felixh@sandstorm.Berkeley.EDU (Felix Hack) (10/26/90)
Imagine my surprise earlier today when the UPS man delivered F19 to my doorstep. Microprose's official USA release data is sometime in mid-November, so this seemed a bit early. On opening the box I discovered why this could happen; it was the UK version, complete with UK address for Microprose, a UK address on the registration card, and no US Microprose information whatever. I had told the mail-order place (MicroGames, GA) specifically that I wanted the US version when I placed the pre-order about two months ago. I had figured that it might fix any bugs discovered in the UK release, have a US warranty card, and follow Microprose's policy of not having on-disk copy protection. Well, the UK version I got has heavy protection on both disks. Worse, the technical supplement says that rosters should be saved to one of them, which I refuse to do with an original uncopyable disk. There is some more confusion, though, because the game says something about putting in a blank formatted floppy to save rosters, but when I try it the roster is not saved. I called MicroGames and told them that if I discovered ANY differences (whether in software or documentation) between the UK and US releases of F19 I would insist on returning it, on the basis of their promise to only ship the US version. Has anyone else gotten F19 yet? Does anyone know about the US version, whether the disk-protection will be stripped and the game made hard-disk installable (like Pirates, Red Storm Rising, and M1 Tank Platoon)? Call- ing Micropose's US customer support was no help; the representative had no clue about Amiga F19. I intend to contact Microprose through GEnie and get some definitive answers to help me decide whether to keep UK F19 and about the lack of hard-disk installation. I also want to find out how to save rosters to a separate disk because I find writing to a protected disk totally unacceptable.
perod@ifi.uio.no (Per Christian deg}rd) (10/29/90)
Yep, I've got the F-19 Stealth Fighter(UK Version), and in my eyes it's the best ever flight sim for the Amiga. BUT! As you correctly mention, it is not possible for the average user to install the sim on a hard-disk! But in the manual they (MicroProse) actually say that this can be done! Thay also claim that pilots may be saved on the original disk, which a) doesn't work b) may damage the ORIGINAL. Formatting another diskette and inserting it when prompted for the log disk works on my machine and should work on yours too. Another annoying thing about the copy-protection is that making back-ups of the original is impossible using the AmigaDOS duplicator. The ONLY program that worked, was XCOPYv2.0(and 3.0). When you pay loadsa dosh for a sim, you shouldn't have to run the risk of damaging the original. When they included the plane identification copy protection in the game, protecting the disks should be unnecessary. I haven't heard anything about a US version of F19, and it is not very likely to appear, as the UK version is NTSC compatible. I, too, have plans to contact MicroProse asking for a hard-disk installable copy. Why should PC owners have this privilege and not the jolly bunch of Amiga owners? Beats me! The only way to avoid disk swapping seems to be getting hold of the one-disk cracked version of F19, and MicroProse wouldn't want that to happen, would they? So, MicroProse, make a hard-disk installable version of F19 available for registered purchasers! It's a public demand! ;o) 'Major' Per "Violator" Odegard (perod@ifi.uio.no)