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Wait I'm confused, isn't this a bad thing?

Yes it's bad.

One of my pet peeves in the Linux community is all the legacy cruft. I'd much rather not see time and energy spent on a game started 17 years ago.

What about adopting a modification already in development? I came across this Tribes 2 modification (called Mechina, pictures here) and it just blew my mind. They already have textures, mappers, scripting and detailed models. Its almost a total conversion already and as I recall Tribes 2 is based on GarageGames Torque Game Engine SDK which is available for Linux, Windows and Macintosh already.

Check out the link at least, believe me its not just another Tribes 2 game modification. Rewrite the base code, replace the Tribes 2 models and textures and you'd have an amazing game.

and modify those images in a way that was never before possible with GIF and JPG.

You've probably never seen a well-done cut-and-paste job. Start at All Your Base Are Belong To Us. Then look at Something Awful's Photoshop Phriday. Then tell me whether or not modifying a photographic image in a convincing manner is "possible with ... JPG".

If the copyright owner is out of business and the item out of print, who's going to sue me for copyright infringement?

When a corporation goes out of business, other corporations buy its assets, such as copyrights and patents.

However, the fact that nobody has brought suit in regard to derivative works of "Zero Wing" by defunct video game publisher Toaplan shows that if something is obscure enough, the company that owns the copyright after several successive corporate acquisitions will probably not know that it owns it and thus will not take legal action against infringers. No plaintiff, no judge.

On the other hand, the SimEarth brand computer game is not obscure. It was developed and published by Maxis, now a division of Electronic Arts, the Disney of video games.

All Your Base Are Belong to Us

Even if the company doesn't exist anymore, SOMEBODY probably still has the rights to the software.

If the game's publisher has been out of business for more than ten years, and the publisher was not bought by IDSA, it's pretty safe to assume that whoever owns the game's copyright doesn't even know he owns it. The chance of the copyright owner actually finding out about your piracy and taking action are about the same as the chance of a software patent holder doing the same on a random original program.

Just look at "Zero Wing", an old arcade game. Toaplan, its publisher, has been out of business for a long time. Had the company who bought Toaplan's copyrights known about the song and music video that sampled parts of "Zero Wing", then we probably would have seen legal sparks fly a couple months into the "All Your Base" craze. But we didn't.

While I am not an avid watcher of the show, I have seen a few episodes and the movie. The writing, acting and directing are excellent.

I have started watching more of the show, though, due to the fact that I recently joined a team working on a Stargate: SG1 first person shooter. So far the its looking awesome! We are always looking for input, though.

If any other Stargate: SG1 fans out there are interested, you can find information about the game at our website.

It started out as a Mod for Tribes 2, but the Lead programmer purchased the Torque Game engine and the mod turned in to a stand-alone game. Oh, and it will be freeware ;)

Perhaps artists would look to sign with a label with more competitive expenses

Such as have somebody like Bad_CRC, Neil Cicierega or Veloso make their video. If it worked for "Invasion of the Gabber Robots" by TLMOM featuring Toaplan, "Hyakugojyuuichi" by Nintendo, and "Yatta" by Happatai, it'll work for any song.

Or you could just drink Ritalin like most Dance Dance Revolution players do.

Actually, Toaplan owns the Moon... well, not the whole Moon, just the bases... And as long as we're on the subject, don't forget that no one who goes to the Moon should in any way resemble any of these people, otherwise they're just looking for conspiracy-fodder...

Maybe you would like to watch the video

Adobe Photoshop, which is a standard program that lots of people need costs $584 at www.buy.com. That's well over what most people can afford.

Lots of people do not need the full version of Adobe Photoshop. There is a "lite" version called Photoshop Elements that has all the features of Photoshop except those related to CMYK separations. Only print artists really need CMYK; those who use Photoshop as a verb are happy with RGB and can use PS Elements, Paint Shop Pro, or (better yet) GIMP for Windows.

but there are a lot of people like me, college students, who can't afford a 500$ program that they need for a class.

That's why the United States government (and presumably other governments) provide student financial aid, primarily in the form of low-interest deferred-payment loan programs.

The important question is whether the Russian text imparts the same meaning and nuances to a native Russian reader as the English text does to an English reader--not whether the words happen to match up. I don't know any Russian, so I can't speak for this particular case, but I do speak fluent Japanese, and I have seen far too many "translations" that rely too heavily on dictionaries and end up missing critical points because of it. (Those who have played console games, particularly in the 8/16-bit era, will probably remember the frequency of unnatural English text in those games; one good example is "it's dangerous", which is a literal--and incorrect--translation of the Japanese word used to mean "look out!".) The better translation is not the one with the most word-for-word matches, but the one that causes readers in both languages to think the same thing. And with all due respect, I think it's difficult to judge that without a fluent knowledge of both languages involved.

It's also worth noting that it simply isn't possible to express some concepts in some languages, because the culture/society the language is used in simply doesn't have the concept in the first place. For example, Japanese has numerous words for expressing interpersonal relationships (such as nearly a dozen first-person singular pronouns, each with a different connotation); while you can approximate the meaning of those in English by playing games with sentence structure and the like, you can't get exactly the same nuance because English simply doesn't use the same concept set as Japanese does. So there will always be some inaccuracies in any translation, especially with colloquialisms like "party on, dude!"; the object is to keep them as few and as small as possible--again. in terms of the effect on the reader.

Of course, translating a Russian translation back into English is going to result in even more inaccuracies, like converting an MP3 file to Ogg Vorbis and then back to MP3 again; just because the final result sounds bad doesn't necessarily mean that the original or intermediate result are also bad.

Just because you don't use a certain capability (like CMYK), doesn't mean I don't either.

I understand that people who do print work need CMYK, but I just wanted to point out a lot of people who think they "need Photoshop" and either pay for or pirate the $600 program can make do with either free GIMP, $100 Paint Shop Pro, or $100 PS Elements. (This applies especially to those who use "Photoshop" as a transitive verb.) Most of what gives Photoshop reputation as an "expensive" package lies in features that are 1. patented by companies that demand hefty royalties and 2. not needed by a large enough chunk of the users for alternatives to pop up.

I was also trying to weed out the "GIMP sucks because most of its menus are contextual" bots.

It's a little on the older side. http://www.planettribes.com/

Multi-player Actions in 3-D by two or more teams, installs from one disk & no serial number. However I have seen unopened boxed copies for under $10.....

Mods are all server side and are availible online (Shifter tops my list)

"Tribes 2" is a bit more complex and has more "entanglements".

There are no Bugs to hunt so the other team will just have to do. If you don't want to bother with the setup of the Mod yourself, there are plenty of servers open to the public. You can also password protect a server for private games.

And won't they be surprised when they go to look for the latest "l337" animation

Macromedia, the maker of the Flash plugin, continues to support Netscape browsers. Yes, the AYBABTU Flash animation will still run in Mozilla.

It would seem to me that there would *always* be someone who owned the IP, although it might not be the original company. Awareness of ownership and desire to enforce copyright are probably in question, but ownership?

Good point, but how can a company sue over something it doesn't know it owns? What practical difference is there between not knowing you own something and not owning it? If a company knew it owned the Zero Wing franchise, you can bet that at least some of the AYBABTU sites would have received nasty letters months ago.

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To all Slashdot readers: If you know who represents the corporation that currently owns the IP of the late Toaplan Co., please click 'Reply to This' below and give more information.

The sites you put up as examples are sites where the user interest is nonexistant. I don't care about a "cute lil' cat" or "cute lil'" anythings, for that matter. I don't think I'm alone among netizens for that. And I don't think that "Magick" has a huge following either.

However, if you want a media system and a belief system that are popular, Star Wars and Christianity are both doing fine.

And sites become popular overnight! Need I remind you of the dancing hamsters and "All your base" phenomena that took the nation by storm inexplicably with only wierdness to pull them along?

"All finite strings. "

Does this mean that sooner or later, someone will be able to prove that AYBABTU can be found in the binary digits of PI?

And will it give them more or less karma?

AYBABTU information here. Why does it need asking? Its the top hit on google even for that particular link..

http://www.planettribes.com/allyourbase/AYB2.swf

http://hubert.retrogames.com/article.php?sid=1
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Tarald - The Lord of Smeg

The copyright industry? Puh-lease tell me this is just a poor choice of words rather than somebody's cockeyed view of the world.

I've used this term before. It refers to the entertainment industry in the sense that it controls popular culture with the iron fist of copyright. Why again does Disney still have a monopoly on Mickey Mouse?

largely spearheaded by (c), Inc.

"Copyright Inc." is not too far off base. There are companies whose sole purpose is to milk copyright for all it's worth, such as ASCAP, BMI, RIAA, and MPAA.

First :-) gets patented

No, :-(® is a trademark, not a patent. Right office, wrong monopoly. Trademark #75502288 on ":-(" applies only to "Printed matter namely, greeting cards, posters and art prints."

It's availiable for Win32 and Linux.

You can find more information about Tribes 2 here, here, and more about Linux Tribes here.

:)

-Gnight

Go here and see this.

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2*b || !(2*b) is a tautology

Go here and see this.

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2*b || !(2*b) is a tautology

what i don't get is, this whole "are belong to us" thing". is that some inside joke i'm missing?

All your base are belong to us.

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I have just finished playing BZ II, and it is breathtaking. The first Battlezone was just as good a few years ago. I mean, a lunar surface, a hovertank and some enemies... What more does one need?

As for multiplayer games that need porting... Half-Life (Opposing Force), but what about Starsiege Tribes? I'm not that good at fragging but a good cooperative teamplayer, and Tribes is the only game I've seen so far where this really makes a difference. No need to be an ace sniper or have Trinity-like reflexes if you can place devious traps or build awesome defenses! Seriously. Got to love it!