Re: Building An Apple ][ Software Archive

["Tom Zuchowski" <tzuchow@attglobal.net>]

IMHO asimov's great sin was its total lack of maintenance. As someone
mentioned, it was a catalogue disaster, and they did not bother to remove
commercially viable titles from their list. That was unacceptable and I
fully understand the wrath asimov felt from many people. I wholeheartedly
agree that asimov SHOULD have been shut down. It WAS criminal the way they
callously damaged then-current authors and publishers. I totally gave up on
trying to get them to fix their Eamon library, which was a total disaster. I
settled for telling everyone I met to get their Eamon DSK's anywhere but
asimov.

Having said that, I have some difficulty understanding the problem the
copyright zealots are having with 20-year-old DOS 3.3 games that were
commercially DOA long before the Apple IIgs came out. I have quite a stack
of these. Anybody ever try Automated Simulations' old games? Invasion Orion,
Temple of Apshai, Rescue at Rigel, Hellfire Warrior, for some examples. And
then later when AS morphed into Epyx, there was Star Warrior, Crush,
Crumble, & Chomp and a bunch of other really fun plays.

Anybody remember Three Mile Island? I've spent about a million hours playing
that one. All done in Lo-res graphics, a sure moneymaker in today's market!

How about Robot War? I had it directly from the author at Kansasfest one
year (was his name Silas Warner?) that the original masters of that great
classic went into a landfill and were lost forever. He regretfully had no
idea how we would go about getting it released to the public domain, and he
is the author! But that game has zero value in today's computer market.

I toyed with the idea of including a bunch of those old Automated
Simulations games on my Eamon disk. But in the end, I chickened out.
Needless to say I am not in the least bit concerned about any response from
the Epyx people although if they did come forward, I would quickly do
anything they required of me. No, I chickened because I didn't want to face
the firestorm from the copyright zealots.

Tom Zuchowski
Eamon Adventurer's Guild newsletter and CD


"Steve Mentzer" <smentzer@pacbell.net> wrote in message
news:KsPx5.28$uE2.46933@news.pacbell.net...
>
>
> There are a couple of really good points to be made here.
>
>
> #1: The apple II software market is effectively dead. There are vendors
who
> sell titles (SSII, etc) but that isn't enough to sustain a market.
>
> #2: While asimov, fairway, etc are good sources of disk images, they do
very
> little to preserve the memory of the titles.
>
> #3: I think publishers, authors, companies, etc would be more apt to
"donate"
> their old, unsupported software titles, if each title was more than just a
disk
> image. A good indexing system, historical write ups, screenshots, company
> links, email addresses, etc etc would be a good way to preserve the
memories of
> the Apple II, as well as promote the new titles the companies are
producing.
>
> #4: The development aspect of this effort is rather straightforward. With
some
> assistance in the "web interface" area of things, I can develop a powerful
> backend that will allow "authorized" people to create index entries. As
time
> goes on, participation in the archive will grow, and so will the memories.
>
> #5: The index will not exist to simply be a place to collect disk images.
> Pirates are going to do that no matter what, but the emphasis should be on
> maintaining the historical significance of the Apple II.
>
>
> Guys, if y'all are serious about this, let me know. I am a professional
> software developer with a bazillion years of experience. I do this kind of
> stuff for a living, and while it isn't a minor undertaking, it is doable.
>
>
>
>
>