Buy a Piece of Acclaim

An anonymous reader writes "Kotaku points to the official auction site for Acclaim, the game publisher that was. The Auction includes the building and everything that was in it, including arcade games, boardroom tables, an odd collection of football helmets and 43,000 copies of video games." Our previous story of their bankruptcy.

Comments

Memories.

[Anonymous Coward]

"The auction includes some pretty sweet boardroom tables, tear-stained cubicles and one nifty clock."

I'll take one of those cubicles. Helps bring back memories.

Re:Memories.

[Anonymous Coward]

Can anyone else not see what this post (and the ones above it) were modded when you click on the message #?

Re:Memories.

[Anonymous Coward]

Haha, idiot.

Accalim?

[ian rogers]

I thought it was Acclaim. Someone needs to proof read a bit better.

Re:Accalim?

[WIAKywbfatw]

Hmmm, I believe the standard response to such a comment is "You're new around here, aren't you?"

Seriously, spelling errors in story summaries are so damn common that they're practically part of the Slasdot experience, together with dupes, occasional fakes, "news" stories that are days, weeks or even months old, and editorial comments appended to summaries that are entirely inappropriate for what claims to be a news site (but is closer to a news-related meta-blog).

Re:Accalim?

[ian rogers]

I'm not new around here, but hey, someone's going to mention it sooner or later.

Re:Accalim?

[realdpk]

To be fair, I haven't seen a dupe in a long while. Now I haven't been reading slashdot constantly, but I also haven't seen very many others shouting dupe.

Re:Accalim?

[Anonymous Coward]

Apparently, "accalim" is not a common misspelling of "acclaim" on the internet. Assuming all instance of "accalim" were misspellings, it seems to occur at a rate of 4.4% (836/1,880,000).

According to Google, there were 836 "accalim" webpages out of 1,880,000 ("acclaim" OR "accalim") webpages. Results were restricted to webpages in English.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=lang_en&cl ie nt=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&as _qdr=all&q=accalim&btnG=Search&lr=lang _en
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=lang_en &clie nt=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&as _qdr=all&q=acclaim+OR+accalim&btnG=Search&lr=lang_ en

Re:Accalim?

[WIAKywbfatw]

There was one a couple of weeks back that appeared on the front page less than two hours after the orignal story did, and with only one other story separating them. I can't remember the exact time differential, but it was something like one hour and 47 minutes - that's got to be some kind of record.

All the comments made to the second story (apart from the usual trolls) pointed out the ridiculousness of the situation. Eventually, the whole dupe and all the attached comments were erased, as if it never existed.

Whereas in the past all such dupes would have been left alone, now it looks like some of them are being deleted after the fact. So, rather than cure the disease - by actually vetting stories properly, doing basic fact checking, etc, like all proper news outlets would - it seems that the Slashdot "editors" have chosen to treat the symptoms - by covering up their mistakes after they've been made.

I swear, in 99.99 percent of businesses, if people ran things this way then heads would roll pretty damn fast.

Re:Accalim?

[Anonymous Coward]

Accalim is the evil twin company that made good games, but went out of business due to the similarity between names.

Re:Accalim?

[tomhudson]

All of us regulars saw it, and the other one that was posted twice an hour apart ...

I swear, in 99.99 percent of businesses, if people ran things this way then heads would roll pretty damn fast.

Guess you haven't been to some of the places I've worked. Or that my friends have worked at :-)

I have a theory that there's a Peter Principle for whole business sectors, not just for people in organizations. Whole business sectors "rise to their level of incompetence", and the only reason they continue to exist is that everyone else is in the same boat. It would certainly explain why Ford is still in business ... ditto Martha Stewart OmniwhateverthefuckMedia.

Anyway, it's just a theory ...

Re:Accalim?

[MaxwellStreet]

836/1880000 is actually 4.44e-4, or 0.0444%.

Somebody had to say it.

Re:Accalim?

[Sebadude]

Slasdot?

Oooh, and you were doing so well with your commentary on (im)proper SPELLING.

Re:Accalim?

[Anonymous Coward]

Just more proof that Slashdot has been outsourced to India.

Re:Accalim?

[Dimensio]

Actually, I always called it "Ack! Lame!"

Re:Accalim?

[Anonymous Coward]

What do you mean? I don't see any of these deleted dupes?

Re:Accalim?

[Bios_Hakr]

Don't forget the obligatory Slashvertisement.

Re:Accalim?

[WIAKywbfatw]

1. At 4.30am in the morning, with my head about to hit the keyboard, my typing's not perfect. Is yours?

2. I don't get paid for this gig. The Slashdot editors do.

Re:Accalim?

[pjt33]

They could do with checking the links, too. The "official auction site for Acclaim" is actually a gamer news site with a link to the actual auction site.

Re:Accalim?

[vasqzr]

I always thought it was 'Akklaim'. Thats how it looks, but it wouldn't make any sense.

http://www.muad.com/photos/E3-00/sudwest03.jpg

Re:Accalim?

[almightyjustin]

The Accalim? Isn't that one of the ranks of fallen angels or something?

Re:Accalim?

[antifoidulus]

Ironically, the story that was duped was about google doubling its cache, IE making many more pages available to search for a dupe. Irony, I love irony.

Re:Accalim?

[stretch0611]

You forgot to mention tech support posing as an article.

Re:Accalim?

[Sebadude]

Take it easy, I was only kidding.

Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[Dancin_Santa]

You'd buy this, but you wouldn't pay for their games. Any quick search of Google turns up loads of cracks and warez for their games. It's been that way for a long time.

It's hard for a company to make money selling games, when perfect duplication is possible and people are willing to break the law to circumvent copy protection systems.

I don't care what you may think about their games, but you have to admit that it takes some seriously warped thinking to believe that destroying companies like this actually helps the software industry. Pay for the stuff you value. This isn't a zero-sum game we are playing, it is actually a game in which everyone is better off when we treat creators with the respect they deserve.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[mordors9]

And then they complain when companies try to insure that only legal owners can play the games with some sort of copy protection. I hate the schemes also, but you can't blame them when that many people are playing without paying.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[Norg]

While I agree in sentiment, I'm not sure if that's necessarily why they're out. Either way, I'm sorry to see them go. I wish people would at least test and then buy, as so many claim, but it's simply not what happens. The sense of entitlement is stifling.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[kiddygrinder]

Acclaim blew up because their games sucked ass. If everyone had to pay for their copy of BMX XXX i think they'd still pretty much be screwed.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[Anonymous Coward]

Which is why ID software is going out of business so quickly... right?

Oh, wait, its because their products fucking rock, and Acclaim's sucked ass.

They failed of their own accord.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[DarkMantle]

Sorry, but when game spy rates a NES game the best game Acclaim made it says enough about the quality. And don't forget No. 4: Bust A Move I think that was in the arcade Def Leppard released Hysteria.

Face it, it was gonna happen anyway.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[John Gaming Target]

You realize that console piracy (Acclaim's main business) is no longer that prevalent right?

Sure it happens, but one of the big plues of gaming going mainstream is that most console owners don't even know where to find pirated games or how to make them work.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[Anonymous Coward]

Eh? Acclaim went bankrupt because they released a string of shitty and mediocre games. Piracy didn't lose them sales because no one was going to buy BMX XXX to begin with

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[kungfuSiR]

I'd have to agree that most of the stuff acclaim has been putting out is crap. However stealing something and saying you are stealing it because it is crap does not justify your actions. Either buy it and then say how crappy it is, or just stay away and let the company go down in flames the right way. Although i'm sure Acclaim went south because of mis management more then people stealing their games.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, we can. Two wrongs don't make a what now?

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[Anonymous Coward]

i'm sure Acclaim went south because of mis management

Was it the excess of antique furniture that tipped you off?

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[secretsquirel]

two wrongs dont make cowboy neal?

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[Nykon]

I think my least favorite methods for older games was that darn wheel. When you'd have to line up multiple wheels and enter the symbol. That and "go to page 7, line 3 word 4" ..lol :)

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[NeoSkandranon]

since when again was it wrong to try to keep people from illegally obtaining/using your work?

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[secretsquirel]

Most of the best games are on NES.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[stienman]

Are you making the claim that if their games were not pirated Acclaim would not have failed?

I don't agree with piracy (though, for a variety of personal reasons, I hate protection schemes that require the disk to play, or activation over the internet), but that is part of the business of computer software, like it or not. If Acclaim truly failed because of piracy, then it's due to them underestimating the extent of the piracy, or not taking proper precautions. There is no perfect solution to piracy, so any reasonable business plan must include its effects.

As far as treating the 'creators with the respect they deserve' do you also believe that video game companies should treat the creators with the respect they deserve? And what, pray tell, respect do these various creators deserve, exactly?

-Adam

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[Anonymous Coward]

Parent is obviously biased (personal contact/financial connection/etc). Not only were Acclaim's game ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE pretty much unanimously across all systems, but it had DREADFUL management, an incompetent president who stayed on board WAY too long, and drove itself into the ground years ago. The market knew the right story, and gave this company the punishment it deserved. Capital Punishment

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[Anonymous Coward]

Since your work was so painfully craptastic that you should have been paying people to obtain/use it?

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[techno-vampire]

It's hard for a company to make money selling games, when perfect duplication is possible and people are willing to break the law to circumvent copy protection systems.

And that's where the fallacy in your subject line is. It wasn't done in by the people who would buy this stuff, it was done in by the people who pirated their software. I'm no fan of copy protection, although I don't mind having to have the CD in the drive when you play, but if too many people use stolen, cracked copies, there's no profit for the company, and without that, you have no company and no more games.

I wonder how many of the people who mouned the bankrupcy paid for every copy of a game they have...

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[kiddygrinder]

heh, when it's:

1. Pointless, because it doesn't work
2. Hassling legitimate customers more than pirates

So, i think it's fine to have online registration for multiplayer as in ut2k4 or WoW, cause it works and is hassle free (aside from the careful typing required, but that's being finicky). It's not fine to have CD checks or Online reg for single player games, since a pirate will have downloaded a cracked copy of the whole game and can install it and play hassle free, while I still have to get online to register (not a big hassle for me, i admit) or find the CDs (this i like a LOT less).

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[Hobadee]

Here's my point of view on the whole matter:
I'm 19. That means I'm also pretty much broke. Before I buy a game, I want to make sure it's damn worth my money. When I would pirate a game (I don't anymore - not enough time to even play legal games :-O) I would do so to play it as an "extended demo" pretty much. I pirated plenty of games which quite simply, sucked ass, and I deleted off my computer within the week, if not the same day. The few games that were good I just added to the list of games that I needed to buy. I understand that companies need to make money, and that they spend money on making the games that I enjoy. That is why I support then, WHEN they make a good game. I'm not about to buy a piece of crap game. Why? Because then the company see's that I bought it, assumes that I liked it, and decides to make more piece of crap games.

As far as pirates go who simply pirate so they don't have to pay for the game, that's bad, but I see no problem with making an informed decision before buying a product.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't see Take Two and Rockstar Games suffering as a result of the rampant piracy of their PC titles (GTA3 and Vice City). Also note that, like Acclaim, they also cater to the console market.

We could go around in circles arguing about why people pirate stuff and whether or not they really would have forked over the money for a legitimate copy of some software, but in this instance the cause for their demise is clear: shitty games and bad management (the latter likely being the cause of the former).

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[Anonymous Coward]

id software makes a killing on licensing to other respectable companies. sure, acclaim made a few that sucked. but if you haven't noticed, id software has been making the same game since the early '90s with wolfenstein 3d.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[Anonymous Coward]

that article has a horrible grudge going for Acclaim. without Acclaim, NES would have been nothing. or substantially less than it was. that alone says something about quality. no other platform to date has had as many great games as NES. the PC from 1980 to today has not, unless you count emulators which play NES games.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[laughingcoyote]

I don't see piracy "doing in" the movie, music, or software industry (all of whose revenues are UP despite all their yowling about piracy and alienation of their customers in futile efforts to prevent it.) What I DO see is a WHOLE lot of garbage coming out of the IP industries, along with a few gems. If I want to download something in order to try it out before I drop ($15 on a CD, ~$25 on a DVD, or ~$50 on a game), I reserve the right to do so. If I like it, I'll buy it. If I don't, I saved myself being ripped off.

I really see no problem with this. It is theft for a record company to put 1 or 2 decent songs on a CD (which, incidentally, holds about 80 minutes worth of music, as we all well know, and sometimes -contains- less than 50...). It is theft to put more effort into keeping people from playing your game than making one that they would want to and then refusing to refund the customer's money when they find that out. It is theft when I move and my DVD collection which I perfectly legally purchased becomes worthless.

Check your argument if you would please, this area has a lot more gray in it then most believe.

As for Acclaim, I wouldn't have even bothered downloading a "preview" copy of their games, they haven't made a worthwhile one in quite some time. It would've been a waste of my time. I knew that, so look at that, I didn't buy their games!

It's amazing that these companies are so arrogant as to think that locking up people's bought-and-paid-for property is acceptable. If Toyota asked us to "authenticate" our car every time we started it there would be a Toyota for all of five seconds. If I purchase a CD, game, or movie, that copy is MY property. Granted, I have no right to make copies and exploit them commercially, but to say that I cannot give one to a friend?

Personal use is different than commercial. If I put on a concert using someone else's music, and make a killing on it, this is and should be illegal. If, on the other hand, I put in a CD on in my car and everyone riding along enjoys it, this is perfectly legal, even if only one of us owns the disc. The distinction here is personal vs. commercial exploitation. That distinction is a good, valid one, and the line should be drawn far more brightly, and far closer toward expanding, not shrinking, fair use rights.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[barc0001]

Either buy it and then say how crappy it is, or just stay away and let the company go down in flames the right way

You DO know there is a third option, right? "Try" out the game, and if it's good, buy it to show support for a good game.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[mushroom blue]

yeah. because Acclaim was making such great games, had top-notch marketing, and always kept fans wanting more.

there's no reason they wouldn't have survived if it wasn't for those dirty pirates.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[radio.cgt]

PS2, need I say more?
It's pretty well acknowledged that one of the biggest 'selling points' for many is that PS/PS2 games are easy as anything to rip off. I could ask any almost normal person with a PS2 where to get golddisk games and they'd know. Maybe not from the internet, but local markets, dodgy shops, a guy in the pub etc. The same places people get their 'pre-release' videos and DVDs.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[Babbster]

First off, I'm sure his subject line was a typo and, in fact, you're agreeing with the original post.

Second, ACCLAIM WAS NOT BANKRUPTED BY PIRACY. Acclaim went bankrupt because they spent lots of money on licenses, made barely average to horrible games based on licenses, and finally spent millions trying to market those bad games. They also wasted money trying to diversify (instead of, you know, spending money making better games?), failing miserably for example with their purchase of the Valiant comic line (the line that brought Turok, Magnus the Robot Fighter and Dr. Solar back from comic book limbo).

People have said it over and over again, and I guess it bears repeating since people keep chiming in with replies such as yours: Pirates didn't kill Acclaim - Acclaim killed Acclaim. This entire thread is offtopic in the extreme.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[Anonymous Coward]

Imagine what would have happened if they had spent some of the money they spent on their *freaking awesome* office furniture on their games.

Ok, I gotta post AC now, but I have been to most game publishers' offices -- Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Activision, EA, Midway, Universal, etc -- for meetings, etc. and I can honestly say that most of them are somewhere between fairly ratty and mind-numbingly corporate blando.

Acclaim had *far* better furniture and offices than companies that were doing much better than them. It may have been their location on the East Coast, where people pay more attention to that stuff, but I'm not sure...

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[mjh49746]

Is that supposed to be funny? I wouldn't even make the effort of pirating that junk. What makes you think I'm going to bother to buy it? Their games sucked

• so bad,

'suck' would be quite the understatement. The stuff they were putting out was abyssmally close to "E.T." that ran off the Atari 2600, and I've already suffered

• permanent, emotional scarring

from THAT damned game way back in the day. They could've got their heads out of their asses and turned it around, but shitty work, shitty advertising, and bullshit copy protection did them in. It's lunacy! Just like how the North Korean's get to starve to death, but the only thing Kim Sung whatever-the-fuck his name is thinks about, is building nukes. WTF!?! Nobody this mentally defective deserves a successful company. Why do another galactically stupid thing as making excuses for bad management?

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[Anonymous Coward]

You make good points, but you blur the line when you refer to "property" and who owns what. When you buy a new Game, DVD, or Audio CD, you don't own it. Its not "your property". That's like saying if you went out and purchased HL2, and you you own the 3D Engine, Source, the Art, and the Music of the game. YOU DONT! You merely own a license (one license mind you, unless you purchased multiple copies) that gives you permission to use the property, HL2, of the company in which produced it.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[tugfoigel]

To quote from Wikipedia "A copyright is a form of intellectual property that grants its holder the sole legal right to copy their works of original expression, such as a literary work, movie, musical work or sound recording, painting, computer program, or industrial design, for a defined period of time." Your use of a copyrighted thing has no connection with your intention to use it personally rather that to exploit it commercially. I think this subtle distinction is worth noting.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[laughingcoyote]

I said that the line "should be drawn" more toward allowing personal use, not that it currently -is- there. I'm well aware of the current regulations, and I advocate changing them.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[dosius]

Acclaim released some pretty kickass arcade ports in the mid-90s (Mortal Kombat II and T2: The Arcade Game).

Moll.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[Juanvaldes]

I remember for Railroad Tycoon you had a sheet with like 20 trains on it and had to identify the loco. I played that game so much I ended up memorizing all the trains and never needed the card. Even today I still remember a few.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[Fred Or Alive]

You misspelled Sega Mega Drive. ;-)

(But I was born about 5 years too late, for the NES, and I lived in Europe where it didn't set the world alight anyway).

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[Fred Or Alive]

I like the way about 3/4 of the list are either arcade ports (mostly Midway), or Japanese games Acclaim published in the US. Why they didn't mention Dead or Alive 2, I don't know, it counts by the list's standards.

Most of the 'original' games are by 3rd Party developers (Rare, Criterion etc.) rather than in-house as well (did Acclaim even have an in-house?).

Truely this company did great things. My copy of Rise of the Robtots (Mega Drive, PAL) had[1] a nice Acclaim logo on it's spine as well...

[1] I didn't keep hold of it. I paid at lest £5 too much, which for a £3 game is quite an acheivement (sp? bloody Firefox doesn't have a spell checker - Safari forever!).

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[Antique Geekmeister]

Nah, they were done in because they failed to make anything worth playing. They spent time on BIG! GLORIOUS! FANTASTIC! DEMOWARE! that had no storyline, no plot, poor control configuration, no sense of humor, no sense of drama, etc. But it made lovely trailers, so they kept hyping really bad games with pretty trailers to show investors.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[Anonymous Coward]

It becomes wrong when a person purchases "your work" and it becomes "their work".

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[Lag Master]

heh, thinking about those old games gets me all choked up *sniff*

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[NeoSkandranon]

Which never, ever was the case.

nice try.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[Anonymous Coward]

Typical corporate apologist. Blame the consumer. Pathetic.

Look, companies are formed all the time. Companies profit immensely sometimes, and sometimes they go out of business. It's like the cycle of life. Your "I don't care what you may think about their games" line is a bullshit argument because it DOES matter what people think of their games.

If they're charging $50 for a game that I feel is overpriced, I won't pay it. So they go out of business and now I can get the game for a reasonable $10? And I'm the bad guy for buying it? Fuck you.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[Anonymous Coward]

Bust-a-move is a superb game, probably the best puzzler, IMHO.

I happily admit to pirating games that aren't worth forty quid (need for speed: underground, for instance...), but cheerfully bought bust-a-move.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[Bastard of Subhumani]

If the physical medium becomes damaged (baecuase I have to have it in the drive to use it), why do I have to buy another license?

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[Zoshnell]

One of my least favorite was the original Tie Fighter scheme. Those little codes were such a pain in the ass to find!

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, especially after losing the manual, which I can personally attest. There's nothing like having a game you own become completely unusable.

Thus began my lifelong hatred of copy protection.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[John Gaming Target]

It's pretty well acknowledged that one of the biggest 'selling points' for many is that PS/PS2 games are easy as anything to rip off.

Acknowledged by who? Members of the Slashdot community?

SLASHDOT IS NOT REPRESENTATIVE OF THE GENERAL PUBLIC.

Piracy still happens, but console piracy hasn't been a "problem" since the days of the NES.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[milkman_matt]

If I want to download something in order to try it out before I drop ($15 on a CD, ~$25 on a DVD, or ~$50 on a game), I reserve the right to do so. If I like it, I'll buy it. If I don't, I saved myself being ripped off.

Right here you bring up a good point.. Is it just me? the fact that I don't read gaming mags or check gaming sites so I just don't know? Or do companies not release demos nearly as much as they used to.. It used to be i'd download a demo of a game, play a level or maybe two, and then be sent to a screen asking me to buy the game. Why don't they do that as much? (unless they do, in which case that shoots the poster's arguement to hell..) It'd eliminate the excuses of "I wanted to see if it was any good so I downloaded the full version and beat it and forgot to buy it once I was done".. However, my agreement with this point only applies for games. You do get to 'preview' CDs and DVDs, you've got the radio, and video rental stores.

It is theft for a record company to put 1 or 2 decent songs on a CD (which, incidentally, holds about 80 minutes worth of music, as we all well know, and sometimes -contains- less than 50...).

No it's not.. what, is it going to be theft unless they use every last byte on the CD then? Does that make CD Singles theft? Kinda a weak arguement there...

It is theft to put more effort into keeping people from playing your game than making one that they would want to and then refusing to refund the customer's money when they find that out.

The problem I have with this arguement is.. They don't put a lot of effort into keeping people from playing the game.. Is it really that hard to put the CD in? I know it's inconvenient and personally, I would use a no-cd patch (unless I knew it'd fuck up my game, like hl2) but seriously, companies don't go through THAT much trouble, and copy protection mechanisms don't de-value a game... all of the old sierra games had them, and I think those were some of the most fun games made.

It is theft when I move and my DVD collection which I perfectly legally purchased becomes worthless. ...huh?

Toyota asked us to "authenticate" our car every time we started it there would be a Toyota for all of five seconds. If I purchase a CD, game, or movie, that copy is MY property.

Toyota asks you to authenticate your car every time you want to get in or start it, so does Chevy, Ford, Honda, every car company does... the same way a lot of games and other software want you to authenticate.. with a key..

-matt

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[Brainboy]

What would you recommend for a single player game?

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[radio.cgt]

The rest of the world.
You think I'd base any on slashdot's views?

One of Sony's markets is the most likely to commit piracy, I cant think of a demography, but I'd call them chav/scum/bams, the kids that do sweet f.a. with their lives live on council estates pissing off everyone, spend their free time drinking and pissing everyone off. People that dont give a shit about how or where games/movies/anything comes from, and often dont care about the quality either, just as long as they can get it cheap/free. The people that the (large scale) pirates target.
The people who wouldnt buy a GC, cos it's 'kiddie', the people who dont buy an XBOX cos its not cool enough, the people that didnt buy a DC until they discovered how piss easy it was to rip off the games.

Yes, thses are really broad generalisations, and no, i've not got any sources atm, but I cant be arsed lookiing it up for someone else, and I don't care anymore.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[radio.cgt]

pretend that last bit's not all in bold there.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[tugfoigel]

Fair enough. I think the entire section of law dealing with Intellectual Property needs to be overhauled. It's too unfair to we the people and overly generous to the corporations who crafted its latest incarnations.

It's kind of...

[Avalerion]

sad to see everything up for auction. Seemed like a nice place.

Acclaim - antiques?

[Mars Ultor]

Will you look at those pictures of furniture? Why was Acclaim outfitted the same as some 18th century castles? There's fireplace hearths and what looks like cherry wood for crying out loud.

(fp?)

Re:Acclaim - antiques?

[kegwell]

I was wondering the same thing. Did you see some of that furniture? Man, you should see my office...I'll be lucky if I get the good folding chair inlcuded in my next raise.

Re:Acclaim - antiques?

[Anonymous Coward]

Great job turning an otherwise perhaps nonspecial but intelligent post into a waste of space with that last line there.

Re:Acclaim - antiques?

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, it was a NY company. Apparently they had as much talent for pissing away cash as a California company, but instead of hiring a bunch of Kentucky Good Ol' Boys that considers class to include a 36" lift duali with twin red CB antennae and a gun rack, New Yorkers are typically more refined in their tastes of how to spend other peoples money.

So, it's not that unusual for a company located in a nice upper-middle class neighborhood to furnish their offices with quality classics. I consider it a hell of a lot better than the modern Ikea style often found in CA.

It's really a shame that Acclaim is gone. It's sad to see a firm which apparently "really knew how to spend other peoples money" had to go the way of the Dodo. Let's face it, when a California company goes "Tits Up", it's normal and they're likely to do something "Highly Intelligent" like fly everyone to Vegas and rent the top two floors of a casino to break the Chapter 7 news to the employees and share holders. When a New York firm passes on, it is truly sad since New York is typically where the smart and rational thinkers are. If an older game company can't make it in NY, who really can anymore.

Maybe they should have just outsourced all their development to India... just like a California firm.

Re:Acclaim - antiques?

[Eskarel]

I think you're unnecessarily insulting Ikea here, if CA companies had actually furnished themselves with Ikea rather than much much much more expensive, but equally ugly, furniture, they might still be in business.

Yes it's nice to have a cherry wood boardroom table, but only if you have the profits to justify the expense or you need it for your business.

Re:Acclaim - antiques?

[Anonymous Coward]

Will you look at those pictures of furniture? Why was Acclaim outfitted the same as some 18th century castles?

Because wood panel furniture went out of fashion in the corporate world and was replaced by neutral coloured blue/gray furniture). This stuff could be bought cheap from second-hand dealers.

Servers...

[methangel]

Apparently the auction site's servers were auctioned off too since the site is already bombed 10 comments in.

Re:Servers...

[}InFuZeD{]

Uh... informative?

This was a joke kids.

Re:Servers...

[-kertrats-]

best part about that relatively cliche and boring comment was that it was modded informative.

did the employees get their stuff back?

[schatten]

Last I remember, they were locked out for several weeks without paychecks and the building was locked up with some of their belongings inside. Did they happen to get it all back?

Re:did the employees get their stuff back?

[DAldredge]

Having been thru about the same thing when Sunpoint Securities was closed by the goverment the answer will be No. But that wasn't in the same state and was a few years ago and the laws may have changed since then.

We also had a few hours warning before the Federal Martials showed up so most people took their private things before the guys with guns arrived.

Re:did the employees get their stuff back?

[Zangief]

Well, no, they didn't get his stuff back, but...

On the bright side, they can buy it back!

God, I hated Acclaim.
--
Wiki de Ciencia Ficcion y Fantasia

Re:did the employees get their stuff back?

[Headcase88]

God, I hated Acclaim

Oh, did you do the same thing as me when you saw that they went bankrupt? You know, just smiled, sat back, and felt once again that there was justice in the world. Then said aloud "Yes! I have waited years for this day, but now finally the tables have turned, and you will burn for your sins! Hell hath wrath for you Acclaim, for now we see you as you truly are!"

ok, maybe that kind of reaction isn't for everyone. (And was greatly exaggerated... maybe)

Re:did the employees get their stuff back?

[mmaddox]

Federal "Martials?" That puts an interesting spin on the term. It's normally "marshals," but I like that. Of course, Maritals would be interesting, too.

Re:did the employees get their stuff back?

[Anonymous Coward]

Those in the Austin office got our stuff back about 2 weeks ago, 3 months after we were locked out.

And as far as piracy affecting our sales, don't worry about it. It wasn't the consumers that drove the company in the ground. It was Fischback, Cousens, and Jifrato who killed the company intentionally (see their failed eleventh hour aquisition of assets). They wouldn't let us make the games we wanted and they lost the good licenses we had (see MLB, Burnout, NFL). Every good original game idea we had was shot down before they'd let us start working on it or they brokered a deal to let an outside developer to make it.

Although Red Star was a great deal of fun for those who enjoyed shooters. Too bad it'll never see the light. It wouldn't of saved the company but it was a great deal of fun.

Ex-Austin Acclaimer

Re:did the employees get their stuff back?

[johannesg]

Did the two of you (parent and grandparent) actually work for Acclaim, or do you have another reason for such a strong reaction? Just curious...

Re:did the employees get their stuff back?

[Zangief]

Yup. It gave me a feeling of completness.
--
Wiki de Ciencia Ficcion y Fantasia

Re:did the employees get their stuff back?

[LWATCDR]

So is the building in Austin for sale? My company is thinking of relocating to the Austin area. We do not do cool games. We just make money :(

Re:did the employees get their stuff back?

[Anonymous Coward]

The Austin office was rented, not owned. Pwn3d, possibly, but not owned.

Hence the August lockout, when the building management got fed up with the non-payment of rent.

How much for the CEO?

[Wolfier]

Could make a valuable textbook example of how not to manage a company...

Perfect!

[morganjharvey]

I can buy it all and start a gaming company called "Recclaim!"

Re:Perfect!

[Suburbanpride]

I'll split it with you... you think $150 will be enough?

seriously, I wonder how long it will take for some of those 43,000 games to start showing up on ebay for $2.99 + $10.99 shipping + handling, I'm sure they will go for really cheap, but don't see how you could ever get rid of that many games otherwise.

Re:Perfect!

[Vampyre_Dark]

Heh, great game idea. RECLAIM! >> You can take on the evil creditors, and mobs of angry customers who shelled out for the latest shitty acclaim game.

Re:Perfect!

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you trying to bring back bad memories of the first 22 years of my life when I was trapped living surrounded by Americans.

Seriously, I finally escaped you losers that actually do things like "Check your credit" and "Run up credit cards to the max" and "Fear the Repo man". There are a lot of Americans I do like. There are even some that I can tolerate (such as my family). But really, except for a few brief years when I was establishing myself, I've always lived in upper-middle class neighborhoods and no matter where I've lived, people were always mismanaging their money. They were constantly fearing bills coming. What was worse is that they did things like float checks sometimes.

The fact is that I've been happy to get away from you people. Making a game like that would only bring back terrible memories. What is worse is now that Europeans are finally stopping making references regarding "Ricki Lake" and "Jerry Springer" and asking me all the time if everyone in the U.S. is like the people on those shows (my typically response was "not everyone, I would guess no more than 75%, at least the voting majority") you'd bring a game to life which the Europeans would see and nag me about for a few more years.

BTW... wouldn't it just be easier to make an add-on for "The Sims 2" which would make it more realistic. But first you'd have to send credit card applications through the mail to every single 18 year old and make sure that everyone is bombarded by TV commercials that say "Bad Credit? No Credit? NO PROBLEM!!! We've got just the method of running up unpayable debt you've been looking for".

Re:Perfect!

[RealityMogul]

1.) Use old game cartridges to construct furniture
2.) Sell it on eBay as a geek collectible
3.) Profit

Oooooh

[TiredGamer]

So many toys, so little money to buy. : (

Anyone got ideas on how much some of that video editing equipment retails for? (I can tell you the racks and computers are probably in six digits at least.)

Re:Oooooh

[Anonymous Coward]

If you don't know, you can't afford it.

Re:Oooooh

[Anonymous Coward]

At that auction, I would say your statement is true. It definately looks like money is the only thing you can't buy from the auction. You might want to watch for another auction regarding a coin shop I would guess.

I bet if you contact one of the creditors, you could at least buy one of the debts at a low price. After all, it is not likely able to be collected on anymore.

Re:Oooooh

[Ohreally_factor]

Pro video equipment is pretty expensive new and it tends to hold its value, since it's meant to last. Still, there's not much anyone can tell you until they release a real list.

Still, keep in mind that there is a transition to new formats underway, so demand for VHS and 3/4" formats will be very low, since they're pretty much obsolete. I can't tell if any of that is beta SP or Digi-beta from the crappy low res pics, but it looks like 3/4 and VHS stuff to this semi-trained eye. The undetailed list says they've got beta SP decks, which might be nice if you've got a lot of material on that format already.

The question is, why do you want this stuff? It's not so much "cool toys" as it is "crap to clutter up your basement". You'll get better results for the same or less money if you went DV and edited on your computer.

The only things I would even consider bidding on are the monitors, since I could use a NTSC monitor to replace the TV (with S-Video input) that I'm using now. But it wouldn't surprise me if the monitors they're auctioning are composite only.

Re:Oooooh

[Lumpy]

not.

I know where you cane get an entire sony DME9000 digibetacam editing suite for less than 25% cost.

older non linear stuff like the DME series hold their value at around 1/4 of the price. linear stuff like AVID and the other drop even faster cince they are PC based. we just bought a PC based AVID for only $4500.00 it's 4 years old and can not be upgraded to 11.x series of software and is very useable at the 10.x level of software. the expensive part was the special hardware and a completely useless "ice" card for commotion rendering that the drivers never surfaced from the company. (I know we have 5 avids 2 are new from that era and they kept promising the drivers but never released them.)

simply ad decks for analog out and capture and you have a edit suite that kicks the crap out of anything acclaim had, yet is dirt cheap compared to spending $35,000.00 for a entry level AVID suite.

also at big company auctions do not waste time. go to smaller auctions you can physically attend and watch how many people look at or ignore the video gear.

I bought 3 19" professional video editing monitors for $50.00 each for my home editing suite when a local medium sized business went under. I also scored a betacamSP deck for $150.00 with less than 1000 hours on the heads so I can stop paying to have my video transferred to beta for the commercial clients to have aired.

pro video decks hold their value if people know what they are. (digibetacam decks new are more than the best BMW or jaguar... so used from someone that knows what they are they will make a hummer look cheap.. from a liquidator that has no idea and cant test it, dirt... $2500.00 for the last one I bought in detroit.)

Re:Oooooh

[Ohreally_factor]

I bought 3 19" professional video editing monitors for $50.00 each for my home editing suite when a local medium sized business went under. I also scored a betacamSP deck for $150.00 with less than 1000 hours on the heads so I can stop paying to have my video transferred to beta for the commercial clients to have aired.

Nice. It's really hard finding auctions like that in So. Cal because there are so many people here who have an idea what equipment is what. Also, some rental companies will sell their used equipment in other parts of the country, but not here, because the don't want the market oversaturated with equipment.

I know we have 5 avids 2 are new from that era and they kept promising the drivers but never released them.

You probably know all this better than I do, but wasn't that when commotion was bought by pinnacle? Or before?

Anyway, I'm far from certain, but the ice cards might also work with an older version of media cleaner pro. I'm trying to remember if they worked with AE as well, but I think it was only for specific filters.

Anyway, thanks for confirming my suspicion that the video equipment at the acclaim sale is pretty much corporate video crap used for their internal communications.

hmm...

[ImTheDarkcyde]

..So i guess this means we won't see another crappy Turok game?

Football helmets...

[WIAKywbfatw]

I imagine that that "odd collection of football helmets" is related to a NFL- or college football-related game that they worked on at some time. Pretty simple explanation really. "43,000 video game 'cartridges'" does seem like an awful lot though.

Re:Football helmets...

[Propagandhi]

"43,000 video game 'cartridges'" does seem like an awful lot though.

And you call yourself a nerd...

Get out of slashdot! You do not belong here!

Well.. I guess you can stay... but be more forgiving of nerdly excess.

Re:Football helmets...

[Ohreally_factor]

Maybe they're 43,000 defective returned game cartridges? What a bargain!

Still sad to see

[Anonymous Coward]

The demise of a company that I once held in such high... erm... accalim.

Re:Also check out:

[Anonymous Coward]

That's really awesome!

Acclaim had a fantastic library...

How to get rich quick.

[rice_burners_suck]

So I can bid $1.00 on eBay for this company, win the auction at that price because nobody else cares, then pay the $3.75 S&H for the deed to be mailed over, and then I can sell the odd collection of football helmets, the 40,000 some odd copies of video cames, the desks, the unused post-it notes and pens inside the desks, the light fixtures, the ping-pong table, and the golf practice thing from the owner's office, all on eBay, and turn an enormous profit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111 I'm a genius to have thought of this.

Re:How to get rich quick.

[destiny71]

Looking at the pictures of everything, I don't they have any unused post-it notes anymore.

Re:How to get rich quick.

[TheLoneDanger]

"and then I can sell the odd collection of football helmets, the 40,000 some odd copies of video cames"

If those 40,000 some odd copies of games could be sold, then maybe Acclaim might not have been in the trouble it was in.

Re:How to get rich quick.

[CrazyTalk]

Nice plan - until you get the property tax bill for the building, which probably includes millions in unpaid back taxes.

Re:How to get rich quick.

[destiny71]

From the auction listing for the building:

Property will be sold free and clear of liens, claims and encumbrances.

Re:How to get rich quick.

[CrazyTalk]

IANAL, but I believe that just means you have clear title. That doesn't mean you don't have to pay taxes.

Bidding

[fenodyree]

Ah-Claim that!
/ducks

Are they selling source code?

[wrinkledshirt]

Er... Are they selling source code?

Re:Are they selling source code?

[Anonymous Coward]

An interesting point indeed. I think if someone gets lucky with the server hardware it's possible the source for many projects could be recovered and released as 'bankruptware' or something.

Re:Are they selling source code?

[Daengbo]

Where in Korea are you? I'm in Gangwondo.

Re:Are they selling source code?

[wrinkledshirt]

Daegu. Where's Gangwondo?

Right smack in between two country clubs

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe the brass should have spent less time on the links?

That's something you don't see everyday..

[SlimFastForYou]

Something that isn't on ebay

Re:Good riddance, Acclaim...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not trolling if it's the truth, you fucktard mods.

Name one single game of merit that Acclaim has any responsibility for...

Piracy Punchdown.

[Anonymous Coward]

"I don't care what you may think about their games, but you have to admit that it takes some seriously warped thinking to believe that destroying companies like this actually helps the software industry. Pay for the stuff you value. This isn't a zero-sum game we are playing, it is actually a game in which everyone is better off when we treat creators with the respect they deserve."

But piracy is a victimless crime. People say it here all the time, so it must be true.

Their business model is obsolete. I read it here so it must be true.

I never would have bought it in the first place, so I'm not hurting anyone.

The MAN is against me. Quick! To Sherwood forest.

1) Trying out product.

2) ? ? ?

3) Profit???

Re:Piracy Punchdown.

[Frogbert]

What are you talking about? Piracy is only a victimless crime when you never intended to buy the product, or you go on to buy it after trying it. If you can honestly say you would never have paid for the game then how can you say that the company lost something from you playing it. If anything they gain market share, there is a reason early versions of windows were easy to copy.

Re:Piracy Punchdown.

[Anonymous Coward]

This isn't a zero-sum game we are playing, it is actually a game in which everyone is better off when we treat creators with the respect they deserve."

start by talking to their management about that one.

the creators are the programmers, not the worthless slugs in suits that play golf all day.

Re:Piracy Punchdown.

[Kirth]

Illegal copying is not a "victimless crime", not even when the manufacturer uses it to gain a monopoly (in that case, its obviously an act against competitors), such as Microsoft did/does.

Illegal copies are a direct competition to your sold copies. The word here is "competition"; copy-protection will only lower the value of your product in relation to the illegal copy even more and thus is futile.

And please refrain from using words like Piracy in that context.

Re:Piracy Punchdown.

[Anonymous Coward]

Piracy is what brought the gaming industry to the height its at now. Software piracy actually benefits the industry, not harms it. Most of the games in my library were bought directly because of piracy. When I stopped pirating games for a time, I discovered I stopped buying them.

Best and worst games?

[Eric_Cartman_South_P]

What was your favorite Acclaim game? And what game IYO helped them reach bankruptsy? I sure know those South Park games sucked.

Re:Best and worst games?

[realdpk]

Burnout 2: Point of Impact was a lot of fun.

Re:Best and worst games?

[radio.cgt]

I quite liked the Extreme-G games, other than that... nope, there aren't many.

Re:Best and worst games?

[Headcase88]

Hands down, my favourite was Aggresive Inline.

Their decision not to create new games on the Gamecube was a sign that they were in financial trouble. Even if Acclaim games don't sell well on the GC, the cost of porting a game must be much lower than the money you get in return. They were just too poor in the short run to even afford porting games.

What caused them to go bankrupt? Well, maybe this is a sign that gamer's tastes are evolving and that the audience is getting less casual. Less people are buying games because "the box looks cool" and that is encouraging. Then again, even Acclaim's boxes sucked. How'd they last so long?

Re:Best and worst games?

[Anonymous Coward]

Swords and Sorcery was a pretty fun game for its time.

The N64 Turok was pretty fun - all versions after that sucked really bad.

Re:Best and worst games?

[Anonymous Coward]

The Turok series, BMX XXX, and other shitfull titles.

Acclaim sucked, very few good stuffs.

Re:Best and worst games?

[Anonymous Coward]

Because they *used* to "make" good games? Constructor, for instace. The sequal sucked monkey-ass though.

Re:Best and worst games?

[Anonymous Coward]

Iggy's Wreking Balls. God I loved that game. I rented it, and was over due by a couple of days, so my dad got pissed and told me I could never buy it.

Re:Best and worst games?

[eric_brissette]

Here's a good list of their games:

http://www.gamespot.com/company/acclaim.html?pag e= 1

As for my favorite? Hard to say. I didn't like many of their new games.. but they had quite a few arcade and NES games I liked playing back in the day. Tiger Heli for the NES, Airwolf, and the Simpsons games were done by Acclaim, although I thought they were friggen hard.

Oh, and let us not forget Mary-Kate And Ashley: Magical Mystery Mall for the PlayStation.

Re:Best and worst games?

[Anonymous Coward]

I had Tiger Heli for my NES. I played it at a friend's house once and enjoyed it enough to ask for it for Christmas. I got it, then found out that the game only had four freaking levels. Not only was it short, but it never ended. The last three levels just looped forever until you ran out of lives, and even then you could easily continue by holding down A and B (easiest cheat ever). It was fun to play, and I still get the music stuck in my head sometimes (like right now, curse you), but it seemed like they just didn't bother to finish it. Now that I know it was made by Acclaim, I finally understand.

Re:Best and worst games?

[eric_brissette]

That's true, it didn't end, but then again I liked Duck Hunt too.

Maybe my attention span is broken.

Re:Best and worst games?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Even if Acclaim games don't sell well on the GC, the cost of porting a game must be much lower than the money you get in return"

No no no!!! You HAVE to blame piracy! It doesn't matter how illogical the arugment is, It's ALWAYS PIRACY!

Goddamned Pirates ruined my acclaim!!!

Re:Best and worst games?

[Anonymous Coward]

Duck Hunt was such a simple (but good) game that it couldn't have an ending in the first place. Tiger Heli not having an ending wouldn't have been such a big problem if it had simply had more levels, especially since they didn't include the first level in the loop. I did like it, but it always left me feeling unsatisfied.

Today auction!!

[eclectro]

And then tomorrow it all hits ebay and becomes ecrap!!

Re:Woah, check out that furniture

[Anonymous Coward]

This isn't a troll.
This isn't flamebait.

Acclaim was obviously "managed" into oblivion. Why are people modding down comments that bash Acclaim? They've always produced absolutely pathetic products.

Missed a shot

[PuppiesOnAcid]

They must have missed a shot because they're apparently not on fire anymore.

Buy some submarine IP rights!

[AndroidCat]

If you pick up copyrights on everything you can, you can torpedo anyone who infringes on them until the day Disney lets the government let Steamboat Willie slide into the public domain. (Sometime in the reign of Queen Dick.)

Some little dweeb wants a site that uses some graphics from a game? Fire tubes 1-4!

What I really want is the console devkits

[Anonymous Coward]

I want the console devkit hardware that they had, like the DTLT-10000's ("TOOL" PS2s) and XDKs. Are any of those for sale...?

Melissa

Re:What I really want is the console devkits

[Anonymous Coward]

your post is interesting, but please provide more information. did you misspell something? i can't find any references on google about this dtlt-10000.

i would be interested in any internal game development stuff for consoles, too.

Re:What I really want is the console devkits

[Anonymous Coward]

Long gone. Trust me.

Re:What I really want is the console devkits

[jkeyes]

Usually companies do not own Dev kits instead they're leased out to them from the console makers so I imagine as soon as they died everyone demanded they return them. (Whether or not they were returned is a different story but that's how it SHOULD have happened)

Re:Bah!

[secretsquirel]

In North Korea Acclaim buys you!

Ah Acclaim...

[Gogl]

Though I fear of PA overload here at Slashdot, I feel that this particular cartoon is really worth a nod. Very much explains where BMX XXX (one of Acclaim's more ludicrous products, which they are likely auctioning off many copies of) may have come from...

Re:Ah Acclaim...

[gatesh8r]

Oh no no no I think you need to try out this game instead.

Re:Ah Acclaim...

[powerlinekid]

More to the point, do the models they used for that game also come with the license you buy for it? That might be worth it right there...

Re:Ah Acclaim...

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, no, it doesn't deserve a nod. Penny arcade is fucking stupid, and I'm sick of everyone linking to their lame fucking cartoons. Just because it's on the web doesn't make it funny.

Furniture for who?????

[Myrv]

Man some of that furniture is pretty damn nice. I wonder if the rank and file employees ever got to use any of it. Unfortunately after seeing reports like this:

Top Heavy Business Plan

I get the impression all that furniture was for the benefit of the suits. A lot of people complain about how all the dotcoms bought herman miller aeron chairs and stuff but at least the employees got to use them. These marble and cherry wood conference tables and leather chairs were just a colossal waste of money beyond even the dotcomers. It's no wonder they went under. In fact, it almost hints that somebody wanted the company to go under...

Re:Furniture for who?????

[BrynM]

I get the impression all that furniture was for the benefit of the suits... These marble and cherry wood conference tables and leather chairs were just a colossal waste of money beyond even the dotcomers.

When you're lying to employees, begging for funding and begging the banks/investors to give you more time putting your audience in a comfy chair can help! :D

I do agree though. Some of the best lean and mean companies I've ever seen have crappy furniture in the conference room.

Re:Furniture for who?????

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought their 'top heavy' business plan was making BMX XXX!

(ducks)

Re:Furniture for who?????

[Doppler00]

I was almost hoping I could buy one of those herman miller aeron chairs from an auction like this. I have one at work, but I can't afford the $600-$800 it would cost to buy one for home.

They probably only auction these things in huge lots. So you'd probably have to buy 50 chairs for $5,000 or whatever it bids at.

Re:Furniture for who?????

[hhawk]

no one buys cheap stuff for their board rooms..

Re:Furniture for who?????

[Cecil]

I agree. Having cheap furniture in your boardroom may be a tactic used by some of the lean and mean companies, but you can certainly have an extremely profitable business even if you do have a "colossal waste of money" for a boardroom -- almost every mid-sized or larger company has a richly outfitted boardroom, because unfortunately it does make a difference in the kind of clients you can attract when you're using that room for demos or consultations or whatever.

Just like wearing a suit or a nice watch or a nice set of shoes. No one wants to admit that it makes a difference, because it *shouldn't*. But the world isn't fair, and it does make a difference. Most people are actually that superficial, even if they don't know it...

Re:Furniture for who?????

[badasscat]

I do agree though. Some of the best lean and mean companies I've ever seen have crappy furniture in the conference room.

Speaking as a (voluntarily) former employee of one of Acclaim's regional competitors (and I'll leave you to figure out who that might be), I admit to being a bit shocked by their extravagance in the face of such financial difficulties. The company I worked for had no such pretensions and yet strangely enough is actually quite profitable.

We did have Aeron chairs, we had 21" LCD displays at every desk (two of them if we asked, and CRT's if we preferred), it's not like my company was a bunch of misers. But antique grandfather clocks in the board room? Give me a break! What the hell does that have to do with business, or video games?

I understand the concept of impressing potential investors or partners. But did they honestly believe this sort of thing impresses anybody anymore? "Look at how much money we can throw around at completely useless objects!" Nobody runs a business like that anymore.

It's one thing to have a nice office space that workers can feel comfortable in, with the tools they need to be productive. It's another to completely splurge on largess that you cannot afford and that serves no purpose whatsoever. No wonder this company went under.

Re:Furniture for who?????

[Myrv]

Nothing wrong with a nice boardroom. But have you looked at the pictures. They had at least three complete board rooms with hardwood or marble conference tables and leather chairs. Not to mention at least 6 complete sets (1 fullsize couch, 2 or more arm chairs) of leather furniture and a handful of hardwood/antique tables which I can see no use for in a corporate environment. Throw in the other scattered leather chairs and antique desks and its no longer just a nice boardroom.

And yes, I understand image matters (unfortunately) but that can be accomplished with one nice boardroom and a nice sitting lounge. What acclaim had goes far beyond image in my opinion and borders on decadent excess, particularly for a company with financial problems.

Security of Selling Server Equipment

[sabNetwork]

The auction site shows numerous servers up for bid.

What's the chance that they wiped the hard drives on them?

Everything from corporate email to source code could be there.

--

Re:Security of Selling Server Equipment

[Anonymous Coward]

The company I was working for went out of business, and everything was siezed and sold at auction. I asked about the servers and such and hard drives being wiped before sale and was told they were "hiring someone to do it".

Well, this "someone" must have been a 12 year old, since all the Sun equipment sold still able to boot to the login prompts. Same thing for the fleet of macintosh computers. I suspect for anything that wasn't a PC they had no idea what to do.

Re:Security of Selling Server Equipment

[095]

"This site has been temporarily disabled. If you are the owner of the site, please contact customer care."

If only EA could go tits up as well

[Nine Tenths of The W]

Given their habit of buying some of the most innovative and successful studios (Bullfrog, Origin, Maxis) and gutting them, I can't help thinking it would be a good thing for gaming if they went under

Re:If only EA could go tits up as well

[Headcase88]

I wouldn't mind either, but they are making more than any other company in the entire video game industry. I respect EA to an extent but they do annoy me (especially their sports games. Some people like simulation sports games, I don't like 'em at all)

Re:If only EA could go tits up as well

[mog007]

I'd rather see Vivendi fall apart, they're starting to turn into the RIAA of video games.

Re:Good riddance, Acclaim...

[Anonymous Coward]

Baldurs Gate II, Burnout 2 (not as good as 3, but still worthy of... acclaim - ahh im too funny), Mortal Kombat... If you're Australian - AFL 2003 and 2004 are good as they're the only afl games available

Plenty of nice pictures...

[hohead]

Here are the official auction info pages (Coral links):

http://maltzauctions.com.nyud.net:8090/acclaimre.h tm
http://maltzauctions.com.nyud.net:8090/acclaimhome .htm

copies?

[TheOtherKiwi]

Are they illegal copies or fair use?

If nothing else

[Nine Tenths of The W]

Acclaim had innovative marketing techniques

Re:If nothing else

[Headcase88]

Thanks for bringing that up. Now, I didn't see the big "controversy" in this... what I did see is that Acclaim was wasting money on total BS that no one in their right mind would buy the game for, when they were supposed to be making games

"Hey look, some company put the name of a game on a tombstone. Let's buy it!" Did anyone have this reaction? I would guess few people did.

Re:If nothing else

[KyleJacobson]

And now they can make their own headstone and try to get some publicity that way :D

Re:Always remember

[Anonymous Coward]

In Soviet Korea, old joke makes you!

Re:Also check out: - DO NOT CHECK OUT h4xx!

[JohnBaleshiski]

Why people think this is funny or cool is beyond me. And why someone modded the post informative is also beyond me. Firefox "prevented 5973 popups" on that site. In addition, it's just a goatse.cx picture.

AVOID.

Re:Also check out:

[Anonymous Coward]

What exactly does this script do?

Re:Woah, check out that furniture

[secretsquirel]

because he used the naughty f work, jeez there are CHILDREN reading this fucking site your fucking fucks, fuck you all.

I just wish it was Empire

[Anonymous Coward]

It would have been fitting for them to go bankrupt a year after they fucked Muckyfoot into liquidation

RTFA, not online auction

[bdigit]

It is taking place in glen cove, LI. Only about a half hour drive for me but unfortunately I am upstate at school now unless I would be there bidding on some network equipment. I bet they would have better luck liquidating on ebay or another online auction website.

Re:RTFA, not online auction

[Lord Kano]

You are precisely right.

They would do quite well on ebay. The sheer volume of additional bidders would increase revenue. People from all over the world would be able to bid on the items for a week, not just the few hundred who can make it to NYC for one day next week.

Hopefully one day we will see ebay handling bankruptcy liquidations. It would be a boon to us as buyers and it would generate more revenue for creditors thereby making interest rate hikes less necessary.

LK

Mod Parent Down - h4xx Eats Browsers

[theGreater]

Yeah, what the title said. ml.h4xx.com will screw your browser, and who the heck mods these things UP? Incidentally, the guy over at haxx.com, where I mistakenly started my WHOIS, seems a decent chap.

-theGreater Helper.

I want the ALTER

[durtbag]

I want their "Alter of Sacrifice". You know, the one they used to sacrifice virgins on in their ever-present quest to make a game even shittier than their last.

Re:I want the ALTER

[Professr3]

By the way, it's "Altar". You've just been hit by the grammar nazi... :P

Re:I want the ALTER

[cranos]

No I think "Alter" is correct as in they "Altered" virgins into non-virgins.

Sorry its late and I want to go home.

Re:I want the ALTER

[Anonymous Coward]

By the way, it's "Altar". You've just been hit by the grammar nazi... :P

Shouldn't that be spelling Nazi? :P yourself

Re:I want the ALTER

[Anonymous Coward]

By the way, that's a spelling mistake, not a grammatical error. You've just been hit by the accuracy nazi... :P

Done in by the [crack heads]

[Anonymous Coward]

Well I guess that explains all the cracks on the Internet. "Your stuff is so crappy. I'll crack it just to prove it."

I saw a dupe post today.

[Nomihn0]

I saw a dupe post today.

Re:I saw a dupe post today.

[cicatrix1]

(Score: -2, Catastrophic Failure Right Up There With Carrot Top)

Re:I saw a dupe post today.

[Nomihn0]

Agreed, but you must mean William Shatner. Please, this is Slashdot you're dealing with.

Re:I saw a dupe post today.

[erasmus_]

Actually, Shatner's most recent album, "Has Been", has gotten some pretty positive reviews. So yeah, maybe we should stick with Carrot Top as the failure example. Or Pauly Shore.

I bags...

[cuteseal]

I bags the gold plated Mortal Kombat arcade machine, and the limited edition crystal Double Dragon bracelet!

Better things to do with your money

[Vampyre_Dark]

Just a random list of investments that are more likely to payoff.

- Flush your money down the toilet.
- Buy magic beans.
- Financial advice from Martha Stewart.
- Cherry OS.
- A device to shock your abs into shape.

Re:Better things to do with your money

[DrMrLordX]

I would prefer the Ab Abber 2000 sir.

I saw a dupe post today.

[Nomihn0]

I saw a dupe post today. *Yes, this is a joke. SLASH won't let me post the same exact thing twice, but I trust you can imagine it being so.*

Re:Also check out:

[Anonymous Coward]

It redirects to hwhub.no-ip.com, which does all sorts of annoying crap like open popup windows. If you want to see for yourself, first turn off Flash and javascript.

Blame the customer

[Penguinoflight]

I had mod points, but your argument needs a apposing view more than it needs to be silenced.

I noticed you talked about respecting the game maker, and then about cracks. Why would anyone need a crack, if the game maker respected their customers?

I've been a proud supporter of Epic Games with their releases UT, Unreal2, and UT2004, mostly because I trust them. They will come out with a good game, but it will also be non-intrusive.

I really like a game company with the Nokia "small share of big market is better than big share of small market" attitude. Before Cd burners, I never saw cracks, or anti developer sentiment, but ever since people started "stealing" games, the game developers have been working harder to make sure the game is theftproof than worth buying.

The end result of a theft protection first attitude is a game that doesn't work whether or not it's legit.

Copy protection is even more frustrating on linux, or another non-ms OS, None of the cd protected games work with wine, and hardly any work with winex either.

Re:Blame the customer

[isecore]

for what it's worth, I heartily agree with the parent poster.

It seems that companies are more intent on curing the symptom than the disease.

Re:Blame the customer

[Anonymous Coward]

The comment about no copy protection before cd burners is complete BS, however. There was only a short period when a CD was considered copy protection enough in itself. Before that, there were all kinds of copy protections, mostly based on the belief that you wouldn't have the original manual, from which you could be asked to enter specific words or such.

(and more technical schemes, too)

Re:Blame the customer

[Triskele]

the game developers have been working harder to make sure the game is theftproof than worth buying.

Sorry but you're blaming the wrong people here. Most game developers never even think about copy protection. That is something added by the publishers for the gold master. Worse, its usually something licenced from a 3rd party (Macrovision and their clones). Most of the time its just a knee-jerk "we've got to have it" kind of thing that they've been sold on by those 3rd party companies.

To quote one of their published games,

[Anonymous Coward]

FATALITY!

Re:To quote one of their published games,

[Anonymous Coward]

Acclaim has had nothing to do with the Mortal Kombat franchise ever...you're thinking of Midway.

Re:To quote one of their published games,

[Eu4ria]

Console releases were looked after by acclaim I beleive. I think they did a few of Midway's games as I remember NBA Jam was done by them too.

Of the 43,000 games...

[noidentity]

...are any of them named "E.T." by any chance?

Oh, wait, wrong company.

Even more screwed, then!

[Anonymous Coward]

If everyone had to pay for their copy of BMX XXX, then they would be even more screwed. Because, you know, then maybe some of them wouldn't have bothered, and instead they would have gone outside and ridden on their real BMX's, and then they could have met some real girls, and then, like, be screwed for real.

Yeah, or something like that.

About freaking time

[defile]

They've only been making crappy movie-spinoff games for like 10 years now.

Re:About freaking time

[AbsurdProverb]

They should have made Street Fighter the Movie - the game, because boy did that suck! Alas, I think that one was pure Capcom

Re:About freaking time

[Dimensio]

More than 10. They made the Total Recall game, and they were doing it well before that, too.

Re:About freaking time

[UranusReallyHertz]

Actually the worst game of all had to be the Wayne's World game. Shudder.

while you are at the auction...

[Shant3030]

Go check out the Ferrari dealership in the area (Glen Cove).

Re:while you are at the auction...

[smithmc]

Go check out the Ferrari dealership in the area (Glen Cove).

They also now carry Maserati. There is also a Land Rover dealership over on the other side of town.

THIRST FOR BLOOD

[77Punker]

Dude! How can you call Turok crappy? Sure, the gameplay wasn't all that special or anything, but there's a distinct good feeling that comes out of mowing down tons of enemies and watching them splatter helplessly. Seriously! If I wanted to think about things, I'd quit playing video games and get back to my life and start crying because I just can't deal with it and then remember why I play video games so often in the first place. *sigh*

Having worked there... fairly recently...

[The Panther!]

I'd have to say the auction would be much better if I could sign on over the internet, purchase Greg Fischbach's desk. I'd like to have it shipped to my home, where myself and my fellow ex-Acclaim buddies could bash it, cut it into small pieces, then when we tire of performing our selfless duty, set fire to it in effigy. On video. And mail him the tape.

That is, right after we karma whore by linking to it on Slashdot. :-)

Re:Having worked there... fairly recently...

[Anonymous Coward]

So, you're going to bash the desk, cut it into small pieces, and then make some sort of crude model of the desk to burn?

That seems like a lot of effort, when nobody really minds if you actually burn the desk itself.

Re:Having worked there... fairly recently...

[Anonymous Coward]

be careful, you migh scratch yourself on the dried up boogers from underneath his desk

Re:Having worked there... fairly recently...

[elhedran]

You know, I would be damn near tempted to chip and help buy the desk...

From what I saw on the list of stuff for sale, its damn obvious where all the money went.

Re:Having worked there... fairly recently...

[swordgeek]

Was it a nice desk?

It's not the desk's fault. Buy Greg's ass instead.

Re:Having worked there... fairly recently...

[Anonymous Coward]

The greatest part of this, is while you are burning desks and feeling empowered, Greg is off with his millions absconded and dreaming up his newest scam. HE WINS.

Re:Also check out: - DO NOT CHECK OUT h4xx!

[DrMrLordX]

1). You aren't terribly imaginative if the humor inherant to masquerading that site as a histroy site is lost upon you.

2). 5973 popups of the goatse picture does, in fact, portray Acclaim's recent development/publishing history accurately.

Granted, I'd mod it funny if I had mod points, but they'll never give me mod points, so it's a moot point.

THEY LIED TO ME!! oh and 500 bux to bid?? arg

[Fluidic Binary]

I live right near there too, but I don't have the 500 for the deposit, just to buy a mac or something.

During the Spring semester at my local Uni I saw a talk given by a few guys from acclaim and they acted as if the rumors of their going under were exaggerated.

I guess not!

I don't know why they were wasting time and money sending someone to talk to us if they were goind under.

Re:THEY LIED TO ME!! oh and 500 bux to bid?? arg

[Anonymous Coward]

LOL. That's like the razorfish guy who gave a talk about branding about 4 years ago. I saw him working at a starbucks about a year ago.

Re:THEY LIED TO ME!! oh and 500 bux to bid?? arg

[RiddleofSteel]

Having worked at Acclaim, I know that upper management would lie their through their teeth to the little guys. I worked there as a game tester in college, and they almost went bankrupt then. They told us not to worry because they needed our department to put out games, three weeks later the laid off like 100 of us. That left about 30 people to test all their games. I saw this coming for a long time though, crap games coupled with almost no bug testing will always equal games noone wants.

man-lift

[harumscarum]

I will take me a piece of that man-lift.

Mod parent up

[Anonymous Coward]

But moreso I would like to see them open source whatever code they have that is under only their own copyrights. Netscape did this when things went to shambles for them, and it proved very much worthwile. I'd like to see a game company do this, and provide some spice and extra viability for open source gaming projects.

Try before you buy...

[BugBlatterBeast]

...As far as pirates go who simply pirate so they don't have to pay for the game, that's bad, but I see no problem with making an informed decision before buying a product... Isn't that what demos are for?

Re:Try before you buy...

[Hobadee]

1. Not all games have demos
2. Demos sometimes restrict things that are essential to figuring out if it's good or not.
3. Demos sometimes simply over-restrict and don't give you a good feel at all.
4. Some demos don't work. (A recent example of this for me was Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 - Demo would crash my entire system (gotta love Windows!) every time I tried to start it up - bought the actual game and it works flawlessly!)

Re:Try before you buy...

[Eskarel]

That's what they used to be for. They used to give you just enough of the program to make you desperately want to play more of it. There are still a few like that, but not too many. Most of the time demos are either hideously crippled so that you don't really know what the game is like or so short they don't really give you a feel for the gameplay.

The last really good demo I remember was probably Diablo I. I downloaded it, I played it, I played it again, I went out and bought the game the day the retail version came out.

Re:Also check out:

[Anonymous Coward]

if(goat == 1|| is_ie) {popUp("christmas.php");}
if(goat == 2|| is_ie) {popUp("lemonparty.php");}
if(goat == 3|| is_ie) {popUp("penisbird.php");}
if(goat == 4|| is_ie) {popUp("pillowfight.php");}
if(goat == 5|| is_ie) {popUp("tubgirl.php");}
if(goat == 6|| is_ie) {popUp("spin.php");}
if(goat == 7|| is_ie) {popUp("freak.php");}
if(goat == 8|| is_ie) {popUp("rustina.php");}
if(goat == 9|| is_ie) {popUp("loopback.php");}
if(goat == 10|| is_ie) {popUp("eww.php")}

these are the relevant pieces of code I think we're all interested in NOT seeing. if you wget lm.h4xx.com it redirects to hwhub.noip.com which has some TRULY nasty JS I've never seen before. I must confess though, they do some pretty good browser detection. -tG.

Zero Sum Game

[Yartrebo]

It sure isn't a zero-sum game ... when I don't bootleg a piece of software and then don't buy it (whether it's because I don't have the money, because I've got a longstanding boycott of most copyright companies due to their lobbying, DRM, and marketing, or more likely both), I don't get to enjoy the product and the company doesn't get any money. It's lose-lose, though I don't feel too bad since I hope that the vast majority of media companies go bankrupt (no ill wishes on the actual artists) as it would eliminate their lobbying. There's often enough free substitutes anyway, given a bit of time to look around.

oh no!

[nedder]

43,000 copies of video games

Estimated value exceeding at least $3

Re:Acclaim, NOT Accalim.

[Anonymous Coward]

No no no! It was "Ack! Lame!"

Excess stock

[Westacular]

and 43,000 copies of video games.

... yet not a single one worth buying. *shakes head*

Are those football helmets

[Chiisu]

filled with cottage cheese?

Airheads

And a further note.

[mjh49746]

I don't think rampant copyright infringement is a 'good thing'. However, Acclaim wasn't the only company out there that's being pirated left and right, and yet I don't see the sky falling here. If piracy was really as bad as what the 'IP Nazis' would like us to believe, then everybody would be out of a job. People pirate DVDs like crazy, but I don't see everybody in Hollywood out on the street panhandling or selling pencils for a nickel because of it. The argument of them going broke due to piracy is so weak, I find it amusing.

Re:Cache Here:

[ForestGrump]

riight, thats not a google cache. it goes to scat.dk

dont bother clicking.

Acclaim Austin's Stuff for sale in 2 weeks

[Anonymous Coward]

Photos of it all and a list of equipment...
http://users4.ev1.net/~flsughrue/lis ting.html

Auction taking place in austin texas. Come on guys, buy some stuff, so I can get all the money they owed me from my last paycheck, vacation time, and employee stock purchase money they took outta my paycheck and deposited for the last few months I worked there.

Not that I'm bitter.

Re:Acclaim Austin's Stuff for sale in 2 weeks

[Fred Or Alive]

Now some of that stuff seems far more interesting - all the dev tools. No boring head office antiques here. ;-)

It's a pity they'll only sell the really interesting bits (PS2 and NGC dev kits) to licensed games developers...

Re:Acclaim Austin's Stuff for sale in 2 weeks

[cavac]

Come on guys, buy some stuff

I'd love to, but beeing from europe, it seems rather impossible. I'd be very interested in one or two of the servers (or maybe a server and one data storage solution).

Re:Flamebait????!?!?

[symbolic]

Not even! This poster tells the absolute truth. IF you play, you pay. Simple. This applies to music, movies, everything. If you play without paying, you're stealing. If you don't want to pay what they're asking then don't. No one is forcing you to. But for Pete's sake, don't go and steal it.

It's not just the boardroom though....

[rsilvergun]

they hired 5 new execs and fired 100 employees. i.e. 5 new suits whos only job is to make sure everyone's working, and 100 less people to actually work...

Startopia was impressive

[rsilvergun]

but Urban Chaos was one of the worst games ever made, down there with Superman 64. The rest of their games looked like movie licenses, and from what I've read that's a bad market to be in (you get screwed as a game dev in order to ship on time for the movie/tv/whatever).

Re:Startopia was impressive

[mink]

Didnt they make Startopia? It was not a horrible game IMO.

Burn the disk as an effigy of Greg Fischbach....

[rsilvergun]

you dumbass. Man, you can't even troll right. to quote:

effigy

1. A crude figure or dummy representing a hated person or group.

2. A likeness or image, especially of a person.

Use your imagination for the rest.

Game publisher that was?

[PygmySurfer]

An anonymous reader writes "Kotaku points to the official auction site for Acclaim, the game publisher that was.

More like the game publisher that never was

How much for the code base?

[Anonymous Coward]

If the source code is reasonably priced, we should buy it and GPL it.

And a further note-Cause and Defect.

[Anonymous Coward]

"However, Acclaim wasn't the only company out there that's being pirated left and right, and yet I don't see the sky falling here. If piracy was really as bad as what the 'IP Nazis' would like us to believe, then everybody would be out of a job. People pirate DVDs like crazy, but I don't see everybody in Hollywood out on the street panhandling or selling pencils for a nickel because of it. "

There's two assumptions to your post that the people pirating are capable of making the connection between their actions and the consequences.

I don't think they would, and they would make plenty of "It's all your fault" excuses too.

The other is that the consequences of rampent copyright infringement would be swift and sure, instead of slow and cancerous.

And last even though you didn't mention it. There's always the thought that the reason piracy doesn't hurt the industry, isn't because some people are "trying before buying", or any of the other justifications used. But that the majority don't pirate to begin with, and their actions offset the bad effects of those who do. Thereby proving not that piracy is OK. But good triumphs over bad.

Re:And a further note-Cause and Defect.

[mjh49746]

I don't think anybody knows just how bad piracy really is. One of the reasons is that for the most part, people out in public will say, Oh, piracy is bad." while they privately skim the gray line or cross it on occasion. Nobody is going to tell the truth about it one way or another, either. Why do that when it's soooo easy to skew the numbers for your own agenda. That goes for both the IP Nazis and the Robin Hood wannabees. I don't really think there are any good people in this. Just evil people and victims of evil people. That's the problem with 'Intellectual Property'. It only results in two different classes of nasty people that think they have the God given right to do what they will and fuck everyone else. The rights holders, and the pirates. Meanwhile, the victims in all this are the creators and the consumers, and while the rights holders hold the creators and consumers hostage with one sided contracts, DRM, and laws bought and paid for, (The RIAA for example) The pirates pillage from the creators and let the customers suffer through eroded fair use rights and copy protection. The rights holders? What do they care? They're getting paid regardless. Same as the pirates, too. I think it's high time that creative works should just be treated as such and not as intellectual property in that it would go a long way toward greatly reducing the likes of the RIAA (or MPAA, BSA, WIPO, and such) and the professional piracy cartels that are out there, and reestablish a connection between the artists and the consumer. Hell, all I want is just to be a more informed consumer and to upgrade my PC without having to phone for M$'s permission or use some sort of crack. Maybe I'd be more willing as a consumer to help out against piracy if I wasn't the one who's automatically treated like a pirate just for being an informed consumer.

Re-Volt for sure

[Anonymous Coward]

Re-Volt was great fun, was moddable, and still has a following despite it doing rather poor thanks to Acclaim's marketing practises. Note that I'm talking about the PC version, not the quite horrendous PlayStation version. A real jewel in Acclaim's catalogue.

Missing

[Anonymous Coward]

Are they also selling off the thousands owed to ex-employees for royalties?

Possible to by source code?

[mowler2]

I looked at the site, but saw no mentions of source code / "IP" sale. Does anyone know if it is possible to buy some of their IP, and in that case, maybe the open source community could do a blender for some nice classics? :)

Since they are indeed classics, they should not be as expensive as blender, I guess. What do you think?

Re:Possible to by source code?

[Fred Or Alive]

Would anyone want the source code? I don't know of a single well regarded 1st Party Acclaim game. Most of their good games were devloped by 3rd parties, who probably own the rights to them (stuff like Burnout, Dead or Alive, Mortal Kombat etc.)

Re:Possible to by source code?

[Registered Coward v2]

looked at the site, but saw no mentions of source code / "IP" sale. Does anyone know if it is possible to buy some of their IP, and in that case, maybe the open source community could do a blender for some nice classics? :)


Quality aside, even if you can buy the IP you might be severely limited in what you can do with it, at least in terms of releasing the games. They may not own th erights to characters, etc; so releasing the games would require obtaining those rights as well.

Re:Possible to by source code?

[Triskele]

Perhaps more useful than the source code - can we buy the 3d models, characters animations etc. The biggest thing holding back open source game development is not code - there's vast amounts of good open source engine code out there already - it's the lack of any decent art. [Offtopic for a mo: why aren't there more artists contributing stuff to the commons?]

Re:Possible to by source code?

[sean23007]

why aren't there more artists contributing stuff to the commons?

Because anyone that's any good at it gets hired by game companies. With code, there are many people that are good at it that are probably working somewhere else and don't want/need to be hired by a game company.

Also, there are a lot fewer good artists than good coders, so there's a much greater chance of a good artist getting hired.

these are hockey helmets

[elgatozorbas]

I think they are used to play hockey. May be wrong, but I think there is a bunch of hockey sticks next to the helmet cabinet in the pictures.

Z

You are not smart enough to use a devkit ...

[AHumbleOpinion]

You are not smart enough to use a devkit. ;-) If you were you would not have publically announced the possibility of bidding on such a rare and highly desired piece of equipment. Your post virtually guarantees you will not get one.

Re:Flamebait????!?!?

[91degrees]

But if I play without paying, how is this doing more harm than if I don't buy it and don't play it?

You don't understand id's business

[AHumbleOpinion]

Which is why ID software is going out of business so quickly... right? Oh, wait, its because their products fucking rock, and Acclaim's sucked ass.

You don't understand id's business, it is not simply selling retail games. A big piece, maybe the biggest, of their business is licensing game engines. The games that id publishes are really proof-of-concepts, demos, for the engines. Consider why the games have such high system requirements: the people who license the engine won't be shipping their game for another year or two and the once state-of-the-art hardware will become more commonplace. Whether or not games using id engines fail is irrelevant to id, they cashed the check long ago, and they won't get the blame since the technology they supplied was superb.

Re:You don't understand id's business

[Anonymous Coward]

I know.

Business plans are part of the business, dweeb.

yes, this is the same AC as before.

IP Assets?

[rrwood]

Anyone have any idea what's happening with the source and other so-called intellectual "property" of their old games?

I *love* Re-Volt, and would love to see the source and graphics freed up to a community of modders and hackers....

-Roy

Re:Flamebait????!?!?

[Babbster]

You're right that it's not flamebait. HOWEVER, it was overrated (at 1) because the premise that Acclaim went bankrupt because of piracy was just dead wrong, it was a troll because the poster probably KNEW that Acclaim wasn't killed by piracy and simply wanted to start a thread on the subject and, finally, it was probably offtopic since the cause of Acclaim's demise is only potentially relevant to the article in that perhaps they spent money on crap they didn't need (which is now available at auction).

In short, the post was fully deserving of at least going down to 0, if not the -1 at which it currently sits.

I don't need to buy Acclaim,baby...

[zenmojodaddy]

... everyone knows I'm The Daddy.

What I Want...

[shadowcabbit]

I want the head of the sorry sonofabitch who thought up the concept behind "BMX XXX". Failing that the head of the guy who authorized the licensing of "Headhunter" would be nice. Just in case you guys were in need of a last-minute Christmas present for me.

"try" out the game?

[Animaether]

I don't know why you encapsulated that "Try" over there in quotes - unless you're implying something.

If you want to try out a game, get the demo.
If there is no demo, see if you can play it at a store.
If none of the above, check online reviews (not from gaming sites, but on forums) to see whether other people think it's worth it.
If not - don't get it.
If so, and you believe you agree, buy the game. If it turns out you still think it sucks - tough luck; you get the same problem with going to the movies / eating out at a restaurant, etc.

Explore all the above before even thinking about "Trying" out the game, which would be a fourth and least desirable option.

Re:"try" out the game?

[untaken_name]

Explore all the above before even thinking about "Trying" out the game, which would be a fourth and least desirable option.

Yes. It's stupid to think you should actually try something before you spend $50 bucks or more on it. I mean, it's not like they let you actually drive cars before you buy them. If you don't like it, tough luck, should have read internet reviews first. Cause we all know how reliable the internet is.
Do you really think it's better to have people waste money? I mean, either you're rewarding poor effort (like people that paid for BMX XXX) or you're 'supporting piracy' even if you buy games that you try and like. I'll make you the same deal I offered the MPAA (not that I ever heard from them about it): Start making 50% ormore of the games released worth buying and I'll stop trying games before I buy them. However, I'm not going to shell out $50 a pop for highly rated reviewed games that blow fucking nuts. If you think that every game which comes out is *worth* buying, you're wrong. All I'm saying is that for years I wasted money using the first options you gave. Demos are not always even representative of final gameplay, or they're very short and don't represent the game well. I don't have time to find a store which 1.)has some game I'd like to play loaded up and ready to play and 2.) doesn't have a crowd of people already playing it. Checking forum reviews is analogous to guessing.
Also, if I decide within the first 5 minutes or so of a movie or meal that I can't stand it, I can get a refund. Games offer no such option. Further, your way allows unscrupulous executives to release horrid product and then get all bitchy about 'piracy' if the game fails. My way allows unscrupulous gamers to play free games. No matter what you do, some people will always either try to make you pay for inferior product or try to get product for free. Instead of punishing people who actually delete games we try and don't like and buy games we try and *do* like, maybe companies should 1.) produce a higher percentage of quality products or 2.) make it easier to try games before they are paid for. I have a very large number of paid-for games in my house, and very few of them do I hate. Those few were invariably purchased before I had a chance to try them out. So to you, the last option is the least desirable. To me, it's the most desirable. I never buy a game I won't play anymore, and I don't play games I'm not going to buy more than once or twice. If I had unlimited money, I wouldn't need to worry about this. If developers mostly made good games, I wouldn't have to worry about it either. Too bad that I don't and they don't so I do.

Re:"try" out the game?

[Lag Master]

dont forget about renting it from some place like blockbuster...

Re:"try" out the game?

[Bastard of Subhumani]

dont forget about renting it from some place like blockbuster...

Or borrowing it from a friend. Sorry, I forgot where I was for a moment - Blockbuster it is, then.

Re:"try" out the game?

[barc0001]

If you want to try out a game, get the demo.

If there is one, I will try it. Generally speaking there aren't a lot of demos released with games any more. Even a major game like Doom 3 didn't release a demo for almost 2 months after the game was out. Remember the old days of demos? You know, the ones where the demo was out shortly before the game itself to try and build excitement and anticipation? Like Quake 3, or the original Doom?
The way the demo is either forgotten entirely or released very late in the product cycle these days seems to be planned. If I was a cynic I'd say it was to minimize the possibility of potential buyers actually PLAYING the game before they forked over their cash in the midnight release-gotta-have-it-now frenzy that follows a major game's release. Because if they played it first, they might decide it's not as good as the hype said it was, and decide not to buy. Most games do the majority of their sales in the first 3 months on the shelf, and of those three months, the first month is the big one. The fact that a demo is usually no longer available during this critical time period is quite telling of what the game companies think of their product, and its ability to stand up to pre-buyer scrutiny.

If there is no demo, see if you can play it at a store.

Ha. You should do standup. Really. Show me one store on the continent of North America that I'd be able to walk into, pick any PC game up off the shelf , and be able to open the sealed package, walk up to a PC and install it.

If none of the above, check online reviews (not from gaming sites, but on forums) to see whether other people think it's worth it.

Because forums online are only filled with intelligent, well-mannered, rational discourse that is not at all biased or coloured in any way, shape, or form by fanboys or morons, right? 0MFG!!!! BMX-XXX 1s tek R0xxors!!! Joo can s33 T1tz!!!!!!!!! Buy th1z gam3 b1tchezz!!!!!

If so, and you believe you agree, buy the game. If it turns out you still think it sucks - tough luck; you get the same problem with going to the movies / eating out at a restaurant, etc.

Wrong, and wrong. If a movie sucks, in the first 10 minutes I can walk out and get a refund. If a dinner at a restaurant sucks, I can either get something else and have the original taken off the bill, or have the bad item removed from the bill. If I buy a car that sucks I have 14 days under the laws of my province to return it (and I believe the yanks have a 3 day window nationwide as well, IIRC). But if I buy a game and it blows, or is actually buggy enough to be unusable, tough. It's mine. No store in my area will take a used PC game back for a refund. Period. No other retail product is subject to such horrific return policy, with the obvious exception of personal items like swimsuits, pit stick, etc.

Re:"try" out the game?

[AvitarX]

Bet bet well over 50% of "highly rated reviewed games" are worth buying.

I mean thinking back in recent past I can remember Halflife 2, WoW, Metroid Prime2.

I can't think of a singe game that has received good post release revies that "blows fucking nuts"

maybe you should revide the review sites you visit, and stop buying on release day.

Re:"try" out the game?

[untaken_name]

Perhaps what I should have said is: For my playstyle and enjoyment of games, many highly-rated games blow fucking nuts. Halo, Prince of Persia, Colin Mcrae, Fable...these are all highly rated games which I feel blow fucking nuts. You might disagree. Therefore, review sites might be great for you. However, just because some or even many people enjoy a title does not mean I am automatically going to. That's why I prefer to try before I buy. Now, GTA games, ESPN NFLxK games, Madden, Burnout, Zelda...these are games I'll buy with no trying or review reading necessary. This is because of the past enjoyment I've had from games in these series. If all publishers put out such consistently fun-to-play games, I wouldn't need to try their titles out either. I'm truly sorry that you don't understand how one person's favorite game can, in the eyes of another, blow fucking nuts. The titles I mentioned above are the only ones I purchase on launch day. If I were buying all my games on launch day, how would I try them before I bought them? Also, I don't know how to revide. I could revise, or revile, or revive....

Source code?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sell me the source code for Constructor, and we'll talk. Seriously - I want that game revived! :)

"Official auction website", huh?

[untaken_name]

Looks more like some blog to me. However, a link is provided there to Maltz Auctions. I don't know if that's the actual auction site or not, as the site has been "temporarily disabled". Good job getting hits to Kotaku, though, even if it isn't the "official auction site".

As a former stockholder...

[Washizu]

As a former stockholder in Acclaim I say, "good riddance." Also, can I get my $600 back?

Re-Volt

[Party Remover]

Re-Volt was always a lot of fun.

DS Dev Kit

[Apreche]

They don't happen to have a Nintendo DS Dev kit do they?

Re:DS Dev Kit

[Anonymous Coward]

It's in my pants... Reach in and get it.

Who would waste money on a bunch of crap? Unless the building is prime realistate it just seems stupid to get it for its contents...

My Desk!

[suedehed]

Man, looking through the pictures I saw my old desk there! I may just go up there and buy all my old machines and furniture, set it up at home and pretend Im working there again. That was the worst 3 years of my life.

Re:My Desk!

[Anonymous Coward]

I got a monitor from Acclaim SLC during the 'consolidation'. Glad to see this company bite pavement... they really deserve it. Working there was like a bad trip in the Dilbert zone.

Re:My Desk!

[thasmudyan]

That was the worst 3 years of my life.

Really? Tell us more! I'd love to hear what places like that are like.

Re:My Desk!

[Anonymous Coward]

Really? Tell us more! I'd love to hear what places like that are like.

Did you miss all the recent articles about EA?

second that.

[mckwant]

Just on the off chance some marketer is lurking.

I was wondering what happened to that series.

CEO of Acclaim

[PoopJuggler]

You're fired!

Re:CEO of Acclaim

[RiddleofSteel]

Oh I just loved that guy. The year they laid off me and hundreds of other employees because of poor stock preformance, this guy gives himself a mult-million dollar bonus. So basically he laid us off so he could give himself a huge bonus for being incompetant. God I love big business.

Site Temporarily Disabled

[Euphorea]

Anyone else getting this when trying to visit the site for the actual auction (http://maltzauctions.com/acclaimhome.htm)?

Site Temporarily Disabled
This site has been temporarily disabled. If you are the owner of the site, please contact customer care.

---------------

Tripe

[edittard]

There was a dupe of a dupe last week. Some wag christened it a "tripe".

Most of it

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, we were allowed back in a few weeks ago to claim our belonging and take one last look at the place.

There have been reports of personal gaming/audio equipment gone missing - already removed and supposedly added to the auction list. Reclaim may depend on being able to produce a receipt.

And don't even think about turning on that PC to eject the CD you'd been listening to the day before the shit hit the fan...

The Red Star

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a tragedy that one of the best Acclaim 1st party games for many, many years had been submitted to Microsoft and Sony for approval before The End. The Red Star may now never see the light of day, which is a crying shame... I played it, and it was definately one of this year's top games. A sure win for any publisher who manages to pick up the rights to this title.

Re:Flamebait????!?!?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's flamebait because it's pointing the finger at people who'd buy at auction and accusing them of being the pirates who supposedly caused Acclaim's demise.

That's a whole lot of assumption, there, and damned well deserves flamebait since there's no option to moderate as (-1, Misguided Agenda).

Piracy affects EVERY software company that produces games. Piracy doesn't unlevel the playing field at all, so Acclaim must've gone under for some other reason. Shitty games? Shitty management? I dunno, but I know it wasn't piracy.

Finally!

[svallarian]

I always knew there was somewhere on the internet you could buy a piece of ass!

But Acclaim sucks...

[OrangeTide]

I always hated Acclaim. Their copy protection made it impossible to back up disks back when I was a kid with an 8086 (Epson made an 8086 AT, it wasn't an XT. It actually had 16-bit ISA slots). Sure people eventually came up with software to low level copy disks, and to crack the copy protection. But it was annoying. Ontop of all the fancy copy protection the games were not really any fun either.

Sad

[CrazyJim1]

I never really was a fan of Acclaim products, had a wrestling game for Nintendo 8 bit though. How could you possibly go under in today's video game climate is a mystery to me. I know theres a couple multibillion dollar games not yet made. Let alone the stupid multimillion ones that don't quite fit the multibillion mold.

Allow me to respectfully disagree.

[jestered1]

If I want to download something in order to try it out before I drop . . .I reserve the right to do so.

That's not your right to reserve. It's the developers' / publishers' privilege to extend. That's the idea behind game demos, sample tracks and movie trailers.

If I like it, I'll buy it. If I don't, I saved myself being ripped off.

How about this: Buy it. If you like it, keep it. If not, return it to the store for a refund. If that store has a return policy that doesn't work for you (investigate before you purchase), buy elsewhere. Furthermore, even if *you* purchase at retail everything you download and keep, I'm guessing most don't.

It is theft for a record company to put 1 or 2 decent songs on a CD (which, incidentally, holds about 80 minutes worth of music, as we all well know, and sometimes -contains- less than 50...).

No, it's not theft. Just like it's not theft when a restaurant leaves several cubic inches of plate uncovered by food. That's just making a crappy CD. So buy the individual tracks off of iTunes or any other online music service.

It is theft when I move and my DVD collection which I perfectly legally purchased becomes worthless.

I agree that region encoding is overkill. However, you can use DVD Shrink to backup your DVD collection with region encoding removed and *I think* that's legal under copywrite law (as well as DMCA for U.S.).

Granted, I have no right to make copies and exploit them commercially, but to say that I cannot give one to a friend?

Asking that you not distribute copies to friends is NOT "locking up" your media. You can buy a CD, burn a copy for your car, rip MP3s for your player, and listen to all of them even in the company of friends. You bought the media and the rights to listen to it however you wish. To give away copies, however, is not consuming the media, it's distributing it. That's the difference and that's what your not supposed to do.

The distinction here is personal vs. commercial exploitation

I'd say the distinction is "Using what you've purchased" vs. "Using what you haven't purchased" vs. "Distributing what you have or haven't purchased". The first one is the only legitimate place to be, and we should be granted great freedoms in how we can go about it. The second two options are dishonest and no amount a rationalization will change that.

Having worked there... [shoddy goods]

[Anonymous Coward]

"It's not the desk's fault. Buy Greg's ass instead."

Talk about being ripped off. It has a crack in it.

Re:Burn the disk as an effigy of Greg Fischbach...

[IncohereD]

2. A likeness or image, especially of a person.

I believe that was the GP's point. After destroying the original desk (not disk, smart guy), they'd have to construct a fake desk/model of a desk (or effigy) to burn. Or maybe a picture of it. But we've all seen burning pictures before, it's not that effective an image. Just burn the actual pieces.

Re:Woah, check out that furniture

[commander_line]

Obviously some people don't understand. But that's okay, I can feel pity for those who have gone straight from high school to cubicle. Poor souls.

Re:Flamebait????!?!?

[symbolic]

It's very simple...when you play without paying, you're benefitting from whatever value it provides you. In essence, you get something, they get nothing. Ask yourself...what harm is being done if nobody pays, but everyone plays?

Re:Flamebait????!?!?

[symbolic]

Point taken...the company could have gone under for any number of reasons. Perhaps pointing the finger at piracy was a bit misguided, but given what some people use to justify it, piracy isn't an issue that should be ignored or trivialized.

In my defense-

[Nomihn0]

It would have been a less traumatic failure had another poster not broken up the visual effect of the consecutive double post I had going.

The truly funny part was that I was modded "redundant" several times. . .

Re:Flamebait????!?!?

[91degrees]

when you play without paying, you're benefitting from whatever value it provides you. In essence, you get something, they get nothing.

So it's not a zero sum game. What companies need to be doing, rather than fixating on the piracy red herring, is increasing sales and only try to stop piracy if it actually decreases sales.

Ask yourself...what harm is being done if nobody pays, but everyone plays?

No more harm than if nobody pays and nobody plays.