Re: Pinball 2000 Wizard Block Kits

On Wed, 23 Apr, taylor34 wrote:
What I'd like to have are the tools used to make the original games in
the 90's. Obviously somebody still has them and the source code
somewhere. I have no idea why neither wayne or Gene has even thought
about making these available for a license fee. They make money,
modders can fix bugs and issues with games, win-win for everyone. I
can't even really think of any drawback. There are a lot of smart
people on this board, there are a lot of awesome things that could be
done. My first thoughts would be:

1) Fix the TOTAN jewel thing. I've heard endless thoughts about how
this screws up the game, should be a relatively easy fix.
2) CC could be finished finally with a lot of work.
3) Games like T2 could get a wizard mode for people who want to spend
a lot of time on it.

Obviously, the main draw would be to add and fix things for home
users. I'd pay for it too--I love T2 and would buy one in a heartbeat
for home if it had a little deeper ruleset. A new rom version could
make that happen. But unfortunately it's probably not going to
happen.

First, there's no money in releasing that source code and devel
environment (which others have pointed out). Second, and again already
pointed out, it would be tough to get the devel environment running
again. I doubt that's impossible, though.

The big deal is that IPB/TPF probably have it in their agreements *not* to
because I'm guessing WMS would want it that way. They have a little bit
of liability to worry about in that if some hacked code caused a machine
to explode and burn down a mall, well, someone is gonna get sued bigtime.
Sure, we all know that probably can't happen, but...

The only thing in our favor is that if someone didn't think to protect
the software that way, well, there's no reason for whoever owns it NOT
to release it, either. Surely they'd realize by now that they won't
ever have any way to make money that they'd be losing if they did make
it available. *shrug*

But still, I don't see it happening. The best we can hope for is someone
with the skills deciding to sit down and start a fresh devel environment
from scratch. That's VERY attainable. All the "hard" tools you would
need are available in open source form already (compilers and such).


--Donnie
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Pinball 2000 Wizard Block Kits
    ... Obviously somebody still has them and the source code ... Fix the TOTAN jewel thing. ... Games like T2 could get a wizard mode for people who want to spend ... Programmers are gone, the source code is lost, company part numbers ...
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  • Re: Pinball 2000 Wizard Block Kits
    ... What I'd like to have are the tools used to make the original games in ... Obviously somebody still has them and the source code ... modders can fix bugs and issues with games, ... Fix the TOTAN jewel thing. ...
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