FAN FORUMS FOR WALL STREET RAIDER:
From time to time, various Wall Street Raider fans have set up forums or blogs
for players of W$R to swap stories, exchange ideas and game strategies, and check
for developments relating to W$R. (We also post information about new releases on
this RoninSoft.com web page.)
While Ronin Software is glad to see fans of the game create online forums, we
do not endorse or sponsor any of them and are not responsible for their content. One
such forum that we recently became aware of, which is called the "Wall Street Raider --
Official Forum," but with which we have no actual sponsorship or involvement, can be
visited at: WSR Fan Forum.
There is also an active Reddit page on Wall Street Raider, at:
https://www.reddit.com/r/WallStreetRaider/
Also, be sure to check out the Steam WishList Page for Wall Street Raider, at:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3525620/Wall_Street_Raider/
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS REGARDING WALL STREET RAIDER AND SPECULATOR.
At this point, as I am now 80 years old, I feel I have gone as far as
I am going to go with development of the two programs, at Version 9.75
of W$R and 4.11 of Speculator. I suppose now I'm one of the older
code-writers on the planet.
However, a Version 10.0 of Wall Street Raider is in the works,
being done by Ben Ward, a software engineer (not an amateur programmer
like me) who is remastering and improving the user interface and
will add other new features. Here's a link to a terrific podcast he
recently did with AJ Churchill on
Outsider Gaming
about the new Version 10.0 that will be coming out in a few months.
Version 10.0 will look much more
sophisticated, although the underlying logic of the game will be
the same as in 9.75, but with a few minor improvements I have
recently made but haven't yet released, such as some new "ethical
scenarios." We will, we hope, be able to sell the new verion on
Steam and perhaps elsewhere.
To view the new Wall Street Raider channel on YouTube, and
a 20-minute video I did about the origins and development of
the game,
Click here.
As for now, I've had to cease my online sales of WSR from this
website and from my WallStreetRaider.com sites, due to some rather
amazing and unexpected setbacks which have hit my small software
business in the last few months.
The first problem was that MyCommerce.com (sub of German company
Digital River) with whom I've been doing business (through them or
the SWREG company they acquired) since 1999, handling all my software
sales and the VAT and sales tax compliance, has now filed for
bankruptcy. They stopped paying me and everyone else whose software
they sell, for sales after June 2024. God only knows where the
proceeds of all our sales they collected and didn't remit to us, from
July 1, 2024 until they shut down in January, went!
After several months of trying to find out why I wasn't getting
paid for my sales, I finally learned (in the media) in early January
that they were in financial trouble, so on January 5th, I stopped
sending sales to their site while I tried to find another digital
sales processing company that operates globally (since most of my
sales are from outside the U.S.). I assume I simply will never
collect on the sales of my software for which they received the
payments, for the last 6+ months. That's bad, but not a world-ending
problem for me. My software sales have always been very modest --
and moreso in recent years.
The second shoe to drop was when, to my complete amazement, I
found that all the digital sales processing companies I applied
to, in place of MyCommerce, were rejecting my applications, for
vaguely worded "legal risk" reasons, somehow related to the fact
that I sell games that are stock market simulations. How their
legal departments have come to that incredible conclusion is
utterly beyond me, since they won't explain, but that is the
harsh reality. One company whom I pressed for details about their
rejection said that they also were "concerned" about the fact
that my customers are likely to be "troublesome." Again, an
amazing conclusion, particularly since they had zero information
about who buys Wall Street Raider and Speculator. So it appears
that I am being involuntarily put out to pasture.... At 80, I
suppose it is about time.
Any further development of W$R 10.0 and thereafter will be
done by the individual who is doing the re-design, whose skill set
with software is vastly greater than mine. I'm hoping he can find a
way to sell it, possibly on Steam, which I'm no longer able to,
though I will for awhile accept payments by check (on a U.S. bank)
or U.S. currency, through snail-mail, which obviously won't cover
my expenses of maintaining 2 websites and paying for marketing. (In 6
weeks so far I've gotten 2 orders by mail.) However, even if I go out
of business, I'll maintain this site for at least another year or two,
which I mainly use a place to upload WSR and Speculator replacement
files for people have disk crashes or otherwise lose their copy.
Game over. But it has been a good run, and I greatly appreciate
all the good and bright people who have supported Wall Street
Raider over nearly 40 years of development with their repeated
purchases and so many good ideas that I've incorporated into the
game. I have had a wonderful bunch of customers, scattered
throughout over 125 countries in every part of the world and am
sincerely grateful to be part of such a friendly and helpful
group of people, who were able to overlook my limited programming
skills and appreciate the content and depth of the games. I have
rarely ever had to deal with a "troublesome customer" in all that
time.
(But be sure to check this page or Reddit for news on when 10.0
will be published, which is when the next chapter in this long
saga will begin. I "may not" live forever, and in case I don't,
I'd surely hate to see W$R die with me, so I'm passing the
torch on to younger and more capable hands!)
