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1994-10-21
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From: fester@jolt.mpx.com.au (Daniel Hatadi)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Beta Testers List 1.0b
Date: 15 Oct 1994 14:44:38 GMT
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Games Programmer's Beta Testers List (GPBeta) Version 1.0b
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Released: 15th October, 1994
Last Updated: 15th October, 1994
Moderated by Daniel Hatadi fester@jolt.mpx.com.au
Distributed monthly on rec.games.programmer
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inspiration Strikes
-------------------
After a brief flash of pure and total inspiration, the document you are
reading was conceived. I was thinking about asking a few people on the
net to test my game for me. Then I thought, "I mustn't be the only one
that wants to do this!". A couple of months later, the Beta Tester's
List was born.
Put simply, it is a list of people willing to test games. A lot of
these people are working on games of their own, so chances are that there will
be a lot of swapping going on (hopefully!).
The idea is that you have a look at the list and pick some people to
send your game to. MIME is an easy way to do this. It is basically an
extension to normal email that allows you to attach binary files to your
message. It seems that quite a lot of mailers support this (e.g Pine).
Otherwise, there's always uuencode/uudecode! I think that if you're actually
working on a game and have this list, then chances are you'll be able to work
something out.
At the moment, there are currently 51 testers on the list (including
myself), from all over the world, and in all sorts of age groups. All
these people are people who responded to my original posts in the
newsgroup rec.games.programmer.
Format
------
Each entry in the list has about 4 lines dedicated to it. Here's how it
works:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name email@address Age Location
Company Current project/s
Hardware information
Miscellaneous comment (often just the sort of games the person likes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Not every entry sticks religiously to this format, but it's often quite
clear what the details are. If there are any problems, mail me and I'll
do my best to help (and fix the problem for the next version).
Vouching
--------
At the moment, none of the testers on this list have been vouched for
(including myself). As security is a highly important issue (look what
happened with Doom 2), this is what I thought could be done about it.
Any tester on the list that tests a game for someone and is found
to be reliable will get an asterisk (*) placed in front of their name. If
this happens again (with a different game author), another asterisk will
be placed there. This continues up to a maximum of 4 asterisks.
If no-one likes this idea, tell me about it. If I don't receive
any complaints I'll assume that either there are none, or no-one's read
the list.
Security
--------
As I've already mentioned, this is probably the biggest problem with beta
testing, even in huge, successful games companies.
What can happen is that once a beta tester has got their grubby
little hands on a game, they start spreading it, especially when the game
is near-complete. So, I'm hoping that I can convince people to use the
list, without having to worry about this.
Firstly, if anyone causes any sort of trouble and is found out,
bang!, they're off the list. No second chances. This may sound a bit
harsh, but it is one of the few ways of preventing the testers from causing
further harm. With a large company, who hire beta testers, offenders will
just be blacklisted from that company. There is nothing stopping them
going to another. With this list however, getting chucked off could mean
not being able to test hundreds (maybe!) of new games. I believe this
gives a tester quite a lot of incentive to behave themselves!
Secondly, the original messages asking for testers were posted
ONLY to rec.games.programmer. I think that the list could have been
absolutely HUGE if I had posted it to the comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.* groups,
and I think that a lot of unreliable people would have ended up on the
list. So I decided to stick to just the one group in the hope that a lot
of the testers would be people working on games themselves, and so would
be more understanding.
Finally, use your own judgement! If there's someone that happens
to live 'round the corner from you, find out where they live, and if they
cause trouble, boom! Down goes their home! Get creative, but don't be too
afraid to give your game out for testing.
Reasons
-------
Why use the list? Why get people to test your game at all? I think the
answer to the latter question is obvious - bugs! It's impossible to find
all the bugs in a game by yourself, and you can't always trust your
friends :). Also, there may be some fundamental flaws in the design of
your game, that just never surfaced, because you would never have thought
of them. When you spend 24 hours a day, 7 days a week working on a game,
it's pretty damn near impossible to remain completely objective about it
(i.e it _is_ impossible). So spread your game around, and get as much
feedback as possible. Even just one other person's viewpoint can improve
the playability, etc. of your game immmensely. This is a topic I could
probably go on about for hours, but I better quit while I'm ahead!
Statistics (sadisitics)
-----------------------
51 testers, four Australians, countless Americans, a couple of Africans,
a few of the English, ages from 14 to 29, mostly 486 computers, and a
whole heap of celebrities (well, maybe not a heap of them).
We've got the author of XQuest, currently racing up the internet game
charts, the maintainer and major contributor to the PC Game Programmer's
Encyclopedia, and umm, some others (like me!).
Feedback
--------
I'd like some feedback on the list, and I'm always ready for new testers!
If you have absolutely anything to say about the list, mail me! I
generally respond pretty quickly (I don't like my mail box getting all
cluttered up), so if you don't get a reply, mail me again - maybe I
deleted your mail by accident, or it just never got there in the first place.
Here's my address again: fester@jolt.mpx.com.au
Chances are that this will be changing pretty soon, so if you see
another version of the list, ignore the old one (the old list that is).
This isn't like a program, where older versions of the list are better,
so don't be afraid to delete the old version when the new one comes out.
In Summary
----------
Get the list, make a game, and give your game to some people on the list.
They'll tell you what's wrong with it and what's not. Then they'll give
you their game, ad infinitum...
My email address should be changing fairly soon (as soon as I can
get enough cash together).
The list will be out monthly on rec.games.prorgrammer, although
it may soon end up on the World Wide Web, and maybe on an ftp site (x2ftp?).
Got a problem? Mail me. Vouching for someone? Mail me. Just feel
like mailing me? Mail me.
Daniel Hatadi
Bulbous Software
fester@jolt.mpx.com.au
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Glossary:
---------
Oh, by the way (BTW), here's a glossary of most of the abbreviations used
in the list. If they seem a bit obvious, don't hassle me, you'd be
surprised how strange some of these 'words' appear to some people.
2x CDROM = Double Speed CDROM
CL542x = Cirrus Logic 542x
GUS = Gravis Ultrasound soundcard
SB/Pro = Sound Blaster/Pro/16
SCC1 = Roland Sound Canvas General Midi soundcard
LAN = Local Area Network
Linux = Operating system
PAS = Pro Audio Spectrum soundcard
P5 = Pentium processor
VLB = Vesa Local Bus
VRAM = Video RAM
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ian Badcoe badcoe@bsa.bristol.ac.uk 27 Bristol, UK
U of Bristol Programmable/reconfiguable robots game
386/40 8Mb RAM, Cirrus SVGA 1Mb, Internet Connection (via disks in my pocket)
Prefer games with a little thought required but which still have action !
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tim Barnette tbarnett@gatecoms.gatecom.com 24 Detroit, Mi USA
486DX/33 8Mb RAM, 1 Gig HD, Trident SVGA 1Mb, 16 bit Soundblaster, Video
Capture/Television Tuner Card, 14.4K Bocamodem.
Interests: Action Games, Animation Libraries, Virtual Reality.
I like action games, especially the old style (donkey kong, frogger, pacman)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Beth Basta ebasta@acns.fsu.edu 21 Tallahassee, Florida
Business Council local gameing dial up connection
486SX/25, 4Mb RAM, CDROM, SBPro, Access to Mac SE and Linux.
My spouse tested the original Third Riech board game so strategy or
historic games are welcome.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Malcolm Boyle mal@nottm.demon.co.uk 26 Nottingham, England
Currently working on 3D mapping for a game I have been trying to build
for over a year. 486 DX 33 as a minimum, 4Mb RAM, any old SVGA graphics card,
no sound as yet. I would like to speak to people who could test my work so far
I would also be extremely interested in starting a new joint project with
other lone coders and see if we can make a decent game together to match DOOM.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wade Brainerd wade@walt.caps.maine.edu 16 Orono, Maine
Vertigo/Breakpoint Software Ultima style RPG w/twists
486DX2/66 8Mb RAM, Quadtel S3811, SBPro, 28.8k Modem
Interested in all kinds of games... Experienced Developer
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Glenn Bussell bus@halls1.cc.monash.edu.au 19 Melbourne, Australia
Working on graphics library.
386DX-40 4Mb RAM, Trident 8900 1Mb, SBPro, CD-ROM
Likes mainly arcade games.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dj Cox dennis@ponder.csci.unt.edu Dallas Tx
WTS Bureau Systems,Inc. (214)920-1900
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Dean siden@rci.ripco.com 16.75 Chicago, USA
486DX/2-66MHZ, 8Mb RAM, 128k cache, Western Digital VLB SVGA 1Mb video RAM
(Paradise chipset), 14.4k fax/modem, 16-bit SoundBlaster compatible
(Gateway 2000), 2x CD-ROM, true Microsoft mouse, joysticks (2),
Programming since I was 7. I've started working on a game myself. I hope to do
some fast 3-d graphics in it.
Like:Doom-like games, shoot-em-up games, games with cool graphics.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rainer Deyke rainer@mdddhd.fc.hp.com Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
386SX/16 5Mb RAM, VGA (no SVGA), SBPro
If it runs on my PC at a reasonable speed, I'll test it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joe Dickinson jtdickin@ouray.denver.colorado.edu
I want to write a game for the PC unlike Omega race.
Still in the thinking up stages (Omega Race from Hell).
486DX, 16Mb RAM, Roland Sound Canvas, Sound Blaster, joysticks and trackball.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike Dussault mdussault@aol.com Washington, USA
Monster Media Kickass 3D multiplayer asteroids game
486DX/66 16Mb RAM, Viper VLB 2 meg, SBPro, 28.8k modem
Totally into multiplayer competition
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kris Eifler veifler@cs.tamu.edu 21 College Station, TX
ThoughtCrime, Inc. We are currently working on a few items:
"Net Kill" an "Ultima" style network game, Insanitea! a tile-based parody game
We develop on 486-DX2 DOS and NT platforms, and we have a few projects
working on a SGI-Indy.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Graham Evans G.D.Evans@dur.ac.uk 20 Newcastle, UK
none 3D modeling of human/animals for raytracing & animations
486DX2/50 8Mb RAM, AVGA (Vesta) 512k, SBPro
Interested in graphics and AI of games
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark Feldman u914097@student.canberra.edu.au 22 Canberra,Australia
486SX/33 4Mb RAM, Trident 9400 1Mb, Sb 1.0, 2400 Modem
Likes adventure,strategy,VR,landscapes,simulators
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robin Findley rfindley@umr.edu 19 Rolla, Missouri
I am currently developing tools for game programming and will need Beta
testers for these tools as well as games made with them.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sean Givan kinsman@jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca 20 Fredericton, Canada
386/33 4Mb RAM, Trident SVGA 1 MB, SB, 2400 BPS Modem
Prefers action-fighting and fighting games.
Especially good at critiquing fighting games.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Otto Grajeda ottog@mercury.sfsu.edu 23 S.F. Calif.
Macintosh fanatic- own IIci 8/120, Supra v.32bis.
Interests/hobbies: technology + entrepreneurship, sports, game design, game
beta testing, computer science + innovation.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Daniel Hatadi fester@jolt.mpx.com.au 21 Sydney, Australia
Bulbous Software Tetris/Columns type game
486DX/33, 8Mb RAM, 340HD, ET4000 512K, SBPro, GUS 1Mb, 28.8k Bocamodem
Very interested in 'real' 3D type games, and puzzle games.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Evan Harper harper4@hale.yerkes.uchicago.edu 14 Lake Geneva, WI.
No company, A laser tag like maze war game.
A Macintosh 840/AV with 16 megs RAM (soon more), 900 megs available(HD)
Rasterops Video card, 16" color monitor, Localtalk connection
I like 3d texture mappedgames, as well as rpg and net games. I prefer arcade
like games, but any thing except card games are fun for me.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Peter Hinz peter@cs.uct.ac.za 24 Cape Town, South Africa
486DX/66, 16Mb RAM, Ultra VGA 2MB, SBPro, 14.4K Modem, CD-ROM
Mainly 3D, action, platform + adventure (PC platform)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Greg Hjelstrom, tommy@nevada.edu, 23, Las Vegas Nevada
GregWare ;-) (just kidding) "Cars" is my current project.
486DX/33, 4Mb RAM, Oak SVGA card, SB Pro... (hmmm.. what else...)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thomas Hoover jhoover@cs.tamu.edu 20 Bryan/College Station, TX
Thought Crime Inc. Network Protocols/Protected Mode/Windows/Comm
486DX/33, 8Mb RAM, ET4000 w1MB, or Diamond Speedstar Pro VLB, ISP-16
(SBPro-16 lookalike -- BAD), 14.4K/Ethernet/etc
By the way.. I'm currently stuck in college for another year (Senior CS-Texas
A&M University).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jes Joudrey n4rl@spitfire.unb.ca 20 Fredericton NB. Can
Pillar Computer Systems Enjoys anything that's done well.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jari Karjala jka@nic.funet.fi Helsinki, Finland
<no project right now, but see sm2v11.zip>
486DX/33, 8Mb RAM, CL5426/1MB/ISA, SB2 clone
Likes action games, hates RPGs
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Emre Kiciman emrek@ocf.berkeley.edu Pretty close to Berkeley
I am an amateur games programmer on an IBM 386/33 w/paradise SVGA and a
Soundblaster. I use Turbo C++ and TASM.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Kleinhenz m_kleinh@informatik.uni-kl.de 20 Kaiserslautern,Germany
Member of the NewVision Core Team
Hi-end graphics adventure "Schattenkrieger" ("Shadowwarrior" in
English.. There will also been an English version of it..)
486DX2/66 4Mb RAM, Cirrus VLB 1MB, SBPro, DOS/WINDOWS & LINUX/X-WINDOWS
Loves graphics adventures and strategic simulations
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeff Land landj@orion.cc.andrews.edu 16 Berrien Center, Michigan, USA
486DX2/66 8Mb RAM, PAS 16, 14.4K Modem
Loves RPG and adventure games!! I love to play and program games!!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saw Meng Leong isc40563@nus.sg 21 Singaporeg
486SX/33 4Mb RAM, 14.4K Modem
Undergrad hobbyist Loves adventures, RPGs, even text-games
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Johan List jlist@xs4all.nl 21 Amsterdam, Holland
No company yet DroidZ - very new project
486DXL/40, 4Mb RAM, 14.4k modem, mouse/joystick, SoundBlaster 2.0, Trident 8900
SVGA card (512K), VGA colour monitor (With max. res. of 640x480x256)
Personal remarks: I like every sort of game, except hardcore RPG's with
all that number crunching.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark Mackey mdm1004@cus.cam.ac.uk 23 Cambridge, UK.
Independent :) XQuest v1.1: bigger and better!
486DX/33 4Mb RAM, Paradise 1Mb, SB v1.0
Action games, RPGs and TIE Fighter... Old Crystal Quest addict :).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bryan Parker parker@cs.utexas.edu Austin, Texas USA
I'm currently involved in a couple of game projects
486DX2/66, 4Mb RAM, Genoa SVGA, SB16 14.4k modem
I like ALL types of games
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
George Petryk geo@llc.org 23 Quebec,Canada
-- -- Educational and RPG games
386DX/25, 4Mb RAM, ATI 512K, SBPro + Lapc1, 14.4k modem
RPG, strategic and action games
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Graham Prouse, gprouse@gucis.cit.gu.edu.au, 21, Brisbane Australia
No company, A scrolling Rugby League Game & a tiling library
486DX2/66, 16Mb RAM, Trident 1mb, Sound Blaster
My TRS80 colour computer 1 can kick your Cray any day.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chris Rasmus, crasmus@mailer.fsu.edu, 22, 2204 Trenton Circle, PC, FL 32405
Private, 2-player split-screen real-time top-down tile-based CRPG *grin*
486/33SX, 4Mb RAM, SVGA (unknown card), no sound, hooked into LAN
Jesus is Lord of Lords and King of Kings and He's coming back SOON!
FSU PC campus Lab assistant working with 20+ LAN'd machines w/Windows 3.1.1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert Rendell rendell@cs.monash.edu.au 25 Melbourne, Australia
(intermittantly!) working on AIs and natural language for NPCs
Amiga 2000, plus access to an IBM 486 and a Mac Quadra
text adventures, roguelike games without combat, and god-games (sim, populous)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Reynolds par2808@rit.edu 18 Rochester, NY
486DX/33, 8Mb RAM, 250HD, 2x CDROM, PAS 16, Diamond Speedstar Pro w/1 Mb VRAM
R.I.T. Interested in RPG, action, and adventure games.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rick Savoia savoia@okemo.sqa.stratus.com 28 Boston, Ma
My own company? None. My job, however is SQA
486DX/33, 8Mb RAM, SB, 14.4k modem, SVGA with Cirrus Chipset
Graphic adventures, Fast action games, and the occasional RPG
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Deepak Saxena--inferno@sonata.cc.purdue.edu 19 years old, West Lafayette,IN,US
Stil in college but want to go into game development after that
P5-90, 8Mb RAM, 320meg HD, sb16, 14.4k modem, running Linux and DOS
Interested in seeing more high-quality role playing games from shareware
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert Shaw RAS1563@ritvax.isc.rit.edu
P5/66, 540HD, 2x CDROM, Diamond Viper VLB 2Mb VRAM, 14.4k modem.
I am most interested in playing action adventure games and also strategic
games where thinking is involved.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brent Smith swedish@netcom.com 29
background: game programmer with two commercial games.
Interests: sims & strategic (though I also play with Adventure & Action)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grant Smith denthor@beastie.cs.und.ac.za 19 Durban, South Africa
Asphyxia Demoteam Coder PC only, will test all games to destruction! ;-)
386-40DX 4Mb RAM, Trident 8900 512k, SB Mono, 2400 Modem
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tim Sullivan, sullivan@infomatch.com, 22, Vancouver, Canada
The Servants of Technology, R&D (communications and graphics)
486SLC/2 w/copro, 8Mb RAM, GUS 1 Mb, 550 meg HD, CD, VESA gfx.
Interested in all kinds of games, esp. puzzle, RPG and 3/4 view.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shawfe Sung jucius@eden.rutgers.edu 20 New Brunswick, NJ, USA
386DX/25 4MB, Trident 4MB, SB16, 2400K Modem
Loves RPG's and simulations
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Swartz stujswar@acs.eku.edu 25 Richmond, KY USA
Sandbird Software Brudal Baddle (Mortal Kombat type) & Outlaw 1997
486DLC/40 8 Mb RAM, Orchid Farenheit 1280 1Mb, SB, 14.4K Modem, SUNCOM GamePad.
Interested in Marketable Games, any genre. Working on GOLF (windows)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Timur Tabi timur@vnet.ibm.com 25 Boca Raton, FL
Native OS/2 games only
IBM M.U.L.E. for OS/2 and BattleTech/2
Pentium/60 32Mb RAM, #9GXE 2MB, SB16, 14.4K Fax/Modem, OS/2 3.0
486/66, 24Mb RAM, XGA-2, MPU-401, OS/2 3.0
386/25, 387, 16Mb RAM, XGA-2, SB/MCV, 14.4K Fax/Modem, OS/2 3.0
Interested in native OS/2 games or testing DOS/Win games under OS/2
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chuck Thier chuckt@io.com 18 Austin, TX
Quantum FX a comedy platform game
386/33 8Mb RAM, Oak 1MB, SB16, 14.4K, OS/2 2.1
Likes all games. Can test DOS games under OS/2!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thomas Trocha 2:242/42.87#edgar@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de 18 DN/GERM.
Stampede Software Adventures,Roleplaying Games
386DX40/1MB, OAK VGA/Soundblaster 2.0/Yoriko 14k4 Modem
Loves Adventures,Roleplaying Games...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
David Vandenberg cs325317@mailbox.uq.oz.au 20 Brisbane, Australia
Psionic Software Arcade Shoot-em-up
386DX/40, 4Mb RAM, ET4000 1Mb, SB, PAS16, GUS 1Mb, 14.4K Modem
Arcade action - shoot-em-ups, platforms, combat, PINBALL!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Wettstein tlwettst@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu 19
386DX/20, 4Mb RAM, SpeedStar 1Meg, 14400 Intel Modem, SBPro
Pentium 60 8 Meg Ram, STB 1 Meg, 14400 USR, SoundScape 16, CD-ROM, PCI Bus
Any Games (except Role Playing)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
David Wu wudavid@ecf.utoronto.edu 20 Toronto Ontario
3D stuff / Dynamics (nothing significant, just muddling about.)
486DX/50, 4Mb RAM, Oak 1Mb, SB 2.0, GUS
Likes 3D stuff, algorithims etc.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Andre van Wyk avw@mickey.iaccess.za 27 Cape Town, South Africa
Button Software Abmis the Lion (arcade action puzzle game)
386DX/40, 4Mb RAM, 512K VGA, Adlib, B/W scanner, 2400 Modem
Designing games is an outlet for a creative mind.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phew!