cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) (01/09/89)
I wrote :
Trick Question : Name one company, besides SubLOGIC, who has ever
^^^
released a second version of any game.
In article <11132@swan.ulowell.edu> (Robert Silvers) replied:
> Discovery with Arkanoid? Many new levels, same game, lower price.
>Also, the first week that Jet was out, it had a few problems.
Interesting, Jet of course doesn't count (SubLOGIC) but Arkanoid would.
How did you find out about this? Since I am a "registered" owner of
Arkanoid I would think they would send me a note but you never know.
How can you tell which is which?
--Chuck McManis
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These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) (01/09/89)
In article <84406@sun.uucp> cmcmanis@sun.UUCP (Chuck McManis) writes: >Interesting, Jet of course doesn't count (SubLOGIC) but Arkanoid would. >How did you find out about this? Since I am a "registered" owner of >Arkanoid I would think they would send me a note but you never know. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >How can you tell which is which? Well, after 3 years as part of the Amiga developer community, I can safely say that in 99% of the cases sending in the registration is 50% of the job of getting (free or for-a-fee) updates. The next 50% involves calling the company and ASKING for the update. At this point in time, Amiga companies simply cannot afford the extra expense of sending out notices of upgrades, also given the fact that 50% of them come back as "addresse no longer at this address". Most of them, though, will offer the upgrade for free, just for the asking. Among the majors I can list WordPerfect (I got 4 free updates to WP), EA (I got an upgrade for Dpaint II), OXXI (they freely upgraded me MaxiPlan several times). When we were in the publishing business, we did the same. It is just numbers (i.e. $$). Actually the only upgrade notice I received was from Lattice for their C compiler. This also happened to me when I was working for PC DOS machines. In that market, the number of upgrade notices is a little higher, but not that much. -- Marco Papa 'Doc' -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= uucp:...!pollux!papa BIX:papa ARPAnet:pollux!papa@oberon.usc.edu "There's Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Diga!" -- Leo Schwab [quoting Rick Unland] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
rsilvers@hawk.ulowell.edu (Robert Silvers) (01/09/89)
>Trick Question : Name one company, besides SubLOGIC, who has ever > ^^^ > released a second version of any game. > >> Discovery with Arkanoid? Many new levels, same game, lower price. >>Also, the first week that Jet was out, it had a few problems. > >Interesting, Jet of course doesn't count (SubLOGIC) but Arkanoid would. >How did you find out about this? Since I am a "registered" owner of >Arkanoid I would think they would send me a note but you never know. >How can you tell which is which? >--Chuck McManis Sorry, I forgot who wrote Jet. I bought it, but don't think I ever sent in the card. I heard about Arkanoid in the various magazines. The newer version has more than the original 20 levels. Something like 10 more. Don't know for sure, I don't have it. I am still mad that I actually bought Sword of Sudan for $40.00 and can't copy it. They wan't $15.00 for a backup copy. I have seen enough disks go bad to make me nervous. I think I am going to stop buying copy-protected stuff, INCLUDING games, even with manual protection. How can anyone write a good program and then cripple it? It looks like they had no choice with Dragon's Lair (because of the compression), but the others, there is no excuse. The pirates will copy it anyways, and the average user who bought it just gets pissed off. Sword of Sudan is pretty good though. It looks like there are only 11 levels, and once you complete them, you are probably done with the game (except to impress your friends). I am at level 8. .RS Sword Robert Silvers. rsilvers@hawk.ulowell.edu Box #1003 University of Lowell. Lowell Ma, 01854 (508) 452-5000 ex 2233
rsilvers@hawk.ulowell.edu (Robert Silvers) (01/09/89)
> >Well, after 3 years as part of the Amiga developer community, I can safely say >that in 99% of the cases sending in the registration is 50% of the job of >getting (free or for-a-fee) updates. The next 50% involves calling the >company and ASKING for the update. At this point in time, Amiga companies >simply cannot afford the extra expense of sending out notices of upgrades, >-- Marco Papa 'Doc' True, you have to ask for an update. This is reasonable. If you have had no problems with the old one, then maybe you never ran into the bug. It would cost them to much to send out copies to all. Except in the case of a very expensive program like Word Perfect and Sculpt-4D. All of the programs you listed as giving upgrades were expensive programs. Not games. There was a bug in an early release of Sculpt-4D. They send me an upgrade promptly when I reported it. This was even before I got around to sending in the registration card. I just gave them the serial number. .RS Robert Silvers. rsilvers@hawk.ulowell.edu Box #1003 University of Lowell. Lowell Ma, 01854 (508) 452-5000 ex 2233
cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) (01/10/89)
Here is a silly idea, what if Game manufacturers always sent two disks with
their games. One "backup" and one play disk. Then if your disk ever went
bad you could switch to the backup and immediately send off the play disk
to get it fixed. The only danger being that the backup may fail before the
play disk was returned. Of course some folks would treat this like a 2 for
1 deal but they might anyway.
--Chuck McManis
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These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.rsilvers@hawk.ulowell.edu (Robert Silvers) (01/10/89)
In article <84481@sun.uucp> cmcmanis@sun.UUCP (Chuck McManis) writes: >Here is a silly idea, what if Game manufacturers always sent two disks with >their games. One "backup" and one play disk. Then if your disk ever went >bad you could switch to the backup and immediately send off the play disk >to get it fixed. The only danger being that the backup may fail before the >play disk was repair... >--Chuck McManis Heres an even sillier idea. How about if they just don't copy protect software? Copy protection doesn't slow down pirates much anyways, it just keeps honest people from getting the full use of their purchases. --Rob. rsilvers@hawk.ulowell.edu _ _ _ __ ___ _ (508) 452-5000 Ex 2233 /_\ |\ /| || //__ /_\ _// \\ ||\/|| || \\// // \\_ "Only Amiga does not make it impossible"
utoddl@ecsvax.uncecs.edu (Todd M. Lewis) (01/11/89)
In article <11161@swan.ulowell.edu>, rsilvers@hawk.ulowell.edu (Robert Silvers) writes: > In article <84481@sun.uucp> cmcmanis@sun.UUCP (Chuck McManis) writes: > >Here is a silly idea, what if Game manufacturers always sent two disks with > >their games. One "backup" and one play disk. Then if your disk ever went > >bad you could switch to the backup and immediately send off the play disk > >to get it fixed. The only danger being that the backup may fail before the > >play disk was repair... > >--Chuck McManis > Or the company turns belly-up, or changes address and/or name, or gets bought by sombody who doesn't want to give away disks forever... --Todd M. Lewis