Talk:Beast (video game)/Dan Baker Letters

message: User cyborg made a JS port of the original game (though the link was recently removed as the remake is not yet complete by a strict editor).
==== Permissions ====
Hello again,
shortly after adding the history details into the article, it was removed because there's no way to prove the facts are true. I assume showing them the email thread between us would be helpful. Though I'm not showing them the email unless you allow me to as I regard emails/mail in general to be personal. Especially when there's personal info in it (obviously). I hope you will let me copy the thread so I can back up the facts.
Thanks,
Anders
----
Please feel free to use these emails, after removing all personal information (like email addresses, school and company names).
DanB
==== Original thread ====
Hi, my name is Dan Baker, and I wrote Beast a long time ago.  Someone pointed me to the Wikipedia article about Beast, and that led me to your Javascript version of the game.  I played your Javascript version -- good job.
 
I just wanted to say Hello, and I think it is pretty neat that you rewrote Beast into Javascript.
 
DanB
----
Hi,
glad you like the game! Alhough I'm very excited to recieve email from
the legend, how do I know you're really Dan Baker, the mysterious lead
programmer of the classic computer game Beast? As you know, anyone can
fake an identity these days by putting up a site like danbaker.com or
bakercrew.com and claim to be him. There's just nothing there to prove
you're actually him... the sections were missing (blog) or locked
(pics). Unfortunately even with a pic, there's no way for me to verify
your id because searching the net for "Dan Baker" only gives me pages
related to Beast, not about the person. If you could tell me a bit about
yourself that would probably help a lot though.
I know there are others out there that would like to know who DB is and
think it's a pitty there's no info at all about him. He deserves a
wikipedia article! So, if you're really him, do let me know :-)
----
I was wondering if you would be skeptical, when I was writing the email.  It
is very difficult to prove anything via email.
A brief history:
I write computer games during Junior High and High School on the schools
mainframe computer (teletype).  My brother is an electrical engineer, and he
bought a TRS-80 when they first came out.  We wrote games on that thing all
the time.  I went to college (*** University) in 1980, and got a
job at a little software company called ***, which turned into ***. Eventually the
IBM-PC came out, and I started working on it.  The first thing I did was
write a game (Beast).  The PC only came with a BASIC interpreter, so the
first version was written in BASIC, and didn't work very well.  After we got
the assembler, I started re-writing Beast in ASM.  Alan Brown wrote a
routine that would make sound, Derrick wrote a disk I/O routine for saving
the high scores, and Mark wrote a random number generator for me.  I
distributed Beast as shareware for a few years, and made some money (not
much, maybe $100). After WordPerfect came out with the Shell (which allowed
multiple programs to be loaded at the same time, but the user could only
interact with one at time), I fixed Beast to be "Shell Compatible".
WordPerfect bought Beast from me for about $1000 (which my wife and I
quickly spent on a video camera), and Beast started shipping with Shell (or
Library, what ever they called it).  That was kind-a the end of Beast for
me.
After WordPerfect, I worked at a little software company called ***.  Then I 
worked for ***,a local video game company.  Now I'm working for a place 
called ***.
I didn't write, or even know of, the Wikipedia Beast article until just
recently.  I was talking to Derrick, and he mentioned the Wikipedia article,
so I looked it up.  Funny how things work.
I don't know how you will ever really know if I'm the "real" Dan Baker.  I
still talk to Mark, Alan, and Derrick from time to time. A friend of mine,
***, worked at *** with me.  He has his own video game company
called ***.  You could send him an email ***, he would vouch
for my "realness".
DanB
----
Note: all (direct) personal information was censored as requested.
Cyborg 06:02, 18 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Emails between WP user Cyborg and Dan Baker 

message: Hi, my name is Dan Baker, and I wrote Beast a long time ago.  Someone pointed me to the Wikipedia article about Beast, and that led me to your Javascript version of the game.  I played your Javascript version -- good job.
 
I just wanted to say Hello, and I think it is pretty neat that you rewrote Beast into Javascript.
 
DanB
----
Hi,
glad you like the game! Alhough I'm very excited to recieve email from
the legend, how do I know you're really Dan Baker, the mysterious lead
programmer of the classic computer game Beast? As you know, anyone can
fake an identity these days by putting up a site like danbaker.com or
bakercrew.com and claim to be him. There's just nothing there to prove
you're actually him... the sections were missing (blog) or locked
(pics). Unfortunately even with a pic, there's no way for me to verify
your id because searching the net for "Dan Baker" only gives me pages
related to Beast, not about the person. If you could tell me a bit about
yourself that would probably help a lot though.
I know there are others out there that would like to know who DB is and
think it's a pitty there's no info at all about him. He deserves a
wikipedia article! So, if you're really him, do let me know :-)
----
I was wondering if you would be skeptical, when I was writing the email.  It
is very difficult to prove anything via email.
A brief history:
I write computer games during Junior High and High School on the schools
mainframe computer (teletype).  My brother is an electrical engineer, and he
bought a TRS-80 when they first came out.  We wrote games on that thing all
the time.  I went to college (*** University) in 1980, and got a
job at a little software company called ***, which turned into ***. Eventually the
IBM-PC came out, and I started working on it.  The first thing I did was
write a game (Beast).  The PC only came with a BASIC interpreter, so the
first version was written in BASIC, and didn't work very well.  After we got
the assembler, I started re-writing Beast in ASM.  Alan Brown wrote a
routine that would make sound, Derrick wrote a disk I/O routine for saving
the high scores, and Mark wrote a random number generator for me.  I
distributed Beast as shareware for a few years, and made some money (not
much, maybe $100). After WordPerfect came out with the Shell (which allowed
multiple programs to be loaded at the same time, but the user could only
interact with one at time), I fixed Beast to be "Shell Compatible".
WordPerfect bought Beast from me for about $1000 (which my wife and I
quickly spent on a video camera), and Beast started shipping with Shell (or
Library, what ever they called it).  That was kind-a the end of Beast for
me.
After WordPerfect, I worked at a little software company called ***.  Then I 
worked for ***,a local video game company.  Now I'm working for a place 
called ***.
I didn't write, or even know of, the Wikipedia Beast article until just
recently.  I was talking to Derrick, and he mentioned the Wikipedia article,
so I looked it up.  Funny how things work.
I don't know how you will ever really know if I'm the "real" Dan Baker.  I
still talk to Mark, Alan, and Derrick from time to time. A friend of mine,
***, worked at *** with me.  He has his own video game company
called ***.  You could send him an email ***, he would vouch
for my "realness".
DanB
----
Note: all (direct) personal information was censored as requested.
Cyborg 06:02, 18 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Original thread