To: hitech-sim (Hitech Simulation Mailing list) Reply-To: hitech-sim (Hitech Simulation Mailing list) Errors-To: postmaster@onion.rain.com Precedence: bulk Bcc: hitech-sim-out Subject: Hitech Simulation Digest V1 : I40 Hitech Simulation Digest Volume 1 : Issue 40 Fri Sep 3 19:11:48 PDT 1993 Compilation copyright (C) 1993 Jeff Beadles Send submissions to "hitech-sim@onion.rain.com" Send add/drop requests to "majordomo@onion.rain.com" Archives are available via ftp from onion.rain.com [147.28.0.161] Today's Topics: What happened on the GEnie Scorpia Mark Kuebeler Subject: What happened on the GEnie Scorpia conference last night? Jim Knutson writes: >There was supposed to be a chat with SH last night on GEnie. Did anyone >catch it? What was said? They usually upload the transcripts of RTC's to Scorpia's RT library. ------------------------------- From: roeschmf@craft.camp.clarkson.edu (Martin F. Roesch) Subject: SH Conference on GEnie Jim/All, I happened to be there, but I arrived kind of late and missed the beginning. Mostly, SH seemed to be feeling out what people wanted in the next "Falcon 4.0" generation of sims. The phrase "hub module with add in vehicle packs" was said quite a bit from the SH guys, so I'm guessing "Falcon 4.0" is going to be some sort of 32 bit base package with "two or even tehicles included". By vehicles, they mean *anything*, from subs to tanks to helicopters to bombers. They also said that they are working on a more realistic world environment, so you'll be able to hide your Apache behind that tree stand or hide your tank in the blast crater from a 2000 lb bomb. When the transcript is done being edited, I'll upload it here if no one objects. Martin F. Roesch -- roeschmf@craft.camp.clarkson.edu(Internet) "She's brain damaged? What's the prognosis, doctor?" "Put her in a rock garden." -- from Maniac Cop 3 ------------------------------- From: Andrew.Stevens@prg.oxford.ac.uk Subject: Re: Cryptic note of the year >>Version 1.0a of Tornado is now being shipped. You cannot tell from the box >>which version it is. But then again should you wait for version 1.0b which >>may be released in a months time or 1.0c etc. We do offer an upgrade path for >>this product! Tornado has been praised for its lack of bugs. If your going to >>buy it then do so, else don't! There will always be another upgrade to wait >>for! > >>Kevin. > >Unfortunately this note has me baffled. Can some kind soul please tell >me how it fits in? Basically, DI call ``patches'' revisions. They number them A,B,C,... revision A is the one that was recently completed for the European release and that will be available as a patch when SH get the modified version for the U.S. copy protectionn scheme done as well. It fixes SAM lethality and other little bits. Revision B will fix probably fix the soundblaster driver. Revision C will be the one after B and so on. If I recall right I posted about A and B on this list. >Just what is with that last line "If you are going to buy it do so, >else don't!" Maybe I missed something but that sounds a tad bit testy >to my uninformed ears. I think what Kevin (he's the 3D engine and sim implementation guru) is trying to get across is that there will continually be revisions so it is not worth waiting for ``the latest revision'' as there will permanently be a new one in the pipe. Bear in mind ``digint@'' is shared by multiple people none of whom are regular Internet/USENET types and is posted to by much more than readers of this list. A lot of the replies sent out, I suspect, answer stuff that may not have appeared here as they seem to maintain a kind of global outgoing mailing list for ``general interest things''. The combination of the two (and a pretty hefty workload) means the emails are often a bit cryptic :-) I guess a rather terse presentation is the price of getting through to the actual programmers and getting real information, rather than being filtered by P.R. folk and getting marketing stuff. Personally I found them all very friendly and genuinely interested in user feedback, but I suspect they get quite a few silly messages. See my interview in GameBytes (at an ftp site near you .... soon :-) ) for details of who does/did what and all kinds of other stuff related to Tornado. Andrew ------------------------------- From: knutson@mcc.com (Jim Knutson) Subject: Re: Cryptic note of the year > Basically, DI call ``patches'' revisions. They number them > A,B,C,... revision A is the one that was recently completed for the > European release and that will be available as a patch when SH get the > modified version for the U.S. copy protectionn scheme done as well. What's the policy regarding copy protection? Does DI say whether or not it must have copy protection? Why would SH not have copy protection for Falcon and add it for Tornado? Why should the US copy protection be any different than the European version? Jim Knutson | | knutson@mcc.com --=oOo=-- cs.utexas.edu!milano!knutson + Wk: (512) 338-3362 Check Six! ------------------------------- From: Andrew.Stevens@prg.oxford.ac.uk Subject: Re: Cryptic note of the year >What's the policy regarding copy protection? Does DI say whether or >not it must have copy protection? Why would SH not have copy >protection for Falcon and add it for Tornado? Why should the US >copy protection be any different than the European version? To be honest I'm not entirely sure... however here's how I understand it: The European distribution has some scheme preventing a working copy being taken of an installed game or the floppies. You can backup both but the original floppies (or some part therof) are needed to make things work if you restore. The U.S. (SH) distribution is identical except for this copy-protection component where SH are doing their own thing: either no protection at all or a different scheme. Why was never made entirely clear but I got the impression disk duplication issues lay behind it. Thus, because the binaries in the U.S. version are a bit different so too are the patches. Furthermore, they lag a few days behind because their distribution is, of course, derived from the DI ``original'' and they can't get to work until DI are (almost) done on the euro version. Andrew ------------------------------- [[ End of digest Volume 1 : Issue 40 ]]