Question

Hey debra or rubber ducky, i know this is a way over asked question.. but I'm just wondering how the whole coldstone biz is going. lol i haven't grown impatient even after like 3 years of waiting haha but im just wondering. is it offline from now on or are they still trying to get it working?

It is a fair question. I'm sure it's on the minds of everyone who visits here.

The truth is I have heard nothing official on this subject in about six months. I still believe that if the project was dropped they would inform us of that. I strongly suspect that those "working" on CS/PoG have been placed on other projects "temporarily" and are not actually making progress as we would like it. The last official word I had was that they thought they were very close to completion.

Debra is on vacation now for about two weeks so she is unable to express her thoughts here at this time.

Okay, thanks for answering . I'll keep waiting until it's done or cancelled.

I can now give you a good and probably accurate reason for our latest delay. Both Wiretap and Snapz fail to work with the new Intel computers. Since these two programs are a large part of Ambrosia"s present income, their ability to function with newer computers is paramount. This fix is also proving to be more troublesome than expected.

More work has and is being done on CS/PoG, but only with secondary priority when time allows.

Our pet project has been forced into the back seat again, but is still on the bus.

That's good to know. It takes a lot to run a business, so I understand that they need to set priorities, and since coldstone obviously isn't incredibly huge at the moment, it wouldn't be high on their list.

This is semi-good news, though

I am VERY glad to hear they are still working on it!

Question....... is it Ambrosia that's working on Coldstone....... or is it that other company (can't remember the name). Somewhere along the line remember reading about two different companies that had someting to do with Coldstone. What's the relationship between these two companies?

Just curious.

<Edit>
Beenox... that's the other company.

This post has been edited by thumbprint : 08 August 2006 - 09:26 AM

Beenox, the company which originally developed Coldstone and made Pillars of Garendall with it, has been sold to another company which has no interest in the updating of the software. Therein lies the problem. AmbrosiaSW was initially only a merchant for these products. Now ASW has the responsibility for fixing the software and game that they did not create. This has got to be a tough job considering that they are getting no help at all from the creator.

So yes, it is Ambrosia that's working on Coldstone. Because there is no one else who can or will.

Original relationship? - producer / seller.

Present relationship? - non-existent, I would guess.

So........ Beenox made Coldstone....... Ambrosia bought Beenox....... now Ambrosia is slacking in fixing Coldstone up? Why can't they just get the Beenox folks to do it?

No, Ambrosia did not buy Beenox. It was bought by a third party (which I cannot recall at the moment). ASW cannot get the Beenox people to do it because they work for sombody else now, and that somebody else has no interest in the project.

I would not call Ambrosia's actions "slacking." They are faced with a tough situation. They could just throw their hands up in the air and say, "We're sorry, we didn't create this mess and we can't fix it." Instead, they have given some of their staff the task of trying to make it work. However, this same staff must earn their pay by producing and fixing current projects which earn the company money to pay the bills.

If anything, I'd say that Ambrosia has shown itself to be a very honorable organization by even attempting to work on this which was not a "money-maker" for them from the start.

You've got to remember that the real troubles started when Apple went to OS X rendering a lot of existing software obsolete. On top of that, the Intel Macs add a new set of problems for the software developers. I admit I know very little about coding for software, which is why I liked Coldstone so much because it did not require the user to learn coding to make a game, but I do know that changes in the operating system mean that a lot of my favorite applications no longer function.

Just a brief note - Beenox was acquired by Activision, up until which ASW was in negotiation with Beenox to update Coldstone. It was after the acquisition, when Beenox was no longer independent and could therefore not make its own decisions about product support, that Ambrosia was faced with the need to develop an in-house solution to the Coldstone problem.

As RD has said, we have heard that the update is still happening, it is simply on the backburner due to financial concerns with flagship products such as SnapzProX and WireTap. Ambrosia is a small business that has to make business decisions, and they have no doubt lost a not insignificant number of sales due to Snapz (their best selling product, if I remember correctly) being unsupported natively on the Intel-Mac platform. Apple's fast transition was, I assume, a bit offputting for the ASW team (Apple originally announced Intel macs by June 2006, transition completing by end 2007. We're now in August 2006, and they're pretty much done). Nevertheless, I'm sure that Dominic will devote such time to Coldstone as he is able. It is just, sadly, not a high priority.

-Andiyar

Just wondering if there has been some new info since they have finished making their other programs itelmac capable? Also will coldstone work in classic mode on 10.3.7? Just wondering because my older machine is dying.

Thanks.

David

@pedrith, on Sep 11 2006, 08:08 PM, said in Question:

Just wondering if there has been some new info since they have finished making their other programs itelmac capable?

You can be assured that as soon as anyone here knows of any new officially sanctioned info concerning Coldstone if will be posted as quickly as we can type. None of your moderators have any desire to withhold good news. Bad news will be posted almost as fast but it will be harder to focus on the keyboard through the tears.

Perhaps some other member can relate experience with OS 10.3.7. You might use the search feature for threads about 10.3. I believe the current system is 10.4.7.

~RD

Steps onto the Hallowed Ground... Wow... It still exists...
Hey All. I must apologize for my absence... No way to get online. Now that my phone is set up for this... well... lets just say... i'm back. and i have an idea, one in which i wish to see how useful it is. what if we did a donation to ambrosia... directly to coldstone? even as far as funraisers to help andrew and crew to help out.

Oop. Sry for the multipost. seems i have a character limit as well... grr... well... what thoughts is there about this? is it something we as a community see as something we can do to help out, or is it a waste of time? I've already written out a letter of intent which will go out on sat on the users of CS' behalf? well? good idea, yes? no? maybe?

(Duplication edited out ~ RD)

I sincerely believe that whatever you want to call it - be it "donation," "bribery," "kick-back," or "gift" - it is a bad idea, and will not speed the achievement of the desired goal. This is one of those areas where, if money talks, it's going to say the wrong thing.

As slow and as painful as the progress may be, let us allow ASW the space to do what they can. They know we are out here. Please do not harass them even if you think your intentions are good. I advise against sending that letter.

wow now that got turned around now didn't it? i'm not bribing nor harassing rd. the only thing the letter states is that hey, i (we) are here to help. everyone knows coldstone has been put on the backburner for other profitable tasks at hand. this is simply a cs fundraiser if you will. so that proper time and personal can take care of cs. but again this is all up to andrew. it was merely an idea.

I also advise against sending the letter. Good intentions, though.

@pedrith, on Sep 12 2006, 12:08 AM, said in Question:

Just wondering if there has been some new info since they have finished making their other programs itelmac capable? Also will coldstone work in classic mode on 10.3.7? Just wondering because my older machine is dying.

Thanks.

David

i'm running 10.3.8 and PoG works fine in classic so i would guess coldstone would too.

@rubber-ducky, on Sep 15 2006, 12:39 AM, said in Question:

I sincerely believe that whatever you want to call it - be it "donation," "bribery," "kick-back," or "gift" - it is a bad idea, and will not speed the achievement of the desired goal. This is one of those areas where, if money talks, it's going to say the wrong thing.

As slow and as painful as the progress may be, let us allow ASW the space to do what they can. They know we are out here. Please do not harass them even if you think your intentions are good. I advise against sending that letter.

They would not be legally allowed to accept donations, since they are not a non-profit charity organization. The poster certainly has good intentions, but the IRS won't allow them to take the money.

Besides, that donation amount would have to be in the tens- or even hundreds-of-thousands of dollars to make it worth their while. In other words, it would have to be worth whatever their current flagship products are worth, in order for them to "skip over" those products and concentrate on Coldstone.