I have an article introducing the Propeller as a fun retro-game, hobby alternative to older video game hardware, set to appear in ClassicVGM magazine next month. There are a lot of subscribers, both print and electronic. We've got a few issues out there, good response and a rapidly growing reader base.
In that article, I planned on giving away another Demoboard, as I often do, as part of a write in contest. The write in was essentially to be an explanation why the board should go to the contestant. We planned on evaluating those, picking somebody, and sending them the board, along with some games and goodies all configured to come up and run on the Demoboard.
I think I'll still do that, because the Demoboard is more or less "plug n' play", ready for a bit of fun gaming and tinkering. The barrier on it is pretty low. These kits are a bit higher, but... maybe that's ok. I don't know.
I could very easily expand on the article text, building up the hobby element some, highlighting a few projects.
It's a sure thing most all of the target audience is not on the forums here. It's not such a sure thing that they are ready to fire these up. If there is some potential here, I'm willing to get addresses for any number of boards, expand the text, and modify the contest. Time line on that would be about two months from today, as that's what it will take to get the issue mailed, and entries flowing back in.
There is a week or so before I have to lock it all down for printing, leaving time to build this in.
@Nick, it's very easy to do a quickie e-mail interview, promoting your excellent Gadget Gangster efforts. Probably take an hour or so for both of us.
@Ken, Parallax is getting a mention, along with some light background, framing the Propeller in terms of gaming / hobby fun.
Does this make any sense? Curious to hear your thoughts.
The target audience is collectors, gamers, and enthusiasts, often with some tech know how, but I've never accessed how much. We are actually hoping to generate some retro interest surrounding the Prop, largely because it has just the right feel for the era, and the expectations of what can be done hit home there too. Honestly, Prop I can do some great stuff, and I suspect be capable playing a lot of classics on emulation. If we can do a Vic, it's a home run! I think the Prop can.
On a personal note, I want to start laying the foundation for Prop II, as it will absolutely nail this niche, and be inexpensive.
I see OBC has one going to print as well. Perhaps it makes sense to just have somebody keep track of the addresses, we allocate a few for some of the ideas, and let people try to get it done. Ken waits until he sees a batch, or the whole lot, then mails them off. I know I can very easily just boil the product of the contest and article down to the data. Maybe several of us can.
Edit: I think Nick and I will do a smaller better targeted effort. Please do continue figuring out how to find the newbies with potential!
I think Parallax can afford the advertising. The real under lying question is would people buy these boards if Parallax started making them and put them in stores!
As a business, You have to have a market strategy,This is what keeps a company afloat.
It was an ad in N&Vs that got me to try Parallax, Man am I glad I did.
I have almost every thing Parallax has to offer, And I enjoy every cent of it.
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The Truth is out there············___$WMc%___···························· BoogerWoods, FL. USA
You can feel stupid by asking a stupid question or You can be really·stupid by not asking at all.·
There are some of us Propeller newbies right here in the Parallax forums.
I have a Boe-Bot, Parallax Sensors, and RF-ID readers, but nothing 'Propeller' yet.
I plan to change that as the Propeller Demo Board is on sale for a very good price this weekend.
I have been lurking in the Propeller Forum trying to learn just what it is and how people use it.
It seams that the Propeller Forum is traveled mainly by experts, that are willing to give a newbie a hand provided the newbie is trying to actively solve their problems themselves.
I think, that you could give several of the Gadget Gangster kits to Chris Savage as he is trying to generate traffic to his Savage Circuits site and forums.
He has started a monthly contest and could give away any kits you give him, as monthly prizes.
See my signature for a link to my Blog at savage circuits.
$WMc% said...
I think Parallax can afford the advertising. The real under lying question is would people buy these boards if Parallax started making them and put them in stores!
How would you advertise Parallax?· I think that would be a great group project to see who can make the best advertisement for Parallax.
You could find some boy scouts to send them to. They have to get their merit badges in a number of techy fields (computers, electronics, energy, etc...) and so they already have a purpose to get started and perhaps get hooked. The girl scouts probably have something similar.
To reach a new audience Markov would make the following suggestion for socially redeeming purposes: I would be trying to attrack the attention of high end computer users--generally called gamers such as those at "Overclockers.com" and a maybe few other major like sites perhaps. They tend to be nerdy and into technology (have the cash--target marketing stuff)and moreso easily bored with trying to increase the voltage to their processor without frying it. They spend a lot of time trying out fan controllers for instance and come to find that none of them are worth much excepting (a little) the Big NG, Mini NG, sometimes coupled with a hub (its just a DAC i think). Another example: a lot are frustrated that they can't control multiple PWM fans--nobody makes a controller for this except Zalman (only one channel 4-pin and the thing is junk evidently--just another example. The BIG NG is put out by M-Cubed (dev by some young Austrians). The names and looks look suspiciously Arduino-like to me. They get software with this thing that is a more than a bit buggy from the posts and they spend a lot of time making it work sometimes being redirected to the M-Cubed Forum (the software is rather XP reliant which struck me as weird for something targeting high end computer users until i learned that all programmers (for microcontrollers) avoided Vista like the plague and are rather XP reliant).
At any rate, my thinking is that these same persons could for that same money benefit more from buying Propellers and learning to make and program their own controllers. Then PWM and audio become matters of interest and so on. They have elaborate fan and watercooling systems and so on and i think the list grows easily form there and a lot of them might give up just playing games and take up new closely related interests in microcontrollers and robotics or in the Hydra (some must be into this but although i am not a regular visitor to these sights don't see much discussion thereabouts--never heard of Hydra until was sent a Parallax catalog.) Some may become engineers and such. For comparative purposes--generally they spend for the BIG NG ($90) and the hub ($50) and then buy extra sensors. At any rate it seems better to Markov if they spent their money on a Prop and time and energy learning to program controllers and robots than to plug and play game related hardware. They already have the technology interest but are just in need of a little encouragement to make the leap to "a more worthwhile challenge"?
Have been meaning to suggest to Parallax that it might make sense to design computer (such as Fan/Water Cooling) controller intro kit(s) based on Prop to sell to this market. (Seems to involve a different array of sensors but nothing really new--just packaging. Markov came here sort of pursuing this idea --but just to keep Markovs neurons communicating at some bare level. It's not Markov's shy place to do this (so instead Markov is struggling with lots of Aluminum to build a base (i tried to follow Erco's plans but was confused with the corners) that eventually will require 3 sets of those nice Motor Mount-Wheel position kits and 2 casters controlled via 4 HB-25's and i don't know what contoller yet or why or when --but would be nice to see Parallax or one of those who develop Prop products on the side come up with 'computer controller-oriented starter kits that would attract these (mostly youngsters) by perhaps interfacing with and supporting high end computers in a more "forthright" manner than M-Cubed--not sure how to say that but the meaning is in a way that the kit just gets them started and allows them the means to enter what i think of as a more intellectually rewarding path than merely responding to products. Spin or PBasic would be much better programs for them to learn than somebodies "program" for a product of not all that much consequence (not the best wording but not meant to trash the others but relative to learning a programming language etc....
Don't mean to trash M-Cubed or the young Austrians who developed this--just think Parallax is the better way to go (as also opposed to Microchip or say National Semiconductor who are more aligned to pure commercial endeavors than Parallax) than M-cubed asnd gaming.
Do a contest on Overclockers similar to the Prop contests you have already done but limit it to projects that interface with high end computers to encourage creativigty perhaps and give the 25 kits and whatever the reward was for the idea these largely young minds in need of a little direction and inspiration. Contests are a reg occurence at Overclockers. Send one of the kits over for a review should be enough to capture a lot of attention. From the perspective of target marketing--i think this is an ideal sector for Parallax to approach considering income, technological expertise and experience, and general interests. Few of them have considered making their own microcontrollers and such (yet) and they are not that far from budding robotists.
(Markov is not much of a capitalist and Markov's intention was just to write an instruction set as to how this could be done for $1 under the guise of One Buck Pubs or something like that but Markov has more pressing $1 things to write about making golden time-as in alchemy, quantum computing, time-traveling (maybe utilizing propellers), saving the world and so on.)))))
Comments
In that article, I planned on giving away another Demoboard, as I often do, as part of a write in contest. The write in was essentially to be an explanation why the board should go to the contestant. We planned on evaluating those, picking somebody, and sending them the board, along with some games and goodies all configured to come up and run on the Demoboard.
I think I'll still do that, because the Demoboard is more or less "plug n' play", ready for a bit of fun gaming and tinkering. The barrier on it is pretty low. These kits are a bit higher, but... maybe that's ok. I don't know.
I could very easily expand on the article text, building up the hobby element some, highlighting a few projects.
It's a sure thing most all of the target audience is not on the forums here. It's not such a sure thing that they are ready to fire these up. If there is some potential here, I'm willing to get addresses for any number of boards, expand the text, and modify the contest. Time line on that would be about two months from today, as that's what it will take to get the issue mailed, and entries flowing back in.
There is a week or so before I have to lock it all down for printing, leaving time to build this in.
@Nick, it's very easy to do a quickie e-mail interview, promoting your excellent Gadget Gangster efforts. Probably take an hour or so for both of us.
@Ken, Parallax is getting a mention, along with some light background, framing the Propeller in terms of gaming / hobby fun.
Does this make any sense? Curious to hear your thoughts.
The target audience is collectors, gamers, and enthusiasts, often with some tech know how, but I've never accessed how much. We are actually hoping to generate some retro interest surrounding the Prop, largely because it has just the right feel for the era, and the expectations of what can be done hit home there too. Honestly, Prop I can do some great stuff, and I suspect be capable playing a lot of classics on emulation. If we can do a Vic, it's a home run! I think the Prop can.
On a personal note, I want to start laying the foundation for Prop II, as it will absolutely nail this niche, and be inexpensive.
I see OBC has one going to print as well. Perhaps it makes sense to just have somebody keep track of the addresses, we allocate a few for some of the ideas, and let people try to get it done. Ken waits until he sees a batch, or the whole lot, then mails them off. I know I can very easily just boil the product of the contest and article down to the data. Maybe several of us can.
Edit: I think Nick and I will do a smaller better targeted effort. Please do continue figuring out how to find the newbies with potential!
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Post Edited (potatohead) : 6/5/2010 5:25:34 AM GMT
As a business, You have to have a market strategy,This is what keeps a company afloat.
It was an ad in N&Vs that got me to try Parallax, Man am I glad I did.
I have almost every thing Parallax has to offer, And I enjoy every cent of it.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
The Truth is out there············___$WMc%___···························· BoogerWoods, FL. USA
You can feel stupid by asking a stupid question or You can be really·stupid by not asking at all.·
There are some of us Propeller newbies right here in the Parallax forums.
I have a Boe-Bot, Parallax Sensors, and RF-ID readers, but nothing 'Propeller' yet.
I plan to change that as the Propeller Demo Board is on sale for a very good price this weekend.
I have been lurking in the Propeller Forum trying to learn just what it is and how people use it.
It seams that the Propeller Forum is traveled mainly by experts, that are willing to give a newbie a hand provided the newbie is trying to actively solve their problems themselves.
I think, that you could give several of the Gadget Gangster kits to Chris Savage as he is trying to generate traffic to his Savage Circuits site and forums.
He has started a monthly contest and could give away any kits you give him, as monthly prizes.
See my signature for a link to my Blog at savage circuits.
Regards,
Zappman
Visit Zappman's Blog at Savage Circuits
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Powered by enthusiasm
At any rate, my thinking is that these same persons could for that same money benefit more from buying Propellers and learning to make and program their own controllers. Then PWM and audio become matters of interest and so on. They have elaborate fan and watercooling systems and so on and i think the list grows easily form there and a lot of them might give up just playing games and take up new closely related interests in microcontrollers and robotics or in the Hydra (some must be into this but although i am not a regular visitor to these sights don't see much discussion thereabouts--never heard of Hydra until was sent a Parallax catalog.) Some may become engineers and such. For comparative purposes--generally they spend for the BIG NG ($90) and the hub ($50) and then buy extra sensors. At any rate it seems better to Markov if they spent their money on a Prop and time and energy learning to program controllers and robots than to plug and play game related hardware. They already have the technology interest but are just in need of a little encouragement to make the leap to "a more worthwhile challenge"?
Have been meaning to suggest to Parallax that it might make sense to design computer (such as Fan/Water Cooling) controller intro kit(s) based on Prop to sell to this market. (Seems to involve a different array of sensors but nothing really new--just packaging. Markov came here sort of pursuing this idea --but just to keep Markovs neurons communicating at some bare level. It's not Markov's shy place to do this (so instead Markov is struggling with lots of Aluminum to build a base (i tried to follow Erco's plans but was confused with the corners) that eventually will require 3 sets of those nice Motor Mount-Wheel position kits and 2 casters controlled via 4 HB-25's and i don't know what contoller yet or why or when --but would be nice to see Parallax or one of those who develop Prop products on the side come up with 'computer controller-oriented starter kits that would attract these (mostly youngsters) by perhaps interfacing with and supporting high end computers in a more "forthright" manner than M-Cubed--not sure how to say that but the meaning is in a way that the kit just gets them started and allows them the means to enter what i think of as a more intellectually rewarding path than merely responding to products. Spin or PBasic would be much better programs for them to learn than somebodies "program" for a product of not all that much consequence (not the best wording but not meant to trash the others but relative to learning a programming language etc....
Don't mean to trash M-Cubed or the young Austrians who developed this--just think Parallax is the better way to go (as also opposed to Microchip or say National Semiconductor who are more aligned to pure commercial endeavors than Parallax) than M-cubed asnd gaming.
Do a contest on Overclockers similar to the Prop contests you have already done but limit it to projects that interface with high end computers to encourage creativigty perhaps and give the 25 kits and whatever the reward was for the idea these largely young minds in need of a little direction and inspiration. Contests are a reg occurence at Overclockers. Send one of the kits over for a review should be enough to capture a lot of attention. From the perspective of target marketing--i think this is an ideal sector for Parallax to approach considering income, technological expertise and experience, and general interests. Few of them have considered making their own microcontrollers and such (yet) and they are not that far from budding robotists.
(Markov is not much of a capitalist and Markov's intention was just to write an instruction set as to how this could be done for $1 under the guise of One Buck Pubs or something like that but Markov has more pressing $1 things to write about making golden time-as in alchemy, quantum computing, time-traveling (maybe utilizing propellers), saving the world and so on.)))))