From: mikec@sail.LABS.TEK.COM (Micheal Cranford)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games
Subject: Re: Duke Nukum Editor demo available
Keywords: misinformation, speculation, and the letter Q
Date: 26 Jan 93 22:42:51 GMT
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton,  OR.

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Jennifer Gregory speculates:

  [1] "Is this editor released by Apogee?  If not, I'm not sure as to
       the legality of such an editor, as what you have is someone else
       trying to make money off of Apogee's programming."

  [2] "And I doubt Apogee would want such an editor released, seeing as
       it rather undermines their market."

  [3] "I haven't seen the editor myself, so this is only speculation.  But
       if someone can find out who makes the editor then we'll find out."


  I shall respond to the above points one at a time in order of appearance.

  1. Are all word processors illegal?  If you bought an electronic dictionary
  (i.e. PC based), would it now be illegal for anyone to sell a word processor
  that can be used to edit the text of that dictionary?  The game editor in
  question does not contain ANY Apogee code or files (even in modified form),
  so just how could that infringe on "Apogee's programming"?

  2. Are you a spokesman for Apogee or have you checked with them about this?
  The real Apogee spokesman that we talked to said (a) although they haven't
  seen our editor they were not the least interested in it, (b) they already
  had an in-house editor that they were NEVER going to release to the public,
  and (c) they did not in any way care if anyone wrote editors for their games
  as long as the editors and new levels were not sold under the original game
  name (i.e. in this specific case "Duke Nukum").

  3. I am pleased that you have identified your thoughts on the subject as
  "speculation" although it would have been more accurate to say "idle and
  uninformed speculation" (although that may have been what you ment).  The
  rest of #3 is moot due to reasons stated in #1 and #2 above.


     I will publically make you the following offer.  (1) If you like the
  Apogee Duke Nukum (c) game, (2) buy the EditDuke editor, and (3) decide
  that the editor is not THE BEST LEVEL EDITOR that you have EVER SEEN for
  an Apogee-like (i.e. PC based arcade) game, I will personally refund your
  money.  We have spent countless hours making this editor very powerful
  and especially user friendly - all without disassembling any of Apogee's
  code (and our editor finds the errors in the original Apogee levels).

     Although not previously stated, the DEMO of the editor is functional
  as a map viewer and the editor operations can be tried out to determine
  if you are interested in creating your own levels.  The price for the
  editor is reduced by $3.00 if you only want an E-mail copy (no media or
  mailing costs).  The DEMO version is, of course, free.  If anyone feels
  that this is not fair then tell me about it.

     And yes, I am normally this grumpy.  All of the above statments are mine.


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