------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Games Programmer's Beta Testers List (GPBeta) Version 1.1b ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Released: 15th October, 1994 Last Updated: 21st January, 1996 Moderated by Daniel Hatadi djh@zip.com.au Distributed monthly on rec.games.programmer ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Inspiration Strikes ------------------- After a brief flash of pure and total inspiration, the document you are reading was conceived. I was thinking about asking a few people on the net to test my game for me. Then I thought, "I mustn't be the only one that wants to do this!". A couple of months later, the Beta Tester's List was born. Put simply, it is a list of people willing to test games. A lot of these people are working on games of their own, so chances are that there will be a lot of swapping going on (hopefully!). The idea is that you have a look at the list and pick some people to send your game to. MIME is an easy way to do this. It is basically an extension to normal email that allows you to attach binary files to your message. It seems that quite a lot of mailers support this (e.g Pine). Otherwise, there's always uuencode/uudecode! I think that if you're actually working on a game and have this list, then chances are you'll be able to work something out. At the moment, there are currently 51 testers on the list (including myself), from all over the world, and in all sorts of age groups. All these people are people who responded to my original posts in the newsgroup rec.games.programmer. Format ------ Each entry in the list has about 4 lines dedicated to it. Here's how it works: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Name email@address Age Location Company Current project/s Hardware information Miscellaneous comment (often just the sort of games the person likes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Not every entry sticks religiously to this format, but it's often quite clear what the details are. If there are any problems, mail me and I'll do my best to help (and fix the problem for the next version). Vouching -------- At the moment, none of the testers on this list have been vouched for (including myself). As security is a highly important issue (look what happened with Doom 2), this is what I thought could be done about it. Any tester on the list that tests a game for someone and is found to be reliable will get an asterisk (*) placed in front of their name. If this happens again (with a different game author), another asterisk will be placed there. This continues up to a maximum of 4 asterisks. If no-one likes this idea, tell me about it. If I don't receive any complaints I'll assume that either there are none, or no-one's read the list. Security -------- As I've already mentioned, this is probably the biggest problem with beta testing, even in huge, successful games companies. What can happen is that once a beta tester has got their grubby little hands on a game, they start spreading it, especially when the game is near-complete. So, I'm hoping that I can convince people to use the list, without having to worry about this. Firstly, if anyone causes any sort of trouble and is found out, bang!, they're off the list. No second chances. This may sound a bit harsh, but it is one of the few ways of preventing the testers from causing further harm. With a large company, who hire beta testers, offenders will just be blacklisted from that company. There is nothing stopping them going to another. With this list however, getting chucked off could mean not being able to test hundreds (maybe!) of new games. I believe this gives a tester quite a lot of incentive to behave themselves! Secondly, the original messages asking for testers were posted ONLY to rec.games.programmer. I think that the list could have been absolutely HUGE if I had posted it to the comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.* groups, and I think that a lot of unreliable people would have ended up on the list. So I decided to stick to just the one group in the hope that a lot of the testers would be people working on games themselves, and so would be more understanding. Finally, use your own judgement! If there's someone that happens to live 'round the corner from you, find out where they live, and if they cause trouble, boom! Down goes their home! Get creative, but don't be too afraid to give your game out for testing. Reasons ------- Why use the list? Why get people to test your game at all? I think the answer to the latter question is obvious - bugs! It's impossible to find all the bugs in a game by yourself, and you can't always trust your friends :). Also, there may be some fundamental flaws in the design of your game, that just never surfaced, because you would never have thought of them. When you spend 24 hours a day, 7 days a week working on a game, it's pretty damn near impossible to remain completely objective about it (i.e it _is_ impossible). So spread your game around, and get as much feedback as possible. Even just one other person's viewpoint can improve the playability, etc. of your game immmensely. This is a topic I could probably go on about for hours, but I better quit while I'm ahead! Statistics (sadisitics) ----------------------- 51 testers, four Australians, countless Americans, a couple of Africans, a few of the English, ages from 14 to 29, mostly 486 computers, and a whole heap of celebrities (well, maybe not a heap of them). We've got the author of XQuest, currently racing up the internet game charts, the maintainer and major contributor to the PC Game Programmer's Encyclopedia, and umm, some others (like me!). Feedback -------- I'd like some feedback on the list, and I'm always ready for new testers! If you have absolutely anything to say about the list, mail me! I generally respond pretty quickly (I don't like my mail box getting all cluttered up), so if you don't get a reply, mail me again - maybe I deleted your mail by accident, or it just never got there in the first place. Here's my address again: djh@zip.com.au In Summary ---------- Get the list, make a game, and give your game to some people on the list. They'll tell you what's wrong with it and what's not. Then they'll give you their game, ad infinitum... The list will be out monthly on rec.games.programmer, although it may soon end up on the World Wide Web, and is on an ftp site. Have a squizz at ftp://x2ftp.oulu.fi/pub/msdos/programming/biz/gpbeta11.txt. Got a problem? Mail me. Vouching for someone? Mail me. Just feel like mailing me? Mail me. Daniel Hatadi Bulbous Software djh@zip.com.au ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Glossary: --------- Oh, by the way (BTW), here's a glossary of most of the abbreviations used in the list. If they seem a bit obvious, don't hassle me, you'd be surprised how strange some of these 'words' appear to some people. 2x CDROM = Double Speed CDROM CL542x = Cirrus Logic 542x GUS = Gravis Ultrasound soundcard SB/Pro = Sound Blaster/Pro/16 SCC1 = Roland Sound Canvas General Midi soundcard LAN = Local Area Network Linux = Operating system PAS = Pro Audio Spectrum soundcard P5 = Pentium processor VLB = Vesa Local Bus VRAM = Video RAM ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ian Badcoe badcoe@bsa.bristol.ac.uk 27 Bristol, UK U of Bristol Programmable/reconfiguable robots game 386/40 8Mb RAM, Cirrus SVGA 1Mb, Internet Connection (via disks in my pocket) Prefer games with a little thought required but which still have action ! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tim Barnette tbarnett@gatecoms.gatecom.com 24 Detroit, Mi USA 486DX/33 8Mb RAM, 1 Gig HD, Trident SVGA 1Mb, 16 bit Soundblaster, Video Capture/Television Tuner Card, 14.4K Bocamodem. Interests: Action Games, Animation Libraries, Virtual Reality. I like action games, especially the old style (donkey kong, frogger, pacman) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Beth Basta ebasta@acns.fsu.edu 21 Tallahassee, Florida Business Council local gameing dial up connection 486SX/25, 4Mb RAM, CDROM, SBPro, Access to Mac SE and Linux. My spouse tested the original Third Riech board game so strategy or historic games are welcome. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Malcolm Boyle mal@nottm.demon.co.uk 26 Nottingham, England Currently working on 3D mapping for a game I have been trying to build for over a year. 486 DX 33 as a minimum, 4Mb RAM, any old SVGA graphics card, no sound as yet. I would like to speak to people who could test my work so far I would also be extremely interested in starting a new joint project with other lone coders and see if we can make a decent game together to match DOOM. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wade Brainerd wade@walt.caps.maine.edu 16 Orono, Maine Vertigo/Breakpoint Software Ultima style RPG w/twists 486DX2/66 8Mb RAM, Quadtel S3811, SBPro, 28.8k Modem Interested in all kinds of games... Experienced Developer ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Glenn Bussell bus@halls1.cc.monash.edu.au 19 Melbourne, Australia Working on graphics library. 386DX-40 4Mb RAM, Trident 8900 1Mb, SBPro, CD-ROM Likes mainly arcade games. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dj Cox dennis@ponder.csci.unt.edu Dallas Tx WTS Bureau Systems,Inc. (214)920-1900 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael Dean siden@rci.ripco.com 16.75 Chicago, USA 486DX/2-66MHZ, 8Mb RAM, 128k cache, Western Digital VLB SVGA 1Mb video RAM (Paradise chipset), 14.4k fax/modem, 16-bit SoundBlaster compatible (Gateway 2000), 2x CD-ROM, true Microsoft mouse, joysticks (2), Programming since I was 7. I've started working on a game myself. I hope to do some fast 3-d graphics in it. Like:Doom-like games, shoot-em-up games, games with cool graphics. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rainer Deyke rainer@mdddhd.fc.hp.com Fort Collins, Colorado, USA 386SX/16 5Mb RAM, VGA (no SVGA), SBPro If it runs on my PC at a reasonable speed, I'll test it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Joe Dickinson jtdickin@ouray.denver.colorado.edu I want to write a game for the PC unlike Omega race. Still in the thinking up stages (Omega Race from Hell). 486DX, 16Mb RAM, Roland Sound Canvas, Sound Blaster, joysticks and trackball. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mike Dussault mdussault@aol.com Washington, USA Monster Media Kickass 3D multiplayer asteroids game 486DX/66 16Mb RAM, Viper VLB 2 meg, SBPro, 28.8k modem Totally into multiplayer competition ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kris Eifler veifler@cs.tamu.edu 21 College Station, TX ThoughtCrime, Inc. We are currently working on a few items: "Net Kill" an "Ultima" style network game, Insanitea! a tile-based parody game We develop on 486-DX2 DOS and NT platforms, and we have a few projects working on a SGI-Indy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Graham Evans G.D.Evans@dur.ac.uk 20 Newcastle, UK none 3D modeling of human/animals for raytracing & animations 486DX2/50 8Mb RAM, AVGA (Vesta) 512k, SBPro Interested in graphics and AI of games ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Feldman u914097@student.canberra.edu.au 22 Canberra,Australia 486SX/33 4Mb RAM, Trident 9400 1Mb, Sb 1.0, 2400 Modem Likes adventure,strategy,VR,landscapes,simulators ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Robin Findley rfindley@umr.edu 19 Rolla, Missouri I am currently developing tools for game programming and will need Beta testers for these tools as well as games made with them. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sean Givan kinsman@jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca 20 Fredericton, Canada 386/33 4Mb RAM, Trident SVGA 1 MB, SB, 2400 BPS Modem Prefers action-fighting and fighting games. Especially good at critiquing fighting games. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Otto Grajeda ottog@mercury.sfsu.edu 23 S.F. Calif. Macintosh fanatic- own IIci 8/120, Supra v.32bis. Interests/hobbies: technology + entrepreneurship, sports, game design, game beta testing, computer science + innovation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Daniel Hatadi fester@jolt.mpx.com.au 21 Sydney, Australia Bulbous Software Tetris/Columns type game 486DX/33, 8Mb RAM, 340HD, ET4000 512K, SBPro, GUS 1Mb, 28.8k Bocamodem Very interested in 'real' 3D type games, and puzzle games. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Evan Harper harper4@hale.yerkes.uchicago.edu 14 Lake Geneva, WI. No company, A laser tag like maze war game. A Macintosh 840/AV with 16 megs RAM (soon more), 900 megs available(HD) Rasterops Video card, 16" color monitor, Localtalk connection I like 3d texture mappedgames, as well as rpg and net games. I prefer arcade like games, but any thing except card games are fun for me. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Peter Hinz peter@cs.uct.ac.za 24 Cape Town, South Africa 486DX/66, 16Mb RAM, Ultra VGA 2MB, SBPro, 14.4K Modem, CD-ROM Mainly 3D, action, platform + adventure (PC platform) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Greg Hjelstrom, tommy@nevada.edu, 23, Las Vegas Nevada GregWare ;-) (just kidding) "Cars" is my current project. 486DX/33, 4Mb RAM, Oak SVGA card, SB Pro... (hmmm.. what else...) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thomas Hoover jhoover@cs.tamu.edu 20 Bryan/College Station, TX Thought Crime Inc. Network Protocols/Protected Mode/Windows/Comm 486DX/33, 8Mb RAM, ET4000 w1MB, or Diamond Speedstar Pro VLB, ISP-16 (SBPro-16 lookalike -- BAD), 14.4K/Ethernet/etc By the way.. I'm currently stuck in college for another year (Senior CS-Texas A&M University). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jes Joudrey n4rl@spitfire.unb.ca 20 Fredericton NB. Can Pillar Computer Systems Enjoys anything that's done well. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jari Karjala jka@nic.funet.fi Helsinki, Finland 486DX/33, 8Mb RAM, CL5426/1MB/ISA, SB2 clone Likes action games, hates RPGs ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Emre Kiciman emrek@ocf.berkeley.edu Pretty close to Berkeley I am an amateur games programmer on an IBM 386/33 w/paradise SVGA and a Soundblaster. I use Turbo C++ and TASM. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael Kleinhenz m_kleinh@informatik.uni-kl.de 20 Kaiserslautern,Germany Member of the NewVision Core Team Hi-end graphics adventure "Schattenkrieger" ("Shadowwarrior" in English.. There will also been an English version of it..) 486DX2/66 4Mb RAM, Cirrus VLB 1MB, SBPro, DOS/WINDOWS & LINUX/X-WINDOWS Loves graphics adventures and strategic simulations ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeff Land landj@orion.cc.andrews.edu 16 Berrien Center, Michigan, USA 486DX2/66 8Mb RAM, PAS 16, 14.4K Modem Loves RPG and adventure games!! I love to play and program games!! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saw Meng Leong isc40563@nus.sg 21 Singaporeg 486SX/33 4Mb RAM, 14.4K Modem Undergrad hobbyist Loves adventures, RPGs, even text-games ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Johan List jlist@xs4all.nl 21 Amsterdam, Holland No company yet DroidZ - very new project 486DXL/40, 4Mb RAM, 14.4k modem, mouse/joystick, SoundBlaster 2.0, Trident 8900 SVGA card (512K), VGA colour monitor (With max. res. of 640x480x256) Personal remarks: I like every sort of game, except hardcore RPG's with all that number crunching. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Mackey mdm1004@cus.cam.ac.uk 23 Cambridge, UK. Independent :) XQuest v1.1: bigger and better! 486DX/33 4Mb RAM, Paradise 1Mb, SB v1.0 Action games, RPGs and TIE Fighter... Old Crystal Quest addict :). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bryan Parker parker@cs.utexas.edu Austin, Texas USA I'm currently involved in a couple of game projects 486DX2/66, 4Mb RAM, Genoa SVGA, SB16 14.4k modem I like ALL types of games ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- George Petryk geo@llc.org 23 Quebec,Canada -- -- Educational and RPG games 386DX/25, 4Mb RAM, ATI 512K, SBPro + Lapc1, 14.4k modem RPG, strategic and action games ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Graham Prouse, gprouse@gucis.cit.gu.edu.au, 21, Brisbane Australia No company, A scrolling Rugby League Game & a tiling library 486DX2/66, 16Mb RAM, Trident 1mb, Sound Blaster My TRS80 colour computer 1 can kick your Cray any day. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chris Rasmus, crasmus@mailer.fsu.edu, 22, 2204 Trenton Circle, PC, FL 32405 Private, 2-player split-screen real-time top-down tile-based CRPG *grin* 486/33SX, 4Mb RAM, SVGA (unknown card), no sound, hooked into LAN Jesus is Lord of Lords and King of Kings and He's coming back SOON! FSU PC campus Lab assistant working with 20+ LAN'd machines w/Windows 3.1.1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Robert Rendell rendell@cs.monash.edu.au 25 Melbourne, Australia (intermittantly!) working on AIs and natural language for NPCs Amiga 2000, plus access to an IBM 486 and a Mac Quadra text adventures, roguelike games without combat, and god-games (sim, populous) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Paul Reynolds par2808@rit.edu 18 Rochester, NY 486DX/33, 8Mb RAM, 250HD, 2x CDROM, PAS 16, Diamond Speedstar Pro w/1 Mb VRAM R.I.T. Interested in RPG, action, and adventure games. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rick Savoia savoia@okemo.sqa.stratus.com 28 Boston, Ma My own company? None. My job, however is SQA 486DX/33, 8Mb RAM, SB, 14.4k modem, SVGA with Cirrus Chipset Graphic adventures, Fast action games, and the occasional RPG ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Deepak Saxena--inferno@sonata.cc.purdue.edu 19 years old, West Lafayette,IN,US Stil in college but want to go into game development after that P5-90, 8Mb RAM, 320meg HD, sb16, 14.4k modem, running Linux and DOS Interested in seeing more high-quality role playing games from shareware ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Robert Shaw RAS1563@ritvax.isc.rit.edu P5/66, 540HD, 2x CDROM, Diamond Viper VLB 2Mb VRAM, 14.4k modem. I am most interested in playing action adventure games and also strategic games where thinking is involved. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brent Smith swedish@netcom.com 29 background: game programmer with two commercial games. Interests: sims & strategic (though I also play with Adventure & Action) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grant Smith denthor@beastie.cs.und.ac.za 19 Durban, South Africa Asphyxia Demoteam Coder PC only, will test all games to destruction! ;-) 386-40DX 4Mb RAM, Trident 8900 512k, SB Mono, 2400 Modem ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tim Sullivan, sullivan@infomatch.com, 22, Vancouver, Canada The Servants of Technology, R&D (communications and graphics) 486SLC/2 w/copro, 8Mb RAM, GUS 1 Mb, 550 meg HD, CD, VESA gfx. Interested in all kinds of games, esp. puzzle, RPG and 3/4 view. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shawfe Sung jucius@eden.rutgers.edu 20 New Brunswick, NJ, USA 386DX/25 4MB, Trident 4MB, SB16, 2400K Modem Loves RPG's and simulations ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- John Swartz stujswar@acs.eku.edu 25 Richmond, KY USA Sandbird Software Brudal Baddle (Mortal Kombat type) & Outlaw 1997 486DLC/40 8 Mb RAM, Orchid Farenheit 1280 1Mb, SB, 14.4K Modem, SUNCOM GamePad. Interested in Marketable Games, any genre. Working on GOLF (windows) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Timur Tabi timur@vnet.ibm.com 25 Boca Raton, FL Native OS/2 games only IBM M.U.L.E. for OS/2 and BattleTech/2 Pentium/60 32Mb RAM, #9GXE 2MB, SB16, 14.4K Fax/Modem, OS/2 3.0 486/66, 24Mb RAM, XGA-2, MPU-401, OS/2 3.0 386/25, 387, 16Mb RAM, XGA-2, SB/MCV, 14.4K Fax/Modem, OS/2 3.0 Interested in native OS/2 games or testing DOS/Win games under OS/2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chuck Thier chuckt@io.com 18 Austin, TX Quantum FX a comedy platform game 386/33 8Mb RAM, Oak 1MB, SB16, 14.4K, OS/2 2.1 Likes all games. Can test DOS games under OS/2! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thomas Trocha 2:242/42.87#edgar@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de 18 DN/GERM. Stampede Software Adventures,Roleplaying Games 386DX40/1MB, OAK VGA/Soundblaster 2.0/Yoriko 14k4 Modem Loves Adventures,Roleplaying Games... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- David Vandenberg cs325317@mailbox.uq.oz.au 20 Brisbane, Australia Psionic Software Arcade Shoot-em-up 386DX/40, 4Mb RAM, ET4000 1Mb, SB, PAS16, GUS 1Mb, 14.4K Modem Arcade action - shoot-em-ups, platforms, combat, PINBALL! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tom Wettstein tlwettst@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu 19 386DX/20, 4Mb RAM, SpeedStar 1Meg, 14400 Intel Modem, SBPro Pentium 60 8 Meg Ram, STB 1 Meg, 14400 USR, SoundScape 16, CD-ROM, PCI Bus Any Games (except Role Playing) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- David Wu wudavid@ecf.utoronto.edu 20 Toronto Ontario 3D stuff / Dynamics (nothing significant, just muddling about.) 486DX/50, 4Mb RAM, Oak 1Mb, SB 2.0, GUS Likes 3D stuff, algorithims etc. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Andre van Wyk avw@mickey.iaccess.za 27 Cape Town, South Africa Button Software Abmis the Lion (arcade action puzzle game) 386DX/40, 4Mb RAM, 512K VGA, Adlib, B/W scanner, 2400 Modem Designing games is an outlet for a creative mind. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Phew!