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The History of the Apple II as a Gaming Platform
Matt Barton writes "Gamasutra is running a feature on the venerable Apple II platform, which practically defined the early home computer industry and was home to many of the greatest games and developers of all time. The authors discuss the platform's lifespan and many iterations, struggles with illegal distribution, and legendary Apple II games such as Prince of Persia, John Madden Football, and Ultima. 'How big of a problem was piracy? Although several software authors claim that they stopped developing games because of rampant piracy and the subsequent loss of revenue, piracy did expose more computer owners to more games than they otherwise would have been -- this was at a time before ubiquitous demos made it easier to "try before you buy." Another benefit of this piracy is that much of the software archived today at online repositories are the cracked versions.'"
The article was about the Apple II, not the Commodore 64. Write your own article if you think it was overlooked.
Locksmith 3.0 FTW!
https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
in many ways they've gotten to be somewhat pedestrian compared to the excitement of playing Dig Dug or Conan on the green monitors.
It occurs to me the reason we don't excited about games the way we did when we first played Pong, or messed around with early Apples and C64s is because back then, this was all cutting-edge stuff and very non-mainstream. We were doing cool shit that almost nobody else knew about. In the days before the NES and Sega Master system, I could count people I knew who played videogames on one hand.
Nowadays, everybody and his cousin owns at least a couple piece of hardware able to play games, even if it's just a low-spec PC and a cellphone, and most games tend to basically be point releases, incremental upgrades designed to suck up your spare cash, not try anything new.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
please, supply us with some of these great titles that existed for the apple when the only commodore computer that existed was the pet. they dont exist. nice try.
No one lost anything from my "piracy" because there was absolutely ZERO chance that I ever would have been able to buy any of the software or half of the magazines that I had available to me back then.
Your reasoning doesn't follow at all. You gained from your piracy, yes, but the copyright holder lost out on their right to profit from the distribution of the software. The fact that you see it as a net positive for yourself doesn't legitimize anything. Your greed for entertainment in no way trumps the rights of others.
Of course, I'll be modded down for pointing out the fact that piracy isn't right even though the pirate benefits. C'est la Slashdot.
Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
Maybe this is just nostalgia talking, but a lot of games back then were just plain fun. I recently dug out my Apple IIc and was amazed that a lot of my floppies still worked. After playing a few games, they seem to have a character that's lacking in today's games. That's likely a reflection of your last point as well... the games today are just all rehashes. Most first person shooters are simply the same game engine with a new graphics and sound facelift.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
I hear all that. I "pirated" almost everything back then too. I was a poor kid and I had no money after saving up for half the cost of the computer(which my mom and grandparents matched for the other half). Those game companies didn't lose any sales to me, you can't get blood from a turnip afterall. In fact, Origin in particular would go on to benefit long term, as I played ULtima I, II, and III for free, and when IV came out, I had a job and bought a copy of that and V-VI later(and I would in turn influence my friends to buy copies as we all raced to win it first). I would never have bought those games later had I not played the first three installments, and there was no way I could have played them had I not been able to get free copies. In fact, getting hooked on games by being able to play them for free as a kid, directly led to all the money I've spent on games over the years since entering the work force.
That's one reason I'm convinced the "R" in "RIAA" stands for Retarded when they sue young people of poor or working class parents. Those are their future customers and that's a very shoddy way to prime them for sales when they finally come into their own money. Had Origin or an industry body backed by them pulled the same stunt on me, I'd have grown up hating them, and would have made it a point not to never give them a dime of my money.
Patriot - A fan of expanding government power and spending while not wanting to pay higher taxes.
the copyright holder lost out on their right to profit from the distribution of the software
There is no right to profit.
Our intelligent designer has never created an animal that we couldn't improve by strapping a bomb to it.
but the copyright holder lost out on their right to profit from the distribution of the software
How? How does a copyright holder lose their right to profit if a copy goes to someone who couldn't buy it in the first place? There is no loss there. That's absurd. Where's the loss?
Patriot - A fan of expanding government power and spending while not wanting to pay higher taxes.
In other words, the "pirate" in this case got a concrete gain, while the copyright holder lost out only in principle, that someone got something for 'nothing'. Not, of course, that the copyright holder would in any case have gotten ANYTHING, so it's a principle only thing.. and, furthermore, the loss doesn't cost them anything at all. Meanwhile, society has been enriched by another enterprising young mind finding fertile ground for his technical curiousity.
So society has gained, but of course, that's a bad thing, because dagnabbit, you don't get something fer nothing, you stinking hippies. Yes, it's all very clear.
Not having absolute control over a market would drive you nuts, being in their position, wouldn't it. that's rough. Maybe you should hang out with some hippies some time.. they have some stuff that might get you to relax a bit and realize it's not ALL about cash flow. A lot is, sure, but not EVERYTHING.
Remember when BYTE was really a JOURNAL and not a magazine (and now it's nothing)? InCider? Kilobaud! (MORE 'zines should have their index on the cover - It Was Awesome! we miss you Wayne - we also loved '73) 80-Micro? The old Dr. Dobb's? And a BUNCH of others.
There's nothing good anymore.
"It's time to take life by the cans." ~ Bender ("Bendin' in the Wind", ep. 3-13)