Official BlackBox News Thread

[Triton]

my guess would be all the components would almost definatly cost less than 40$ so your 50$ estimate is probably close to correct

[Poppa]

Hey, really cool project you got going here. I think you should change the name to something else. Today I was actually driving and saw a van for BlackBox Electronics. Definatly don't want any sort of legal trouble, and they'll go after you if you cut profit...

Also, I tweaked your controller design a bit, but need to re-upload. I basically moved the D Pad to the spot it is on a Xbox Controller (or gamecube) and a made the design symetrical, and edited the buttons a wee bit.

[MM007]

What do you think all the part are going to cost? I'm just thinking $30 for the base console. That's $20 USD labor and profit.

Erm...Not too sure about that. Think about all the circuitry in the thing. resistors, capacitors, etc, that will be the same price as in a new system. Then remember that the chips, while older, are sometimes still used for servos or other industrial applications, and may have retained some value if purchased new.

In addition, you have the power supply and the plastics, and all manner of other things. That may not cost as much as say an XBox360, but it is certainly more than $10USD. ($30 minus $20) They may have a target price, but they won't know for sure the cost until they have a final schematic and perhaps a working prototype to test. The prototype can be mostly from salvaged parts, I suppose, but a new retail unit likely wouldn't be.

I guess I'm saying estimates can be made, but even the Black Box people won't know a final price for a while, and $10USD is hardly a reasonable price, even if it's 100% parts. It'd be hard to reach such a figure even with a HUGE spare parts bin. $100 USD might not be unfair, counting labor and profit, but that's just my own guess. I'm not part of the project. ^^*

[NES_fanatic]

Bwahahahaha!
The Black Box Bootup Animation & Jingle!
Yay!

[Triton]

lol, thats silly!

[NES_fanatic]

I'd like to see that every time I turn my Black Box on!

[blackbox_dev]

I honestly have no clue what the total price at the end is going to cost. I'm just going by what I think is reasnable. However, I can tell you that all the chips will cost at least $30 CAD, so selling the whole console that much is just stupid.

Second, we have an idea on how we will sell the games. We sell blank cartridges that connect to the computer, and then sell the ROM to burn to the cartridge. We're thinking 7.50 EUR for each ROM, not sure about the cartridge though. What do you guys think about this idea? It also allows people to write their own games for free!

Last, can someone re-host that video on Google Videos or YouTube or the like? Videos on Putfile don't work for me for some reason.

[shmagoogin77]

its not really worth it

[SpongeBuell]

I like it, but I dunno how feasible it would be to have (not sure what that kind of hardware can do, or any of that stuff for that matter)

[Skyone]

It seems like a 128-bit soundtrack. If this has 16-bit sound, then we can pull off a cool guitar jingle, downed down to an 16-bit wave file.

[blackbox_dev]

Ok, I was able to watch it on another computer:



EDIT: What if I actually made that the bootup (with low-quality sound track of course)?

[Skyone]

http://skytroniks.com/images/database/bb/bb.html



No sound yet.

[jeroen]

http://skytroniks.com/images/database/bb/bb.html



No sound yet.

I like that one! Do that one!

[XPCportables]

And theirs some other less important people (but still important) too:

■ Fanboy
■ Harshboy
■ joevennix
■ XPCPortables
■ Codeman

Wait did I miss something while I was on vacation? When did I become a less important person? What did I do? If I remember correctly I spent my own free time designing a controller for you which is the official BB controller.

[Krepticor]

Second, we have an idea on how we will sell the games. We sell blank cartridges that connect to the computer, and then sell the ROM to burn to the cartridge. We're thinking 7.50 EUR for each ROM, not sure about the cartridge though. What do you guys think about this idea? It also allows people to write their own games for free!

that translates to about ten USD right? if so that is a fair rom price for a new console

also could the schematics for the cart be posted (for people like myself who can build our own and save a buck)

*EDIT*

I also forgot where are these roms coming from, ie) whos writing them? (just curious)