Sol_HSA on 24/2/2004 at 18:43
If there was one open-sourced game project I'd love to see (now that both SC2 and the clue! have been OS'd - both of which I was actually hoping for=)), it would be terra nova.
Since looking glass is no more, I wonder who owns it.. if the rights have been retained by the original authors (as private people), there might be hope - as there might be if the rights have passed on to some parent company (although in that case it would be a much smaller hope).
ps, link to these forums from (
http://www.ttlg.com/tnova/index.htm) is wrong.
..and now, back to trying to get it to run under xp..
Shadowcat on 25/2/2004 at 00:15
I honestly don't know, but Terra Nova was one of Looking Glass' self-published titles, so I believe that when they were still alive, there wasn't any other company who could have any say in what was done with the T.N. property.
One of the problems with making a System Shock 3 is that even with a lawyer trying to hunt down the answers, Ken Levine from Irrational was never able to piece together the puzzle of exactly who held all the rights after LGS folded -- different people acquired different parts of the company, and seemingly no one knew for certain who had what -- and obviously Irrational can't really start making a game in the hope that no one suddenly comes forward with a law suit!
Terra Nova didn't have other companies involved from the start like System Shock, but I presume that when LGS went down, one of the companies involved in mopping up the remains did indeed acquire the legal rights to Terra Nova (whether or not they actually know or care), so I'm not sure you could safely remake the game (or at least, any more safely than 95% of the retro-remakes out there!)
My gut feeling is that no one would complain, but strictly speaking I'd say there's some risk involved.
Sol_HSA on 25/2/2004 at 07:56
I wasn't talking about remake, but releasing of the original source. Naturally there are some pieces that they couldn't release since they were licensed (such as the bink video, most likely audio system as well), which could be replaced with some open-source alternatives..
This would all be so much easier if LG hadn't folded. =)
Shadowcat on 25/2/2004 at 11:34
Quote:
Originally posted by Sol_HSA I wasn't talking about remake, but releasing of the original source.
Ah, sorry -- there was a query about Ultima Underworld remakes at the same time on that forum, and I obviously still had that in my head when I was replying to this :)
I guess the main issues are much the same, though -- as you said you need to know who owns it, and that may be next to impossible to find out :/
I'd ask Paul Neurath if I knew how to contact him, but FloodGate Entertainment appears to value their privacy! I've fired off a quick query to Dan Schmidt instead (he was the Terra Nova project lead) to see whether he has any ideas. If that leads anywhere, I'll let you all know! (I'd keep the expectations low, however).
Matthew on 25/2/2004 at 11:39
My slightly silly view on such things is - if you write it, they will come. With their lawyers. Then you can start negotiating! :cheeky:
Sol_HSA on 25/2/2004 at 17:24
Matthew:
LOL!
The only problem would be - how would we know that the ones that are suing actually DO own the rights? =)
Shadowcat:
Any efforts on this are much appreciated =)
cpt.blood on 3/8/2004 at 15:18
According to my investigation which I did a few months ago, the trademark for TERRA NOVA STRIKE FORCE CENTAURI expired at the begining of this year due to a section 8 which means failure to pay. The assignee was of course Looking Glass so who may own the copyrights now isn't really interested in keeping up the associated trademarks. (see (
http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=registration&entry=2063748)) The trademark is up for grabs but the game itself is not. The copyright laws state that any copyrighted work is legally protected 70 YEARS after the passing of the individual or legal entity that owned them. Even if nobody actually aquired the rights to the Terra Nova game it doesn't matter, you can't legally remake & resell the game. However that being said, I don't think anybody would mind if a free remake of the game is done, espicially if it requires the original CD to play. If you want Terra Nova to be reborn this is your best bet.
-ô_ô- on 4/8/2004 at 09:31
True, but that has little to do with the source code being released.
Imagines TN in high resolution and pixel-shaded.
cpt.blood on 5/8/2004 at 09:16
Yes but I think it'll be next to impossible to get the source released (assuming it's not stuck some place forgotten about). One avenue you can try is the lawyer who filled the Trademark petition. She might be able to give additional information on Looking Glass's demise and who might own what. I have a name, address, and telephone number but don't know if it's current. I never pursued it because I thought that if a remake was in order then it's better to use a more current engine. But of course any one could up date the original engine just for fun.
donnyjepp on 15/8/2004 at 03:17
So is it abandonware? If so I'll post an Edonkey link for the iso + demos...
