Alternate Reality Flash Cart conversion

[Andre]

Currently, a conversion of Alternate Reality - The City to FlashCart is on the way. The author of this conversion writes on the AtariAge board that the final release of the game would be available for "money" only (probably in conjunction with the flash card from Steven Tucker). What do you think? Would you pay to get the converted image? If yes, what amount of money would you spend?

[deathtrappomegranate]

If all disk operations were replaced by the Flashcart, then it would be worth having; especially with well-designed packaging to add a little collector-value...

[oesii]

If all disk operations were replaced by the Flashcart, then it would be worth having; especially with well-designed packaging to add a little collector-value...

Ditto.

[jetset]

If all disk operations were replaced by the Flashcart, then it would be worth having; especially with well-designed packaging to add a little collector-value...

Ditto.

Ditto that ditto.

[andy_bernstein]

Same here.

[deathtrappomegranate]

Well, the votes here are 6-nil so far.

The idea of eliminating the tedious disk-swapping of the original is excellent.

Even mapping this game takes a long time. It was a brilliant achievement at the time, and remains playable today.

I think it's going to be a must-have.

[ijor]

Sorry for spoiling the unanimous poll, but I doubt I'll buy it. For some reason I never played the game. Yes, I loaded and tried it a couple of times but that's all. Again, I don't remember why I didn't play it. I liked RPG games a lot. Possibly I was more attracted by Sierra games on the ST by that time.

the final release of the game would be available for "money" only

Well, I guess you read the comment that Gunstar made on Atariage about this. And he is probably, at least partially right. One thing is to "pirate" abandonware, another thing is sell it for profit besides a low nominal fee.

I'm not going to "pirate" this, but I guess many will.

[Andre]

One thing is to "pirate" abandonware, another thing is sell it for profit besides a low nominal fee.

No, I wouldn't call this thing "pirating". I think it's something like adding a driver to some existing program to make it work with new hardware.

From this point of view I think it's appropriate to support the author.

[ijor]

I agree that the developer should be supported. But it’s a delicate and complicated issue.

From a moral point of view, indeed it can hardly be called piracy. After all the software is widely available and as posted here it seems that the original author doesn’t mind.

But selling a derivative work of a copyrighted work for profit is not the same as selling a driver. Would you consider “selling” all your dumps for profit? And the work you are doing at Atarimania is certainly not smaller than the AR adaptation.

The main point that was raised in Atariage is how to consider the attitude of those that will “pirate” the cartridge. Would you consider them immoral or illegal? An ideal solution perhaps could be to make a “shareware” approach. Or perhaps the cartridge could be selling at almost the same price as the flash empty cart. And Steven would give part of his profit to the developer.

[Andre]

But selling a derivative work of a copyrighted work for profit is not the same as selling a driver.

I see your point, but how about this: after the program AR has been backed up to cartridge by the user, then invoke the "driver" that just overwrites some areas in memory of the flash cart. So in fact you could sell the driver as stand-alone product that just adds some routines to the flash cart. Of course that driver would add its routines to the flashcart if there were no game on it. At least this should be legal - and not immoral, at least for me.

The main point that was raised in Atariage is how to consider the attitude of those that will “pirate” the cartridge. Would you consider them immoral or illegal?

If there is a copyright for the driver than of course it would be illegal.

And Steven would give part of his profit to the developer.

The best solution would be to get the explicit permission of Philip Price.

Is there any progress with the "driver" we are talking about?

[ijor]

I see your point, but how about this: after the program AR has been backed up to cartridge by the user, then invoke the "driver" that just overwrites some areas in memory of the flash cart.

It would be extremely difficult to make this fully legal. No matter what you do you will still produce a derivative work of a copyrighted property. But we don’t want to be picky or purist, I agree. So let’s assume that the product would be sell as a (fully legal) patch. This would be only hypothetical, because we know it will be delivered as a final product and not as a patch.

If there is a copyright for the driver than of course it would be illegal.

You might get copyrights on the driver (but again, that would be very complicated because it’s not actually a driver). But you can’t get copyright on the final product. The final product would still be copyrighted by Philip Price. So “pirating” the cartridge would legally be exactly the same as “pirating” the disk. You can consider this to be legal and moral, or not. But there is no difference between the cartridge and the disk.

But again, don't misunderstand me. I agree that the developer should be supported.

The best solution would be to get the explicit permission of Philip Price.

That would be nice, and I guess he will give permission for the conversion. But of course that he won’t give any permission for any kind of selling for profit.

Is there any progress with the "driver" we are talking about?

I understand he said he is a little busy with a new job position, but he will continue shortly enough. Unfortunately the whole topic went south with the issue of allowing backing up characters or not.