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| Daviea:
I've considered the Tron joystick, but I thought someone else was working on it, though I could be mistaken. The last time I looked into this, I was having one heck of a time locating a decent handle to work from. I can make the molds for the handles if I had a NOS version to work with. But then I heard that someone else had made the handles and I could have sworn I heard that someone (possibly the same person) was going to make whole repro controllers. Who's doing the handles? Is it specialty plastics? If the handles are really being made AND I can work out a decent price on a rather large order (200-300pcs) AND nobody is already making the base of the joystick, I think I can get involved in this one. I'd rather incorporate already made parts into any design I work on, provided that said parts are of excellent quality/workmanship and I can get them for a price near (or UNDER) what it would cost me to do them myself. I'll gladly reopen this project if nobody else is already working on it and I have options for the handles. Now that I think about it, I seem to recall that Fozzy was working on the handles... did he ever make the base for the joystick? David |
| Kremmit:
--- Quote from: Daviea on January 20, 2007, 06:10:41 pm --- Who's doing the handles? Is it specialty plastics? .... Now that I think about it, I seem to recall that Fozzy was working on the handles... did he ever make the base for the joystick? --- End quote --- Tom from Specialty Plastics has dissapeared again. Last anybody heard from him, his handle mold was shot and he couldn't find a good enough handle to cast from. Fozzy was working on casting handles only, but it's a spare-time project for him, and he's short on spare time. |
| Daviea:
Was there anyone else working on the Tron handles? If they're not easily available right now, that puts this project idea in a bit of a pickle. On the one hand, I can easily do the handles myself if I had a NOS part (or very close to NOS part) to work with. But I might be stepping on the toes of people(?) who already have time/money invested into a spare-time project. I'd hate to do that to anyone. I know how it feels because I drop bank into my projects, so I worry about others bringing a similar product to market before I'm finished. On the other hand, if I knew for a fact that whomever is working on the handles has already dropped the project, I could begin without worry of walking over anyone. So, Tom's out. Fozzy....is in, but no announced time table. I guess I could look into making the base without the handle in the meantime, but I specifically recall 1UP (I think that's who it was) stating that the base units were being worked on? Again, if this is the case, I don't want to step on any toes. I have a habit of going way over the top when I work on projects. The cone wars was a good case in point. I produced a whopping 5000pcs each of the short black, short silver and tall black cones and began selling them off to my vendors (of which "Arts Arcade Games" was one) and little did I know that an alternate manufacturer (AtariSwitch) was quietly working on the same thing (however, only the tall cones). I believe he only made a couple hundred parts. Anyhow, seeing as I made so fricken many cones and it was done using my own equipment, I was able to offer a price which allowed Art to conduct some stiff competition. Why'd I make so many cones? Because I could and gosh darnit, I *hate* running out of parts. Yeah, over the top. :) Same will go for just about anything I make. There'll never be a shortage of anything once I get involved. I just don't want to trample over anyone while I'm doing it. So, I need to know where the Tron handles and Tron bases really are before I commit to this one. I'd LOVE to work on it because it seems like an excellent challenge, but I need some peace of mind beforehand. David |
| Fozzy The Bear:
--- Quote from: Daviea on January 20, 2007, 08:47:53 pm ---On the other hand, if I knew for a fact that whomever is working on the handles has already dropped the project, I could begin without worry of walking over anyone. So, Tom's out. Fozzy....is in, but no announced time table. --- End quote --- Hi David....... Yes I'm still working on handles..... You're also correct that there's no announced timetable. As for supplying 300 of them, sorry! Not my thing at all. I'm not mass producing them If I do 100 in total that's probably all it will be. You wouldn't be treading on my toes at all by producing complete units. As long as you understand that as soon as I can, I will be selling handles only, to members who want them. I have to recoup my development costs, regardless of any other production that might be going. So you'd have to be prepared for the fact that I might end up treading on your toes in that respect. Other than that, I've no problem with it at all mate! You feel free to go ahead. I wouldn't be looking at production runs of the size that you do them in any case. The only thing that confuses me with what you do David is the sheer number of projects you already have in development. From a commercial point of view, you seem to have a lot of projects that are incomplete right now. Excepting Atari Cones that is...... ??? Doesn't make a lot of commercial financial sense to me. I would have thought you would want to get product to market and concentrate on doing that with one thing at a time, so that you actually have a stable grounding. The only reason I mention the above is that my concern would be that you turn into another vendor that vanishes overnight, because your cashflow on these products could well end up very much in the red. Best Regards, Julian (Fozzy The Bear) |
| Daviea:
Hey Fozzy. Thanks for the quick follow-up. I understand where you're at in this. Once your production run starts, can you give me a heads up? We should talk at that point in time just for good measure. OK, I'm going to put some serious consideration into the Tron controller project. Now, does anyone know if anyone else (1UP??) is working on the controller base? If not, that should pretty much be a GO as far as I'm concerned. I'll need a NOS Tron handle before I can start. Anyone? I'll need it for about.. oh, let's call it 6 weeks. That should give me ample time to get some dimensional drawings done. With that, I can make some molds, compare to the originals and then send the job off to fab. I'll have to do some in-depth research to get the color and material properties matched up, but it shouldn't be too time consuming. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, the original material used for the Tron handles was somewhat brittle or prone to breaking. I'll have to see about correcting that flaw. Sounds like fun to me. I love this stuff. David |
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