AVANT-GARDE, THE EUGENE, OREGON-BASED PUBLISHER OF SOMETIMES OFFBEAT APPLE
SOFTWARE, WAS EMBARRASSED RECENTLY BY THE DISCOVERY THAT THEIR MOST RECENT
CREATION, "TRIPLE ARCADE INSANITY", CONTAINS CLEAR EVIDENCE THAT THE PROGRAMS
WERE WRITTEN USING PIRATED SOFTWARE. THE DISK CONSISTS OF THREE ARCADE-STYLE
GAMES WRITTEN WITH A COPYRIGHTED GAME-WRITING UTILITY PROGRAM CALLED "THE
ARCADE MACHINE" FROM BR0DERBUND SOFTWARE INC, OF SAN RAFAEL, CALIFORNIA.
ALTHOUGH AVANT-GARDE'S PRODUCT PACKAGING STATES THAT THE PROGRAMS WERE DESIGNED
USING BR0DERBUND'S UTILITY, EACH OF THE THREE GAMES CONTAINS A MENU WHICH IS
PART OF AN ALTERED VERSION WIDELY CIRCULATED AMONG APPLE "PIRATES".
THE UTILITY'S NORMAL MENU CONTAINS EIGHT OPERATIONS TO BE PERFORMED ON THE
GAME UNDER DEVELOPMENT. APPARENTLY DISSATISFIED WITH THE RESTRICTED MENU,
WHICH ALLOWS THE GAME TO BE SAVED ONLY ON A DISK WITH A COPY-PROTECTED FORMAT,
A WELL-KNOWN EXPERT IN SOFTWARE "UNPROTECTION" (OR "KRACKIST", AS THEY PREFER
TO BE CALLED) MADE SUBSTANTIAL ALTERATIONS TO THE PROGRAM. NOT ONLY WAS THE
COPY PROTECTION REMOVED FROM THE DISK, BUT A NINTH MENU ENTRY WAS ADDED WHICH
ALLOWS THE DEVELOPED GAME TO BE STORED AS AN APPLE DOS BINARY FILE ON A
NORMALLY-FORMATTED DISK.
WHAT THE GAMES' AUTHOR, BRAD POSEN, APPARENTLY DID NOT KNOW WAS THAT WHEN A
GAME IS STORED, OR "SAVED", WITH THE ADDED FEATURE, THE INCRIMINATING
NINE-CHOICE MENU IS SAVED WITH IT. THUS, EACH COPY OF THE DISK DISTRIBUTED BY
AVANT-GARDE ADVERTISES THE ILLICIT SOURCE OF ITS GENERATION. PROBABLY EQUALLY
EMBARRASSING IS THE PRESENCE OF AN APPLE II "SCREEN" IN ONE OF THE PROGRAMS
WHICH CONTAINS A CATALOG LISTING OF SEVERAL "BROKEN" AND PIRATED APPLE PROGRAMS
SUCH AS GEBELLI SOFTWARE'S "HORIZON V", SIERRA ON-LINE'S "CANNONBALL BLITZ",
AMONG OTHERS.
IT WOULD APPEAR THAT AVANT-GARDE, IN A RUSH TO CASH IN ON SOME RELATIVELY
UNIMAGINATIVE ARCADE GAMES, COPIED AND DISTRIBUTED THE ENTIRE DISK SUBMITTED BY
WHAT MUST BE A YOUNG, NAIVE AUTHOR. IN SO DOING, THEY HAVE INADVERTANTLY
EXPOSED AN AMUSING IRONY--ONE PUBLISHER GAINING VIA THE ILLEGAL USE OF ANOTHER
PUBLISHER'S COPYRIGHTED PRODUCT. IT IS WIDELY KNOWN BY MAJOR SOFTWARE
PUBLISHERS THAT PIRATED COPIES OF SUCH DEVELOPMENT UTILITIES ARE WIDELY
DISTRIBUTED, AND PROBABLY FREQUENTLY USED FOR THE GENERATION OF COMMERCIAL
SOFTWARE, BUT THIS EPISODE MARKS THE FIRST PUBLIC CONFIRMATION OF THE FACT.
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