Rockford Magazine/Rockford_Magazine_033_19xx_-_de_Disk_3_of_5_Side_B.d64/1872

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From: [e-mail] (WardShrake)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.cbm
Subject: Re: Vic20 archiving project update
Date: 21 Sep 1995 03:51:26 -0400
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Due to some of the questions raised in email I've been getting, I figured
I better make another public post.

Most importantly:  Yes, my Vic20 archiving project, such as it was, is
really dead.

Second most important:  No, the project did not just go underground, and
out of the public's view. It's really over, folks.

Third most important:  No, I can't give anyone images or anything else
that might violate someone's legal right to copyright protection. Please
don't ask me to.

This is the thorniest thing of all to decide, and although I love
Commodore computers, and like the Vic20 quite a bit lately, no
rationalization or justification I could come up with could convince my
conscience that stealing someone's stuff was right. I write software
myself, and occasionally magazine articles and such, and I'd be a
hypocrite to do otherwise.

I know I'm going to make some people mad by dropping the project at this
point, but my own internal guilt-senser just won't let me do anything
illegal about this. If some effort to archive things, above-board and with
the proper legal OK's came along, I'd jump on the bandwagon. I'd love to
help. But I debated and debated the ethics involved, and found out I just
don't have the heart to do something illegal.

Everything I have done so far, was / is perfectly legal. I just didn't
have the heart myself, to do the next steps, which would have been illegal
for me to do. I did some heavy thinking, and decided that I wasn't willing
to cross that fine line, myself.

However, guys, look at the bright side of this .... I did quite a bit,
before I stopped. The project is rolling more than you might think, even
if I step away from it now.

First of all, I did some perfectly legal research. I came up with a long,
healthy list of cartridges which were made for the Vic20. (The only lists
that existed before, were about half the size of my eventual list. But I
do appreciate the work others did before me; don't get me wrong here!
Credit where it is due, I always say.) I'll be uploading that list
publicly, before long, and you all can see what's available for that Vic20
machine. Some game titles you already know from other machines, and some
ones unique to the Vic20, too. Some are really well done, with excellent
gameplay, and some are, well, I'll behave. It's not up to me to judge, but
up to you, the classic gamers of today to make that decision. As usual,
some people will have fun with the list, and take it farther than I have;
I hope they do. Its too early to tell for sure what carts are rare, but I
have some idea. I'll let you discover that! (You label-variation guys are
going to *love* Commodore; they renamed all sorts of their carts "Super"
whatever, sooner or later!) Take it farther than I did; enjoy.

Secondly, my efforts paid off in getting some interest built up in the
Vic20. Hell, it wasn't too long ago that people were downright
embarrassed, it seemed, to even *admit* they owned Vic20 cartridges! I
don't know if its good or bad that this happened; I suppose you could
argue both sides of the issue. But, this was certainly inevitable; sooner
or later, someone was going to do it. As cartridge values rose for other
machines, and they became harder to find, it would become inevitable that
collectors would start collecting outside their normal bounaries. Had to
happen, sooner or later. With some places crushing carts, maybe sooner is
better.

Thirdly, I did show that archiving cartridges could be done, technically.
It is definitely possible to copy a cartridge from ROM memory to a floppy
disk or tape drive, and run the resulting image in a RAM expander. Just
knowing how to do this isn't illegal by itself. However, distributing the
copied cartridges is illegal, and that's where I stopped.

You have to realize that companies want to know if there's a market for
these sort of things; classic game re-issues are a hot item nowadays. But
no company is going to cut its throat to please a bunch of people they
consider to be thieves; this is one major reason I decided to behave,
myself, and act properly. No one told me I had to, and maybe no one would
have prosecuted had I made images available to the public. However, it
would set a bad example, and I didn't want to do that. Maybe some company
can do us all a favor by doing this legally, and I want to help them help
all of us, in any way I can.

BTW, the technical archiving information is similar to methods once used
on the Commodore 64, but as both computers wane in popularity, the
know-how would have eventually became harder to find. It is still out
there; any time I get guilt feelings about spreading such information, I
remind myself that it still exists in other forms, if one looked around a
bit. Software Support Int., for example, to my knowledge still sells books
on copy protection knowledge for the C64, which is fairly close to the
Vic20 in that regard. Plus, the info I supplied to the net (which is
currently on an FTP site in Finland) can also be used to *create*
brand-new cartridges, nowadays. That knowledge shouldn't be lost, I felt.
Food for thought, should anyone decide to take a stab at programming a
Vic20 nowadays! Programmers learned a lot of impressive tricks since the
Vic had its heyday; it would be neat to see what cool tricks an old dog
could learn to do! Certain old titles, especially the Imagic games,
impressed the hell out of me, considering the limitations of the machines
back then, and so on. Darn good games were made for that machine, once
upon a time. (And some dogs too, but what do you expect; that goes for any
games machine.) I may decide to suggest a few techie things on the
newsgroup comp.sys.cbm before I leave the net. No promises, but I'd like
to.

Sorry, but that's it for me, and someone else will have to take over from
where I left off. I did a lot. I want to do more, but that darned legal /
conscience barrier stopped me. I decided that I personally am not willing
to cross that line, without the barriers being removed by the proper
authorities. It is not an issue I myself can resolve, so I have to stop at
this point. Hopefully, a legal way to do this will arise. Personally, I
would love to see something like the effort Activision put out, with their
Atari 2600 software. I think that would be neat! A software emulator (some
do already exist) running cartridge rom images would do the trick neatly.

One last request from me; I spent a lot of time, and more money than I
should have, buying up the Vic20 cartridge collection I now have. It was a
labor of love. Please quit bugging me to sell my collection, especially
cheaply!! It is downright rude to ask. Yes, it reminds me of "vultures"
when I pronounce something "dead", and immediately everyone wants a peice
of the corpse!

But at the same time, I realize that's maybe a good sign; no one used to
care. Companies won't care about this, until they see people interested,
and willing to buy something. Maybe Vickers are getting more popular,
after all? I hope so! Still, if you guys want a collection of Vic20 stuff,
you'll have to do what I did, and hit the bricks to go find your own
collection. Like anything else, you get out of it what you put into it!
Have fun hunting those carts down!

Hope this all doesn't sound too grouchy or mean. I don't intend for it to.
And just a reminder; should any company take a commercial interest in
this; I want in on it, darn it! I still love the Vic20 and Commodore's
other computers, and would like to participate in any *legal and above
board* way to archive the Vic20 cartridge collection.

Thanks for listening...
Ward Shrake