|
Jan-Mar | Apr-Sep | Oct-Dec 1988
| |
| Nov 10 |
Clarifications. I'm sorry for the confusion that resulted from the Oct 31 announcements (see below). Let's clear up some rumors.
Stuart is not dead. Just to be crystal clear, Stuart is alive and well. He got his Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford in December of 1997, bought a beautiful house, and commenced working for Apple in January of 1998. He is credited in the MacOS 8.5 secret about box. (In Finder, hold down command, option, and control, and select under the Apple menu "About MacOS 8.5 Team", it may take a while before the semi-random scheme shows Stu's name at the head of the Technical Components group.) Stu was most recently sighted last summer at the MacHack conference. Some of us even have Stu's home address and phone number. He didn't disappear, he's simply busy living his real life and has unfortunately not returned emails even from core Bolo supporters. Just before he became incommunicado, Stuart did already recognize all the things that needed to be done to "save" Bolo. He was talking of fixing all the bugs and releasing version 1.0, then porting it to the PC as version 2.0. He realizes there are 10 times as many PC users out there as Macphiles. He realizes the game is useless if it cannot be played over a modem. He realizes the way to accomplish that is probably a client/server architecture. He realizes some overhaul of the graphics is probably necessary for a commercial release. He knows all these things. The reason he hasn't done any of them is not for lack of knowledge, but rather lack of time and will, I suspect. Some other Stuart myths. If you've read Stuart's rant on software patents, you'll realize that he's not the "It's all mine!" kinda hog that he is often accused of being. He wants control over Bolo in order to make sure it is done right. Perhaps it is just ego to presume nobody else can do it right? In any case, going open source would not necessarily fix anything, although unless somebody comes up with some clever new ideas to prevent it, open source Bolo will result in rampant hacks that will essentially kill off all network Bolo. Furthermore, Stuart has had contact with active developers off and on throughout the years, a few resulted in fairly serious negotiations which fell through for reasons I cannot disclose. Finally, Stuart is not going to give away the game for a dollar per game royalty. He believes the game is worth serious bucks, more than most of you probably would guess. Whether this belief is realistic is another matter. The OBHP is not dead... yet. Well not yet at least. The OBHP still exists and is now accessible at <http://www.lgm.com/bolo/>. If you do an nslookup you'll see that www.lgm.com is simply an alias to trusty ol' www.lgm.com. When you use the new URL, you are automagically connected to the same machine as before. So why the change? First of all, if the site should actually move in the future, www.lgm.com will point to the new site so that you don't have to keep changing bookmarks. Secondly, the name change underscores the fact that this is no longer the Official Bolo Home Page, just another Bolo page by another Bolo fan. In addition to the URL change, there will be actual changes in the content of the site as well. Bolo is dead, except... I'm not trying to be cryptic. Internet Bolo is pretty much gone, but as many of you have reminded me, there is still a strong AppleTalk presence out there. In fact for these guys who routinely play up to 8x8 games with no lag, the current version 0.99.7 is essentially bug-free and perfect, and requires no changes at all. The rediscovery of AppleTalk Bolo is ironic, since that is how Bolo was first born. I certainly wouldn't want to abandon all the high school clubs out there that spend their lunch hours Boloing away! So WTF are you doing to OBHP? As a first step, we will be removing many of the signature contributions made by my co-webmaster Chris Hwang aka vert, who was the guy that made this the "official" site with Stu's blessing many years ago. This will mean the removal or downgrading to plain text of many classic guides, graphics, etc. It remains to be seen what if anything will be left when we're done, but I do intend to leave some helpful information as well as trying to preserve items pertaininig to Bolo history. These changes will occur over the next month or two as my time permits. As for the FTP archive ftp://ftp.lgm.com/bolo/ which is now located on the same Ambrosia machine that hosts tracker.lgm.com, that is now in the hands of Carl Osterwald aka wharf rat, who formerly ran the map portion of the archive when it was at Duke, as well as Andrew Welch aka Berserkir who owns the machine. Likewise, Berserkir and Matt Slot aka Black Lightning have indicated they are willing to run the tracker there for the foreseeable future.
|
|---|---|
| Oct 31 |
New Bolo Domain Name. The past few weeks have marked a major transition for the game of Bolo. First I'll list the changes, then I'll explain the reasons behind these changes.
Effective immediately, Bolo has brand new lgm.com hostnames for WWW, FTP, and tracker services, courtesy of a personal favor from Andrew Welch aka Berserkir. Please bookmark these right away.
Before the rumors start, there is no official relationship between Ambrosia Software (Berserkir's company) and anybody affiliated with Bolo, Berserkir is just helping out as an avid Bolo player and nice guy. The ftp.lgm.com address is actually a new server at Ambrosia, while www.lgm.com is an alias to the existing home page still at Duke, and the tracker is an alias to the existing alternate server at Ambrosia. These lgm.com hostnames are easier to remember anyway, and we will make sure they always work even if the actual underlying machines should change for any reason. On behalf of the whole community, thanks Berserkir. Why the move? This all started when my lab retired fly.mc.duke.edu and acquired a much more powerful new computer. I could have easily migrated the FTP archive to another Duke machine, but I didn't for two reasons, one technical and one philosophical. Technically, in order to counter widespread denial of service and cracking attacks against .edu institutions, my entire local network will soon block all external FTP access. That's why we had to move the archive away from Duke. Philosophically, however, there were far greater implications. Berserkir is but the latest in a long line of Bolo fans who have volunteered free support for the game in lieu of the absentee author, Stuart Cheshire. We have contributed an awesome amount of time and energy to create or maintain trackers, maps, editors, brains, guides, FAQs, web sites, USENET posts, IRC channels, etc. So faced with moving the FTP archive, some of us started to ask, is it still worth the trouble? Bolo is dead. As we fast approach the 3rd anniversary of the current version of Bolo (0.99.7 was released on December 8, 1995), this is no longer a question, but a statement of fact. I have never seen any program, shareware or otherwise, languish this long and subsequently come back to life, have you? Stuart treated Bolo as a fun hobby, one which he chose to give up to deal with real-world demands from his graduate studies and subsequent work at Apple. It was really we the community that got obsessed with Bolo and made it such a huge part of our lives. It is both futile and more than a little childish to blame Stuart for "abandoning" us or not keeping his many grand promises. While I'm as disappointed as the next guy, frankly we all just need to go get a life. Let's just be grateful for his clever game which far outgrew his own expectations and gave us years of enjoyment. At the same time, we who continue to support Bolo have to seriously re-consider our own priorities. In particular I've been talking to Chris Hwang aka vert who helmed the Bolo Home Page before me and remains as the co-webmaster, Don Thompson aka nix who maintains the official American tracker at bolo.usu.edu, Carl Osterwald who runs the map portion which comprises most of the FTP Archive, and Berserkir who is now hosting the FTP archive and alternate tracker. There are many others who have been active in supporting Bolo, but I mention these guys just because we are the "core" team responsible for keeping Bolo alive. Here are some sobering thoughts. Not only has it been 3 years since the last release of Bolo, Stuart has essentially disappeared. Ever since I met him nearly a year ago, he has ignored repeated emails from myself and other supporters. Nix may be leaving Utah State University soon, and if that should happen then bolo.usu.edu will cease to exist. With the decline of play in Europe, this would leave tracker.lgm.com as the sole tracker anywhere. The OBHP hasn't really been updated in about a year or more, in spite of the fact that it's still decently popular (about 5k hits per month). The FTP archive is also fairly static now - there hasn't been a map or other submission in months. The number of players has declined to ridiculous levels - I guesstimate fewer than 20 who play more than a few games per week on the Internet. All the major "clone" projects have fallen through, and frankly none of them really had a chance anyway, given the combination of technical and legal obstacles. Where do we go from here? I think a consensus that is emerging is that we need to stop wasting time supporting this game. Many people have even called for the complete removal of all services: WWW, FTP, and tracker. I personally think that accomplishes nothing. It's not like Stuart really cares and would somehow be prodded back into action. By taking away these services, we would only be inconveniencing the few remaining vets and confusing the newbies. As one person put it, it's just getting mad and taking your ball home with you. At least now when a modemer crashes your game, you can indignantly tell him to go FAQ himself. I am sensitive, however, to keeping an "official" page with such rich content which may lull a newbie into thinking Bolo is still an actively supported game. As such, I think I will add some sort of top-level notice to point out the fact that Bolo is no longer officially supported. I may also remove or migrate some or all of the OBHP's contents in the coming weeks. It's been a fun ride, but all good things still must end. I remember letting IBL drag on far too long, and I think it's also well past time to relegate the OBHP to similar "historical interest" only. I'll continue to post important Bolo news and rumors here when warranted, but this will no longer be a regularly updated news column any more. It has been my pleasure serving you these past few years. Just because we may choose to stop supporting the game doesn't mean you need to stop playing! I hope to meet you on a Bolo battlefield one day. Bolo on.
|
Jan-Mar | Apr-Sep | Oct-Dec 1988
[ Intro | News | Links | Archive | Guides | Gallery | People | Misc ]
The Bolo Home Page is copyrighted by
| |
