| commentid | objectid | typeid | userid | subject | comment | timestamp | parentid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6267 | Racer | games | -1 | Re: You must try racer -- you have no ch | Personally I just think it is kind of odd how the caller keeps on pushing how "open" it is. He does define what he means by "open", but it is confusing. I personally have nothing against the guy. It looks like he has created a great piece of software, and he is putting it out there for people to download and play with. Trouble is, it is one of those things where people do not know where they stand.<p> For example, does anyone remember the CDDB? Contributors thought that it was free and open, but then the people behind it sold it and took the money and ran. So, all the users were left in the position where they would, in one way or another, have to pay for their own labor. In other words, many people out there have been burned or are simply wary of being burned by things that are "sorta free, kinda open".<p> I am not saying that the guy behind Racer is out to cheat people like the guys behind the CDDB did, but anyone with a even a little bit of sense want to know where they stand with things that are "sorta free". Most people do not have a little bit of sense. Working in tech support, I have run into people whose computers are running dog slow who want to know why. Then I find ten individual pieces of spyware and adware installed on their system. Weatherbug, and Bonzi Buddy, and SaveNow, and Webshots, and Gator and on and on. Generally, they put it on the system themselves. It was some useful looking piece of software, and it was absolutely free. And, of course, it has tracked their every movement on the internet, slowed their computer to a crawl and popped up pop-up ads even on web-sites that do not have pop-up ads. In some cases it has prevented their computer from booting, or made it impossible to do anything on the internet (New.Net is a big culprit there) or, sometimes forced them to reinstall everything back onto their computer from scratch. All that, for FREE!!!! Try it NOW!!!!<p> So, it is a good idea to know where you stand with something free or "open". It is the creators perfect right to distribute it however he sees fit and to develop it in the open if he chooses. He can release it under the license of his choice or suddenly pull it and store all copies in a small vault at the center of the earth (provided he has access to a small vault at the center of the earth). But, as long as he is releasing it to the public, people want to know what terms he is doing it under. If he does not clarify (I think that he thinks he has, but many remain confused), then people will continue to speculate. That's just the way it works. | 2002-08-10 09:52:10 | 6266 |
| 6268 | 2793 | news | -1 | do not buy game | "All we can estimate is that screenshots will happen within a month and we expect the Linux Client to be available for download in Fall 2002." <br> Please DO NOT buy game until client will be available. | 2002-08-10 10:38:59 | 0 |
| 6269 | Racer | games | 3 | Carthago must not be destroyed | First off, I did add "free beer" to "license type" when I published it. I wouldn't know why it didn't show up in this post. I suck.<p> Eventhough Racer is not GPL'd, its source code is freely available. I unfortunately lost track of the link, but I faintly remember I read Ruud wants to get his share <b>if</b> somebody wants to release a commercial version of his game. That's fine. I would prefer to see Racer to be GPL'd but it's not gonna happen, at least not soon. The same applies to Kohan or HoMM3 though I don't want to inspire you issuing a call for boycott each time we talk about well-done non-GPL'd games.<br> Don't get me wrong, I do respect your opinion, but as you said above: With <a href"http://happypenguin.org/show?TORCS">TORCS</a>, there is a worthy alternative available, and having a choice is what Linux is all about, isn't it?<br> Peace! | 2002-08-10 10:45:44 | 6264 |
| 6270 | jump n bump | games | 6249 | Cool as | This game rocks | 2002-08-10 13:30:39 | 0 |
| 6271 | Racer | games | -1 | Re: The Racer problem | [note: I'm the author of Racer] Pre.S.: I wrote this before I read the last post. Very much note that I allow Racer to be disitributed on Linux distro's; I don't see them as commercial (I will have to make that clear on my site). Here's part of my latest .plan document (unfortunately the machine's been hacked where the site is running, so I can't update anything now): There still seems a lot of confusion about where Racer may be headed. More precisely; headed where 'free' is concerned. I'll try to be clear about this. First, my full intentions are that a free generic Racer application will always be available, in binary form at least. So people can play with cars, physics, graphics and have a nice game. I have in fact stated this to some people that inquired about licensing the game or its source code. However, on the other hand, I have been working for about 2 years now on this game, and it contains a lot of details and knowledge on car physics. This, in the normal world, is worth quite a bit of money. Now, with the success that Racer's been having, I do like to gain financially from parts of it as well. Especially if other people were to take (parts of) Racer, create a commercial sim, and make good money off of it. I feel in that case I deserve a piece of the pie. The future then: the source code may be closed; this is due to multiplayer code (it would enable cheaters to create modified programs a bit too easily), and also due to the fact that some proprietary source code may be trickling in. At the moment I'm working with a company to control high-end steering wheels. The code to control that is proprietary for a large part. I could leave it out of Racer but that may get cumbersome. I have the idea to give out the source then to known people who can compile needed versions of the software, for example Linux/DRI executables (I can only generate the Linux/nVidia ones). Do note that although the source code is then closed down, the original source code (v0.4.9 currently) is still available, and is for car game programmers already quite a big repository for ideas of structuring, handling and actual physics code. The more Racer's source code progresses, the less understandable some of the structure will be. So where would I make money? I don't want to make money selling a game myself; too much trouble with licenses and everything. Where I want to make the money is licensing the physics engine and the source code for other to use COMMERCIALLY. The first prerequisite is always that the source code remains mine (!). I didn't put 2 years (and ongoing) of time in it just to see my baby get used for some arcade racing game and then dumped thereafter, leaving me without my pet project. Now, the current versions are available, and may be mirrored, so they may never have to disappear. Recall that even with GPL, you can release one version under GPL, and the next under a complete new license. Just look at what happened with TuxRacer. So even under GPL you're not obliged to stick to the same license for the lifetime of the product. So for me releasing Racer for free on the web is good enough; you can use the version like that (non-commercially) and that's it. I might release the v0.5.0 release under GPL, after which I close down the source for the general public. So if I take funny steps, someone could always step in and take a detour based on the v0.5.0 code. That might be the best way to rid all the suspension of my back. As a final comment, let me restate that this was/is a hobby project. I've never ever invested so much time in a single project. It means very much to me, as well as there being a free version on the web. With commercial version, you get into licensing your cars and tracks, which is a completely different road that I would like to leave to others, while I continue and refine the engine. I hope this is satisfactory to most of you... | 2002-08-11 11:11:23 | 6264 |
| 6272 | 2788 | news | -1 | eh...hello? | "Hang in there!! ... there wont be a Linux version at release tho im afraid." so...why is this being announced on the Linux Game Tome? | 2002-08-11 12:55:08 | 0 |
| 6273 | Snes9X | games | -1 | Re: Snes9X | where are some emulater games | 2002-08-11 17:04:27 | 372 |
| 6274 | Return To Castle Wolfenstein | games | -1 | Re: HP's RTCW servers | HP1 216.234.192.28:27960 hp2 216.234.192.108:27960 | 2002-08-11 18:23:00 | 5527 |
| 6276 | XKobo | games | -1 | Re: XKobo | Complete agreement all around. The "retro feel" is amazing. Like back when game designers just did whack stuff ( Q*Bert, Qix, Tapper(?) )because they were experimenting with the freedom of the medium. It's still a simple shooter but that whole blue/violet/etc. ball thing is bloody magic. | 2002-08-11 21:55:22 | 3206 |
| 6277 | Return To Castle Wolfenstein | games | 6073 | Well, you only install once.. | cause when it's installed you have a blast everytime! Especially in multiplay, where this takes teambased action to a level of realism and action, which isn't even hard to play by. ( unlike certain Quake 3 mods, where you need alot of keys just to operate the damn game... ) <br><br> As for the installation.. well, they should have made the .pk3 files available on cd, but once you get those extracted, you're over the hill. And the graphical installer work execelent, and the game itself, while unstable once, runs like a rock in the latest releases. I even hear it kicks about 5-15% extra fps out when compared to a windows version. | 2002-08-12 03:27:58 | 0 |