So long, and thanks for all the fish

sol_hsa

2nd Lieutenant
So, I just ran through wc:prophecy. Unless something weird happens (like EA suddenly dumping wing commander source code on my lap - hey, man can dream, can't I?), I probably won't be frequenting these forums too much.

It's been a blast!
 
sol_hsa said:
So, I just ran through wc:prophecy. Unless something weird happens (like EA suddenly dumping wing commander source code on my lap - hey, man can dream, can't I?), I probably won't be frequenting these forums too much.

It's been a blast!

Thanks for everything! I will keep you in mind when we have some source code to give out.
 
Great work ! I am just disapointed you gave up on the WC4 DVD version, though. If you change your mind someday and want to try again to fix it, we'd all be very happy !
 
wait a minute, you haven't played academy, armada, privateer, privateer 2 or arena yet! and what about watching the tv show! (oh and don't forget secret ops after you finish prophecy!)
 
Actually, Privateer 2 does have a windows version that needs fixing.
 
Thanks for everything! I will keep you in mind when we have some source code to give out.

It's rather sad that large corporations end up owning tons of IP they don't care about, and then the assets are left to rot, until they are no longer recoverable.. Some companies do care enough to release their games as open source - iD being the shiniest example, but others too, even if it happens as they're going out of business..

There's tons of people interested in restoring work on their free time, as can be seen from, for instance, the star control 2 project. Or what I did with death rally. Or what people are trying to do with various projects, should they just get the legal OK.

But legal OK means work for lawyers, which isn't cheap. And the larger the company, the bigger target they are for lawsuits. So, we end up with weird situations where people reverse-engineer games to keep them going. I'd rather have the source code, thanks.

Great work ! I am just disapointed you gave up on the WC4 DVD version, though. If you change your mind someday and want to try again to fix it, we'd all be very happy !

It's a different beast. It would probably make more sense to look what's going on with the mci2ds (or whatever it was) and try to fix things from its approach. Maybe. Not sure.

wait a minute, you haven't played academy, armada, privateer, privateer 2 or arena yet! and what about watching the tv show! (oh and don't forget secret ops after you finish prophecy!)

I don't have any of those, sorry =) And secret ops doesn't seem to be trivial to get either. Did check out the tv show though =)

Actually, Privateer 2 does have a windows version that needs fixing.

Like I said, don't have it. And no, I'm not going to grab any illegal copies.

Anyway, it's been fascinating to see such a lively community so long after the latest game of the series came out.
 
It's rather sad that large corporations end up owning tons of IP they don't care about, and then the assets are left to rot, until they are no longer recoverable.. Some companies do care enough to release their games as open source - iD being the shiniest example, but others too, even if it happens as they're going out of business..

I think id probably sets an impossible standard--their business model is based around licensing their latest engine to other companies... so it's in their best interest to see previous iterations stop being commercialy viable. EA just sells games, so there's no strong argument in favor of giving away the recipe.

I don't have any of those, sorry =) And secret ops doesn't seem to be trivial to get either. Did check out the tv show though =)

Secret Ops is actually a free (legal) download! You can get it here: https://www.wcnews.com/news/update/8848
 
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I think id probably sets an impossible standard--their business model is based around licensing their latest engine to other companies... so it's in their best interest to see previous iterations stop being commercialy viable. EA just sells games, so there's no strong argument in favor of giving away the recipe.

I disagree. It's generally just a matter of attitude. Several game teams would themselves want to release sources, only management and/or legal is against this. In one case I've followed, management ordered source code to be destroyed during an acquisition. Only reason I can think of is possibly avoiding liability, but it's still a criminal act.

I know several cases where independent "computer game historians" have hunted down all game source code, all assets, resulting in better archives than the original company has, but the company is not even answering their queries about making a release. Not even a 'no'. In many cases the dev team has cooperated and would like their work of love to be released.

I'm thinking of maybe doing something more official related to trying to restore old game IPs, but... so much to do, so little time. If someone feels strongly about this and wants to give me a hand, you have my address. =)


Thanks; I couldn't find that on the downloads page. Unfortunately, seems to crash on startup regardless of the config I choose. Oh well.
 
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