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Hard disk adapted game compilations new policy


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13 hours ago, ParanoidLittleMan said:

And here we are again at it - and must say that I expected that it will come up again.

Ok, Chuckles, lets do this.

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So, there is claim that me "stole my code and claimed it as their own idea " - that self sounds not coherent - so what was stolen actually ? Code, idea, both ? 

Both. In the case of the code: BYTE FOR BYTE.

 

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D-bug and CJ were not first who solved redirection of floppy access to hard disk in case of Atari ST. It was done much earlier, if I remember correct around 1992 by crew Superior, with their FFLS loading system.

Yes, they were. It's completely different to ULS, and as you said very limited in what drives it supports. Kudos to them, and all credit.  ULS surpassed it in every way, being fit for purpose on ALL mass storage devices.

 

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What D-Bug did actually with their ULS ? The concept was not their idea - they took it from Amiga WHDLoad system (should I say 'stole' ?).

You could say that, except you'd be wong, because on the ULS download page it says: It is hoped that the release of this code will kick-start the ST hard disk adaption scene, in much the same way WHDLoad has done for the Amiga. Indeed, ULS can perform many of the functions of WHDLoad, and offer serveral exciting new ones that were previously only seem in emulators! 

So, the origins for the idea are given, the credit given. The code is *vastly* different to WHD-Load (Not a single chunk copied from it) and was not even used as a reference during its development.  So.. your point?

 

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What I  did in 2010 was complete different approach, for accessing hard disk from game - I disassembled TOS 1.04, actually only it's GEMDOS part.

Yes, you did do that. But long before that you stole the ULS code (byte for byte) and idea and called it your own.  ULS was launched in, I believe 2005?

 

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Later I made my version of WHDload concept for Atari ST family - for instance I was only one who use PMMU code for avoiding RAM area swaps on TT and Falcon (including existing Amiga and ST solutions).

Wrong. ECG (A D-Bug member at the time) started doing this in 2005.  The PMMU code swap for TT and Flacon have been in ULS since 2005, using this code. This is one of the sections you took byte for byte.  Did you credit ECG/Dbug or WHDLoad? Nope.

 

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 Only mindless creten can talk about stolen code.  In normal World it would be possible to sue him because of false accusation, but who cares for truth, justice among ordinary people.

See all the above.  Bring it, Chuckles.

 

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I have brain, decency, moral - something what counts by real humans.

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Price is 10 Euros for 1 compilation. More details, how to pay - via e-mail

LOL.  Checkmate?

 

Carry on with the lies, rants, bullshit.  I'm certainly done with you, the ST scene, and now this thread.

 

Hopefully a moderator will be along to evalute and lock this. Good day, sir.

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When you think that it can not go lower - well, you are wrong.

Repeating lie multiple times, with large fat letters - that should make lie truth ? But I guess, that's all what he has in his arsenal.

So, I only will do one thing: ask people - preferably those with 68000 ASM knowledge to check my code (and I even will send S source code files, if someone wants it - they will be published anyway in near future (like 1-2 years)).  Involved files are: older game launchers, where most of code is.

Diverse D15*.* files, what actually modded TOS 1.04 in RAM is (I must admit, I stole it from Atari ? ) .

Then HAGA source - that is actually library file, with functions for common tasks like RAM config, launching game, installing and setting TOS in RAM, state save handle, etc. It is much better to have them as shared library file - surely I stole it byte by byte ...

There are newer HAGA variants - HAGE - support for AES/GEM using games and floppy images instead custom file access in HAGA game starters.

And HAG2 - what is actually HAGE floppy image support concept, only without GEM/AES support - because it makes things easier by many games.

As I know ULS is available, so you can do comparison - if someone cares at all for facts anymore ...

 

Asking money for hard work is not indecency. It is actually normal behavior.

 

This thread was for me useful, informative. Now I'm sure that I made right decision. Now I see how so called Atari ST retro community is divided, or better said that there is nothing from it at all. There are big words from diverse circles, groups - in most cases in their narrow interest.  Actually all bad in general human society is present here - manipulation, double standards, hypocrisy  and so on.

And I will continue to keep good things alive. I got plenty of e-mails with 'thanx to keep it alive' type messages. There is lot of good and realistic, modest people among Atari retro people - and they deserve to get some new things.

Those who don't like what and how I do it - nobody forces you to use it (hey, that's serious risk by some big fat liars ! ).

Nobody has right to dictate me about pricing policy. You can write your opinion - but better take some effort and use elementary logic before write.

Coming with 'ah so disgusted' and similar arguments - again, cheap way to pull attention.

Even myself had no clue how hard and time consuming is to reorganize over 1400 game adaptations, done with diverse systems. And what shallow people does - compares it with TOSEC and similar archives, which are nothing but taking files from diverse sources, and put them together, with little categorizing. 

In next months I will focus on some updates, fixing some problematic games (Captive is one of), and probably doing few new ones ..

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9 hours ago, ParanoidLittleMan said:

Asking money for hard work is not indecency. It is actually normal behavior.

 

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I have brain, decency, moral - something what counts by real humans.

Good to know that you'll be sending royalty checks to the original developers.

 

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Little more about those " ... wipes whole partitions" and "byte by byte" writes (repeated just here multiple times):

That's actually huge insult toward Atari ST users, + generally toward any computer users. That's so absurd and unrealistic that coming with such sentences means that their 'author' thinks that almost all computer users are complete idiots, and have no clue about how disks, OS, filesystem work, what is source code of some SW ...   No, all that's irrelevant, making big noise, using big letters is what matters.

And actually, that's all they (most of crackers, patchers do all time) - big words in game intros, big words in presenting something new, all flooded with "we are best" type sentences, that at the end they start to believe all it is true. Pure psychopatology.

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10 hours ago, Tillek said:

 

Good to know that you'll be sending royalty checks to the original developers.

 

I talked about it in details, for what I ask money, how is with original developers - which are btw. not copyright owners in 99% cases.  They got their money for it from publishers/distributors already.

Again, if want to say something constructive, or even just do some critic what has sense at all, read what is written in thread.

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6 minutes ago, ParanoidLittleMan said:

I talked about it in details, for what I ask money, how is with original developers - which are btw. not copyright owners in 99% cases.  They got their money for it from publishers/distributors already.

Again, if want to say something constructive, or even just do some critic what has sense at all, read what is written in thread.

 

There is a tacit rule in all those retro communities and it's true about the ST community as well: don't make money using someone else's work.

You can try to justify it with countless long posts, calling people names, it won't change the fact that it's exactly what you are trying to do and it's just lame.
 

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There is almost nothing in this World in what is not someone else's work involved. For instance, if someone manufactures some electronic devices, he uses diverse tools, components.  So, he uses someone else's work.  Or even better example:  those who manufacture UltraSatan, Satanisk etc. use Jookie's work (design), and shameless bastards, they dare to ask money for it ! Although better example would be those who not crediting designers - like exxos.

And yes, I will call you now stoopid lamer.  At least my long posts have sense, coherence, some history facts,  facts about how computers work - sorry that I try to spread knowledge and attitude.

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37 minutes ago, ParanoidLittleMan said:

At least my long posts have sense, coherence, some history facts,  facts about how computers work - sorry that I try to spread knowledge and attitude.

Thanks for that, I nearly choked on my beer.

 

btw, you'll not feed yourself reselling 30 year old games. Don't quit the day job.

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1 hour ago, ParanoidLittleMan said:

There is almost nothing in this World in what is not someone else's work involved. For instance, if someone manufactures some electronic devices, he uses diverse tools, components.  So, he uses someone else's work.  Or even better example:  those who manufacture UltraSatan, Satanisk etc. use Jookie's work (design), and shameless bastards, they dare to ask money for it ! Although better example would be those who not crediting designers - like exxos.

And yes, I will call you now stoopid lamer.  At least my long posts have sense, coherence, some history facts,  facts about how computers work - sorry that I try to spread knowledge and attitude.

Yes, but they paid for those electronic components.  Those components are also specifically designed to be used to create other components and devices.

 

Then again, you're the guy trying to call someone stupid... and spelling it wrong.

 

For example, if I were to call you a "asshole" in your native Hungarian, I would at least have enough self respect to look up the correct translation and spelling (at least with Google Translate).

 

Honestly though, I hate that good people are leaving this forum because of you.  I really wish we could push you out of it like I've heard you've been pushed out of other forums.  Unlike DarkLord, I don't agree that what someone does for the community should excuse this behavior.  Everyone can have one of those days they just go off.  In your case though, it's hard to find anything where you aren't argumentative and rude.  What I can't seem to understand is how you honestly ask about why people won't help you, or why people won't combine efforts to work with you on things like your game list.

 

It is because you're a seggfej.  (Or is segglyuk better?  I defer to your expertise on this since I'm sure you hear it a lot).

 

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Hmm, my position isn't that any and all bad behavior is excusable

because of someone's community/scene contributions. Far from it.

 

I mean, extrapolating from that, I'd be supporting serial killers as

long as they had a decent daytime job.  :)

 

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19 hours ago, Tillek said:

Yes, but they paid for those electronic components.  Those components are also specifically designed to be used to create other components and devices.

 

Then again, you're the guy trying to call someone stupid... and spelling it wrong.

 

For example, if I were to call you a "asshole" in your native Hungarian, I would at least have enough self respect to look up the correct translation and spelling (at least with Google Translate).

 

Honestly though, I hate that good people are leaving this forum because of you.  I really wish we could push you out of it like I've heard you've been pushed out of other forums.  Unlike DarkLord, I don't agree that what someone does for the community should excuse this behavior.  Everyone can have one of those days they just go off.  In your case though, it's hard to find anything where you aren't argumentative and rude.  What I can't seem to understand is how you honestly ask about why people won't help you, or why people won't combine efforts to work with you on things like your game list.

 

It is because you're a seggfej.  (Or is segglyuk better?  I defer to your expertise on this since I'm sure you hear it a lot).

 

Let see little recent history:  I started thread about new UltraSatan available in plexy/transparent case . End Mr. Polite/aka Tillek wrote there that I presented that device only to advertise my hard disk driver SW - sure sir, that was really polite and based on ... what ?  I will say mild word: shallowness. But there can be more of it, maybe biased fanboy of some crew ?  And interesting: did not notice that I promoted concurrent Atari Flash card adapter, since myself selling ACSI-CF adapter, which is btw. my original design . http://atari.8bitchip.info/acsicfafs.html

So, personal attack for sure. It is not forbidden here to promote own products to sale.

In little later thread Mr. Polite was very offended because I called his writing shallow. And yes, it was it. Especially for me, who knows much more about that topic.

 

Why I wrote that 'stoopid' - because was called lame from man who really has no clue - and I answered with good arguments about  "don't make money using someone else's work." .

Certainly argument about manufacturing, selling (so making money) with UltraSatan was best - because it is open source HW project, Jookie self made firmware too.   And of course, Mr. Polite skipped it completely - as it is always done  by people don't caring for facts, truth, or just basic equality between people . Mr. Polite is the worst - double standards, dragging out of context, playing judge ...

While his knowledge even with English lang. seems hmmm ...   I wrote 'stoopid' with intention, and it is not me who first used it in that form. 2 o-s are long u - got it now ?

Btw. recommending google translator ? Huahahha .

Btw. I have 2 native languages, and I learned both parallel (Hu and Sr). And I think that it was good, not only because environment - where population was approx. 50-50% in those 2 nations, but to start understand some things better, to see different ways of expression.

 

"Pushing out of forums" - well, first time I hear that word about it. I guess Mr. Polite would be good dictator, pardon, efficient dictator - they are newer good.  And why ? Because he says that people leaving forums because of me ?  Yeah, another Cyrano Jones - coming with serious accusement without any argument.

I'm always nice with fair people, those who don't insult me. May happen that I do some critic, corrections without much leading blah,  because that is waste of time and space. And those egoists will get insulted anyway.

More history: AF - dictator MugUK wanted that I  act there by his unfair conditions, what I refused. And he called me in 1 PM "paranoid little man" - now dear atariage people, you know origin of my username here ?

Exxos forum: exxos wanted to dictate there that I write only nice things, not about some problems. I made some complexer SW work for him, on his request, and he just totally forgot about it . And overall, what goes on that forum - he uses members as free developing labor force - see thread about IDE adapter, for instance.  At the end, I abandoned forum on my own will, posted about it there. So was not banned - or more accurate - exxos deleted that my post and banned me ? 

 

" it's hard to find anything where you aren't argumentative and rude." - hmm - argumentative - indeed I'm in some Atari forum - because it is that I know many things much better than average user.  Sometimes it may look rude, and I usually getting mad a bit after someone pushes silly things over and over again. Or just posts without reading what is written in thread.

Will not comment final paragraph of Mr. Polite.  Btw. that 'segg...' is obsolete, and today youth does not use it at all. Hearing insults here ? They exist for sure, but habit here is to say them behind subject's back, on safe distance. 

 

Final words in this reply:  I saw recently best shirt text, and it was on younger girl (like 18 years), something like (sorry for own translation, google needs to improve it's translator a lot yet): If you don't understand what I say, it doesn't mean that it is stoopid.

Edited by ParanoidLittleMan
mistype corrections
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45 minutes ago, ParanoidLittleMan said:

Let see little recent history:  I started thread about new UltraSatan available in plexy/transparent case . End Mr. Polite/aka Tillek wrote there that I presented that device only to advertise my hard disk driver SW - sure sir, that was really polite and based on ... what ?  I will say mild word: shallowness. But there can be more of it, maybe biased fanboy of some crew ?  And interesting: did not notice that I promoted concurrent Atari Flash card adapter, since myself selling ACSI-CF adapter, which is btw. my original design . http://atari.8bitchip.info/acsicfafs.html

So, personal attack for sure. It is not forbidden here to promote own products to sale.

In little later thread Mr. Polite was very offended because I called his writing shallow. And yes, it was it. Especially for me, who knows much more about that topic.

 

Why I wrote that 'stoopid' - because was called lame from man who really has no clue - and I answered with good arguments about  "don't make money using someone else's work." .

Certainly argument about manufacturing, selling (so making money) with UltraSatan was best - because it is open source HW project, Jookie self made firmware too.   And of course, Mr. Polite skipped it completely - as it is always done  by people don't caring for facts, truth, or just basic equality between people . Mr. Polite is the worst - double standards, dragging out of context, playing judge ...

While his knowledge even with English lang. seems hmmm ...   I wrote 'stoopid' with intention, and it is not me who first used it in that form. 2 o-s are long u - got it now ?

Btw. recommending google translator ? Huahahha .

Btw. I have 2 native languages, and I learned both parallel (Hu and Sr). And I think that it was good, not only because environment - where population was approx. 50-50% in those 2 nations, but to start understand some things better, to see different ways of expression.

 

"Pushing out of forums" - well, first time I hear that word about it. I guess Mr. Polite would be good dictator, pardon, efficient dictator - they are newer good.  And why ? Because he says that people leaving forums because of me ?  Yeah, another Cyrano Jones - coming with serious accusement without any argument.

I'm always nice with fair people, those who don't insult me. May happen that I do some critic, corrections without much leading blah,  because that is waste of time and space. And those egoists will get insulted anyway.

More history: AF - dictator MugUK wanted that I  act there by his unfair conditions, what I refused. And he called me in 1 PM "paranoid little man" - now dear atariage people, you know origin of my username here ?

Exxos forum: exxos wanted to dictate there that I write only nice things, not about some problems. I made some complexer SW work for him, on his request, and he just totally forgot about it . And overall, what goes on that forum - he uses members as free developing labor force - see thread about IDE adapter, for instance.  At the end, I abandoned forum on my own will, posted about it there. So was not banned - or more accurate - exxos deleted that my post and banned me ? 

 

" it's hard to find anything where you aren't argumentative and rude." - hmm - argumentative - indeed I'm in some Atari forum - because it is that I know many things much better than average user.  Sometimes it may look rude, and I usually getting mad a bit after someone pushes silly things over and over again. Or just posts without reading what is written in thread.

Will not comment final paragraph of Mr. Polite.  Btw. that 'segg...' is obsolete, and today youth does not use it at all. Hearing insults here ? They exist for sure, but habit here is to say them behind subject's back, on safe distance. 

 

Final words in this reply:  I saw recently best shirt text, and it was on younger girl (like 18 years), something like (sorry for own translation, google needs to improve it's translator a lot yet): If you don't understand what I say, it doesn't mean that it is stoopid.

English lesson 101 by ParanoidLittleMan: price is 10 euros for one lesson, PM

him for details. Free sample above. :cool:

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17 hours ago, Tillek said:

Then again, you're the guy trying to call someone stupid... and spelling it wrong.

It's a slang term spelling. It's to emphasise the stupidity of a person. It's defiantly not proper English but in the terms of online communication, it's a thing. Just wanted to point that out.
image.thumb.png.e9c47203e4425ec876963c9491d64935.png

 

Ok. Continue on with your in-fighting. ?

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On 7/15/2021 at 11:54 AM, ParanoidLittleMan said:

Really ? 'Selling' games ? There are many freeware ones included. The service is for what people pay. Should I add note like: " ... must own original to have right to play this 'conversions/patches' "- like it stays at WHDload ? There is no copyright for those old games - it is abandonware.

Internet is full with sites holding image files (ROMs as some say) of 'those game' - for instance Atari Legend site. You are just a hypocrite .

Ah, and what about your buddy at AL Marcer ? He sold DVDs with plenty of games. And added even my work, without asking my permission.

I made over 1400 games to be usable in much easier, reliable way, with modern storage, with some added extras, over 13 years. And it is not over, while some others abandoned it. It's just that life is now harder than was 13 years ago. Sorry that I need to eat and living somewhere ...

 

Don't get sucked in Peter, some people get a charge out of trying to get you fired up..   We know, you know, you are helping out the community and not doing anything.. with anything that is not already well out in the public "domain" for many many many years.  Thanks again for putting this together, and making it available.

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Further to what I said in the above post - if all Peter had said was; "I have spent the last couple of months putting all my HD converted games in 3 easy to download compilations - easy to load, specific to TOS versions so that you can get the best experience (Beyond the point that all of these adapted games - Peter did the adaptation himself), for this I am charging a 10 euro download fee."  I'm good.

 

Buy it, dont buy it.. whatever - all of these were available for free before, they are all now.. and some of you might take what he has made and redistribute it.  For me.. to have a 1400+ games on a CF card or whatever that I can just put in.. I know they work, I can have a good experience..  YES - that is worth 10 Euro.. $15 Canadian dollars, what I paid for lunch yesterday.  I will get more entertainment out of the organization, the operation on my HD, the ones converted for stereo for my MegaSTE that were not originally than I will from seeing Black Widow tomorrow night @ $40.... ALL OF WHICH will be my choice.

 

AND yes.. I did spend the 10 euro... call me what you will, could not care less.

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  • 3 months later...

Wow.. a bunch of mean old men on this thread.

 

How bout this.. if you dont like what he is doing or has done, do not support or give your opinion, we all have opinions.. never met such a small group of assholes in my life.

 

I myself am not savvy and do indeed like the fact that I can for a small fee compensate someone else for their efforts.. I will be purchasing all 3 compilations. 

 

Go back to your room and play with yourselves.. grumpy old men fighting about a system thats 30 years old (WTF!!??) that someone is keeping alive for idiots like me.  I am not a keyboard warrior, I am real and really sick of politics... Go joing the Amiga VS Atari thread.. live long and prosper.

 

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On 10/29/2021 at 1:08 PM, Koji77 said:

Wow.. a bunch of mean old men on this thread.

 

How bout this.. if you dont like what he is doing or has done, do not support or give your opinion, we all have opinions.. never met such a small group of assholes in my life.

 

I myself am not savvy and do indeed like the fact that I can for a small fee compensate someone else for their efforts.. I will be purchasing all 3 compilations. 

 

Go back to your room and play with yourselves.. grumpy old men fighting about a system thats 30 years old (WTF!!??) that someone is keeping alive for idiots like me.  I am not a keyboard warrior, I am real and really sick of politics... Go joing the Amiga VS Atari thread.. live long and prosper.

 

Bye, Felicia (And Take Karen With You)" Art Board Print by CroyleC |  Redbubble

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Peter, would you consider a bit different aproach to your policy?

 

You could offer the game datafiles for free as previously, but charge money for your executable loader packs instead. This way people wouldn't accuse you of selling 'other people's work' and you would still get paid for your hard work.

 

In other words people could still download the games, but need your loader to activate them, and all the work you've done wouldn't get overshadowed by the piracy accusations and breaking hobby traditions.

 

Now, the big picture: My biggest fear is that someone pays for your gamepack, sends it to a publisher like Atari or Microprose as evidence. So the witch hunt begins which tries to close every Atari site for good, making ST software history preservation impossible in the future.

It's naive to think big publishers won't care if their IP is sold for profit, no matter how good the hobbyist intentions are, or how small our scene is.

 

Is a possible destroying of the Atari software preservation scene really worth a few sets of 10 euros or whatever the price is?

 

I wish there could be another way for Atari hobbyists to support your work financially.

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Thank you Marko for your concern and ideas. Surely, some other way of support would be better.  All this is not simple.

Well, I don't think that big companies care about 30 year old SW, what is called now often abandonware. There is much more money involved in piracy of brandnew things - like movies, latest games, OS, music, etc. Even if don't ask money directly, there is income, mostly via adverts, what is still in expansion. And file hosts may ask directly money for download without restrictions and slowness. Some were closed, but it changes nothing, new ones arrived.  There is simple 'trick' in it - hosts are not responsible for content - they have warnings about what is allowed, what not. Forms for submitting report about violation. Now, who will do it, when people wants all it for free, or much less than buying at legal sellers ? It just works.  So, this with old SW, games is not really something where big money is involved, and it does not any harm to still possible copyright holders. Which are mostly it just because are lazy to write some legal document about moving it in freeware, PD domain. What is btw. done in big part with Sinclair Spectrum games and other SW, years ago, thanx to effort of World Of Spectrum site in big part.

I remember that sites with diverse "ROM's", floppy images of old games were sometimes closed, still around 2005-6, after it I did not see it more. We have now plenty of it, and not only for home/personal computers, but for instance for arcade game consoles (MAME) - I really don't know are somewhere still those old machines in same gaming places, or they do not want to struggle with keeping them alive, so were sold to enthusiasts, but it is worse than some home computer case, they were never intended for home usage. Just reminding about what was in last couple decades.

 

I made clear that I ask money not for games, but for my work about making them still usable with modern storage and on still big number of working 30 years old Ataris. Lot of people do not have working floppy system, and Flash storage is now cheap. And it is not only hard disk driver what took time and effort.

Putting together 1500 games, with start and selection menu took over 1 month, and I have 3 of them, for different TOS versions. For instance I needed to correct about 10 DLL like files in older adaptations that they work with iTOS and pure FAT16 partitions, up to 1 GB size.  Spent practically whole summer with all it, and doing more games, which are published free, some added to individual DL, and today-tomorrow will be about 30 more (it self takes couple days of work to make all screenshots, descriptions, YT videos ...). Those who wrote here big words about how shameless is this have no clue how much time is invested in all it. Because all they know is copying files.   And to add something - anyone of those big publishers care about my game improvements, which took also lot of time ?

Nope, I did not hear about anything like from them, to anyone. Some game programmers wrote to me, and thanked for my 'keeping it alive', compatibility improvements, and similar.

 

So, again, it is not for games. Which are available online at many places. Sometimes at price of going thru some adverts (what does not worry anyone ?) . It is for may time, effort, material investments - you can not do it without HW and other things. And here, in Hu, life is more and more expensive, quality of wares in shops is worse and worse, even it it is well known problem over decade. Maybe for someone in happier parts of this planet "few sets of 10 Eu" means nothing, here, where average salaries are about 5-8 times lower than on West, hmmm ...

 

Btw. if looking strictly, making SW, HW for copying copyrighted floppies is illegal too. Usual policy was that user could send not working floppy, and it was replaced with good one. Is anywhere declared that now users have right about doing copies self ? Then, all those SCP, Kryoflux images online are illegal.

 

Finally, is it forbidden to ask money for something what is free ? I don't know about that. Last couple years plenty of people working in food delivery. How they dare to charge, while some restaurants deliver to home for free ? If I see that Ocean still sells their old Atari games, I will remove them.

 

 

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I understand that very well, and i know you're only asking money for your work. And you more than deserve it. I've followed your work for years, and know you're one of the most helpful and productive guys in the world of Atari ST. I'm not here to judge what you can or cannot do :)

 

It has just been 'against the spirit' of retro computing in my part of the world to ask money when something ex commercial is directly involved. Culture might have been different in your part of the world, and that's ok. I'm not familiar with it, but i respect it. 

 

I also understand that if things get tricky and someone is under threat to be thrown out of their own home due to bills they cannot pay for example, people will do anything to survive. Sometimes managing to get it through the next month financially feels like you're a super hero or something... Been into that situation many times and i'm going to be. It's not fun.

 

Like you, a few other Atari ST hobbyists have worked like hell the last decade aswell for making the memory of our belowed computer to last forever. I know how time consuming it is to do something when 95% of the other users just expect everything to be free and instantly ready. Someone wants money for their work, someone wants respect, someone wants nothing, someone spends hundreds of euros just go give something for hobbyists to enjoy for free. We're all in different life situations.

 

Still, if you ever put up an alternative way for donations, like Patreon, Buy me a Coffee or similar, i'm more than happy to contribute. And i'm pretty sure a few others are too. When you do good things to people, people usually do good things for you.

 

Keep up the good work Peter :)

Edited by marakatti
Removing (one of many) spelling errors ?
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I think the problem is with the "cultural clash". For me, and probably for Peter also, it was natural, that crackers were selling "modified" games, and for many years they were the only source of computer games and programs at all. You could go to the computer market and buy any game, program or a compilation disk. They were inexpensive, mostly media and recording costs. We could never ever allow ourselves to buy a game for its western price, as it was probably comparable with our yearly income in USD. The consciousness of ownership was also different in Eastern Europe, as almost everything was a kind of common/shared property. You barely could own physical things, not to mention some abstract rights to art. It was natural, that you got your education from the country (it was all free!), so when you have created or invented something it was also a property of the whole nation. You could produce and sell it and, of course, get some money from each sold piece. You could paint a picture and sell it, you could sing a song in a club, and take money for it. Basically you could get money for everything you did, but only once you did it. On the other hand you could record a song from a radio broadcast or at a concert, and sell the tapes (the singer already got his money for giving a concert)... so judge by yourself if it was really so unfair, as in western world it was recognized ;)

 

P.S.

Peter, please remember that your ACSI-CF, which you have mentioned here, finally works reliably on the PCB, thanks to someone else's work, who found a bug in your GAL equations/signal timings from the original project...

Edited by tzok
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19 minutes ago, tzok said:

I think the problem is with the "cultural clash". For me, and probably for Peter also, it was natural, that crackers were selling "modified" games, and for many years they were the only source of computer games and programs at all. You could go to the computer market and buy any game, program or a compilation disk. They were inexpensive, mostly media and recording costs. We could never ever allow ourselves to buy a game for its western price, as it was probably comparable with our yearly income in USD. The consciousness of ownership was also different in Eastern Europe, as almost everything was a kind of common/shared property. You barely could own physical things, not to mention some abstract rights to art. It was natural, that you got your education from the country (it was all free!), so when you have created or invented something it was also a property of the whole nation. You could produce and sell it and, of course, get some money from each sold piece. You could paint a picture and sell it, you could sing a song in a club, and take money for it. Basically you could get money for everything you did, but only once you did it. On the other hand you could record a song from a radio broadcast or at a concert, and sell the tapes (the singer already got his money for giving a concert)... so judge by yourself if it was really so unfair, as in western world it was recognized ;)

Well, in the US, it was natural for me to not have the money to buy many commercial games. No, it wasn't a year salary for me since it didn't have a job at the time. Of course, I could get a paper route and then it would definitely make it obtainable, albeit, taking a significant amount of my paycheck. Still, at that age, I didn't have any expenses other than possibly saving up for a car or other forms of personal entertainment. So, I found people who had cracked software and I built a large library in that manner, but no one ever charged me for it. Of course, when the cost of software is significantly higher in other countries, I could see people finding a way to put it towards their income. At no time did I not think that what I was doing was wasn't illegal, but I justified it since everyone was doing it and because I didn't have the cash flow. I was a kid who only known that what I had was provided to me or was purchased with the little cash I had on hand.
I totally understand that "eastern European" (AKA: Communist) thinking back then since that's all you really knew. But, when you actually produced something is when it would sting. When Alexey Pajitnov created Tetris, he didn't own squat and so he didn't reap the rewards of his creation. As soon as he got a chance, he hotfooted it to a country where his hard work could be converted into a better living for himself. I think one can only understand this if you had created something of some significant value. Painting a picture or doing doing a gig with music you wrote ain't gunna hurt until someone takes your product and finds a way to make themselves rich off of it. But, if wealth was distributed by the government, maybe the differences in wealth weren't as significant but I suspect certain government officials lived better than your average citizen. Still, it wasn't like the Soviet Union (and the countries under its rule) didn't have copyright laws. It's just that they were much looser than your western counterparts. If you were copying, or selling, software you didn't have the rights to, you were, in essence,  breaking the law...albeit one that problem wasn't enforced.
This in no way has any connection to what Peter is doing, it's mostly just to point out that  "that's how it used to be so that explains this thought process now" is understandable, but not totally excusable now that we've all grown up, earned a living, and now exist in a democratic society.

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9 hours ago, tzok said:

...

P.S.

Peter, please remember that your ACSI-CF, which you have mentioned here, finally works reliably on the PCB, thanks to someone else's work, who found a bug in your GAL equations/signal timings from the original project...

That 'someone else' is Tori.  And the reason why my original GAL equations were not good are bad Atari DOCs about DMA chip timings - what was present in 1987 Atari ST ProfiBuch too, then not present in later editions (would be good to know why was removed) .

So, I would not call it bug - it worked actually reliable, only that needed accurate setting of delay and very well designed PCB. Otherwise I would not publish it.

 

Considering sales of pirate copies in Western World, I'm pretty sure that they were much bigger than in Eastern Eu. And not only in total numbers, but relative to population. If nothing else, because much more people had Ataris, or other computer. Actually, C64 was most sold in Eastern block until it's decease, Atari ST, Amiga were too expensive for 98 % of people.  I was in 1988 September at London Computer Consumer Show, and couple pirates offered me floppies with games in middle of it ?

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