Future remake? (archived)

[Fender178]

as i said be4 in this post i have never played any of those games acept kq3. and if tierra remakes some of those games i probaly would have get a chance to play them accept lb1 i can play that game any time becuse i got it when i bought the kqc2.

[The Infamous Mecha Sonic]

I know it's kind of late to point this out, but isn't The Black Cauldron a rather dangerous game to remake? Disney owns the rights to that game, not Sierra. And unlike Sierra, Disney defends its trademarks to the last.

[Fender178]

Um according to www.mobygames.com/game/te...ameId,194/ they are saying its made and published by sierra. but i have to see what other sites say.

[Erpy]

To clarify; neither Disney nor Sierra owns the actual rights to "The black cauldron". The real rights belong to Lloyd Alexander, the writer of The Prydain Chronicles. (The Black Cauldron was the first book of the series, I believe)

Disney likely got a license from Alexander's publisher in order to make their movie and Sierra in turn got a license from Disney to make a game based on their movie. (concerning the settings and character looks etc.)

It's possible to create a "Black Cauldron"-game without getting cross with Disney, but since a Tierra-remake would be based on Sierra's TBC which is in turn based on Disney's movie, we'd get Disney's lawyers after us anyway. I don't believe that a company who'd try to cripple every computer in the US with policeware isn't stingy about copyrights. So yes, it'd be risky to say the least.

[FullJee]

Last time I talk about SQ2 here...

Erpy, you say that Kippesoep isn't a newbie in fangame production, what game he have made or co-made and where I can find em ?

[The Infamous Mecha Sonic]

FullJee: http://anthenor.envy.nu/articles/A_kippesoep_int.html

Don't worry. I'm sure whatever Kippesoep turns out, it'll be superb.

[Erpy]

That's the interview that played a part in our choice to cancel our project in favor of Kippesoep. He already knew how to program 14 years ago and he's the lead programmer of a development team in real life.

[Fender178]

according to his interview sq2 wont be done for a year.

ps is tierra going to have another secret project?

[Erpy]

We already have plans for another project, but I'm not so sure whether it would be wise to turn it into a secret project. As long as it remains secret, it also means that someone else could start a similar project without knowing about ours.

Let's just say it remains secret until we decide to announce it. And I can't tell anything about when we'll announce it.

(am I vague or what?)

[Chris]

I read some people talking about the possible legal ramifications of remaking Black Cauldron... I don't think they have much to worry about. Al Lowe, whom we all should know as the creator of Leisure Suit Larry, programmed Black Cauldron and according to his website nobody is too interested in the copyrights on that game. He gives it away for free in fact!

Here's a quote from his site:
"As far as I know, these games are no longer of any interest to my friends at Disney or Sierra, so feel free to copy them and share them with your friends. And I particularly want to thank the wonderful site, The Underdogs, for urging me to do this. Check it out for lots of abandoned, but still fun, games!"
www.allowe.com/download.htm

So if Black Cauldron were to be remade I wouldn't get to concerned with Disney coming after you. However I would not really like to see a remake to that game as it sucked. The game I would most like to see is Kings Quest 4... which in turn means that I want to see Kings Quest 3 because I know you won't do KQ4 first.

I also enjoyed the Manhunter series. I have read through this whole thread and I am sort of surprised that no one else mentioned that game. Of course the scenes with the orbs flying past the World Trade Center would have to be edited in a remake but other then that it is a fine game.

Since I read a lot more then I post I would also like to compliment Tierra on their excellent work! (If I don't do it know I might forget later!) Kings Quest 1 was very professionally done and looked as good if not better then any of the official Sierra remakes. It was great to play that and relive some old childhood memories. I really love what you guys are doing and I support you all the way!! Whatever game you decide to do next will look great!! I'm excited to see what the future holds for Tierra!!

[DasJan]

Wow, Erpy! Can I consider this to be the "Unofficially Unannounced Unidentified Secret Project"?

Das Jan

---
www.dasjan.de | www.adventure-treff.de

[Erpy]

I know that very well. The issue is not the fact that the original Black Cauldron is no longer of interest to Disney. If someone made a game from a Disney movie with blocky graphics like that, Disney might hardly notice.

A Black Cauldron remake in VGA however, being a remake of a Disney game, would have VGA-graphics that would likely resemble the characters/settings as they appeared in the Disney movie. The fact that we're creating art from these characters is more than enough to get Disney on our back. (they sent a team of lawyers after a kindergarten owner once because he had his friend paint pictures of Mickey and Donald on the walls. Pictures he didn't pay royalties for.) The game itself can be considered sort of irrelevant. The art will be the main problem.

[Fender178]

i dont think disney would care it depends on how old the movie is and its still avaible to buy?

[Chris]

Erpy - your comments about Dinsey are all too true. After posting above I decided I was wrong about Disney not caring. Most kids probably have no idea what the Black Cauldren is but Disney would still come flying down apon you ready to suck all the money from your pockets if you were to touch it.

Does anyone else agree that it would be cool to see a VGA Manhunter?

[Erpy]

Fender, age is irrelevant with movies. Unlike video games, movies never become outdated. Look at Snowwhite. It was Disney's first big animated movie, but it has been re-released a large amount of times and people still buy it. The Black Cauldron is not available right now, but Disney will likely re-release it within a couple of years as they do with all their movies. The only Disney-creation whose copyright is starting to run out is Mickey Mouse and Disney is working very hard to get copyright law altered so they can keep the rights to him for another 20 years. Does that say anything about Disney not caring?

[FullJee]

Mmmm... I think that the Colonel Bequest will be a real challenge for Tierra, because this game is a lot based on the information that people give to you, instead of object you find. But you seem to be really open to other game than the Sierra one, it's means that, maybe a day, we will be able to play a remake of Maniac Mansion, Zac McKraken or Hitchicker and the Guide to the Galaxy ???

[2003theRebirth]

Anyone else has the funny feelin that sq2vga will never be released?

[The Infamous Mecha Sonic]

I'm really starting to get annoyed at some of your attitudes about this. Kippesoep is a veteran programmer -- he's been doing it for fourteen years and has even developed his own engine to use in place of Adventure Game Studio, for goodness sakes. We also know he's a talented artist. Did you guys see some of the rendered art he had displayed on his page a while ago? Amazing. We know he has the capability and the devotion required to make Space Quest II VGA a possibility. Why, then, are some of you so unconfident in his ability?

I think the problem is that all of you have seen the professionalism and high level of quality present in Tierra's remakes, having already played King's Quest I VGA and seen glimpses of King's Quest II VGA. I'm sure every one of you also has a favorite Sierra game that you'd like to see remade in the same quality of those two games, and that's fine. The problem is that some of you have gotten the idea into your heads that Tierra is the only organization that can do a quality job in the task of remaking your favorite game. That thought is stupid, ignorant, and just plain wrong.

I have faith in Kippesoep. Why some of you don't is a mystery to me.

[Erpy]

I'm not sure about Lucasarts. Not only are they still selling their old titles from their site, (unfortunately, you have to be American in order to buy them since they no longer do foreign orders) but they're also snappy about copyright issues. We can pretty much be sure that Sierra's not gonna bother us, but LA is a different story.

Sonic's comments make a lot of sense. I have explained this on the sub-space channel before, but I guess I'll explain it here again.
We too were wondering if cancelling SQ2VGA was the right thing to do. If Kippesoep would cancel his project, the fans would never get the game after all. But the interview on Anthenor's site pretty much gave us the impression that SQ2 is in good hands with Kippesoep.

I guess making our own SQ2VGA instead of discontinuing it would be "playing safe". Creating our own SQ2-remake meant that the fans would get a quality remake no matter what. (since we already proved ourselves)

However, playing safe is not always the best thing to do. The fangame community as a whole would benefit much more from us moving onto another project instead of starting a race with Kippesoep.

As Sonic said, just because he doesn't tell anyone about his progress doesn't mean it isn't there.

[Roxy Francis]

so how long until we get to find out what the other secret project is?

[Erpy]

It's up to the AGD's to decide when to announce the title of the next project. I suggest not worrying about it for now. First there's KQ2+ and QFG2VGA is next in line. The next project won't be finished for quite some time.

[FullJee]

For Kippesoep, be optimist. I have read the interview, read carefully his web site and I'm sure he will make a beautiful remake of SQ2. The thing that make me freak the first time I went on his web site was the picture with the 3D render, I didn't find this faithfull for a remake of a game that is so loved than SQ2. It's only yesterday that I read this is an "OLD 3D rendered graphic" and that he prefer painted graphic. Some can say that the project seem abandonned because his web site don't have been update since a lot of time, but everytime someones come to ask about news on the project, he comes to say that his silence is normal and ask us to be patient. So be faithful and patient.

Another thing, SQ2 is like a bomb, he was so loved by the SQ community that remaking it was very dangerous. If he was not faithfull or really a bad remake, the ones who have rape the name of SQ2 will be hated by a lot of people. That why I prefer to see a guy who have a lot of experience in this domain remaking it. Not that Tierra remake aren't good in remaking games, no, no, no, they are really good but if the remake had being bad, they had been really hated by the SQ community. So I think it's good from Tierra to have cancelled their SQ2 remake, for their image of a good team, who haven't begin a competition with Kippesoep about who release the remake the first, and for popularity.

I hope that Kippesoep see a day this message, because I know he think that I don't trust him, but now I trust him at 100%.

I know that The Infamous MechaSonic have already answer to this question but it take someones that, long time ago, have also freak about that maybe the game have being cancelled or will be a bad remake.

[Anonymous Game Creator 2]

It's really not about maintaining a good image by avoiding remaking a popular game at the risk of some fans disliking it. If there was no challenge and no risks, then game developers would never get any better at making games. Besides, someone's always going to dislike a fangame for some reason. As long as there's no SQ4.5, then I doubt none of the SQ fans will feel their series has been raped.

Anyhow, this is more a question of not wanting to do redundant work, as Erpy said... not about who's better qualified or who shows the most updates on their site. Just enjoy playing the games when they come out, regardless of who made them!

[Fender178]

i just had an idea but i dont know if its going to be any good. and i dont know if theres any game making engine out there to remake vga games into 3d games.

[ChunkyBoy]

Does anyone know anything about a game called Dondra? I heard that it was supposed to be a great adventure game but really don't know anything about it, would it be considered for a possible remake?