An Example of Ancient Wares and Present Values

[sirthomas@aol.comyadayada (SirThomas)]

At the risk of getting heavily flamed by pirates and protectionists alike, here
goes.

On the value that companies place on "ancient" software, how about looking at a
fact or two?  Consider this current, Year 2000, example from Activision:

Buy a whole CD jam packed with Atari 2600 games for $12.95, get a CD
containing:

Zork I
Zork II
Zork III
Beyond Zork
Zork Zero
Enchanter
Sorcerer
Spellbreaker
Wishbringer

...and...

Scans of all the manuals.

!!!AND!!!

All the hint books.

Cost of just  Zork I, II, and III from 1984?  Let's see.  Got an InCider from
1984 right here...  ::flip::  ::flip::  ::flip::  Ah, here we go.  Zorks are
$24 each.  Hint books are $7.95 each.  Plus postage and packing.  Wow...  And
that's from a discount software company!  I wonder what was the suggested
retail price was.  (When I think of how I slaved away in a non-air-conditioned
computer lab in a dorm on the college campus on the 7pm to midnight shift to
buy Zorks at $24 in 1984 at $3.25 an hour, I shudder.  No wonder I couldn't
afford the hint books!  ::flip::  ::flip::  ::flip::  Or another real Disk II.)
 Obviously, the Zorks are copyrighted.

Cost in 2000, after $3.95 postage and packing, absolutely, totally,
unequivocally FREE!!!  Still copyrighted, though!!!

Hmmmm...

What conclusions could be drawn on what Activision thinks of the value of this
"ancient" software?  Could one extrapolate this example to lots and lots of
other companies?

Double Hmmmm...

Well, draw your own conclusions.  As for me, I'm keeping my conclusions and
extrapolations to myself!  :)





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