Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!know!samsung!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!sdd.hp.com!ucsd!ucrmath!lord_zar From: lord_zar@ucrmath.ucr.edu (wayne wallace) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.games Subject: Re: M.U.L.E. -- How to get it for the Amiga. Message-ID: Date: 2 Oct 90 18:08:08 GMT References: <25811.2703c48d@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> <20875@well.sf.ca.us> Organization: University of California, Riverside Lines: 129 farren@well.sf.ca.us (Mike Farren) writes: >lord_zar@ucrmath.ucr.edu (wayne wallace) writes: >>That must have gotten your attention. Now, here's the idea: >>All you Shareware/PD people out there who enjoy programming and giving VERY >>nice games to the public, well why haven't YOU done anything ? >>Mule was approx 1/3 of a C-64 disk, which is 170K / 3 = 58.66666 = 59K. >>SOMEONE out there probably has their old C-64 and M.U.L.E. carefully stuffed >>away in the closet, so USE IT!!!!!! >>Plug it in, and pull out your favorite version of C or whatever!!!!!!! >>Anyone else out there ? >Well, Dan Bunten, the guy that wrote it originally, isn't out there (as far >as I know), but he'd likely be very interested if someone ripped off his >game... >Instead of redoing M.U.L.E., you could find Dan and get him to do it, or >you could do your own game, something someone's never seen before. Who >knows, it might be just that good. >-- >Mike Farren farren@well.sf.ca.us Yah, in a few years, if I ever get time off from school programming. Maybe once my C knowledge is good, and I study my Amy a bit more.... However: Do you all agree Monopoly is copyrighted ? Yes, you do. Because it is. And of course, you know Parker Brothers recently (within the past few years) licensed some company or the othe to do computer versions of Monopoly, Risk, and I think something else. Now, Tell me this: Why does Portal (cup.portal.com) carry a Monopoly clone NAMED MONOPOLY for the Amiga under their Amiga PD & Shareware game area ? Surely that is a copyright infringement! Portal also carries Tetris(tm) clones!!! And they KNOW what happened to Fred Fish! We Portalites get full USENET news & email, ya know. Plus Clarinet now...... So: the case boils down to this: Portal has lots (well, enough to survive a lawsuit w/ Spectrum Holobyte if they refuse to remove Tetris(tm) clones) of $$, and Fred Fish, as ONE private ~middle class citizen doesn't have the $$ to face off vs SH's lawyers. MONEY MAKES RIGHT. At least, until we reach the Supreme Court on this. Actually, we can't. Computer GAMES are entertainment, not email or novels written with computers instead of pencil and pen. So: Someone please tell Dan Bunten to lease M.U.L.E. programming rights for the Amiga else someone does it before him, and makes it PD too. Although since EA produced the game, methinks it would lie with them. Remember the Interplay/EA thingie ? EA owns the NAME of Bard's Tale, but Interplay owns the PROGRAMMING. And, since EA owns only M.U.L.E., you could call the game D.O.N.K.E.Y., and since, as someone emailed me, M.U.L.E. was written is ASSEMBLY on the C-64 & Atari 400/800/whatever, a C version for the AMIGA does not and can not duplicate any of the original programming. Look how many Flight Simulators and other simulations exist! Is each Flight Simulator infringing on a copyright because you're flying a plane in each game ? NO! So a game of a futuristic mining town is totally legal. FACTS: 1. No programmer out there is stupid enough to write in assembly on the Amiga when C is available or "Benchmark Modula-2" (used in Jimbo Barber's excellent $5 Shareware Star Trek II game) or something better. 2. Generalized ideas can't be copyrighted, else only one style of car, home, computer, TV, etc would be allowed. 3. Dan Bunten is entirely out of the Commercial Entertainment Programming field (referring to things on store shelves as opposed to writing a specific game for a specific company). He owns only original C-64 & Atari 400/800 ASSEMBLY code. He has NO license on C code for same unless he secretly copyrighted it and never told the world. 4. E.A. owns the word "M.U.L.E.". NOTHING ELSE (except for packaging, the instruction manual, etc.). 5. Calling it a "M.U.L.E." clone and telling people to buy M.U.L.E. might help stave off copyright suits. That is what the author of Zerg 1.0 did. His game is an Ultima I clone and he said so in his docs. He also says it is PD, and hopes that by urging people to buy the Ultima series (although POORLY programmed so far (up to IV)for the Amiga) from Origin Systems, he can't be sued, since he is getting no money and is freely advertising the Ultima series. Now: I want rebuttals posted here!!!!!!!! Take apart this post LINE BY LINE!!! I dare all of you to come up with EXACT quotes from U.S. copyright law that would contradict ANY of the above facts. Just IMHO, * // Only /\ |Lord Zar,Commander Of All He Surveys|Stay Alert! Trust * *\\ // /--\MIGA |(and hater of spaces near commas.) |No One! Keep--AHHHH* * \X/ Internet: lord_zar@ucrmath.ucr.edu QuantumLink & Portal: Lord_Zar * * "NOT THE ALLUDIUM Q36 EXPLOSIVE SPACE MODULATOR!" "Yes!" - Wayne and Martin * Oh yeah, is it Alludium or Illudium ? Someone in a previous post claimed the "I", but where was there ever a word balloon in the original Bugs Bunny (tm) cartoon ? and last I knew (no periodic table here at the computer lab), there wasn't an element called *lludium either. I got my spelling from some post in r.g.frp, and without contradictory spelling until now it sounded ok (and I am a VERY good speller, I did the error checking on our gaming club's 103-page quarterly journal. Most of our articles were from the net, but some were original. Can you imagine spellchecking sets of story installments ? Ughhh! and with only vi and ispell to use. (I hate EMACS))