Talk:Jet Set Willy/Draft

[ is correct

Please do not remove the [ symbol from the catalog for room 64. It is correct. --Chris Key 15:00, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

The symbol is in room 47, there is no room 64. --Peter Schmitt 09:40, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

I checked the reference list and it is indeed room 47. Not sure why I put 64... --Chris Key 14:41, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

I'm not sure I want to know the answer... :-)

What is the antecedent of "it" in "When this happens Willy automatically runs at double speed towards The Bathroom, sticks his head in it and waggles his legs in the air." --Howard C. Berkowitz 18:36, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Good catch. I have changed the word "it" to the word "toilet". --Chris Key 19:09, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Toward Approval

I think it is very close.

Two fairly minor points:

• The color code keying is fascinating but tantalizing -- I can guess at several ways the color code might be used, but I'd be interested in knowing how it actually was used.
• Some layout work would help at the beginning; I find it a bit jarring to my eyes. Some suggestions, which might be done singly or in combination to get more whitespace between the graphics:
  • Move the TOC to the very top
  • Move the "Maria blocks" down a bit further
  • Reduce the size of the infobox or the graphic in it

--Howard C. Berkowitz 13:23, 28 July 2010 (UTC)

Images and layout are always difficult as readers use different screen resolutions. On mine it looked fine, but I've changed it a bit and tested it on a lower resolution. What do you think?

The colour code was explained when it said "When the game was loaded it would as for one of those codes, and the user had to enter it in order to proceed." This was probably too brief an explanation, so I have expanded it with an example. Does that make sense? You can see an example of the screen that asked for the code here, but I didn't want to include it as there are already perhaps too many images.

--Chris Key 15:34, 28 July 2010 (UTC)

Thanks; that clarified the color code. On my screen, the vertical rules don't show as well as the horizontal, so it was hard to see a "box" at P2.

It may well be that this color code example is worth replicating in an article on copy protection, more as an example of what doesn't work.

My personal taste would like less whitespace at the top, but that's certainly not enough to stop Approval. I shall nominate it; if the layout can approve, I'll certainly do that version. --Howard C. Berkowitz 15:38, 28 July 2010 (UTC)

It was a very early attempt at copy protection... it was something that hadn't really been thought of before. I'm not sure, but it may even be the first or at least one of the first attempts. It worked to a certain extent at the time as colour reproduction was hard to do at home in the early eighties.

I've tried using {{TOC|left}} which cleans up the whitespace at the top a little, although it does squash the text a little. Feel free to nominate either version, and I shall join in the nomination. --Chris Key 15:53, 28 July 2010 (UTC)

Thinking about it, there are a number of early copy protection attempts in video games that were quite interesting. One that springs to mind was for The Secret of Monkey Island, which provided a code wheel (recreated here). The user was shown a face, which they had to recreate by spinning the wheel. They were then asked what year that pirate was hanged on a certain island. By looking in the holes, the answer was shown. --Chris Key 16:10, 28 July 2010 (UTC)

Game copy protection may be worth its own article. I remember getting some AD&D games, from TSR, which had some sort of cardboard disk that I promptly lost. A lesson is that if you are going to provide a security token, and this is a primitive security token, it has to have some form factor that lends itself to storage. You've shown the keychain-style form factor for World of Warcraft. Many security tokens in general industry are of the shape and size of a credit card. If it's a paper reference, though, it needs to fit into a manual or the like.

Just tell me the link for the version you want nominated. I'd rather have your consistency about layout decisions. --Howard C. Berkowitz 16:23, 28 July 2010 (UTC)

Many games actually used the manual, asking you to look up the fifth word of the second paragraph on page ten for example. Your right, game copy protection may be a good article to get done... although my knowledge about the more recent (and more technical) attempts such as DRM is limited.

I prefer the current version: http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Jet_Set_Willy&oldid=100693975 --Chris Key 16:31, 28 July 2010 (UTC)

(undent) I have updated the metadata to reflect the copyedits made by Ro. Howard will need to voice his approval of these here as well. --Chris Key 21:39, 29 July 2010 (UTC)