Monday 28 February 2000

Pic of the day: Another screenshot from one of the greatest games that ever was. (This too will pass.)

This night I dreamt that I discovered, to my horror, that I had grown nipples on my stomach. And not just nipples, but a rather large pouch of skin. I called the doctor, but then I considered that I might need surgery, and I thought twice about it.

In real life, of course, I am not turning into a marsup. (I'll not try to spell the rest of that word ... certainly there are not other marsups in the world than those strange animals with pouches on their stomach. Why let words go on and on when you've already said what you wanted to say? Thats just plain cretinoferous.)

Anyway, as I was saying, I'm not growing a pouch and teats on my stomach. But apart from that, I'm not feeling too high, bodily. From late yesterday evening to this afternoon I felt sort of sore around and beneath my collarbone. I have no idea why that should be. I felt it mainly while standing, and it intensified quickly when walking up stairs. (As I usually do at work.) Whatever it is, lack of sleep is probably not helping. Which brings me to the next topic.

Master of Magic (affectionally called MoM or MOM). This old cult hit will occasionally be mentioned on comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic, the newsgroup dedicated to strategy games for the PC. (That is personal computer, not politically correct. The two do not always coincide.) Anyway, whenever some innocent person mentions MoM, the oldbies scramble to get the game up and running on their current PC. These oldbies include me. This time I finally got it humming on my portable. Well, not humming all that loudly - I had to disable both music and sound effects. Even so, it has the "just five more minutes" appeal.

There went the beginning of the night. It was almost three before I hit the feathers. (Actually they are not real feathers, because I am slightly allergic to those. But you get the drift.) I've also played it intermit^W off and on during the afternoon. It may just be the best strategy game around for us archetypical architect types. (No, I'm not educated an architect, and I draw horribly. It's the Kersey profiles that insists that I'm an Architect.) Anyway, there is just so much to do besides taking over the world. Spell research, building lots of special buildings in towns, creating and combining various units and heroes, summoning diverse creatures, and creating artifacts. And more, depending on your choices in magic. Great game. But you already guessed that, I guess.

Lately, the mention of Master of Magic tends to bring up another issue. Software piracy. The game is old and no longer in sale, and MicroProse (now Hasbro) has not deigned to relaunch it, make a sequel, or release it. So basically you are left to buy it at Ebay and such for ever increasing prices, since few who buy it are willing to sell it again. However, the game is available from "warez" sites who give away for free commercial programs which they have not made. Piracy, in the eyes of most programmers like myself.

And normally I'd be a willing accomplice to the lynching of dedicated pirates. But cases like this make me wonder where the law parts ways with morality. The intellectual property rights now reside with, if I understand correctly, the folks who fired the original creators of the game, and who have neglected the repeated pleas from the buying public to at least re-issue the game, even without improvements. Perhaps they hope that people will instead buy newer games, if they cannot get the old. Some will, but hardly from arrogant suits. That's how they come across, though I would bet my lunch money for a month that they see it very differently themselves. Much good that will do them.

Now let me make it clear that I have the CD version of the game (which explains me not being able to run it with sound) and I don't have a CD burner. So don't badger me for copies. I'm not saying that I would have done it anyway, but now I don't have the choice. Which may be just as well, for this once I am of two minds. My hatred for copying comes from doing to others as I would have them do to me. And I would not like people copying my programs. Usually. If I had made the programs for some company, and they were bought out by people who wanted the programs to fade into obscurity, I would want people to copy them, I suspect. Oh well. It's not in my hands anyway. But as I have said before: The law is nothing but codified conscience. If the two collide, the law will not be the one left standing in the long run. For we have the true law within our hearts.

And that, I guess, is the greatest magic of all: That we who are dust, are after all judged by our spirit.