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Star Wars Pit Droid - How can I save the 'droids??
6:31 PM EDT 7/31/06
A few years ago I purchased Star Wars Pit Droid from scholastic.com. The software was downloaded from their site and came with 5 user licenses. The 'game' (this is actually one of the best pieces of reasoning and logic software I've ever seen) has been installed on several of our children's computers and has been very popular with both children and adults since then. I have been attempting to buy additional licenses. Scholastic.com does not carry the game any longer. Lucas Learning (the designer/developer) will only support games sold by them. It was designed to run on Win95/98/Me, however I also have installed on an XP and it works fine
So, since no one from sales or design (scholastic.com LucasArts.com) seems interested, is there anyway around the code security for the download? I'm not trying to add more than the five units I originally purchased, but three of them are Win98s and...well...have seen better days. Plus the fact that they are ending their lives being beat upon by three year olds.
Again, this is a great piece of software and I just hate to see it go away for lack of key code. Any help would be appreciated.
May the Force be with you at warp 4, always and thanks,
David E. Johnson
Computer Tech Support
Nampa Public Library
101 11th Ave. S.
Nampa, Idaho 83651
djohnson@nampalibrary.org
208-468-5810 phone
208-465-2277 fax
PS I've also posted this on TechSoup. D
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Re: Star Wars Pit Droid - How can I save the 'droids??
11:26 AM EDT 8/1/06
as a reply to David E. Johnson.
So, what I'm assuming, but you don't really say, is that you have the original installation files, but you have lost the key code?
Just to check the obvious, have you looked for it in the program? I don't know whether this game runs in a normal window, but if it does, the About screen under Help will often display this info. If it is all non-standard, I would still poke around looking for it.
Otherwise, a couple quick searches turned up this game for sale both on Ebay and through Amazon (not actually from Amazon, but from one of the small new and used sellers on the site). I bet old copies are for sale elsewhere as well. The copies I saw were all $20 or less.
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Re: Star Wars Pit Droid - How can I save the 'droids??
12:56 PM EDT 8/1/06
as a reply to David E. Johnson.
David, I love the catchy subject of your post --it got my attention!
You bring up an interesting issue in terms of licensing and disappearing vendors. With all the interactive gaming being introduced into libraries, this may become more of an issue.
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Re: Star Wars Pit Droid - How can I save the 'droids??
3:53 PM EDT 8/1/06
as a reply to Dale Musselman.
Sorry, I wasn't clearer. The 'original disk' was a download from Scholastic.com. A purchase verification email was sent with the key/security code. This was good for 5 installs or reinstalls of the product. I still have the installation numbers, but, I've installed or reinstalled it five times. Well, here at the Nampa Public Library, the last duty station for a computer before it becomes an organ donor is the children's area. When I lose the machines that have Pit Droids installed on them, that's it. I had seen the eBay possibilities, however, the purchase from Scholastic.com was $14.95 and included the 5 licenses. If purchasing, I was hoping to find some sort of similar deal.
Thanks for responding.
David E. Johnson
Computer Tech Support
Nampa Public Library
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Re: Star Wars Pit Droid - How can I save the 'droids??
4:19 PM EDT 8/1/06
as a reply to David E. Johnson.
Wow, that's some interesting licensing... Not really even a per seat or installation license exactly - just based on the number of times you run the installation routine? I guess that explains why it was only $14.95.
So I assume that the installation file keeps track of how many times it has been used? And is it packaged into a single executable?
On the other hand. If you believe that you have the legal right to have the game installed on 5 computers (and from your original post, that seems to be your thinking), then purchasing a single copy on CD may still be the answer. Because while your downloadable version may be counting the number of times used, a CD version couldn't, unless it was phoning home at each installation.
Dale
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