Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
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From: Matthew Murray <i9717029@wsunix.wsu.edu>
Subject: Re: i hate acctivision! 
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Date: Wed, 23 Aug 1995 06:17:31 GMT
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On Sat, 19 Aug 1995, Alison Scott wrote:

> In article <40rfr9$4j9@newsbf02.news.aol.com>
>            badtrinity@aol.com "BadTrinity" writes:
> 
> > All the do is rerelease 10 year old games!  I say they should let all the
> > old infocom games go freeware!!!
> 
> I've been thinking about this for a while. I can't see any reason for 
> Activision to release the Infocom games as freeware. Here are the reasons not
> to:
> 
> 1)	They're clearly still making money out of them. LTOI 1&2 are good 
> packages at a reasonable price - it's not as if Activision are trying to get
> 30 quid a game for them.
> 
> 2)	A major reason for releasing old stuff as freeware is to advertise 
> new product. There are no new Activision text adventures to advertise, so it
> wouldn't do them much good.
> 
> 3)	It's not even as if you can't get infocom style games. Curses is a 
> jolly good game, and it's free. (I haven't started Christminster or Theatre
> yet but certainly expect them to be good too!)
> 
> I tend to think that Activision should be commended for continuing to keep
> the Infocom games available, rather than censured for having the temerity to
> charge the price of a pint for each of them. 

     I agree.  These new packages are still some of the best values 
around.  They do not, however, compare to the unparalleled values of The 
Lost Treasures of Infocom I and II--they pale in comparison (but so do 
all of the other so-called value packs), but they are still very 
respectable.  The only problem is that, because of how much I love 
Infocom, I would like to have these, but I can't afford the $125 it would 
take to buy all of them, nor can I justify spending that much money 
anyway, especially for games I've already played and won many times over, 
and for games ALL of which I already own.  (At least the games 
are going upwards in price again, grin.)  But they are still good values, 
and Infocom's memory NEEDS to be kept alive, because those games still 
represent the best of what can be done and really stand out like a bright 
beacon in the night amidst the junk you see released by almost every 
other company.

----------------------Matthew Murray at mmurray@wsu.edu------------------------
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