Re: [stella] The Core... where's the beef?

Subject: Re: [stella] The Core... where's the beef?
From: jvmatthe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1999 08:18:35 -0500 (EST)
> Does anyone have any idea what's going on with this?  Again, I didn't 
> keep up, but certainly hadn't heard anything about it being released.

Well, I checked Deja News and so far have found nothing posted by the
author of The Core since a few days after the deadline to get your money
in.  His web page for The Core is still up (meaning that someone is probably
still paying for the web space) but he has no home page and I can't see
any dates mentioned or when the last update was made.  So the last time
I can see him having an active public online presence was 12 June 1998.
That's over 7 months ago...

In August 1998, Lee Krueger mentioned in RGVC that Paul Osgood had told him
that he (Paul) had had a hard drive crash that delayed things.  It was also
mentioned in that thread by someone else that Paul had said he was a teacher
and that school starting would probably delay the game's release.

Then Paul apparently emailed Lee Krueger (and some others, I guess) with the
following on or around 12 November 1998:

==============================================================================
Since I e-mailed you last time a couple of months ago, here is what has
happened:

I have soldered almost half of the eeproms to the boards, but it has
been fairly slow work.  I have not had as much free time as I expected,
because the transmission on my car went out in mid-September, so I've
had to take the bus to work, and it takes an extra hour each way.
(Repairing the transmission would cost more than the car is worth.)  So
I haven't been able to stay up as late to work on the soldering.

I have also had a lot of weird things happen over the last month.  For
example, our cat peed in our dryer earlier this week, and I've spent the
first part of this week taking apart the dryer and washing it out with
bleach.  Also, in the last two weeks, both of my children fell down and
cut their head open.  The second time, on Halloween, when we went to the
hospital they used Dermabond, which is essentially sterile Superglue, to
glue her cut shut.  Well, the doctor was completely incompetent and
glued our daughter's eye shut, and then tried using nail polish remover
on her eye.  Then the doctor left us, and told us to get her eye open,
and then the hospital sent us home without fixing the problem.  Her eye
opened later on in the week, but I had to spend my time on that instead
of getting other stuff done.  (Our cat peed in the dryer the night of
the day our daughter's eye finally opened.)

This kind of stuff has been happening for the last month and a half, and
so I have had trouble finding time to work on the game.  However, I have
still been working on it, and making slow progress. I'm really sorry
that I don't have it out yet, but it will probably be two more months.
If it isn't ready by the end of the year I will mail what I do have
done, and mail the rest when it is finished.  The instructions are back,
but I still haven't done the box.  (If someone else wants to do the box,
please let me know.)

I know some of you are probably tired of waiting.  I still will refund
anyone's money who doesn't want to wait any longer.  I didn't realize I
would have so little spare time, or have so many weird things happening
to me.  (I was promoted to head of my dept. for this year, and it is
taking a lot more of my time than I expected, too.)  Please e-mail me if
you have any questions.

One thing that I never mentioned because I wasn't planning on working on
it is the fact that as I wrote The Core I also wrote a Yahtzee game for
the 2600 just to try to see how certain things worked for it, such as
the graphics and random numbers.  I never added a computer opponent, and
didn't concentrate on making it polished.  However, I feel really bad
about how long The Core is taking to get out.  I'm going to try to
polish Yahtzee and add a computer opponent after The Core is shipped.
I'm going to have someone else who has time make a copy for each of you
when I get done.  (No instructions or box, just the cart.)  This is one
per person, not one per order of The Core.  (I can't afford to do that.
But yes, I am going to pay for it myself.)  You will get this by the end
of next year.  That's probably how long it will take for me to get the
spare money to have the carts for Yahtzee made.

Again, I'm very sorry about the delay in shipping The Core, but I have
been making progress, though very slowly.

Thanks,
Paul
==============================================================================

Furthermore, Randy said in a followup that he had offered to help make
the carts but had received no reply.  Regardless, two months from that
date is still January 1999 which could explain the delay.

Did anyone ever get a copy of the .bin to test out?  If that existed, then
I'd feel more inclined to believe that the buyers will get their game.

Does anyone know how many people sent in money?  Did anyone on the list
ever have direct contact with him about programming?

matt

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