No Fragments Archive 10: Diskmags/nf_archive_10.iso/MAGS/KELAUG/KELAUG11.MSA/TEXT_DEMO.FET/TEXT_DEMO.FET

Text File | 1998-10-20 | 11KB | 177 lines

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                S E L F - I N D U L G E N T   S O F T W A R E ?

              a Point of View from Bob, with a postscript from jfw


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I'm always very interested in new programs (new to me that is, it doesn't matter
if they are 10 years old).  I like finding out what they do, if they do it well,
and if they are subsequently of any use to me.  So now that I've got a bit  more
time  on my hands,  I've set myself the task of sorting the 100 plus disks  I've
accumulated  in  the last few months into some  sort  of  order:   GREAT,  GOOD,
PASSABLE, TOILET, BEERMAT, etc.

While doing this I came across a couple of issues of Maggie that were sent to me
and had another flick through them for a bit of a read.  I don't know if it  was
because I'd read only the articles that directly appealed to me the first  time,
but  it just dawned on me the amount of space given to talking about demo  crews
from all over Europe,   reports on their current projects,  parties that they're
arranging,  people coming into and out of the demo scene, and generally a lot of
stuff on that specific subject.

Now I'm not one to sit in judgement over what anyone does with their ST -if they
enjoy  it  then more power to their elbow - but I couldn't help but  think  that
with so many creative people putting so much energy into coding fancy intros and
demos,  wouldn't  it be amazingly handy for the ST scene in general if  some  of
that work went into programs of various natures that would benefit your  average
Joe Chib ST user.

I've seen plenty of demos in my time from loads of demo teams and almost without
exception they were very pleasing on the eye and left you wondering just how the
hell  they  could get such brilliant effects from the humble Atari  ST.  On  the
other hand, once you've watched them a couple of times, the novelty wears rather
thin.

Not too long ago I had beautifully arranged disk boxes,  all sorted into all the
relevant sections:  music,  art,  utilities, demos, etc. And then I needed a few
disks one time and had a look to see what I had that I no longer  wanted.  Demos
just had to go.  I had disks in there that I'd had for years, literally, and I'd
probably only looked at them once or twice.

It's  difficult  to  write this without sounding as if I'm having a  go  at  the
people who enjoy coding these demos but I assure you I'm not.  I just can't help
but feel that all that energy might well be better channeled.  All of that whole
'cool  nickname' idea seems very strange to me.  It conjures up memories of  the
"Famous  Five"  and the "Double Deckers",  Pre-pubescent  youths  dodging  about
kidding  on  that  they're  James Bond or that what  they're  doing  is  somehow
subversive  or rebellious.  Err,  you're coding an intro for a  computer,  guys,
you're not one of the "Lone Gunmen" from the X-Files.

To  be  fair  though,  it's not just the demo coders I've  been  thinking  about
lately.  I also came across a few disks of pictures in slideshow format. Now the
piccies  were very good in some cases and would have been most handy to  utilise
for  other  projects.  But the disks were done in a way that  wouldn't  let  you
actually lift a piccy from the disk. These disks weren't original pictures drawn
by the compiler, (I could have understood the principle if they were), they were
just  collections of pictures that he'd cleverly put onto a disk as a  slideshow
but  had packed and double packed them so that unless you knew the ins and  outs
of  the  coding,  you  couldn't access the  pictures  seperately.  Another  disk
consigned to the 'never look at again' box.  Wouldn't it be better for  everyone
if  instructions had come on the disk on how to access the  pictures?  It  would
certainly have made the disk far more handy for your average ST user anyway.

I  also  read  this  week that one of the more famous of  the  still  active  ST
programmers was complaining that the games he'd written weren't receiving enough
positive feedback and so he was subsequently rather cheesed off.  I have  rather
mixed  feelings on the games subject.  On the one hand it would certainly  be  a
great  and  good  world  if every ST programmer  received  loads  and  loads  of
compliments,  and money even,  for the games they wrote. But, on the other hand,
in  these  days  of secondhand SEGA and SNES games at  a  fiver  and  less,  and
Platinum  Playstation games at £19.99,  is there any sort of market left for  ST
games?

I  can  boot  up a new ST game the same as the next  bloke,  or  girl,  and  can
appreciate how it's done,  and can even think that they've made a very good  job
of  it.  But  I can guarantee that it will also be filed in the 'never  look  at
again' box. Again I'm not criticising the authors of the games because they have
obviously put lots of time and effort into what they've done,  but they have  to
realise  the competition they are up against.  If someone enjoys computer  games
then they are very likely to own some sort of console to play games on.

In my own experience of several years of ST usage I've noticed that the  younger
guys  have mostly dropped off into other formats and that the guys who  now  use
the ST are of a generally older age group and they are looking for programs that
are interactive and productive.  As far as I see most of the people involved now
with the ST are doing so because they want to use the computer as a tool and not
as a games machine,  and would probably appreciate more programs of that  nature
coming from the active ST programming fraternity .  I would also imagine that if
more of this type of program were forthcoming then they would in return  receive
more praise for their efforts.

Mind you,  the effort involved is also a contensious issue. I like my ST. I have
spent  countless hours over the years poring over projects of  all  sorts.  Does
this  mean I am due a reward?  I think not.  Surely if someone uses  a  specific
computer format because they LIKE it, then the act of the work itself is in fact
the enjoyable part.  I find that the single most annoying thing on the ST  scene
is when a programmer comes out with a statement along the lines of, "well I am a
stalwart  ST user but if nobody likes what I'm doing then I'm upping sticks  and
buggering off to another format" (and believe me that has happened on many  more
than one ocassion). if that isn't egotism I don't know what is.

If  you work with a system because you like it any enjoy what you're doing  then
your reward is the enjoyment you get from the work you put into it.

If  you want to make money,  or at least gain praise and recognition  from  your
endeavours, then you have to listen to the feedback, or lack of it, that you get
from  the  user base of your system.  If what you're doing  isn't  popular  it's
simply because other people do not share your views on what ST people want,  and
maybe trying a different type of program would be better than trying a different
computer.

The ST scene needs as many active programmers as possible,  but there will be no
scene left at all if they produce stuff that only they appreciate.



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You've  made some good points there,  Bob,  but I'm not so sure about your  main
ones,  that  anyone  who  writes PD or Shareware should aim  it  at  the  widest
possible user base, and that demo coders should turn their talents to utilities,
etc. Here's an alternative point of view...

I'm in two minds - like you - when it comes to the Demo scene. On the one hand I
admire their spirit in pushing the machine to its limits and turning tricks from
it that no-one would have believed possible.  But on the other hand, it seems to
me to be a self-regarding,  almost sterile,  scene, rather like watching endless
trailers for a film that will never be made.  But then again,  as you say,  it's
not our scene and what right have we got to criticise other users for doing what
they enjoy?

And that, surely, is the crunch: we each do what we do because we enjoy doing it
and  hope that other people will find it useful.  I've put out 20 - 30 discs  of
scanned  clip  art  over the years - with zero response from  anyone  except  PD
librarians - but that's all material that I've scanned for my own use and passed
on  for  anyone else who might want to use it.  The same goes for  20  discs  of
Postscript to Calamus font conversions.  It's a way of adding to our shared   PD
resource,  a small 'thank you' for all the PD programmes I've used and enjoyed.

Put  it  this way,  I know how I'd respond to anyone who told me that  I  should
change my style to fit in with theirs:  "if you feel so strongly then why not do
it yourself?" (polite version)

But (and it's a Big But),  I'd totally agree with you that useful software  will
keep  the Atari scene going for far longer than any demos or games  will.  Games
are  fun,  if  ephemeral,  but  what's  really needed  is  a  constant  flow  of
interesting  and  useful  programmes to keep up the  enthusiasm,  and  sense  of
discovery, in the scene. Because users, in the end, can only be expected to stay
for as long as the enthusiasm's here.

As for 'protected slideshows',  well, I could - like yourself - understand it if
they were showcases for the programmers' own graphics,  and were only  protected
to  prevent  the idiots among us from pinching the pix and passing them  off  as
their  own.  But when the pix are other people's work to start with (or  scanned
commercial art) then it just comes across as a show-off peep-show:  "hehehe, you
can look but you cain't touch!" You run them once and then recycle them.

Wild digression time:  do you remember how the kiddie element on the ST used  to
paste their monikers onto well-known graphics and then 're-issue' them as  their
own, thinking that nobody would ever notice...

Sorry to write so much here,  Bob.  I'm not trying to steal your  thunder,  it's
just that I couldn't resist responding to a couple of things you said there.


jfw


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