DEJA VU

                    By J.G.Johnston

Collin's Dictionary :- Deja Vu - The experience of perceiving a
new situation as if it had occurred before.

The reason for the title is simply that in this life we seem to
come back again and again to the same point and kid ourselves that
this time it is going to be different - better - more fair -
etc. but sadly it never happens.

Let me explain.

Until around the 14th. century, all of the people in the world
were happy living in a flat, roughly circular world. If you went
over the edge you fell into eternity.  This worked very well until
the commercial element became involved. In order to enhance their
profits, the money men claimed that the world was round and by
sailing west you could end up in the East.  By sailing in this way
goods could be transported cheaper and the profit margin was
greater (The punter did not benefit in any way, however).  In
spite of many ships 'disappearing', this idea was hyped up and
forced on the public until the overland caravans travelling east
for trade were wiped out. These early money men were then free to
up the prices to any level since they were sole supplier.

Now I would be the last to fly in the face of modern belief but if
this story of easy travel using the 'travel west to reach the East
quicker' is true why don't we use it? We fly EAST to Singapore and
WEST to America.  If all this global theory is correct then why
does the magnetic needle point north and not north-down? Why do
the Gulf Stream and most of the rivers in this so called 'Northern
Hemisphere' appear to flow uphill, against gravity, towards a
supposed Equator (the line of maximum diameter on this supposed
globe)? Why are all measurements taken to a base of Mean Sea Level
since you cannot have a level portion on a globe and why are all
maps flat? In spite of all the evidence to the contrary the money
men continue to spin their myths and we are forced to accept their
reasoning and pay or they will opt out and take their money with
them. "And where will you be then?" they ask?

However, in spite of all their threats and all their hype, there
is still a large number of us 'Flatlanders' who do not believe
their biased jargon and unproven theories. We will still be here
when the money men, for more profit, have decided that the world
is a hollow cylinder and we should hire their new 'Transmat
Shipping' to allow for a greater profit in moving easier from the
inside to the outside of the cylinder and vice versa. Rubbish !!!

Now what has this to do with computing and in particular 'Computer
Adventuring'?  Well, it's the same tissue of half truths and cons.
In the early days of the modest ZX81 (Vic 20, etc etc) the
backroom programmer was born. He supplied games which were good,
cheap and no hype.  When you sent to Mikrogen for a copy of the
adventure 'Mad Martha' for the Spectrum that is what you got. A
type written cassette label and a photocopied cassette cover. No
blurb packaging. No fancy promises.  The only things included were
a few basic loading instructions and an address to contact in case
of problems. The J.K.Graye tapes for the ZX81 and the Spectrum had
a better finish to the cassette and were slightly higher priced
but were usually compilations of a variety of programs (Games Tape
2 - Starfighter [shoot 'em up], Pyramid [Tower of Hanoi type
puzzle], Artist [art program]. Cost œ4.). The thing about these
programs was that they sold on their playability and their promise
that if the tape proved faulty it would be replaced forthwith (and
it was!).

This was fine while it lasted but then the money men took over.
Out went the playable game and the useful utility and in came
HYPE. Now the proposed game was preproduction advertised at great
expense. Was packaged in large fancy boxes with tee-shirt, badges
or other gimmicky offers. Expensive protection methods were
employed. The net result was as follows.

1.  The original backroom programmers were either bought out or
forced to rely solely on mail order (since no distributor would
handle their business and no retailer would buy direct) and so
frequently gave up.

2.  As the money men gained control of the software industry, the
playability ceased to matter. It became the game of the film of
the play of the book type of action. The software having no merit
of its own, merely borrowing its success from the other media
forms. What playability existed was not, by any means, impressive.
Who cares! On with the Hype!

Well, of course, you can fool some of the people all of the time
or all of the people some of the time but in time the money men
were found out and their sales dropped. This did not suit the
money men, who wept in their Rolls Royce cars. Having been let
down so badly they sought a new hype to fill their purse (and
found it in the Games Console).

Let's look then at their course record.

I have adventures which were produced at 8k to 10k to run in the
16k ZX81 and the 16K Spectrum. These were good playable adventures
but you can't make money out of them selling at around œ2. So the
money boys put in 'Proper Graphics' and 'Character Interaction'
and sold them at œ12.  This allowed you to stand around after each
input, waiting for a badly drawn blobby picture (which had no
relation to the story line) to be completed before you could enter
any further instruction.  Character interaction took the form of
a) Killing a Warg and then finding this dead Warg moving randomly
round various locations. or b) Finding the body of a policeman and
talking to it. Whereupon the constable saluted you and proceeded
to talk rubbish, still lying on his back, dead.

What a jolly good reason for forking out an extra tenner!!!

But it did not stop there. As machines improved and memory
increased it was filled, for your entertainment and education,
with some of the most unadulterated mindless junk.  How about
those magic 'graphic adventures' for the Atari/Amiga/PC with their
badly drawn characters who, once started in any direction, marched
on till they hit an obstruction then stood marking time on the
spot, forever. Remember how you hunted for the objects you needed
so badly to complete that section?  That brown splodge your
character walked past was really a magic wand!  And so it
continues.

Nowadays, to play an adventure 'properly' you need the very latest
PC with minimum 12 meg memory. A monitor with 600 DPI resolution
and 1275 colours on screen. A 1000k hard drive and a CD ROM.
Anything less will not do - So say the money men (and they should
know).

Oh! I forgot to say that your games will cost you around œ150
each.  Don't forget that if you do not buy these games in
sufficient quantity then the money men will stop making them and
you will be left with all that expensive equipment you were
required to buy to play these games, lying idle.  "Serves you
right!", say the money men, "We told you to buy our games!"

This was where the deja vu came in. Recently we have heard many
voices complaining of the scarcity of hyped software. The money
men are either reducing the supply or dropping it altogether. We

are advised to write to them and 'force' them, by the sheer number
of our letters, to start producing again. Fat Chance!!!

If you had a sum of money would you charitably lose it giving
hand-outs to John Doe or would you invest it in producing games
cartridges at a fiver and selling them at œ50? ... Don't answer!

If your boss came to you and explained that he was cutting your
salary by half and was doubling your working hours/week to help
him serve his faithful public, what would you say?  ... Don't
bother to answer!.

So what then? Is it all to die?

One of the great statesmen of this country, when informed by his
staff that the newspapers were carrying notices of his death,
replied "Inform them that their reports of my demise are greatly
exaggerated".


Just as there is an active group of 'Flatlanders' flourishing in
this country after six centuries so there will always be a
flourishing Computer Adventure Society in the computer
world........

As long as - Magazines/Fanzines are produced by dedicated
enthusiasts who freely give of their time and money for our
enjoyment.

As long as - People are willing, for little or no profit, to
write, produce and distribute software of the type we want, asking
only your support.

For remember this, the money men who naturally are only in the
market for profit will move on and that is their right. Commercial
Magazines will thin and fold and that is their right.  Even your
fanzines and home software producers may cease may cease due to
the lack of your support (and I don't know of any that make an
overall profit).

There could even be a situation occur that you have played every
adventure ever written and suddenly find that you can no longer
obtain adventure software for your machine ... But that will be a
long time in the future!

Why do you say that?

Well, I can only judge by my own experience.

a.) 70% to 80% of my adventures are 'Homegrown' (and I have not
yet completed my collection of The Guild software for the Spectrum
or PD software for the ST from SynTax, to mention a few.)

b.) Since I have somewhere around 500+ Spectrum adventures (a bit
more on the ST) and to date have only completed 30 or 40 of them
in 10 years of playing. This means that I will have to greatly
increase my completion rate or play at my present rate for the
next 400 years. A nice thought but not particularly practical,
since I am at present 60 years old and would settle for one
century but couldn't see it lasting much longer.

I am not afraid of the future for computer adventures and
adventuring.  I am only afraid of the present day adventurers who
may throw away their hobby, like the man shut up in the dark cave
with the bag of monkey nuts and diamonds, who threw the stones he
could not crack into a fast stream that flowed though the cave and
disappeared into a rock cleft, as he waited his release.

Unless you are committed to support those people who are prepared
to provide you with software and fanzines (like the one you are
reading), you must stand as a beggar at the moneyed man's gate and
wait for crumbs! ...

... Costly crumbs !!!  Since you will have killed your own hobby.