Missing "tail" feature, bug?

[Robert Menzel]

Hi,

I'm using tail version "tail (coreutils) 5.2.1" and i can't use
# tail +2 foo
anymore. 
# tail -n+2 foo
is ok. The "+n" Option seems to be a not documented feature of older tail 
version, but it seems to be used quite often in the "demoscene". People in 
the scene try to code a program with graphics and sound in 4KiB, that's why 
these 2 Bytes are important (and because the old "demos" won't work 
anymore :-( Most demos arn't open source so it's not legal to patch them to 
(to let them use -n+2 or so) and even if you are alowed to change the 
skriptes, they have to fit in 4KiB...

Is it possible, to add that old feature back to tail, so that it will be 
backward-compatible?

greeting
Robert Menzel
address@hidden

PS: If you want to know, what the scene and demos are, take a look at
www.scene.org <- general information & lots of demos
www.pouet.net <- general information & lots of demos
http://ftp.kameli.net/pub/fit/yellow_rose/ <- a cool 4KiB demo for linux