Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!columbia!rutgers!pyrnj!mirror!xanth!kent From: kent@xanth.UUCP (Kent Paul Dolan) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,rec.games.rogue Subject: Re: Rogue by Epyx Message-ID: <710@xanth.UUCP> Date: Tue, 17-Mar-87 10:06:42 EST Article-I.D.: xanth.710 Posted: Tue Mar 17 10:06:42 1987 Date-Received: Thu, 19-Mar-87 03:06:45 EST References: <1465@cbmvax.cbmvax.cbm.UUCP> <2657@well.UUCP> <433@umnd-cs-gw.umnd-cs.D.UMN.EDU> Reply-To: kent@xanth.UUCP (Kent Paul Dolan) Distribution: comp Organization: Old Dominion University, Norfolk Va. Lines: 82 Xref: mnetor comp.sys.amiga:2931 rec.games.rogue:147 In article <433@umnd-cs-gw.umnd-cs.D.UMN.EDU> jwabik@umnd-cs.D.UMN.EDU (Jeff Wabik) writes: >In article <2657@well.UUCP>, ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) writes: >> In article <1465@cbmvax.cbmvax.cbm.UUCP> daveb@cbmvax.cbm.UUCP (Dave Berezowski GUEST) writes: >> > Has anyone had any experience with Rogue by Epyx for the Amiga? >> As for "Rogue," why pay Epyx money when you can get "Hack" from The >> Software Distillery for nothing? "Hack" has more features, you can get the >> source (sort of), it's not copy-protected, and it's FREE. >> >Where/How does one contact the Software Distillery to get a copy of Hack? >I've got version 1.0.1E (The one that says, "Ported by John Toebes III") >all over it), but it has some nasty bugs (like not letting you go below >level 26) and tends to GURU me all the time. I tend to get a bit miffed by a conversation like this. First, Epyx's Rogue game is a delightful game in itself. It is a collateral decendent of a common ancester with Hack, an older rogue game. There is no purpose in avoiding the buying of commercial software. If that becomes a common attitude, there will very soon be NO commercial software written. Then we can all use our Amigas for their design purpose: $1300 paperweights. If you want good software to be written for this machine, buy some. That will convince the writers that there is a market. OR, don't, and convince them the opposite; your choice. Second, Hack is not "free"; it is shareware. Again, if you want to see more, you have to LET GO OF SOME MONEY! By releasing Hack as shareware, John A. Toebes VIII and his friends at the Software Distillery save you between 75% and 90% of the cost of the same software with the overhead of packaging, printed documentation, originating company's profit, formal distribution costs, distributer's profit, retailer's costs, and retailer's profit added in; all of your money goes to reward the author/adapter, a very cost effective way of encouraging the production of more high quality, cheap software. Show some appreciation; send the guys their ten bucks! If you don't, guess what other source of software for your potential-approaching-certainty paperweight will quickly dry up. [This is especially a tender subject with me. I released a (fairly crude, but educational and bug free) AmigaBASIC drawing package on this network about seven months ago as shareware. Not only did I not get any money back for 80 hours of work, I never even got an acknowledgement or a "Thank you." Guess how much time I have spent preparing better shareware competitors for Deluxe Paint II? Can you spell "zero"? I knew you could!] Anyway, this is at least AN address for the Software Distillery folks, at John's residence; it is the most recent I have. I strongly suggest sending along some money; I doubt strongly that they will be interested in going out of pocket to give some mooch a game: The Software Distillery c/o John A. Toebes VIII 120-H Northington Place Cary, North Carolina 27511 By the way, John and his friends adapted the game of Hack, originally written by a German whose name I don't have handy (but has appeared within the last few weeks in the appropriate newsgroup, rec.games.hack), to the Amiga, and, in the latest release, modified what was basically a character graphics game to have true (if tiny) graphic monsters, walls, and hallways. Because an unscrupulous company redistributed the Hack game for profit, John no longer distributes source, a real shame for those of us who just like to read how it was done, without having the talent to do it ourselves, for the education it gives. Since Hack is a game to which many contribute, and there are ongoing modifications to the game, Amiga Hack is now a diverging branch of the Hack tree, and will probably remain so. Hack for the Amiga is also available, as Fred Fish Disk #25, for $7 from: PiM Publications, Inc. P. O. Box 869 Fall River, MA 02722. Almost every Amiga users' group also has it in the group's library. Even if you get it from one of these sources, STILL send $10 to John and the Software Distillery, or else ... (See tediously repetitive argument above.). ;-) -- Kent Paul Dolan, "The Contradictor", 25 years as a programmer, CS MS Student at ODU, Norfolk, Virginia, to find out how I was supposed to be doing this stuff all these years. 3D dynamic motion graphics a specialty. Work wanted. Unemployment is soooo nice though...I never have to disclaim anything! UUCP : kent@xanth.UUCP or ...seismo!decuac!edison!xanth!kent CSNET : kent@odu.csnet ARPA : kent@xanth.cs.odu.edu Voice : (804) 587-7760 USnail: P.O. Box 1559, Norfolk, Va 23501-1559 Wisdom: "Peace in mankind's lifetime. Why leave a whole universe unexplored?"