Forums > Game Forums > Will Harvey's Music Construction Set > DMCS - lump it?
Pseudo_Intellectual (66362) on 1/31/2012 10:22 PM · Permalink · Report
Cleaning up my Amiga midden, I have found the manual for the Amiga version of this software, the "Deluxe Music Construction Set", a related (same cover art!) but distinct (extended capabilities) piece of software. Should I enter it in as a new item or just file it as a new platform? Really I just want to enter its credits, but to do so I have to wade into a fray of problems -- whether any of these versions belong lumped together (whether the Apple IIgs version was ever actually released, even), and of course whether we even track them, as non-"game" software. Don't want to put in the work for a new entry only to have that one sent back AND this one taken down 8)
Have found a few manuals of other interesting early EA application software in the search, eg. Deluxe Paint.
Patrick Bregger (301035) on 2/1/2012 5:01 AM · Permalink · Report
Preparing my entry for Powerpoint right now.
No, seriously, just because it is old and was published by Electronic Arts does not make it a game. To my knowledge it does not even feature a pseudo mini game like Mario Paint.
To answer the question itself, I think the Amiga version would be a new entry. Except not because it is not a game by any stretch of imagination.
Pseudo_Intellectual (66362) on 2/1/2012 6:52 AM · Permalink · Report
No, I'm not trying to build a case for entering that other EA utility software; I'm just trying to suss out some logical extension of this being here to include another version of this also being here. I presume you would sooner see it go?
Pseudo_Intellectual (66362) on 2/1/2012 6:54 AM · Permalink · Report
It's puzzling to see that five founding Mobygames fathers dutifully contributed and updated this entry, another five reviewed it without any raising a fuss about to what extent it was a game. Trixter must have known darned well what was and wasn't a game, and they must have had some rationale that allowed them to play along. I'm just very curious what it was, and when we left it behind.
vedder (70862) on 2/1/2012 8:28 AM · Permalink · Report
I don't think it should be in our database either. Neither should similar software such as: http://www.mobygames.com/game-group/music-mtv-music-generator-series
Pseudo_Intellectual (66362) on 2/1/2012 7:12 PM · Permalink · Report
I don't know -- looking at their screenshots, they're clearly very game-y -- it looks like a toy rather than a tool, published by a game-making company to be used on what was overwhelmingly a game-playing machine. It definitely falls on the "entertainment software" side of things, which is not a great overlap with our mission here -- but at the same time, neither completely unrelated! I'm especially inclined to accept these when they're made for game consoles.
Even Wikipedia mounts a weak defense of Music Construction Set's gaminess -- "Though it is entertainment software, strictly speaking it is not a game, though it is often lumped together with them. It is also considered edutainment since users could learn a bit about music notation by using it."
(And it would be interesting and even useful to track game-company app software development the same way that it would be to track cancelled and prototype games: it shows what certain employees were working on at a particular moment in time, and perhaps reveals capabilities of the application that then turn up in later games. Some interviews discussed how the MCS's development was prompted by a demand to Will Harvey to include music in his first game, Lancaster... and how the AppleIIgs version of the software was shelved as a commercial product but still used to provide the soundtracks to that platform's ports of zany golf and the immortal. It's interesting in that it helps present a fuller picture, a more complete story -- filling blanks to indicate why certain game events happened when they did, if a person's availability or a technological development was a necessary prerequisite.)