{"id":60,"date":"2005-12-03T19:14:41","date_gmt":"2005-12-04T00:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/youfailit.net\/?p=60"},"modified":"2025-12-16T11:11:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T16:11:14","slug":"the-mike-hardy-saga-part-ix-the-story-endsfor-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/youfailit.net\/?p=60","title":{"rendered":"The Mike Hardy Saga, Part IX: The Story Ends… for now"},"content":{"rendered":"

(note: read parts I<\/a>, II<\/a>, III<\/a>, IV<\/a>, V<\/a>, VI<\/a>, VII<\/a>, and VIII<\/a> if you haven’t already)<\/p>\n

When I first started this project, I envisioned it taking five, maybe six posts to cover all of Michael J. Hardy’s exploits. I did not expect it to reach nine, but I started running into even more things by him that I had not found before I began the series; there might be a part ten when this is all over. However, unless I find some new stuff released by Mr. Hardy, or if something else comes up, this will likely be the last post in the series. <\/p>\n

First, let’s look at another classic that Mr. Hardy has not done justice to: Enhanced PuckMan and Ms. PuckMan<\/a> (local mirror<\/a>). Unfortunately, this image<\/a> gives him away; the real<\/b> version of this is called PAC-MAN<\/a> Attack<\/a>. Mr. Hardy is only distributing two of the many games included on the real CD. Now, I have little doubt that the actual PAC-MAN attack CD is just a shovelware<\/a> collection of free Pac-Man games. However, I also have little doubt that Mr. Hardy did not program the versions he is distributing, but I do not have anything more concrete to back that up (besides PAC-MAN Attack). Chances are he acquired a copy of the CD, which likely contained the source code for these two games, modified them, and started distributing them as his own.<\/p>\n

It looks like Mr. Hardy might have finally wised up; he is actually giving credit to other people now! Witness Asteroids 3D<\/a> (local mirror<\/a>); he actually credits the original creator, Thom Wetzel Jr. Now, Thom himself posted a comment on Part VII pointing this out to me; needless to say, he was not very happy about what Mr. Hardy has done, so I was glad that he pointed it out. Of course, Mr. Hardy always puts his name in front of Thom’s every time the credits are mentioned… Anyways, here is Thom’s original: Disasteroids 3D<\/a>. I think I need not comment further.<\/p>\n

\"SpiritHas Mike Hardy started his own company? That’s what Spirit Studios<\/a> (this link may or may not work) might have you believe. However, his current offerings are not totally made by him – he merely just gives an ounce of credit to the creators of the original programs. This is a little better than what he used to do, but there is still a large stigma of misrepresentation. Also, he is still a horrible graphics designer.<\/p>\n

One of the offerings of Spirit Studios is a pale imitation of Dev-C++<\/a> by Bloodshed Software<\/a> (no relation, heh) that Mr. Hardy calls Amityville C++<\/a> (local mirror<\/a>). Of course, by “pale imitation” I mean “recompiled version with Mr. Hardy’s name plastered everywhere.” Why is he naming a product after the Amityville murders<\/a>? I have no idea. Anyway, there is little I can say here, other than to use the real Dev-C++ and not this horror.<\/p>\n

Finally, last but definitely not least, there is Internet Spirit<\/a> (again, this link may or may not work), a case study in the worst user interface design I have ever seen in my entire life. If this is Spirit Studio’s “flagship” product, they should take that ship to a scrap yard, because it is one of the worst looking applications I have ever seen. Even the software it is based on, Maxthon<\/a>, is not very pretty. But seriously, look at this<\/a>. How could any person possibly need so many buttons? But I digress. Mr. Hardy credits “MoreQuick and CahngYou,” but I have no idea who they are.<\/p>\n

So, with a heavy heart, I am ending the Mike Hardy Saga. Actually, I could not be happier that this is over. But, if need be, I will continue the story if more pops up. Thank you for reading.<\/p>\n

Continue to Part X<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(note: read parts I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, and VIII if you haven’t already) When I first started this project, I envisioned it taking five, maybe six posts to cover all of Michael J. Hardy’s exploits. I did not expect it to reach nine, but I started running into even more things by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-software-saga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/youfailit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/youfailit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/youfailit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youfailit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youfailit.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/youfailit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130,"href":"https:\/\/youfailit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions\/130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/youfailit.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youfailit.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youfailit.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}