golden said:
cutterjohn said:
The only thing that they could do to push this over the top would be to discontinue the RPG, and open source the AK2's firmware. I'm already thinking about picking up one of these over the Edge cart, and would up my purchase to the next couple of months if the open sourced the firmware for this cart as well, otherwise I'll wait until around the end of the year or until one of my other carts dies randomly before then.
That has got to be the most illogical thing you have posted cutterjohn. Why would they discontinue the RPG when it is doing so well not to mention many people have bought it that expect good support. If the RPG turns into a DSX then acekard will probably go out of business. And just so you know, the AK2 isn't OFFICIALLY open source but it will have all the open source releases that the RPG gets so it technically still gets all the goodies of open source.
Hardly illogical, but I guess to Acekard's #1 fanboy it's a little hard to absorb. When a flash cart company says something like sales of X were disappointing/low/etc. what they really mean was that they were disastrous, especially in this case. Look at how many e-tailer bothered to pick it up: 2 or 3. meanwhile cheap carts like DSTT come up and popup all over the place within a matter of weeks of release.
Next point, since it's a given that the RPG is just not selling, why bother to keep trying to push. Discontinuing would be MUCH simpler, and for those of us whose only interest in the RPG was open-source, but found c. $70 (or more) from the few sellers of it to be WAY OVER the top for a flash cart, which until recently, really wasn't a very good cart. Featurewise compared to SCDS1 and Evolution it still isn't a good cart and does absolutely nothing to justify a c. $70 price tag, or $100+ price tag if it were to be sold by some US vendors (inferred from some comments made on various vendor sites, when they also mention AK2).
Lastly, I STRONGLY doubt that the AK2 will get ANY of the better features that MAY or may NOT come out for the RPG. Why? If Acekard wishes to continue hawking the RPG they're go to NEED to do something that differentiates it from the cheaper AK2 -> AK2 features WILL be limited by necessity as long as AK tries to sell the RPG. Frankly I wouldn't be surprised if the RPG goes away after their current inventory is sold off, as the reasoning behind the AK2 as presented by AK makes it sound like the RPG was a boat anchor around their neck since the carts weren't moving, and justifiably so.
IOW it sounds to me from everything that I've heard:
1. RPG was a dud, and probably costing Acekard since stock wasn't moving
2. Acekard 2 was slapped together and put out, while not initially featuring all of the RPG "shell" features, probably to keep the RPG selling ATM
3. AK decided not to open source the AK2 "shell", primarily I believe of #2. Just have to differentiate the two current slot-1 carts, but I really believe that the RPG is dead once current stock is gone, and would tend to believe that the "shell" of the AK2 will be open sourced at that point.
4. It's hardly likely that the RPG will be DSXed as you put it, simply because it seems that the RPG and AK2 firmware MUST be very close. The RPG "shell" is already open sourced, and IF AK opensourced the AK2 firmware after discontinuing the RPG it would be relatively simple(potentially) for people to keep the RPG tree in sync with the AK2 tree. Even if AK were to NOT open source the AK2 firmware it still would be possible for third parties to continue working on the "shell" on their own.
5. Even if 4 didn't work, well you backed a losing horse and acted like the prototypical fanboy even BEFORE you ordered the overpriced thing, which I know from personal experience, after all it wasn't that long ago when your answer to, literally, EVERYTHING was "buy an Acekard RPG".