Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!ucsd!pacbell.com!pacbell!well!farren
From: farren@well.sf.ca.us (Mike Farren)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Awesome! No I am Pi**ed!
Message-ID: <21946@well.sf.ca.us>
Date: 4 Dec 90 08:44:58 GMT
References: <BK.90Nov29222757@tadtec.uucp>
Distribution: comp
Lines: 65

bk@tadtec.uucp (Brian Kelly) writes:

>I'm joining this thread quite late, however I have a few points to make:
>A bit closer to the subject, there really is only one reason that a game won't
>run on a all machines and that is copy protection.

No, that should be "BAD copy protection".  There is NO reason that ANY game
shouldn't work on all machines, even if it's a take-over-the-machine-only-boot-
from-this-disk-no-hard-drive-reboot-won't-work monster.

Your example proves my thesis.  Crummy copy protection == crummy game.
Regardless of the game's other merits.

>Of course just about no copy protection scheme is going to stop [pirates]

That's why I don't believe in copy protection, but that's a different topic.

>As for co-existing with the OS. The beginning of the game (for the benefit of
>everyone but the five people who bought it *sigh*) has a paddle steamer scroll
>on to the screen and a little diver jump off it. This is a 50/60Hz scroll with
>rippling/fading out reflections. The copperlist for this is quite large, and
>needs constant tending to. I honestly cannot see any way of making that sort 
>of thing work with exec still running.

You didn't try hard enough, seems to me.  My options would have been to try
it within the context of exec (what does exec care about your copperlist?),
installing myself in front of the exec interrupt handlers, if timing was
really tight, and blowing the fancy demo if it didn't work.  People generally
don't like demos after the first time, anyhow.  In NO event should it be
necessary to totally and permanently disable multitasking.

Please note that nobody is saying you can't take over - just that you
shouldn't trash anything else if you do, and you should return the machine
to the previous (multitasking) state when you're done, or if the player
chooses to pause.

>Apart from that I would definitely have run out of space on a 512k machhine 
>without taking over.

Then you definitely either (A) didn't try hard enough, (B) don't optimize
effectively enough, (C) didn't design correctly, or (D) didn't realize that
people will accept a 1M game (look at SimCity, which nobody can claim didn't
sell well), and go with that.  If you're really serious about running in
a 512K machine, then you should design with that in mind, and skip the
memory-intensive stuff if you need to.  Or, at least, clean it up.
You can't get my sympathy with a claim that you "needed" all of the 512K,
when the system takes comparatively little of that, and there are so many
ways to get around the problem.

>To summarise:
>              1) All games shouldn't have to multitask.
	Right, but they do have to be polite about it.

>              2) All games should run on all platforms.
	Right.
>              3) Good (??) copy protection will invariably screw up no 2.
	Totally, absolutely, wrong.

And you forgot #4:

4) Taking over the machine and requiring a reboot is o.k.
	WRONG!

-- 
Mike Farren 				     farren@well.sf.ca.us