From: woodcock@crchh427.NoSubdomain.NoDomain (Gregg Woodcock)
Subject: Re: Let's don't ALL bother Smith Engineering!
Reply-To: bn202@cleveland.freenet.edu
Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Richardson, Tx
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 06 Nov 1992 19:36:51 GMT

In article <mac.721072075@depot.cis.ksu.edu.cis.ksu.edu>, mac@cis.ksu.edu (Myron A. Calhoun) writes:
|> At the time I posted the name and address of the company which created
|> the Vectrex, I didn't realize that I might cause it a whole lot of
|> grief in the form of numerous calls and letters from Vectrex lovers,
|> each asking for something.
|> 
|> Gregg Woodcock tells me that he has already contacted them.  I suggest
|> that henceforth Gregg be our "official intermediary" with Smith Engr.;
|> perhaps this will hold the number of what they may consider "nuisance
|> contacts" to a minimum and keep them friendly to us all.
|> 
|> This presumes, of course, that Gregg is willing to act as our "go-fer"
|> and that he will post or otherwise let the rest of us know whatever
|> he learns.
|> --Myron.
OK, I admit it!  I just couldn't resist!  I called them the minute I read
Myron's post.  I ended up talking to Darlene Fujita who is Jay Smith's
personal assistant.  I would assume that since the company is Smith
Engineering that Jay is probably Mr. Head Honcho and thus much too busy to
be taking hundreds of phone calls from "fans" (I am sure he would just
*love* letters, though).  When I talked to her she found it odd that she
had already gotten 2 other inquiries regarding the Vectrex.  I explained
how I saw Myron's letter and that "our group" of Vectrex lovers would be
very much interested in getting our hands on any development information
that they had archived.  She didn't have time to talk but assured me she
would forward my concerns to Jay and would try to set up an appointment and
get back to me as soon as possible.  I plan to ask if we could get copies
of object code for the stuff we *know* we don't have (Dark Tower and the
test cartridge; unless that is what test.gam on the ftp archive is).  I
will also ask if we can get copies of the binaries for any games that may
have been completely coded but never produced (THIS WOULD BE FANTASTIC!!!)
Then I am going to really push my luck and ask if we might obtain copies of
the original compiler and specs on what the development package was (IBM
PC?) along with any source code they still have.  I do know that they
did program several games for the Vectrex so maybe we can at least get the
source for those.  I am hoping that when MB/GCE returned the rights to the
Vectrex to them that they also gave the copies of the source code for the
games that they developed (I don't think there were any 3rd party
developers).

If there is anything else we need to know, please send me email and I will
bring it up when they get back to me.  I already asked them if they had or
knew of any caches of old games and she said, "No."  I then of course said,
"Are you *sure*?"  At which point she said, "Positive." :{

I promise I will post a full summary of everything we discuss.  If I get
called at home, I will see if I can record the conversation and I will
transcribe it.  If Jay himself or someone else highly "in-the-know" calls
me, I will see if I can do a small reflective interview.  So send me
questions you want me to ask if the call moves in that direction.  It would
be neat to hear the insights of someone who actually witnessed the great
video game depression from the other (corporate) side.

Gregg "my mother never taught me where the TAB key was" Woodcock
-- 
THANX...Gregg   bn202@cleveland.freenet.edu   *ANTIQUE VIDEO GAME COLLECTOR*
ESN 444   day 214.684.7380   night 214.530.2495   *BUY/SELL/TRADE PRE-NINTENDO*
"If you quote me on this I'll have to deny it.  I won't remember because I have
a bad short term memory.  Not only that but my short term memory is terrible."