Put the wish list for porting projects HERE...

[xav1r]

Actually, they may not realize what the rights are respective to the code in question.

Most people doing software development have been led to believe something about what their actual rights end up being in those situations, so they probably didn't do anything with it. If they've got source and assets, though...

So what are we waiting for?? Lets go for it! This might also be the final release of Fate!!!! And Corridor 8!!!

[Svartalf]

Speaking of possible game porting projects, Svartalf, the other time you told me that regarding IP rights, when the company that made the title goes kaput, no one buys its IP, the courts dont keep the rights, and they dont transfer them to anyone, then in the case of the intracorp games, those rights then belong to Les Bird, and the rest of the former intracorp employees that worked on them, right? So, then, the source code is there, the assets are there, the IP owners are there, so whats missing? Would it be necessary to get a written consent from ALL the former intracorp employees? I think most of them, including Les himself, work at a company called AWE games.

You'd need to make sure the IP rights DID fail to get assigned to someone else first. Once you've got that verified, you'd need the signoff of each and every party involved with the title. The music belongs to the musicians. The textures, models, etc. belong to the artists. The code belongs to Les and anyone else that coded on it.

For anything that you don't have sign-off on, you don't have the rights to use it- period. Those parties, if they realize for one moment that they own those rights, can come back through and sue you for infringement if you chose to use that part.

Dunno if that helps.

It does, after a fashion. In the end, you'd need all those ducks in a row before you could liberate it or do a commercial re-spin published however you did it.

Do you think Les Bird or some of his former intracorp colleagues would go all greedy, you'll have to pay me six figures for me to let you port this game, if we approach them?

Probably not. To them, it's nothing. An old game with no intrinsic value. They probably don't realize (yet) that there's some intrinsic value in the old stuff for retro fan reasons and just gameplay reasons in many cases.

If you know for a fact that the rights didn't get bought, then I'd say that it'd be okay for someone to talk to Les and start the ball rolling at that point.

[Aradreth]

Actually, they may not realize what the rights are respective to the code in question.

Most people doing software development have been led to believe something about what their actual rights end up being in those situations, so they probably didn't do anything with it. If they've got source and assets, though...

In cases like this is normally best to err on the side of caution because if you aren't right it can really come back to bite you in the arse. That being said my knowledge on the American legal system is lacking so don't stop because of me.

[xav1r]

You'd need to make sure the IP rights DID fail to get assigned to someone else first. Once you've got that verified, you'd need the signoff of each and every party involved with the title. The music belongs to the musicians. The textures, models, etc. belong to the artists. The code belongs to Les and anyone else that coded on it.

For anything that you don't have sign-off on, you don't have the rights to use it- period. Those parties, if they realize for one moment that they own those rights, can come back through and sue you for infringement if you chose to use that part.


It does, after a fashion. In the end, you'd need all those ducks in a row before you could liberate it or do a commercial re-spin published however you did it.

Damn, sounds like a lot of work. It'd probably be easier to just make an entire new game from scratch. Well, by now im pretty positive those rights didnt fall to anyone else. I think most of the former employees are around or are easy to locate. As i said, most of the coders like Les are at awegames.com. I think one of the artists that worked at those games is ruben cabrera, and he is now AFAIK working at 3DR. There was a musician named Joe Abati, that is listed as working at a university in miami.

Probably not. To them, it's nothing. An old game with no intrinsic value. They probably don't realize (yet) that there's some intrinsic value in the old stuff for retro fan reasons and just gameplay reasons in many cases.

Well, Les wrote on the witchaven 1 and 2 and tekwar's source release page that he was making the source code available due to many fan requests, so he knows those games have some sort of popularity still.

If you know for a fact that the rights didn't get bought, then I'd say that it'd be okay for someone to talk to Les and start the ball rolling at that point.

ok, so should i start emailing away? It's like im working for LGP by now!

[me262]

Call to Power 2 is the sequel to Civ:CTP. Activision didn't have the rights to the Civilization trademark association past the one title. They recycled a bit of the Civ:CTP code to do it, so it's definitely doable to move it over since the rendering pieces didn't change all that much, from what I understand.

Licenses: this is the license I'm under the understanding that it's under.

The assets are...a tough one. Nobody's really got them available (you can scrounge for 'em online...maybe get lucky in a used shop setting...) and unless you've got them, you're not playing the game in question.

*Rummage* *Rummage* *Rummage*
TA DAA! Have the first one here...

It's kinda late (as in the hour of the day) for me to ask this, but is this it? 1999, activision logo...
(I asked a stupid question... don't disappoint...)

EDIT: Okay, yeah... I'm dumb right now. Code's for CtP2... not CtP.

[Aradreth]

*Rummage* *Rummage* *Rummage*
TA DAA! Have the first one here...

It's kinda late (as in the hour of the day) for me to ask this, but is this it? 1999, activision logo...
(I asked a stupid question... don't disappoint...)

EDIT: Okay, yeah... I'm dumb right now. Code's for CtP2... not CtP.

The first one had a linux version for sale! (and still has... http://www.tuxgames.com/details.cgi?&gameref=6 )

[xav1r]

The first one had a linux version for sale! (and still has... http://www.tuxgames.com/details.cgi?&gameref=6 )

Nice find!

[Svartalf]

Nice find!

Yes, it is.

I guess I need to see if my copy I snagged from out of an Electronics Boutique when I caught the opportunity to buy it still works- it was a pretty fun game, really. Had to convince the store that I knew what I was buying when I promptly grabbed the box and walked it to the register.

[me262]

Sounds like when I bought Star Control 3!

[Svartalf]

Sounds like when I bought Star Control 3!

Heh... In this case, they knew it wasn't a Windows SKU and they had to explain to people that unless you ran this Leeenooks on your computer that it wouldn't run on it and you didn't want it.