I guess remakes are ok as long as they have appropriate EULA (i.e. "you can only play this game if you own the original" clause).

An even better approach is to release a game patching kit, which uses original media as a source for some art. This way it is really up to user to make sure they use original or pirated copy of a game.

Nah, it'd still be a copyright violation... Most software companies don't care too much though. The second option you gave is now also illegal, by the way... Even mod's are now outlawed by most new copyright acts / eula's... Friggin idiot governments...

Pitpan, I seriously doubt even Spanish law allows for that. It is as simple as this: We are developing an official port of the Guru Logic game for Aiky, a playable demo was published on MSX Magazine 2. We were already developing it when you started with your project, and we notified you about this in the early stages, so you could have easily aborted it or made major modifications, evolving it into a different game (as we suggested you do). But you didn't, and aside from that I see that as a lack of respect towards us, when you published that game, you basically created the same game as we do (even though ours will be much bigger and better of course). People will play and perhaps finish your game, and they won't feel like buying the same game again. Which lowers the number of copies Aiky will sell. I can not imagine such a thing to be legal in any country but under-developed third world countries or China or so. You just do not have the rights to use Aiky's intellectual properties, especially not in an area where Aiky themselves are making development efforts. That's the way I see it. And that's why I and the other GLC team members are pissed at you, especially after you actually *expanded* your game with more features.

And even if it would be legal in Spain, it is still very much illegal in amongst others the Netherlands and most other European countries. You shouldn't be distributing it over the internet, for everybody to download, harming our interests. Assuming this is indeed the Spanish law, you could give copies away at Spanish fairs or so, limiting distribution to Spain only. Though that honestly would hardly make me think any better of you. The damage has already been done.

~Grauw

As I stated in my page, I will retire it off-line as soon as somebody from Aiky tell me to do so. Until then...

Grauw: you code Guru Logic for Aiky? Cool! What is the platform? GBA?

BTW: I don't think you can bash Pitpan, as long as he is not violating any trademarks. Like anyone can program and sell or give away tetris or breakout, as long as they don't call it tetris or breakout

This is why there so many tetris clones called Super Block Buster or something like this.

For instance Spin Jam on Playstation is kind of similar to Taito games, both in gameplay and type of characters. But they aren't exactly the same, so this is no problem.

Quote:

What is the platform? GBA?

grauw wrote:

Quote:

a playable demo was published on MSX Magazine 2

so .. guess again..

btw, are you trying to flood mrc or what ?

No, I just had three coffies, and now I'm hyperactive

Buy me Hypersports with bulletproof controller, and I'll release my energy in it, so you can have sleepy forum again

dhau: yes I am one of the coders of the GLC team, creating the game for Aiky. It is an official port for MSX, hence why I and the other team members are so upset with pitpan.

And pitpan *is* violating trademarks, after all his game is called 'Guru Logic'. Besides, do you really think I'd be any less upset with pitpan if he'd just change the name? No way, he treated us and our efforts without a trace of respect, lied to us, and violated our trust blatantly. I certainly won't bash pitpan for the sake of it, but I won't play nice guy towards him. Aside from that I disagree strongly with many of his opinions, so we will naturally clash sometimes .

p.s. Wanna bet that the Super Block Buster creators paid license fees to the Tetris Corporation? Assuming it was a legal commercial release, at least.


~Grauw

hey pitpan, can we do it the other way around? Like, if you produce a cool original game and give it away, could a company make a game quite similar to yours (actually 100% similar but all stuff remade) and sell it? Anybody would sue that company, but you can't since you aren't loosing any money with it (kinda hard if you give the game away freely, unless ppl make donations)

Hasbro made quite a fuss about retro remakes some time ago, even if those weren't sold but just offered for download. I don't know what happened, if they even won some cases but it shows *some* companies do care about their trademarks/copyrighted material that much.

So lets leave it as this: technically it may be illegal but usually companies don't take legal action because they would just loose money on it.

anyone can post here a screenshot of the official game, and a screenshot of the pitpan game release !!!!

So, in that way all can see if it is idem or not and to understand about what here are talking.

The original GURU LOGIC game for GBA is a colorful, 4 Megabyte game with lots of tunes, lovely intermissions and full of details.

The version that I coded was just a BETTER port of the TeddywareZ version. Please note that the Teddywarez version was a disk version, for MSX2 and higher, with SCC sound and only 55 stages. And, of course, it was a "commercial" software, I mean: the authors were selling it.

I coded a packed version with more stages and all the gameplay elements to play it on the MSX1 system, in only 32 KB. And I did not sell it.

About all the other details, let's call this the "guru logic drama", my project was far more advanced that yours, you tried to convince me and I decided to go on with it. Then you threatten me with the possibility of legal actions. I did not care, and I published the game this Christmas, as I projected.

Again: if AIKY, the legally entitled owner, contacts me, I will retire it with no other objections.

The TeddyWareZ version has been removed from the internet for a reason. Of course, Aiky also knows the amount of Guru Logics for MSX that were sold by TwZ. However, you did not port the TeddyWareZ version (although you took some things that were unique to the TeddyWareZ version), but also took all levels in your game, the game title, the game characters and the game concept straight from the GBA Release, thus infringing more than one trademark and/or copyright.

As soon as you announced Guru Logic for MSXDEV '03 we contacted you. If you had already advanced far more than we had (we had already been working on the project for several months since then), it can only mean you had been coding on your version of Guru Logic which you entered on your own competition way before you publicly announced that competition to other contestants. That does not really sound like fair-play to me.

However, I agree with you: it is up to Aiky to state whether they like it or not, and whether or not they have objections on you distributing the game on the internet. It's even up to Aiky to find out that your port exists. To me, I don't have positive feelings about the communication we had in the past on this matter, and I'll be the first to admit that our first contact was highly emotional. I can only apologize for that. I hope you will, one day, understand that we were trying to make sure our dream would still come true. Getting an MSX game published by Compile! (Well, it's Aiky now, but still)

Either way, I don't want this conflict of the past to get in the way with the way we interact on the MRC forums or anywhere else. As you could have seen on MSX Magazine 2, Aiky is still very happy about the MSX version of Guru Logic we are working on. As long as our dream is coming true, I won't complain

Wow Eduardo, you did fantastic job with your version of Guru Logic! Graphics is awesome even for a MSX2 game!

We did not threaten you in any way. Our mails at the time were written most politely. It was you who violated our request for confidence and actually PUBLISHED those mails on the HispaMSX mailing list. It was outrageous.

And I don't believe a single word about your version being 'far more advanced' (edit: as Snout explains). It is logical that our version, being for MSX2 and as big as it is, takes much more time to develop. Nevertheless, we had been working on it for a long time already, and we were in our rights to ask you to consider creating another game. And it does not matter for what system your game is, and what size it is. So it isn't 100% the exact same game as we are developing. Like, duh. Still, the fact remains that it is a fully playable, not-too-shabby looking version of the exact same game we are creating. Also, 'I did not sell it' doesn't mean crap, yet you keep emphasizing it as if it does somehow justify everything. Bullocks.

About the TeddyWareZ version: it has been revoked and is not being sold or distributed anymore. Also, the creator of that version is in the development team of GLC for Aiky. Actually, that game is what started all this for us.

flyguille: the graphics are fairly different (as you can see on robsy's page), but the characters are the same, the gameplay is the same, and the levels are the same. Hence our complaints.

Anyways, this is, as Snout rightly put it, more or less a dream of ours, to be working for one of the (former) great MSX game companies. Needless to say this matter upsets us.


~Grauw

And I am sure that your version will be miles away from mine! Imagine it: V9938 full-color graphics, smooth sound (FM-PAC and plus, I guess), lots of details... Of course that I will buy it! For me it will be a first-class product, and, as you said, it will come from Compile (or Aiky, cool anyway) and it will be coded by people that I know.