The Mike Hardy Saga, Part III: Insanity
(note: read parts I and II if you haven’t already)
I am willing to give Michael J. Hardy the benefit of the doubt. However, the fact that he takes other people’s work and claims it as his own does not sit well with me. He also happens to claim that he is a part of a software company called Asylum Studios. Honestly, I have no idea which Asylum Studios he’s talking about, but I doubt it really matters anyways. It all seems the same after a while.
Let me go into the “products” Mr. Hardy has “created” under the Asylum Studios name that have to do with Doom. First, there’s Asylum v1.666, which is just a repackaged version of the prBoom engine and the original Doom. Next, we have Asylum 2, which is more of the same, except this time he repackages Final Doom. Finally, there is Asylum Gold (and the extra page he made to store files), which is, again, more of the same, except this time it is the popular Doom modification Requiem.
Note the “Buy Now” buttons on all of these pages (I suggest you not click them). According to Todd Hollenshead of id Software, Mr. Hardy has never received permission from id to sell copies of their games, which is not surprising. Mr. Hardy has published several other products under the Asylum Studios name, but I have little doubt these are frauds as well. I will go into these next time.