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From: orpheus@reed.UUCP (Aaron Semplers)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Re: Risk
Message-ID: <15714@reed.UUCP>
Date: 16 Nov 90 12:53:57 GMT
References: <1990Nov12.230335.18588@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <15687@reed.UUCP> <26904.2740520a@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> <969@inews.intel.com> <17105@hydra.gatech.EDU>
Reply-To: orpheus@reed.UUCP (Aaron Semplers)
Organization: Reed College, Portland OR
Lines: 46

|   AARON SEMPLERS:
|   Apparently, Engel wrote it as a proposal to Parker Brothers. They
| had some gripes about the user interface and the deal fell apart.
 
|   JOHN CALHOUN:
|   What I mean is, if a game was offered to a company that could
| perhaps sue if it is released w/o their approval, then said company
| ought to have its rights over the program denied.  So, Parker
| Brothers doesn't want it?
|   Fine, it's shareware.
 
|   PAUL MEYER:
|   I don't know about companies that have folded, but I wouldn't
| agree with a law making the Risk version PB turned down into public
| domain... It's their game...
|   I think the only way to get game companies into the Mac market is
| to make it worth their while.  Buy game software, stop pirating it...
|   If we can broaden the user base, especially at the low end, there
| will be a much larger market for Mac games, and we'll see some new
| entrants into the mac gaming arena.
 
 
    No one can deny that Risk belongs to Parker Brothers. It would be
interesting to see legislation passed that made copyright and trademark
nothing more than a "first shot at it" sort of thing. Interesting, but
probably not in the long term interests of the economy. I am not big on
intellectual property rights myself, but they do serve a purpose.
 
    More to the point, the reason the Mac game market is pretty damn
barren is not because of pirating. That is a factor in any game market,
but certainly much more of a factor in the PC world than the Mac world,
and I don't see Jet Fighter coming out for the Mac any time soon.  I
suspect that copy protection itself is more to blame for poor game sales
that piracy. And of course, that is not the primary reason, either.
 
    The truth is, programming a Mac to do any serious gaming requires
devotion and time. Lots of it. It is a far cry from the micros of the
early Eighties, and to do anything with offscreen worlds has been a
roller coaster ride to Hell until recently. HyperCard was meant to soften
the blow, I think. Perhaps this current crop of HyperCard games will go
on to put out a lot of good products. (Eeesh. I'm scaring myself.)
 
    The best thing being done for the Macintosh game market today is
32-Bit QuickDraw and the low-cost machines.
 
orpheus@reed