The worldwide Gunfight boycott:)

[chrisr]

I posted the following (as promised) on r.g.v.c. I am reposting here, to be sure manuel sees it.

As promised here is my follow up.

 

First, I would like to declare the boycott a complete success and

totally dead. While I have not played it myself, I have heard nothing

but wonderful things about it. "one of the best 2 player games for

the 2600". I would highly recommend anyone who likes this game to

head on over to hozer video and order yourself a copy only $16

shipped! I intend on trying it myself next time I have an atari

marathon with people over using one of the versions that are available

that work on a cuttle cart. If you have not tried it out, download it

and give it a shot.

 

My primary goal with the "boycott" began when I heard about the

ruckus caused on the stella mailing list about copy protecting the

cart. For those not familiar with the list, it is for hardware and

software geniuses not really for gamers and collectors (although open

to anyone I believe). I felt that we, the gamers, collectors and

enthusiasts who would be the ones who ultimately buy, play and enjoy

the games should have our voices heard, not just the folks on the

mailing list. The thread was active for a almost a week and reached

69 replies. In other words, it was a busy thread that people were

reading. While some people did not capitalize on their opportunity to

be heard, at least the opportunity was there. I realize that some

people may have been reluctant to voice their opinions in order to

distance themselves and for that I am sorry. I didn't know so many

folks would be so personally offended. I hope that this clears up my

intentions.

 

My second goal was to let the authors know what we, the gamers,

collectors and enthusiasts wanted. "we" spoke and don't appear to

care ether way.

 

It was NEVER a goal to cannibalize his sales. More likely than not,

(and I knew this when I posted) was that the thread raised awareness

of the game and probably caused an increase in sales. I have NO

regret for that, and am glad that maybe some more people know about

his game and may end up enjoying his hard work. I believe that this

guy is probably not doing it for money anyway, so an attack on sales

would probably not be the best route. My guess, is that a big thing

for them, is the fact that anyone would give up their hard earned

money for something that they created. It must give quite a feeling of

accomplishment!

 

Manuel publicly stated, that he will not waste any more time on "copy

protection crap" and for that I am certainly glad.

 

 

Last, but not least, I refused to apologize to manuel, partially

because I had no idea what his opinion of the whole thing was. I did

not know that there was a thread on a message board at atariage.com

where manuel's opinion was posted. At Thomas's request, I checked it

out and it appears that he is at least slightly offended personally

and thought of it as an attack. He defended himself, explaining that

he was not a gazillionare and he could not understand. To Manuel, I

offer my apologies and hope for your understanding and forgiveness for

your perception (and perhaps my poor wording) for your personal

feelings.

 

Chris

[jahfish]

good to read that ....

 

the new homebrews come with a whole story behind it ... there's always the part of history class ......

then some homebrews are comming with a label contest (unfortunately for you, gunfight was one ). that's another point: we hardcore collectors spend our time on the board here, and some even their time in photoshop, corel, freehand, illustrator .... doing own label creations to get the final label. and we all have a great time here, wheter we design or just vote it!

so gunfight was a creation partially born on atariage

 

now for the copy protection: since the beta was copyprotection-free, i don't think aquiring the game was any real problem. i personally think that this programming part is a technical step forward in 2600 programming. it might just not have been the best topic.

and i'm sure, that wasn't manuels' best step in programming the 2600 yet ...

 

 

so everybody cool down, and let manuel concentrate on the next level of homebrewing ....

 

may the force be with him

[Thomas Jentzsch]

@Chris

Those are very respectful final words to this thread.

 

So my personal "Chris boycott" is over now too.

 

BTW: Check out the other modern homebrews at Hozer. There are a lot of gems (especially in the XYPE section ) still to discover.

 

@jahfish

Manuel is currently also very busy with the Windows version of the new Stella version called CyberStella.

 

[ 05-15-2002: Message edited by: Thomas Jentzsch ]

[ATARIPITBULL]

Man, I'm glad that's over, but I did not care what anyone said about Gunfight or Manuel, all I knew was that it sounded like a great game to have so I bought two copies and I just love this game too bits, so people who have not played it yet should buy it and see how great it is.

[DuckandCover]

quote:

---

Originally posted by ATARIPITBULL:

... so people who have not played it yet should buy it and see how great it is.

---

 

I completely agree. Gunfight is an outstanding game.

 

It's really nice to see that this ended well.