It is a shame that this kind of things still happen! I hope that you will reconsider your decision, SLotman.

Wow!!! Again this bullshit? It's the 9999th time that this guy says that he'll abandon the MSX scene. Every time someone says something about one of his games that he disagrees, he loses temper and keeps complaining about that.
I think that there’s nothing more annoying than a developer trying to make money with a product designed for such a small market like ours.
IT’S A HOBBY FOR CHRIST SAKE! And there are several new options being released each year for free by several other developers that think in this way, the right way.
Me, and a friend, some years ago released two programs: O2em (several new fixes and features over original Dan Bori’s version) and a frontend called O2emLauncher. It was a huge amount of work to do, and we not even liked Odyssey 2 games. How it was released? Freeware! Not only: Open source!!! Oh, and the hosting? First I hosted at the friendly geocities. Some days after a friendly guy, fan of Odyssey, kindly offered free hosting. As it is open source, last time I saw, another guy was running the project, and the site was still up.
And we never complained about never receiving a cent for it…
And… It’s not my job to judge that, but his games are usually “not good enough” for paying. But again, that’s pointless. It’s just my personal opinion.

It's a personal choice to make something or not, it's a personal choice to ask money for it and it's a personal choice to buy it or not. The point of view that something is a hobby SO it's wrong to ask money probably stems from the stone age. Isn't it generally known that most times it just -is- a hobby that costs money?? There are little to no hobbies that don't cost any money. One of my hobbies is to sleep late and I have to admit that doesn't involve a penny. But otherwise?

Apart from that, there's a lot more to that hobby than just using and developing; the fun may just be to create something people are willing to buy, which enables you in turn to buy a couple of beers for your effort while other people pick the fruits of it.

In fact, to make your way of reasoning consequent, you should say that 'it's a hobby, it's wrong when money is asked, so: (a) develop your own stuff and (b) use it'. Why the hell would one want to create something only so that others have fun? Is it wrong when it's not only the fact that it's fun to create something, but also that it's fun to earn a little bit of pocketmoney with it?? The fact that MSX is a hobby, doesn't automatically degrade the whole lot of us to some open sandals and woolly socks charity institutions! That's just a matter of personal choice!

I have heard this a lot of times and get annoyed by it time after time. If you don't want to spend money, just don't buy it! Don't go sulking in a corner whining that there are nice products outside but -boohoo- it costs money to purchase it. Welcome to the world, for heavens' sake!

the word 'wrong' is coming from YOU, Rikusu

hbarcellos is just criticizing the repetitive 'abandon the MSX scene' role play

we are all tired of this soap opera

be coherent:
if you are really leaving the scene, if you will not deal anymore with msx, just do not accept any more people buying the game. it is all over? erase the games, do not sell the games and leave. or just keep programming, keep selling and don't cry.

I agree with slotman to quit the scene, if he programs for a living and his work is stolen then it's hist good right to say 'FU guys I'm quiting'. This is one of the reasons why I never will ask money for the work I will do for the MSX scene. Nor will I ask donations/money for the costs of webhosting/domain registration.

Most people already have ripped the MSX scene off enough with pirated roms etc.

Hey, "RIKUSU", the whole world seems to disagree with your stupid opinion. What's the % of commercial software developed for vintage machines? Like, simple math, with some effort you'll probably understand: Commercial Offers / Total (Free + Commercial)


Don't try to be politically correct, defending such a bad behavior. What do you expect with that?

And. moneyless hobbies? I spend a LOT of money on original MSX Games. Today I just received originals: Tetris 2 (disk, box, manual) + Phantis (My first original spanish k7). BUT, really, I would NEVER pay a cent for a game like that.

"If you don't want to spend money, just don't buy " What the hell are you? A teenager? that needs to ask money from daddy? Gee!!! There's nothing about money on my post. Can't you figure that out by yourself? You're THAT superficial?

I don't believe on that. Looks like you're only trying to use the situation to look like the "Politically correct" nice guy...

- Poor SLOTMAN, someone posted his original "made 100% from scratch", in a challenging PASCAL! on eMule!!!!
WOW! Not even M$, Apple or any other MINOR company could escape from torrent or Donkey networks, but the genius SLOTMAN will stop doing anything for the MSX WORLD because of that!

NO SLOTMAN, PLEASE DON'T DO THAT! RIKUSU will melt in tears...

I think its very strange to see reactions that suggest that piracy of new productions would be acceptable. Me and Vincent are making some productions freeware and some that are sold as cartridges. I would absolutely feel the same if some of our cartridge releases ended up on wares sites. Its one thing to make old games available that noone cares about anymore but stealing new work that in this case helps SLotman with financial means to run his website and his hobby is totally shameful. I fully support SLotman but I hope he doesn't quit the scene because of this violation. I wouldn't even mind putting a patch into bluemsx that new developers could use to prevent illegal use of new developed software. If other developers feel the same and if there is a need for it I'm willing to help. I will not take part in piracy that ruins the MSX scene!

OK guys, I feel some people here are ready to receive warning no. 1, you know when I'm talking to you: whilst opinion differences and freedom of speech are great things, don't misuse either of these to attack people on a personal level!

Concretely: don't say stuff like "Your opinion does not coincide with mine, so therefore you must be a [insert swears here] wanker that [insert some more swears here] all the time.". Thanks.

hbarcellos so how does it feel to be a total self righteous egocentric maniac behind your keyboard?

It's not that "piracy" (silly term in this context) is acceptable, but it is inevitable. And it doesn't matter anyway because if people want to buy something they will, if not, you can't force them to. I think you would do better to try and take advantage of the greater exposure of having your work loose on the web, rather than trying to demonize people.

Quote:

your releases are more than welcome!

I totally agree!

He who creates may decide its destiny.
So if he wants to sell it. Buy it or leave it. It's a personal choice and a matter of respect.

It's his call. On the other hand. To be realistic; everything digitally will be pirated sooner or later (no matter what scene you're in).

I fully agree with the last comments, no one can stop the digital piracy, as someone has pointed out before, the game could have be ripped by a non-MSX user (prolly the buyer's best friend ) that doesn't cares a shit about MSX scene. IMHO the MSX scene is one of the most preserved; talking about piracy of recent titles, try to find things like the "old" Pumpkin Adventure saga and tell me...

How fight against this?, if you're going to make money, try to make competitive products and always, always make them eye-candy; most of us are collectors and it's hard to resist when seeing a new well finished cartridge with sticker, manual, box and shrinkwrapped . I sincerely believe that if a *real* MSX user likes the game it'll buy it, specially if it offers all that eye-candy and shines in his library; about the non-MSX users, well I don't care cause they are never going to buy the game (well, think positive, maybe they would buy it after playing the pirated version).

It's a personal decision; but the MSX scene really needs active artists...

Quote:

I think that there’s nothing more annoying than a developer trying to make money with a product designed for such a small market like ours.

...was the only thing I reacted to. It's a point of view I have heard more often. Speaking about political correctness - I dare to state that the political correct point of view would be that no money should be asked for MSX products. I'd rather think of myself as the devil's advocate .

I know very little about Slotman and his products, but I do think that everyone who creates something, has the right to decide what to do with it. Whether to ask money or not or to instantly delete it after creation - it's all up to the creator. Nobody else is in the place to criticize this. You may like it or not, of course, but using statements like "IT’S A HOBBY FOR CHRIST SAKE!", pretending that this would mean that asking money for something is a general no-go, is a bridge too far for me. As in the real world, the MSX scene knows producers and consumers (though I have to admit that nowadays the producers seem to be the largest group, which has been different in the past); as in the real world, consumers sometimes have to pay to get something someone else produced.

In my opinion, by the way, this does not automatically make it a commercial enterprise or anything. It just enables someone who created something to drink a couple of beers because others appreciate the creation. I see no bad in that at all.