RichardHallas: So obviously what I'm suggesting *could* be done. But the chances that it will be done are essentially zero.
Wishbone: Hehe, I enjoy a good discussion, and I certainly don't think any less of you for having a different opinion. If I come off as antagonistic, I apologize. That is not my intention.
:-) Fine, no worries. I was just a bit concerned that we were getting into a pointless argument about nothing.
Wishbone: That said, what you are describing is not "by normal means".
Did I ever say it was?! ;-) It was you who used that phrase!
I'm probably at the older end of people here, which means that I grew up with computers in the 80s, I remember the 'good old games' from first time round, and to ME hacking means starting with a binary and pulling it apart to see how it works! E.g. One of the things I did in my youth was to hack the original Spectrum version of
Jet-Set Willy in order to work out how the in-game bleepy music routine worked, and thus replace the music with another tune. (Hardly the world's greatest claim to fame, but it's all my own!)
So I'm full of admiration for the guys who started with the release version of Heroes III and hacked it about until WoG was the final outcome. An incredible piece of work, in my book. And, I mean, that really
is taking hacking to a mad extreme... but hats off to the people who did it.
With the sort of wares we find here on GOG, though, that kind of approach (i.e. hacking the binary)
will sometimes be the only way of achieving something like this. That isn't to say I expect anyone to do it, or that it'd make economic sense or have any other claim to rationality! I'd merely, simply, like to see it happen! :-) And actually, it probably wouldn't be
that big a job for the kind of person who's written some of the other Heroes hacks, so if such a person is reading...
Wishbone: Still, technically, we're both right. It
is possible, and it
would be a nice feature to have, even if it is not doable by normal software development techniques, or economically feasible.
We are indeed agreed, then! Aren't many of the best things in life rather like this, though? (Worth doing for their own sake, rather than for the money.)