In Sundog: Frozen Legacy (Apple II, 1984), we had a fairly robust, multi-level copy protection method. However, many of the 'cracking' tools out at the time would actually produce a runnable copy of the game -- it was just that the game wouldn't pass its final internal DRM check. In the game, including in 'cracked' versions, you started out on the surface of a given planet (Jondd); you could drive around the planet's surface, walk around the cities, go into stores, buy and sell goods, etc. But when you attempted to lift off into space, if that final DRM check failed, you'd get the message "Clearance to lift denied due to pirate activity" and you would be unable to take off and travel to any other world or system. (Note that you'd never see that message in a legitimate copy of the game.)
Now, the game actually had space pirates who would attack your ship, so a lot of people didn't realize just what the message meant. We would get occasional phone calls from customers asking what they were doing wrong and how they could get clearance. We'd listen for a minute, then say, "Well, just mail us your Sundog floppy disk, and we'll send out a new one for free." Heh. On the other hand, we had at least one person call us up on the phone and say, "Yeah, I get it" and then order a legit copy.
Note that for those customers who did buy an actual copy of the game, if they sent in $10 along with their registration card, they'd get another Sundog floppy disk -- that is, a second complete copy of the game, which they could keep as a backup or give away (or, frankly, sell). Also, if anyone actually did have a legit Sundog floppy that died or was otherwise damaged, we'd exchange it for a new one for free.
Sundog (Apple II) was on Hardcore Computing's "Top 10 Wanted" list (for a cracked version) for quite some time. It was eventually cracked, but I believe it took a year or two. You can find runnable Apple II disk images (for Apple II emulators) online.
I really don't know what copy protection was in place for the Atari ST port of Sundog, since that happened after I left FTL Games...bruce..
I was trying to watch streaming content on Christmas Eve on Netflix and Hulu (via Apple TV) and was likewise getting 'unavailable' errors; with Netflix, it would happen at different points (from trying to bring up the Netflix main screen down to trying to start an individual episode of a TV series). I chalked it up to tens of thousands of new Netflix/Hulu customers all trying out their new TVs/home theaters/streaming boxes last night...bruce..
Short answer is: yes, in theory; in practice, though, actual results will vary. My observation is that the same is true with programming. Some people are natural talented, some people have good workman-like (workperson-like?) performance, some are pretty wretched no matter how much experience they may actually have, and some just can't grasp the basic concepts enough to really do anything. Note that I've taught computer science on a university level, and I've built software development teams from scratch, so this is based on direct personal observation...bruce..
I took (and thoroughly enjoyed) a graduate AI class while an undergrad CS student back in the 1970s; had I completed my subsequent master's degree, I almost certainly would have done a thesis on some subject in AI (as it was, I did take a graduate class in advanced pattern recognition). I still have a entire shelf of (largely outdated) AI textbooks from that era.
That said, it's hard to find another field within computer science that has been so consistently wrong in its predictions of when 'breakthroughs' will occur. Some of the AI pioneers back in the 1950s thought we were only 10-20 years away from meaningful AI. Here were are, 60 years later, and we're still 10-20 years away. The field has made tremendous strides, but they tend to be in relatively narrow domains or applications. Generalized, all-purpose, adaptable intelligence is hard. We may yet achieve it, so something close enough to it so as to be sufficient, but I don't think it's going to happen in 10 years.
Maybe the first true AI will run the first true large-scale fusion power plant.:-)..bruce..
Thanks for the kind words -- as I said, Wayne is working on a reboot. Wayne is one of the best coders and best game designers I know -- he was the brains behind Dungeon Master -- and so whatever he comes up with should be great...bruce..
Yep, it was originally on the Apple II and was then ported (and significantly enhanced) for the Atari ST. As per my other post, Wayne's working on an updated version...bruce..
Actually, Wayne is working on an updated version -- I'm constrained from doing so, not because of Wayne but because of a patent case I worked on as a consulting expert that put me under a protective order not to do certain types of development until the case was settled...bruce..
Oh, I more than approve of that.:-) I've played both the Apple II and the Atari ST versions on Windows-based emulators and used to have links to both on my website. I should probably put those up again.
Heh. Actually, I'm more than happy to see someone, anyone do a modern version of a Sundog-like game, since our original was so constrained. My favorite is Space Rangers 2 (available via Impulse.com)...bruce..
...not specifically for video games, but for software in general and particularly for custom-developed software. I've seen this a lot because of work on "failed IT project" lawsuits -- the goods vs. services distinction brings different legal standards, requirements and remedies to bear. Generally speaking, commercial off the shelf (COTS) software is usually seen as "goods", but the more customization and original development involved, the stronger the "services" argument. And, of course, the whole movement towards "software as a service" and cloud deployment muddies the waters more...bruce..
Thanks -- you're right. It's "Poor Little Warrior" (1958) by Brian Aldiss. I suspect it was a tongue-in-cheek response to Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder" (1952).
Can't remember the name of the story, but (much like Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder", though in a humorous vein) it involved a time traveler going back to hunt T-Rexes. He shoots and kills one, then strides towards the T-Rex to take a trophy...only to be met by a multitude of large external parasites abandoning the T-Rex and looking for a new host. Doesn't end well for the hunter. Anyone remember the name of this story?
And, yeah, 21 mm may not sound like much, but think of dealing with a horde of inch-long fleas, and that may bring a different image to mind...bruce..
Go look up Robert Austin's book on measurements and management. Read it and recognize that you've been given a task that is at best counterproductive and at worst impossible. Dust off your resume, because it may be more than one of you that are getting fired...bruce..
The quote above is from Jerry Weinberg, and it is true.
There's an entire brilliant, short book about this problem: Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations by Robert Austin (1996). It's actually a fairly rigorous, somewhat philosophical work, but it is pretty unrelenting to documenting that, indeed, trying to manage by metrics almost always introduces distortions, which in turn are almost always counter-productive. The problem isn't just with IT, it's with any type of effort that seeks to reward or punish based on metrics.
The only metrics that I've found actually useful in IT are those that are predictive -- for example, aiding to estimate the actual delivery date of a project under development. The metrics that seek to somehow measure "accomplishments to date" solely for the purpose of reward or punishment are always gamed and are almost always useless...bruce..
Actually, this cuts both ways. As someone who has acted as an expert witness in a number of lawsuits, I usually want to see the time-sorted e-mail record where relevant, particularly if there are software developers or engineers involved (since they tend to be more, ah, blunt in their statements). I've seen large cases end up settling unfavorably for one side because of a dozen or so internal e-mails that its personnel had written (one I recall said something to the effect of "Why are we charging our client [a large specific sum of money] and delivering them garbage?").
But I fully agree with you as well: document, document, document, whether by e-mail, memo, or letter. If your firm (particularly if you're a software developer/vendor) has never been involved in a lawsuit, there is a tendency to tell yourself, "We'll make this work out; we want to keep the customer happy; we're all grown-ups here," and so rely on verbal assurances or concessions. Then when a lawsuit happens, you have no documentation -- just he-said/she-said testimony -- as to why (and how) the scope changed or the project went over-schedule/over-budget or why certain IP was used or shared or when certain key inventions were developed...bruce..
Having built a software development team from scratch for a venture-funded startup, and having done tech vetting for years on consultants, I fully understand the difficulty in determining who's actually talented and who isn't. But I just don't buy that the 'puzzle' approach translates into 'great software engineer'. You may well get a bunch of bright and clever people who are good at puzzles, and it's good to have some folks like that around, but I suspect if everyone is that way, you'll end up with a bunch of engineers trying to out-clever each other -- and that doesn't translate into well-designed and readily-maintained software. IMHO...bruce..
(What do I think is necessary? See here and here.)
That's what my friend and boss Wayne Holder said about Turbo Pascal when I demo'd it for him back when it first came out in the early 80s. It wasn't just that TP was vastly smaller than any other Pascal (C, FORTRAN, etc.) compiler out there, it's that it compiled much, much faster -- in some cases, an order or two of magnitude faster...bruce..
The original version of WordPerfect was developed by Bruce Bastian while a grad student at BYU (with Alan Ashton as his faculty advisor). At that time, it was a screen-oriented editor that ran on Data General minicomputers. I know because I shared an office with Bruce during my senior year at BYU (1977-78) and used his existing version of the editor to write several papers for my classes.:-) Bruce & Alan went on to sell a (DG) version to a local city government (Orem, UT) and then founded Satellite Systems Int'l to commercialize the product and ended up owning the MS-DOS word processing market. Word Perfect still might be dominant were it not for Microsoft's brilliant head-fake with OS/2 and Windows 3.0, but that's another story...bruce..
I was out to lunch with a group of people and the subject of space exploration came up. Having worked at NASA and LPI (albeit 30 years ago), I expressed my various opinions (e.g., the Shuttle was a mistake and we lost 30-40 years by NASA's hindering private enterprises from space launch systems). The subject of mining asteroids came up; I said that it could provide some long-term benefits, but I would be very, very leery about moving an asteroid into near-Earth orbit, for all the obvious reasons.
That said, moving a 10-meter asteroid into earth orbit carries (IMHO) relatively few risks...bruce..
Slashdot Mirror
In Sundog: Frozen Legacy (Apple II, 1984), we had a fairly robust, multi-level copy protection method. However, many of the 'cracking' tools out at the time would actually produce a runnable copy of the game -- it was just that the game wouldn't pass its final internal DRM check. In the game, including in 'cracked' versions, you started out on the surface of a given planet (Jondd); you could drive around the planet's surface, walk around the cities, go into stores, buy and sell goods, etc. But when you attempted to lift off into space, if that final DRM check failed, you'd get the message "Clearance to lift denied due to pirate activity" and you would be unable to take off and travel to any other world or system. (Note that you'd never see that message in a legitimate copy of the game.)
Now, the game actually had space pirates who would attack your ship, so a lot of people didn't realize just what the message meant. We would get occasional phone calls from customers asking what they were doing wrong and how they could get clearance. We'd listen for a minute, then say, "Well, just mail us your Sundog floppy disk, and we'll send out a new one for free." Heh. On the other hand, we had at least one person call us up on the phone and say, "Yeah, I get it" and then order a legit copy.
Note that for those customers who did buy an actual copy of the game, if they sent in $10 along with their registration card, they'd get another Sundog floppy disk -- that is, a second complete copy of the game, which they could keep as a backup or give away (or, frankly, sell). Also, if anyone actually did have a legit Sundog floppy that died or was otherwise damaged, we'd exchange it for a new one for free.
Sundog (Apple II) was on Hardcore Computing's "Top 10 Wanted" list (for a cracked version) for quite some time. It was eventually cracked, but I believe it took a year or two. You can find runnable Apple II disk images (for Apple II emulators) online.
I really don't know what copy protection was in place for the Atari ST port of Sundog, since that happened after I left FTL Games. ..bruce..
Many thanks for this info. Sigh. ..bruce..
Given that Offfice has (IMHO) been getting worse for several years now, the idea of quarterly updates are less than appealing. ..bruce..
I was trying to watch streaming content on Christmas Eve on Netflix and Hulu (via Apple TV) and was likewise getting 'unavailable' errors; with Netflix, it would happen at different points (from trying to bring up the Netflix main screen down to trying to start an individual episode of a TV series). I chalked it up to tens of thousands of new Netflix/Hulu customers all trying out their new TVs/home theaters/streaming boxes last night. ..bruce..
Short answer is: yes, in theory; in practice, though, actual results will vary. My observation is that the same is true with programming. Some people are natural talented, some people have good workman-like (workperson-like?) performance, some are pretty wretched no matter how much experience they may actually have, and some just can't grasp the basic concepts enough to really do anything. Note that I've taught computer science on a university level, and I've built software development teams from scratch, so this is based on direct personal observation. ..bruce..
Funniest thing I've read today. Thanks. :-)
I took (and thoroughly enjoyed) a graduate AI class while an undergrad CS student back in the 1970s; had I completed my subsequent master's degree, I almost certainly would have done a thesis on some subject in AI (as it was, I did take a graduate class in advanced pattern recognition). I still have a entire shelf of (largely outdated) AI textbooks from that era.
That said, it's hard to find another field within computer science that has been so consistently wrong in its predictions of when 'breakthroughs' will occur. Some of the AI pioneers back in the 1950s thought we were only 10-20 years away from meaningful AI. Here were are, 60 years later, and we're still 10-20 years away. The field has made tremendous strides, but they tend to be in relatively narrow domains or applications. Generalized, all-purpose, adaptable intelligence is hard. We may yet achieve it, so something close enough to it so as to be sufficient, but I don't think it's going to happen in 10 years.
Maybe the first true AI will run the first true large-scale fusion power plant. :-) ..bruce..
Thanks for the kind words -- as I said, Wayne is working on a reboot. Wayne is one of the best coders and best game designers I know -- he was the brains behind Dungeon Master -- and so whatever he comes up with should be great. ..bruce..
Yep, it was originally on the Apple II and was then ported (and significantly enhanced) for the Atari ST. As per my other post, Wayne's working on an updated version. ..bruce..
Actually, Wayne is working on an updated version -- I'm constrained from doing so, not because of Wayne but because of a patent case I worked on as a consulting expert that put me under a protective order not to do certain types of development until the case was settled. ..bruce..
Oh, I more than approve of that. :-) I've played both the Apple II and the Atari ST versions on Windows-based emulators and used to have links to both on my website. I should probably put those up again.
For those wanting a bit more background: http://brucefwebster.com/past-projects/sundog/
Heh. Actually, I'm more than happy to see someone, anyone do a modern version of a Sundog-like game, since our original was so constrained. My favorite is Space Rangers 2 (available via Impulse.com). ..bruce..
Wayne Holder and I did it 27 years ago for the Apple II. ..bruce..
...not specifically for video games, but for software in general and particularly for custom-developed software. I've seen this a lot because of work on "failed IT project" lawsuits -- the goods vs. services distinction brings different legal standards, requirements and remedies to bear. Generally speaking, commercial off the shelf (COTS) software is usually seen as "goods", but the more customization and original development involved, the stronger the "services" argument. And, of course, the whole movement towards "software as a service" and cloud deployment muddies the waters more. ..bruce..
Thanks -- you're right. It's "Poor Little Warrior" (1958) by Brian Aldiss. I suspect it was a tongue-in-cheek response to Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder" (1952).
Can't remember the name of the story, but (much like Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder", though in a humorous vein) it involved a time traveler going back to hunt T-Rexes. He shoots and kills one, then strides towards the T-Rex to take a trophy...only to be met by a multitude of large external parasites abandoning the T-Rex and looking for a new host. Doesn't end well for the hunter. Anyone remember the name of this story?
And, yeah, 21 mm may not sound like much, but think of dealing with a horde of inch-long fleas, and that may bring a different image to mind. ..bruce..
The LDS Church has a very active worldwide charity organization that has provided over $1 billion in humanitarian aid (cash, goods, services) in the past 25 years. The LDS Church itself covers all administrative costs, so 100% of any donation goes to actual use. Here are some of the projects currently being funded. ..bruce..
Might as well close the comments now. :-)
Go look up Robert Austin's book on measurements and management. Read it and recognize that you've been given a task that is at best counterproductive and at worst impossible. Dust off your resume, because it may be more than one of you that are getting fired. ..bruce..
The quote above is from Jerry Weinberg, and it is true.
There's an entire brilliant, short book about this problem: Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations by Robert Austin (1996). It's actually a fairly rigorous, somewhat philosophical work, but it is pretty unrelenting to documenting that, indeed, trying to manage by metrics almost always introduces distortions, which in turn are almost always counter-productive. The problem isn't just with IT, it's with any type of effort that seeks to reward or punish based on metrics.
The only metrics that I've found actually useful in IT are those that are predictive -- for example, aiding to estimate the actual delivery date of a project under development. The metrics that seek to somehow measure "accomplishments to date" solely for the purpose of reward or punishment are always gamed and are almost always useless. ..bruce..
Actually, this cuts both ways. As someone who has acted as an expert witness in a number of lawsuits, I usually want to see the time-sorted e-mail record where relevant, particularly if there are software developers or engineers involved (since they tend to be more, ah, blunt in their statements). I've seen large cases end up settling unfavorably for one side because of a dozen or so internal e-mails that its personnel had written (one I recall said something to the effect of "Why are we charging our client [a large specific sum of money] and delivering them garbage?").
But I fully agree with you as well: document, document, document, whether by e-mail, memo, or letter. If your firm (particularly if you're a software developer/vendor) has never been involved in a lawsuit, there is a tendency to tell yourself, "We'll make this work out; we want to keep the customer happy; we're all grown-ups here," and so rely on verbal assurances or concessions. Then when a lawsuit happens, you have no documentation -- just he-said/she-said testimony -- as to why (and how) the scope changed or the project went over-schedule/over-budget or why certain IP was used or shared or when certain key inventions were developed. ..bruce..
Having built a software development team from scratch for a venture-funded startup, and having done tech vetting for years on consultants, I fully understand the difficulty in determining who's actually talented and who isn't. But I just don't buy that the 'puzzle' approach translates into 'great software engineer'. You may well get a bunch of bright and clever people who are good at puzzles, and it's good to have some folks like that around, but I suspect if everyone is that way, you'll end up with a bunch of engineers trying to out-clever each other -- and that doesn't translate into well-designed and readily-maintained software. IMHO. ..bruce..
(What do I think is necessary? See here and here.)
That's what my friend and boss Wayne Holder said about Turbo Pascal when I demo'd it for him back when it first came out in the early 80s. It wasn't just that TP was vastly smaller than any other Pascal (C, FORTRAN, etc.) compiler out there, it's that it compiled much, much faster -- in some cases, an order or two of magnitude faster. ..bruce..
The original version of WordPerfect was developed by Bruce Bastian while a grad student at BYU (with Alan Ashton as his faculty advisor). At that time, it was a screen-oriented editor that ran on Data General minicomputers. I know because I shared an office with Bruce during my senior year at BYU (1977-78) and used his existing version of the editor to write several papers for my classes. :-) Bruce & Alan went on to sell a (DG) version to a local city government (Orem, UT) and then founded Satellite Systems Int'l to commercialize the product and ended up owning the MS-DOS word processing market. Word Perfect still might be dominant were it not for Microsoft's brilliant head-fake with OS/2 and Windows 3.0, but that's another story. ..bruce..
I was out to lunch with a group of people and the subject of space exploration came up. Having worked at NASA and LPI (albeit 30 years ago), I expressed my various opinions (e.g., the Shuttle was a mistake and we lost 30-40 years by NASA's hindering private enterprises from space launch systems). The subject of mining asteroids came up; I said that it could provide some long-term benefits, but I would be very, very leery about moving an asteroid into near-Earth orbit, for all the obvious reasons.
That said, moving a 10-meter asteroid into earth orbit carries (IMHO) relatively few risks. ..bruce..
OK, I'm at my laptop, laughing out loud. Well done. ..bruce..