I notice from 0th bit postings (and others) that some games that acmlm wrote and never released have been "made available" (such as the talk about the ATV game and the turok xbox game and others) whilst others (such as emergency mayhem) have not. Can someone more familior with the "scene" tell me why some unreleased games get released and others dont? Is it just different people having different games (i.e. some people like to release unreleased games, others dont)? Is it a matter of some games being "dead" and others not "dead" (e.g. the fact that someone picked up Emergency Mayhem for a wii release means that people with builds are more hesitant to share them)? Is it a matter of not knowing where to look (i.e. builds of EM do exist out there)? Or is there some other reason why some unreleased/beta/preview games (and builds of games) seem to get released and others do not?
It depends on many factors. Generally there are people who like to release unreleased/prototype/etc versions of things, and people who like to keep that hidden/unreleased. There are reasons for both, so let's not get into that. Now, protos can end up in hands of both types of people. Then they can change hands, etc. Sometimes it's a matter of supply - some protos are more common than others. And about the 'knowing where to look', well, obviously, that's a big plus. ASSEMbler games alone is a great 'place to look'. Those Acclaim games were usually acquired when the company went bankrupt, and several members have gotten stuff from that sale (directly or indirectly).
I think drx covered most bases, however the particular titles in question are jointly owned by Diddydonn & myself after purchasing a bulk load of faulty Debug Kits. Once repaired they relinquished the material found on hard drives. Too our amazement most of the titles were rare / unreleased debugs. As far as release, we have put everything on hold at present. It's difficult to know what is the best thing to do with such material. We took some advice, we gave it some thought and in the end we considered a fundraiser, however at present Didds has a great deal on his plate so has little time to spend in this, plus with another fundraiser currently on the go we didn't think it would be a good idea to commence with anything else. No doubt Didds will post updates at some point when it is more suitable to proceed.
