Questions for Tom Hall
Posted: Fri May 05, 2017 0:20
I mentioned a while back in the "GPL" thread and more recently in the "Keen 7 tech demo" thread that I had contacted Tom Hall on twitter and asked him about important Keen issues-- such as a buying back the rights or what he had planned for TUIT.
There's a few things I'd like to point out about this experience: firstly, my last conversation with him included some questions given to me from our very own Keen community, secondly he seems to be fairly reachable and last of all he's also getting up there in age (sorry, but forgetfulness with age is a fact of life!), so between all of this I got an idea:
Would any of you be willing to give me questions for Tom Hall so we can "pick his brain" about how his unique knowledge of Keen?
There's a myriad of things we've wondered about or speculated on here (sometimes to ad nauseam)-- whether it be about Keen 1-6, TUIT, Dreams or GBC. So I say we strike while the iron is hot and find out directly from him.
The format would be this: people submit questions on here, then I go on my twitter account and tag him in a question like I did in our past two conversations. If he responds, I'll string the series of questions along. This sounds weird, I'm sure, but I'm having to work with twitter and this worked twice already.
Naturally I wouldn't be hitting him up everyday, I'd select 4 or 5 questions and wait a month or two between each spurt. But if he tells me to go away I'll respectfully not ask anything more (and this thread basically dies, haha).
Which brings me to my next point-- I won't be taking every question (but feel free to ask him yourself what doesn't get accepted-- this is just about questions coming from my account). Instead, I'll take what I feel are the best questions and sort them based on relevance and importance. Then before I go through with this, I'll post a heads up on here of what I plan to ask (including my own questions) for each "wave" of questions.
I do have a few rules, but just essential ones to not strain the thought process or intimidate anyone.
So if nothing else I say we avoid:
1. Asking whether he's played any of our fangames or mods.
This has been asked alot before and I think that by now he would've already played our stuff (I have my own ideas for why this is the case if anyone is curious) and this is coming from someone who's working on my own fangame-- but I'd rather concentrate on stuff that we don't know about Keen's original development or games, and that only Tom Hall does (i.e. details about TUIT), lest he becomes unavailable to readily contact again.
2. Asking Tom Hall (or Romero as well) to release any development materials or source code.
First off, like rule #1, this has been asked before and would've happened already. Also, if you look at both of my conversations with him, it sounds like he's actively asking ID for the rights back and is very much optimistic that his TUIT will happen eventually-- so getting development files aint happenin'
3. Asking about non-Keen games that Tom Hall has been involved in (i.e. Wolf3D, Doom1, ROTT, Anachronox, etc)
First of all, I'd say Tom Hall has been the most creatively involved with Keen (being that it's based on his childhood), whereas those other games were co-created with other people. Also, with those other games, his involvement has been pretty limited to single titles-- whereas Keen has a deeper, unexplored history, with an entirely cancelled game.
But I will make an exception for questions about his original involvement with Prey. (but Keen questions will take precedence over them)
I would also advise that we focus our efforts on TUIT, since that is what we know the least of. But I'm open to pretty much open to anything Keen related.
I'll post more rules if they come to me, but I don't want to get too bogged down in rules and I'll try to give clear justification for not accepting a question.
Also, if this takes off, I'll post a list of questions we've asked him (so far) and his response, as just an archival repository. Lastly, I've talked to a few people about this in the Keen community, and I know there is some bitterness towards Hall or Romero for not releasing stuff, like the source.
But if nothing else, please look at this as helping the community--we have a chance to learn stuff about Keen that we never knew before.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's what I've talked to him about before:
My "Keen 7 tech demo" conversation.
Preview:
My conversation about the rights to Keen and making a Keen-clone to avoid copyrights
Preview:
Tom Hall also came on here to promote "Worlds of Wander" and we were able to get in a few questions.
There's a few things I'd like to point out about this experience: firstly, my last conversation with him included some questions given to me from our very own Keen community, secondly he seems to be fairly reachable and last of all he's also getting up there in age (sorry, but forgetfulness with age is a fact of life!), so between all of this I got an idea:
Would any of you be willing to give me questions for Tom Hall so we can "pick his brain" about how his unique knowledge of Keen?
There's a myriad of things we've wondered about or speculated on here (sometimes to ad nauseam)-- whether it be about Keen 1-6, TUIT, Dreams or GBC. So I say we strike while the iron is hot and find out directly from him.
The format would be this: people submit questions on here, then I go on my twitter account and tag him in a question like I did in our past two conversations. If he responds, I'll string the series of questions along. This sounds weird, I'm sure, but I'm having to work with twitter and this worked twice already.
Naturally I wouldn't be hitting him up everyday, I'd select 4 or 5 questions and wait a month or two between each spurt. But if he tells me to go away I'll respectfully not ask anything more (and this thread basically dies, haha).
Which brings me to my next point-- I won't be taking every question (but feel free to ask him yourself what doesn't get accepted-- this is just about questions coming from my account). Instead, I'll take what I feel are the best questions and sort them based on relevance and importance. Then before I go through with this, I'll post a heads up on here of what I plan to ask (including my own questions) for each "wave" of questions.
I do have a few rules, but just essential ones to not strain the thought process or intimidate anyone.
So if nothing else I say we avoid:
1. Asking whether he's played any of our fangames or mods.
This has been asked alot before and I think that by now he would've already played our stuff (I have my own ideas for why this is the case if anyone is curious) and this is coming from someone who's working on my own fangame-- but I'd rather concentrate on stuff that we don't know about Keen's original development or games, and that only Tom Hall does (i.e. details about TUIT), lest he becomes unavailable to readily contact again.
2. Asking Tom Hall (or Romero as well) to release any development materials or source code.
First off, like rule #1, this has been asked before and would've happened already. Also, if you look at both of my conversations with him, it sounds like he's actively asking ID for the rights back and is very much optimistic that his TUIT will happen eventually-- so getting development files aint happenin'
3. Asking about non-Keen games that Tom Hall has been involved in (i.e. Wolf3D, Doom1, ROTT, Anachronox, etc)
First of all, I'd say Tom Hall has been the most creatively involved with Keen (being that it's based on his childhood), whereas those other games were co-created with other people. Also, with those other games, his involvement has been pretty limited to single titles-- whereas Keen has a deeper, unexplored history, with an entirely cancelled game.
But I will make an exception for questions about his original involvement with Prey. (but Keen questions will take precedence over them)
I would also advise that we focus our efforts on TUIT, since that is what we know the least of. But I'm open to pretty much open to anything Keen related.
I'll post more rules if they come to me, but I don't want to get too bogged down in rules and I'll try to give clear justification for not accepting a question.
Also, if this takes off, I'll post a list of questions we've asked him (so far) and his response, as just an archival repository. Lastly, I've talked to a few people about this in the Keen community, and I know there is some bitterness towards Hall or Romero for not releasing stuff, like the source.
But if nothing else, please look at this as helping the community--we have a chance to learn stuff about Keen that we never knew before.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's what I've talked to him about before:
My "Keen 7 tech demo" conversation.
Preview:
My conversation about the rights to Keen and making a Keen-clone to avoid copyrights
Preview:
Tom Hall also came on here to promote "Worlds of Wander" and we were able to get in a few questions.