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wgungfu, on Mon Mar 8, 2010 4:08 PM, said:
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plus that's the only skill level where the asteroids will move quickly too and you're not awarded any extra ship.
Once again, stating something that's supposed to be there - i.e. the obvious. There's a reason for "skill levels" and the advanced being the "Arcade" mode.
Likewise, because of the skill levels, extra lives were not reproduced in any of the games. That was the trade off they wanted.
I don't know what the original criteria was from Atari Interactive and/or Taco Bell, just pointing it out. So it's not necessarily 'obvious' to everyone, like it wasn't obvious that I could be having problems at my end. Why wasn't it obvious? Not everything that's obvious to one person is the same to another.
wgungfu, on Mon Mar 8, 2010 4:08 PM, said:
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Not very faithful in my book, with all of those elements, if you ask me.
Certainly entitled to your opinion based on your misunderstanding.
No misunderstanding here, just for being tech-ignorant. In all the posts on the other thread, not a single one throughout the first several pages said 'wow, these are awesome, and so very close to the originals!', most of them just were in regards to people commenting on not knowing about them being out, stories of going to Taco Bell, picking them up and not playing them yet, or Taco Bells not having them yet, that was it. With the gameplay being crap (so I thought, now I'm fairly sure it's not true) and not anywhere near the original at my end, and figuring people went off too early on the games and seeing the developers were on the pages, possibly didn't want to say anything bad in the process. An e-mail I got about this also stated that the games' reaction had been 'mixed'. I just put two and two together there.
So with the above elements, put yourself in my place: what would a person THINK after all of that? Seriously. I have photographic and video proof at my end and anyone reading this nearby in Houston can drop by and see for themselves in person how it behaves. However I'm pretty sure this can be quickly fixed (someone on here will probably let me know what I need to do at my end for a fix) so if anyone wants to drop by they'd better hurry. But they'll be able to see for their own selves in person.
wgungfu, on Mon Mar 8, 2010 4:08 PM, said:
But then nobody asked. 
Don't be condescending to me with the smiley. I see something wrong, I'm going to post about it so others won't waste their time and/or money with something like this. Anyone's free to post too. I can say just as well that being a programmer you should have been able to spot that I'm having trouble and you have to ask yourself why I would make something up, just like if you're the person on the YouTube post who said 'is Darryl making crap up?' No, I am not. You offered to help other people with problems but not myself. Granted I can see how you can jumped to conclusions though just like I did. Like I said, I'll correct the post if this problem gets fixed.
wgungfu, on Mon Mar 8, 2010 4:08 PM, said:
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Centipede I haven't played though, can't say for that one, but two out of the three haven't been that faithful, in my opinion.
These aren't ROM duplicates,
Didn't say they were.
wgungfu, on Mon Mar 8, 2010 4:08 PM, said:
Breakout I even worked directly with Al Alcorn on to cover the discrete hardware mechanics.
Read that in the other thread already, didn't question it.
wgungfu, on Mon Mar 8, 2010 4:08 PM, said:
If you want to trash someone's hard work and claim "not faithful"
It was to my understanding. It doesn't matter how hard someone worked or not if they're not faithful. But that could be very well true this time around. If so, congrats on your hard work.
wgungfu, on Mon Mar 8, 2010 4:08 PM, said:
When Curt and I took the contract, we set off to put in a hell of a lot of attention to detail and I put in a hell of a lot of passion in to these. And to have that rewarded with BS like this - to have it summarily dismissed by someone who doesn't have a clue that skill levels usually mean altered game play - unbelievable.
Not BS, from my standpoint. And yes, I did very well understand different skill levels, that's why I tried them all and noticed differences, bowing out on all the easy games because they were so easy indeed. Intermediate's better suited for myself. And the arcade level on Breakout's hilarious with the way your paddle is turned into a dot about the size of the ball!
Too difficult for me on that one!wgungfu, on Mon Mar 8, 2010 4:08 PM, said:
I'm getting an inkling of what HSW went through with his games, and I'm truly feeling sorry for him now.
I'm sure Howard didn't foresee his becoming kind of a kind of 'rock star' status for programmers, so to speak. Nothing to feel sorry for in regards to doing a good job, I just didn't see it and still don't. I'll see it once this problem is fixed.
wgungfu, on Mon Mar 8, 2010 4:08 PM, said:
I killed myself putting in 20 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 8 weeks straight,
...so if you were driving a car during that time, fell asleep at the wheel and ended up killing someone, how would that go over with the victims' family and friends and the court system and inmates and all if you were convicted of Involuntary Manslaughter? (Or whatever's equivalent in your state...here in Texas we got rid of that charge years ago.)
No need to tell me about the demands from Atari and all, I've known how awful the video game business can get due to reading about the horrors of Electronic Arts and all, where programmers would put in 60 or more hours a week, they kept on meeting deadlines for certain parts of a game and wouldn't get a break, EA would just keep on demanding more and more overtime. Maybe this isn't still true nowadays as I read that years ago but I doubt it's much different. Marriages ended and what they did was illegal, yet technically not since there isn't any kind of cap for that kind of thing (i. e. too many hours) since last I heard the entertainment industry doesn't allow or recognize that. Maybe that's changed since the actors strike from several years ago (that's one thing they asked for was shorter hours on the set) but I doubt it.
I don't think I've ever worked 60 hours a week, but I have worked under very miserable conditions, for 11 years with a rare illness, whatever it feels like to a 'normal' person it's 20 degrees hotter to me, I'm constantly drenched in sweat, have no a/c for my car (for those who freak going 'you have an air conditioner in your CAR?', yes, it gets that hot here down south we need them), God forbid if it ever rained and I would have to roll up my windows and turn on the defrost (and turning on the heat makes it work better, which is even more horrible), if my thyroid got low enough I could literally have a heart attack, and lets not forget the fatigue where I would have to set the alarm on my watch so I wouldn't fall asleep during my two state-allowed 15 minute breaks...which happened often.
So, keeping all that in mind, guess how many jobs I ever got fired from. Think about it a good, long time. Does your answer match mine? ZERO. And I worked a lot of temp jobs for a while too, I could have gotten fired from them. Didn't happen. Yet I had all kinds of shit happen where bosses said 'I can't BELIEVE we have to do that!', I would have to talk them down, and they'd thank me for that. Others said 'wow, I thought MY first job was bad, but yours...', since I've done ugly legal work. Yet I did that for years too.
Get used to bad reviews, they'll happen at one point or another, regardless of how good and/or accurate a product is or not compared to the original. Sometimes you can just brush it off to people being idiots, like the very first thing I saw in regards to this was someone saying they had faith until they heard they were Flash programmed. Real brilliant.
You can hire more people for your company. Obviously if it's just you and Curt you can say you don't trust anyone else and you've tried others before, but it didn't work out, you can't afford to hire someone else right now, and blah blah.
But if something catastrophic were to happen, what would become of Legacy Engineering then? I don't know much about business in general but I know if you lose a parent company you're lost big bucks. Or even if Atari didn't pay you much it seems like you can't afford a loss big or small.
Because I'm pretty sure I saw you in a video in regards to gathering support for a portable 2600. Unless I have you mixed up with someone and/or can't recall the exact amount, I think it was stated that well under $100,000 was needed to invest to try to market the thing (I think it was well less than half of that actually). If that's true that's very chump change needed for marketing a product like that.
If you were sued for something, even if you weren't found guilty of anything, that could very well wipe you out. Something to keep in mind when you're in the public eye. No one wants bad publicity; sometimes that can work to a person's advantage (a 'bad boy' actor or actress sometimes won't lose any popularity), other times it doesn't seem to make any kind of effect, like Michael Vick still earning the big bucks, but at least many people still have the sense to boo him whenever he enters the field. But not everything can work out that way, can it?
Think about it.
Anyway, to summarize, if anyone knows what I'm talking about in regards to my display problem, I'll definitely give all this another shot. Sorry for the long-assed posts.
Grabbed mine yesterday!
The signs had other toys for the Kids meals but nothing about Atari anywhere.
I tried both stores in Worcester and the one in Auburn with none having these games. There are no other Taco Bells around so I'm not getting them, oh well
