Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!icus!eric
From: eric@icus.islp.ny.us (Eric L. Hyman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Software Development And Piracy (Spurred By FTL replies)
Message-ID: <555@icus.islp.ny.us>
Date: 6 Dec 88 04:02:12 GMT
Reply-To: eric@icus.UUCP ()
Organization: ICUS Software Systems, Islip, New York
Lines: 150



Hmmm This Bit about FTL and copywritten Save files and
peoeples replies to it have made me decide to write A note.

My name is Eric Hyman, And I like you am A dedicated Amigophile.
By trade I am A Programmer, and I am currently trying
to MAKE A LIVING (Underline that) by doing software for our favorite machine,
I currently have 3 products complete, All are translations of Older 8
Bit Titles done for SSI (Kampfgruppe, Gettysburg and
the just released Rebel Charge). I like you Have wished people
would put more "oomph" into their amiga translations and as a result
have complely re-written the programs I have worked on so that they
take advantage of the Amiga. This means I Rewrote the whole thing in C
with some Assembly (The origial code was compiled basic ), I redid all
The graphics in tha game to make it pleasant to the eye and take advantage
of the amiga (Lores 320*160*4 Screen for map 640*40 for text). In addition
I added a full blown mouse interface to an originally Keyboard
only game, and then threw in some digitized sounds.
Copy protection? SSI as a company wants it, me as an author
Didn't. Compromise: Manual based protection on Game load, using
statistics on the units in the game that are contained on a ready
refrence card.(It will be handy when you are playing), In addition, 
with an assignment or two, the Game will happily reside on a Hardrive,
and will run on Any( Cross my Fingers 8) ) Amiga configuration.

Now to my points.

How many people reading this article can HONESTLY say they have NEVER
Copied A disk of Commercial software.

Im willing to bet few people will raise their hands and those of you
who can honestly do so are to be commended (If your interested,
Send me your address and I'll send you one of my games FREE!)

How many of you on the other hand have come up with a Rationaliztion for
their copying. for example:

1.	"I only Pirate copywritten software"
2.	"I Don't have enough money to buy all the progrms available,
	 By copying Them I can find the ones I truly like/Use and
	 THEN I go out and buy them"

3.	"Software authors/companies make tons of money allready
	 and their stuff is too high priced, I'll copy it till
	 they bring down the price"

4.	"With All the bugs in xxx Software, I'll copy and use
	it untill Im satisfied its done, then Maybe I'll buy it"

5.  or perhaps " Well its a straight port, they didn't amigatize it 
	so I won't buy it" (But you'll sure copy it right!)

Now granted if your a type 2 or 4, and you Adhere to your reasoning,
then Admitedlly this ins't as bad as the other types (Especially those
who copy and distibute for the mere fun of it)

Now that I've said all that heres some facts:

	Each one of The projects I have done has taken me AT least
	6 Months of Nonstop work putting in 5-16 Hours a day working on it,

	In my opinion The products I have done, Have been good translations
	in that They take advantage of the machine, and Others
	must Agree as they have been reviwed favorably (Sept 88
	Computer gaming world), and have placed well in "Best Of"
	LIsts, which is A compliment to any Wargamme (28th in Amiga worlds
	poll)

	And now for All the people who envision me writting this on
	MY Souped up to the Gils Amiga 2000 with Full slots.
	Which sits in the corner of my Lavish house on the bay,
	(Note that was all sarcastic)

	here are  earnings on one of my products:

	Gettysburg Amiga: (Rated #1 2 years in a row as An 8 Bit title )
	Release January '88

	(Fumbles for latest ledger sheet )

		$2935.45

	All of which was paid on A % of sales that is about average for the industry,
	My first product Kampfgruppe has netted me about double that, over
	two years and hopfuly Rebel charge will get me Signifigantly more.
	But Who knows. Currently I am doing nothing but writting for the AMiga,
	And Things are very tight for me fincancially And I don't
	know why I'm still doing it cause Im certainly not makeing enough Money!

	Why Am I not making money? Becase for Every Unit that SSI sells
	At least 4 Are copied! And From my experience at least 1/2 of those
	are copied by people who use it, but won't buy it for one
	reason or another.

	Well now that I've babbled on for A while,heres the bottome line.
	Most people program for 2 reasons. 1) Cause the Love to and
	2) To make money.
	And If they aren't going to make a decent amount of money they
	aren't going to do it for very long.
	So instead of whining and complaing about how this company won't write
	for the machine, or that company won't, or another won't do 
	A better job. BUY SOME SOFTWARE and give them
	incentive. its A rule in this industry, Whichever market
	genrates strongs sales is gonna be where the Development dollars go,
	and if there aren't enough sales, there isn't going to be a push in that
	market.

	Any way you cut it, using an Boot leg copy of a program
	is wrong. And as long as you try to exaplin it your
	going to hurt the people who write it, and Some what
	less directly yourself.

	And one last though.

	I've Done everything I though I had to for A Succesfull amiga
	product. And so far have been very disappointed by the
	results. So either I'm doint something wrong r a lot of
	people are talking out of two corners of their mouths when
	Stating their excuses for pirating. And quite
	Frankly If I didn't like this silly machine So damn much
	I doubt I'd still be working on it! (My pocket
	book would much rather sell over 100000 versions of a messy
	dos program!)(Comments?)

	Now beofre you Flame me and we start anohter Holy war,
	Let me Just ask that you read this again and think about the points 
	have made, and then if you still disagre respond. Also
	My apologies if this a bit Disjointed, But the Last FTL bashing
	letter got Under My skin and I wanted to get this written and off
	before I lost the urge to write it.

						Eric Hyman
				(Currently Un-employed while doing
					doing Amiga Wargames )



   Eric Hyman       |             ...att    \
                    |                boulder \
   eric @ icus      |                talcott  !icus!eric
                    |                pacbell /
                    |                sbcs   /

-- 
   Eric Hyman       |             ...att    \
                    |                boulder \
   eric @ icus      |                talcott  !icus!eric
                    |                pacbell /
                    |                sbcs   /