Jeff_ATARI
Landlubber
Hi all,
Jeff your friendly neighborhood Atari brand manager here. Some of you suggested that I throw out a topic for discussion, so I can get a glimpse of feedback from a sampling of pirates fans. Here it is:
How much do you care about playing older versions of Pirates! on your PC?
Pros:
- All of us have fond memories of playing one of the original versions of Pirates!, be it on C64, Amiga, Nintendo, Genesis, Apple II, or original IBM PCs. Playing the original brings us back.
- Just like 80's Arcade Hit collections and emulators like MAME, it's quite a trip to go back and experience favorite games.
- Over and over again we receive requests from people asking to have the chance to play the original again.
Cons:
- Have you ever tried playing "Atari 2600 classic hits" or "The Intellivision collection"? I've tried them all. Oftentimes I'll play a given game for about 5 minutes, awash in the memories of the fun times I had in my living room with some of my childhood friends. Then it gets boring and old and I go back to Civ or Neverwinter Nights or some such. It's just not as interesting as you expect it to be.
- Getting old versions of Pirates! to work on today's computers is very difficult, requiring a combination of 3rd party utilities like MoSlo, DOS emulation modes, or funky WinXP tinkerings.
- We'd never be able to update the code -- the source for that stuff is long gone, and the people we know of who programmed it are either at other companies or working on the new version. So there's no way to improve it, issue patches, offer helpful tech support, etc.
- Who wants to play the old version when the new version will have the same core gameplay but be so much better?
Nevertheless, I'm guessing that people are willing to try. So... where would this old version show up?
- It could be an extra included in a Pirates! Limited Edition package.
- It could be a free download for people who sign up for the Pirates! email newsletter.
- It could be a separate install from the regular edition CD.
So... what are your thoughts? I'd love to hear them. Your comments can very much help us on working through the best way to make it available.
Best,
Jeff Foley
Atari
Jeff your friendly neighborhood Atari brand manager here. Some of you suggested that I throw out a topic for discussion, so I can get a glimpse of feedback from a sampling of pirates fans. Here it is:
How much do you care about playing older versions of Pirates! on your PC?
Pros:
- All of us have fond memories of playing one of the original versions of Pirates!, be it on C64, Amiga, Nintendo, Genesis, Apple II, or original IBM PCs. Playing the original brings us back.
- Just like 80's Arcade Hit collections and emulators like MAME, it's quite a trip to go back and experience favorite games.
- Over and over again we receive requests from people asking to have the chance to play the original again.
Cons:
- Have you ever tried playing "Atari 2600 classic hits" or "The Intellivision collection"? I've tried them all. Oftentimes I'll play a given game for about 5 minutes, awash in the memories of the fun times I had in my living room with some of my childhood friends. Then it gets boring and old and I go back to Civ or Neverwinter Nights or some such. It's just not as interesting as you expect it to be.
- Getting old versions of Pirates! to work on today's computers is very difficult, requiring a combination of 3rd party utilities like MoSlo, DOS emulation modes, or funky WinXP tinkerings.
- We'd never be able to update the code -- the source for that stuff is long gone, and the people we know of who programmed it are either at other companies or working on the new version. So there's no way to improve it, issue patches, offer helpful tech support, etc.
- Who wants to play the old version when the new version will have the same core gameplay but be so much better?
Nevertheless, I'm guessing that people are willing to try. So... where would this old version show up?
- It could be an extra included in a Pirates! Limited Edition package.
- It could be a free download for people who sign up for the Pirates! email newsletter.
- It could be a separate install from the regular edition CD.
So... what are your thoughts? I'd love to hear them. Your comments can very much help us on working through the best way to make it available.
Best,
Jeff Foley
Atari