> If the only Sams being used are virtual then probably less software > will be produced. Why write software for a virtual Sam as hardly > anyone will use it or need to use it as anything the VR Sam can do > the machine they are running it on can do and faster.
This would be a problem if there was any great supply of work-in-progress software out there. But there isn't. Chris' Defender came as a nice surprise to everybody, but can anybody realisiticly remember the last game that was released before that? Stratosphere is about as far back as I can think, and that was at the start of last year! And to counter that argument, if people could develop on SIM Coupe and then write the4 software back to floppy for distrubiton on standard SAM's then I think we would see more released on the SAM. What would you rather do - roam through your atic blowing the dust off your SAM and setting it up (plugging it into your telly, digging out your old disks box, crossing your fingers and hoping everything still works), or double click on the SIM Coupe icon on your desktop and crack on? > Without a real > Sam the Sam community will die or stay at maybe 100 users as no new > users will be recruited to a virtual Sam community, because to use a > virtual Sam you need a fast machine and if you have one most people > will use software produced by the big software companies as most > will not have heard of Sam. Firstly, dispell the myth that there are new users comig to the SAM. there are not. THe only people still here are those who mades friends in teh community and want to keep in touch. People who use the machine as a serious computer can be counted on one hand. As to saying no new users will be recruited to a virtual SAM comnuity, that is ludicrous. If the SIm Coupe source is out there, then those who heard of the SAM Coupe but never got around to buying one can now try the machie for free. Okay, maybe they'll download the software, try it once ad then bin it, but at least we are getting ourselves seen by others. Nobody is going to spend stlg200 ona new SAM just to test the water when they can run it perfectly well, and buy legitiimate games from legitimate publishers, on a PC. If the software companies such as Persona and Revelation think on ahead, they could supply the .dsk files themselves, charging for them as they would software in SAM format, and us PC owners could go about using them quite happily. Accept that SIM Coupe is here, and attempt to do something abotu it other than complain. Get one step ahead of the game by supplying your own .dsk files for sale - yes they;re easily copiable, but so has nearly all SAM software since the dawn of time (XCopy Pro on the Amiga worked fine for me). Oh, and you don't need an especially fast maching to run SIM Coupe. I've got a 486/66 that runs it rather nicely in DOS. > Power supplies are easy things to > replace a standard PC supply can be modified very easily as long as > you use the scart for sound and picture. I use one on my Sam. Disk > drives can be replaced not as easily but it can be done. Most of the > problems with the slimline drives is the drive belt which can be > replaced. But why should I have to pay inflated prices for disk drives - I can get one for a tenner for my PC. And the SAM power supplies are so damn unreliable (I've had about sven of them) I'm loathe to invest more dead money into them when I can run my SAM, write games, stay in touch all from my PC. > I am not saying that the SimCoupe should be stopped but > protection of new software must be the priority. So if you want to > run software on SimCoupe then do it legally. This means that there > must be protection built into SimCoupe so anyone releasing software > can release a version that will work on simcoupe if the purchaser > requests it. So maybe the software would need to be licensed to that > person, as mentioned by Si Owen. It may come as a shock to many SAM users, but there is a whole new worl dof technology out there that we must eitehr embrace, by supporting SIM Coupe in every way we possibly can, or watch the SAM community upgrade to PC and forget all about our lovealbe little bluer footed soldier. My friends, it is time to move on. > > > Richard. > Peace, Love, Kisses... JohnnaPig Teare JPOL: http://johnnapig.webjump.com "It won't get better but it might never get worse..."
