At 06:42 PM 12/12/2002 -0500, you wrote:
In which category would you put, say, Coke Wins? It's a legitimate game from
the 2600's prime that is a hack of Space Invaders but has somewhat different
gameplay. You could argue it belongs in any of the above 3 categories - the
first because it was legally licensed and appeared at the right time, the
second because it's a hack after all, and the third because it was never
commercially released.
People don't realize that Coke Wins is more than just a hack. Note that
the game has a timer at the top. It's not 100% original, but the gameplay
changed, not just the graphics. Many Space Invaders hacks are actually
hacks of Cokie Wins.
What about all the South American and Asian releases of various US-originated
games? Often they have minor hacks in them and/or are PAL conversions. Yet
they were released in the 80's legitimately in cartridge form. Category one
or two?
There should be more than just two categories.
If a game is a derivative work, even from the classic era, then there
should be some reference to the original. The web is very good at this and
Atari Age's database is an excellent (but still not 100% complete) way to
do it. It would be nice to have this on the client side too. XML would be
an ideal way to store this because it is naturally heirarchical.
These are really rhetorical questions meant to illuminate some of the
flaws in
adding another layer of classifications. Maybe it should be a 'best
practice' (whatever that term actually means) for sites offering 2600 games
to simply run 'em through Good2600 so they can categorize them easily and
appropriately?
But at the very least some single authoritative body should oversee the
Good2600 descriptors.
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