Part 2 of 2: The Evidence

Question 1: Is/was the SvenCo-op MP3 player really in RealDM?

A: Yes. This isn't something there's argument about... every RealDM team member we've talked to (except Mark) has said that it was from SvenCo-op.

In fact, someone sent us a couple of screenshots of the MP3 player running in RealDM, and it actually had "SvenCo-op MP3 Player" written at the top (Note: Observe "Current Server Time" at the top of the RealDM shots, and the gun in Exhibit F).

Also note: The VGUI colour scheme was changed in SvenCo-op v2.0F (all the SC VGUI stuff is blue, now). Mark was removed from the team before the release of v2.0B... in v2.0B, it was orange. See exhibit E for a (much) older shot.

Question 2: But did Mark write SvenCo-op's MP3 player code?

A: No. The MP3 player was in a working state similar to its final condition, three months before Mark joined the SvenCo-op team. Proving this is made particularly easy by this news post on Planet Half-Life, dated 16/Jun/2001 (the post below also mentions the MP3 player). You can also check the corresponding (16/06/01) SC.com news post in the Archives, which mentions the MP3 player to be "coded by TOM, and edited by Another1".

Mark joined the team in mid-September, 2001. The interview process was carried out on ICQ, and is no longer in my history, but I do have the E-mails he sent to me about XTCo-op, the mod he was starting back before he joined the SC team (dated 10/Sep/01). You can check the SC news archives for the post about Mark joining (18/11/01), or check with any community members who remember that far back.

You can also check with anyone who beta tested v2.0B to find out that the MP3 player was working at that stage... and that it was Tom and Another1 who were fixing the bugs and adding things like the volume control, before and after Mark joined.

When this mess began, I'd originally thought Mark might have made some minor MP3 player tweaks or bug fixes that I wasn't aware of, but we've looked through the code, and nothing is commented as his... only Tom and Another1 comments are in there. Usually, all code changes or additions are commented at the beginning and end for several reasons -- the most basic being that unless you mark the code you change, nobody'll know to merge it in with the main source.

Update: Michael Shimmins of Sesechial Software has written a formal letter of support, as Tom sent him a working version of the MP3 player code way back in March, 2001, over five months before we'd even heard of Mark.

Summary

The short of it is:

• Mark used the SvenCo-op MP3 player in RealDM without permission (there can't have been any intention of re-coding it from scratch, as the RealDM news stated that re-coding will further delay the mod, and is only progressing for our benefit). He then lied to try to cover himself, but only succeeded in making things worse.

• The rest of the RealDM team did not know that Mark was stealing code... some of them thought he had written the MP3 player for SvenCo-op, while others thought it was being used only temporarily.

• Use of the MP3 player is of importance, but the lack of credit, and in particular our integrity being called into question, was the greatest problem. We did offer to let the RealDM team use the MP3 player (with credit) shortly after E-mail communication began between Flewda and myself, though this wasn't accepted.

• The RealDM team have announced that they will be coding a new MP3 player from scratch, so the matter is now settled.

In conclusion, we regret that things came this far, but if all goes well the whole thing should be over, now. I hope no damage has been done to RealDM or its team members.... I also hope Mark will begin to learn from his mistakes.

-Sven Viking