DSEAH@WPI.BITNET (03/22/88)
While all this talk about piracy was going on, someone said something like, "well, I wouldn't have as much as I would today if I didn't...". Is it because the software isn't worth what they ask for? There are some pretty crummy programs out there, especially the ones from PBI. Cavern Cobra, Sea Strike and Tower of Myraglen are some of the worst-playing games I have ever witnessed. These games belong back in the days when Nasir and Sirius Software were big. And they ask for around 35 bucks! Programs that I would pay lots of money for would be Deluxe Paint II, any Wizardry scenario, any Ultima, any Infocom TEXT adventure, and perhaps the Bard's Tale series. I generally shy away from Avalon Hill microcomputer games, games that came out for the C64 first, and any GS software package that attempts to emulate a Macintosh too closely. I suppose that in a very small-minded, selfish way, software piracy gives you a good sampling of the software market that you would not otherwise get if you relied on store demonstrations and advertisements. One also becomes very proficient in adapting to user interfaces to the point where nothing fazes you. The recipient of a new piece of pirated software usually has to run accross all kinds of key-combos, some snooping, and a good bit of insight to get the program to function. My high school years were spent in Taiwan, where software piracy was almost a legitimate business. When the program came out in the States, three weeks later the cracked version would show up "Under the Bridge", courtesy of a Hong Kong or Stateside pirate group. Prices ran to about 75 cents per side. Computer stores also had a vast selection of software that they offered as a "service" to their customers. Since NO US software publishers (or Apple Computer itself, at that time) sold anything anyway in Taiwan, perhaps the software pirates in Taiwan didn't hurt a lot. It did hurt Taiwan's respectability, but they really never had any in the computer industry anyway. The government is supposed to have really clamped down on this activity, but I still occasionally see those COMPLETELY duplicated (artwork, packaging, translated manual) pirated copies (also with ALL NEW copy protection to prevent other companies from selling their copies) floating around. I also agree that software deprotection is very educational. By forcing yourself through code that perhaps was deliberately written to confuse the Sunday-afternoon hacker, you would become very, VERY good at debugging machine language and you would learn some nifty programming tricks to boot. I myself would like to meet the person who can slog their way through Electronic Art's boot code (meet indirect-indirect-indexed-indirect- addressing). I am NOT pro-piracy, though. Piracy hurts at least the programmer who had to fight and slave his way through to the end. If you think the program is good, you should pay for it. It's kind of like arcade games, which pay for their own R&D. If you want to see improved software, your dollars help to finance it. And here comes a... *** DISCLAIMER *** These views are my own, and were not forced down my throat by the "Thall shalt not Dupe" folks, nor was this an official endorsement of Sir-Tech, Electronic Arts, Origin Systems or Infocom. The Commies didn't put me up to it. I am not affiliated with the NRA, and I am emphatically not a collegue of "Dick" Gephardt. Should you beg to differ, I welcome any discourse. Mail is, after all, still mail. Dave Seah - Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Bitnet: DSeah@WPI.Bitnet | Apples Rock! // | Internet: DSeah%WPI.Bitnet@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU | // Zap!