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Lucas Confuses ScummVM With Abandonware
Anonymous Coward writes: "Seems LucasArts finally noticed ScummVm although they seem to be confused about what it is.
ScummVM is a 'virtual machine'(yes like Java) that allows you to play scumm games (Monkey Island, for example) in modern OS (Linux, BSD, err Windows XP) and weird machines like PDAs and the Dreamcast, but Lucas have confused them with an abandonware site."
Lucas should stick to making cheesy kids films that require no intelligence, and leave the thinking to men without beards?
If it's about scum, it MUST have something to do with Jar-Jar Binks.
has anyone come up yet with a DNA test ? My guess is George isn't the cute boy he pretends to be !
When will I end this grieving ? When will my future begin ?
An unfortunately oversight on the part of the ScummVM representative, was the failure to mention that to use ScummVM you still require the original (LucasArts) software!
Had this be pointed out, along with the fact that ScummVM extends the accessibility of the original software beyond its original platform, it may make it less likely that the lawyers will respond with tougher measures.
i-name =twylite [http://public.xdi.org/=twylite], see idcommons.net
Are you sure it wasn't LeChuck controlling the LucasArts legal team? Maybe HE'S the one trying to take action against ScummVm. I don't imagine he likes to be open-source.
(sorry, it had to be said)
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
Although I'm glad that more people are noticing this, the natural tendency at Slashdot is to fire off an e-mail campaign, which is exactly what is not needed in this case.
Lucasarts has made a mistake. As was mentioned on the mailing list, they have to deal with hundreds of Abandonware sites weekly.
From their quotes, Lucas thought that ScummVM was re-distributing the original engine, and saying it was under the GPL.
I believe this situation will soon be resolved calmly, but a hundred "You SUCK!" e-mail cannot help.
Colin Davis
We are contacting you to let you know that the SCUMM engine that is referenced on the site controlled by you (scummvm.sourceforge.net) is actually still proprietary to LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC ("LucasArts") and is not released under general public license as referenced in the FAQ section on your site
RESPONSE:
The RE techniques used are generally protected in most states under what is generally known as the 'compatability' clause. I'm afraid I am based in Australia and cannot quote the applicible US equivilents for you at this time, but I am certain the LEC legal team is aware of the appropriate sections of the copyright act.
Sounds like LEC's legal team needs to get it's act together!
Fault loves the past, worry loves the future, but content enjoys the present.
The poster is correct in that the emulator was confused with abandonware.
I suppose they are just going through the paces to make doubly sure. God forbid a 'few trinkets slip through their fingers'
com'on somebody just had too.
Cpt. Obvious
"The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away" -Tom Waits
"Hmmm... these damn kids are trying to make our games compatible with new hardware. That might result in someone PURCHASING OUR PRODUCT!!! Someone get my lawyer"
Oh it's George Lucas? Jeez, that figures. Of all of my old heros that could have died in a plane crash before they came back to haunt me, Mr. Perm has to top the list.
In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
It seems to me that the people working on the project may think that everything will work out when LEC sees it their way.... And maybe it will. But I don't see that as a definite outcome, just because you "know" that what you are doing is legal doesn't mean that LEC won't come after you. I (like others) would like to think that LEC is a good company, and the fact that these programmers have spent all this time working on something only to be used for LEC games leads me to belive that they think pretty highly of Lucas Arts. I just hope they are right and LEC doesn't go and pull a "blizzard" on them.
The Familiar GNU/Linux distro has packages of ScummVM ready to install. Only the game data files have to be added, for Purple Tentacle to conquer the world on a iPAQ, Zaurus or Yopy. :-)
Is that if they don't take it down, LA will go to sourceforge and ask them to have the site removed.
Maybe it's just me, but i think that sourceforge knows this isn't abandonware.
Moderation: Put your hand inside the puppet head!
"Purely for the record"... thats great!
Their response should have emphasized the fact that you still need the original game files to play.
They're still going to get shutdown, even if its not totally legal. Lucasarts wants to be able to re-release their games with updated engines, and if someone is doing it for free, it cuts into their profits.
Look at Nintendo's new games that emulate NES games on the GBA. How much cooler would that have been if we already hadn't had nesticle for 6 years.
Not agreeing w/ them, I just know their POV.
Since when, in America or any other part of the world, has ignorance on an issue prevented someone from filing a lawsuit? Heck, I'd say that the odds of Lucasarts pressing ahead with litigation are about 50/50, if they can't bully them into submission.
I like Lucasarts (though I used to like it more), but you've got to realize that this issue with ScummVM probably won't make it past their lawyer department, who probably have all the technical aptitude of a pack of (three-headed) monkeys.
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
I say we need to be ready to set up a legal fund for these guys if the lawyers don't see it their way.
...
The guys developing this are right of course but lawyers all too often are concerned about making money so its going to come down to whether they will go for money or do the right thing (tm).
Too bad the entire US legal system breaks down as soon as you have someone with lots of money but I digress. Win or lose the case, the lawyer still gets paid
The Anti-Blog
I believe this situation will soon be resolved calmly, but a hundred "You SUCK!" e-mail cannot help.
/. remains true to form) and a personal boycott of his products (past, present, and future) even more so.
You are absolutely right.
But a mental note to self that "Lucas sucks (even worse than his last two films)" when Slashdot starts promoting the low-rez sorinsen quicktime tailers for Episode III might be appropriate (in the next story, if
As an aside, one has to wonder what sorts of payola scams exist here, for a site the promotes free software and open source as this one does to constantly be promoting the wares of the one industry that has launched successful attacks against free software and its developers (unlike Microsoft).
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
INSERT IANAL DISCLAIMER.
This is a boiler plate letter. They had a legal assitant (billing rate: usually under $100. Pay rate: $15? plus overtime.) do the research on the web. Criteria: does this allow someone to play LEC games? If yes, fill in the blanks and send the letter. Charge the client. Go home happy.
Given the response, this may get boiled up to a summer associate (hasn't passed the bar but has somewhat of a clue regarding the law) (bill rate: $125) or (egads!) and associate (a *real* lawyer) (bill rate $150 min.) who will weigh the ScummVM developers claims and decide wether to persue.
If they investigate the research on the "applicable state laws" will be given to a Legal assistant or a summer associate and that will determine the amount of work necessary to determine if ScummVM is an actual infringement.
I'm not saying LEC is poor, but I doubt they will waste their money past here.
Any IP lawyers who would like to clarify?
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
Once upon a time, there was a company that had a bunch of games that ran under a virtual machine. Eventually, people who loved those games reverse-engineered the virtual machine and wrote interpreters for the VM that ran on everything and anything, from Palms to BeOS to OS/2. And the company decided that that was okay.
The company was Activision, which bought up Infocom in the late 1980s. Remember all those Infocom text adventures? People reverse-engineered the virtual machine, known as the z-machine, and wrote plenty of z-machine interpreters, all of which are freely available. Activision apparently decided that this was fine with them, as long as the games themselves weren't being distributed.
Now LucasArts is in a similar situation. Will they be as calm about a new VM interpreter as Activision was? Sadly, I'm not so sure.
The reply to lucas arts states:
We mean no ill harm to LucasArts, and it is well known that many people (at least 50 to my knowledge, although I am sure there are many more) have brought classic LEC games simply to play them using our software.
which clearly mentions that people purchase the original software to play using ScummVM. And...
ScummVM is a valid clone of the SPU engine, designed to facitiate the playing of LucasArts adventures on modern machines and operating systems.
Which I think also clearly states that ScummVM is a clone of SPU, and not the original engine, or any original game content.
Also their FAQ clearly states in section 2:
1. Do I need original CD or Floppy disks?Most definitely. ScummVM won't work without them. If you would like to buy these games, we suggest you browse Ebay. Do not ask the ScummVM team where you can download the full versions of Lucas Arts games. These requests will be ignored.
What else should they have done? A little "research" into the site would quickly have shown that this is not an abandonware site.
If you ever drop your keys into a river of molten lava, let'em go, because, man, they're gone.
Credo quia impossibilis -- Tertullian
Sorry, Offtopic, but anyone else remember when Lucasarts games were this funny? Heck, I don't think you can even put that third line of text in a game nowadays.
(IIRC, what Elaine had asked Guybrush in that screenshot was something like "What have we learned from all of this?" at the end of the game.)
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
My take on this is that it's most likely just a misunderstanding on the behalf of LEC Legal. These people probably have to deal with "abandonware" sites on a daily basis, and reading their mail it seems that they believe that we are distributing the LucasArts SPU implementation under the (false) assumption that it is abandonware.
Actually, from the legal perspective it seems a lot easier to just send out a lot of letters to all those that thinks they are infringing on proprietary art. What this does, is makes it easier for the legal team. This is because it shifts the burden of proof on the accused (in this case the ScummVM team) rather than on the company itself (in this case Lucasarts) to prove what they are doing is not illegal.
Think of it this way. If you were paying lawyers to protect your intellectual property, would you rather them save money and not "deeply investigate" all claims when the same results could be accomplished by a cursory examination. If you are the big company of course you are going to take the cost effective route.
Don't get me wrong, I believe that the ScummVM has legally reverse engineered the original SPU engine. And I'm very glad, I love playing old Lucasarts game's that I have, like Monkey Island [floppy disk version] under BSD.
I would regret seeing such an interesting project shut down because of a misunderstanding.
Paraphrased:
While this would be true, it could still be argued (successfully) that the emulator would have a negative impact on potential future revenue of LucasArts products, such as a LucasArts Classics package for BSD.
There are 2 arguments that the scummVM ppl need to make. However, they only made one of these arguments.
1. ScummVM is an emulator, and was created using legally valid and sound reverse engineering techniques. (this agument they made)
2. ScummVM was created as an academic exercise in software and reverse engineering techniques. As such, ScummVM is not bound to the DMCA, or any other such laws, as it is considered a form of free speech, and is protected under First Amendment Rights.
-Dennis
Nope, it wasn't. I wrote it (as I said in another post), after rolling over in bed at 6AM to notice a message from 'LEC Legal' sitting in my pine session on my laptop.
:)
I didn't realise how many mistakes I had made until several hours later
Of course, that's not an excuse. Why explain myself?
- From the spellchecker of 'J Brown'
Lead Developer, yadda yadda.
Madre de Dios! Es El Pollo Diablo! -- Captain Blondebeard
It's El Pollo Diablo! The giant demon chicken of Puerto Pollo! -- Captain Blondebeard
This message was brought to you by the death of 30 brain cells.
So, they don't have any lawyers? They still could have tapped the community for someone to write a better response letter. They don't clearly articulate the benefits to LEC that their software provides and the part about reverse engineering almost makes it sound like, "we had that part done in countries where your laws don't apply." The 'responce' given isn't likely to convince a law firm that doesn't already understand the technology, and a law firm that understands the technology would not likely have sent the pleasant-though-it-may-be cease-and-desist request.
--
As a matter of fact, I am a lawyer. But I play an actor on TV.
... I've bought the DotT / Sam & Max 2 in 1 pack; it doesn't work, because the .exe files are so old and can't cope with modern hardware. LucasArts provide patches, which work, sort of...
I've also bought the Monkey Island 1, 2 and 3 pack, and the result with 1 and 2 is the same. Doesn't work out of the box, works, sort of, once you get the patch. The patch at least gets the game running, but the sound is decidedly dodgy. I don't even want to think about what happens to WinXP users...
But now there is ScummVM. All these games run better than they did in the first place, they run on machines and OSes that LucasArts never bothered with, and they run perfectly.
What LucasArts should do with ScummVM is write the authors a great big thank-you letter and start bundling it with all their old games. There's no reason why they shouldn't. Trying to shut down a project that's doing for free what you should have done a long time ago is just plain silly.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
They could have been clearer on that point. But if i were LucasArts i'd offer the spec in exchange for direct link to the LucasArts online store for all games that work.
They could be selling their classic games for a lot a platforms if they work with these guys. I think that would be a good deal for both parties...
LucasArts' lawyers won't stop here -- this was just a shot across the bow. When you bill by the hour, it's in your best interest to keep stirring the pot. The simple fact that their claim has no merit won't stop them from launching an expensive lawsuit, particularly when they can use the legal process to achieve their goal of killing the project.
I doubt they'll make a distinction between submitting original LucasArts software and reverse-engineered code, despite the provisions for RE in US copyright law. It's easy to envision them invoking the DMCA and arguing that the SCUMM opcodes are copyrighted IP and that SCUMMvm is a circumvention device.
I recall Nintendo and Sega using similar arguments to go after sites distributing console emulators.
Buggy Whip Manufacturers are lobbying for the right to slash tires and put sugar in gas tanks.
LucasArts is probably retaliating against Sourceforge for all those stupid "Star Wars"-ripoff ads ;-)
Karma: Bored. (Thinking about resurrecting the "Anyone else is an imposter" joke.)
Since it is legal to implement a system that will run LucaArts programs in a virtual machine by just reverse engineering the programs,
Why doesn't Linux just reverse engineer a couple of major MS programs and implement them in Linux (by reprogramming them). With the amount of support Linux has, this shouldn't be excessively hard.
~ kjrose
How hard is it to proofread a reply to an official legal request before clicking the "send" button? Remember that this reply could easily show up in court, where the judge could (even subconciously) use your mispellings and grammatical mistakes to bias the case against you. Same goes with CmdrTaco and Hemos and their constant misuse of "then" vs. "than" and "their" vs. "they're". You're supposed to be professional journalists, for crying out loud! Professional journalists have EDITORS!
Of course if those Empire lawyers get a look at Source Forge's web ads, SF could have lots more problems than hosting ScummVM! :-)
--
"Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
"Open source is evil." - Microsoft
At least the lawyers have a nice tone in there letter. Better then some other legal department's work that I have seen.
Chris Southern
Unlike a lot of emulators I could mention, ScummVM actually seems to work well. I've played my old dusty copy of Day of the Tentacle all the way through on Linux. It looks better than in the original DOS environment (thanks to built-in anti-aliasing), and there's no speed issues. Furthermore, my USB mouse and "what's DOS?" sound card work great, where they would have failed in the original environment.
So not only can I play a game on the platform of my choice, but even if I played it under DOS, it wouldn't work due to modern hardware.
Not that there aren't problems. My only issue with it is sound synchronization. Sounds play a little too long, pushing everything more and more out of sync with every sound. It looks a bit like a badly dubbed film, actually. Which is actually kind of amusing in its own way, but still, it's not what I'd prefer.
All of which is very cool of them. But not sueing people for writing virtual machines isn't coolness, it's just basic law. Infocom never claimed the exclusive right to implement the Z-machine specification, and probably couldn't have made that claim even if they tried.
Now, what I'd really like is to play is the original Zork. The one that the founders wrote for ITS while students at MIT. No, not "Dungeon," that's an unauthorized port, with an incomplete game and flawed parser.
I heard about SCUMMVM (and PocketScumm!) a month or so ago, and used it to play my old copy of Monkey Island. I had so much fun with it, that I bought Day of the Tentacle, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and Sam & Max Hit the Road from LucasArts. I'm playing through IJFOA on my PocketPC at the moment. I will be buying The Dig and Full Throttle as soon as they're supported fully by SCUMMVM.
.exes, which means that people like me will buy games from lucasarts to use with scummvm!
I hope that LucasArts takes a step back and realizes the three most important things here:
1. You need the original games to play scummvm.
2. Scummvm lets people play lucasarts games on platforms that aren't supported by the original SCUMM
3. Scummvm was reverse engineered, and does not infringe on the original SCUMM engine.
You would think LucasArts would *like* more sales, freely implemented support for new platforms and happy customers. I really hope this is a genuine mistake.
it could still be argued (successfully) that the emulator would have a negative impact on potential future revenue of LucasArts products, such as a LucasArts Classics package for BSD.
And it could be counter-argued (successfully) that if LucasArts simply used ScummVM as the engine for the aforementioned LucasArts Classics package, they would save a buttload of cash (one buttload = the NIST standard for large sums of money) by not having to develop their own engine -- even if they paid the ScummVM developers for their work rather than just redistributing it freely under its current license. The revenue is in the content, not the engine. Since LucasArts clearly still control the content, the potential revenue stream is entirely in their control. You could argue that the potential market is reduced because hardcore fans already own copies of the game, but those same fans would probably rather play the game off of one CD than 26 floppies.
On stereophonic equipment, the monaural sound obtained through multiple channels will enhance your listening pleasure.
I don't think LucasArts wants to re-release SCUMM "Monkey Island" with an updated engine. I think it's a great game, but it's still played partly because there's a nostalgia element to it. It hearkens back to the days when super 3D graphics weren't needed for great gameplay.
If LucasArts releases a new Monkey Island title, it'll obviously be a whole new game, with AI NPC's, an immersive 3D world, and so on. I don't expect they're too worried about competition from the pixely, 2D 10 year old original...
Freedom: "I won't!"
I am sure they understand what this software actually does. They probably want to stop it because they want to re-release the software updated to run on todays OS and if someone makes something that would put a dent in those sales they will do anything to stop it.
>and it is well known that many people (at least 50 >to my knowledge, although I am sure there are many >more) have brought classic LEC games simply to play >them using our software I own Full Throttle (come with my multimedia kit, a old creative discovery 8x) and I plan to buy The Dig once it's supported. Unhapply games more older than those I can't find here at Brazil shops, but those two are really cheap and playing them on linux is just like a dream for me.
Monkey Island...
:)
Day of the Tentacle...
Grim Fandango even.
LucasArts ruled adventure games niche big time. And Sierra's games were not even 1% close, IMHO.
Man... Why don't they make such games anymore? I may be a minority but I (personally) can't care less about all this "texture-mapping", "photo-realistic" sh!t (Realistic?! They must be smoking smth a lot).
Pum, param-pum, pum-pum-pum, pum-pum-pum-pum-pum, pahhm...
Actually, they may want to repackage it one day and sell it as classic games. By making the old games accessible on the new systems, this might scratch there plans a bit.
So what? I paid for my Indiana Jones game. It won't play on my G4. If someone writes software that lets me play the software I've already paid for, then kudos to them. Lucas can't stop them by saying "I was going to do that -- and charge!" If they make a classic games pack, I might buy it to get sound support and a newer version of The Fate of Atlantis. But claiming that a product that allows people to use LucasArts software may hinder their ability to sell a compatibility package or upgrade is pointless since there's nothing wrong with doing that.
OT: I actually ordered The Last Crusade for Mac because I had a 5.25" floppy version for DOS. Instead, I received The Fate of Atlantis -- before it was officially released. I was pissed because it wouldn't play on my black-and-white Classic II. I had to play it on the color Performas and LCs at school. When I finally got a color computer, the first thing I did was install the game. Since I got some weird early version of the game, I have it on floppies and it doesn't have spoken text for dialogue. I'd love to get the CD version that actually had spoken dialogue -- particularly since my G4 doesn't have a floppy drive.
t'nera semordnilap
Obviously, you've never played a Lucasarts game. Mention a name to any person who had a computer in the early 90's and their eyes will glaze over, and they might chuckle as they recall some of the most bizarre jokes that we still can't duplicate today. You need this VM to experience the games.
Copyrights are automatic and do not need to be protected, Trademarks have to be applied for and do need to be protected.
Bleh!
You know what your site is about, and your users know what your site is about...but when I looked at your index page, it was far from obvious to _me_ what your site was about. No wonder LucasArts' lawyers were confused! Frankly, your reply letter had the same problem, although the gist of the matter did gradually emerge.
I suggest that you rewrite your front page to say something like this:
"Remember those great old LucasArts games? Wish they ran on your current PC? Download our engine and they will!
NOTE: If you don't own any of the games, this engine won't do you a speck of good. This is not an abandonware site, so don't expect to download them here."
Read Ender's comment . The guy deserves a little slack I think. Also, just to appease my own nitpicking side, you missed many...fans have brought classic... ;)
"We are far too easily pleased." --C.S. Lewis
The ScummVM guys could really use an editor! That email was chock full of typos and spelling errors! It was painful to read!
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
speaking of abandonware, does anyone know where one can either find a downloadable version of Star Control 2 or a vm that allows it to run with sound, etc? what a great game..
Those who can, do. Those who can't, go into business for themselves.
It really is time for a Software Bill of Rights.
We, as a community of software users, consumers, and citizens need to let companies know that WE know that we have certain rights, we KNOW what they are, and that if they admit that they realize that, we're going to boycott them. Completely.
I'm sure it'd be a minor thing to the Lucas Empire if we stopped buying old copies of Maniac Mansion or Monkey Island, but if we told him, "Fuck you, George, Episodes 3, 7, 8 and 9 can kiss my rosy red ass" Hopefully they'd think twice about hounding someone who created a perfectly legitimate piece of software.
I realize there's problems with this. First, we need a platform, a voice, a document. (It doesn't have to be a *legal* document, a piece of legislation. Just a statement that says that we know we have a right to media-shift our software, reverse-engineer our software to provide interoperability, know where the bugs are, (and fix them if the company won't, doesn't, or can't,) and so on and so on and so on. ) Then, we need companies to take it seriously. And, of course, we need people with some principles to actually *not* support the companies that don't admit, adopt, or accept those rights. (In plain English, that means *DOING WITHOUT* WarCraft 3, or the next what's-sure-to-be-godawful Star Wars flick. Not buying it, not stealing it, nothing.)
Admittedly, I'm not very hopeful there. Slashdot illustrates on a daily basis that principled people are few and far between. We need people to do the homework and tell us, "Okay, Company A is being dickish, here... Company B is the parent company, companies C, D, and E are the subsidiaries..." We need a lot.
Or maybe it's more than just software... call it the Digital Media Bill of Rights... Whatever you call it, though, the intent is the same: Get enough people together to make a *principled* stand for the rights that we have, and totally boycott those companies that don't go along with it.
That principled stand may be the hardest part of it all. *You* have to be willing to possibly do without your blessed mainstream entertainment and software for a while to make it work. Can you do that?
Ed R.Zahurak
You know, oblivion keeps looking better every day.
...but than /. would be like MSNBC, and they'red be no fun in it!
I'd never even heard of this before seeing it posted on slashdot; ironically I spent an afternoon not too long ago rebuilding my 486 for the very purpose of playing these games (fast cpu + win2k + pci soundcard == no DOS games :( ).
This is absolutely amazing.. the setup is a bit of a bitch to figure out (their readme is a bit obtuse), but once configured, the games run (as far as I can tell) flawlessly. Taking into consideration the much better MIDI support on my SBLive! card (the intro tune for Sam N Max is incredible) and the antialiasing, the games look as good as anything 2D I'd expect.
Even better is the ability to run them off the harddrive (back in the day my whopping 540MB woulda been filled with just Sam and DOTT). No more swapping CD's!
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
It's official, SC2 is getting native ports to several platforms, see following URL:
e tsc/
http://www.classicgaming.com/starcontrol/
Looks like they'll be using SDL to pull it off, very cool.
If impatient, some good leads on buying the DOS version are here:
http://www.classicgaming.com/starcontrol/g
Running the classic with sound, best bet if you do not have an ISA soundblaster card is dosemu. There are Dosemu sound patches at the following URL that improve the accuracy of the sound emulation with games like SC2 with DosEmu, while not perfect, can be a stop-gap until the ports are officially released.
http://koti.mbnet.fi/lonnberg/DOSEmuSound.html
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
I bought these games a long time ago for the Macintosh. You *cannot* run them under Mac OS X, even under Classic because Classic requries virtual memory to be on and the games do NOT play well with Classic's virtual memory.
So what this allows is for me to play these games on the same Macintosh I bought them for (A G3/266) without having to reboot my machine and kill my web server and other stuff I have running under Mac OS X.
--Won't that be grand? Computers and the programs will start thinking and the people will stop. - Dr. Walter Gibbs
However, they might make money on handheld machines. Therefore, LucasArts would prefer their old games to be unplayable on modern PCs, so that they will appear fresh and exclusive when they are released for handhelds.
Do you believe in death after life?
D'oh! Unfortunately for them (if this is what they're really thinking), ScummVM has already been ported to the PocketPC. And I love it, and have already purchased 3 new games for it directly from LucasArts' online store.
http://arisme.free.fr/PocketScumm/
http://members.rogers.com/mnusair/
--
These aren't the droids you're looking for.
"Never attribute to malice what can be attributed to stupidity."
This has all the markings of a simple misunderstanding on LucasArts' part, and not a malicious assault. Once an understanding is reached (that is: 1. ScummVM didn't steal anything, and 2. ScummVM causes people to buy more LucasArts games) the two sides will hopefully see the light -- provided they work towards the goal of understanding each other together, and don't turn this into an antagonistic battle.
LucasArts and ScummVM stand to benefit from each other; ScummVM needs to work towards achieving an understanding with LucasArts. ScummVM's response looks like a good step in this direction.
They go and pick out some kids game at Wally-Mart and you bring it home and try and install it only to discover dum-de-dum-dum it won't work with your Windows XP because of some stupid sound card conflict or buggy memory driver. Yet they still sell this stuff.
I have a whole stack of games that don't work anymore with Windows. More and more I can play in Linux or Wine or FreeDOS, but these reverse engineering schemes are definately a good thing.
Just try and get Wing Commander Privateer to work on your new XP box. I bet the sound won't work.
Clickety Click
Perhaps. It's all in the soundcard. Or, more accurately, the drivers. I actually keep a copy of Privateer, amoung other games, on my laptop, which, admittedly, runs win98, not XP. But I boots it into dos, and the yamaha sound chip in it has KICK ASS pure dos drivers for soundblaster 16(! not pro!) emulation.
That having been said, I also built a P120 with Awe32 for the games that use damn timing loops.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.