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This should take you back to where it all began.

Personally, it matters not a whit to me what you do or don't do PRIVATELY, however it is part of my job here to help protect PiratesAhoy! from gaining a reputation for advocating software piracy. That means MOST mentions of any kind of downloading of software that is not "public domain" - which includes what some people call "abandonware".

Atari has vigorously pursued abandonware sites that had the original SMP! for download, and asked them to take the software OFF their lists. So they DO care about these things, yes, even for a 15 year old game.

It's just not nice to PiratesAhoy! to talk about software piracy in the direction this discussion was going. Notice I did not say anything to you when you said you had downloaded it and were eventually planning to buy the game when it came out in your area (yep, I've been paying attention)... But the discussion of software piracy got a little further `off-base` than what felt <i>comfortable</i> to me.

I'm not riding you, nor pointing any fingers at anyone in particular, just posting cautionary words. Software piracy - at least publicly on these boards - is in the words of the immortal Captain Hook, "Bad form!". <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/diomed.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":dio" border="0" alt="diomed.gif" />

(we now return you to your regularly scheduled topic) Carry on... <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="icon_wink.gif" /> <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/buds.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":drunk" border="0" alt="buds.gif" />
 
I STILL have the original Sid Meier's Pirates! Box, manual, map, and disk A and disk B of the game. Both of which are indeed 5 and 1/4" inch floppies I even still have the sales reciept, I payed $29.50 for the game on 12/21/88 at 11:57am <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

System requirements from box cover;
IBM/PC/XT/AT. Compatables
Minimum 256k
Drive a msust be 5 1/4"
required: CGA (4 colors)
Optional: EGA (16 colors): Joystick
 
Maybe atari shouldve release world wide then? Didnt they know what happened to DOOM3 if you release it very early in one country and late in another , it only increases piracy

WORLDWIDE RLS IS THE WAY TO GO it will cut piracy ALOT if you release a game worldwide

What expect happens when you gloat because you got the game early?? what do you expect happens when you gloat because how good the game is?
 
<!--QuoteBegin-Cpt. StarEye+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Cpt. StarEye)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Wow, we agree on something!

:p<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

<img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/onya.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":onya" border="0" alt="onya.gif" />
 
StarEye - I concur with the worldwide release thing. And I do know a few people (yourself included) who downloaded the game and then purchased it afterwards. I think the whole point is, it's probably better for everyone to not talk about that so openly.

You didn't really brag about it when you first came here, but I don't know that I would have mentioned it all.

I do think it's unfair to make a sweeping statement about developers always having the budget, just not having the talent, initiative or concern to make better products. Having been involved in quite a bit of software development, I can tell you that there is always a bottom line and there is always a "release date". Many times, the actual programmers WANT to get the bugs fixed and such, but the powers that be have set the release dates too early (due to BUDGET) to get them done in time. Most programmers... the guys that write the code, would MUCH rather release good code, and given enough time will just about fix every bug. But, project managers, producers and invenstors have different pressures on them. It's great when a company has the flexibilty to delay a release for quality reasons, but sometimes they don't (and lots of times they don't because the powers that be don't care).

I guess in the end, gaming companies are always motivated by putting out a good product with as little money invested as possible. And there is always going to be a merging of motivations. It does make sense that if game companies sell more product, then they have more money and therefore have the funds to develop new products. But, again, they will always try to do it on a finite budget - that's the nature of commercial software development.

So, I guess we can agree to disagree. I DO think we should probably drop the topic though... for civility sake. hehe, I say that after I write a novel on the subject.
 
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->pretend I'm an angel that does nothing but good things...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Exactly <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/diomed.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":dio" border="0" alt="diomed.gif" />
 
Yes, I have never downloaded or played a single pirated game in my life. I have even waited for the US release of a game that came out in England first. Like I said people can rationalize it as much as they want, but it is still stealing. Just because others are doing it or it is readily availible doesn't make it right. As far as prices go they will most likely rise, not fall. With the development cost of games nowdays it's amazing they haven't risen more. With the average game development cost sitting at $5- $7 million USD and some AAA titles as high as $30 million price points may soon rise.

Here is a related link for those interested.

<a href="http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3078404/" target="_blank">http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3078404/</a>

One notable qoute:

"First, compared to the last generation of consoles, the current `128-bit` generation requires at least 40 times as many lines of code to fully exploit its capabilities. And that costs money."

As far as bugs go, with the millions of lines of code that are in games it has to be very difficult to find all the bugs even with extensive testing. I'm a programmer myself and know well the pain of searching though line after line of code trying to figure out why it isn't doing what it is supposed to. That is also probably why I am so irratated at game piracy. Then again I am also against music piracy as well. Although I do think that the music companies brought that on themselves by artificially keeping cd prices fixed for years.
 
Music is much more of a they ripped off us than computer games, but they are both piracy as you say.

In regards to bugs in a game when a console game comes out a bug is inexcusable but with PC games they are designing it on some pretty impressive rigs. Then they bring the beta testers who will highlight any main errors that appear across a variety of different systems.

Then once they have eliminated what they can before their deadline arrives <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/whippa.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":whipa" border="0" alt="whippa.gif" /> the game is released and sold. To an extent it is impossible to release a game that works perfectly universally with every set of drivers and different set ups people have and use. A good game will then watch and learn what the common mistakes and errors are leading to a patch or expansion pack. If there were any major mistakes they would be fixed in this along with any minor problems.

Then with the game almost seemingly ready to run on almost anyones computer to the liking of everyone with mods suiting most peoples needs. Windows updates something and we go back to square one <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_twisted.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":twisted:" border="0" alt="icon_twisted.gif" /> <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="xD:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" />
 
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