Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!att!linac!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!mintaka!olivea!tymix!tardis!udwarf.tymnet.com!carl
From: carl@udwarf.tymnet.com (Carl Baltrunas & Cherie Marinelli 0.1.9)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Re: Risk
Message-ID: <0B030501.YC3U5S@udwarf.tymnet.com>
Date: 17 Nov 90 19:13:05 GMT
Reply-To: carl%udwarf@tardis.tymnet.com
Organization: Catalyst Art
Lines: 65
X-Mailer: uAccess - Mac Release: 0.1.9


In article <969@inews.intel.com>, pmeyer@ecocd7.intel.com (Paul Meyer) writes:
> 
> In article <26904.2740520a@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> mlab2@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu writes:
> >In article <15687@reed.UUCP>, orpheus@reed.UUCP (Aaron Semplers) writes:
> >> Apparently, Engel wrote it as a proposal to Parker Brothers. They had
> >> some gripes about the user interface and the deal fell apart. He said
> >
> >Has it occurred to anyone else that situations like this ought to inspire some
> >sort of law.  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.
> 
> 	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.  Perhaps Parker Brothers is going to develop their own version,
> or they think a computer version will cut into the sales of the board
> version.  Who knows?  It's their game.  We don't have a "right" to have
> a Mac version unless they feel like selling one or licensing it.  
>
Maybe if you really like something like "Risk", whether it was a demo or
bootleg, you can all write to Parker Brothers and tell them you like the
version you've seen written by Tone Engel and you think they should contact
Tone and market it.  It is a good implementation and with support from PB
it could have additional battle scenerios added (making the computer more
difficult to beat) and/or multi-user versions could be made that run over a
lan or appletalk network.  Tell them you would buy it if they distributed it.
(Of course someone in the Boston area should call Tone and ask him if he'd
 be willing to work on it again if PB contacted him.  His program may not
 be public domain, or even able to be sold due to trademark, but it is his
 intellectual property and he does have a copyright on his source code.)

[[Climb on soapbox]]
It seems to me that a lot of companies look for making a profit first and
what kind of market a potential product has.  Much less often will the market
go to an existing company and say: "We want you to produce this existing
product in this medium."  i.e. We want Parker Brothers to provide a computer
version of their Risk game with a nifty interface, say like on a Macintosh.

One reason for this is it costs to diversify.  If you make board games, your
production is in designing artwork for the boards, printing cards, directions
and manufacturing game pieces.  Designing computer software to play the same
games is a completely different business.  The packaging part may be similar
but you have to hire a different type of people, and you can't just expect to
sell a game on it's own merits.  You have to remember the platform it run on
(and the platforms keep changing... PB can sell the exact same game board they
developed years ago and people would buy it... you can't do that with software).
[Climb off soapbox]

By the way, I have a version of Risk written in Basic for the PDP-10 and a copy
that I ported into Fortran to run on the same machine 15 years ago.  Bet no one
would want to port that to the Mac.  The interface has changed so much that it
would NOT be worth the bother to port it.  Better to rewrite it from scratch
with maybe a few hints on the strategy code from reading the Basic or Fortran.
It even draws maps of the world and the continents on the hardcopy terminal
that it was designed to run on.  Of course, I almost never use the PDP-10s any
more since I'm now mostly working with SunOs (Unix) and my Mac, so digging out
the sources is non-trivial.

Anyway, that's my $0.02 worth... maybe someone from Parker Brothers IS on the
net and they are listening and reading comp.*.*.games or rec.*games.  Anyone
know?  (or maybe they just use computers for process control and billing? :-)

-Carl


 Carl A Baltrunas - Catalyst Art
 Cherie Marinelli - Bijoux
 {sumex, apple}!oliveb!tymix!atlas!udwarf!{carl or cherie}
 {carl or cherie}%udwarf@tardis.tymnet.com