Why is there not an uproar?

Return to Dark Castle is dying a slow painful death because no one is pestering SHFF anymore.

I didn't want to admit almost a year ago but I almost single-handedly got Mark Pierce to publicly apologize for the delay of the Level Editor. I was threatening to bring SHFF to court over an undelivered product unless I was reimbursed.

Luckily, I was reimbursed. And astonishingly, he apologized...publicly.

But since then, I've seen nothing.

Return to Dark Castle:

- still corrupts recordings
- still does not have a level editor
- hasn't seen an update in a year

SHFF and Mark Pierce are sitting happy. They keep making money on an incomplete product *and* they're not getting pestered anymore.


I'm still waiting for that special day when RtDC will actually work as advertised and when its Level Editor is released. I'm not going to buy RtDC until then. But those of you that have bought RtDC and never asked for a reimbursement *should* be at SHFF's gates with pitchforks and torches.

TBH, I don't think pestering S(U)HFF would help very much, which is probably why nobody is. That and or people just do not care. Currently there's probably only one person on this planet who is currently working on DC3 related stuff (well who knows, maybe two with the same first names), and he or they will be tied up doing PC conversion until such time as that finally finished... if it ever does.

Perstering SHFF won't help that; I doubt they are funding the conversion - just want it done.

If MSP really wants (wanted) to apologise let him do so; he knows the forum exists, he could post and say `sorry'. Along with the editor in whatever beta-state it is in (assuming it runs at all).

But apologising because someone says they will take him to court is not really the same thing. You might as well hold a shot-gun to the person's head. A serial killer will say they're sorry if they think it will help them to kill again.

Reimbursement - well , maybe, but DC3 cost me less (what with the UKP <-> US$ rate of about 2.0 at the time) than a small round of drinks at the pub on a Friday lunch. I got a good 24 hours of gameplay out of it for that money.

Whilst I was/am disappointed in the lack of editor, and the shoddy copy-protection; I have spent more on less before.

Where is the `uproar' then? Well - most people here have moved on - mainly because most are gamers and there are always more games. It's from that fact alone that to be honest I suspect most people would move on anyway even if there was an editor. Perhaps the reason I find it so hard to move on and still lurk here is because I'm not really a gamer myself... Who knows.

But for the uproar bit, the answer is really: who still really cares?

Seems like I was the only one to really care and push things forward. Shame.

I can't be doing all the work. MSP would never have put any news about RtDC or the Level Editor had I not insisted that he answer me or reimburse me. That's proof that nudging SHFF will eventually amount to something. But nobody's been nudging SHFF since then and, unsurprisingly, there hasn't been a peep since.

I guess nobody here really cares about Dark Castle.

This post has been edited by Alaric Was Here on Oct 14 2009, 02:38 PM

Well, as I said, yes - people care in a bystander type `well, I'll come and see if it's out yet' type way - but not any more than that. Other games to play, and more to do in life than get het up over a level editor.

However if think about the fact that the Zack's are not directly on SHFF's payroll, then badgering SHFF is not going to have any positive effect. It might make SHFF badger the Zacks more to get the PC version working (but by the way, we're not paying you to do so).

If it were to end up in a court case, that is just wasting more of SHFF's probably rather limited cash on legal stuff. Less will go to Zacks (if any is going there), but also less will go to in house testers. And we know just how `soon' the testing stage finished last time... and how good a job they did.

I was actually considering emailing MSP to ask about beta testing again... maybe I will - but I don't really have that much time to spend on it just at the moment even if he said yes.

Software writing, especially in low-level languages like C is glacially slow. So slow that anyone who isn't an experienced programmer will be generally unable to fathom how you can spend MONTHS trying to fix one single bug, and still not get there.

So if you someone was to say "trying to fix defect # 40194" on their website. Would you consider that publicly visible progress? And would you consider it so if it was still there a month or two later?

Writing stuff in C for an API set (let alone an operating system) you haven't targeted before also doesn't help matters; and slows things down yet further.

/Jon God continues to talk to people, and tries not to bother.


I agree, It's been far to long, but I am willing to wait a few more months before I start E-Mailing again.

/Then mabe an uproar/

Oooo, I'm all for an uproar at some point. Tell me when.

"MSP, stop working on crazy things like PC conversions and finish up with the level editor FIRST!"
"MSP, you SUCK!"
"MSP, you could save hundreds on Geico!"

He'll be forced to acknowledge that fans want the Level Editor, and will have to relent. Go fanbase!

Maybe if Zack Black just told us how he did the levels by hand...

For me, after all this time, it just got old. Would it be awesome to have the editor? Heck yeah! Do I have other things that I want to do and new projects that I have picked up? Yep. So really, this editor stuff has just moved to the back for me.

Anyone for an Uproar? Maybe two!

I am for an uproar if it takes another year.

Let the Uproars™ begin!

The uproar is coming soon.