I posted this in the ng, but so far nobody has taken the hint. Hasbro''s stock has been on a downhill slide for months. Here is a story about Mattel and Hasbro: http://cbs.marketwatch.com/archive/20000308/news/current/diligence.htx Both Mattel and Hasbro are blaming computer games for their sagging stock prices. If anybody wants to tell the investor community about how Hasbro treats game developers, the yahoo discussion board is at: http://messages.yahoo.com/bbs?action=topics&board=yahoo.0b.09.7077691&type=r Investors should be especially interested to hear about felisandria''s petition and boycott drive. Hasbro just today announced they will write a bunch of new games for Microsoft''s Xbox. Well who is going to write them? With the current level of game developer satisfaction, game developers who have a choice of where they will work (i.e. the "good" game developers) will not choose Hasbro. Sure, Hasbro will find _somebody_ to write code, but will that be enough to stay competitive? I wouldn''t want to be holding HAS stock right now. Diana

Interestingly, MVP owns some Hasbro stock. No, it hasn''t been a good acquisition.

I wonder if Hasbro knows that it is suing one of its shareholders?

Uh, no, we do not own Hasbro stock. Sheesh! That guy was REALLY reaching there!

Also, which early games did we release that were rip-offs? Or was that just lamer BS? Perhaps id Software''s Commander Keen games? Or their Wolfenstein 3-D game? Was it Math Rescue or Word Rescue? Perhaps the original Duke Nukem, or Cosmo? Hmmm..., how about Paganitzu or Monster Bash?

We did in fact rip-off Jumpman (renaming it Jumpman Lives!), because our legal search for the original copyright owner (Epyx) showed that they had gone under. However, after we released the game they re-formed and asked us to stop selling the game, which we did without any fuss. Other than that, I''m r-e-a-l-l-y curious to hear from you what game we ripped-off.

Scott Miller, 3D Realms

>>> So then, you''ve ripped off stuff in the past that the ORIGINAL authors came after you for, and you studied every last detail of Super Mario, including grabbing the art for your artists to study, but yet you condemn ripping off?

The difference is, we didn''t clone anything that we saw, we simply studied it to learn ideas and techniques, much like an up-and-coming artist will study the work of past artists.

Try hard to see the difference--eventually it''ll come to you. ;-)

>>> I''m sniffing a split-personality here.

All your sniffing is your ignorance of the law, and your inability to grasp a relatively simple concept. Don''t worry, you''re not alone. :-)

Scott Miller, 3D Realms

>>> Whacky Wheels sure looks an awful like like Mario Kart.
Raptor looks like River Raid, plays like Galaxian.
Monster Bash is giving me flashbacks of Ghosts ''n Globlins.
Secret Agent... can you say Mission Impossible from C64??? <<<

Yep, Wacky Wheels, by a team in England, sure is a lot like Mario Kart, and had I known then what I know now, I wouldn''t have allowed that game to be so close to the original. Thanks for pointing that one out.

As for Raptor, Secret Agent, and Monster Bash, those games are significantly different to the games you suggest they copy. You lose on those three.

>>> And of course, you''ve already admitted to:
1. Cosmo''s = Mario (and a little Sonic, which you deny)
2. and your Jumpman clone <<<

Keep in mind, the Jumpman game we did our legal footwork on and the company that owned the copyright no longer existed (had gone bankrupt and closed completely). We were unfortunate in that the company revived itself about a year after we released the game, and it turns out they still owned the copyright. So, that''s a different case--yes we cloned a game, but we thought we were legally free to do so, just as id Software used the Wolfenstein name after the original owner didn''t renew the trademark. That almost came back to bite them, too, but that''s another story.

As for Cosmo, read my words very carefully: We did not clone any game in making Cosmo. I thought I made it completely clear that we studied other games, but did not clone them. Again, if this simple concept is too hard for you to grasp, please keep trying, because unless your IQ is lower than Hasbro''s stock price you''ll eventually see that little light turn on above your head.

BTW, I will not bother correcting all your mistakes in the future, I don''t have enough free time to keep up with you! Good luck with all your efforts.

Scott Miller, 3D Realms