Xref: utzoo comp.sys.amiga:26667 comp.misc:4409
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!dan-hankins
From: dan-hankins@cup.portal.com (Daniel B Hankins)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.misc
Subject: Re: Software Development And Piracy (Spurred By FTL replies)
Message-ID: <12643@cup.portal.com>
Date: 16 Dec 88 06:46:34 GMT
References: <555@icus.islp.ny.us> <2363@ddsw1.MCS.COM> <27145@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 42

In article <1379@leah.Albany.Edu> jac423@leah.Albany.Edu (Julius A Cisek)
writes:

>You're telling me that Jez San who  wrote  Starglider  II  is  a  sloppy
>programmer? Ha! Lets see you do three dimentional (filled!) graphix that
>move like that!

I think Starglider II is a special case.  Unlike most games, SGII consumes
*all* of a 512K machine just to run.  It's simply too large to coexist with
Workbench and still do what it does.  This should be stated on the package,
though.  And it should be able to be loaded to a harddisk, and to coexist
*if* the user has all that extra memory.  I have extra memory, and there
really isn't a good reason why SGII could not detect this, quiesce the OS
(rather than wipe it out entirely), and run mostly in the extra space,
allowing me to restart the OS when I'm done with the game - without
rebooting.

>I'd say you need a Porsche with  things  like  DM,  Dragon's  Lair,  and
>Starglider II. These programs are not Amoeba, you know...

No, they aren't.  But they should be written to take advantage of extra
Amiga add-ons if they are there.  Okay, take over the machine on a 512K job
with one disk drive, etc.  But not my 1.5Meg machine - let AmyDos remain,
*please*.

>This I'm not sure on (does the Amiga handle this?), but unless a  sample
>takes  over  the system momentarily, it will certainly not work.

Nope, it will work.  Load the sample into chip ram, point the DMA at it,
then say 'go!' to the sound chip.  The 68000 is no longer needed.  I have
a demo I created which (a) coexists with AmyDos, (b) displays Kahnankas at
full speed, and (c) plays a Sonix sampled song at full speed.

>that  several  of these people were using these arguments to rationalize
>piracy (hypocrits! A copied or cracked version will STILL take over your

I'm not trying to rationalize piracy - I think there's an alternative to
the software seller/pirate war that now exists.  See my posting with a
subject line that begins 'FREE' for details.


Dan Hankins