Re: [stella] Piracy

Subject: Re: [stella] Piracy
From: Ruffin Bailey <rufbo@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 9 Jan 98 12:05:38 -0500
>I am having the signature certificate award matted and framed currently at
>a cost of $50 (minus the engraving to be added later).  I really want to
>encourage all of you guys to code for Stella more than anything else and
>if I had more free cash I'd dangle a reasonable cash award as well.  It
>means that much to me to see stellalist be more active and to see new
>kernel ideas spring forth.

Well, I personally would feel kinda bad for going after such an award for 
a few reasons, but mainly this one:  Having actually gotten down to 
writing and testing a game (now that I managed with a lot of help to get 
some Mac tools chased down), I've quickly decided that if I'm going to 
spend enough time to create a Jumpman-inspired (but Mario and Sonic 
influenced (not that I'll get to do much like that in the game! ;) ) 
platform game with SC multi-loads, that you'd better believe I'm going to 
think twice before I mail the code out to everyone before I "cash-in" on 
my creation.*

Not only was Edtris on cart (correct?), Piero is making a cartridge, and 
Bob Colbert sold carts of Okie Dokie.  TPS is still in the beta stages; I 
have to imagine some sort of project is waiting in the wings.  I think 
there was even a hack of a game that was sold on cart (the Bira-Bira's 
revenge or whatever), though I believe there was some debate over just 
how much of the price was actual profit.  Some other games like the 
Etch-a-Sketch and Greg's Dark Mage are genuine exceptions, but seem more 
like engines or templates for other, more elaborate games.  Dark Mage 
even admits as much.

If, in the next decade (this mess is a pain! ;), I get a SC version of a 
platform game, I very well might go ahead and try and sell 50-100 nicely 
packaged tapes with manuals, with my selling that number being a 
requirement before I release the code.  And then _I_'ll be the one 
worried about piracy!#  Welcome to the world of computer game 
developement!

>Maybe you won't make any money off of your game, but you should certainly
>take the task of writing games for the VCS seriously, and not be ashamed
>to devote your free time towards it, because it really is videogaming at
>its purest level. 

Well, not that I disagree, but if anyone wants to know why there are no 
multi-load SC games being made, I'd counter that they should be more than 
happy that so many 4k cart-format games are being thrown around! ;)  Heck 
fellows, I was a English major!  Assembly, though incredibly fun, is the 
kind of thing that I haven't played with since I took AP Pascal... and 
that's beginning to be quite a while ago.  :^P

Good luck with the documentary, and hopefully I've have some 4k 
"shareware" version of a platform game up by March!

Ruffin Bailey
rufbo@xxxxxxxxxxx

*The implication here was not that I think that I'd have to worry about 
people on the list "stealing code".  Rather, with games so close to a 
final product freely available on the web, I'd feel anxious that I'd 
undercut much of my potential "customer base".  For example, the 
shareware of DOOM! and Quake2 were enough for me, and those were hardly 
all-encompassing demos.  (though I would like MacQuake.  Something was 
done right in that game.)

#Once again a disclaimer:  I mean to say that while I'm waiting for 
50-100 tapes to sell, I'd be worried that someone might "innocently" make 
a copy for a friend that "wouldn't have purchased one anyway" and 
everything goes to heck.  Or worse, there's nothing innocent about it and 
someone just starts taping... :^(

--
Stella list is Administered by krishna@xxxxxxxxxxxx <Glenn Saunders>
Archives (includes files) at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/archives/
Unsub & more at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/stella.html
+-shameless plugs-------------------------------------------------------+
| Stella documentary at http://www.primenet.com/~krishna                |
| Nick's VCS links via http://www.primenet.com/~nickb/atariprg.htm      |
| Write the best game, win framed autographs of famous Atari alumni!!   |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

Current Thread