Hi Shaun and all, Well, here is what I think will happen. I don't think it is anything to be afraid of because as I have said many times a lot of the stuff we have now can be run on Windows 8.1 with a little bit of tinkering. Yes, while there will be certain issues such as 3d audio support is broken in games like Shades of Doom, Tank Commander, etc it isn't an insurmountable issue. I have played Shades of Doom many times on Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 using stereo mixing which is less precise but doable.
What I think is going to happen is eventually a lot of people running XP right now will have to buy new computers running Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1. It is not so much a question of if but when. Let's say sometime in the next five years or so the XP user base will slowly but eventually upgrade to a newer machine, new OS, and obviously they will want games that are compatible with their new computers. As the number of blind users running something like Windows 8 grows developers will have to follow suit. They probably will be running newer computers themselves and will have to take some time to look at alternatives such as Visual Basic .NET, C# .NET, Java, whatever. I don't know if they will choose to rewrite any of their older games or not, but I feel confident that newer games will be coming out designed for Windows 7 and up just because by then most of the user base will be running something other than XP anyway. The other thing in our favor is that developers are already slowly moving away from Visual Basic 6 and are looking into more modern technology's. This won't happen all at once, but we are slowly moving away from VB 6 as a general rule. Draconis has a new engine written in C++ , and are rewriting many of their old titles. BPC Programs uses .NET which is already Windows 8.x compatible , and I don't see them having a big problem upgrading their software. Blind Adrenaline is using .NET and I don't see Che having a problem with his games on Windows 8 and beyond either. Entombed is similarly written in .NET and should have a decent shelf life assuming Jason maintains the code. There are quite a few developers using BGT now, and that is reasonably Windows 7 and Windows 8.x compatible currently/. So I wouldn't worry too much about new games being compatible as it seems as though developers are slowly but surely moving away from VB 6 in general. In short, we may have a few problems with older games, and some may stop working. However, by and large it won't be as bad as people fear. Many will still work on the newer platforms, and those that don't may get fixed or upgraded. If there comes a time that something won't work at all there is still the option to run XP etc in a virtual machine which gives a user the best of both worlds. Some people will undoubtedly drag their heals, but like you said I think the best thing to do is upgrade on your own terms rather than be dragged kicking and screaming into the modern computing world. Cheers! On 12/26/13, shaun everiss <[email protected]> wrote: > Charles I have no answers for you. > All I know is that something will have to happen. > All I know is we can't go on as we are. > I have no idea what that will mean and yes we may lose some stuff I > just don't know. > All I am saying is that there will be a time when what we used and > loved will be gone. > Think of all the synbian phones and nokia going to inaccessable win8. > Ok se have a bit of access now but still its valid. > I'd like to stay with nokia and symbian but the next thing I move to > may have to be something other than I am used to. > We have 2 choices. > We can do it now at our own pace or we can wait another 10 years, > when ms finally dropps their legacy software and handle it then. > But if we do we may lose all audio games that are not converted. > Now it will not be all games, but it will be a good deal. > We have till at least the end of win8 to decide what we do. > Ms however is vary generous I doubt this will stay for long. > Look at xp its been vary good about keeping it for so long past its > used by date. > --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
