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From: erkyrath@netcom.com (Andrew Plotkin)
Subject: Re: Want to help on the CD
Message-ID: <erkyrathDx8uFw.MAA@netcom.com>
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Date: Thu, 5 Sep 1996 05:11:56 GMT
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Bozzie (edharel@eden.rutgers.edu) wrote:
> erkyrath@netcom.com (Andrew Plotkin) writes:

> >Bozzie (edharel@eden-backend.rutgers.edu) wrote:
> >> I'd just like to know why everyone is rushing on the CD idea.  Rushing
> >> is what gave the themed games of Infocom a year or two ago such bad
> >> names.

> >What? Tripling the price-per-game was what gave them the bad name that 
> >*I* heard about.

> Oh, you mean all those errors in the packaging, mising stuff, etc, was a
> good thing?  Although, yeah, the price was steep too.

My understanding was that the missing stuff (et al) was the same set of 
mistakes found in the LTOI packages. (I never bought the theme packages, 
so I could easily be wrong.)

> > I asked for 
> >further suggestions. I got about four, of which I agreed to two (Underoos 
> >and Rylvania.) Since then, nary a peep on the subject. We could have spent 
> >your extra N months and gotten very nearly the same thing.

> Well, I wasn't here.  You would have heard a mouthfull.

It's true that a bunch of people are returning from summer vacation, so I 
will continue to listen to suggestions. However:

> Inhumane.

I'd rather stick my hand in a meat grinder.

> Reruns.
> horror30.zip

Reruns is AGT; horror30 seems to be PC executable only. The decision (ok, 
*my* decision) was TADS and Inform only. Reason: every extra runtime 
system is a big chunk of time and effort. Putting on TADS gives us about 
ten good games for that chunk. Ditto for Inform. For AGT... maybe one or 
two. (I keep hearing good things about Shades of Grey.)

Plus both would be excluded from the Mac side of the disc, and that's not 
a game I want to get into. "PC, Mac, and Unix versions on disc! Uh, 
except for these two games... but don't worry, they're not that good 
anyway..." The hell with that.

(I downloaded the UAGT source today, from curiosity, but I don't have 
time to get it working for the Mac.)

> And rushing it at the same time we're planning for an int-fic competition
> is a good thing?

*I'm* not planning an IF competition. (I'm not even planning an entry any
more.  It's all done, and beta-tested enough that I'm willing to enter it
as is.) Whizzard is the one worrying about the competition, and he elected 
not to work on the CD for just that reason. 

> >Another point: if this continues even unto the beginning of 1997, chances 
> >are high that at least one officer will have to drop out. For whatever 
> >reason.

> I would think it would be the other way around.  Forcing people to
> do lots more work in a shorter time would by more likely to dissuade
> people.

I give up. You're right -- I have Neil deMause chained up on my basement, 
doing the documentation with a trackball, a membrane keyboard, and a copy 
of FrameMaker 0.5beta. But the drugs are keeping his enthusiasm up to 
snuff. That and the cat-o-nine-tails.

Everyone working is a volunteer; but nobody can predict when coursework 
will crash down, or an elderly relative will kick the bucket, or a 
stunningly beautiful woman will walk up to you and ask to spend as much 
time as possible with you, please, starting now. (That last happened to 
me, for example. Unfortunately I didn't get her phone number.)

> >In another post you said approximately (damn TIN) "Put on lots more 
> >games, but not showcased, and you don't need to inform the authors." 

> Urm, no, I said you had to get the author's permission, one of the reasons
> against choosing 50 or 60 games.

Damn. Sorry. I was misremembering someone else's post as yours. (And 
couldn't go back to check -- damn TIN.) Consider that paragraph to be 
directed at the person standing behind you.

--Z

-- 

"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the
borogoves..."
