Release Classic Apogee Games (Full Versions)


Nukkus said:
The fact that the deal was made with 3DRealms also explains why my friend at Apogee didn't know about it, completely separate companies.
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Ahh... hmm, I thought since 3DRealms went bust, it's just a name that Apogee uses?

Might be more complicated though... you never know how these things are setup and work.
 
I met Justin down at PAX East with Link, Justin was making an active effort to talk with many of the game companies there for license contracts for the GCW. The 3D Realms deal benefits us as well, It may be the start of other such commercial ventures too.. Or I hope it does..
 
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Nukkus said:
The fact that the deal was made with 3DRealms also explains why my friend at Apogee didn't know about it, completely separate companies.
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Feel free to try to organise more licences for Apogee products too btw
 
EvilDragon said:
WizardStan said:
There's a lot of games on GoG that'd benefit from a PND treatment. :D
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Yes, that's what I want to try as well. Stuff like Baldurs Gate is way too complicated to install for a normal user :)
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That might be a bad example since it totally removes the original engine, which I dont think gog has ever released anything like that.

If something were to happen I would expect it would have to be dosbox based like the apogee titles.
 
Would be great to have a way to connect gog with the repo. If you buy a supported game at the repo, it gives the money to gog, downloads the game for you and installs the gamedata und the openengine or the emulator for you (included tweaks and configs).
 
Pickle said:
That might be a bad example since it totally removes the original engine, which I dont think gog has ever released anything like that.

If something were to happen I would expect it would have to be dosbox based like the apogee titles.
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^ If all the files (windows exe files.. etc) were preserved and just gemrb bundled with it.. would that work?
 
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TrashyMG said:
Pickle said:
That might be a bad example since it totally removes the original engine, which I dont think gog has ever released anything like that.


If something were to happen I would expect it would have to be dosbox based like the apogee titles.
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^ If all the files (windows exe files.. etc) were preserved and just gemrb bundled with it.. would that work?
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It would work but doesnt seem to be thier style, I think they intend to have game run as close to the original as possible.

Plus I imagine the fact gog doesnt own titles but distributes under contract might make it hard or impossible for them to distribute through a 3rd party.
 
I assume we wouldn't deal with GOG, but have a similar contract like Justin has directly with 3DRealms IF this was possible.
 
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Unfortunately the rights situation for Baldur's Gate is notoriously complicated (You have to figure out Developer/Engine, Publisher and D&D rights). Apparently the negotiations were a complete nightmare and it's a major triumph that GOG managed to get it on their service at all.

In fact, the Enhanced Edition on Steam and iOS got pulled a week ago because of license disputes:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/06/20/yikes-baldurs-gate-enhanced-pulled-bgii-on-hold/

http://www.destructoid.com/baldur-s-gate-ee-pulled-following-contractual-issues--256676.phtml

I think you can pretty much forget about Baldur's gate ever appering on the Pandora appstore. It would make much more sense to create Pandora installer scripts from the GOG installer files. It's some proprietary compression that has an open source unpacker available, so it should be possible to implement even on Pandora:

http://www.gog.com/forum/general/extracting_exe_downloads_in_linux_without_wine
 
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Well, maybe I can make a deal with GoG?

If they got the license, they might be able to let me create a PND version and they'll get the full payments for it.

I'm not interested in making money with these games, I just want them available :)
 
EvilDragon said:
Well, maybe I can make a deal with GoG?

If they got the license, they might be able to let me create a PND version and they'll get the full payments for it.

I'm not interested in making money with these games, I just want them available :)
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You can certainly try and it would be really neat if it worked out. But I strongly suspect GOG only have license to distribute the exact version on their website for PC and any additional distribution for other devices like Pandora would need a completely new renegotiation with all the rights holders (and especially in the case of Baldur's Gate there are quite a few that all have to agree at once).

While GOG themselves might be willing (and I think they might actually be in favor of this, going by how openly they communicate with their customers), I fear the actual rights holders will take one look at the Pandora audience and think it's not worth their lawyer's time to hammer out an agreement with you.

If you want to try, here is their form fur business inquiries:

http://www.gog.com/support/contact/business
 
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Well the pnd could download the version from GOG, unpack it, place it in the right folders and then install gemRB. Some wifi drivers in linux are doing this. Downloading the windows version of the firmware, unpack stuff and use it. It is completly legal, but it would be not possible to include them into the kernel by default.
 
If you can't work something out with the GoG guys directly then I'm sure the gogonlinux guys would definitely be willing to help.
 
EvilDragon said:
Well, maybe I can make a deal with GoG?

If they got the license, they might be able to let me create a PND version and they'll get the full payments for it.

I'm not interested in making money with these games, I just want them available :)
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It would be great if you could get a direct license for this but if that proved problematic I can't see any issue with the following scenario :

  • The user buys the relevant game from GOG
  • Create a PND for that game, that when run first time creates a folder called GOGFILES in appdata
  • The user would then copy the files for the game in question that have been dowloaded from GOG to GOGFILES folder (.zip? .exe?)
  • The PND is run a second time & the game is unpacked and 'installed'
  • When the PND is run in future it will start the game

You could have a link on the Repo page to the relevant game on GOG

Due to the DRM free nature of stuff from GOG I can't see any legal issues with any of the above.
 
Pickle said:
It would work but doesnt seem to be their style, I think they intend to have game run as close to the original as possible.
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This is - unfortunatly - not true, they often remove installer/setup binaries in their releases
 
thatgui said:
Pickle said:
It would work but doesnt seem to be their style, I think they intend to have game run as close to the original as possible.
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This is - unfortunatly - not true, they often remove installer/setup binaries in their releases
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I meant the gameplay and presentation, who cares about the installer being original. For instance ultima 7/8 could be run with exult or pentagram open source engines, which can enhance the experience. And while you might find mention of the engines on the boards the game officailly is run in dosbox.

They intend to sell the game as it would have appeared.

But i think this aspect is trumped by the legal considerations.
 
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