Take action! Help getting old games Open Sourced.

Message

Kasumi_Ninja · Post by **Kasumi_Ninja** » Thu May 24, 2007 7:53 am

Introduction
I started this thread in order to mobilize the (Gentoo) Linux community in order to get most old (5+ years) games licensed under a Open Source license. Much like ID always does with their games. This thread is meant as the central meeting point to coordinate such actions.

Project goal
To get most games, older then 5 years licensed under a Open Source license.

Why Open Source old games? (or whats in it for us?)
Coming soon. Pm me with your contribution.

What does Open Sourcing old games mean?
Coming soon. Pm me with your contribution.

What does Open Sourcing old games not mean?
That the games always will be entirely free. Sometimes only the engine is Open Sourced thus requiring you to have an original cd with game content or off course user made content which is freely availabe (for example Alien Arena or Warsow both based on the Open Source Quake II/III engine)

How can I contribute?
-Suggest candidate for Open Source licensing. Please use this form:

Code: Select all

Title: 
Release date: 
Current license: 
Current license owner: [url=WEBADRESS]COMPANY_NAME[/url]
Current developer: [url=WEBADRESS]DEVELOPER_NAME[/url]
Contact:

-Write inspiring letters (email) to license owners in order to get games freed.
-Contribute to the 'Why Open Source old games?' section.
-Contribute to the 'What does Open Sourcing old games mean?' section.
-Write an article outlining the benefits for game license holders / game developers to Open Source holders. This article can be used as a standard framework for writing letters/emails to the stakeholders.
-Fill in the missing entries for games listed in 'Candidates for Open Sourcing'.

Candidates for Open Sourcing

Title: Myth: The Fallen Lords
Release date: approx. November 5, 1997
Current license: Proprietary
Current license owner: Take2
Current developer:
Contact:

Title: Myth: Myth II: Soulblighter
Release date: December 31, 1998
Current license: Proprietary
Current license owner: Take2
Current developer:
Contact:

Title: Myth: Myth III: The Wolf Age
Release date: December 2001
Current license: Proprietary
Current license owner: Take2
Current developer:
Contact:

Successfully open sourced games
t.b.a

anonybosh · Post by **anonybosh** » Sat May 26, 2007 2:43 am

I absolutely agree with your premise here, and am a big fan of the myth series as well.
The site http://www.the-underdogs.info is a collection of old[er] classics that have fallen into abandon--worth checking out.

vputz · Post by **vputz** » Sat May 26, 2007 4:22 am

Good idea, although if you want more participants, you'll need to help other folks help you a bit--ie pointers to sleuthing, more centralized "here's what we know about these games" lists, stuff like that.

I'd personally adore seeing Another World, Flashback/Fade to Black, and the Little Big Adventure (Twinsen) games open-sourced (as well as Myth, of course). But you never do know when people are going to get weird--like Erik Chahi, who came down on the RAW project for writing an interpreter for Another World because he was rereleasing it (I don't know how much the high-res rerelease made, but I do admire Chahi for having some interesting vision back when the original was written). But I've no idea who has the rights. The Myth rights might be very interesting, what with Bungie selling the rights to Myth 3 to a different company and then being acquired by Microsoft...

Kasumi_Ninja · Post by **Kasumi_Ninja** » Sat May 26, 2007 10:15 am

anonybosh wrote:I absolutely agree with your premise here, and am a big fan of the myth series as well.
The site http://www.the-underdogs.info is a collection of old[er] classics that have fallen into abandon--worth checking out.

Myth is a timeless classic I would love to see that one Open Sourced

. The Underdogs is excellent website not only indexing abandoned games but also ranking the best of forgotten gems. I will add the link. thanks!

Kasumi_Ninja · Post by **Kasumi_Ninja** » Sat May 26, 2007 10:20 am

vputz wrote:Good idea, although if you want more participants, you'll need to help other folks help you a bit--ie pointers to sleuthing, more centralized "here's what we know about these games" lists, stuff like that.

I'd personally adore seeing Another World, Flashback/Fade to Black, and the Little Big Adventure (Twinsen) games open-sourced (as well as Myth, of course). But you never do know when people are going to get weird--like Erik Chahi, who came down on the RAW project for writing an interpreter for Another World because he was rereleasing it (I don't know how much the high-res rerelease made, but I do admire Chahi for having some interesting vision back when the original was written). But I've no idea who has the rights. The Myth rights might be very interesting, what with Bungie selling the rights to Myth 3 to a different company and then being acquired by Microsoft...

Absolutely I need all the help I can get! I did see the anniversary release of 'Another World' a week a go ion the stores so I am afraid that one is out of the question. Would you be so kind to fill in this form for the other candidates? (I would love to see little big adventure getting OS'ed!)

Code: Select all

Title:
Release date:
Current license:
Current license owner: [url=WEBADRESS]COMPANY_NAME[/url]
Current developer: [url=WEBADRESS]DEVELOPER_NAME[/url]
Contact:

lazy_bum · Post by **lazy_bum** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 7:36 pm

I would like to see this one. (-;

Title: Carmageddon
Release date: 1997
Current license: Proprietary (?!)
Current license owner: Interplay (?!)
Current developer:
Contact:

There's lots of cool games that could be requested to `be free`. ie. GTA, or the first (and imho the best) NFS and *tons* of others...

Rukie · Post by **Rukie** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 1:56 pm

Title: F22 Lightning 2
Release Date: Sep 30, 1996 Players
Current License: Proprietary? (Company owned, commercial)?
Current License Owner: <a href="http://www.novalogic.com">Novalogic

charlieg · Post by **charlieg** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 11:36 pm

Interesting although perhaps this is not the best place to do it - the Gentoo community is not as strong as it once was especially relative to other Linux flavours.

Also perhaps it is a bit difficult to organise something as possibly extensive as this in a single thread.

I would happily devote a forum section to this on the Free Gamer forums if you like, and will mention it (regardless of whether it is here or there) on the Free Gamer site in the next few days.

Free Gamer:
http://freegamer.blogspot.com/

Free Gamer forums:
http://freegamer.freeforums.org/

charlieg · Post by **charlieg** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 6:00 pm

Anyway I brought it up here. Would be nice to see this get more people campaigning for it.

Kasumi_Ninja · Post by **Kasumi_Ninja** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 6:16 pm

charlieg wrote:Anyway I brought it up here. Would be nice to see this get more people campaigning for it.

Oops I am sorry. Forgot to reply! Thanks for posting it on the Free Gamer forums!

charlieg · Post by **charlieg** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 2:04 pm

Like I say, I'd be happy to dedicate an entire subforum to this kind of project (that way you can have a thread per game or publisher, for instance). Also a distribution neutral forum would be a good place to direct people to - I mean, if I bring this up on the Ubuntu forums can you imagine many of them wanting to post here? Anyway, let me know!

charlieg · Post by **charlieg** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 11:40 am

I am exploring this idea further under the moniker Project Open.

Please check it out if you are interested in helping.

Tariella · Post by **Tariella** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 10:47 am

I'd like to see the games of this publisher open-sourced:
Motelsoft

Those games are former shareware games, that are now mostly free for download on the company's homepage. So it could be possible to get the source freed.

My favorite title from this developer:

Title: Escape from Ragor
Release date: 1994
Current license: ?
Current license owner: Motelsoft
Current developer: Motelsoft
Contact: