Organization: The Leader Desslok School of Diplomacy
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 01:59:53 EDT
From: Norman St. John Polevaulter <MBS110@psuvm.psu.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Flame against Amiga software writers

Now hear this: I'm SICK and TIRED of the Amiga getting the short end
of the stick wrt software.

IBM versions of software install on the hard drive and supposedly multitask
under OS/2. Amiga versions of the SAME SOFTWARE are heavily disk- and text-
protected, and you can count the number of Amiga games that multitask on the
fingers of one hand and still have plenty of digits left over. Furthermore,
Amiga versions aren't just scaled down to PClone levels, they're often
crippled (see Out of This World for an example -- the PC version is longer!)

This just makes me mad. I just bought D/Generation (the Amiga port FINALLY
came out recently. Only took 'em a whole entire year. But that's a whole
other rant.) It's a cool game, great plot, very atmospheric. Looking under
the hood, of course, it's a straight IBM port (all the same data files
with a different driver.) I can reluctantly accept that. Sure, it may not
be as fast or flashy as Shadow of the Beast CXIV, but it's playable. And
at least I can install on the hard drive and multitask, right? (The manual
even indicates a QUIT key. Oh, goody!)

So I copy everything over (they didn't provide a hard drive install program
for Amiga users, oh, no... Amiga users only have the one floppy, EVERYONE
knows that!) and make some assigns and kick that baby off.

Wham. Thud. It has on-disk copy protection.

ARRRRRGH! So do they trust us LESS than PClone users? When piracy in the
PClone world is nearly five times as bad as in the Amiga world? It makes
you want to start heaving bricks through people's windows.

And don't even get me started on the prima donnas at Psygnosis and so forth.
Sure, they're talented programmers, but (I hate to say this) they are IDIOTS.
Recently they released a motorcycle racing game supposed to be as good in
that area as F1 Grand Prix. The racing game comes on copy-protected disks!
You cannot save your position at any point!! What were they THINKING?
It's taken them this long just to get some of their games working on the
3000, never mind any upcoming AGA machines.

The number of really decent Amiga games that treat the user and the machine
the way they should be treated is short:

- Rocket Ranger (you could pause this and pull up the Workbench screen!)
- F1 Grand Prix aka World Circuits: magnificent Grand Prix simulation, knocks
  that silly Accolade/Road and Track Grand Prix Unlimited thing out six ways
  from Sunday, fantastic graphics and sound -- AND IT HD INSTALLS! AND YOU
  CAN QUIT AND GET YOUR WORKBENCH BACK! See, guys, it is SO possible! And
  all the whiners who complain that a game that doesn't trash the system
  doesn't sell, can look at the huge number of weeks F1GP was at the top of
  the Amiga sales charts.
- Flames of Freedom and Ashes of Empire. The first game in this series,
  Midwinter, was disk-protected -- but the authors saw the light. Both FoF
  and AoE install on the hard drive. AoE is not even MANUAL protected!
  The only thing they're missing is a quit key, but at least you can
  play far faster off the HD than off disks!

Basically, I really wish most Amiga programmers/porters would get on the
ball and get some intelligence through their skulls. They're the ones who
will be holding us back in the one-floppy no-HD ECS A500 days when the
HD-equipped AGA machines are beckoning us into the future. The Amiga lives
or dies on its software support, and right now our software support very
much needs to shape up.

End of rant. You may press 'n' now.

                  "Two hundredth verse, same as the first!"
[Your blood pressure just went up.]        Mark Sachs IS: mbs110@psuvm.psu.edu
DISCLAIMER: If PSU knew I had opinions they'd probably try to charge me for it.