Re: Asimov archive

[philipmsNO@SPAMPLEASEnetcom.com (Philip Steinman)]

On Wed, 29 Oct 1997 00:06:20 -0800, Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>
wrote:

>     Asimov maintains copies of many wares for which I have the
>originals, too. We might claim that this may make your originals and
>mine a bit less valuable; but, we do not own the copyrights. Our rights
>are not being violated.

I think it increases the value of the originals.  They are somewhat
like old baseball cards being reprinted.  You enjoy the reprints,
but then you check out what old originals you  had,
and then wished you had.  

>     Actually, the impact of sites like Asimov upon the value of an
>original copy of an old Apple II game is by no means clearly negative.
>Very few original copies of games like Ultima, Questron, Shadowkeep,
>Enchanter, Sorceror, Wizardry, Robot Odyssey, and Elite are available
>from current owners-- for sure, I have no intention of selling mine.

Exactly.  I'm a month new to the apple2 newsgroups, and it's been fun.
After downloading the applewin emulator and Wizardry I started to 
enjoy my old apple ][+ again.  I actually took it out of the closet
and fired it up again.  I bought Bard's tale and Wizardry
original games from the marketplace group after bidding on them.
For me, they are somewhat of a novelty now, a remembrance
of growing up and enjoying my first computer.  (Nowadays
I use a PowerMac at work, and Win95 at home).

>     Were it not for Asimov, gm.de, uni.kl.de, etc. so few users would
>be playing Apple II games that the Apple II gaming culture would cease
>to exist. Instead, lots of Apple II owners are playing the vintage games
>and, thanks to emulators, so are many PC and Mac users. If anything, the
>activity generated by sites like Asimov increases interest in original
>copies; they are worth _more_, not less.

Yep.  And let me add that after reading many of the quality posts in
this newsgroup (and they are out there) I was able to get the emulator
running again, and then my original apple.  I "re-discovered" some of
the classic software I enjoyed 10-15 years ago, like Wizardy or Apple
Writer II, or Choplifter.  I also enjoyed learning about the apple2's
place in history.  I discovered the technological path from where the
apple2 brought us into today's world of high powered computing.
Learning how the software, hardware, and the computer business in
general brought us to where we are today was very interesting
and to some degree heartbreaking, because the apple2 
got cut off eventually (at the GS line).
There are some great homepages and faqs from the people who lurk in
this newsgroup.  But I was only inspired to go further into this after
I had fun tinkering around with some Asimov emulator games from
disk images.  So Asimov served a great purpose for me.

>     On the other hand, every user who downloads and enjoys an SSI,
>Sir-Tech, Sierra, ... oldie is going to look for products from a
>favorite vendor when purchasing a new game for his/her PC or Mac.

This is also true.  Come holiday season, I might look into buying
some of the latest greatest games from these companies because
now I remember how fun the old classic's were..   and I generally
don't play new computer games anymore.  So I'm probably the type of 
old customer that they'd like to get back.  (if I could only find
the game time in this adult life).

>Rubywand

Another nice post, Rubywand,
Philip
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