Originally Posted November 14 1997
Updated Many Years Later
Any one who had spent some time in comp.sys.amiga.audio many years ago had probably read postings about my efforts to retrieve Bars & Pipes from MicroSoft. My efforts went on for about 7 months. Here's the short version of the story...
Just weeks before Gateway had made their suprise announcement to buy Amiga, I decided to try and contact MS and find out if there were any possibility of returning Blue Ribbon's Amiga software to the market. I knew MS was not going to use Amiga software, and I had found out they were no longer supporting even the Blue Ribbon software that had been ported to Windows. I felt there was at least a slim chance it could be done. With luck and some creative net searching, I made a contact at MS who directed me finally to the man who was responsible for the Blue Ribbon buyout. At first I was nearly ignored, but with enough well placed mail, progress was made. The news was mixed. The official at MS said they would sell or license the softwares for a nice round figure of 1 million US dollars. (sure, let me write you a check) I had spoken with Petro of Amiga Inc. who favored the return, but he was in no position to spend such a large amount on "dead" software. My mail to Gateway for their feedback went unanswered. But for months I received a steady flow of support mail every day from users all over the world, so I kept trying.
In the end emails and options had run out and the quest was thought lost. For the next couple of years no progress was made. But then the unexpected happened. Another official at Microsoft contacted me asking questions about my inquires into the code. I gave him what few details I had and I told him of the $1 million dollar price tag I had been given. He laughed, and said he though he could get the code release. "Awesome", I said and waited to hear from him again.
Well oddly I didn't hear from him again, but it worked out well anyway. The MS official released the code to the community at large through a very public posting with links to download all available material. Our good friend and coder Alfred Faust grabbed the code source and worked very hard to give us free version of the latest prodcut. Click the link to go to his page.
Origianl Posting from November 14 1997
Any one who has spent some time in comp.sys.amiga.audio has probably seen postings about my efforts to retrieve Bars & Pipes from MicroSoft. To catch up every one else, here is the 7 month long story in as short an order as possible. Just weeks before Gateway had made their suprise announcement to buy Amiga, I decided to try and contact MS and find out if there were any possibility of returning Blue Ribbon's Amiga software to the market. I knew MS was not going to use Amiga software, and I had found out they were no longer supporting even the PC ported software. I felt there was at least a slim chance it could be done. With luck and some creative net searching, I made a contact at MS who directed me finally to the man who was responsible for the Blue Ribbon purchase. At first I was nearly ignored, but with enough well placed mail, progress was made. The news is mixed. MS says they will sell or license the softwares for a nice round figure of 1 million US funds. (sure, let me write you a check) I have spoken with Petro of Amiga Inc. who favors the return, but is in no position to spend such a large amount on "dead" software. My mail to Gateway for feed back has gone unanswered. But for the past 4 months I have received a steady flow of mail every day from users all over the world as support. Today MS wants too much. The Amiga market is too small and we are still trying to get a clear ideal of where Gateway is going. My small hope is that Amiga will continue to grow and in the future, even if Bars & Pipes can never be retrieved, my small effort here could focus enough attention on Amiga music that it will help bring about the next generation of music software and hardware. There are other groups out there working on software and sound card projects. Who can say? One thing was clear to me though. There was no web site one could turn to as a pro or beginner and get information and help on every piece of an Amiga music studio puzzle. I hope I can change that here.