Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!cbmvax!jesup
From: jesup@cbmvax.commodore.com (Randell Jesup)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.games
Subject: Re: Run (don't walk) to your store.  Lemmings has been released.
Message-ID: <19143@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Date: 20 Feb 91 06:46:52 GMT
References: <19040@cbmvax.commodore.com> <1991Feb16.193252.20795@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> <19052@cbmvax.commodore.com> <1991Feb18.051008.11300@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> <52197@cornell.UUCP> <2323@odin.cs.hw.ac.uk>
Reply-To: jesup@cbmvax.commodore.com (Randell Jesup)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Lines: 48

In article <2323@odin.cs.hw.ac.uk> rwkay@cs.hw.ac.uk (R.W.Kay) writes:
>simply state that Lemmings would be HD installable, if it wasn't for the
>fact that it would
>be too easy too copy if it was AMIGADOS'd in any way. 

	I'm certain the pirates can copy it.  It's a war of escalation,
and you can never get ahead for long, and while you do this you annoy your
legitimate customers.  I understand that the piracy problem is worse in
europe (for a number of reasons): I think that the european SW companies
should try hard to educate the buying public.  Explain to them that they're
hurting themselves, and have much to gain from abstaining.  Part of the
problem is cultural: work to change the culture (and not just adversarily:
band together and find ways to positively encourage pirates to change).
Part of the problem is the average age of the owners (not much one can do
about that except hope they grow up).  Etc.

	The pirates crack the game anyways, though it may take them a
week or two.  Even if it takes them time, they aren't going to buy (much)
software when they know they can get it from their friends in a week or
two, so you don't lose many sales to them.  The only sales you might lose
are the sales to people who (a) normally would pirate it but HAVE to
have it before it's cracked, and (b) some casual pirates who don't
regularily collect pirated disks but might copy one if it were unprotected.

>If you will not by Lemmings just because it is not HD installable, then
>you are missing
>out on a good game, that is not disk intensive, uses all available RAM
>(if >512k then
>it caches the levels in high memory) and uses an extra drive if present.

	It is a good game, but I guarantee you it would load faster from
my HD...

>P.S. In case you're wondering PC Lemmings is HD installable, but
>requires a key disk, again
>to prevent pirates.

	Things like this annoy the h*ll out of me: Key disks I can semi-live
with (at least I can load off the harddisk, but they DO go bad, like my
shanghai disk did, and others).  I prefer word-from-the-manual to keydisks,
and I prefer trust to that.

-- 
Randell Jesup, Keeper of AmigaDos, Commodore Engineering.
{uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!jesup, jesup@cbmvax.commodore.com  BIX: rjesup  
The compiler runs
Like a swift-flowing river
I wait in silence.  (From "The Zen of Programming")  ;-)