Re: [SWCollect] Video Game Documentary tonight
I got it!! I'll start the video processing tonight. After editing, it should be about 1h30m, which at ISDN bitrates (112kbps) should result in a downloadable file of about 75M. Would anyone like a modem-bitrate version? That would be about 27M. I'm going to use RealVideo unless someone can suggest something better. Josh Lulewicz wrote: Jim, it's on again at 3:00pm on Wednesday (3/24). -Josh -Original Message- From: Jim Leonard [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, March 22, 2004 4:40 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [SWCollect] Video Game Documentary tonight Lee K. Seitz wrote: I, unfortunately, messed up my recording and won't be able to try again this evening. If anyone else records it, any chance I can get a copy? I'm at work! Any chance this will come on any time again? I have a ReplayTV and I'd have no problem at all recording it and putting it on the web for those who want to watch it. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Video Game Documentary tonight
What timezone? Josh Lulewicz wrote: Jim, it's on again at 3:00pm on Wednesday (3/24). -Josh -Original Message- From: Jim Leonard [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, March 22, 2004 4:40 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [SWCollect] Video Game Documentary tonight Lee K. Seitz wrote: I, unfortunately, messed up my recording and won't be able to try again this evening. If anyone else records it, any chance I can get a copy? I'm at work! Any chance this will come on any time again? I have a ReplayTV and I'd have no problem at all recording it and putting it on the web for those who want to watch it. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Video Game Documentary tonight
Jim Leonard wrote: What timezone? never mind -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Video Game Documentary tonight
BL wrote: It's on all week - EST times are: Monday and Friday at 6:00PM Wed and Sat at 4:00PM Sunday at 9:00PM It does not show up in my onscreen guide, but I set it up for a 2-hour record during Wednesday 3pm CST so hopefully that will catch it. If not, I'll keep trying. I was going to make it available via RealVideo, because real still has the best quality at low bitrates (and the most number of platforms supported). If this is a problem for anyone, let me know (and be prepared to provide a compelling argument for another format). -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Sam Max II
Hugh Falk wrote: A problem with the games industry right now is that the top 25 games each year make a majority of the money. #1 - #5 often selling millions of units. The rest of the top 25 selling several hundred thousand. Many of the rest often lose money. This is turning the games industry into a hit-driven market (like the movie industry). The trend is to see less games being made and hoping for more profit on each. EA is making fewer games but more revenue: 2000 = 68 SKUS with $1.3B in revenue, 2002 = 58 SKUs with $2.5B Is it okay with you if I repost this information on another forum? I can quote you or keep it anonymous, but I'd love to post this info somewhere else (where there is a raging discussion going on over Sam and Max). -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] I'll be the first to say..
Per-Olof Karlsson wrote: It was Peter Olafson in the US who bought it. With such a purchase, would someone like to invite him to this list? -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Video Game Documentary tonight
Lee K. Seitz wrote: I, unfortunately, messed up my recording and won't be able to try again this evening. If anyone else records it, any chance I can get a copy? I'm at work! Any chance this will come on any time again? I have a ReplayTV and I'd have no problem at all recording it and putting it on the web for those who want to watch it. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Sam Max II
Hugh Falk wrote: (generously) $20 per unit profit, the need to sell 250,000 units to break even. This would require it to be a moderate success in the PC realm. That is depressing. Is that standard across the industry right now? I can't think of many titles selling 250,000 units in today's market that aren't The Sims or Barbie's Pet Rescue. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Sam Max II
I signed it (I'm signature #20002 ;-) and I suggest we all do the same and spread the word. My children's names are Sam and Max, and I'm not so sure that's a coincidence! ;-D With over 20,000 signatures already, surely that would show a business case? Hugh, comments? Dan Chisarick wrote: Appears to have been shelved: http://lucasarts.com/press/releases/85.html An appeal from the masses for reconsideration: http://www.petitiononline.com/LACOSAM/ Sigh. OK everyone, back to your 3D shooters and RTS eye candy... -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] PhillyClassic
From what I experienced of CGExpo, I'd recommend it highly. It was nowhere near software-based (mostly carts and standalones) but it was incredibly fun and had a lot of talent (Noland Bushnell, Intellivision team (Blue Sky Rangers), Activision programmers, etc. were speakers. Stuart Feldhamer wrote: To tell you the truth, I was not so impressed last year. The software collector's meeting was awesome, but the rest was sort of blah. In the absence of the software collectors, I see no reason to go. Stuart -Original Message- From: Dan Chisarick [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, March 20, 2004 12:24 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [SWCollect] PhillyClassic I realize it wasn't organized like last year, but is anyone going? Its this weekend. -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] PhillyClassic
Dan Chisarick wrote: Howard Scott Warshaw was there (wrote Yar's Revenge, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and E.T. I think) Nice to see a classic developer trek all the way over from CA. He was cool. I bought a copy of Once Upon Atari from him and he autographed it for me. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Announcing the CGW Museum
Stephane Racle wrote: Funny you mention that. That's what I tried to use yesterday when I put up the excerpt from CGF #1. It did a reasonable job (actually, an excellent job), for anything with a light background. The problem was with text areas with darker backgrounds (for example, the Ultima tidbit and the Data East/Epyx lawsuit). Acrobat tended to identify those as image zones and didn't recognize the text. And unfortunately the Acrobat plug-in doesn't give you the option of identifying which zones are text and which are not. So that's why I didn't bother with OCR for now. Dedicated OCR programs properly handle areas like that. TextBridge Pro 11, in my experience, does a great job (better than omnipage). It also outputs PDF. I'm looking into other option - one possibility is Adobe Acrobat Capture, which is a much more robust solution. However, I think it's a fairly expensive program (in an case, definitely not free). In the mean time, if anyone has other suggestions... please share! Acrobat Capture is servicable but not as good as dedictated OCR. I used to use it for software manuals, but to get the best results I had to scan to TIFs first, then clean them up as much as possible (no staple marks, no smudges, etc.) before running through Capture. It created more work than it saved. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Announcing the CGW Museum
Not all of us are on LCDs, John :-) ClearType is only applicable to LCD screens because it specifically leverages the luminance of *vertically*-oriented RGB elements. I hate CRTs so of course I keep it turned off (it degrades text on CRTs). John Romero wrote: Ok, heres a cool little trick for all of you who dont know it yet. This will only work under Windows XP and it will make your text look **awesome** on your screen its enabling ClearType. 1) Right-click on your desktop, choose Properties 2) Click Settings 3) Click Appearance tab 4) Click Effects... button 5) Set to ON the checkbox for smoothing fonts 6) Open the pulldown menu and choose ClearType 7) Click Ok. Click Apply. Click Ok. Thats it. Your entire Windows experience just got better. J - John -Original Message- *From:* Stephane Racle [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] *Sent**:* Thursday, March 18, 2004 11:36 AM *To:* [EMAIL PROTECTED] *Subject:* Re: [SWCollect] Announcing the CGW Museum Currently it's image only due to the fact that it's only the covers and the Table of Contents. I did, however, plan to include some text information about each issue. If I do end up putting up the contents of the magazines, then I will make sure to choose a format that is text-aware, so that you may be able to search individually each throughout each issue. As for an overall index, that's a possibility too. Actually I believe CGW did put out annual indexes starting in 1986 or so, but I have never seen one. Stephane Tomas Buteler wrote: I checked it out, and liked it a lot. Great idea, by the way. One doubt, though: is it image only, or some amount of text input will be available as well? I'm no expert in database or anything, but I'd like to be able to search the magazines for contents (reviews, previews, hints or even ads), without having to browse through all the images. Any ideas? Am I talking nonsense here, or got the wrong idea about the museum? Anyway, I got a few magazines myself (20-30), some of them are even cut out already :) Never did have much care for them, even though I was an avid reader. Although mine are mostly post-92/93 (hey, some of those mags are almost as old as me!), I would be glad to help out in the beginning. Best regards, Tomas --- Stephane Racle [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hehe. You may be willing to cut up my magazines, but I'm not! Well, I'd cut up duplicate issues. It probably wouldn't be too difficult for issues 25 and up, but the earlier ones can be difficult to find. I guess the options are... Stick to covers/ToC - ZD is probably less likely to notice and may not care all that much. But then, you don't get all the interesting articles! Contact ZD - High (?) chance of getting rejected, but potentially permission to scan the articles. The question is... how much does ZD care about these older magazines? Would they be willing to let someone scan/display them for free? The way I see it, this only generates interest for the magazine. However, ZD may want to make people pay. Any thoughts? Anybody know anyone at ZD? :-) Some of these early articles are extremely interesting and very well written. It really would be great to have them available. Stephane Jim Leonard wrote: Regardless of how it turns out, please make sure to provide text or text-aware file formats, like PDF that has been OCR'd, or DjVu (no OCR'd text, but separates text and background graphics and compresses each with separate algorithm for better compression, also supports progressive downloading and localized decoding which is great for modem users (they can look at a section of the page without downloading the whole thing)). As for approaching it the right way, tell ZD about your project and ask that you are willing to host the pages, do all the scanning, tell them you'll offer pages in multiple formats, etc. and that all you ask in return is permission from the company to do so. To help sweeten the deal, tell them you're willing to cut up the magazines for the best scan. Seriously. Crappy 300 DPI JPG scans that are warped because the magazine binding is still intact won't impress anyone :) However, you run a big risk of getting a cease and desist letter in return. But since you already run the risk of that, you might as well contact them right now instead of running the site for two years, building it up, and THEN getting the cease and desist letter. I wish the best of luck, I personally would love to read some of those older reviews. If/When contacting ZD, make sure you actually call people on the phone; email inquiries to generic
Re: [SWCollect] USB console controllers
Lee K. Seitz wrote: [EMAIL PROTECTED] stated: Pretty sweet (not just NES), I don't do the emulation thing but with these might be fun Cool idea, but I hated the NES controllers with a passion. Tiny rectangular controllers don't come anywhere close to fitting my hands (I'm 6'2). Or, if you're a bit older, you might like these: Stelladaptor, 2600 to USB (http://www.atariage.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=267) LOL now that is awesome for emulators. My wife won't play emulated 2600 games unless the experience is identical to the original (which means she doesn't play emulated 2600 games, period). Maybe with this she will. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Announcing the CGW Museum
Regardless of how it turns out, please make sure to provide text or text-aware file formats, like PDF that has been OCR'd, or DjVu (no OCR'd text, but separates text and background graphics and compresses each with separate algorithm for better compression, also supports progressive downloading and localized decoding which is great for modem users (they can look at a section of the page without downloading the whole thing)). As for approaching it the right way, tell ZD about your project and ask that you are willing to host the pages, do all the scanning, tell them you'll offer pages in multiple formats, etc. and that all you ask in return is permission from the company to do so. To help sweeten the deal, tell them you're willing to cut up the magazines for the best scan. Seriously. Crappy 300 DPI JPG scans that are warped because the magazine binding is still intact won't impress anyone :) However, you run a big risk of getting a cease and desist letter in return. But since you already run the risk of that, you might as well contact them right now instead of running the site for two years, building it up, and THEN getting the cease and desist letter. I wish the best of luck, I personally would love to read some of those older reviews. If/When contacting ZD, make sure you actually call people on the phone; email inquiries to generic addresses rarely get to the *right* person. Feldhamer, Stuart wrote: Hey, if you approach it the right way, they might even pay you to do it... Stuart -Original Message- *From:* Stephane Racle [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] *Sent:* Wednesday, March 17, 2004 11:49 AM *To:* swcollect *Subject:* Re: [SWCollect] Announcing the CGW Museum Doubtful I could do that without incurring the wrath of ZD... BL wrote: Great job man, looks awesome. If your ultimate plan is to have the entire mags scanned, I can't wait! Brad - Original Message - From: Stephane Racle [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: swcollect [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2004 3:01 AM Subject: [SWCollect] Announcing the CGW Museum I'm pleased to announce that my web site, the Computer Gaming World (CGW) Museum, is finally on-line! The Museum is dedicated to the preservation and presentation of all CGW items related to the time period covered by the first 100 issues of Computer Gaming World magazine. Currently there is not a whole lot of textual information available, but you will find scans of the covers of most of the first 100 issues, among other things. The goal is, of course, to expand as time allows, and all suggestions/constructive criticism/comments are welcome! Anyhow, you are all welcome to take a look! I am hoping that this will prove to be a useful resource for the vintage gaming community, as I do not believe that the information provided by the Museum is available elsewhere on the web. You will find the museum at cgw.vintagegaming.org. Many, many thanks to Freddie Bingham for hosting! Oh, and never mind the March 20th date on the news page. Amazingly, we're 3 days early... :-) Stephane -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ Information in this message reflects current market conditions and is subject to change without notice. It is believed to be reliable, but is not guaranteed for accuracy or completeness. Details provided do not supersede your normal trade confirmations or statements. Any product is subject to prior sale. CIBC World Markets Corp, its affiliated companies, and their officers or employees, may have a position in or make a market in any security described above, and may act as an investment banker or advisor to such. Although CIBC World Markets Corp. is an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), it is solely responsible for its contractual obligations. Any securities products recommended, purchased, or sold in any client accounts (i) will not be insured by the FDIC, (ii)will not be deposits or obligations of CIBC, (iii) will not be endorsed or guaranteed by CIBC, and (iv) will be subject to risks, including possible loss of principal invested. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC
Re: [SWCollect] Here we go.....
Marco Thorek wrote: It's time for the IGST (intergalactic standard time), isn't it? ;-) Sounds like what Swatch attempted with their Internet Time thing about five years ago. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Here we go.....
Stephane Racle wrote: On the other hand, one of the reasons I look for new items is so that I can share them with other collectors and enthusiasts, for example by making a scan, a disk image, or simply by giving out some details that weren't previously known. This is part of the rationale that created mobygames.com. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Distributing Drash (and all old software)
Lee K. Seitz wrote: You're confusing copyrights and trademarks. (Incidentally, IANAL I used the wrong word but I was indeed talking about trademarks. Further more, Kleenex and Xerox are still quite valid trademarks, although they are in danger of becoming public domain. Better examples of lost trademarks are aspirin and escalator. This is why you read the occasional story of Disney threatening to sue a daycare center for using hand-made representations of their characters as decorations. They *have* to defend their trademarks. ..so much so, that they have to degrade Copyright law to do so. Disney is almost singlehandedly responsible for the ludicrous extension of copyright law every time it is about to expire. Every time Mickey Mouse is threatened with entering the public domain, massive lobbying ensues and we get another copyright extension... which is particularly hypocritical because much of Disney's blockbuster movies were adaptations of public domain published works! -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Preserving original games
Josh Lulewicz wrote: So I am reading correctly that these FDI files only work with emulators? Yes, but in the future that may not be the case. The point is to archive them now into a fully documented the file format so that the information is not lost when the disk dies. What if you don't use an emulator? I don't because when I play my games I must have my MT-32!! Then back up your disks with a copy-protection-aware program on original old hardware (like, a 386 and a copy of CopyWrite or CopyIIPC) or use an Option Board. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Here we go.....
Freddie Bingham wrote: Great, I've sent $12 via paypal to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Hey, where's the $5 donation to mobygames.com? (shameless plug) http://www.mobygames.com/info/fob (/shameless plug) ;) -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
[SWCollect] How did you find your Drash?
To all Drash owners on this list: How did you find yours? To at least one person, I recall it fell into their lap -- for Edward, it was a 3-year journey. How did you all (including Edward) find your Drash? Or any of your most prized software posessions, for that matter? Any good stories out there? For all my items worth over $80, ebay was my location. But for at least two things, they fell into my lap: Radical Rex, arguably the rarest Sega CD game published, was a Buy It Now for $9 (auctions for up to $80). And I found a Central Point Option Board (used to auction for $130, now unstable) was found at a local used software store for $12. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Here we go.....
Can someone repost the auction link? Either ebay search is braindead, or I am... Josh Lulewicz wrote: Edward what are earth are you thinking!?!?!?!? Let the circus beginI think you all know what I am referring to. -josh -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
[SWCollect] Analog Tape Archival
Vincent Joguin wrote: At 16:29 15/03/2004 +0100, you wrote: The C64 tapes Ive sampled myself worked when done in mono but would give me loading errors if I tried stereo, so I would not recommend using stereo for anything. Cant say Im for or against 8-bit or 16-bit, I guess the best thing to do is some trial and error. J Yes, stereo is not good for extraction, but with a stereo file, the left and right mono channels can be extracted individually. I'm not talking about a simple stereo - mono convertion that will mix both channels, which is not good. I'd say more data is always better than less, if they are properly handled. For C64, Apple, Atari, Spectrum, etc. tapes, if you are NOT going to post-process them, it is usually best to archive them as full quality (ideally 24-bit 48KHz stereo but 16-bit 44KHz stereo will work too). Stereo is mandatory because the tape player you're playing from may have drift or bleed that you may not initially notice. Drift may be audible in one channel but not the other, so you'll have both channels to compare with. The 100% best archival method of computer-encoded tapes is actually this: 1. Dump tape using best quality 2. Convert to .tape file (or whatever is appropriate for your emulator). This is done by running the .WAV through a converter appropriate for your emu. Massaging the file may be necessary for a good convert if the tape quality is terrible. 3. Play the .tape file in your emu to make sure it converted properly (although many tape formats have crude CRC checking so this may not be necessary). 4. Convert .tape file BACK TO .WAV. The result will be a digitally perfect 22KHz mono file, 8- or 16-bit, that can easily be compressed losslessly via any archival program (it's essentially square waves). Now if you want to archive any old analog tape, the format should be 24-bit 44.1KHz or 48KHz stereo. 24-bit is necessary because analog tape does indeed contain that kind of dynamic range. If your card supports 48KHz, record in that, because cards that support 48KHz run at 48KHz natively (and may not do as good a job recording at 44.1 as you would get recording at 48 and resampling down to 44.1). Dolby: If the tape was encoded with Dolby B or C, make sure that the Dolby B or C feature is *ON* BEFORE you start playing the tape. This is because Dolby noise reduction works, in a nutshell, by adding high-frequency information to the tape at the factory then removing that same information at the user's tape player. Otherwise, you'll be recording much high-frequency information that isn't actually signal. Also, in case you didn't know, don't turn on Dolby noise reduction if you aren't playing a tape processed in Dolby (should be marked with Dolby B or Dolby C specifically, other generic Dolby marks need not apply). Any questions to the above, feel free to ask me. I've been doing digital audio on personaly computers and semi-professionally since 1988. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Here we go.....
Vincent Joguin wrote: At 11:56 15/03/2004 -0500, you wrote: for Wing Commander, I don't know, but would suspect some enhancements. Speaking of Wing Commander enhancements, I was jaw-droppingly surprised at the Sega CD version of Wing Comander: Not only does it play okay (the Sega CD had some basic texture facilities that are obviously in use in the Sega CD version of WC) but there is FULL SPEECH FOR EVERYONE, both in space and in the bar and in ALL MISSION BRIEFINGS. Blew me away! It's such a shame that the Sega CD version is so SLOW in loading (CDROM drive was 1x), which results in a slight pause before anyone starts talking. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
[SWCollect] Distributing Drash (and all old software)
As the creator of this list, I was asked by a few people to comment on Howard's offer to post the Vic20 emulator .tape format of Mt. Drash to this list. Everyone who contacted me deemed it a bad idea. I hate to break this to everyone who doesn't like the idea, but the Vic20 emu file of Mt. Drash has been available for years. I myself did a casual web search for it just two months ago and got it; I would imagine it would be just as easy to find it given 15 minutes and a broadband connection. So I personally am not against Howard distributing the original file. To arguments of value: The image has been out for two years and Drash is still getting bids of $800 and up, so I don't see any harm. The value of old software has always been in the materials themselves; otherwise, merely owning cracked .zip files of games themselves would make you a millionaire, which obviously isn't the case. Everyone and their mother has copies of Zork I lying around, but that clearly doesn't bring the auction bids for original releases down. To arguments of fakes: Yes, I agree that is a concern. But since the image is already out there, as well as .JPGs of what the casette and box look like, that possibility already exists. Also, there was some mention of whether or not it was okay to make backup copies of the software. This is where you delve into the wonderful world of Fair Use, the DMCA, and intellectual property laws. While IANAL, I have had very extensive exposure to this over the last two decades, and I can sum up the current situation with old software like this: Fair Use: You are allowed to make a backup copy of software you own as long as it never leaves your posession. If you transfer the original software to someone else, you must transfer all backup copies as well or you are in violation of Fair Use. Intellectual Property Rights: In a nutshell: Companies own copyrights on the images, code, etc. contained in a software program for as long as they protect them. That means that, as long as a company asks you to take down that copy of King's Quest from your website, you must do so or be open to litigation. This is because companies can lose their intellectual property if they don't enforce it. (For examples, have you ever asked for a Kleenex when you wanted a tissue? Or have you Xerox'd something when you were photocopying it? Those words/brands have slipped into the public domain because their parent companies didn't enforce their usage properly thirty-odd years ago.) DCMA: Reverse-engineering (cracking) software is allowed in certain cases. For older software, for the purposes of archival, we have a very big friend in the Internet Archive project (www.archive.org) which specifically asked for an addendum to the DMCA and got it. Any software can be cracked and backed up if they meet the following criteria: - Computer programs protected by dongles that prevent access due to malfunction or damage and which are obsolete. (Protected diskettes fall under this category because they are physical items necessary to use the software, regardless of whether or not it is run from them.) - Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and which require the original media or hardware as a condition of access. (All 5.25, cartridge, and tape formats qualify!) So the DMCA, one of the harshest and stupidest pieces of legislature ever to be passed, ironically has an exception just for us! So, thanks to this addendum (which is valid to at least 2006, where it will be voted on to be made permanent), the DMCA does not contradict Fair Use. = The executive summary is this: Both Fair Use and DMCA say you can back up your old games. And as long as you're not pissing off a company, you don't have to worry about a cease and desist letter from a lawyer. By pissing off a company, I'm talking about selling *backup copies* of software, or posting a year-2004 game for free download, or libelous comments (Richard Garriot sleeps with goats!, Electronic Arts steals ideas from other companies!, etc.), or generally anything that would 1. cost a company money or 2. tarnish a trademark's image. Under those rules, I see no problem distributing the Drash emulator image file to everyone on the list. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Here we go.....
Feldhamer, Stuart wrote: Jim, Did you play the game on an actual Sega CD, or on an emulator? I played on an actual Sega CD, my present to myself last holiday season. I have original Sega CD (with 32X) and about 35 original SegaCD games, WC being one of them. Is there a way I can get a CD image to try it for myself? It doesn't work quite right in an emulator -- at least, when I tried it it didn't -- but I also have had many other problems with genesis emulators and the problem may have been localized to my setup. I wouldn't have a problem making a backup copy to be stored at your physical location :-) so email me privately so we can work out transferrance details. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] What are you currently on?
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: OPEN FORUM TIME: What unusual paths has your gaming obsession taken you to? Creating the first mailing list (and grading scale) specifically dedicated to software collecting ;-) -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] How did you find your Drash?
Josh Lulewicz wrote: After a few more e-mails we agreed on a price, a place, and time to meet and I booked the earliest flight I could. Booked a flight?!? Just how much did you offer/pay for your Drash? Now keep in mind he did NOT have a camera so I did all this without ever seeing the game. I figured, though it was probably foolish, it would be an adventure. He seemed like a together guy and there was really no advantage for him not to be honest since we were meeting in person and I would have plenty of time to inspect it. Good reasoning. I drove 4 hours north once to meet up with a fellow old software hobbyist (Vincent will know him as Jeff) to talk with him, trade some stuff (Central Point Option Board, Wizardry, etc.), and I got a free pass to the gig he was playing (Goth, not my personal bag, but I was able to enjoy the show because their performance and music was very good). It was a happy adventure. - If I can figure out a way of course, I was thinking about making an MP3 of the tape (not sure if that is possible) See earlier conversation about Archiving audio tapes (I posted it two hours ago). -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Ultima bucks :)
Howard Feldman wrote: Tom (and anyone else), please stop sending such large files as attachments. Some of us have size limits to our inbox and you may burst them.. Personally, I like attachements as long as they're under 250K (I'm on a modem for most of my email time). -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Preserving original games
Josh Lulewicz wrote: I have been backing up my collection with a program called winima40. It WinImage only makes images of unprotected disks. If you have used it to make any images of protected disks (any game made before 1990), your images are useless. By they way does anyone actually know what the lifespan of a floppy is? I read somewhere once that it was supposed to deteriorate after about 10 years. My Mystery House disk is 20+ years old and it still boots... It ranges based on how much information is packed into how large a physical surface area. 3.5 high-density disks 10-15 years; typical 5.25 low-density disks 20+ years. I myself have a Microsoft Flight Simulator (PC, 1982) that still boots fine. The label has come off the disk due to the amount of oil passed on from fingers and hundreds of hours of use, but hey, the disk still works :) What about hardware?? I do not look forward to the day my 486 (nicknamed Sierra 1) doesn't turn on ebay. 486s are $25 or even less. Shipping is the only gotcha. But I do feel your concern; I have two Tandy 1000s, two IBM PCjrs, three IBM PC 5150s (the original IBM PC), etc. because I have a crawlspace I can stuff them into. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Here we go.....
Edward Franks wrote: I recently had one person very politely lecture me about listing stuff at inconvenient (for European bidders) times. I apologized, but explained that most of my buyers are from the US so I set my auctions accordingly. After the US I seem to sell equally to Europe and the Pacific Rim. Selling worldwide means someone is going to have to get up in the middle of the night to bid. Or, they can bid right when the see the listing. Sheesh. Not every bid has to be a snipe. And if so, esnipe works great. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Spyware
Marco Thorek wrote: Yeah, you are right. Thunderbird looks pretty neat. I don't seem to be able to find the info on its website, so I am asking you: Can you use it as a newsgroup reader and can I import my mails from Navigator to it? Mail: You should be able to, but I never have (all my email is IMAP). As for newsgroups, yes, but I think there are better newsreaders out there than Netscape/Thunderbird (many free, actually). I certainly didn't know that. And, to be honest, I am still sticking to NN 4.54 less for security reasons but because I'm so used to it ;-) I was the same way, but I got tired of the crashing on goofy HTML mail (I don't like or prefer HTML mail, but I certain didn't want previewing the message to crash the mailer!) I hope we can soon say the same about Germany. How did the US get rid of them? We all switched to broadband ;-) Disclaimer: I *am* a security engineer during the day ;-) This list sure has some added benefits ;-) If I may ask: Who do you work for? Check Point Software. We make FireWall-1, if you've heard of it. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Wireless Optical Mouse and ebay
Marco Thorek wrote: Without a mousepad you also are not restricted to its boundaries. It is because of cords and mousepad boundaries that I have been using trackballs exclusively since 1988. Hasn't been easy, though -- only in 2003 did we see the advent of 1. optical trackballs that had 2. high sampling rates and were 3. easy to clean and 4. CHEAP (I'm thinking of the Logitech Marble Mouse here, $20-$30 depending on which retail outlet you buy from). Previously, the only high-quality option was the Kensington, which I discovered in 2001 didn't support single-pixel resolution (I hadn't needed it until then :-) (rant off) -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Re: Format (Softporn Blue White)
Jukka Eronen wrote: Marco Thorek wrote: Jukka, I wouldn't put anything like 199? in the list. It would look a little untidy. If you really don't know when a game was copyrighted, you could research it via Google or simply ask us. I'm pretty sure the collaborative knowledge here can fill many blanks. Don't forget MobyGames as well. We're pretty anal about release dates (we have to be!). -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] The Origin Museum--We're BACK!!
Marco Thorek wrote: [EMAIL PROTECTED] schrieb: As a fitting end to this email, I now present to you all a photo showing proof that the relics of gaming's past are being remembered, and preserved: http://www.originmuseum.net/steve/drash.jpg Heah, wow, that's one neat job. Agreed. I find Drash to be the funniest example of SW collecting. Never before has such a truly terrible, awful game been worth so much money. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
[SWCollect] Need a picture
Does anyone have any pictures of early plastic/ziplock baggie releases online I can use to show someone that, yes, software used to come in baggies? -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Red Crystal, the Seven Secrets of Life
Stephane Racle wrote: It was easier to find than I thought... Looks like an RPG with modem play! Really? What year? I believe American Challenge: A Sailing Simulation was semi-officially the first modem 2-player game but I'd always like more data for MobyGames. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Ok....melt wizard...
Stuart Feldhamer wrote: Hey, if I was nerdy, I would have played those text adventure games instead of the cool sports games. : ) Uh, wait a sec... I didn't find the question THAT nerdy because you had a movie reference to check. If I asked a question like What was the first game to use speech SYNTHESIS (ie. not pre-recorded sound)?, then THAT would be nerdy. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Spyware
Spybot Search and Destroy is slightly better than Ad-Aware, but has a slightly less intuitive interface. It's the one I use. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I had a LOT of spyware on my computer as I've been using same drive/programs for a long time (like close to 100 spybots). If you'd like to check these sites are free (scan and REMOVE, many ask you to pay to remove). If anyone runs I'd be interested in hearing results (see if anyone has more than I did). I run both as spyware items are hard coded it seems, one might find some the other misses. http://www.safer-networking.org/ http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ Tom Visit my web page for many games for sale/trade and screen shots of Ultima Escape from Mt. Drash, Tom's Ultima, Infocom and RPG page http://members.aol.com/tommage/UltimaPage/ultima.htm -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Spyware
Don't enable preview for attachments, because some exploits have been written to take advantage of that behavior. Instead, simply don't open any attachment at all unless you know what it is and who it came from. BL wrote: Spyware is really common now in days - if you've had an active PC for a while, then suddenly decide to run these programs, yes, you are absolutely going to find a lot of stuff, from tracking cookies and dialers to memory resident programs hijacks you didnt even know were starting at boot-up. I know first hand, since I'm the computer-savy one of the family, I've seen some seriously messed up computers, and it's gotten about 10 times as bad in the past 2 or 3 years. Ad-aware is the best thing you can do for it, combined with educating yourself on a few tecniques for removal. I run Ad-aware once a week after doing the online update to the definitions file and I find anywhere from 25-50 new malicious components -- for the most part, just cookies from blacklisted hosts. That combined with checking my task manager's running processes every so often to make sure there's nothing i don't recognize running. Prevention is the best defense as always, and the best tips I can give are: Enable preview for attachments in Outlook Express, and never Open them, save them to disk. When surfing websites, never click a windows pop-up box that gives you an Ok / Cancel choice or something like that -- malicious coders often spoof an approval to install something on your computer with such misleading dialogs. When those pop-up, use ALT-F4 to close it, without choosing either. And of course, make sure you are up to date with all the Windows XP / Explorer / Outlook security patches from Microsoft.com. - Original Message - *From:* [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] *To:* [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] *Sent:* Monday, March 08, 2004 8:22 AM *Subject:* [SWCollect] Spyware I had a LOT of spyware on my computer as I've been using same drive/programs for a long time (like close to 100 spybots). If you'd like to check these sites are free (scan and REMOVE, many ask you to pay to remove). If anyone runs I'd be interested in hearing results (see if anyone has more than I did). I run both as spyware items are hard coded it seems, one might find some the other misses. http://www.safer-networking.org/ http://www.lavasoftusacom/ Tom Visit my web page for many games for sale/trade and screen shots of Ultima Escape from Mt. Drash, Tom's Ultima, Infocom and RPG page http://members.aol.com/tommage/UltimaPage/ultima.htm -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Spyware
Marco Thorek wrote: For example, a couple of weeks ago I installed a friend's OCR software for testing and it installed a TSR along with it: even when the OCR program wasn't running, the freaking thing tried to contact its makers. Yes, well, have you considered it was trying to look for a new/updated version of itself? :-) Not all phone home software is malicious. The firewall also quarantines any suspicious mail attachments, but as mail client I use good ole' Navigator 4.54 anyway. Some of those You should switch to Thunderbird. I finally did last year and it's great. attachments aim for weaknesses in OE, and my Navigator is simply too old to understand all that fancy stuff. Not true! In fact, your version has a documented vulnerability! A program I can wholeheartedly reccommend in this context is Robin Keir's K9, that uses a Bayes algorithm to weed out spam (and things like Yes, a Bayesian filter is built into Thunderbird. Is the rest of the world as ridden by those dialers as we are around here? No, that was a very old thing back in 1994-1996 and I don't think Americans have seen them since. Disclaimer: I *am* a security engineer during the day ;-) -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Ok....melt wizard...
Nope, that was digitized sound, not synthesized. Chris Newman wrote: '82 I think. It was mentioned in the book 'Hackers' by Steven Levy - Original Message - From: Jim Leonard [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2004 5:13 PM Subject: Re: [SWCollect] Okmelt wizard... Chris Newman wrote: Um, Creepy Corridors? What year was it? First speech *synthesis* game for PC was Metropolis; for other platforms, I'm not sure. - Original Message - From: Jim Leonard [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2004 4:56 PM Subject: Re: [SWCollect] Okmelt wizard... Stuart Feldhamer wrote: Hey, if I was nerdy, I would have played those text adventure games instead of the cool sports games. : ) Uh, wait a sec... I didn't find the question THAT nerdy because you had a movie reference to check. If I asked a question like What was the first game to use speech SYNTHESIS (ie. not pre-recorded sound)?, then THAT would be nerdy. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Wireless Optical Mouse and ebay
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Need wireless rechargable optical mouse. Anyone have suggestions (want cheap, maybe $25 shipped?). Tried ebay but most sellers have shipping The only wireless mouse worth getting is the Logitech MX700. But you won't find it for $25 shipped. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Funny typo
Dan Chisarick wrote: Its a very long description, but the typo (about 2/3 of the way down) is priceless: Oh man, that is NOT the type of player inter-action that I am into ;-D It reads like he scanned the back of the box or some other ad and then OCR'd it to get that description. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Sierra/Lucas/Tolkien/Ultima/ADD/SSI - info and questions
Freddie Bingham wrote: Being 'famous' doesn't mean it sells for a lot on eBay! Agreed. Or rare, either. Anyone interested in buying a $200 Wibarm from me? ;-) -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Sierra/Lucas/Tolkien/Ultima/ADD/SSI - info and questions
Jukka Eronen wrote: Thanks for all the answers and welcomes! (I would have joined sooner, but as Feldman said, one had to find here :) BTW, how many people are on this list approximately? Over 40. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Sierra/Lucas/Tolkien/Ultima/ADD/SSI - info and questions
Marco Thorek wrote: Hehe, how old were you Jim, can't beleive they charged you $5 after you rode all that way and being a kid and all. Yup, they should have rewarded his determination. In retrospect, they should have. I was playing the DOS version, which had a typo in the damn dictionary and was therefore unwinnable unless you typed something like push hadnle (instead of handle). I don't remember the exact typo, but it was near the very end. Because of this I still never won the game until a hacker friend of mine told me he found the typo when he also got stuck and loaded the game into a debugger to cheat :) This was almost a decade later. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Sierra/Lucas/Tolkien/Ultima/ADD/SSI - info and questions
Freddie Bingham wrote: ** I am almost 100% certain there is no other versions of Zak I have (pirated) copies of both a Zak McKracken using the low-res SCUMM (160x200 graphics) and also redrawn high-res (320x200) graphics. Based on the file dates and times I am sure these are different releases. Anyone know more? I also have the same type of variation (also pirated) for Maniac Mansion, although I suspect that the high-res Maniac Mansion was what was embedded in Day of the Tentacle. Again, anyone have more info? -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Sierra/Lucas/Tolkien/Ultima/ADD/SSI - info and questions
Jukka Eronen wrote: But I don't know if you disregarded that there are these 2 one-piece boxes that have different background screenshots (1988 and 1989): I also have an Australian Zak package with a frame border around the front and back. I suppose that could be a further package variation? -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Sierra/Lucas/Tolkien/Ultima/ADD/SSI - info and questions
Jukka Eronen wrote: Is the list going to be only adventures/RPGs or other type of games too? God, I hope not! I would hope it would be pretty much any genre of game. Hugh? -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Sierra/Lucas/Tolkien/Ultima/ADD/SSI - info and questions
Freddie Bingham wrote: The hi-res version if Zak that you have is the FM Towns (Japanese PC Console) 256 color version that is playable on the SCUMM emulator. I do No, it is not. What I have is clearly a 320x200 @ 16 color version, not FM Towns 256-color version. Here is a screenshot of the low-res one most people have: http://www.mobygames.com/game/shots/p,2/gameId,305/gameShotId,8122/ ..and here is the same shot from the high-res one: http://www.mobygames.com/game/shots/p,2/gameId,305/gameShotId,3579/ And to further bake your noodle, here is a low-res original Maniac Mansion: http://www.mobygames.com/game/shots/p,2/gameId,714/gameShotId,8520/ ..and here is the high-res 16-color version: http://www.mobygames.com/game/shots/p,2/gameId,714/gameShotId,30499/ Before you start tearing your hair out, I have verified that the high-res MM was a UK release (go to MobyGames.com and look at the DOS UK release back box, it has the high-res shots on it), and the high-res Zak was a KIXX Australian release. The remaining question: Are the euro high-res versions worth more than the original ones? CURIOUS! -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] spam?
Dan Chisarick wrote: No but I run a spam blocker so even if there was there's a good chance I wouldn't see it. I didn't think it was even possible for spam to get past the subscription mechanism. It's not, but I am getting spam attempted to be sent to the list and then getting bounced to me. The headers are mangled and I couldn't tell if everyone was getting it or just me. I'm glad to say it's just me. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Sierra/Lucas/Tolkien/Ultima/ADD/SSI - info and questions
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I bought most of these new back in the 80's, and the answer is no, none came with a clue book except Realms of Darkness. (Eternal Dagger has a 'strategy guide' that came with it.. Well in a way yes, though not official. Since it was so long ago and I was not on the net I sent to SSI when I got stuck in some of the RPGs I played. They sent me printed lists of clues for the games. Standard issue, not just answers to my questions. Wonder if I still have any? ;) Phantasie games for sure. Reminds me of when Mindscape used to be here in town (used to be in Northbrook, IL). I rode there on my bicycle in 1987 when I was stuck in The Mist and needed hints. The receptionist was surprised when she learned I just got on my bike and rode about 7 miles to ask questions. It was my turn to be surprised when she told me that hints to The Mist were $5. I paid, and got two xerox'd sheets of paper with questions and answers. I still have this somewhere and could probably dig it up if there is massive demand for it, but I highly doubt it :) Anyway, that was the official clue book for The Mist, and I know because I got it directly, hand to hand, from Mindscape. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
[SWCollect] spam?
Is anyone seeing spam on the swcollect list? -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] List issues
Jim Leonard wrote: Just a quick note that the [EMAIL PROTECTED] list is having an issue because of the recent mydoom email virus. Currently, the list works, but no member add/remove requests can be processed. So if you recommend someone to the list and they can't join, that's why. I hope to have the problem corrected after February 12th when the virus self-destructs. I have re-enabled subscription to the list. If anyone had tried between feb 1st and this moment, it would have failed. Tell anyone who tried to try again. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Philly Classic
MobyGames only has enough money to go to one show a year, and we had such a good time at CGExpo that we're probably going to go to just that. If we get more money to go to other shows, I'll certainly mention it here. Feldhamer, Stuart wrote: So, is anyone going to Philly Classic this year? Stuart Information in this message reflects current market conditions and is subject to change without notice. It is believed to be reliable, but is not guaranteed for accuracy or completeness. Details provided do not supersede your normal trade confirmations or statements. Any product is subject to prior sale. CIBC World Markets Corp, its affiliated companies, and their officers or employees, may have a position in or make a market in any security described above, and may act as an investment banker or advisor to such. Although CIBC World Markets Corp. is an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), it is solely responsible for its contractual obligations. Any securities products recommended, purchased, or sold in any client accounts (i) will not be insured by the FDIC, (ii)will not be deposits or obligations of CIBC, (iii) will not be endorsed or guaranteed by CIBC, and (iv) will be subject to risks, including possible loss of principal invested. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Hotel info
Hugh Falk wrote: Figure $100 a night for room rates, but it could be a little more or less depending on negotiations. I'd like to avoid July/August so we're not stepping on the toes of CGE. How about October, March, April or May -- very nice here in SD. One of my hopes is to recreate the original EA We See Farther poster: http://www.classicgaming.com/gotcha/ea.htm I think that between John and I, we know most of these folks. Mike Abbott is here in San Diego as well. Holy crap that was kick major ass. A shame it won't have Dani in it though... -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Oh my G*d!!!!
Hugh Falk wrote: Regardless of how many sequels a game has, the final value of a game can never be worth less than $0. If a game was so terrible that the time it took to get through it would have been better spent *any other way* -- say, eating lint -- then it can be worth a negative value. Cybergenic Ranger comes to mind. That does it. Ill be truly amazed if anybody can poke any more holes in this system. I just did :) -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
[SWCollect] List issues
Just a quick note that the [EMAIL PROTECTED] list is having an issue because of the recent mydoom email virus. Currently, the list works, but no member add/remove requests can be processed. So if you recommend someone to the list and they can't join, that's why. I hope to have the problem corrected after February 12th when the virus self-destructs. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] New Column Just Posted
Per-Olof Karlsson wrote: It's almost as bad as not buying the Starcross saucer back in -84 (my local shop had three of them, priced at about $40). Whenever I find myself lamenting not buying things at their regular prices back then, I remember the good deals I *did* get, like Starflight + hintbook, Wasteland + hintbook, etc. for about $9 a piece. (Babbage's circa 1988, for anyone curious) -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Talking about rarity/value
Those are some of the funniest things I have read in a long time. Pedro Quaresma wrote: You can check on this link the whole list of feedback eriqchang(219) left for others (303 total): http://cgi2.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedbackMemberLeftmemberid=eriqchangitems=25frompage=-1item=-1de=off You guys won't believe some of the lines in there... -- Pedro R. Quaresma Salvador Caetano IMVT Div. Sistemas de Informação / Systems and Information Division Administração e Desenvolvimento Lotus Notes / Lotus Notes Administration and Development [EMAIL PROTECTED] // +351 22 7867000 (ext. 3492) Toyota Prius '01, Aqua Ice Opalescent, 37K km., Esperanza 'People don't quit playing because they grow old. They grow old because they quit playing.' - Oliver Wendell Holmes Para: [EMAIL PROTECTED] A/C: Ref: cc: (bcc: Pedro Quaresma/SCAETANO) Assunto: Re: [SWCollect] Talking about rarity/value *Alexander Zöller [EMAIL PROTECTED]* 30-01-2004 15:18 Solicita-se resposta a swcollect eriqchang: wow, this guy is leaving weird feedback. Just scored his first neg as a result. Alexander -Original Message- From: BL [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, January 30, 2004 3:12 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [SWCollect] Talking about rarity/value Whos this guy? He won an auction of mine, and left this for feedback - he as well as sniped me a couple of times, grr! :) Wondering if he is on this list.. Feedback: I belong to a very elite group of gamers and we all trade on Ebay! OH YES WE DO! Buyer eriqchang( 219) Brad - Original Message - From: Dan Chisarick [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, January 30, 2004 7:53 AM Subject: Re: [SWCollect] Talking about rarity/value As an aside I've gotten creamed by this guy on several occasions. I think he just 'safety bids' on everything :) I'd love to see his collection. Perhaps an invite to the list? On Jan 30, 2004, at 12:10 AM, Stephane Racle wrote: Wow... http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ViewItemcategory=3561item=3073649958 -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ToyotaShopping - A sua Loja Toyota Online http://www.toyota.pt -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Rarity Scale
Lee K. Seitz wrote: Atari Age (www.atariage.com) followed suit, although they and Digital Press often disagree about precisely what numbers best describe some games. ..and further complicating matters is that the guides are limited to their fields of expertise or opinions. For example, I own 250+ Dreamcast games, and I can assure you that DP's Dreamcast section is all out of whack (same goes for the suggested dollar value). I can only assume this because no single one of them is a DC fanatic or was very much into the DC scene. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Rarity Scale
Lee K. Seitz wrote: Rare isn't an indication of condition; it's an indication of value. You are right! I have corrected that in the MobyScale right now. The new entry reads: Q: Why isn't Rare on the grading scale?br A: Rare isn't an indication of condition; it's an indication of availability. Thanks for catching that. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Adventure in Serenia
It's somewhat rare in good, complete condition. The ebay descripion of the disk has the top plastic cut off is fairly alarming, considering he didn't test it. This goes hand in hand with our semi-annual the disk is/isn't important debates :) Since the disk is damaged, I don't think it should have won for $90, I think $50-$60 would have been more appropriate. Feldhamer, Stuart wrote: How rare is this game, anyway: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemitem=3072790380 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemitem=3072790380 The first time I saw it on ebay I think it went for $1000. It's popped up quite a few more times since then, though. Stuart Information in this message reflects current market conditions and is subject to change without notice. It is believed to be reliable, but is not guaranteed for accuracy or completeness. Details provided do not supersede your normal trade confirmations or statements. Any product is subject to prior sale. CIBC World Markets Corp, its affiliated companies, and their officers or employees, may have a position in or make a market in any security described above, and may act as an investment banker or advisor to such. Although CIBC World Markets Corp. is an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), it is solely responsible for its contractual obligations. Any securities products recommended, purchased, or sold in any client accounts (i) will not be insured by the FDIC, (ii)will not be deposits or obligations of CIBC, (iii) will not be endorsed or guaranteed by CIBC, and (iv) will be subject to risks, including possible loss of principal invested. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] 5.25s vs. 3.5s
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Yeah but you had to be careful. If it started to write the disk could be corrupted and you lose it all. I would usually make a copy of my save disk (with Wizardry it was autosave so VERY important) so I would be protected if my disk was ruined by a pull Yes, but I was *very* fast and this never happened to me. And, to clarify, I never actually went through the trouble of pulling the disk out -- I just flipped open the drive door, which is quicker if you have no intention of pulling the disk out :) -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] 5.25s vs. 3.5s
Lee K. Seitz wrote: It's just incredible handy to stuff gobs of 5.25 or 3.5 inch backups on a CD-R or DVD-R. Amen, brother! That's my goal. I've got a ton of disks to back up and get rid of so I can reclaim a little bit of space. It's even handier to back up 6+ CDs onto a single DVD-R. DVD+/DVD-R burners, even dual-format ones, are under $100. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
[SWCollect] Would YOU bid on this?
Breakers, PC: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemcategory=11047item=3073316574 If I didn't already have one coming in the mail I'd bid on this, except... it's pretty badly crushed. Still shrinkwrapped, but crushed. My question to the list: How many of you hold shrinkwrapping so highly that a badly crushed wrapped is worth more than a good condition unwrapped? -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] 5.25s vs. 3.5s
Edward Franks wrote: I can remember playing Ultima III and trying to beat the disk drive if my party died. It was a bad habit to get into though.I used to restart the game when a whirlpool nailed my ship God, yes!! Those were the days -- days when you were actually faster than your computer. I remember frantically ripping the disk out too. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] 5.25s vs. 3.5s
Lee K. Seitz wrote: I would hope anyone interested in vintage games would be knowledgable enough about the item(s) they want to know what format(s) it was available on and ask if they knew it came on more than one. It was very rude for them to give you negative feedback without e-mailing you first. Agreed. If I promise not to look up who the person was, can I ask just what title it was that you traded to him? If it was made at any point before 1986, the dude was just clueless to think it came on 3.5... -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Modern classics
Marco Thorek wrote: True. It's only that once upon a time the profit didn't matter as much. Yes, but the market was completely different then. There's an interview with Ken Williams on the Roberta Williams collection where he says something to the effect of In the old days, we all went on picnics and canoe trips together. But today, [1995] it's considered a smash success if you have 1% market share. My point is that up to 1985, most games sold well because the market was open. 1985-1993 saw things get crowded, and after that it all went downhill. You could singlehandedly or in a duo write a game and find a publisher easy enough, even if your game was totally obscure. Nowadays profit is the prime directive and who knows better about profits than the suits? Pretty much. The only way to make money on games nowadays is to have a runaway shareware hit, and I haven't seen one in a while. Roller Coaster Tycoon is probably the last one man wonder game we will see in our lifetimes that makes a profit. Those managers sure know a thing about finances, but apparently not much about how the creative side of this industry works. For example, whoever adviced EA to ship games in DVD cases immediately cut down production costs, but failed to realize it'll lower the number of units sold, as there won't be much left that distinguishes a bought game from a warez version. That is only true in your country. Here in the US they still ship in boxes (small boxes, but they're still boxes :) Boyzone, Westlife, Backstreet Boys, N'Sync et. al., and no real talent in the charts for some time. Imagine Meat Loaf trying to get a record contract these days. I'm not a Meatloaf fan so that was a bad example :) but I understand completely. There are a *few* sequels, maybe 5 a year, that are indeed worth playing. I just recently finished Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando, and it was a surprisingly deep game with a lot of replay value. But that is the exception. True again. What also irks me as a PC gamer these days is that we are mostly given gruesome console ports. Most recent example there being Deux Ex: Invisible War. The game may be perfect for the Xbox and its audience, on the PC the graphics, the simplified story and character generation, the idiotic UI and the lack of any depth is horrifying. Don't say that! I was so looking forward to playing the sequel after having finished the original twice... -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] 5.25s vs. 3.5s
Edward Franks wrote: Who needs mo'slo when you can play Ultima 2 in all its CGA glory? ;-) You know, this brings up something that I've always maintained: No matter how convenient an emulator is, or how much it enhances or speeds up a game (ie making the game more 'snappy' because there are no floppy accesses), I still feel that nothing beats the total old gaming experience than on an old PC. The games are old; they were written for old hardware; they should be experienced there at least once. Seriously: One week every two years, I drag out the old IBM 5150 (or PCjr) and play an old game from start to finish. I try to do so in a medium-lit room (not too bright), in a quiet environment, preferably a basement ;) with all original hardware (no clone monitors or keyboards) and a six-pack of Pepsi. You can really lose yourself in the game's story and mechanics (which is completely intentional because you surely didn't do it via sound and graphics). It is in your own head that the best pictures are drawn. Or am I the only one who executed a round of attacks in an RPG and sat with baited breath while the disk drive paused, whirred, taunting me with the result until finally the results were printed? Sorry to get all nostalgic like that. Time to snap back into reality and pay the bills... -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] 5.25s vs. 3.5s
Howard Feldman wrote: So I can still use it as a 5.25 drive, or a 3.5 drive, just not both at the same time. I must open the computer and switch jumpers to get it to work! So in summary, watch out before buying Asus Motherboards!!! (Can anyone list decent contemporary M/B manufacturers whose BIOS DO support 2 floppy drives?? Gigabyte? Abit? Intel?) Most still do, I think. I just bought an EPoX 8KRA2+, Athlon XP 2500+ CPU, and 512 MB Kingston RAM for $250 and that combo supports two drives. Frankly I was surprised to hear that it wasn't an option -- it's like, what, 4 bytes in the interrupt table? (The EPoX is running beautifully, BTW. I've had 0 compatibility issues, which was why I upgraded. I previous had an old KT133-based board, back when the Athlon 1GHz came out 3.5 years ago, and I never once got all my hardware working at the same time.) -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] 5.25s vs. 3.5s
Dan Chisarick wrote: At the hight of my media conversion insanity, I had everything on a 4-port KVM. Now all the old machines are on their own network. I used a P-90 running Windows 98 w/a 5.25 Gateway drive that I sold and later asked for it back (they weren't using it). I also have a CPS Option Board, but not an ancient machine w/360k drives to make it happy. There was an upgrade for 1.2MB drives I think. Jim? Later software upgrades supported 1.2MB disks, but not copy-protection. Meaning, very simple oddities like less/more tracks per sector, or odd sector sizes, were copyable -- but something wacko like missing indexes or goofy-long GAP sequences were not. It was added primarily to address the requests of customers who wanted to dupe 1.2MB floppies in one pass, without swapping, and at 2x or faster speeds (the Central Point Option Board writes and verifies disks at least twice as fast as a regular floppy controller). I believe any TransCopy version 5.x will do this (use the TCM binary, not the TC binary). As an aside, I use Disk Factory to image my PC games. Doesn't seem to like newer, faster machines or Windows XP. Anyone have a preferred PC archive tool that actually works w/modern hardware? (I remember talking about my Apple imaging tools, but not PC...) I use only Option Boards for protected disks. While I use different versions for different protections when DUPLICATING disks, I use only TransCopy v5.4 images for ARCHIVAL. This is because 5.4, while dumbed down to not copy as many formats as earlier versions, is the most stable. (BTW, word of warning, each TransCopy version will only read image files created by that version.) -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
[SWCollect] ZorkQuest #2
Just saw http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemitem=3072836862ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1 on ebay if anyone is interested. This pertains to our you mean InfoComic #4 is rare? discussion we had recently. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Need advice regarding a Wasteland purchase
Per-Olof Karlsson wrote: Counterfeiters are always a problem. If the images are of high quality enough (which we all want them to be), I'm sure we'd run into problems. The only real way to solve it is by crippling the image in some way, either by introducing some watermark or just insert a logo at a crucial spot - however this makes it less enjoyable for the rest of us.. Same goes with the idea of having the pics in such a quality that it would look like crap if printed (low quality jpeg's, for instance). Nobody really wants that either. Though, the biggest problem with logos et al is that given enough Photoshop skills you can always get rid of them, or even make a low quality jpeg look exactly like the real thing. There are many ways to watermark images such that they cannot be tampered with. If this becomes a reality, bring the concept up again and I'm sure we can think of something. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Modern classics
Marco Thorek wrote: I'm not sure I like all this concentration. We are almost at the point where only a few publishers dominate the market, because only heavyweights can afford to develop a game nowadays. And because these heavyweights have to make sure that a title gets in the production costs, we will see more and more games with a 2, 3, 4, 5 in the title and as much appeal to the mass market as possible. Creativity and originality is only an afterthought, once the calculators rule over the creative department of a gaming company. It's not the calculators: It's what makes money. You shouldn't be scared that accountants and suits are ruining the industry; instead, you should be scared that the core sales of most computer and console gaming are the way they are. It is a hard pill to swallow that adventure games simply don't sell enough units to make a profit. There are a *few* sequels, maybe 5 a year, that are indeed worth playing. I just recently finished Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando, and it was a surprisingly deep game with a lot of replay value. But that is the exception. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Need advice regarding a Wasteland purchase
Lee K. Seitz wrote: Yeah, and these discussions have a very familiar ring to them. I was going to go back and look at our discussion, but discovered the archive only goes back to late January 2003. I didn't realize we were losing access to messages as we went along. Glad I'm saving some of them for reference. It's YTD? Crap, I had no idea either. Luckily I am keeping a local archive of all the messages. I'll see what I can do about getting that online. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Need advice regarding a Wasteland purchase
Per-Olof Karlsson wrote: Well, I kinda see it as preserving a legacy. How many originally shrinked versions of a game will be around in fifty years? Yeah, of course I understand this view. :) I'd much rather preserve the whole package though. I like to make scans of the contents for instance, which is rather hard when it's shrinkwrapped. ;) I think one of the more important tasks we as collectors have is to document history. ..which is exactly why I started MobyGames. :) We have stuff in our collections that NOBODY has heard of ;-) -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Grading Authority etc
] -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Hotjobs: Enter the Signing Bonus Sweepstakes http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/signingbonus -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Modern classics
Marco Thorek wrote: Jim Leonard schrieb: (Ironically, Wheel of Time, a game based on a Robert Jordan novel, is actually a very good game. The ancientspeak is thick and heavy but since it's an action adventure it's not as irritating.) Although commercially it failed, IIRC. It was by Legend, wasn't it? Correct on both counts. Legend has had some spectacular flops recently, the most notable and recent being Unreal II. It felt flat, which is odd given that the same Legend people behind some of their best adventures in the early 1990s were behind it. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] DOSBox: Getting DOS games to run easily
Pedro Quaresma wrote: Thanks for the report Jim, looking forward to check that one out too. Nevertheless, the important question remains: will it run Ultima 7 with its Voodoo Memory System? ;) According to all sorts of patches I keep reading about, that's no longer an issue (there's some patch/parser that runs U7 in Windows). But does it run U7? I don't know, I don't own the game to test it :) -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Need advice regarding a Wasteland purchase
BL wrote: Is there an auction link you can provide? I don't know too much about Wasteland, but I do know that if it's not in the original shrinkwrap, it technically is not NEW. If he had it already, why would he open it? Some inexperienced sellers/collectors will call something NEW if it looks new, even if it's open. Technically, NEW isn't even an accepted term among collectors, and MINT SEALED is the equivilent to perfect condition, still in original shrinkwrap. Under accepted terms, this one would be MINT or VERY GOOD. Once a game is opened, it is not MINT any more. Maybe now is a good time to re-introduce the reason this list was originally started: The MobyScale. CEF and myself were talking over email one day that we were frustrated with MINT showing up all over the place when the game was clearly not mint. What is mint? What is very good? So I started this list with CEF, Hugh, Tom H., and others and we all came up with a standard of grading software called the MobyScale (since there was no better name and MobyGames was adopting it for their user have/want list feature). You can read it all here: http://www.mobygames.com/info/MobyScale So, now you know. Since we all use the same scale, we have an exact understanding of what Fine is, or what Ancient Land of Ys (PC): Box G, Media F, Manual G, Registration Card IM means :-) (It means the item is in poor shape ;-) To answer Stefan: You have a complete release but it is nowhere in new quality or condition. No tape should be there; no price stickers should be directly on the box/folder itself. The sleeves should not be taped or damaged. One other thing: The PC release was never in a folder, only the later box style, so if you have PC disks with that package then somebody made it out of parts :) -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Need advice regarding a Wasteland purchase
Per-Olof Karlsson wrote: think the best way to describe a really new game is MINT SEALED as suggested by BL. Sealed but crushed games are also covered in the MobyScale :) See previous post. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Need advice regarding a Wasteland purchase
BL wrote: My bad Jim, I'm actually a little rusty! :) That descrepency with Near Mint's definition that we had a conversation about last year was never ironed out though huh? (the descrep. being that Near Mint: No noticable defects, but not sealed, which makes a Sealed but not in perfect Mint condition an impossible rating, becuase NM implies no wrap. It implies no wrap but you can always use the Sealed modifier. There are six main grades (Mint Sealed, Near Mint, Fine, Very Good, Good, and Excess Defects) and a few recognized modifiers (Sealed, Compressed, Torn Wrap, Item Missing, Bad Media, and a specialized shorthand for several conditions called Missing Minor Component). So the grade would be Near Mint, Sealed (or, if you prefer shorthand, NM (S)), which would imply the game is still sealed, but it has some crushed corners or something. Does that resolve the discrepancy? -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Need advice regarding a Wasteland purchase
Per-Olof Karlsson wrote: things, but I wouldn't be too surprised if this attitude would go away much I don't think it will go away, because computer game software has *always* come wrapped or sealed in some way. Hell, even Akalabeth came in a bag. That is completely different from comics, whose value was *never* tied to bags, always condition, until companies started bagging them. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Need advice regarding a Wasteland purchase
BL wrote: I understand the scale, there is just the point with Mint Sealed and Near Mint implying the state of the shrink on the product while there's also a modifier for Sealed.. It just seems redundant to me. In essense MS and NM are the same thing, except for the wrap. So why not M with or without S to replace NM? If you don't want to change it, that's fine, I'm just pointing out the anomoly that it is and what makes the most sense to me. You write M with or without S but you seem to be overlooking the fundamental definition of Mint: Mint items must be sealed. If the item is no longer factory-original sealed, it cannot be called mint. So there is no such thing as M without S. MS and NM are indeed the same thing except for the wrap. But you're looking at the scale without considering most collections; the majority are unsealed/unwrapped. That is why Sealed is an optional modifier. Perhaps it's because I'm one of those shrinkwrap nuts you mentioned. :) I only collect stuff still in shrinkwrap.. maybe an occasional exception. In anycase, I can't be alone, and if anything, more and more people are seeking You aren't alone but you are definitely in the minority. For example, I don't know a single collector on this list who maintains an entirely shrinkwrapped collection. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Need advice regarding a Wasteland purchase
Per-Olof Karlsson wrote: I don't think it will go away, because computer game software has *always* come wrapped or sealed in some way. Hell, even Akalabeth came in a bag. That is completely different from comics, whose value was *never* tied to bags, always condition, until companies started bagging them. This is true. But still, what's the point of having a package you can't do anything with? It's about as exciting as having a comic or why not an ordinary book sealed in plastic. Guaranteed new, yes, but hardly interesting in any other aspect. (neglecting financial value now) Hey, I'm in total agreement with you there. In fact, I routinely crack the wrap on my software if I want to play the game (instead of downloading a badly-cracked copy, or running a different version in an emulator, etc.). Of course, this gives die-hards like CEForman and Tom H. the shivers whenever I tell them I removed the wrap from a piece in my collection, but hey, I want to play (or preserve) the damn thing ;-) I'm not saying the sealed = more $$ formula is fair and just, but it is extremely accurate in determining how much something will fetch on ebay or in trade. I think it's unanimous that, in terms of dollar value, sealed non-sealed. So the scale was built with that in mind. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Modern classics
Edward Franks wrote: You aren't going to find many games that do turn-based combat these days. Temple of Elemental Evil is the only one that springs to Who said I was looking for *modern* games? :) I figured you would know about the older ones. ;-) Touche! :-D Seriously, though, I have several holes in my knowledge, and RPGs are definitely one of them. I especially know nothing at all about most 8-bit games that came on tape only, like TRS-80/CoCo, C64/Vic20 tape, etc. My experience was mostly limited to diskette-based mediums. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Modern classics
Pedro Quaresma wrote: extremely enjoyable. It's actually my 2nd favorite combat system ever. What's your 1st? Come on Jim, long and unusual names are a must... you can't quite have Prince Dick, Joe the White Knight or Mary the Priestess of Tony! :D Tom the Mage is ok though ;) It's not the length, it's the absurdity of the names that drives me up a wall. It is possible to go overboard in medieval speak. In my example, quoted again for humorous reference: Making the ascension of Arrogath in the land of Blesmythson requires the blessing of Gorgonax the Blargnargian during the Time of Rhyne. ..it's all the ancientspeak that drives me nuts. It's like going to hell and finding out that hell is really a Renaissance Faire where everyone talks like that, badly. Am I making sense? It's like being trapped in a Robert Jordan novel. I would sooner claw my own eyes out than be forced to read 10 minutes of that unending gibberish. No offense to those who like Robert Jordan :) (Ironically, Wheel of Time, a game based on a Robert Jordan novel, is actually a very good game. The ancientspeak is thick and heavy but since it's an action adventure it's not as irritating.) -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Early MPOG
Hugh Falk wrote: By the way, Jim, the back of the Yserbius box say 1993, but MobyGames says 1992. 1992 may be taken from the date of the online game, but I think 1993 is right in either case IIRC. I think 1992 was taken from a title screenshot. I'll look into it. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Paranoid seller and tax evasion
Tomas Buteler wrote: Anyway, I hope I can add something to the list once in You already have -- welcome to the list! a while. I'm not the most prized collector out there (actually, I'm more of a fan of most of you guys, Hugh, CE, Jim - love Moby :) but I'm getting there. I'm flattered. :) But remember, we all started somewhere. In 10 years, you could be getting your own fan mail ;-) -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Early MPOG
Lee K. Seitz wrote: Dan Chisarick stated: I've seen people comment on missing the days of BBSs, but there's not the nostalgia for it yet that there is for, say, classic computer games. (Of course, we're also talking a smaller population of computer users back then that were into BBSs.) BBS nostalgia is extremely high, actually. In fact, I'm working with Jason Scott on his upcoming BBS documentary. 3 DVD-9s are planned (!) -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] DOSBox: Getting DOS games to run easily
Per-Olof Karlsson wrote: Wow! This is the stuff I dream about, thanks SO much for that link.. Never heard of this before! Wasteland here I come... Wasteland already works under Windows so I don't know what stopped you before ;-) But try it with a large number of games that do NOT work under Windows (or run too fast) and you'll be pleasantly surprised. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Modern classics
Edward Franks wrote: You aren't going to find many games that do turn-based combat these days. Temple of Elemental Evil is the only one that springs to mind and Who said I was looking for *modern* games? :) Thanks for the Morrowind suggestion. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Early MPOG
Lee K. Seitz wrote: Of www.textfiles.com? Cool! (Hey, where'd the site go! I hope it's only temporary.) Glad to see his documentary is in capable hands. I should correct a misconception: He is doing 99.% of the work; I am only advising on technical/style/research issues. But he is, so far, doing a good job (I've seen some rough cuts). -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Mt. Drash cassette and market value
Edward Franks wrote: On Jan 10, 2004, at 9:14 PM, Marco Thorek wrote: Edward Franks schrieb: It is the Ultima VI special edition with the 10 years of Ultima cassette. What is the 10 years of Ultima cassette? It is a cassette where Richard Garriott talks about the first time years of Ultima. Has anyone dumped that yet? I've never heard of it and it should really be backed up to MP3... -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Modern classics
Edward Franks wrote: The Roberta Williams Anthology. Really? How much is this going for? Tom told me the same thing but I find it hard to believe... A number of the collector's/limited editions are ok (for example, Baldur's Gate II, Icewind Dale II, Morrowind, or Pool of Radiance), but they don't elicit that I must always have this feeling that the above collector's editions do. Pool of Radiance was a massive disappointment -- it's so terrible that you want to erase it and go back to the original from 1988 -- that I can't believe it would be considered collectable. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Modern classics
Stefan Lindblom wrote: Diablo 2 was mentioned as well.. even though I never got around to get the Collectors ed while I was still playing, I guess I will do it someday, to honor the game I played so much. Eventually sold off my accounts last week for $290. Sorry this is a bit off-topic, but it's been bugging me: Can someone explain to me the reasoning behind selling online stuff? No, wait -- what I really mean is, can someone explain the rationale behind *buying* online accounts/items? According to my research, games are fun because you actually PLAY them. What motivates someone to actively seek out and purchase in-game items for $100, $200, or more is beyond me... -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Modern classics
Feldhamer, Stuart wrote: Anywhere from $100-$200. This one is actually worth something to me (but not that much), as it has the first quasi-IBM-releases of Mission Asteroid, Dark Crystal, Mystery House, etc. But they're just Apple .DSK images running in an emulator. That is *NOT* what I would call an IBM release, not by a longshot. There are actual IBM releases of Ulysses, Serenia, etc. -- those are worth something. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Modern classics
Feldhamer, Stuart wrote: Yeah, I know. That's why I said quasi. But at least it's an official emulator release. BTW, I didn't know there was an IBM release of Ulysses. Does anyone have it? On the same note, I had heard there was an IBM release of Time Zone, but I've yet to see one. Does anyone have that? I'm pretty sure there was no IBM release of Time Zone. I personally own the IBM release of Ulysses. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
