Please stop copying Starfighter.

[DrewFX]

It has come to my attention that there are suppliers and then resellers out there selling my game Starfighter:D'Yammen's Reign illegally.  As I have never given out the copyright, except for Islona Games in 1999/2000 it cannot be reproduced and sold without my consent - not for charity or anything.

I am currently investigating several resellers and suppliers who have been doing this, so please help out and report any other instance you may have seen.

I have a good idea many Amiga suppliers visit these pages, some of whom are selling Starfighter.  If you know of any, or are one please let me know.

I think it's only fair that I reclaim any profits made with the sale of this game since 2000.

For everyone else - it's now free!  Please grab it from here...
http://www.drewfx.com

There is support here...
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=31169

[DrewFX]

Yes I should advertise as much as possible.  Can people suggest other popular Amiga forums I could post to?  I figured this was the most popular being Amiga.org.

[DrewFX]

The thing is, why should other people be making money out of my game?  That's why I released it for free, to stop them.  Sure there will be a few more sales, but hopefully I have stemmed the tide.

On the ebay front, I have alerted Ebay about 3 people but I don't think their piracy email system works because I keep getting robotic email replies.

I have also found a distributor and I am auditing them (hopefully).  

It's not really been a waste of time so far, and it's my money.  I don't care if it's 50 bucks - it's mine, not theirs.  So it's basically stealing from me.

Regarding the news item - no I haven't posted it yet.

Thanks for the links, Hans.

I have contacted all of the ebayers, one gave up their source, another said it was going to charity and they contact all the developers before selling it - didn't contact me - and the other one is on the lamb.  Kinda fun doing the detective work

[DrewFX]

All good arguments there.  Everyone's opinion is valid.  Thanks for the extra links provided and tracking down sellers.

My main point is I don't see why people should still be using my software to make money.  They should go make something themselves and sell it for profit.  I'm sure they're not making too much.  One ebayer is selling a copy for 5 pounds, and relists every month.  So thats 60 pounds (or $150 Australia) a year for the last seven years I didn't get - so boo hoo to me - but you see my point?  It's the principal of the thing that gets to me.

It has been and still is protected by Australian copyright law, and I don't want anyone to sell it or copy and make money from it - even if it is to cover cost of packaging, postage etc. - without my permission.

I just wanna be asked is all.  I don't see why you would need to charge for burning it to cd and posting it to someone.  I mean who are you going to be posting it to?  It should only be a mate who doesn't have an internet connection and why would you charge him?

Regarding the game - I think it's fun, but make sure you play it on a 68030 or better to get good frame rates.  I have also sucessfully run it on WinUAE - you only need Workbench 1.3 disks to get it to work.  A 1.5 gig computer should run it.

Thanks for the interest everyone.  I'm not trying to make a fuss - just go out and enjoy the game.  I hope to have a new version of Starfighter for people to play soon.  I expect a tech demo ready by December.  Though it will be PC I want to port it back to the Amiga later.

[DrewFX]

I've posted a new one here as well just in case Patch 1 is corrupted.  If this one is corrupted for you too, then try a new download manager.
SF Patch 1 Redux

[DrewFX]

Are you guys unpacking directly to an Amiga or on PC first?

[DrewFX]

@Hans - yes it would be OpenGL.  If I supported old Amiga's I would have to roll-my-own 3d engine I think (see below)

I think I'm going to need a PCMCIA card and CDROM for A1200 to finish all this off.  If the LHA is not unpacking it's because I'm using a Windows based LHA archiver.  Which means I'll have to repack the Star.lha on my Amiga, network it to my PC and send the files across / upload to net.

I guess I'll search around on how to do this, but any advice would be great.

Oh yeah, I think it might be possible to run Torque on the Amiga with a re-write of the platform layer, which means I can code Starfighter on the PC and then export to Amiga real quick.  Of course I'm going to need a compiler on the Amiga to do all this.

So the question is should I get a new Amiga to cater for the new users?

[DrewFX]

@Batteman - so you got it to unpack?

@mailmail - thanks for reposting.

@keropi  - thanks for posting to the EAB forums

[DrewFX]

This is really cool if it's still in product and working.  I will be following this up.  This will mean any game I make will be easily ported to the Amiga.  

[DrewFX]

@nianfur - Valid point there.  I didn't have the money to continually sell it after I finished the deal with my publisher. I had no online method either.  I would if I had the technology.

@swift240 - I missed out on some good profanity?  Was it about me?  Where's the love?

[DrewFX]

[/quote]
As a product designer Ive had a fair bit of experience with IP violations of my own & client's IP.  In most cases it's better/cheaper/smarter to accept that a certain amount of infringement is going to occur and get on with the next big product, instead of wasting time/energy/money tracking down copyright violators.[/quote]

Well this is a lively debate hey?

@coldfish - I totally see your point.  I think the best games makers can hope for is 2 months of sales at launch before the pirates step in.  That's about how long it takes for someone to break the latest Starforce encryption.

[DrewFX]

Yep I'll post a new thread when I update my game progress.  So  I'm looking for the guy who did the Torque to Amiga port next.

Just one final thing... has anyone got the game to run all patched up?  I'd like some closure on that issue.

[DrewFX]

There is a review in this thread and the previous thread.  The in-game graphics aren't as good as the animations, but if you squint a little you can appreciate the combat involved even if the 3d is a little bland.

A bit of a tip to players.  Press H for the hud pips which will show your pitch angle.  Press C to recentre when you get lost.  Gimble lock in place means when you turn pointing up or down you roll, and pointing ahead you rudder.   Press HELP for all the key presses.

A - attack my target
Q - defend my target
W - toggle missiles and lasers
R - Radar range
T - Target toggle
Enter - match target's speed.

[DrewFX]

The company that is selling my software is also a dropshipping company.  I don't want to mention them, but I have emailed them to explain themselves.

So far I've heard nothing.  

Regarding the lh6 issues - I guess the best bet is if I can ask someone to unpack the main lha and patch files, re pack them with a standard Amiga compressor and upload them.  From there I will transfer them to my site.

My Amiga isn't setup for big file transfers.  It's a floppy action right now, or ParNET.

[DrewFX]

I'm having difficulties finding a Windows program to convert these files to an LHA format that is compatible with Amiga.

Can anyone suggest a known working program please?

It's just not possible to get archives off my Amiga right now.