The Official Pioneer LaserActive Player thread-

[laseractiveguy]

If we have the boot code, making a new game is WAY easier than trying to emulate an old one!  Plus, we dont have to press LD's to make them!

The only limitations I see... are the discs will be 30 minutes, instead of 60 minutes... and we cant use LA's dual field frame technology.  All other features are easily done!

[Vecanti]

If we have the boot code, making a new game is WAY easier than trying to emulate an old one!  Plus, we dont have to press LD's to make them!

The only limitations I see... are the discs will be 30 minutes, instead of 60 minutes... and we cant use LA's dual field frame technology.  All other features are easily done!

Emulation?

I'm going to be semi-pissed if you have a garage full of blank laserdiscs laying around.

[TheClash603]

I stand by making a Street Fighter clone with obnoxious FMV backgrounds.  Possibly naked women or porno in the spirit of the original LA software.

[SignOfZeta]

If we have the boot code, making a new game is WAY easier than trying to emulate an old one!  Plus, we dont have to press LD's to make them!

The only limitations I see... are the discs will be 30 minutes, instead of 60 minutes... and we cant use LA's dual field frame technology.  All other features are easily done!

What "discs" are you talking about? I missed something.

[laseractiveguy]

We can burn them.  I already have an art team working on walking sequences!  Its costing a fortune.

If we want to make this a community based project, we can lower the cost dramaticaly.  I dont see it out of the realm of possiblity to make 20 to 30 copies of the finished title.

Dont be angry... and no 'there is no garage' of blanks.  Although, they are available out there.

Naked street fighter?  There already is that Strip Fighter for Hu-Card.  Bimboette Purgatory a good name?  As to address your concerns, this should be the 'Ultimate' game.  I wouldnt object to include 'one' fight durring the gameplay somewhere!!  (Remember, we've only got 30 minutes of FMV to play around with).  Perhaps it could be a little more friendly, and take place, sort of in a Bar like the Sega Cd/Arcade  "Crime Patrol?"  Risk'a is ok by me, just not nudity.  Also we could work in the 'Top-Down CDI Zelda style section.   I dont want to water it down too much, sometimes a game that does 'everything' doesnt do anything well.   We've pretty much got one shot... we CAN NOT screw this up and make a dud.

I also have another ambitious plan... so 2 titiles are released.  interested?  This 'other' one will blow your socks off....

[SignOfZeta]

What is it exactly that you can burn? From what I know about writable LDs the only machines that do it use proprietary systems that can only be played back on the machines that made them (ie: won't work on LA or any other commercial player) or they use large industrial burners that probably don't exist anymore.

Have you figured out how to trick a CD recorder into burning analog video? That's the only way I can see this happening and even that would be pretty hard to figure out. It would also give you a shockingly short LA game (five minutes of video). I can think of a few ways to make five minutes of video go a long way in a well designed game, but I'm not sure how you could actually do it (ie: make a Laseractive CDV). Will the LA even recognize a LA CDV? Were there any commercial ones?

[laseractiveguy]

From what I understand, there are two different types of burners.  Yes, the one you describe exist.. (ie cartridge based). but I may have access to the 'other' type.  The LD's are blue, and do indeed work in ANY Ld machine!  If you want to make a bet, I'm sure we can come up with a LA bootable short demo to try in your game system.  Of course, if it works I expect $150, pretty much the cost of a blank.  It would be about a 1 minute game demo, and a 5minute video of something 'pretty' modern from my website!

[TheClash603]

If it can be done, I'd love to see it.

Is this all hypotethical now, or have you actually made a working LA demo?

[McKie1]

If a new game gets off the ground, please put me down for one!

[Punch]

Too bad no one presses Laserdiscs anymore... maybe Pioneer Japan?

[laseractiveguy]

I dont own an LD burner, but I know somebody who does!  The only problem is, he only has 3 blanks.  I'm in negoations right now to buy it, and a computer system it goes to.  I've read on a bunch of fourms where people picked up 10 or 15 LDs here and there... and have them in their garages.  I'm sure they can be 'conned' out of them for lots of cash.  Soon I'm going to be making lots of accounts and practicaly beg them to sell.  They probley wouldnt if we were going to use them for video productions, but they might just be facinated that 'new laseractive' titles could be made!  Thats what i'm hoping on.

Hardware wise, I dont think its a problem.  I know a person or two who can extract code from LD discs, so theres the boot code.  From there, its simple programming in old sega genesis fashion (plus LD stops/seeks ect).  I've got 3 brilliant artists willing to help (for money of course) and they are already working on some stuff for me. 

Cost... aint going to be cheap.  I have an incredibly hard time keeping secrets, but I was going to use the burner to release 'reproductions of Myst' in early 2014 to help pay for the new game, (This is WHY I had to have it, another reason for the Cover Art Contest at LaserActiveGuy).. and the new game which would be released in 2015.  Again, production numbers would be 20-30 a peice.  I dont there there would be demand for much more than that at the prices they would have to sell for (to break even).

A lot of this is in the very early stages, but I am fully confident it can be done.

[SignOfZeta]

You have a very long road ahead of you. I really hope it can work...but I honestly think there is about a %1 chance. Getting hardware to burn formats it was never designed to burn isn't easy without serious expertise (nobody has ever burned a CDV, for example, which would be way easier) and you're dealing with hardware that was never even popular in the first place.

I realize you are willing to spend every cent you have on this project but unless you can hire someone like TheOldMan to come work full time for you I think you're screwed.

[SignOfZeta]

Too bad no one presses Laserdiscs anymore... maybe Pioneer Japan?

As far as I know it's been over a decade since Pioneer pressed an LD. I'm sure they have a machine laying around somewhere but they aren't going to be taking orders.

It's possible there are working presses out there. It's been learned that a company was pressing 8" music video LDs for LD jukebox machines long after most people though LD production had stopped. That company doesn't do it anymore either, but they did keep going longer than the others, I want to say maybe 2007 (?) so it hasn't been quite as much downtime for them.

[laseractiveguy]

Its funny you mentioned 8" LDs... I so wanted 'something' to go on the smaller discs instead of using full size ones... but i cant find any mention of them being able to be made!  Theres a long road, I admit, but my chances are much greater than 1%.  Everything that exists started with a dream, and my favorite game says "Dreams are a Reality!"    I hope its true in this case.  If you ever read the orginal 'press release', even as the machine was being launched, it does mention percisely what I propose. 

[Punch]

By the way Laseractiveguy, if you have a legit company, you could talk to Pioneer US/Japan and buy some blanks for cheap, I'm sure that they must have at least ONE blank in stock, locked in somewhere dusty.

It's worth a shot, don't you think?