Release/license sourcecode to 15-year-old games?

[Darklands]

Lots of people begged Spectrum Holobyte to release the source code to Darklands after they bought Microprose, but they refused. After they pretty much went bankrupt and were picked up by Atari/Infogrames, I thought I'd go ahead and ask even on the slightest chance someone at Atari is reading this.

Would you please release the sourcecode to Darklands? Pretty please?

Also mailed Public Relations.

This game has such a cult following and fans would love to port it to more modern OSes, even Palm Pilots and other portables.

[Darklands]

Just a friendly bump

[TheSkipper]

You could bump this for years and not get an answer here....

[X900BattleApple]

Good luck, this is a nearly impossible mission though.

[Mattlab]

Do you have a link to this game on any website so that I can see it for more info...

Thanks,
Matt

[paco_5150]

I could use a little help if any one knows where to get a hold of schematics for an old school asteroids arcade game. It doesnt work so I need to troubleshoot it. If anyone has any ideas hit me up at blackwood_5150 @yahoo.com

[Darklands]

Here's the first (and the only, that I'm aware of) fansite for Darklands:

http://www.darklands.net/index.shtml

And here's the Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darklan...mputer_game%29

I bought my own copy off eBay. They put a ton of work into the game, classic high-end 80s/90s quality game. 9 (yep NINE) 5 1/4" floppies and very nicely done book plus a cool poster. The scenery graphics for the game are top notch, and it's 15-years-old. The most amazing thing about the game were the battles. They were doing things in Darklands that we're only now seeing with games like Neverwinter Nights.

It's a top down RPG that takes place in medieval Germany. Check out the Wiki, it has a nice description.

Here's a digital archive of the game, but I'd suggest picking up your own copy off eBay. It's well worth it. I still play it, can't get enough.

http://www.abandonia.com/games/194/4

This might be a lost cause, but maybe (just maybe!) someone out there has the source sitting on an old 20 MB HDD on a dusty 386. :P

Here's another nice Darklands site with a nice description of the game:

http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?id=278

[Darklands]

Here's a picture of the game contents for the 3.5" version. I have the 5 1/4" version. They also released it on CD later on with all the patches included.

[Darklands]

http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/fea...ames/p-45.html

GameSpot listed it as one of the Greatest Games of All Time. There're a couple of screen shots in there. Worth the read.

[Darklands]

Just a friendly bump to see if any of you guys tried it out, or found out any more info on it. It's been several months and I didn't get a reply through snail mail.

[X900BattleApple]

I have pushed on someone in power at Atari regarding the issue generally of source code releasing for old games, we'll see what happens.

[Darklands]

Originally Posted by X900BattleApple

I have pushed on someone in power at Atari regarding the issue generally of source code releasing for old games, we'll see what happens.

Awesome, thanks!

[X900BattleApple]

Can't promise any resolution, but my message was clear, without emotion, and layed out the business reasons this would be a good idea. It went right to the top for consideration and is now out of my hands. Hope it didn't fall on deaf ears

[Darklands]

Originally Posted by X900BattleApple

Can't promise any resolution, but my message was clear, without emotion, and layed out the business reasons this would be a good idea. It went right to the top for consideration and is now out of my hands. Hope it didn't fall on deaf ears

The effort's appreciated. I guess we'll see.

[X900BattleApple]

I heard back, the ball is now rolling. More to come.

[Darklands]

Originally Posted by X900BattleApple

I heard back, the ball is now rolling. More to come.

You are awesome!

[X900BattleApple]

FYI I'm still working this

[Darklands]

Originally Posted by X900BattleApple

FYI I'm still working this

Sweet! Thanks for your diligence.

[martyg]

Just understand that with the way things are now behind the scenes, you'll probably have to wait a bit to see what happens with Atari in general first.

[X900BattleApple]

Originally Posted by Darklands

Sweet! Thanks for your diligence.

Sadly I was talking with David Pierce, Atari's then newest CEO. He was receptive to a variety of ideas I had, then after a month of talks went silent. He resigned a month later. Sorry, but it's back to square 1 regarding anything happening with Atari regarding source code for Darklands, Blood, etc.

I did my best, but I'm afraid I'm at the end of my rope trying to help Atari and probably wont be investing anymore time (and Darklands was just the tip of some great work I'd done and presented to David) to Atari Good luck folks.

[mwirkk]

Thanks alot for everything you tried to do.

We were pretty excited for awhile. But as time went by I was starting to wonder. And then when I saw some reports of Atari's restructuring, and of David's leaving, in November, followed by the threat in December of a possible Nasdaq delisting by late March. It has me worried more for Atari Inc as a whole as much as I am for former MPS properties such as Darklands.

-mwirkk
Darklands Domain Webmeister
Darklands Y!Group YBL(2)
(mwirkk at darklands.net)

[X900BattleApple]

I was very bummed as well, it was a lot of work and I spent a lot of time untangling various messes, figuring out what properties Atari, Inc. (or Infogrames) likely had still, what to do with each property imo (i.e. source release, sequel, casual/moble market version, etc.). It turned out that 2 of the 3 I highly recommended for sequels were already in the works at Atari; in a sense this legitimized the work I did overall.

There was also other work relating to customer service, Hasbro transfer (fiasco) issues, etc. Even got a leader in the casual/mobile market to agree to do both development and QA at their own expense and just take a larger royalty payment on units sold. But then David left.

Anyway, let's hope for the best eh? I was kinda hoping that on some of the source code releases that the community would do the lifting (i.e. get games to work on XP for example) then Atari would try and figure out how to 'own' the fixed code and release greatest hits of the games such as Blood etc. Hey, if Atari can't afford to do anything on their own why not? I'm so sneaky

[Darklands]

I have Darklands running under XP just perfectly.

You need a copy of VDMSound, which emulates Sound Blaster on NT based systems. After VDMSound is installed, you go to the Advanced properties tab and set it to Sound Blaster 16... at least I think it's 16, it's one of the not-quite-the-newest-Sound Blasters. If you leave it at default, Darklands stumbles on the sound. If you set it to a slightly older Sound Blaster compatible mode in the properties tab it works flawlessly.

Wouldn't Darklands be the perfect game to be ported to iPhone or Palm?

[X900BattleApple]

Originally Posted by Darklands

Wouldn't Darklands be the perfect game to be ported to iPhone or Palm?

Atari isn't even in the Top 10 list of players in the mobile / casual market. Sad, but true. Hopefully that'll change, and yes Darklands would be nice on an iPhone

[martyg]

Originally Posted by Darklands

I have Darklands running under XP just perfectly.

You need a copy of VDMSound, which emulates Sound Blaster on NT based systems.

Or you can just download DosBox and run it in there.

[BLOODFAN1325464]

So, nothing new?
http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums...8#post10146618

[mwirkk]

I posted on the Darklands Group about something I just now stmbled upon concerning 'Microprose':

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/...s/message/8739

-mwirkk

[martyg]

Originally Posted by mwirkk

I posted on the Darklands Group about something I just now stmbled upon concerning 'Microprose':

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/...s/message/8739

-mwirkk

Old news -

http://classicgaming.gamespy.com/

[Darklands]

Been a while. Just thought I'd bump for anyone else wondering. I never heard back from their PR.

Maybe somehow, somewhere... *breaks into a musical*