Sunrise Foundation to halt all its activities

Sunrise Foundation to halt all its activities

by snout on 13-12-2014, 00:54
Topic: Websites
Tags: Sunrise
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While bringing good news for customers that have been waiting for their NoWind interface for a long time, the announcement on the Nowind website also brings some bad news. Sunrise Foundation, one of the most important organizations in the active Dutch MSX scene from the 1990s and onwards have decided to halt all their activities and close down the foundation.

According to the Nowind announcement, deliverability issues were caused by unexpected lack of time for managing the activities of the Sunrise foundation. This is not likely to change soon, which made Sunrise conclude that the time has come to bring their activities to a halt.

History

Sunrise Foundation was founded in 1992 as a result of a merger between Genic and MSX Club Alphen aan den Rijn. They released an impressive list of software, such as their Picturedisks, Magazines and Specials and distributed well known games such as Bozo's Big Adventure, Retaliator, Pumpkin Adventure 3, Akin, The Lost World, Blade Lords, Gianna Sisters, Shrines of Enigma, Bombaman and Manbow 2. Their MSX-Music/MSX-Audio tracker Moonblaster Stereo was long the de-facto music tracker of the MSX community.

Apart from software, Sunrise also produced hardware that could always count on good adaptation by the MSX community, such as the Moonsound OPL4 cartridge, the Sunrise ATA-IDE and CompactFlash interfaces and the V9990 based GFX9000. They also sold a licensed version of the USB MSX Game Reader.

Remaining orders and hardware support

The NoWind website mentions one last important bit about Sunrise: After sending out their final shipments, there will be a 5 year period in which they still provide a hardware repair service.

Relevant link: Sunrise Wiki

Comments (36)

By Maggoo

Paragon (1218)

Maggoo's picture

13-12-2014, 01:25

I think this is the logical conclusion and at least makes things clear. Question is, aside from the Nowind orders, will they Sunrise honor the other orders made on their site (DenYonet etc?)

By Vampier

Prophet (2415)

Vampier's picture

13-12-2014, 06:36

it's too bad but not surprising after all the negative comments about sunrise here on the forum.

By gdx

Enlighted (6429)

gdx's picture

13-12-2014, 08:31

The sun has set. Sad
Thank you for the great products that I bought.

By valkyre

Paladin (698)

valkyre's picture

13-12-2014, 09:45

Will the parallax games be lost for ever, or will sunrise pass on the rights to someone else?

By Metal_Geart

Expert (74)

Metal_Geart's picture

13-12-2014, 10:07

Reading the history part of this news post brings back a lot of good memories, so:

THANKS SUNRISE!

By WORP3

Paladin (864)

WORP3's picture

13-12-2014, 10:11

Thanks for all the commitment, effort and dedication that you have put in the MSX community over the last decades !
Hopefully someone will/can take over all of the Sunrise designs so they won't be lost forever......

By Lord_Zett

Paladin (807)

Lord_Zett's picture

13-12-2014, 11:23

Thx Sunrise for making so lots of great hard and software. your legend!.

By Sky_hawk

Champion (267)

Sky_hawk's picture

13-12-2014, 12:03

I want to thank sunrise and Rob specifically for his great efforts over the years. Also thanks go to Koen for making much of the hardware technically possible and his assistance in producing the different nowind batches.

We (nowind) want to try to preverse as much of the interlectual property of the sunrise foundation as possible. We have not worked out any kind of deal yet, but the initial response was very positive and I think no one wants anything to be 'lost'. So we will see what the future brings, but I would not write off any software or hardware knowlegde yet.

By Grauw

Ascended (10820)

Grauw's picture

13-12-2014, 12:19

Respect!

By meits

Scribe (6571)

meits's picture

13-12-2014, 13:02

Quote:

Remaining orders and hardware support

The NoWind website mentions one last important bit about Sunrise: After sending out their final shipments, there will be a 5 year period in which they still provide a hardware repair service.

This line is not really clear to me. Does this involve the NoWind cartridge or all Sunrise hardware? The fact is that I'm stuck with a broken Moonsound and any attempts to contact Sunrise have been futile until now. I've a replacement, but man I want this dear cartridge to be fixed.

Furthermore I'd like to say that Sunrise has been quite a big player in the MSX scene and released some remarkable stuff. All hail for that. The halt was expected for quite some years. RIP Sunrise.

By Sky_hawk

Champion (267)

Sky_hawk's picture

13-12-2014, 13:51

meits, we will bring up a form, I'm not sure where yet, might be on the nowind site, or maybe a small standalone website, where repairs can be requested. we have found koen willing to provide tech support and repairs for this. for now send me an email with a request for repair and details and the problems you are expericiecing, and I will forward it to koen.

By Daemos

Prophet (2168)

Daemos's picture

13-12-2014, 14:29

The descision of sunrise is of great honor. Instead of leaving the people to wonder if anything is ever going to happen they realised they could no longer server the community in a proper way. Instead of leaving the people behind with false hope they made the point clear. Pasing over the rights and blueprints to a new team shows that sunrise truly deserves great respect. Despite of having a hard time and reading the negative reviews on the forum they have chosen to act in great respect. A great foundation that has served many and even ended in the best way possible, sunrise surely sets a great example of how one should act as a foundation. Good job!

By Randam

Paragon (1431)

Randam's picture

13-12-2014, 20:29

This news makes me terribly sad. Thanks for all the things you did over these long years!!!

By FiXato

Scribe (1743)

FiXato's picture

13-12-2014, 21:05

Despite the issues from the past couple of years of with the distribution of some products, I'll still remember Sunrise for the many more years of excellent service that came before that.
At fairs, Sunrise usually was one of the first booths I visited, to check which new awesome games they had published that time, especially with the Games Subscription they had at the time. The excellent memory that Rob had by not just remembering my name, but even my address, still amazes me. Wink Replacjng faulty disks, or patching them, or giving a new disk/catridge label was never an issue either.

So, thanks for the years of MSX service, and here's hoping that the broad library of software and hardware documentation can find its way to the public (domain) through MSX.org and/or other websites, as a testament to the Sunrise that once was.

By syn

Prophet (2133)

syn's picture

13-12-2014, 22:45

A sad day for MSX Sad

In the years that I didn't do much msx related, I did keep reading up news about it on the web, and it was, amongst others, stuff made by sunrise that kept me interested in the whole msx scene. The very idea that there were people still making cool stuff after all these years amazed me. I think it would be safe to say that without Sunrise, and people like them, people who kept the spirit alive with new hard and software, I would have lost interest and given up on MSX a long time ago.

By gdx

Enlighted (6429)

gdx's picture

14-12-2014, 01:13

syn wrote:

I think it would be safe to say that without Sunrise, and people like them, people who kept the spirit alive with new hard and software, I would have lost interest and given up on MSX a long time ago.

Exactly.

By OeiOeiVogeltje

Paragon (1438)

OeiOeiVogeltje's picture

14-12-2014, 07:39

on to Supersoniqs !!!

By Marq

Champion (387)

Marq's picture

14-12-2014, 10:38

Well, I most often had only bad experiences with Sunrise: not answering emails, very slow, and now this mess with the Nowind (and I don't expect to ever receive the cartridges ordered more than a year ago). So yes, they did bring some great products for the MSX, but should hardly be elevated to any saint status.

edit: And big thanks to Sky_Hawk for his help.

By marcoo

Expert (112)

marcoo's picture

14-12-2014, 10:44

I hope the schematics from the hardware like the ide (cf) interface and other hardware and software is going to be published.
I think there are many people who wants it, including me, they stop the production of it to soon.

By ro

Scribe (5057)

ro's picture

14-12-2014, 11:18

When Sunrise was formed, in 1992 during the msx-scene bloom, it was a solid team. I was there, right at the birth of Sunrise. But people like Stefan and Rob carried the spirit on for many years after. Rob was one of the last Mohicans, with him exiting the foundation had faded. Respect to Rob and all others connected to the Sunrise foundation.

Thank you, Sunrise. Thank you Rob. cheers on you.

By Sky_hawk

Champion (267)

Sky_hawk's picture

14-12-2014, 13:08

marcoo, why not order a technobytes IDE mapper?

By marcoo

Expert (112)

marcoo's picture

14-12-2014, 13:45

I can remember the time That sunrise was formed I was also there at That meeting , it was in Elkerlyck in alphen aan den Rijn,
Some people wherent verry happy with it I can remember

By DrWh0

Paladin (842)

DrWh0's picture

14-12-2014, 14:32

Sad, but logical due to shipping issues in the past times and lack support or slow responses to the customers

They will publish hardware schematics of their products? they will put online for free their discontinued games?

By djh1697

Paragon (1734)

djh1697's picture

14-12-2014, 16:29

A big thank you to sunrise! Thank you Rob!

By Sky_hawk

Champion (267)

Sky_hawk's picture

14-12-2014, 16:33

macroo, people in general are rarely happy with change.

As Stephen R. Covey put it: "Happiness is, in part at least, the fruit of the desire and ability to sacrifice what we want now for what we want eventually". Esoteric? maybe, but I found it to be true more than not.

By Sky_hawk

Champion (267)

Sky_hawk's picture

14-12-2014, 16:36

DrWh0, as was mentioned earlier in the thread, this has yet to be worked out..., so these question cannot be answered yet.

By Marq

Champion (387)

Marq's picture

14-12-2014, 22:14

Quote:

it's too bad but not surprising after all the negative comments about sunrise here on the forum.

Do you mean that they are some sort of victims of undeserved bashing here?

By Grauw

Ascended (10820)

Grauw's picture

14-12-2014, 23:14

Marq: Give it a rest.

By Marq

Champion (387)

Marq's picture

15-12-2014, 19:14

Grauw wrote:

Marq: Give it a rest.

As soon as they don't owe me 300 Euros Smile

By Grauw

Ascended (10820)

Grauw's picture

15-12-2014, 19:31

At least don’t aim your anger at other users who are not Sunrise.

By Marq

Champion (387)

Marq's picture

15-12-2014, 19:39

Grauw wrote:

At least don’t aim your anger at other users who are not Sunrise.

Just didn't seem fair to insinuate that the negative comments here somehow caused them to quit. But you're right, anyway. Let's wait for the news.

By snout

Ascended (15187)

snout's picture

15-12-2014, 22:17

As I see it, the praise Sunrise deserve for all the good things they undeniably have done for the MSX computer and scene can perfectly coexist with the comments about delivery and communication issues that gradually increased over the last few years.

I think everybody agrees there were no bad intentions in play, but that customers like Marq who have paid 300 euro's long time ago and still have not received anything have all the right in the world to voice their worries and dissatisfaction - especially when their attempts to contact Sunrise went unanswered.

One could argue that it would probably have been better if Sunrise had acknowledged the problem sooner and had called for help, passing the torch to potential new enthusiasts. But making such a step is usually a lot easier said than done, and lack of time is indeed something that can come and go unexpectedly, generally taking a lot more time than you anticipate initially.

That said, they had a good run and without them the MSX community would indeed not have been the same. Thanks to everyone who once played a role in Sunrise. I bow to you.

By Samor

Prophet (2220)

Samor's picture

16-12-2014, 12:09

I agree, it's sad to see Sunrise end, but it's the best decision.

By ro

Scribe (5057)

ro's picture

21-12-2014, 11:11

By Bastiaan

Champion (333)

Bastiaan's picture

29-12-2014, 20:03

thank you for all the good work Sunrise!

By meits

Scribe (6571)

meits's picture

27-01-2015, 16:55

Kudos!
The hardware department of (ex-)Sunrise still works, and quite well I might say.
My broken Moonsound did a round-trip to be repared in just a few weeks to come home alive and kickin' Smile