I'd like to know what separated the Starpath catalog from the Atari and
Activision catalogs which we now see scattered about the Internet?
Glen has said a dozen times, there will be no more Supercharger CD's
made. In theory, then, it would be no worse to have the source code
to Dragonstomper on my page than it would be to have the source to
Combat or Freeway or Adventure.
And since the source code, BIN files, and documentation in ASCII are
all that have been widely distributed for original Atari games, I doubt
the web pages would be interested in mammoth ZIP files with scanned-in
original docs and tape jackets and boxes and all that fancy crap.
Perhaps the docs sites might put up pictures of the tapes, but that's
about it.
Now, I can understand why I haven't seen Edtris anywhere; I assume that
cartridge is still for sale out there somewhere, as is SoundX, through
that guy who sold the Okie Dokie carts. That's still in print, the
author is still alive, and the author posted once to this very list
that the person who put SoundX on his web page would be sleeping with
the fishes.
Glenn, on the other hand, was granted a license to print and sell
a fixed number of CD's. He printed them, he sold them. He's done
with the Starpath catalog, isn't he? Am I mistaken? If someone
scanned their tapes into the computer and dumped them into a small
emulator-friendly format, what's that have to do with him? Now,
I would understand his anger if someone started issuing pirated
Supercharger CD's with audio tracks and that kind of thing, because
he's linked to such a thing in a way that could be damaging to him,
AND it would involve lots of money changing hands, which as I
understand it is where the line is drawn[1]. That's why nobody on
this list is doing that right now. But as far as BINs being
liberated to ROM sites, no way. Those BINs, in my eyes, are free
until the JTS sends out ninjas to find out who may be spreading
them.
In fact, what about the source code to Dragonstomper, Frogger, and
the like? That would be SO USEFUL to so many people on this list.
What's that have to do with anyone? That information is pretty
much exclusive to the CD, I admit, but at least one of the source
codes on my site was top-secret stuff at Avalon Hill at one point,
since they were the ones who wanted it reverse-engineered. And so
it remained hidden until it perculated to the public's view. I'd
rather see this perculation happen to Dragonstomper sooner than
later. And while I'd personally feel better if Glenn replied saying
he doesn't really give a rat's ass who has those sources now, I'm
beginning to wonder what other reason I would have for holding it
back.
Though I have a hunch everyone who said "gee, whiz, I wish I had
Dragonstomper source" got a few dozen discreet E-mails saying "Don't
tell Glenn I gave this to you." :-)
[1] Comedy Central has been shutting down sites that sell The Spirit
Of Christmas, the animation that became South Park, on video, but
not those which have it available for download or streaming video.
They plan to issue it to video stores eventually, but people have
been trading that animation for years and they recognize that it
would be both impossible and uncool to try and stop it, and they're
hoping that fans will want a copy that doesn't play on a postage
stamp and/or doesn't have burps, tracking errors, and on-screen
messages from generations of copying.
--
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