From: mwm@contessa.palo-alto.ca.us (Mike Meyer)
Subject: After Dark for the Amiga (Was: Euro hackers.)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.games
Distribution: world
X-NewsSoftware: Amiga Yarn 2.0, 1992/06/25 01:41:36
Keywords: 
Summary: 
Date: 22 Jul 92 01:52:00 PST
Organization: Missionaria Phonibalonica

In <jbickers.0bp4@templar.actrix.gen.nz>, jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz (John Bickers) wrote:
>     What's the affect of their coding on you? I happen to like demos
>     and MODs, and wish them well. The world is full of slack utils
>     that repeat themselves ad nauseum (screen blankers, for example),
>     yet usually fail to manage a proper level of slickness (like an
>     Amiga version of After Dark, for example, or article quoting that
		       ^^^^^ ^^^^
>     screws the original text). So lets at least get some edge into the
>     Amiga world with demos.
> 
>     Mind you, I'd LIKE some of these demo authors to pull off
>     competent implementations of standards like Word and Excel, but
>     I'm not going to bash them for not doing it.

I've talked to the folks who did After Dark (actually, I tried to sell
them my Amiga technology(1) for same). They ain't interested(2). That
means you *can't* have "After Dark for Amiga"; they'll sue you for
trademark infringement, and probably(3) win.

The technology to do multiple blankers isn't trivial, but it's still
the easy part. The hard part is graphics/sounds hacks and ideas - just
the thing the demo coders(4) love. The catch is, the demo coders have
to figure out how to write system-friendly code that doesn't require
rebooting the machine, and behaves gracefully when there's a 3d
ray-tracer and UUCP traffic running in the background without
disrupting either one.

Oh yeah - I was very gently warned that they consider their spiffy
blanker ideas as their intellectual property, and they *would* be
protecting said property.

	<mike

Footnotes(5):

1) I believe I can build a multi-blanker system for the Amiga that
does everything that After Dark does. However, it requires rebuilding
the entire ShadowMaster system, and I don't think there's enough glory
or money in it to drag me away from other projects. If someone wants
to talk $'s and contracts, drop me a line.

2) The After Dark people agree with #1. The Amiga market is about
1/3rd the size of the Mac market, and they are pulling in even more
money on the Windows version. They decided it wasn't worth their time
to do an Amiga version.

3) Watch the American legal system for a while, and you'll conclude
that there's no such thing as an impossible outcome for a trial.
Watch it a while longer, and you'll conclude that THERE'S NO SUCH
THING AS AN IMPOSSIBLE OUTCOME FOR A TRIAL. Watch it a while longer,
and you'll conclude that *THERE'S* *NO* *SUCH* *THING* *AS* *AN*
*IMPOSSIBLE* *OUTCOME* *FOR* *A* *TRIAL*.  At that point, you quit
being surprised by the results of trials.

4) I love that word. Back in the good old days (you know, 026
keypunches and the like), "coders" were the most junior people on the
programming team, and ranked at about the same level as the data entry
people. Their important skill was turning programs other people had
written into machine code, and they were learning how to write programs
so they could become real programmers. Seems the new meaning captures
most of the old one.

5) I've been reading Yourdon lately, and it shows. Footnotes on a
USENET article?