At 02:03 PM 3/3/97 -0700, you wrote:
>What, you think we're going to stop at Combat's level? You think we're
>going to stop at two players, two missiles and a giant blocky playfield
>with two-digit scores? Forgive me, but that's just silly. It just
Some will if they remain isolated enough to think to themselves "how do I
get X number of sprites on a horizontal?" and bang their heads against the
wall and give up, or even worse, assume it's just impossible and stick to
the tried and true LCD. I can not read the minds of all the list-members.
But I'm not as confident as you are that everyone will take the quickest
route to the desired point in their programming should we not actively try
to work together and pool our resources and knowledge-base.
I am painting a bleak picture in order to show the importance of the list
and its role in bringing all prospective programmers to the same level of
expertise, or to at least educate all programmers about what the 2600 can
do, and how these tricks are generally accomplished.
>Lack of knowledge is easy to fix, compared to the Herculean task of
>changing one's priorities in favor of programming a VCS, which as members
>of the list have said would only bring in MAYBE $500 per person. Most
Don't you think I'm painfully aware of this problem?
>my life. I've read the survey results, and most people say they have
>as little as two or three hours a week. It took me five hours
Now you know why I posted the poll. I got flamed on rgvc for stating my
assumtions. Now I stopped assuming--the facts are coming in. Don't kill
the messenger.
The question then becomes, where do we go from here?
The reason you and I are locking horns a little bit is that you have a
defeatist attitude that we should simply let things grow or die at their
natural pace. I happen to think there is more that can be done, otherwise
I wouldn't have started the list at all.
>the end users, and the non-programmers on this list who are waiting,
>and yes, they should be patient, because I, for one, don't have any
>obligation to the end user.
What is beginning to bother me about your attitude is that all I'm trying
to accomplish with my posts is to diagnose the 2600 programmer situation
and TRY to better it. Your response comes across as nothing but defensive
as if any possible act on our part isn't going to accellerate 2600
development and any act to create an incentive will only result in trying
to pull you personally away from your "real life" obligations, and is
therefore an assault on your lifestyle. Not so.
If nothing can be done to move your own 2600 programming ahead better than
it would without help, then that's fine--go forward in peace. I won't ram
anything down your throat, and you are free to leave the list and program
in peace if you think this list is going to be wholly ineffectual in
bettering 2600 programming over working on your own. But your situation is
not the same as everyone else's. There are many on the list who aren't
even going to program a line of code and there may be those with the time,
skill, and inclination to release some really kiler code if only they get a
"perk" or two, or if more programming information was forthcoming. As long
as it's a net gain, I'm happy.
I wish you could have simply answered the poll and sat back and listened
instead of counter-attacking because whether or not anything can be done,
it certainly won't HURT to try. So you should at least tolerate my efforts
even if you think they are futile. (I've had my own share of personal
e-mail from you which is laced with negativity and cynicism and frankly, I
wish you wouldn't rain on my parade and give me the benefit of the doubt.)
But you've taken my simple poll and started to treat it almost like a
personal attack.
I am aware that most of the people here treat 2600 programming as a hobby
and a relatively low priority in their life as a whole. That isn't going
to keep me from trying to encourage people. I wish you wouldn't feel
offended by this goal. I'm not cracking whips and screaming "Where the
fuck is Solaris2 you lazy bastards!?!?"
The only reason the Supercharger CD came to fruition in its beautiful and
mature form was because I insisted that the project be taken AS seriously
as a commercial endeavor, despite it being a "hobby" project and yes,
despite it only being a small part of my life. Small doesn't mean it
wasn't important or that I wasn't very concerned about its quality. I
should hope that any prospective 2600 programmers also treat their hobby
seriously and set high standards for their work. Have fun, have a life
away from the terminal, but take pride in all your work, otherwise why bother?
I will be happy with whatever the userbase creates as long as I know that
I've done my best to create the most productive and fertile environment for
programming to flourish. All I wanted to do was get the Atari 2600 into
intensive care, stick an IV into its cartridge port and give it a test for
vital signs, then let fate take it from there. You don't seem to think the
IV will make a difference, and I still do. Time will answer that question.
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