gmp@rayssd.UUCP (05/16/85)
Some of you that read this newsgroup may recognize the article below. Some of you may even have sent your Self-Addressed-Stamped-Tape to Belcore, as did I. Did any of you get your tape back? Mine was sent on April 5, 1985 and I have heard nothing since... Anyone care to comment??? > From brunix!foxvax1!wjh12!talcott!panda!genrad!decvax!bellcore!petrus!psl Thu Mar 21 12:21:41 1985 > Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site rayssd.UUCP > Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site petrus.UUCP > Path: rayssd!brunix!foxvax1!wjh12!talcott!panda!genrad!decvax!bellcore!petrus!psl > From: psl@petrus.UUCP > Newsgroups: net.games.emp > Subject: PSL Games Distribution > Message-ID: <311@petrus.UUCP> > Date: Thu, 21-Mar-85 12:21:41 EST > Article-I.D.: petrus.311 > Posted: Thu Mar 21 12:21:41 1985 > Date-Received: Sat, 23-Mar-85 06:24:40 EST > Distribution: net > Organization: Bell Communications Research, Inc > Lines: 11 > > *** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE *** > I now have new versions for 4.2BSD (VAX), 4.2BSD (Sun), and Eighth Edition (VAX) > > If you are a uucp neighbor of bellcore I'll be glad to send you a version > with uucp if you'll let your uucp neighbors get copies from you (if they will > do the same). Otherwise you need to send me an SAST. > > If you got the tape from me recently you probably need bug fixes for pslsin.o > and add.o (for Empire), so send me mail and I'll send you the fixes. > > Peter Langston >
tsf@drutx.UUCP (FisherTS) (05/18/85)
I too, responded to the posting by sending a SAST to the address in the article. I feel like I did when I typed in "hello sailor" in some other game (was it zork??) so many times. The response was always "Nothing happens". Oh well, it was worth a try.. If anyone was successful, I would like to find out your price for a copy of what was advertised in Peter's(?) news item. Maybe it was an April Fool's joke.. or maybe someone used his terminal while he was at lunch. Tom Fisher ihnp4!druxn!tsf
john@polyof.UUCP ( John Buck ) (05/20/85)
Subject: Re: Re: Langston(?) posting Newsgroups: net.games.emp References: <2821@drutx.UUCP> > I too, responded to the posting by sending a SAST to the address > in the article. I feel like I did when I typed in "hello sailor" > in some other game (was it zork??) so many times. The response > was always "Nothing happens". Oh well, it was worth a try.. If > anyone was successful, I would like to find out your price for a > copy of what was advertised in Peter's(?) news item. I sent a tape to PSL when he worked at Lucasfilm (about 18 months ago). I received his 'games' distribution 6 months later. While some people have employers who let them spend all day working/playing on various games (empire, etc), others have to work for a living, including PSL (perhaps). Give the guy a chance, he is doing YOU a favor. Now for the good news. I have YAEP (Yet Another Empire Program). Essentailly, it is PSL's empire with LOTS of bugs fixed, and several new features (bugs?). I have asked him if he will allow me to distribute it, (that was a month ago), and I have not heard anything yet. If anyone is interested in receiving my hacked up version, send me uucp mail. When Peter Langston gets back to me, I'll let you know what the story is. John Buck UUCP: decvax!mcnc!rti!rti-sel!polyof!john or philabs!ron1!polyof!john
gmp@rayssd.UUCP (05/28/85)
> While some people have employers who let them spend all day working/playing > on various games (empire, etc), others have to work for a living, including > PSL (perhaps). > > Give the guy a chance, he is doing YOU a favor. This is the kind of response to my original posting that I expected. He VOLUNTEERED the favor. People are counting on him to come through with what he said he'd do. How long does it take to write a tape? If a few pile up (which responses to my article have indicated) it probably takes less than 10 minutes each to do them all, one after another. I don't think that's excuse for a 6(?) month delay. I think Empire is potentially a great game. It will never be a great game though because it is supported by someone who is (giving the benefit of the doubt here) too busy to support it, yet won't release the source. I don't care what kind of great guy or super programmer or important person Peter Langston is -- in my opinion, his attitude about this (and other games he's written) is all wrong. Thanks to all the programmers that either support what they've written or release the source!!! BTW, I'm one of those people who has to work for a living, that's why I sent him a tape instead of writing my own Empire (like the author of the article I'm replying to did). ++--------------------------------------------------------------------------++ || Gregory M. Paris || || ...!{allegra,linus,raybed2,ccice5,brunix}!rayssd!gmp || ++--------------------------------------------------------------------------++
psl@petrus.UUCP (05/31/85)
Yes, I have all of your tapes and am going into the used tape business. Thanks for all the tapes! Seriously, I'm sorry for the delay, but everytime I'm ready to make tapes either a tape drive dies or I find one more (the last, obviously) bug that needs fixing first. I hope to have the games tapes in the mail before I leave for Usenix (although they won't have the nifty new changes to Grid that have been soaking up all my free time that obviously should have been spent mounting tapes). Btw, the Usenix Software Distribution will have both VAX & SUN 4.2 BSD versions of the games (supposedly). They are also trying to get that out before Usenix; our version of that old fable: The Tortoise and the Tortoise. Further, for you Hares out there... If you correspond directly with our machine, bellcore, you can uucp the PSL Games Distribution of your choice by grabbing one of: gexp4.1 for 4.1 BSD (VAX) gexp4.2 for 4.2 BSD (VAX) gexp8 for Eighth Edition VAX gexpsun for 4.2 BSD (SUN) out of Bellcore's /usr/spool/uucppublic/psl Be forewarned: each of these files is a little over 2 megabytes long... The only thing I would ask in return is that you leave a copy in your uucppublic and let other people know that it's there (e.g. post to net.games.emp) so they can snarf it. Boy, am I tired of making tapes! Peter
arash@jendeh.UUCP (Arash Farmanfarmaian) (05/31/85)
This one does not belong to this newsgroup but what the hell. I have diarhea of the mouth tonight. Has it occurred to some people out there that certain people post to the net just to see their name there. And yes Empire could be a good game, if we had the source to get rid of bugs. The same thing applies to another perennial favorite: rogue. Loosing a fantastic games because the binary goes berserk went you have a full pack is not my idea of fun. Arash Farmanfarmaian'85 P.S. Flames NOT redirected to /dev/null. So have your hearts out. Using E-mail. -- Arash Farmanfarmaian ...!allegra!princeton!jendeh!arash "Any man who lives within his means suffers from a lack of imagination"
gmp@rayssd.UUCP (Gregory M. Paris) (06/01/85)
In mail to me, John Buck (polyof!john) has pointed out to me that my
last article was a flame and devoid of any useful information. I will
concede the first point, but deny the second. To readers of this
newsgroup that feel the same way as Mr. Buck, I hereby apologize for
the inflamatory nature of my last submission.
In his letter, it was pointed out to me that, even at the 10 minutes per
tape that I estimated, it would take a significant amount of Peter Langston's
time to write a large number of tapes. This is, of course, true. My points
are as follows.
1) Mr. Langston volunteered to write tapes of his games libary
to readers of this newsgroup. If he is unable to meet that
voluntary commitment because of the sheer volume of response,
or for some other reason, I think it is proper he should
announce such to this newsgroup, or at least to those people
(myself included) that sent him blank tapes.
2) I have no evidence whatsoever that Mr. Langston has made an
attempt to write ANY tapes. Although I received only a few
letters in response to my original query, and there was only
one other posting (that I saw), they were ALL negative. That
is, no one that sent him a tape has received one back.
3) I stand by my opinion that it is bad practice to distribute
a binary-only program while refusing to support same.
4) I've been reading this newsgroup for more than two years, and
periodically the same discussion comes up (which is virtually
the only traffic in this group). The discussion goes something
like this:
Q. Where can I get the source to empire?
A. Can't get source, only binary, might try psl,
better, get it from somebody else that has it.
Q. My empire binary has many bugs and is no fun anymore.
A. That's because there is no support.
Q. How come? <along with various mild flaming>
A. Speculation about psl's schedule. <along with reprimands>
That is usually the course of the discussion. It never seems to
get beyond that. I propose that this newsgroup be removed.
--
++--------------------------------------------------------------------------++
|| Gregory M. Paris ||
|| ...!{allegra,linus,raybed2,ccice5,brunix}!rayssd!gmp ||
++--------------------------------------------------------------------------++td@alice.UUCP (Tom Duff) (06/02/85)
>3) I stand by my opinion that it is bad practice to distribute > a binary-only program while refusing to support same. Aw, come on! Peter charges $0.00 for the games tape. At that price it's his prerogative not to distribute and not to support anything he doesn't want to. I bet you write letters to your town council complaining that the local 4th of July fireworks display isn't as good as it was when you were a boy, and demanding that they shape up or ship out. I think it's bad practice to complain about the speed at which free software is distributed, or about the quality of said free software (which, btw, is much better than most of the junk people pay big bucks for.)
ix408@sdcc6.UUCP (Cris Rys) (06/02/85)
In article <151@jendeh.UUCP>, arash@jendeh.UUCP (Arash Farmanfarmaian) writes: > And yes Empire could be a good game, if we had the source to get rid of > bugs. The same thing applies to another perennial favorite: rogue. > Loosing a fantastic games because the binary goes berserk went you have > a full pack is not my idea of fun. Incase you didn't know, sources of rouge & srogue are distributed to certain individuals who can give a good reason why they they should have it, such as super-users, root, etc... Probably every system has sources for rogue & srogue locked away someplace. Why not have it public you ask? Because then some bozo would play the game in the middle of the day when everyone else is trying to get some serious work done. Why PSL does not distribute the game to anyone I don't really know. I know a person here at UCSD who has gone to a lot of trouble to uncomile to binary to C in order to remove bugs. If PSL distibuted the sources it would save him and many others tons of aggravation and time. Cris Rys