Virtual Drives and releasing A2

posted on March 8th, 2013, 6:16 am

Steam is a very popular downloadable game vendor. They also have a overlay program that allows chat in all games, server usage, and a bunch of other stuff. Its hard to explain, but basically they sell new and old games but only as digital copies, and their overlay program is used to a different degree depending on the game.

posted on March 8th, 2013, 9:20 am

That article is using the term libraries in place of virtual drives, they are just using the newer term to talk about the exact same thing, yet again I suggest you re-read the part I quoted from the article about the term libraries being a fancier word for virtual drives yet meaning exactly the same thing. So libraries ARE Vurtual drives, how hard is that to understand?

oh they're "vurtual drive". now i see
you're still missing the entire point. nobody is talking about virtualising in the form of libraries. we are talking about 1 specific thing, mounting a disk image of an optical disk to a virtual optical drive. nobody is talking about libraries except for you. libraries in windows 7 are not about this. we are talking solely and specifically about 1 thing that is not libraries. if you don't see that then tough, truth eludes he who does not seek it with both eyes wide.

Well then, how come at a2Files on their forums for example you are not supposed to talk about "No CD Cracks"? The first time I've heard that they are illegal and unsupported was over there by browsing the forums. So if they aren't illegal how come over there it's so hush hush about cd cracks?

people on forums sometimes spout rubbish. i don't use a2files forums, so i don't know what their rules are. they have can have a rule that forbids talking about star trek enterprise if they want. their rules can ban legal things if they want, it's their forum.

one of the primary uses for nocd cracks is piracy. just like one of the primary uses of the bittorrent protocol is piracy. neither are exclusively for piracy and neither are illegal. but forums run by western businesses don't like people to talk about them for risk of being taken to court by a big corporation. even if they're not breaking any laws, courts in the west work on the simple principle of "who can buy the most justice", and that's a battle the corporations always win.

LOL so much fail...

If you need support for the cancer that post just gave you, go here

I've never liked middle man software like steam/origin. for so many reasons. first off it means giving money to the middle man. secondly it means installing unnecessary middle man software. steam is famous for bloat. and that software isn't there to serve you, it's there to shovel money into valve. also steam has copy protection built in, another reason big games are using it more frequently, when i buy a boxed game i don't expect to have to install bullshit software. as if we needed more shitty drm. when i see a great indie game (like rochard), i hate seeing it on steam, i try getting it through other means, direct from developer is a good way.

a2 probably won't make it to a steam/origin/gog. it was an activision game, but activision no longer hold the star trek games license. so i think the rights for a2 are horribly split between 2 companies that can't act alone, and don't care enough about a2 to work together. honestly, even if you combined the active members of the fleetops community and all the a2 communities that are left, it's still not enough people to lift that fat fuck gaben off the ground very many people at all. there's certainly no profit to be made here. if this game wasn't a star trek game, i think it would be completely dead now.

posted on March 8th, 2013, 2:41 pm

Activision doesn't care about A2, and in their uncaring state they will not ever release the rights to the game, as marketing anticipates it may want to make a profit somewhere down the line, even though they don't care about the game now.

posted on March 8th, 2013, 6:43 pm

@Je_mezu24: You're welcome on my site to download my mods, and modify or change my mods after your own style :-)

posted on March 8th, 2013, 7:30 pm

@Myles: I don't like it that you keep mentioning cancer, both my grandmother and grandfather died of Pancreatic cancer, my grandmother when I was only 8 years old; and I never met my grandfather, he died a year before my oldest cousin was born. And last year my aunt died from melanoma.

@Dominius_Noctis: I agree that Activision might want to eventually want to make a profit on A2 again someday.

posted on March 8th, 2013, 7:56 pm

@Myles: I don't like it that you keep mentioning cancer, both my grandmother and grandfather died of Pancreatic cancer, my grandmother when I was only 8 years old; and I never met my grandfather, he died a year before my oldest cousin was born. And last year my aunt died from melanoma.

my nan died of cancer as well, nobody on the internet cares about either. grow a thicker skin, nothing on the internet is to be taken seriously.

activision will never make another penny from a2. they take actions based on what is best for the business, and releasing stuff for free is a bad action. shareholders won't accept that sorta nonsense.

posted on March 8th, 2013, 11:18 pm

The problem that keeps A2 off any kind of game site is that Activision CANT release the game again without the Star Trek license (which is still in Bethesda softwares hands i believe). The only way they could would be to take out all the Trek content, which leaves you with not much of a game. So unless Activision decides to relicense Trek, which is unlikely given the ugle way they lost the license the last time, there is no way in hell well see it since Activision owns the code itself and it isnt likely youll see any company ponie up any money for a game thats over 10 years old.

And Myles as far as Steam goes, I dont know why you think there is all this bloat with it. Its a small program thats pretty awesome for digital distribution. I basically get all my games on Steam now and while yes you need to be logged into steam to play its far better the most of the other companies DRM's out there. Its great because I can have my entire library downloaded and dont have to worry about finding disks, and you dont have to sit there and load multiple CDs for larger games, theres so many convienent things that you notice after you start using it. I used to think the way you do, but after using it for the past 7 years I have to say I prefer it over buying boxed any day, Ive even started getting some of my older boxed games on steam when they pop up there just for the convienence.

posted on March 9th, 2013, 12:32 am

I agree. Even if you do lose you internet connection you can play in offline mode for up to 24 hours I believe and if your internet is down for that long then you probably have bigger issues like an earthquake or hurricane to deal with.

Origin sucks balls at least now because there is no reason to have to have a webpage up while I am playing a game. It just bugs me that they did it that way. GOG doesn't even have an interface they just give you the game straight up. There is another site called Greenman Gaming that I was told about but I haven't gotten a chance to use it yet.

If it weren't for STEAM I wouldn't have been able to replace my copy of Vampire Bloodlines which I lost awhile back.

It's to bad that Voyager and Enterprise completely destroyed Star Trek to the point that we won't see another TNG era type game like Armada 3 or something. The next Trek games are all going to be JJTrek games.

posted on March 9th, 2013, 2:43 am

nathanj, i believe if you log yourself out and restar in offline mode in steam you can play the games offline indefinately. I used to do that for the other PC's in my house for the kids. I could load my steam account on them and load up the race games (only thing they ever play), put steam in offline mode and they can play the game while im on my account online. Since theres no limits on how many PC's you can have your steam account on, it really is a great platform. Origin unfortunately sucks, totally agree with you there. But Steam is a great way to stay in touch with friends, and the built in chat keeps me from having to install other chat programs because we all use steam chat. So it helps keep some bloat off my PC. IMO its the best way to game on PC if your an online gamer.