Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!mitel!sce!cognos!gords
From: gords@cognos.UUCP (Gord Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: The Inevitable 1.4 Rom Problem
Message-ID: <7814@cognos.UUCP>
Date: 5 Jan 90 15:13:18 GMT
References: <7797@cognos.UUCP> <9211@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Reply-To: gords@cognos.UUCP (Gord Smith)
Organization: Cognos Inc., Ottawa, Canada
Lines: 60

In article <9211@cbmvax.commodore.com> daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) writes:
>in article <7797@cognos.UUCP>, gords@cognos.UUCP (Gord Smith -- me) says:
>> [Essentially FF1 and who-knows-what else don't work under 1.3 and these and
>> undoubtedly other stuff won't work under 1.4]
 
>Perhaps you're thinking of it in the wrong way.  What if, instead of breaking
>under 1.3, this program broke at random, during play.  In such a case, I'd
>feel the program was unusably buggy, and I'd be pretty angry at the vendor
>for shipping such drek.  
 
>Well, believe it or not, breaking under 1.3, or when there's a 68020 instead 
>of a 68000, is an equivalent bug.  Buggy programs should be fixed.  Period.
>Any company that won't fix the mistakes they've made isn't a company I'd want
>to make any purchases from in the future.  
 
I agree completely.  But, what chance do I have in convincing someone like EA
or some company that has since gone t*ts-up to revise their software?
 
When I bought FF1, KS1.3 wasn't out yet, so I had no idea it wouldn't work
under it.
 
>>How about something along the lines of the 68020/68000 boot-up on 2000's where
>>holding down the left mouse button causes it to boot in 68000 mode?
>>We could use the right mouse button for KS1.2 mode instead of KS1.4.
>>How about it Commodore?   
>
>As far as Commodore is concerned, the current OS is what's supported.  Any ...
 
That's fine, and, working at a company where sometimes fixing a bug in our
software causes an outcry from customers who liked it the broken way, I
appreciate and envy this stance.
 
>>Other folks?
 
>Third parties are always free to do whatever they like, even kludgery
>like this.  I saw a demo of a thing like this in Germany last year.  It
>let you load KickStart into some RAM, then boot from either a normal ROM
>or this RAM in a 500.  I don't know if this was ever built or not.
 
If it didn't use up precious RAM (i.e. just have both ROMs on a card with a
dip-switch accessable from outside a 500) my check would be in the mail.
 
I wholeheartedly agree that the turkeys that break the programming rules "should
be taken out and maimed" (Steve Martin).  However, the fact is that I and many
others have spent money on naughty software (whether knowingly or not) and
we're not likely to get the publishing conglomerates to issue an update to a
n-year-old game.  Look at the problems with, and subsequent "kludged" fixes
for, Artcic Fox etc. which barf on non-chip memory.  I don't think there have
been any official updates for these games, just a workaround.

I don't like this situation, but the fact is that some people have a
substantial investment in software that broke rules.  If it can't (or won't)
be enhanced, all they know is it won't work anymore if they upgrade OS's. 
CATCH-22.

-- 
D. Gordon Smith         Voice: (613) 738-1338 ext 6118       P.O. Box 9707
Cognos Incorporated       FAX: (613) 738-0002                3755 Riverside Dr.
uucp: gords@cognos.uucp || uunet!mitel!sce!cognos!gords      Ottawa, Ontario
"I bumped into Brewer's Retail 24 times!" - D. Prosser       CANADA  K1G 3Z4