Re: Cactus Canyon. Good or bad? Will Wayne upgrade the software?

Donnie:

There may be some good reasons for him to do it. If he's going to
re-run games such as Medieval Madness, it would be to his benefit
to tweak the software, such as was done with TAF vs. TAFG. At
very least, the software should be branded as his, not WMS Industries'.

Since he has patent and other IP rights to the Pinball 2000 platform,
he could also come up with game kits and/or new Pinball 2000 games,
but a big piece of the development would be to bring up the code
to work on current motherboards. Sure, he could hire a bunch of
programmers who may or may not know anything about pinball, but
at some point he'll be resource-limited and here's a chance to take
advantage of people that would probably do the work for nothing or
next to nothing. Throwing the code out to the public domain would
probably cause a big mess, but I still think a controlled release to
an NDA'ed group with specific goals in mind *could* be a win-win.

-Mark
--
http://pinballpal.com/

"Donnie Barnes" <djbSPAMSUCKS@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:slrndgd3g2.83f.djbSPAMSUCKS@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> On Fri, 19 Aug, Mark Clayton wrote:
>> Me too. It would be very wise of Wayne to put together a team
>> of qualified people to work on the existing WMS code base. With
>> broadband Internet and PinMAME, it would be very easy for people
>> to work together on projects regardless of where they live.
>
> I'm not sure I see a benefit for Wayne to do it *other* than community
> goodwill (granted, that is a pretty huge one). I can't see it being very
> useful for remakes of older games...he'd have no way to control what these
> helpers were doing. I can't see any way it would make him money, either,
> unless he simply wanted in exchange for this "good will" to be the one and
> only source for upgrade ROMs. But if he put that kind of condition on it,
> few would bother doing any real work, I think (I wouldn't help).
>
> On the flip side, I don't see a reason for him *not* to do it. I'd think
> you'd want to put controls in place so no source got released outside the
> NDA and that all objects that got released were Home-Only (won't take
> money). That and a disclaimer should pretty much cover liability issues.
> Then you've got quite a lot of good will, assuming some capable folks *do*
> step up and sign the NDA and do start doing "cool stuff" (fixing
> outstanding bugs we know about, adding cool features, etc).
>
> Or he could just ignore the whole issue, I suppose. :(
>
>
> --Donnie
>
> --
> Donnie Barnes http://www.donniebarnes.com 879. V.


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Thoughts on Stern
    ... that pinball machines do not earn enough money on location. ... Have every 5 games contribute 50 cents towards a jackpot which maxes at say $5. ... This would probably be very difficult to make happen for all the obvious reasons, but I think it's the only thing that could work and get pins back on the street. ...
    (rec.games.pinball)
  • Re: Best machine to learn how to really play pinball ??
    ... Mastering pinball is all about learning to control the ball and using the ... Many recognized challenging games are also expensive, ...
    (rec.games.pinball)
  • Re: Stargate restoration complete
    ... Nah, it would be the wrong reasons for you or me Neo, it's the right reason ... Folks are welcome to enjoy pinball for whatever it is that makes it ... Jeff and I could play a few games at Expo next week and we'd all ...
    (rec.games.pinball)
  • Re: rec.games.pinball FAQ, monthly post
    ... I have links on where to find games, restoration sites, home made pins, ... I also have a link to Mr. Pinball Classifieds, where I have found some pins ... November 1990 for the discussion of pinball machines. ...
    (rec.games.pinball)
  • Re: Your worst time trying to buy some pins.....(long)
    ... eMails to get a deal on buying some games. ... Subject: Pinballs For Sale ... But I do have some machines I need to get rid of. ... Lots of pinball when we return. ...
    (rec.games.pinball)