Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!pacbell.com!tandem!zorch!sega0!mykes From: mykes@sega0.SF-Bay.ORG (Mike Schwartz) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer Subject: Re: Mike Farren Tutorial. Message-ID: Date: 27 Mar 91 16:05:09 GMT References: <1991Mar24.204206.11145@starnet.uucp> <23835@well.sf.ca.us> Organization: Amiga makes it possible Lines: 69 In article <23835@well.sf.ca.us> farren@well.sf.ca.us (Mike Farren) writes: > >I refuse to include 1400+ lines, each of which consists mostly of spaces. >Mr. Schraem, I hope that your programming skills exceed your posting skills. > >I was not saying that "all game programmers are ignorant". I AM saying that >most of them are lazy. You make no points with me with your claims about >the disastrous effects of the multitasking, since all of your points are >rather easily rebutted. You make negative points with me with your flaming >me for not having done enough game development. > What is lazier, writing a custom set of floppy disk drivers or calling trackdisk.device? What is lazier, writing your own multitasking kernel or using Exec? What is lazier, writing custom blitter code or calling BlitBitMap()? What is not lazier is working around all the crap that the OS puts in your way. The bull that I see competent programmers on other machines do on the Amiga using the OS (like writing directly into the workbench bitplanes to recover memory) is apalling. >I have been a game developer since 1978. I have over thirty PUBLISHED >products. Can you say the same? I have developed for everything from arcade >games to Apples, from Macs to HP laptops. Can you say the same? I believe >that my credibility is high. > Something that hurts your credibility is inflamatory statements that you tend to make when someone doesn't agree with you. I have been a game developer since 1973. I have over thirty PUBLISHED products, too. I can say the same. I have developed everything from arcade machines, to apples, to C64s to Macs, and VCS and Genesis, too. My credibility is just as high based upon your criterea. Experience doesn't make you right (or me either). I hate pissing contests, but it looks to me like we are both right to a large degree. Some games can be done without the OS and some can be done with it. There is no need to make a game like HACK or LARN run without the OS. But there is also no reason for a game like Shadow of the Beast to work under it. Some of us are into performance, and some are not. >A project with 15,000 hours? If you are talking about your own personal >hours, a bit of math shows pretty clearly that your claim is, shall we say, >overblown. That's 1,500 10-hour days. That's five YEARS of full-time work, >and I say that any project that takes five years to complete is wrong. >If, on the other hand, you're talking about the number of hours I've spent >as a programmer, simply take the 22 years I've been doing it, multiply by >about 2 to 4 hours a day, on average, and you'll come up with a pretty >impressive number yourself. > Two points. Madden Football on the Apple II took 5 years. And 7 people working full time can put in 15,000 hours in one year (at 40 hours per week). My advice to you is to try to be a little less abrasive. When you post thousands of lines of biased opinions, you can expect to get flamed in response. This is the main function of usenet :) If you can't stand the flames, get out of the kitchen. >-- >Mike Farren farren@well.sf.ca.us -- ******************************************************** * Appendix A of the Amiga Hardware Manual tells you * * everything you need to know to take full advantage * * of the power of the Amiga. And it is only 10 pages! * ********************************************************