Cronosoft
It's a bit of bad news, but I'm sorry to say that I'm probably closing up the Cronosoft label.
I'm struggling financially at the moment, and Cronosoft has too, for a while without much interest, and i'm beginning to lose money keeping it going, plus I can't afford to buy in more tape stocks etc. Also, unfortunately, I've had a hefty Paypal chargeback against someone I sent a large order to that is claiming that it's unreceived.
Of course, all payments to authors etc. are all put aside and will be sent out as soon as possible. Maybe I'll be able to restart it in the future when times are a bit better.
I'd like to thanks everyone that's supported the label, either by buying games, writing them, designing covers, giving us invites to shows etc..
I'm really sorry - thanks again.
I'm struggling financially at the moment, and Cronosoft has too, for a while without much interest, and i'm beginning to lose money keeping it going, plus I can't afford to buy in more tape stocks etc. Also, unfortunately, I've had a hefty Paypal chargeback against someone I sent a large order to that is claiming that it's unreceived.
Of course, all payments to authors etc. are all put aside and will be sent out as soon as possible. Maybe I'll be able to restart it in the future when times are a bit better.
I'd like to thanks everyone that's supported the label, either by buying games, writing them, designing covers, giving us invites to shows etc..
I'm really sorry - thanks again.
Post edited by chaosmongers on
Comments
I hope Cronosoft will live again.
What about selling emu files only, for now?
I presume sales werent huge which is a shame, so many Speccy fans here but its a shame this is happening.
Until then, (to paraphrase Brucie and Tess) keep posting...
What about the website?
I'm a Cronosoft supporter and have bought (I think) all the games that you had available. One thing that I noticed is that you didn't use tracking when sending your shipments, which is a must when dealing with Paypal transactions.
If a "rescue plan" goes ahead, I'd like to help.
Do you have any existing stock already made? I am behind on a few games...
Maybe I could do a 'download the inlay and print yourself' kind of thing. I do have some stocks left, so I will carry on for a little while yet until they've gone. The website is still there, and It'll be tweeked a bit. Cronosoft will still be there as a name if not as a supplier of tapes.
Sales have dropped a large amount over this last year, with some being in just single figures, so maybe it would be best to 'come back' in the future when things are a bit better. The chargebacks thing is a new problem to overcome. Sending things by recorded delivery adds a lot to the cost which people don't want to pay (especially for international which sticks ?3.50 onto the cost, coupled with the fact that lost items don't have a proof of value which satisfies the post office, unless it's the games that are sold on Ebay). The last chargeback was for over ?30, which was a bit of a stinger. It wouldn't have been so bad if the person concerned had even emailed to say they hadn't received the games.
I'll keep posting though... don't worry :) I've posted so much nonsense on here, there's no reason to stop now hahah!
The money is not the problem, it's time that's missing nowadays. There's been virtually no time left to play any game for years, hence...
How many more would you need to sell? I could buy all the games I haven't got yet. Though I guess that still doesn't mean you'd be quids in.
I can understand that publishing retro games doesn't bring money nowadays and may even inlolve loses. You have to print inlays, copy cassetes... It requires a lot of effort and still sometimes the post loses your parcels, games don't load and people are angry etc.
Although I didn't buy anything from you, I aprecciate your work. Your part in the Zx Spectrum history will be remembered forever. :)
As others said before, maybe it's time to focus on emulator snapshots only.
Don't allow to lose money anyways. Just have some fun with Zx Spectrum.
Good luck, Chaosmongers!
Plus i like supporting Cronosoft and the authors, so i'm surprised when an emulator image is so cheap more people dont buy them
I guess some of us really mean to buy them, but real life hassle gets in the way. I mean, it's not as if the tape versions are overpriced, or anything. They are actually so cheap. Maybe we need such sad news to buy them by the bucketload. Because we take Cronosoft's existence for granted, we don't take it as our duty to keep buying their games. But it is, really.
Let's all buy the games! Save our Speccy, as they used to say.
Well, I'm a newcomer to the scene, and if you wish here's my reasons...
But first, here's to Cronosoft! Awesome work you have achieved there, I'm sure. Despite not having spent one cent in your games, the community response to your work is more than evident. I'm sorry you feel you can't continue. Personally I don't understand why. But you sure must have your reasons.
So...
I don't buy because of a few reasons: (the other would be I'm out of money. But I wouldn't buy either if I weren't, so that's not a reason)
1) I'm only willing to invest my money in ZX Spectrum hardware and software produced in the 80s. That's really only what interests me when it comes to spend money.
2) You could say, I could at least support Cronosoft's work. However, if I'm going to support anyone (which surely is on my plans) these will be authors producing free games, emulators and tools as well as anyone making all other kinds of effort for the benefit of the community without any payment in return. I see a paypal button on any of these, and you bet chances are I'll click it.
3) On the other end of things, I don't "support" commercial efforts. They live and die according to the rules of free commerce. The rules they saw fit to adopt. If I wish to buy something of them, I do it out of the value of that something and of my interest in it. Not of a need to support their work. That's the "contract". I didn't write it. The company I'm buying from did.
You say you dont understand why theyre stopping but your reasons could explain it, people not wanting to buy 'new' old Speccy games or not wanting to pay any money for them.
Of course i much prefer games back in the 80's but a brand new Speccy game is similar to me 'discovering' a game in 1989 i had never played before. Theyre both 'brand new' as i have never played them but i wont dismiss one just because it was written in 2008 instead of 1988. I mean if the game didnt say 2008 and instead in the archive said 1988 you would probably be happy to play it then !
Of course i'm not saying JUST buy games from them to help support them, you dont have to but for the tiny amount of money i KNOW the games will be good, will be great value for 99p or 1.50 for the fun i'll get from it, i'm happy to give a fraction of the money to the author for him to put towards a pint to say thankyou kinda thing.
Some of the Cronosoft games are free, others have a tiny value. I dont mind paying a bit to say 'thanks' to them, its nothing in the big scheme of things.
Thanks too for the orders. I think it's the best days sales that we've ever had. I really didn't post on here to hassle anyone into buying some stuff - but it's much appreciated anyway.
I've been thinking how I could keep it going. I'm going to maybe have to jiggle things around a bit.
I may have to offer each new game as a cassette for a while. After the first run is sold out after a few months, it'll go into 'emulator image only'.
One of the major problems I have is that the back catalogue is now so large, it gets very costly to keep all of the games in stock at any one time, as well as it being difficult to juggle all of them. For example, I made up loads of tapes for the last computer show, but only sold about 5 tapes - it's all a lot of guesswork :)
If I do a run of 20 or 30 of each title, there'll be enough for everyone who wants the tape.
thanks anyway - you've all been great.
It's quiet a good argument you have there, and it did cross my mind when replying. But I believe the author could go all tzx/tap and greatly reduce costs allowing Cronosoft to perhaps stick around for a while longer. In times a business finds itself in a knot, often the best approach is to adapt new models. Not to give up or keep doing the same thing.
On the other hand, we cannot really expect games for the zx spectrum to be a viable commercial option. I can get into more details, if you insist, why I think like this. Just avoiding making this one post longer than it should.
Absolutely! That's what games are for. If you draw fun of them, do buy! But then question is... what's making Cronosoft not selling?
Instead of teared goodbyes or meaningless (I apologize for the bluntness) words of encouragement, the best financial support you or anyone could give Cronosoft would be setting aside any prejudice and discuss this with all openness.
Dude ... number each tape and up the price a bit as they are each unique.
I'd be willing to buy them for their collector valueses.
ZnorXie
(-:
Maybe if the authors could autograph the inlays then people would be more willing to buy them (for collectable value). It doesn't apply to me either way, as I just buy the emulator files, but some people on here are hard core Speccy fans, using real Spectrums and cassettes.
Or maybe Simon should set up a "shame" page, listing everyone daft enough not to have bought such modern greats as SplATTR, Farmer Jack in Harvest Havock, GameX, Funpark, Quantum Gardening, and Suduko. Weirdos.
Anyway Simon, I really hope you can keep Chronosoft going for both real tapes and emulator files. I'm sure you could keep afloat no problem for just emulator files, but having someone who can provide real tapes sort of makes our hobby seem more real to the outside world, I think.
Where is this fabled place???
Could be worth investigating the compilation route for the older games - worked very well for the indie adventure game labels like Tartan and Zenobi.
I would also be willing to add titles and details to my own website, although as I am a trader, this could not be for free - compilations by the different authors would make it easy to sort out a reduced royalty for compilations and attract a wider range of buyers.
Chronosoft is on a free webspace by the look of it, someone like Scanhost could be used very cheaply and might help increase traffic through better web design and marketing.
I wonder how the other software companies manage to cope?
www.rwapsoftware.co.uk
www.sellmyretro.com
"Emulator image only" - well, I presume you mean a TZX or TAP (which work just fine on a real Spectrum!) is the only way I go myself, since I don't have a tape recorder of adequate quality any more. I overwhelmingly use a real Speccy for gaming, but for things not on +3 disc I load them using PlayTZX from another machine.
I note that World XXI Soft only sell their for-money games as TZX/TAP files, for example their new game "Escuela de Ladrones", so it's working for someone.
The other thing I'd probably explore if I were in your shoes, is keeping only small stocks of physical tapes and only recording to tape when there's an actual tape order. A bit like Ferranti and the ULA, keep a stock of blanks, and only commit them when the customer has given an order.
Print on demand is certainly how the indie RPG market works when it's not in purely electronic mode, so it would seem to make some sort of sense here as well.
- Releasing a compilation of Cronosoft games
- (I'm going to be lynched with this one) A partnership with a denied distribution label. Cronosoft resells their games.
- Expanding horizontally into the ZX Spectrum niche with partnerships with other content distributors like, for instance, Hiive Publisher. Cronosoft gets also into the book field.
- Special deals in partnership with a commercial emulator developer in which games are sold with the emulator at a discount price.
- Full color home-made manuals for every game, plus high-quality inlay JPGs
- Campaign to draw new programmers into Cronosoft. Review of current deals and contracts. Objective: Make Cronosoft a label with several programmers working for it, with their % over the sales.
- ...
Thats the reason to purchase this title (Okay, it is a excellent game too). I want to buy some Cronosoft titles, but I do not use tapes anymore (At the moment, only +D) and got a problem with space of my present Spectrum collection. So I can buy only TAP images (which can be transfered to +D).
I wonder why Cronosoft does not offer Tapes for higher price and TAP/TZX for lower price, for people who just want to play the games and not collect them only for displaying puropses.
Great value, get a lot of fun out of the game for the tiny price i pay