u2c AT primenet DOT com (Dedicated INTV Gamers) From: Not Your Average Joe Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2001 00:33:08 -0500 (CDT) Subject: 4-Tris Cartridges: UPDATE All, This is just a short bulk reply to all of you that have contacted me recently regarding 4-Tris. I've recently received nearly a dozen emails regarding 4-Tris, I presume spurring from Valter's recent announcement about the availability of 4-Tris in cartridge format. I'm also CC'ing this to INTVPROG to let everyone know what's up. I'd like to give you all a quick recap of recent events, so you know what's going on, and what's up with 4-Tris. PhillyClassic was held in April, and I managed to get a cartridge release of 4-Tris prepared for it. I sold a fair number of Special Edition cartridges at a Special Edition price to cover my base investment in getting the carts designed. Special thanks and many kudos to Chad Schell for providing the cartridge design and actually coordinating their manufacture for that initial run. His contribution to the hardware side of things cannot be underestimated, in my own opinion. The Special Edition cartridges are no longer available, but I am making regular edition cartridges available in the very near future. I need to coordinate with Chad and find time in my schedule to get the ball in motion. Since PhillyClassic, I've been buried in work. I also was extremely burned out by the rush to get the Special Edition made. Between the two, I haven't updated my website. With the recent attention it's gotten, though, it's clear that I need to update it soon. I will do so soon with full details of the 4-Tris cartridge release when I do so. So, at this time, I'd like to answer some frequently asked questions: 1. Can I still get a 4-Tris Cartridge? Yes, you can order a Regular Edition 4-Tris Cartridge. (The Special Edition was a limited release and is no longer available.) I expect these to be available by the end of July, but don't hold me to that just yet. More details should be available within about a week. 2. How much will it cost? My current target price is $35US + shipping. 3. What's included? Cartridge and manual. I need to contact Tim Lindner to determine the availability of overlays and cartridge labels. 4. Am I working on any other games? I gave a "technology demo" of a game I'm working on for sometime next year. If I get a chance to work on it over the winter holidays, you might see it in ROM format early next spring and in cartridge format next summer. That's all I'm prepared to say at this time. Needless to say, it's another classic game conversion. (I'm a programmer, not a game designer.) 5. Are any other games going to be available in cartridge format? I hope so. We just need to get the other Inty developers out there to release their games and then we can work on fitting them into this format. The cartridge design Chad produced can hold games up to 16K words, which is a fairly big game. The largest known game was 28K words, but most of them were 16K or less. 4-Tris is 8K, but most of that is music data, and some of it is, well, hidden stuff. :-) A more efficient music format might squeeze it into 6K. That's about it for now. Please, send no money, but feel free to send me orders. I will send another anouncement when I update the website. I appreciate your patience. Regards, --Joe -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Joseph Zbiciak http://www.primenet.com/~im14u2c/ Not your average "Joe" R$+@$=W <-- sendmail.cf {$/{{.+ <-- modem noise !@#!@@! <-- Mr. Dithers swearing Zbiciak <-- Joe's last name ---------------------- Member of the Intellivisionaries ----------------------