Library of Congress likes retro games

 Posted by (Visited 9716 times)  Game talk
Nov 222006
 

There’s some new rules in town: the Library of Congress, based on recommendations from the Register of Copyrights, has decided that there are six new cases where circumventing the DMCA is OK for certain purposes.

One of them is for old games.

2. Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and that require the original media or hardware as a condition of access, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of preservation or archival reproduction of published digital works by a library or archive. A format shall be considered obsolete if the machine or system necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.

Also on the list:
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Quite BASIC — Web BASIC programming

 Posted by (Visited 11785 times)  Game talk
Nov 212006
 

A while ago David Brin lamented in Salon that Windows computers these days don’t come with an easy to use programming language, like BASIC. I tend to agree with him that this is a loss, as we have traded computer literacy for computer use literacy, a very different thing.

In response, a guy named Nikko Strom created Quite BASIC — Web BASIC programming. And lo, it’s neat. Who’s up for making games in it?

HBS students seeking study participants

 Posted by (Visited 5790 times)  Game talk
Nov 212006
 

There’s a Harvard Business School team working on a study about virtual worlds for their classes, and they’re looking for help from YOU!

We are students at The Harvard Business School studying virtual worlds for our Entrepreneurial Marketing class. We are very interested in interviewing a few people that are avid users of either Habbo Hotel or Second Life. We are hoping to conduct 45 minute to 1 hour interviews over the phone if possible. It may also be possible for us to conduct the interview over an instant messenger service, but we would prefer to do the interview over the phone. If anyone is interested and would be willing to spend an hour with us we can send them a $50 gift card of their choice after completing the interview. Please contact our team: [email protected]

I know we have SLers here… any Habbos hanging around? And hey, if you are in either community, why not repost this to some community forums?

From the Mailbag: Afghanistan and elsewhere

 Posted by (Visited 8179 times)  Mailbag
Nov 212006
 

I have literally hundreds of mails backed up from the Mailbag. There’s no way I will get to all of them. So here’s just a few recent ones, and maybe I’ll try doing another post soon. Or maybe I should do this weekly, or something.

Mr Koster. Let me first start off by saying I have been following you since you worked for Origin, and I am a big fan of your work. I have several questions I would like to get into. I am currently stationed in Afghanistan, and I have some free time on my hand, It has always been a personal goal to work for a company like EA, or Sony. Or Just a company who is involved with MMORPG’s I would like to also design a small game myself, Do you have any suggestions on where to start. Thank you for your time Alan SPC US Army Salerno Afghanistan

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