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From: jsp@key.COM (James Preston)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Pirates!  by MicroProse (not a review, a complaint, please read)
Message-ID: <1359@key.COM>
Date: 8 Jan 90 02:10:59 GMT
References: <84978@linus.UUCP> <1031@pmafire.UUCP> <1990Jan5.055220.4463@athena.mit.edu>
Reply-To: jsp@penguin.key.COM (James Preston)
Organization: Key Computer Laboratories, Fremont
Lines: 42

In article <1990Jan5.055220.4463@athena.mit.edu> rsfinn@athena.mit.edu (Russell S. Finn) writes:
>As the author of Pirates! for the Macintosh when I worked at
>MicroProse, I'm genuinely curious about this, as I tried to make the
>copy protection as unobtrusive as possible, within the dictates of
>company policy.  With Pirates!, you need to (1) insert the master disk
>briefly when starting the program, and (2) look up a piece of
>information in the manual when creating a new character, which should
>happen fairly infrequently (once you've gotten into the game).
>
>That's the theory, anyway.  Which part didn't your father-in-law like?

I can tell you what I find most annoying about it:  At least with most of
the "provide a piece of information from the manual" type of protection, the
request gives a page number.  Your scheme is cute in that it attempts to
make it look like it's part of the game, but without a page number, it takes
too damned long to find the right table!  I am sorely tempted to take the
time to make myself a "cheat sheet" of all those stupid tables just so I
won't have to keep thumbing through every page of the manual!

If you still have any contact with the folks at MicroProse, tell them that
I for one absolutely will NOT buy any more of their products, no matter HOW
good the game might be, as long as they continue to use copy protection.
Tell them if Spectrum Holobyte can do it, MicroProse can do it.  (An aside
in the strictest confidence:  I have been known to use COPY II to acquire
a (copy-protected) game without paying for it.  On the other hand, if I
like something from Spectrum Holobyte (which means practically everything
they've done), I make a point of BUYING it.  It's my way of showing support 
for companies that don't copy protect.)

And now, since you freely admit to being the author, a comment on the game
itself:  I haven't played it much (partly because of the annoying copy
protection), but is there more to it than have a sword fight, sail the ship,
fight other ships, attack/go into towns?  And why-oh-why can I only save a
game when I'm in a town?!?!?  This is the SECOND most annoying thing about
the game.  Sometimes, I don't have the time to find a friendly town to sail
into (when the girlfriend says, "We're late", you don't say, "Just five more
minutes; I've gotta get back to port.")  So far, I've just been exploring
the game, but I hesitate to start a real compaign for fear that, one day,
I'll lose it (or at least the last n hours progress) because I don't have
time to make port.

--James Preston