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> much of the software is obscure by today’s standards (including a slightly dubious Star Trek game) Anybody knows why is the "obscure" "Star Trek" game for BB

by acqq 8y ago

> much of the software is obscure by today’s standards (including a slightly dubious Star Trek game) Anybody knows why is the "obscure" "Star Trek" game for BBC Micro described as "dubious"? Especially if it's this one: http://www.dunnington.info/public/startrek/strek http://www.dunnington.info/public/startrek/strek Background: http://www.dunnington.info/public/startrek/ http://www.dunnington.info/public/startrek/

jhbadger 8y ago
Yes, that Trek game is a version of the standard Trek game that was popular on mainframes & minis in the 1970s. I suspect the "dubious" adjective is there because it wasn't at all licensed -- before computers were mainstream, enthusiasts just thought they could make games based on their favorite properties and nobody would care about the legality.
- acqq 8y ago
  > it wasn't at all licensed Is there any information that it was even possible to "license" a small game written in BASIC which appeared in various printed forms and various versions rewritten by various people?
  - jhbadger 8y ago
    Perhaps not, as computer games were probably unknown to lawyers at that point. But this sort of thing (even when done totally not for profit and purely out of love of a franchise) gets shut down quickly today -- there are many mods and such that were given cease and desist notices for using characters from Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, etc.
    - acqq 8y ago
      > this sort of thing ... gets shut down quickly today That seems to confirm my belief that if that was the idea behind it, the attribute "dubious" is anachronistic, i.e. appearing to be so only when observed out of the context of that time, as if it would happen now.
roghummal 8y ago
I compiled "Chris Nystrom's 'C' port of Mayfield-style StarTrek, 1995" and the only adjustment needed was renaming the getline() function (getline()->xgetline()) to avoid a conflict with stdlib.
- acqq 8y ago
  I'd say it's expected, from what I see the version is in "ANSI" C. I can compile it as-is (without renaming anything) with gcc and it runs, it just warns that "register i" etc. are treated as integers, which is what they were intended to be anyway.

by acqq 8y ago

jhbadger 8y ago

Yes, that Trek game is a version of the standard Trek game that was popular on mainframes & minis in the 1970s. I suspect the "dubious" adjective is there because it wasn't at all licensed -- before computers were mainstream, enthusiasts just thought they could make games based on their favorite properties and nobody would care about the legality.

acqq 8y ago
> it wasn't at all licensed Is there any information that it was even possible to "license" a small game written in BASIC which appeared in various printed forms and various versions rewritten by various people?
- jhbadger 8y ago
  Perhaps not, as computer games were probably unknown to lawyers at that point. But this sort of thing (even when done totally not for profit and purely out of love of a franchise) gets shut down quickly today -- there are many mods and such that were given cease and desist notices for using characters from Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, etc.
  - acqq 8y ago
    > this sort of thing ... gets shut down quickly today That seems to confirm my belief that if that was the idea behind it, the attribute "dubious" is anachronistic, i.e. appearing to be so only when observed out of the context of that time, as if it would happen now.

roghummal 8y ago

I compiled "Chris Nystrom's 'C' port of Mayfield-style StarTrek, 1995" and the only adjustment needed was renaming the getline() function (getline()->xgetline()) to avoid a conflict with stdlib.

acqq 8y ago
I'd say it's expected, from what I see the version is in "ANSI" C. I can compile it as-is (without renaming anything) with gcc and it runs, it just warns that "register i" etc. are treated as integers, which is what they were intended to be anyway.