keithh@bwdls40.bnr.ca (Keith Hanlan) (12/11/90)
Mr. Farren points out that there are advantages to *not* nuking the amiga's operating system when writing a game. I agree. Let's just back up and review why we bought the amiga too: o MULTI-TASKING - what happened to the idea of playing games while doing large downloads or compiles? If I've got the memory and a hard-disk, it shouldn't cost the game designers any extra effort take advantage of that fact. o GRAPHICS - How many here think Leisure Suit Larry is a great example of computer graphics? Hands up! I thought so. Piece of shit isn't it? o SOUND - Another Amiga strong point and yes they do tend to take advantage of it - sorta. Don't you get tired of a game that has a single recurring musical theme? How about supplying a greater selection of music and using the variety *if* the chip ram permits? Shouldn't be too challenging - I can think of several efficient ways to implement this very in-expensively. Hell - the Euro-demos have better and longer sound tracks than most adventure games that I've seen. I have no problem with manual copy protection as long as I can 1. install the game on a harddisk 2. backup my game disks for personal peace of mind. Further, why the hell aren't game designers and marketers the least embarassed by the fact that the free pd games are almost always more amiga friendly? There is something tragic in having both the games software people and the 'other' software people both believing that the Amiga is a *simple* games machine with no more capabilities than an AT. So to the Boycott question: Yes! boycott the lazy buggers and do it as noisily as possible. Phone their 800 numbers and ask if the game properly supports the amiga platform and complain if it doesn't. Regardless, write a letter and either commend or condemn them. Pretty pissed off! Keith