GOAT Store to Publish Homebrew games!

Cloud121

Established Member
GOAT Store (my favorite online store... hell.. probably my favorite store period), announced today that they will be publish homebrew games for various consoles that are no longer supported.

The GOAT Store, LLC today announced that the company has formed a new division to produce, market and distribute new games for systems that are no longer supported by their manufacturer. The name of the new division will be GOAT Store Publishing.

"Our goal," stated Dan Loosen, "is to ensure that homebrew developers have a viable way to sell their best creations. Many homebrew developers do not have the time, money or distribution methods to sell their projects. GOAT Store Publishing will provide those resources for developers, while providing the most attractive pay scale possible."

GOAT Store Publishing is only planning on working with independent game publishers for the titles that they release. The first game released by GOAT Store Publishing will be announced on April 21st and is scheduled for release on June 7, 2003 at the Midwest Classic.

The GOAT Store, LLC is planning on utilizing GOAT Store Publishing to produce games for many of the systems that are carried in their online catalog. Projects are already under consideration for multiple systems. Developers that are interested in working with GOAT Store Publishing should contact Dan Loosen at loosen@goatstore.com.

I sent my good friend Dan (the head of GOAT store) an email asking about Saturn, Mega CD, and MegaDrive development. When I get my reply, I'll get back to you all.
 
A Goat store?
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yo Cloud, does this store sell homebrew PSX stuff as well? I have some stuff in the pipeline and making some money on it would be cool :cheers
 
2600

5200

7800

Lynx

Jaguar

Jaguar CD

NES

Super Nintendo

Virtual Boy

Master System

Genesis

Game Gear

Sega CD

Sega 32X

Saturn

Dreamcast

Odyssey2

Intellivision

Colecovision

Arcadia 2001

Turbografx-16

3DO

NUON

That's all the consoles that GOAT Store sells games for, so probably not. Dunno, perhaps you can ask Dan about it. However, don't be surprised if Sony were to get on your ass for it (ah screw 'em I say!
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He might want to know that it's a bit tough to properly publish for the following systems without getting either 1) getting a license or 2) potentially infringing patents and/or copyrights (this is just FYI; I can't tell you for sure what is/isn't legal):

NES - uses a patented lockout scheme (though there's a good chance that the patent on this one expired). This can theoretically be worked around with an adapter, the lockout chip in the system can be disabled, and from what I've heard the top-loading NES systems don't have one to begin with.

Super NES - uses a patented lockout scheme similar to the NES one. This can also be worked around with an adapter or by disabling the lockout chip; import stores in some areas (used to?) sell the adapters because the lockout chips for PAL and NTSC systems are incompatible.

Sega CD - requires a Sega program to be present on the disc (you can't write your own replacement because it's compared byte-for-byte with a copy in the BIOS, specifically for the purpose of screwing over unlicensed publishers)

Saturn - same as SCD, plus the patented security ring scheme

Dreamcast - same as SCD

However, Sega doesn't seem to particularly care about these, if the DC homebrew scene and Good Deal Games (unless they're licensed, but if that was the case wouldn't they get to use the Sega CD logo instead of their slightly dodgy "For use with Sega CD systems" label?) are any indication; the Sega v. Accolade ruling also suggests that this might be considered fair use anyway. Still, he might want to get in touch with Sega, as they (well, Sega of Japan, anyway) don't seem to have that much of a problem with licensing stuff on their "dead" systems (stuff like Street Fighter Zero 3 and Vatlva were published on Saturn while the DC launch was in full swing, and it seems that there are still a few companies publishing Dreamcast games).
 
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