From: bryanh@stout.gvg.tek.com (Bryan Hilterbrand)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: What bugs me about Oxyd (was Re: How to get pass level 10 on Oxyd?)
Date: 29 Jan 93 03:07:48 GMT
Organization: Grass Valley Group, Grass Valley, CA

par@teak18.cray.com (Peter Rigsbee) writes:
>pwai (Patrick Wai) writes:
>> 
>> So does anyone know what's the secret to Level 10 (i.e. what's the password
>> to activate the "special" square)?
>
>The code depends on the particular letters and numbers in the square.
>And these can vary from run to run.
> 
>> BTW, is $40 worth the price for the Password book?
>
>I bought it.  There isn't a lot in the book (mostly page after page of code
>look-up tables), but I view it as paying $39 (+$3 shipping) for the game,
>not as $42 for a book.  I'm up to level 39 now; the landscapes continue to
>be quite varied, with different demands on your skills (logic,
>mouse-handling, etc.).

I downloaded the Oxyd "demo" to see what it was like.  I must admit -- I
enjoyed playing the "demo" levels, and I was tempted to purchase the
game.

However, I had a realization -- I already had the game.  I had down-
loaded the entire game as the demo, but they have a level protection
scheme (really a copy protection scheme) which keeps a player from
playing without the code book.  This is the same sort of annoying copy
protection that patches are regularly posted to this newsgroup to fix
(e.g. the PGA Tour Golf patch which disables the course/hole/tee
startup screen).

About the copy protection itself, as a PowerBook owner, I don't want to
take a book with me to play a game on the road in my idle time (which
is why I applied the PGA Tour Golf patch to my LEGAL! copy).  I also
just plain don't want to mess around with looking something up in a
book during the time I'm playing a game, which is even more annoying
than just looking up a number at startup.

The other thing that really annoys me is that I've downloaded TWO
HUNDRED LEVELS of Oxyd, one hundred and eighty of which I can't use
(actually I can't use one hundred and ninety, since I'm not going to
play the game over a network with someone else).  I'd be really ticked
if I had to pay for the phone call and/or connect time to do the
download.  It was a pain to empty enough room on my tiny 20MB hard
drive to fit the Oxyd "demo" onto, most of which I couldn't use due
to the copy protection.

For the reasons outlined above, I WILL NOT BUY OXYD.

So, enough of the griping -- how about a suggestion!  Do it like
Lemmings.  They gave a cut-down version of the program as a demo, and
it only had a few (five?) levels in the demo (however, it was still a
rather large program).  They even did a special demo version for
Christmas which was cute.  Then when you decided that you actually
wanted Lemmings (I didn't -- the game didn't appeal to me that much),
you sent in your money, and they sent you back a real disk (with all
the levels) and a manual.

One gripe about Lemmings -- ditch the copy protection entirely.  I'll
pay to buy a game if I like it.  'Nuff said about that.

My alternate (unrealistic) suggestion would be for them to release the
entire game as shareware.  I wouldn't have minded messing around with
downloading all the levels if I can play them all, and they wouldn't
have any need for stupid copy protection schemes.

Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now.  Flame me if you will, but that's how
I feel...

Bryan