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From: pem@cadnetix.UUCP (Paul Meyer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Strategic Conquest Plus Complaints
Message-ID: <1218@cadnetix.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 2-Dec-87 15:47:49 EST
Article-I.D.: cadnetix.1218
Posted: Wed Dec  2 15:47:49 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 7-Dec-87 00:21:16 EST
References: <7588@dartvax.UUCP> <7701@reed.UUCP> <6710@apple.UUCP> <1396@cartan.Berkeley.EDU> <1470@ems.Ems.MN.ORG>
Reply-To: pem@cadnetix.UUCP (Paul Meyer)
Organization: Cadnetix Corp.,  Boulder, CO
Lines: 58
Summary: PBI's copy protection sucks as badly as their support

andrew@ems.Ems.MN.ORG (Andrew C.Esh) writes:
>In article <1396@cartan.Berkeley.EDU> lippin@wheatena.UUCP (Tom Lippincott, ..ucbvax!bosco!lippin) writes:
>>Recently dwb@apple.UUCP (David W. Berry) said:
>>>	Also since the copy protection scheme doesn't pass on a Mac SE,
>>>or presumably a Mac II.  This means that you wind up always playing the
>>>unbeatable, cheating level when using it on an SE.
[...]
>not get past the logon/password stuff.  I called PBI Software ((415)
>349-8765) and got ahold of one of the programmers[...]
>[...]Problem fixed, it requires an upgrade.

AARGH!

I have become extremely irritated at PBI once again!

Once upon a time I did not buy the original Strategic Conquest because
the only copy I'd seen was (unknown to me) an illegitimate one.  I did
not want a game that cheated, whether or not I could eventually learn
to beat it.  Eventually I found out (from an article in a newsletter)
that this was the result of a copy protection scheme, so I did go out
and buy SC+.

In fact, I enjoyed the game a lot--I like exploration and conquest
style games--for a couple of months.  When I got my brand new SE I
rapidly discovered that the copy protection lost on it.  I waited for
any word in magazines or from PBI (since I'd registered my copy) that
an upgrade was available, to no avail.  This article was the first
hint I had that I could get an upgrade.  I have sent PBI a letter with
my disks, and I wait to find out if they'll send me the upgrade.  If
they want 2 cents extra for it, I don't intend to pay--unless they
will give me a way to put the game on my hard disk so I don't have to
carry floppies around to play when I bring my Mac to my parents'
house, or wherever.

I can almost accept that PBI is continuing to use copy protection in
the increasingly-hard-disk-oriented Mac marketplace.  I can almost
accept that the only way to discover that the copy protection has
broken on a new machine is to realize that the program is cheating,
and try a game at level one to verify it.  I can NOT accept that PBI
doesn't make the slightest effort to notify prospective purchasers or
registered customers of upgrades--I admit they had no way of knowing
that I had upgraded my machine, but why was *I* supposed to make a
long-distance telephone call to find out what was wrong?

At the time I bought SC+, I gritted my teeth at the copy protection
but bought the game because it was the only decent wargame for the
Mac.  This is no longer entirely true, and more games are at long last
becoming available.  I am resolved that PBI will not receive another
penny of my money unless they do something to let me carry their game
on my hard disk and/or make it a lot easier to tell when the copy
protection scheme has broken.  If you haven't bought SC, don't!  PBI
will clean up their act only when they believe they are losing more
sales because of it than they gain from it.

(my mail connection will be flaky for the next month or so, so don't
count too much on mailed replies getting through...)
-- 
pem@cadnetix.UUCP  (hao!isis!ico!cadnetix!pem)