Adventure Gamers - Forums

Egon - 02 January 2018 06:09 AM

I really hope GOG will release Duckman: The Graphic Adventures of a Private Dick.
It’s one adventure I have really fond memories of and would love to replay it, but it doesn’t work on anything above win95.

Not sure how often thay look at it but can’t hurt to vote for it on the wishlist

https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/duckman_the_graphic_adventures_of_a_private_dick

OK, this is a huge, huge, huge deal that I didn’t think would ever happen: Death Gate!

Not only is it a brilliant game that everyone should play, it might mean that the rest of the Legend games might be making their way to GOG.

Kurufinwe - 03 January 2018 09:18 AM

OK, this is a huge, huge, huge deal that I didn’t think would ever happen: Death Gate!

Not only is it a brilliant game that everyone should play, it might mean that the rest of the Legend games might be making their way to GOG.

Whoa. Amazing start of the year for gog!

Seems like it is published by Piko Interactive that’s a studio working on retro stuff, like Night Dive Studios. Hopefully they’ll continue to tackle the rest of Legend stuff.

Karlok - 03 January 2018 11:36 AM

Seems like it is published by Piko Interactive that’s a studio working on retro stuff, like Night Dive Studios. Hopefully they’ll continue to tackle the rest of Legend stuff.

I’ve never heard of Piko Interactive. Isn’t Atari the legal owner of the name Legend Entertainment? At least, that’s what Bob Bates said.

Probably but the rights to some old games are not very simple, even more with stuff related to Atari so gog alone doesn’t make efforts to sort out this stuff and company like Night Dive, and now it seems Piko, does that job to get the rights to release it digitally.

Just to see how messed up it can get you can read the story of how Night Dive wanted to release No One Lives Forever (not an adventure)
https://kotaku.com/the-sad-story-behind-a-dead-pc-game-that-cant-come-back-1688358811

A some Legend games also involve book adaptations so I wonder if that can make things harder

One of the first PC games I owned.

I have very fond memories, in that, I remember really enjoying it but not another thing about it.

Was looking at the Piko site and they seem to have bought the rights to 60 IPs from Atari/Infogrames (with the Legend name in there)

http://pikointeractive.com/blog/

Of course Atari/Infogrames own a ton of IPs (Microprose! Ocean!) but I expect more Legend games being released

AFGNCAAP - 04 January 2018 03:25 PM

I thought the books were fine, but got almost tangibly worse and more meandering after the fourth one. The game was written before the cycle was completed, and is (quite loose) retelling of three and a half books, with a completely invented ending, and is IMO all the better for it. An adaptation distillation, if I ever saw one.

I never read the books but it seems like a good job since the plot is easily understandable even if it moves fast. I do remember there’s a lot of exposition at beginning before things start rolling to set the world up. But for me where the game shines above others is in the puzzles and their design.

Kinda sad that I’ll have to find a new “hidden gem” now but oh well.

About the NOLF article and the topic in general, a naive question: what if they just released it? To sue them someone would have to prove they own the rights, and in the process of trying to acquire said rights they found out nobody can conclusively do that, so doesn’t that mean they’re safe?

Antrax - 06 January 2018 02:44 AM

About the NOLF article and the topic in general, a naive question: what if they just released it? To sue them someone would have to prove they own the rights, and in the process of trying to acquire said rights they found out nobody can conclusively do that, so doesn’t that mean they’re safe?

Well somebody owns the rights, and that somebody is not Night Dive, so that would end up in a lawsuit for sure. And what’s the point of releasing something illegally? That would be abandonware that you need to pay for. You can simply download abandonware, it’s better than pay for a version that is not legal to begin with.

Anyway, the copyright issue of NOLF was always a mess. I once wrote an article about the game (was years ago) and in that article I wondered how PC version and PS2 version had completely different companies listed on the game cover. I was unknowingly forseeing events to come, it seems… 

As for seeing NOLF rereleased legally, I really hope that happens. It’s a very good game and it is a shame indeed if it fades into obscure depths of abandonware.

GateKeeper - 06 January 2018 05:51 AM

Well somebody owns the rights

Not necessarily. Maybe legally the rights are owned by a now-defunct legal entity? Maybe they’re split in a way that’s too much trouble to figure out?

GateKeeper - 06 January 2018 05:51 AM

that would end up in a lawsuit for sure.

No, it would end up in a lawsuit IF someone who believes they own the rights to the game believes it’s worth the hassle of going through a lawsuit for it. I’m not sure any of the studios believe themselves to own the rights, and even the ones who think they may might not want to go through the trouble (and cost) of figuring it out to get some cut of whatever meager profits the game will make.

GateKeeper - 06 January 2018 05:51 AM

And what’s the point of releasing something illegally?

From whose perspective? And my point was, if the law doesn’t 100% makes sense here and you’re unlikely to be penalized for breaking it, why not consider it?

Lighthouse released now