[Info-vax] VSI Software and Stark Gaming

[George Cornelius]

In article <e2a3bca6-7e34-4c64-84a8-23b0e76a759e at googlegroups.com>, Neil Rieck <n.rieck at sympatico.ca> writes:
> I loved that book (DADOES) but after the movie "Blade Runner" first aired,
> DADOES was remarketed with a black+blue cover featuring the word "Blade Run-
> ner" in RED along with pictures from the movie. Anyone who read the book
> knows that book is considerably different than the movie. In fact, there has
> never been a book released which tells the story conveyed in the movie. Did
> I mention that Deckard was married in DADOES, and there are interactions
> with his wife at their  apartment which includes neighbors who could afford
> "electric sheep"? There are no "electric sheep" in the movie, just a passing
> reference to an "artificial owl" with no explanation of the significance.

I mostly ignored the electric sheep part of the story line.  Such an
odd situation: living in the big city, that was the closest you could
come to having a real pet, and you had to wait in line for a license
for it.

> In the case of the "Blade Runner" movie no book comes close so if you want
> to experience that story-line you will need to read as well as watch. But to
> fully experience it you need to read all the books, including two that book
> marketers claim were sanctioned by Philip K. Dick
>
>  http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/Blade-Runner.html
>
> as well as a neat game which was only popular on PCs where "you" play the
> part of Rick Deckard.

I don't recall paying any attention to what the differences were.  After
I saw the PKD title mentioned in the movie credits I knew I had to read
the book.

Wasn't he a policeman in the novel, with a job of hunting down the
malfunctioning androids?  Sure, he had a wife and a home life, such
as it was - and an electric sheep - but apparently they omitted all
that.  It's not as if that's any different from the norm in Hollywood,
then or now.

PKD is quite interesting.  He was paid next to nothing to write the
marvellously titled "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"  Turns
out that almost all of what he wrote was considered pulp fiction
and he was paid accordingly.

When Hollywood discovered him, I suppose as a result of Blade Runner,
things changed, and rights to his books became hot properties.

George