NOWAKO09@SNYBUFVA.BITNET (APPLE //GS - THE POWER TO BE YOUR BEST) (11/08/90)
A friend of mine is a big time apple //e hacker and has lots of
good apple // stuff. One game that he borrowed to me was a text adventure
called Mind Wheel, I really enjoyed it and he said that Broderbund came out
with three or four of these 'electronic novels' (probably competing with
Infocom when this kind of game was hot).
Now, about a month ago I was perusing the library here on campus and
came across an enourmous catalog/index of programs for just about every micro
ever made (it had stuff for Ohio Scientific and Aim-65!), so thinking about
this old text adventure I looked up Broderbund and it listed one more of these
'electronic novels' called Essex. I then called up Broderbund and have never
been treated like such sh*t before by a company (well maybe by the utility co.)!
I was willing to PAY the FULL PRICE for this older game! I got an attitude fr
om
the guy that said 'well, if you would get a REAL computer and buy REAL games
(i.e. expensive) you wouldn't have these problems'. He said that 1)They stopped
selling it in 87 and 2)That if I had an origional I could have sent in for
a BACKUP COPY! If I had it in the first place I wouldn't have called! In the
second place why couldn't they make me a copy if they had a master disk around
to make backups with? 5.25" floppies are now around .25 cents a piece, if
they had sold me a copy of the game for 25$ thats a *1000%* profit!
The question is....if I find someone with this game and copy it - is
that piracy? I can't get it from the company that made it and its not sold
by any third party suppliers (I tried), so where the hell am I suppose to
get it if not from a copy?
- Infuriated in Buffalorjv21207@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Randal John Vose) (11/08/90)
NOWAKO09@SNYBUFVA.BITNET (APPLE //GS - THE POWER TO BE YOUR BEST) writes: > A friend of mine is a big time apple //e hacker and has lots of >good apple // stuff. One game that he borrowed to me was a text adventure >called Mind Wheel, I really enjoyed it and he said that Broderbund came out >with three or four of these 'electronic novels' (probably competing with >Infocom when this kind of game was hot). > Now, about a month ago I was perusing the library here on campus and >came across an enourmous catalog/index of programs for just about every micro >ever made (it had stuff for Ohio Scientific and Aim-65!), so thinking about >this old text adventure I looked up Broderbund and it listed one more of these >'electronic novels' called Essex. I then called up Broderbund and have never >been treated like such sh*t before by a company (well maybe by the utility co.)! > I was willing to PAY the FULL PRICE for this older game! I got an attitude fr > om >the guy that said 'well, if you would get a REAL computer and buy REAL games >(i.e. expensive) you wouldn't have these problems'. He said that 1)They stopped >selling it in 87 and 2)That if I had an origional I could have sent in for >a BACKUP COPY! If I had it in the first place I wouldn't have called! In the >second place why couldn't they make me a copy if they had a master disk around >to make backups with? 5.25" floppies are now around .25 cents a piece, if >they had sold me a copy of the game for 25$ thats a *1000%* profit! That's really too bad. A while back I had some problems with another Broderbund program (Arcade Machine, remember that one?) and I called their tech support line. The guy I talked to couldn't help me right then, but took my phone number and said he'd call me back. Sure enough, within 10 minutes the phone rang and this guy had solved my problem for me-- that's service! Maybe it was a rare case, but I've never had any problems with them before... guess it depends on who answers the phone. > The question is....if I find someone with this game and copy it - is >that piracy? I can't get it from the company that made it and its not sold >by any third party suppliers (I tried), so where the hell am I suppose to >get it if not from a copy? > - Infuriated in Buffalo Unfortunately, if the game is still under copyright, then yeah, it's piracy. Someone a while back had brought up the idea of taking older out-of-print/ out-of-copyright games and putting them on an FTP site, but then you get into all kinds of legalities. What you might want to do it try contacting someone else at Broderbund. Like you said, even if they aren't selling it, then they can't be turning a profit on it anymore, so it should be a problem to get a copy directly from them, but then again, I'm also not the head of a software company. But if I were..... :-) Randy Vose | 1> Eveything is a learning experience. rjv21207@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu | 2> Be careful! You may get what you want. University of Illinois | 3> "I told you so." Urbana/Champaign | -- Dianne Harmon's rules of life...
gwyn@smoke.brl.mil (Doug Gwyn) (11/09/90)
In article <09F9142504DF80EE60@snybufva.bitnet> NOWAKO09@SNYBUFVA.BITNET (APPLE //GS - THE POWER TO BE YOUR BEST) writes: > The question is....if I find someone with this game and copy it - is >that piracy? I can't get it from the company that made it and its not sold >by any third party suppliers (I tried), so where the hell am I suppose to >get it if not from a copy? Of course it's theft. Broderbund has the rights to the game regardless of whether or not they choose to market it to you. If you cannot obtain it legally, you are expected to do without, that's all.