Hi, Following the recent thread about TGMAME and it`s legality, not to mention an ' OJ Simpson-type character ' , I now quote a response from MR. Dan Boris, who is a MAME DEV guy , and I presume a close associate of Nicola......here goes..

"I don't think Nicola reads this board much (if at all) so I will put in my $.02 worth. In my personal opinion the message on the MARP message doesn't sound like something Nicola would write at all. If anything it's to wordy, Nicola is usually straight and to the point.

As to whether tgmame following, it does technically violate the it's purpose is to encrypt the INP files it would defeat this purpose if the source was released, so I can understand why it wasn't.

It doesn't disable any features that the licence forbids disabling, and I don't see a problem with the version numbering."

Dan

So MARP`ers , it`s safe to assume Nicola was not responsible for the original thread. Where does that leave us ? The 'alledged ' party is a TG judge? I thought these guys were on-the-level ? To any TG judge reading this....reconsider. The actual act of impersonating someone else ( for presumably their own benefit or whatever) is definately not in the spirt or ehthics of Twin Galaxies, or indeed MARP, or anywhere else you care to mention.

Thats my bit of detective work. Can we have ( from other sleuths )) a %100 verdict on the 'suspect'?

Thanks, ALEX

-- Alex Weir (alexeir@indigo.ie), January 19, 2000

Answers

I have to add that more than 99% of the source IS distributed with tgmame, I'm sure Dan didn't mean to imply the entire source isn't released but i think he did.

Secondly not to defend Stig, but It could also be someone trying to frame stig. I think anyone would be smart enough to NOT type like they normally type on the board if they were trying to impersonate someone.... The Nicola post and Stig's later post that day are just TOOO conveniently similar.

-- Chad (churritz@cts.com), January 19, 2000.

So Stig is not only a lowlife, but also a moron for not trying to "camouflage" his words. Yes, you read it well: moron. After what Stig said to me, I am actually being very tame. Stig was caught and he knew it, so he just started yelling, swearing, saying incoherent things, and quoting me, actually, in an effort to hurt my feelings.

A LOT of people here make a lot of spelling errors and I bet they are not aware of a considerable amount of those. So if somebody were to impersonate someone else, they'd probably make the same spelling errors they usually make...

I wrote an e-mail to Philip Greenspun, who is the creator of the (software of the) site on which this messageboard runs, and he is fairly sure his server logs IP addresses, but he has not yet had the time to take a look. So we can't prove it, Stig? The evidence against you is already enormous, and we don't even need confirmation of the IP address, but it would be nice.

Most of Stig's "peers" on MARP will probably KNOW he's guilty anyway. I am sorry. I'm sure nobody on MARP would like to be considered Stig's peer. It's just too much of an insult.

Someone trying to set up Stig? Sorry, but that's just too funny. If you really believe that, I have some real estate I'd like to sell to you...

Cheers, Ben Jos.

-- Ben Jos Walbeehm (walbeehm@walbeehm.com), January 19, 2000.

As a TG Editor and Judge for over 3.5 years, I can tell you this, NO true TG judge would attempt crap like this. Walter woul never stand for something like this... Nor would I for that matter... If ever in doubt on who is an "official" TG Editor/Judge/Referee, please refer to this page on the main Twin Galaxies site...

http://www.twingalaxies.com/listofreferees.html

This list is maintained by Walter directly so there will never be a question on who is legit... :)

Now, as for what to do with Stig... As I am not a "regular" here, I will offer no input as I don't feel I have the right to do so.

Hope this proves useful.

Ron Corcoran Twin Galaxies Mame Deca2000 Coordinator Twin Galaxies Atari & Commodore Worldwide Editor http://www.snipercade.com

-- Ron Corcoran (sniper75@mindspring.com), January 21, 2000.

Ron, My apologies. I thought I once read that Stig was a regional TG referee/judge for the Scandinavian region ( on the TG homepage ).I`m fairly sure of this. Maybe you or someone else can confirm this? I didn`t mean to question the integrity or honesty of anyone involved with TG.

Stig, I know you`re getting a lot of stick ( which if you`re guilty ,is well justified ), but if it`s a case of someone impersonating you than thats a very serious and unwanted developement at MARP , and I apologise for any comments made about you.

And if it`s happened once , will this be a regular occurance ? What next ? Loads of ' Rory Bremner-type posts ' ( famous UK impressioist ) flying insults or whatever to whomever , and getting away with it ? God I hope not. Lets just play the games and have decent threads , and forget about the bitching ( except where you`ve no choice ! ), moaning, and altogether total non-ethics etc...etc....

p.s Has someone downloaded T.Alex`s NZ Story INP ? I was just wondering if he used the ' unlimited warp ' trick which I sent to a few of you guys a while back. This should be banned if so.( its a bit like the GnG scenario, that is , its unfair to a player who can complete the game normally ).If it`s allowed to stand , well then I`ll be total hypocrite and send a score in ( and scab few LB points into the bargain !)The GnG scores are STILL there. Then again, seems that the banned techniques don`t seem to be banned in most ( all? ) cases.I know its hard to police this 'banned' thing. Oh well , if ye can`t beat `em....join `em ( until we`re banned/deleted ).

Went a bit off the point there a bit with the original thread, but covered a few points and now me fingers are sore.......

Not quite in the same league as Ben Jos though :))!!!

Slan, ALEX

-- Alex Weir (alexweir@indigo.ie), January 21, 2000.

right now nearly none of the banned techniques are enforced by the MARP judgers. There will be a way where this will be a feature of marp in the future, but for now you will have to either complain to the user to zero out their score for a banned upload and also make sure you aren't using any banned techniques or making recordings for unplaybackable games (Last Blade 2 , Game Guru?) At least gameboy9 zeroed his score out very quickly when he uploaded the unplaybackable inp file for lastbld2, some people never playback their recordings after they record and manage to make themselves look pretty sloppy....

-- Chad (churritz@cts.com), January 21, 2000.

Alex does use an infinite warp trick to rack up most of his points in his TNZS recording. After point leeching though he goes on to 'almost' finish the game. He only failed to finish the game because In the last level the game crashes with a rom error which may well be an emulation error instead - he lost 3 lives (I think) before the emulation packed it in completely. The infinite warp technique is not banned as it is not on the banned technique list.

As a additional note - even if the technique was on the banned list it wouldn't matter because very few of the rules on MARP are ever enforced. The automated scripts would still register his high score and assign him full points anyway. A lot of people want things done about it but nothing ever is and probably never will be. That is the nature of MARP.

-- Tim Morrow (tjmorrow@bigpond.com), January 22, 2000.

Well in that case I`ll upload a score on NZ Story. I know the rules aren`t enforced, but someday hopefully they will. Don`t particularly like doing this, but it`s not on the banned list (yet). If/when the rules are enforced, I`ll gladly delete my score.

ALEX

-- Alex Weir (alexweir@indigo.ie), January 24, 2000.