Classic Games We'd Like Ported - How To Contact The Authors


Monk

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At:

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showtopic=46122

Jamie Woodhouse has reminded us of an EXCELLENT classic game from BBC/Amiga days... but, better still, he's pointed out a PC "remake" that looks to be a considerable upgrade to the original BBC version, and he's considering porting it to the Pandora (which we should encourage).

This thread is intended for everyone to help each other find the authors behind their favourite games from years gone by in the hopes of requesting Pandora ports, or perhaps there are "remakes" out there that could be ported?

I will hope to keep the second post as a "contents" page which I'll update from tiem to time, listing games, their remakes, and their cotnact details VERY simply in the hopes that we can get some great old games working natively rather than just by emulation.

Bear in mind that these are likely to be mostly commercial games and that, therefore, most authors would want to sell us their games rather than just put in graft for nothing! ESPECIALLY if the games are to be upgraded to make use of the modern platform. Could be interesting...

Hmmm if I reply to my own post it seems to add to it... so I guess I'll keep the list of games here then!

Chuckie Egg

Elite
My best hope for this looks to be "Oolite" at:

http://oolite.org/

http://www.youtube.com/v/S6C-WJU9IoE&hl=en&fs=1

especially as the source code is GPL'd (however, I'm unable to code myself but maybe SOMEONE could port it to Pandora?)

Exile

Football Manager (BBC/Atari 800)

Frak!
Let me know if you REALLY meant "Frag", but I suspect it's "Frak!" you meant ;)

Frenzy
IIRC this is simply a remake of "Qix", but a competant addictive one.

Galaxian

Lemmings
It may be that Pingus:

http://pingus.seul.org/

is our best hope for a Lemmings-alike for the Pandora - assuming someone can recompile it (with any necessary changes).

Repton

There's a commercial PC version - the current version of Superior Software may be amenable to a Pandora port?

Contact: support@superiorinteractive.com

Sensible Soccer

Sentinel, The
From Firebird Software, fairly...original and addictive as I recall.

Thrust
Essentially this was a clone of the arcade game Gravitar by Atari. There have, I'm sure, been numerous remakes of Thrust and/or Gravitar.
 
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Well, it'd save me the work of trying to keep an up-to-date status page, even if the aims to appears to be slightly different (I don't recognise a single game from that thread, for example).

Ta
 
A quick tip to anyone interested in contacting authors of classic games: I've had good luck with the powerhouse that is MobyGames.com. It is a really good source for backtracing various developers' "movements" in the industry and try to find out where these authors are working today, making it that much easier to find a way to contact them.
 
I said in the Qwak thread that I'd write up a template for contacting authors, so here it is. It's deliberately basic, as it only really needs to get the gist across in this thread - by all means please change it up as necessary if you want to use it. :p

QUOTE

[Dear <Name>/Hello there/Appropriate Salutation],

You may have heard of the Pandora handheld system (more information about it is available at www.openpandora.org ), and I feel that your title, <Game Name>, published on <System(s)> in <Year/Decade>, would be a good game to port to this system.

I am e-mailing you as I was wondering if you have any interest in porting your game to any modern systems, including the Pandora (assuming that you still have access to the source code). I know that I am not the only one with fond memories of <Game Name>, and I am sure that it would be a very welcome title on this system, if it were possible to be ported.

Thankyou very much for your time and attention to this e-mail - I look forward to your response.


Best regards,

<Your Name>.



I hope this is of some use. :)
 
Cool!! - Thanks Monk for posting this one, it opens up an interesting steer which could be applied to potential porters of these games to the Pandora.

Logically we should use this thread as a basis for collating a list of classic titles we'd like to see on the Pandora then follow up with a poll

In theory this could give potential porters the opportunity to see which titles users would like to see ported to the Pandora and then in turn which they could potentially generate future revenue streams. May sound objectionable to some, but it gives anyone thinking of doing anything on the Pandora a simple steer and nothing else.

I love the classic 8/16 bit consoles, and in a previous Qwak related post mentioned a few titles, but the list could be boundless

Great work man
===
gp32_console + :gp2x + soon ......... :pandora1:

http://www.gp2xwizandpandora.blogspot.com/
 
I wonder if it would be useful knowing of titles where the rights have reverted to the people who made them (as opposed to publishers and the like), as well?

I mention this as I saw some discussion of that issue toward the end of TheGoodDoktor's thread "My Dreamcast Port, Where Next?". If you read from here until the end, you should get the gist of it (Craig's post right at the end was quite interesting, too).
 
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Prometheus said:
I wonder if it would be useful knowing of titles where the rights have reverted to the people who made them (as opposed to publishers and the like), as well?.
Absolutely it would! I look at it largely this way - it's all about the data (so long as you can interpret it).

I've been off with flu all week (with my young - similarly afflicted - son) so I've felt more able to spend some time here, and have hopes I can spend more than I usually could over the next few days. The chances are that we won't actually ACHIEVE very much (except perhaps digging up a few portable clones) but I also operate on the basis that "if you don't ask, you don't get". I'm amazed at how good the PC version of Qwak is (I've played it now and although the BBC version was great the PC version is even better) and I'm impressed that the author has found us first - how great would it be to have native versions of Repton and so on? :D It seems worth giving it a go, to me.
 
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I have a basic email template of my own:
QUOTE
Hello, I'm (Insert your name here).

I got a question.

As you may or may not know. There is currently a open source 3D handheld gaming system thats being developed. And is going to be shipped out within the next month or so. The people developing the console are from the site Open Pandora.org, Link: http://www.openpandora.org . And the system they are developing is called, Pandora. The systems specs can be found at their site's wiki here: http://pandorawiki.org/Pandora

So anyways, I was wondering if you guys would interested in doing a port of (Insert name of game/s here) to the Pandora platform? Now I'm just wondering because I'm member at the forum there. And I think it will be cool to have a Pandora port of (insert name of game/s here). But the decision is totally up to you guys if you want to make a port or not. And if you need to ask questions or talk to the devolopers. You can find the email in the press area on the site.

Anyways, Thank you for you time and I hope to hear back from you. Have a nice day.


I have personally used this basic email template in all the emails I have sent to devs of closed sourced games. That I think would of be great to have on the Pandora.
 
no offence nightwheel but your template is full of glaring grammatical errors, you might want to clean it up a little before you suggest others begin to use it.
 
gibberish said:
no offence nightwheel but your template is full of glaring grammatical errors, you might want to clean it up a little before you suggest others begin to use it.
I agree. I used the general structure, but completely rewrote the text. I was most put off by sentences starting with "and". A template for emails is a good idea, but it should be written properly.
 
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Just got a reply from Malfador Machinations:
"Maybe in the future, but we're currently working on another project. Thanks anyway.

Aaron"
 
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