PDA

View Full Version : Epic's Sweeney On the PC Shareware Revolution



AndrewJ
05-06-2009, 01:50 PM
/. mail catch-up time again!

Article-on-one-page/print version available here (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4035/from_the_past_to_the_future_tim_.php?print=1).

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Epic's Sweeney On the PC Shareware Revolution |
| from the who-didn't-love-a-good-8-bit-nag-screen dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Monday May 25, @21:37 (PC Games (Games)) |
| http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/25/2150236 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]simoniker writes "Over at Gamasutra, there's a [1]massive new
interview with Epic (Mega)Games founder Tim Sweeney, the guy who's still
a key technical figure at the Unreal Engine/Gears Of War developer. He
discusses his early programming days, the story behind classic shareware
game/tool [2]ZZT, the origins of Epic, the '90s shareware business, and
even a bit about the future as well. Particularly neat is his revelation
that you can still order ZZT via mail, with orders fulfilled by his dad:
'My father still lives at the address where Potomac Computer Systems
started up, so he still gets an order every few weeks... he's retired
now, so he doesn't have much to do. Every week, he'll just take a stack
of a few orders, put disks in them, and mail them out.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/05/25/2150236

Links:
0. http://www.gamesetwatch.com/
1. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4035/from_the_past_to_the_future_tim_.php
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZZT

Nandrew
05-06-2009, 02:16 PM
Heh, this happened a short while back (http://www.devmag.org.za/news/54/). :P

Keep posting stuff, though, there's some interesting things to be heard.

AndrewJ
05-06-2009, 02:28 PM
Thanks for encouragement Nandrew.

dislekcia
05-06-2009, 03:16 PM
If you've read something like Masters of Doom, this hits even harder :)

AndrewJ
05-06-2009, 04:05 PM
Do you have a link to the read, dis?

dislekcia
05-06-2009, 04:46 PM
Do you have a link to the read, dis?

It's an honest, hardworking book. So no. I do have these, however:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masters_of_Doom
http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Culture/dp/0375505245

Very good read :)

AndrewJ
08-06-2009, 08:46 AM
Thanks dis. I googled for it and got those links. <hopefully not a joke>Hmmm... maybe a public library might have a copy...</hopefully not a joke>

Ruandre
08-06-2009, 12:48 PM
Very good read :)Ditto