operating systems - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

5 Jan 1998

...
  At 08:48 AM 1/5/98 -0600, you wrote:

 Two, that today's computers run old software
too quickly - that doesn't 
sound like archaic software to me, if it's running directly on today's 
machines and OSes.  
 Try loading up Buck Rogers and the Planet of Zoom! on a Cyrix 200 and see
 how well it plays. Same goes for Frogger. :) They run blindingly fast,
 making them utterly worthless unless you use one of those slowdown utils,
 but most of those only run right on 486s. There is a PC-based game I got on a
shareware CD that came with my Pentium-75
called "Galactic Food Fight". It is blindingly fast as well. It's
shareware,
so if anyone wants a copy....
...
    Three, that ancient games don't "hurt"
today's 
 software market.  Doing what?  
 Doing what? Being available for "free" (illegally) out there for people to
 get to them. The fact that people are still playing them doesn't affect
 today's game market at all. It's a whole different ballpark out there these
 days. I'm sorry, but if people say it's ok to pirate old games, even more
people
than now will start to say, "Well, this game is not that new", and pirate IT.
Now, I have nothing against software piracy on a simple basis: either I get
the program for free, and the compay loses 50 bucks, or I don't get the
program at all, which means that the company is still 50 bucks short. However,
my 14.4 modem helps me keep my morals straight :)
...
  so ... so, you
say they should give up on them?  A tenth of something is 
still something.  
 But repackaging the games and shipping them would up the price to at least
 $10.00 a piece, and you would have to come up with a cheap way to make sure
 the games ran at original speed on all systems, another few bucks for R&D
 right there, so you'll probably end up spending $50.00 for a compilation CD
 with maybe 10 games on it, and nothing else. (Can you say "Roberta Williams
 Sierra Compilation"?)

 Why not release the games as shareware, with no set ammount defined? People
 could pay what the game is worth to them. I think Maxis did that with the
 original SimCity. How many people do you suppose would buy the original frogger?
Even for $5?
Even if someone put a rack of frogger diskettes for free out in CompUSA or
something, how many would take it?
...
  Don't get
me wrong and think I'm just flaming you...  I agree, I wish  
 Oh, not at all. I expected alot more flak from people when I started this
 thread, but was suprised at how well the members of the list are taking it.
 (so far)

...

 - John Higginbotham
- limbo.netpath.net