Fellow Apple II enthusiasts,
The early days of the Apple II were a pretty unique time when hand-packaged games in plastic baggies and distributed out of kitchens and garages were not only a possibility but a feature. Games like The Abyssal Zone, an adventure game based on the Bermuda Triangle written by aquatic biologist Jeff Gray, who sold about 100 copies that he packaged in a binder. Or Colorblind, released in 1981 by Energy Games, cleverly leveraging the use of filtered color glasses to create a two player hovercraft fighting game - but which was never really marketed.
If you find these kinds of games interesting, you might like my book Secrets of the Apple II Gaming World, which I released just a few days ago, and which covers these games and more than 50 others in pictures and stories!
You can find more info at: https://a2gamesecrets.cgwmuseum.org
That was indeed a magical time where entrepreneurship was at it's utmost and creativity was aboundingly unleashed.
Yeah, one of those unique windows of opportunity that may never occur again. At least not in the same manner.
In post #3, 'a2gamesecrets' wrote:
" Yeah, one of those unique windows of opportunity that may never occur again. At least not in the same manner. "
Uncle Bernie comments:
This statement is true, but the "never occur again" part is misleading: these windows of opportunity do occur again and again, but not within the same field ("the same manner" is too vague, IMHO).
What happens in the real world is that every new technology opens lots of "windows of opportunity" for entrepreneurially inclined people to make a product based on that new technology, and to market it for profit until the large, slow, ponderous and inefficient corporations spot the same "windows of opportunity" and clog them with their own products. Then it's "game over" for the small guys. But those of the small guys who were the "early birds" may have made a lot of money filling that initial vacuum with their products. Not all of them ... some always fail, and for various reasons.
Lack of capital is one of these reasons, there is a threshold to enter any market, and there are costs to stay in that market (i.e. developing and marketing follow up products). The small entrepreneur may not have this kind of money and needs to "bootstrap" himself out of the proverbial financial "hole". But the real trick is to know when to take the chips off the table and walk away from that poker game, laughing all the way to the bank. Because once the competition gets too numerous, the whole operation may turn into a money sinkhole, devouring all the profits that were made in the early phases.
I've seen the rise of the microprocessor, the "home computer" - which at the time it appeared was a much disputed novelty product only visible for the few tech geeks and not for the general public - and the rise and fall of many software companies in the 1980s. I saw the above market mechanisms unfolding in real time. The biggest crash was not the "video game crash of 1983" reported in the history books, but it came in 1988, when most magazines which catered to 8-bit homecomputers suddenly disappeared. And with these magzines gone, there was no place for the small companies to run ads for their products. And with no ads, no or diminishing sales. And so, most of these small companies closed their doors soon after the magazines disappeared.
Today, the computer game scene got so complex and demanding that only large corporations able to spend 10's or 100's of million US$ for game development can do it, it's almost the same now as the production of a major movie ... where the "indie" producers operating on a small budget may have the better ideas, but are never able to afford to put them on the silver screen in the way the big players can do it.
All industries went through the same process ... Henry Ford built his first "Model T" in a shack, by hand, using simple tools and a few skilled craftsmen. The Ford Motor Company which grew out of this shack became a behemoth churning out millons of cars per year. And look where they are today ... not looking good.
So, if you are an entrepreneurial spirit, look for "windows of opportunity" in recently discovered, fledgling technologies which may turn into the next big thing. Forget the microprocessor - it was a big wave that lasted 50 years but now it's commoditized to a point where almost none of the big corporations producing them makes good profits anymore on them. This is how cheap microprocessors (and microcontrollers etc.) got. Too powerful. And too cheap.
I can't tell you which technology will be the next big wave (or if there will be any such waves) but what we vintage computer enthusiasts do can only be a hobby, and not a way to earn a living. Keep that in mind.
- Uncle Bernie