"Here we go, ladies and gentlemen, here we go." - Scott Nelson
This month, Alan Yang from China wrote me and informed me how to get the
Bard's Tale to play on an Apple IIGS Emulator! I never actually got it to
work correctly on my machine, because my machine is ancient and unable to do
such things! But for those of you with good machines, I'd love to pass this
information onwards! However, another pressing issue has popped up which I
feel I must speak up about. The Apple IIGS will have to wait a month...
Anyone can make web pages now adays, and it's always nice to see new Bard's
Tale web pages popping up. However, some people make them from scratch with
their own material, and others tend to borrow things from other websites
and posting it as their own, without asking for permission or posting credit
for where they got it from.
The first Bard's Tale page I ever saw was Tom Greene's Adventurers' Guild, about three years ago. Talk about original material, his was the only BT
site on the net (that I could find anyhow). Tom made a nice monster list,
and had typed in the BT1 cluebook himself and posted it, and he had text
versions of all the manuals.
Then, I found Jeremy Gaudet's Bard's Tale Info Page with complete and
detailed maps of every dungeon level known to man, all drawn by himself.
Painstakingly done too, I'm sure!
Then, I found Mike O'Hara's Complete Bard's Tale Home Page, which boasted
his own drawn maps and walk throughs, not to mention the ONLY Bard's Tale
site with a Michael Cranford section and a Bard's Tale 4 petition.
Very impressive!
Let's not forget Troy Cheek's web page,
complete with item lists, monster lists, etc. etc.
So, what else could be done? I came upon the scene in 1999, and it took
me a while to figure out where I could fit in. What else could be done?
I then decided to take it from a different angle and transform my page
into the likeness of the game. Every page looks like you're really in
the game!
I then painstakingly drew many city maps, made some original artwork of my
own, and converted many of the game graphics to animated GIF files (this
was no easy task!)
Then comes a web page created by Jonathan G Lampe which had my Scara Brae map one
it! I though that this person had some nerve ripping off my map without
even asking me or giving me credit, but I never said anything (until this
day).
Mike O'Hara, on the other hand, is very sensitive about this thing. And
you know that's not all bad. In the past, two different people have taken
things directly from his site without asking. Some people may say, "Well,
who cares?", but if you know that some people get angered by such things,
then we all have to be careful.
Keir Joseph Howell made an amazing Bard's Tale item list, and then made a
web page that linked to all Bard's Tale Music sites on the net. He gave
credit where credit was due, and it was all good! Not too long later,
however, I noticed his item list appear on the Darkmoon Fallen website,
and all the webmaster originally said was:
"This information was compiled
from a chart I found on another web site. The original list was compiled
by Keir Howell. I'm not exactly sure where I got it from, but it had his
name on it. If anybody finds an original location for his efforts, or if
somebody out there knows Keir... give him a big "nice job" for us."
People, we cannot do this anymore!!!
Recently, The Bard's
Tale Compendium came online, and I must say that I
love the graphics on the main page! However, I instantly noticed that my
sage and ogre graphic files were "lifted" from my web page and put on this
webpage without permission and without giving credit. The more I looked
around, the more of my graphics I found. I counted at least ten in my
fifteen minutes of browsing.
Editor's Addition: Moments after this editorial hit the web, Rob Huston of
The Bard's Tale Compendium wrote me and said that he did ask for permission for everything he took
from other people's webpages. He said that he got the image files that I created from other Bard's Tale FTP sites.
So, I can't really hold him responsible for taking my images if he had no way of knowing they were mine
in the first place (since someone else stole them and gave no credit). I apologize to you, Rob, for hinting that you stole images from my site!
Why don't we make a new rule, saying that no one can take ANYTHING from
other Bard's Tale webpages without first asking. If they get permission,
then they must give credit where credit is due.
All of my computer dungeon maps in my buildings are taken from Jeremy's
Bard's Tale Info page.
I asked him if I could use them, and he gladly
approved. Most of the time, people wouldn't mind if we borrow things
from other sites - in fact, they might even be honored! However, if we do
it without asking first, bad things happen!
Let's start making original web sites today, and stop the web lifting!
-Scott Nelson
You can contact me at WebMaster@BardsTale.com.
Until next month, farewell fellow Bard's Tale fans!
Go back to BardsTale.com
or see other BardsTale.com Editorials.