The Magnetic Scrolls Memorial is online since the spring of 1997. Recently I discovered some old backups of the pages in their very early state. I cannot remember the exact date of the launch however the backups suggest something like late March or the first days of April. If you are curious how the pages looked like that time, you find some backup snapshots here: 10-07-97, 02-09-97, 10-10-97. Naturally most of the links do not work anymore. The backups also reflect the growth of the internet. The overall size of the MSM at the beginning was around 5 MB (now the MSM has more than 180 MB). Today it might be difficult to believe, but around 1997 it was rather hard to find 5 MB of reliable and affordable / free web space and the access to the internet was quite expensive (telephone line, limited capabilities of analog modems). So the pages moved their home several times. Lucky as I was there were always helpful and friendly people who offered web space for the pages (e.g. Matej Pokorn and Helena Kenda from jump.org, hope they are fine). Finally, things got much easier when if-legends.org started in 2000, providing the MSM - among other pages - with a constant home.

Below I try to answer some questions on the background, the status and the perspective of the Magnetic Scrolls Memorial.

How am I affiliated with Magnetic Scrolls? Why these pages?

The simple answer is: Not at all. I have never been affiliated with Magnetic Scrolls, Rainbird or any of their distributors. In 1985 I had just bought my first own computer - a Atari 520 STM (after using my dad's Apple IIe before). Shortly afterwards Magnetic Scrolls published The Pawn for the ST and it was one of the very first games I bought for "my machine". From the very beginning I was absolutely stunned by the game (and later even more by Guild of Thieves). It is hard to tell in retrospect but I guess that they had much influence in my decision to learn programming in C and Assembler, and to study computer science after school. Sure, looking at the games today this might be hard to understand. That time from my perspective as a 14 year old I was literally "talking to the machine". To shorten it: I tried a lot of games over the years, but have never been as paralyzed again as with the Magnetic Scrolls titles (although of course there have been other games I really liked a lot like Trinity and Planetfall). Over time I learned that many people had fond memories of the games and I guessed there should be a place to preserve them. Hence the pages...

How can I offer all the games material here if I am not affiliated with Magnetic Scrolls?

Again the simple (and sad) answer is: I can't. At least not when speaking in legal terms. Fact is that somebody holds the rights on almost everything that is available on these pages. Another fact is that I do not know who that might be (either individual or company). Virgin Games, the last distributor of Magnetic Scrolls' adventure titles was sold to Titus Interactive, later renamed to Avalon Interactive, which closed down some years ago. But already then the games had been unavailable for years. So technically it is illegal to play Magnetic Scrolls games if you do not own an original package, practically there are probably few options.

Many of the computers that were sold in the 80's are not working anymore. The games would disappear sooner or later. Even the fantastic Magnetic interpreter written by Niclas Karlsson, which makes the games playable on modern machines and operating systems can not help if you do not have the needed hardware anymore to transfer your original. To make it worse, the interpreter does not support all game versions, i.e. it does not support the 68000 native versions of the games (Amiga, Atari ST). Presumably a notable number of copies had been sold for these machines, but unless you still have a working Amiga or Atari ST, you are lost (yes, I am one of the "unlucky" guys, since I bought all my Magnetic Scrolls originals for the ST). So after evaluating that the games are neither sold directly nor are made available as licensed software anymore, I decided to put up at least enough material to play the games now and in the foreseeable future. You will not find disk images of the original games here, only the reduced interpreter files (although this might be taken as a subtleness and the disk images can be downloaded from several sites with great acceptance that are dedicated to emulation like the World of Spectrum or the NVG Amstrad archive).

The intent of this site is not to cause any damage. Other than e.g. with the Infocom titles I didn't find any clue that the Magnetic Scrolls games are still generating revenues somehow. If the right holder requests to take down material from this site I will gladly comply.

Don't I feel uncomfortable with this?

Yes, I do. The alternative is clear and easy: Shut down the site. But I think the work of Magnetic Scrolls is worth preserving. They produced games of extraordinary quality and surely were among the best in a genre that is fading and died commercially a long time ago. Over the time I have talked to many former employees of Magnetic Scrolls (very nice and friendly people indeed), and I had the impression that they liked digging up the past and this site. But it was also clear that this all happened a long time ago and should be treated as memories of the past. I simply hope that the site is in their spirit (which is of course in no way a legal entitlement).

Furthermore I hope that the site fulfills something like a "fair use approach" (although the DCMA and accompanying rights have no meaning here and a lawyer would probably easily prove the contrary).

Are the games objects of cultural value?
I dare to say yes, but this should be left up to your opinion.

Is the site commercial?
No, I am not earning a single Cent with it (but spending a lot).

Which effect is caused on a potential market?
From my sense I would guess that there is no relevant market. The prices that are usually paid for used packages are too low to derive a potential market (I bought Fish, Corruption, and Jinxter altogether for 7,50 Euro on Ebay) and I am providing here only the parts of the games that are necessary for playing. So the attractiveness of the original game packages should be unharmed...

How are you affected?

You should be aware that the site holds many documents and files that must be considered copyrighted by someone. So technically speaking you cannot access most parts of this site legally. Please decide for yourself how to deal with the unfortunate situation.