alex_79 Posted May 8, 2021 Share Posted May 8, 2021 (edited) Today I stumbled across this article about an old Apple II Italian text adventure called "Un Marasma Galattico" by Piero Cavina. Many people here on AA will probably recognize that name as the author of "Oystron", one of the earliest homebrews for the 2600 (and still one of the best IMO), and the e-mail address in the "leggimi.txt" file included with the download matches the one in this page, confirming he was in fact the same person. Intrigued by this find, I clicked on the link to the related forum thread in the article. In the last post, a moderator replies to a user who asked if the author published other adventure games: Quote Posso dirti di aver provato a contattare personalmente Piero Cavina nel 2019 tramite lettera cartacea in quanto nessun indirizzo sul web era più valido, mi rispose la moglie dicendo che purtroppo non era più tra noi.. Translation Quote I can say that I tried contacting Piero Cavina in 2019 using physical mail, because none of the e-mail addresses found on the web were vaild anymore, and I got a response from his wife, telling me that sadly he was no longer among us.. I'm very saddened to hear about Piero passing away. He wasn't an active member here anymore when I first joined AA back in 2006, so I never actually talked to him, but he was one of the early homebrewers that contributed to start this hobby and I enjoyed playing his games and reading his old posts in the Stella mailing list. My thoughts are with his family. Edited May 8, 2021 by alex_79 14 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted May 8, 2021 Share Posted May 8, 2021 Wow, that's really sad, I wasn't aware of this myself. Thank you for posting this. I sent an email to Piero earlier this year about his royalties for Oystron and I received this cryptic response, Translating this it seems to mean, "It could happen", but I imagine in this context it may mean something else. Perhaps an Italian speaker can offer an alternative meaning. I hadn't responded to it as I've just been spectacularly busy. In the past he always responded in English, so I thought this was a bit odd. I don't know if this was an auto-responder or if someone is monitoring this email account and responded. Oystron is really a fun and unique homebrew game on the 2600. I'll need to read the article you linked about his Apple II text adventure game (using Google Translate). ..Al 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted May 8, 2021 Share Posted May 8, 2021 This is so sad. Oystron was the homebrew that made me wanting to do my own one. And it always had (and will have!) a special place in my heart. RIP Piero 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex_79 Posted May 8, 2021 Author Share Posted May 8, 2021 2 hours ago, Albert said: Translating this it seems to mean, "It could happen", but I imagine in this context it may mean something else. Perhaps an Italian speaker can offer an alternative meaning. I hadn't responded to it as I've just been spectacularly busy. In the past he always responded in English, so I thought this was a bit odd. I don't know if this was an auto-responder or if someone is monitoring this email account and responded. An auto-responder seems plausible to me. "It could happen" is indeed the correct translation. And "È successo" in the subject line means "It happened". 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted May 9, 2021 Share Posted May 9, 2021 Oystron was inspirational to me, too. Am saddened to hear this news. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alfredtdk Posted June 2, 2021 Share Posted June 2, 2021 This reminds me of the first time I used Stella to emulate the Atari 2600 system, it was in late 2001 when I acquired a computer magazine and it contained a CD with a collection of computer games and 8 and 16 system emulators. bits. The interesting thing is that when installing Stella on the PC it already came with 3 Homebrews pre-installed. One of them was Oystron by Piero Cavina. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SpiceWare Posted June 2, 2021 Share Posted June 2, 2021 12 hours ago, alfredtdk said: The interesting thing is that when installing Stella on the PC it already came with 3 Homebrews pre-installed. One of them was Oystron by Piero Cavina. Just checked my Stella/2 archive and we distributed 5 ROMS with Stella: Elk Attack by Mark R. Hahn Okie Dokie by Bob Colbert Oystron by Piero Cavina Wavy Line Test 2 by ? test.bin This Planet Sucks by Greg Troutman 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alfredtdk Posted June 3, 2021 Share Posted June 3, 2021 11 hours ago, SpiceWare said: Acabei de verificar meu arquivo Stella / 2 e distribuímos 5 ROMS com Stella: Elk Attack por Mark R. Hahn Okie Dokie de Bob Colbert Oystron de Piero Cavina Teste de linha ondulada 2 por? test.bin This Planet Sucks por Greg Troutman Exactly. What I remember from this version is that the Hue used for the colors of the emulated games was another standard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slapdash Posted June 3, 2021 Share Posted June 3, 2021 I just heard about this, but... his Facebook account still seems to be active. Did someone take over (or steal?) his account? Definitely sad news if true... He was a common voice on Stellalist back in some early days of homebrewing games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rom Hunter Posted June 24, 2021 Share Posted June 24, 2021 Just read this. That's truly sad news indeed. Wasn't Piero Cavina also involved with Mondo Pong and INV? Impressive programs as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted June 24, 2021 Share Posted June 24, 2021 4 minutes ago, Rom Hunter said: Wasn't Piero Cavina also involved with Mondo Pong and INV? Yes, he was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sramirez2008 Posted June 24, 2021 Share Posted June 24, 2021 41 minutes ago, Rom Hunter said: Wasn't Piero Cavina also involved with Mondo Pong and INV? Mondo Pong and Thrust+ were two of my first purchases at the AA Store. My wife and I still play Mondo Pong today. The carts artwork is one of my favorites. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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