Re: Question about configuring TO apps.

[foegelle@sleepy.cc.utexas.edu (Michael Foegelle)]

In article <CI5IA2.AMB@news.iastate.edu>,
Ian Schmidt <irsman@iastate.edu> wrote:
>In article <2eqkig$ptj@sleepy.cc.utexas.edu> foegelle@sleepy.cc.utexas.edu (Michael Foegelle) writes:
>>well, maybe I'll get back to it now that I've released Columns VGA for the 
>>IBM.  But probably not 'til the end of January...
>
>You do know that Kenrick Mock and James Brookes have already released Columns
>for the PC, right?  You should also know that Sega now owns the rights to
>Columns and may be pursuing infringers...

I've seen half a dozen different versions of Columns for the PC, but so far
all of them have little bitty square blocks like Columns GS and none can 
compare to Columns VGA.  (Not to say that there aren't ones that could, but
what I've seen don't.)  Not to mention that none have two player game, save
game features, etc, that Columns //e and Columns VGA do.  

As for any copyright on the >concept< of Columns, I'm not sure that one can or
does exist.  First it's a modified Tetris clone, so if anyone has a copyright
infringement, it's probably Spectrum Holobyte.  Second, my //e version of 
Columns, which was based on a text based game I saw, predates Sega's home
video and arcade release of Columns, and since Columns VGA is a direct copy
of Columns //e, I'm not sure that they can do much.  Of course they've got
the power of a lot of lawyers behind them, but I don't have any money, so 
what good would it do them.  They haven't chosen to pursue the IBM market,
or the Apple market, etc.  And there's a lot of other people in line in front
of me for releasing Columns on the IBM, including Ken and James! =)  Finally,
if they're the ones who wrote the one version of Columns GS (which I assume
was why you brought them up), then I already have their blessing to release
my one Columns IIgs if I ever finish it, etc.  They said they welcome the
'competition', or rather just the opportunity to have new GS warez.  (And
BTW, the original source code for Columns VGA, which I totally scrapped when
I started back to it last summer, was over two years old...)  Ah well, we'll
just see what happens.. 

>
>[sorry 'bout the non-Apple-II content, except that Ken and James are rather
>big GS stars :)]
>-- 
>Ian Schmidt / irsman@iastate.edu / IRSMan@aol.com
>"Have you ever associated with crickets?" - Crow, MST3K

Michael Foegelle

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