[comp.sys.mac] MacRISK has escaped

aje@nancy (Tone Engel) (02/09/88)

Surprise! Surprise! MacRISK has escaped. Those responsible for posting it to
the net should have exercised more restraint. It was not public domain.

I have been negotiating with Parker Brothers and their Licensee Virgin Games
for over a year about selling MacRISK. Virgin Games has finally decided they
weren't interested. So the bad news is I won't be getting any richer. The
good news is that you're all welcome to keep your ill-gotten copies.

I am interested in hearing about compatibility problems etc. The existing
version was never intended to be more than a demo. I'm surprised it runs under
multi-finder and on the SE. It doesn't support color and the computer players
are awful.

Since I do have more important things to do (a thesis to write) I can't promise
a new version anytime soon. I'm glad you all like it.

-Tone Engel
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khayo@sonia.cs.ucla.edu (Erazm J. Behr) (02/10/88)

[Tone Engel's article stating that Risk was meant to be commercial]

   I have a suggestion to make: judging from the # of people who just
couldn't wait to get their hands on that game, it is an ideal shareware
product. Tone doesn't have a license from Parker Bros., so he can't ask
us for money; but is there anything that would prevent *us* from mailing
him our checks? How about that? Is anyone likely to get in trouble as a
result?
   Please mail responses with your opinion / suggested amount /
confidentiality requests etc. to me, I'll summarize.           Eric

Disclaimer: I hadn't even heard of Tone before I got MacRisk ...
                                                       Eric
___________________________________________________________
 Please use   khayo@MATH.ucla.edu   instead of CS.ucla.edu

jwhitnel@csi.UUCP (Jerry Whitnell) (02/11/88)

In article <22656@brunix.UUCP> aje@brunix.UUCP (Tone Engel) writes:
|Surprise! Surprise! MacRISK has escaped. Those responsible for posting it to
|the net should have exercised more restraint. It was not public domain.

An important point to all software developers.  If a your program is not to
be distributed, put a message to that effect somewhere where everyone can
see it.  The About ... box is a good place, the opening screen is even better.
A copyright notice is also very important to help keep your rights.
Even if you are giving it just to friends to try out, friends "forget"
what you tell them. Since your MacRisk game had neither, it was assumed to
be in the public domain.  If you have to go to court for some reason,
it is always better to have dotted your i's and crossed your t's and a
copyright notice has both.  Most commerical networks and even some BBSs
will respect your notice and not redistribute if it the software has the
statement on the screen.  Remeber nobody can read your mind, but most
people read the about box at least once.

|...
|
|I am interested in hearing about compatibility problems etc. The existing
|version was never intended to be more than a demo. I'm surprised it runs under
|multi-finder and on the SE. It doesn't support color and the computer players
|are awful.

Doesn't work so well on the Mac II.  The problem is they change the 
value returned by GetWMgrPort (used to return a WindowPtr, on the MAC II
it returns a CWindowPtr).  Send me email if you need more details and/or
suggested fixes.

|
|-Tone Engel


Jerry Whitnell				Been through Hell?
Communication Solutions, Inc.		What did you bring back for me?
						- A. Brilliant