CompuServe Messages

I thought that some of you might find this interesting. I use a product called Pageflipper Plus F/X (or PFX as many folks know it by), as does a friend of mine. We both own it, and love it. The product was made by Mindware International, a defunct software outfit… PFX was quite a product. Its primary use was to compress IFFs into the PFX animation format, a format that is much faster than ANIM or Movie. Additionally, it also worked like an animation description language. So, you could do sub-loops within an animation, color cycling and changes, bring up new palettes, etc. A very versatile product, to say the least. My friend, Steve, is contemplating a 4000, and has always lusted after a newer revision of the software. He got out his manual, which mentions the name of the owner…and Steve tracked this guy down to his personal phone number. He called. Steve got through to the former President of Mindware, who bitterly talked to Steve. He was fed up with the Amiga market, and had the following to say about it: * Mindware, he claimed, lost $400,000 to piracy. There were 3 pirate copies to every legitimate copy out there, the ex-prez claimed. * Due to this loss, Mindware closed up. * The software still exists, and has been updated for the AGA. * It will not be released, period. It is now being used in vertical applications, and will only run with a special hardware key…that plugs into a Zorro II/III slot. The ex-prez finished up by saying that although he thinks the Amiga is the greatest platform around, he has little faith in the users. Does piracy hurt? I think that the answer is self evident. Jonathan Jonathan, via AutoPilot // Only Amiga makes \\// it possible…