In case anyone is interested I am working on FMV Game Engine for Android phones. Currently Crime Patrol is supported only Delta missions left to add. I will soon release it on Android Market once I get more games added. (Yes I go trough footage by hand... lol) It already works very well, shooting and reloading and all. It's like normal emulators, it requires the original copy of the game (Well the videos), that you copy to the phone memory card. Current Support: - Crime Patrol (Microsoft Windows CD) 90% Next in Line: - Crime Patrol 2: Drugs Wars (Microsoft Windows CD) - Mad Dog Mcree (Microsoft Windows CD) - Mad Dog Mcree 2 (Microsoft Windows CD) - Space Pirates (Microsoft Windows CD) - Who Shot Johnny Rock? (Microsoft Windows CD) - The Last Bounty Hunter (Microsoft Windows CD) Planned: - Star Trek Borg (Microsoft Windows 3CDs) - Ground Zero Texas (Sega CD) - Wirehead (Sega CD) - Dragons Lair (Steam Remastered Version) - Dragons Lair 2 (Steam Remastered Version) - Night Trap (Sega CD) - Cliffhanger (Laserdisc) - Fahrenheit (Sega CD) - Fast Draw Showdown (Arcade) - Gallagher's Gallery (Arcade) - Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Sega CD) - Road Blaster (Laserdisc) - Shootout at Old Tucson (Laserdisc) - Space Ace (Steam Remastered Version) - Strahl (Laserdisc) - Super Don Quix-ote (Laserdisc) - Thayer's Quest (Laserdisc) - Time Gal (Laserdisc) Here are some WIP progress screenshots from my phone. (Phone res is 1080p lol...)
Doubt this will last long on Google Play or the iOS store or anywhere else, especially if you plan on selling it. The rights to many of these games are still held by active companies, which sell them.
I would assume he has the rights. If not, it would be foolish. I would only do the mad dog game, no one knows the others nor cares. Nostalgia is strong for mad dog. Only issue I can think of is mad dog was about response time, so a phone with a slow screen is going to make for a terrible game experience. Best to loosen the timings on the shooting, maybe add in a power up that lets people "nuke" the hard person they cannot beat and go onto the next scenario. Or given android, make it so people can't lose at all. Add in a points tally (5000) and have it subtract points each time they get shot. Less points means less money for them to spend in the "bar" on power ups like shield badge or a better gun. Still don't expect consistent, long sales. It's truly a flash in the pan novelty and best to go ad supported after a few months or from the beginning. My 2 cents. I would do it for IOS, no one buys shit on android.
Rights for what, this is just an engine where users copy files from their own original copies of the game to the phone memory or SD card. My code is 100% my own so there is no copyright problems. Also the entire timing system and shooting system is my own code. The original code is total garbage, my code makes the games very playable and depending of the difficulty comes the challenge. I have to go trough all footage by hand and add them by hand in notepad, then I have separate program that changes my notes to game code. As the code is 100% C# it's easy to handle special events like different kind of stage selections, random enemies per movie and even FMV adventure games like Night Trap/Star Trek Borg. Many people buy on Android market, are you kidding me. It even For example FPse Playstation1 emulator has sold 100,000-500,000 copies (YES SOLD, $3.64 per copy). Also Apple is going down hill all the time and Android is gaining. Also my code is made on Xamarin so it's pretty easy to port it to iOS but as I don't like Apple and it's sheep fans I have no plan on porting it for now. Also the hardware is garbage compared to latest android phones. I will post video during the weekend.
What you're doing is porting the game, not writing an emulator. Copyright most certainly applies. If you don't get much in the way of sales, it'll probably be overlooked for a bit, but as soon as you start making money it'll either be taken down (if you're lucky) or it'll be taken down and you'll be sued for all profits. This. If you get the rights lined up before release, then you can both make money. You just have to reach out early and pitch it as a project that is no risk to them (think about how the Sonic CD remake got done). If you just do it and it is successful, the rights holders have no incentive to come to n agreement that is favorable to you as they've got copyright on their side. All your profits will end up in their pockets if you do it without permission.
I am not porting a game, I am making interpreter of movie files that happen to be games. There is NOTHING illegal in that. As long as my product contains 0% of code from original developer, they cannot do absolutely anything. By your definition all emulators should be illegal entire system is "ported" to phone...
Anyways I took your advice and contacted all possible old FMV companies to license their games. Then people wouldn't need to copy files off CD hehe.
I've seen projects handed a C&D even though it contained no original code. The project in question modified pinball game ROM's to change the way the lamp matrix was scanned to eliminate 'ghosting' when using LED's instead of incandescent bulbs. The reasoning was that it could be used to make 'derivative' copies of software that was copyrighted. Long story short, most people can't afford or don't want the hassle of proving that they aren't in the wrong.
If you were just writing code which emulated the hardware that the original games ran on and then users were expected to provide their own game ROMs, you would have a point. But in this case, the video files are just graphics. They aren't the actual game. To compare it to a video game system, take Super Mario Bros. In the traditional emulation sense, someone emulates the NES hardware and users are expected to provide their own copy of the SMB ROM. What you're doing is the equivalent of ignoring the NES emulation and re-writing the PRG ROM chunk of SMB so that it runs native in Android. Sure, the user might have to provide the CHR ROM image for the PRG ROM to use, but the core program is still being ported. There's no emulation going on. Not quite sure why that matters. Digital Leisure (owner of the Dragon's Lair and Space Ace IP, along with much of the American Laser Games stuff) is a Canadian company. You think they won't bother to protect their IP just because they aren't in the USA? After all, they are still actively porting (and selling) these games themselves. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a cool idea, but it seems like you're setting yourself up to get shot down.
What are you talking about, the movies files are equivalent to roms. The code is my own, I don't use single line or logic from the original binary. The binary is _MINE_. I have browsed trough all movies to find right locations and target spots...
Again, not trying to shoot you down or anything like that, just trying to point out that although you might be 100% in the right, if Digital Leisure decide to make a bullsh*t case against you, will you have the funds and the time to fight, even if you know you haven't done anything wrong? I have to agree with hl718 on this one. If they wanted to, they could have grounds for a case against you. It doesn't matter that you haven't copied any of their code, what you've done is reverse engineering, using their 'code' as a reference. The fact that you've contacted them previous to trying to profit it from it will probably help your case though.
Here is video, engine has some bugs that are visible like ammo not restarting when coming back to selection screen and death scenes skip when you shoot but those are now fixed in new build. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/59693677/20130920_234259.mp4
cool idea aside, I just don't think that anybody will ever gonna pay any money for such a thing. peeps wanna get a full package. install and play. release it for free and fine it would be for those few who like to hassle around with it.
I can say that 'Mad Dog Mcree' was ported to the 3DS in the US several months ago. The only way I know to get it, was to buy it off the eStore, so they are still selling the games. :/ But contacting the copyright holders is the way to go if you are going to release this with the game it's self with it. =hugh
