Dead Systems

[Zen]

Hi guys.

What would you consider a 'dead system' ?

I don't want to start arguments or anything like that. just need some opinions.

now me, I would say the following are truely dead and games can be stored on a site no probs.

speccy
c64

do you agree? and what systems could you add?


thanks

 

[Skop]

i'd say gameboy colour is dead.

whoops a nintendo system, now that's bad kids

 

[Kojote]

there are still a few commercial c64 titles in production or to be sold. just look at protovision.de. no system is really dead as there are always a few ppl doing stuff for it. even ppl working on a commercial jaguar game... the only thing which has absolutley NO activity in commercial or homebrewn way is the Amiga CD32. or at least not that i know of.

 

[Zen]

tbh I'm really talking about putting some roms on a site.

I'm sure speccy and c64 games will be ok. I'm just not sure about any others. well actually its these I'm not 100% sure about:-

Coleco
Atari 800
Atari vcs 2600
Msx
Nes

 

[Hooka]

NES games are questionable, because the rereleases on gba. But what do I know I'd bet it depends on the game more than the system to be honest, games were the company has gone bankrupt or just don't exist any more are probably more or less allowable but you'd also have to check the licensing also. If it was done right every game would become open source and free to download after ten years, but that might hit the collector's, but then and again if your a collector you don't want a copy you want a mint original.

So to answer your question: I have NO clue!

 

[Kojote]

zen, the best way is to get in touch with the original copyright holder. tell them about your project and get permission if it was a former commercial game. shouldn't be much of a problem. back2roots.org doing this for amiga games and they have a hughe collection of legal avaliable former commercial amiga titles.

 

[taras]

any system that doesn't have new commercial games anymore.

 

[Alpha2]

This might sound unneccesarily technical but:

Any system that is no longer being officially constructed or exploited for the purposes of financial gain by it's patent/copyright holder one or more organized/incorporated entities.

That's a dead system.

That dosent mean it can't have a hombrew scene though.

 

[LeeT]

There are a few publishers who object to their games being able for download - Two such companies are Ultimate and CodeMasters. World of Spectrum have contacted many authors/publishers and got permission to host the games, but the above two companies will give a definite no.

 

[Alpha2]

If someone still holds the copyright o the software they can still tell you no. Which they will do as long as they think they can make some money off if it, but some figure its too much work and let it go.

 

[Zen]

Thanks for the help guys.


tbh I think the best option is to add a few classic games, ie c64, speccy. and withdraw any games if and when someone asks me.

yes I'm a lazy sod

 

[NiN^_^NiN]

Well what you can do is get a list of games you would have on your site and then send it to the IDSA and they will tell you what games are protected by them.

They protect most of the people in the Video game industry.

Altho if anygame made by nintendo they will say no.

Even the mario arcade game on c64 i would say

But atleast u have an idea on what u can't use

h34r:

 

[Ringo]

I'm pretty sure that c64 isn't OK either...
A while back I postet that I had bought a CD in a book-store with a whole lot of c64 games, and there-by thought that, that could be considered legal emulation. Aparently it's not. Also I read someone claiming that copyright only expires something like 70 years or so after copyright-holders death... Which would make anything emulation illegal. Don't know about that though, but here an old link to the topic I referred too.
Link to topic

Nintendo titles (and probably Sega too) is a differently a no-no, since they keep re-releasing their old games for new systems :rolleyes:

The only thing I ever got across which can be considered legal emulation-wise (which previously was commercial) is Back to the Roots, which have a lot of legal games for Amiga. This is however probably only legal for BTTR to host, since they have gotten the copyright holders permission (they are very strict about that).

 

[Robster]

For Spectrum, there's no point duplicating the World of Spectrum site- it's got everything you could want and more!

Ultimate became Rare Software, and they've denied all requests to allow distribution of old Ultimate games, presumably because they want to keep the characters (Lunar Jetman etc) from being snatched. In fact, they've recently released a version of Sabre Wulf for the GBA, although it's nothing like the original.

So I'd advise against putting Ultimate games on your site. But if you could gather links to sites like World of Spectrum, for all sorts of systems, then I think it would be a useful resource

 

[Robster]

Oh, I forgot: Rare Software got bought by Microsoft last year - maybe you could e-mail Bill Gates and ask him for permission to distribute Jet Pac

 

[blipped4]

There is no such thing in my opinion as ad "Dead" System, There are always users that uphold the spirit of the product.You can always have anythhing with atleast one user. h34r:

 

[craigix]

The amiga CD32 is just an amiga 1200, you could even plug in a keyboard and make it run amiga games (and run cd32 games on an amiga for that matter). So it isn't dead as there is plenty of amiga dev going on.

I'd go for the Virtuaboy as being dead Dead DEAD. Oh and some of the more obscure early 80's computers like the Jupiter Ace.

But I can't think of many more, even things like the Vic20 still have a demo scene.

Oh how about that DVD player game system (it was built into a handful of them)? I can't even remember its name, there was a kick ass version of tempest for it, that surely it is the most recent?

-Craig

www.gbax.com

 

[ColinR]

Kick ass Tempest by the god of trippy kick ass games (Jeff Minter). The system is Nuon. The last project I heard that Minter was working on was Video Light Show (or something like that) on Gamecube. It was essentially a version of Winamp's AVS as far as I could make out. Definitely not a pulse pounding shoot em up like he used to do. Tempest 2K/3K, Llamatron, Revenge Of The Mutant Camels, or Metagalactic Llamas - Battle At The Edge Of Time (fitting the title into a Vic-20 was ambitious stuff! )

Whoops, forgot the main point I was about to make. The 2600 had a game published for it last year. And some woman is making a new C-64 out of modern gubbins and PGAs.

 

[angrypants]

I heard A few months ago on tech tv that they where going to start selling c64 stuff again including the operating system and that sort of thing so i would say for sure C64 is not dead. Look up copyrights for this stuff and research it a little. If the system is not being made anymore and the games arn't available to be purchased that does not mean that it's legal to distribute.

 

[lizard808uk]

I would like to see a court precedent set as to what the state of play with emulation is. Everyone has games legal and illegal, I'd just like to see the Microsoft/Nintendo/Sega/Atari representative get up and say how it hurts them, when they make no money from the product they used to sell.

Nintendo reckons it can do it through patents, I think before too long there will be some kind of RIAA effort (maybe through IDSA?), but until it goes to court - it will always be a legal minefield. So in that instance I would do the site as best you can, contact the authors etc.. and get on with it If you get in trouble, I'll represent you, I know a great place in Mexico....