going through the ST roms: how were 'cracked' roms distributed?

[chewy]

so im going through the ST library and these roms have the added screen - were these traded via online sharing in the early 90s, is that what theyre talking about in those screens.   Was that the method of distribution or something else, some screens are newer and have website links but some are older mention bbs.  

 

so i have superconsolexpro and im going through and yeah a lot of the programs dont work (even w/ keyboard added) but the games that do work  good, think the ones that would be more applicable to a game-speicifc console, most of those work.  with keyboard most of the text games work but i have no idea how to play them.  just landed on one called Striker, that works perfectly w/ the game controller and the actions insanely fast.  

 

i *never* throught id ever be seeing these games myself.  this thing also as the 800 library + 7800 + 5200 (and vcs but i didnt even look at it i perfected my perfect harmony cart)

 

 

for 5200/7800:  only a few of the games have i favorited.  mostly the console specific games.    the VCS is VASTLY superior to the remakes with the exception of pole position is better on 5200/7800 but besides that id take VCS over everything the color layout is just so much more adapatble to arcade style espically w/ modern programming.  i dont like the decent into "everything cartoon-y" games...has this ever been discussed.  by 1987 everything looks like a cartoon show not an aracde.  certainly this has been discussed, no- what other directions could gaming have gone in, why did vector go away

[chewy]

also i saved zero mag odyseey games.  the vcs remakes are better than the originals

[chewy]

OH OH - also these are all single button games still?   thats a huge drawback for the platformers

[chewy]

the load time on some of these computer games is exteremly long.  so this is what differentiates them from a console game? better graphics but you have to wait for it?   AND THE START SCREENS.  why so many start screens that go on forever and ever and ever and ever.  i was there for the APPLE IIE and i expected a little wait w/ that but that but baby chewy always thought the mysterious Atari i heard mentioned was somehow better

Edited December 6, 2022 by chewy

[zzip]

Dial-up BBS was a common way to distribute cracked games before the internet

14 minutes ago, chewy said:

the load time on some of these computer games is exteremly long.  so this is what differentiates them from a console game? better graphics but you have to wait for it?

not really-  the presence of keyboard (and maybe mouse) plus the ability to run lots of non-game software is what defines a computer.

floppy disks were slow,  but could store much more than cartridges at the time, so that allowed for better graphics and deeper gameplay.   Consoles eventually got CD-ROM drives and had to endure slower loading that is inherent for spinning disks.  

 

17 minutes ago, chewy said:

AND THE START SCREENS.  why so many start screens that go on forever and ever and ever and ever.

if you are playing cracked games, the cracker often inserted their own screens that keep going until you press some key to move on.   Otherwise they title screen will display until the game loads.    Most emulators have ways to speed up the disk loads so you shouldn't be waiting so long in 2022.

[+DarkLord]

3 hours ago, zzip said:

Dial-up BBS was a common way to distribute cracked games before the internet

 

I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about!  

 

[zzip]

15 hours ago, DarkLord said:

 

I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about!  

 

Oh yeah I forgot, there were no games, just WaReZ.   So I've been told

 

[+DarkLord]

 

 

[prog99]

Brown envelopes via the Royal Mail. 

[ojanhk]

In countries where BBS were not so popular, simply exchanging floppies at school or work was pretty efficient. (when you pay a lot even for local calls you can get in trouble with your parents when you dial up a BBS)

[Christos]

Also, your local shop would have a list with games, you'd read it, choose the game, and they would copy it for you.

For the tape systems, they would have a box with the tapes that would be available and you'd just buy it.

[+CyranoJ]

ROMs... lol.

[Keatah]

On 12/5/2022 at 4:50 PM, chewy said:

why did vector go away

My guess is that raster allowed for more life-like imagery. More detail in more areas all at once. Just. More. Imagery.

 

Vector got stuck in an abstract world of geometrical constructs. Not that that's bad or anything - I rather like it. Great escapism quotient. Still very futuristic. I'm betting on it making a short term comeback sometime.

[zzip]

5 hours ago, Keatah said:

My guess is that raster allowed for more life-like imagery. More detail in more areas all at once. Just. More. Imagery.

 

Vector got stuck in an abstract world of geometrical constructs. Not that that's bad or anything - I rather like it. Great escapism quotient. Still very futuristic. I'm betting on it making a short term comeback sometime.

Vector allowed for high-res lines in an era when raster was extremely pixelated.   As raster resolution improved,  Vector could do 3D better for awhile.   Seemed like Star Wars/Empire Strikes Back arcade games were one last gasp for vector.  You started seeing 3D raster arcade games soon after that, even if it was crude 3D at first.

[Keatah]

Tend to believe early vector was a solution to a technical problem. A problem of speed and detail. Vector drawing seems less demanding on the hardware and cheaper than rasterization if you want something moving very fast. No then-expensive framebuffer memory needed.

 

As raster hardware/framebuffers got cheaper and faster, vector monitors seemed to be overwhelmed with detail. Not sure, but I think a vector monitor consumes more current as detail increases.

 

And another thing, with color shading.. Fine gradients aren't perceptible unless you're shading a large area. And raster is superior there.

[chewy]

On 12/6/2022 at 11:38 AM, zzip said:

Dial-up BBS was a common way to distribute cracked games before the internet

not really-  the presence of keyboard (and maybe mouse) plus the ability to run lots of non-game software is what defines a computer.

floppy disks were slow,  but could store much more than cartridges at the time, so that allowed for better graphics and deeper gameplay.   Consoles eventually got CD-ROM drives and had to endure slower loading that is inherent for spinning disks.  

if you are playing cracked games, the cracker often inserted their own screens that keep going until you press some key to move on.   Otherwise they title screen will display until the game loads.    Most emulators have ways to speed up the disk loads so you shouldn't be waiting so long in 2022.

 

you bring up a great point.  this superconolexpro (cheapest on market): it is emulating the sustems i think in REALTIME for sure.  it even MIMICS various harddrive noises per system.  its all pretend.  thats why i thought they could have instant play w/ this game data now cause its supposed to be modern.  its like my xlink which pairs 1916 wall telephone w/ 2017 computer-telephone: and it has a dialtone, but its not real its just in the xlink.  (AND A LOT OF PPL want xlink to allow for user edit of that tone which doesnt yet exist- a forum like this would just crack it open and go to it.  

Edited December 9, 2022 by chewy

[zzip]

10 minutes ago, chewy said:

you bring up a great point.  this superconolexpro (cheapest on market): it is emulating the sustems i think in REALTIME for sure.  it even MIMICS various harddrive noises per system.  its all pretend.  thats why i thought they could have instant loads w/ this game data now. 

Yeah it seems to come down to the design philosophy of the emulator designers.   Some will load disks at warp speed while others seem to emulate the real I/O speed of the system.     Like the FS-UAE Amiga emulator has all the real floppy sounds while loading.   Sounds legit, but I'd rather just have things load in as fast as possible.

 

 

[Keatah]

IMHO the best emulators will give the user the option of turbo load or authentic speeds. Sound or sound. WinUAE lets you load at several speed choices. Altirra lets you "blip" the whole emulator speed (including drive access) up to 3000% on a modern machine, with a tap of a key. WinUAE's sounds are sped up and representative of a drive running top speed in a fever dream! Love it!

 

There are times when I want authentic speed like when doing text adventures or watching file copy activity - just like the old days.

 

Other times I want turbo speed for quickly getting into an action game, or something single load. Or when working with and preparing disk images.

Edited December 9, 2022 by Keatah

[chewy]

wow

[Keatah]

Exciting! Isn’t it?

[chewy]

FORUMLA 1 GRAND PRIX:  is that an actual sample, of THE CHAIN (fleetwood mac) during the load screen, it sure sounds like it.  did they take the cd and rip a little sample in there. it does not sound like MIDI at all, it sounds like the cd.......

Edited December 10, 2022 by chewy