Re: Campaign to Preserve ORIGINAL versions of ancient Apple ][ Games

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

phoenyx writes ...
> 
> I think the problem here is one of viewpoint. You should try looking at this
> from a business point of view.

     As someone who wrote and sold several programs and worked for a number of
Apple II magazines, I have.



> Much Apple II software was cheaper than the
> equivalent PC programs. This automatically made the profit margin lower. Home
> hobbyist and educational software also generated small profits. Games were the
> big seller on all platforms and generally sold for the same prices, but due to
> the quantity of sales they usually generated a decent profit. The more useful
> systems such as word processing or other business oriented software usually
> had the highest prices. This has always been the case for anything which
> shared the home and business markets.
> 
> For businesses this was less of a concern since it was a legitimate expense,
> but for the average II user, price was definite concern. Here's a perspective
> developer point of view, just food for thought as it's all irrelevant anyhow.
>

     Not really. The Apple II market is changed, not gone. II users will buy
software; but, the software must be promoted and reviewed and sold at relatively
low prices.


 
> As a business, I would surely be looking at where I can get the best revenue.
> Since I am already losing sales in the shrinking II market, either from actual
> loss of customers or from II users pirating copies, or whatever other reasons,
> I will certainly think about joining the PC world where sales are climbing and
> software needs are growing. This new market will allow me to sell my current
> programs as well as any new programs and ideas I or my staff can think of. At
> this point I will still keep my II line of software. Due to dwindling sales I
> cannot guarantee any future development unless I see some growth or at least
> an arrest in the decline of sales. In fact, if sales continue to dwindle at
> the current rate I may have to cease current projects to offset loss in the
> Apple II arena.
>
     Software piracy could hardly be more insignificant. If any current commercial
software is being pirated, it must be on an individual, person to person, basis.
There does not appear to be any warez site offering downloads of Spectrum,
ProTerm, Ultima/gs, etc..

     As for a market, if you look at Apple II users with the idea of finding a
PC-style software market, you will not find much. With no large Apple II software
producers, no local distribution, no major print media, and nearly no advertising,
one can not very well expect our market to fit the traditional model for software
markets.

     On the other hand, there are many thousands of Apple II users; and, user
numbers are increasing. Turning this situation into an active, profitable market
for software may take some ingenuity; but, it should be doable.



> And so it goes in the business world where profit and growth are generally
> required for success. Too bad the open source movement didn't start in the
> II area. Part of the problem was the proprietary ideology fostered by the
> early computer oriented businesses. I can understand some of the reasoning
> behind this. Small businesses often needed protection from larger companies
> or even others who might take advantage of their ideas.

     Actually, Apple II software creators were pretty good about telling 'how I
did it'. For instance, issues of inCider, Nibble, SoftTalk, and Creative Computing
contain many articles by game designers covering animation, picture compression,
parsing, and other aspects of game programming. Besides how-to articles, we also
had utilities like Graphics Magician, assorted game creation programs, and
listings of countless programs in SoftSide.

     For most of the commercial Apple II software produced before 1986, once you
get past any copy protection, you probably have as much or more useful information
about the program than you get now via open sourcing.

     The IIgs changed everything. Apple never delivered a decent GS BASIC. Lacking
a good entry level programming language for taking control of IIgs features under
GS System, most users opted out of GS programming.

     As a means to encourage new programming, open sourcing for IIgs ROMs, GS
System, important games, Appleworks GS, Platinum Paint, and similar products would
have been a great help in the late 1980's and early 1990's. It would be very
welcome today.

     Of course, programmers are under no obligation to share source code. It would
be reasonable for a programmer of Questron II/gs, Bard's Tale/gs, Dungeon Master,
Spectrum, etc. to expect payment for an annotated source listing. 




> As well, programmers
> quite often didn't make good businessmen and had to rely on others to handle
> this aspect of the business.

     Yes; there are many examples of this situation. More often than not
(especially in recent years), the problem has been that programmers are too ready
to give away their products. It is difficult to create a genuine market for, say,
Apple II/IIgs games when potential buyers are accustomed to having each new game
release be as freeware.



> Usually these folks weren't as interested in
> sharing ideas as much as making profits and growing the business. At this era
> in the youth of the computer industry, growth was the primary concern of most
> businesses.
 ....

     Maximizing profit is what businesses are supposed to do. Whatever software a
company like SSI, Origin, Sierra, Activision, ... decides to release as freeware
should be released because there is a net benefit to the company. Similarly, these
software makers should invest a bit of effort into making for sale re-releases of
Apple II/IIgs classics profitable.



Rubywand