2/21/2011
Great article, also a great game, loved it in the arcade - but mostly I used to play Spyhunter for hours on the Commodore 64! "The publisher refused....their legal team were already writing up a cease-and-desist letter ordering him to remove the assets from his fan page." - how is that for gratitude!?]]>2/2/2011
This is one of the best things I've read in a while. Fantastic work on using a MAME ROM to gather your missing data, truly inspirational :)]]>12/24/2010
Nice that you made it work. Publishers sounds like a nightmare]]>12/15/2010
I think the licensing issue might be covered by the last section of the "Common Questions" on the license page: "Q. Can I use a PC running MAME to replace a real arcade PCB? A: In order to do this you would have to use a copy of the original ROMs, which would require obtaining permission from the original manufacturer....If you sell your game later you must sell it without MAME included." That suggests that this type of commercial use is within the licensing restrictions provided you have permission to use the ROM and don't ship MAME itself. Bear in mind though that this incident happened quite a long time ago. The version of MAME we were using was one of the old DOS ones and the license may have been less restrictive at the time.]]>12/15/2010
Jason: I can see how one might read the license that way, however, it may be read another way: "Redistributions [of the MAME code or any derivative works] may not be sold, nor may they be used in a commercial product or activity." The 'redistribution' they downloaded (the binary could also be considered a 'derivative work') was used in the 'commercial activity' of ripping sprites, which they were being (partially) paid for. I'm impressed with their cleverness, and realize they were just doing that they had to, but it seems legally questionable at best.]]>12/15/2010
Very nice to see a gamedeveloper taking the "resourcefull" way, and not being let down by adversity! real nice problem solving there.]]>12/15/2010
As a fellow game developer I am in awe if the inventiveness and practical thinking that you put into this. I know how little a week is to get anything done.]]>12/15/2010
This should be submitted to game developer mag! Way to beat the odds with a typical asinine request from a publisher. I've been on both sides so can definitely relate. Kudos.]]>12/13/2010
Thanks for sharing. Very interesting read.]]>12/13/2010
I had similar experience with Metal Gear Solid port for the PC. We did not have the source to the midi/mod library playing the music (they were composed of short samples). Instead we found .wav files of all music tracks on one of the fan-page sites. We even found the samples to a lot of our sounds. We simply grabbed and used them instead]]>12/13/2010
Wow, impressive!]]>12/13/2010
That's some McGuyver level quick thinking there! Emulators have been a helpful tool and I once did that map thing with a game called Rings of Power to reconstruct it's insanely large world map, and convert the tiles into byte values. Good job, though!]]>12/13/2010
123: The MAME license refers to the use of the MAME source code and derivative works, the point of it is to stop things like arcade operators using MAME in a commercial cab. This case was different, as MAME was used to extract the original assets. It's a grey area at best, but probably within their legal right given that the developers of MAME don't own the copyrights to the title in question.]]>12/13/2010
nice going mate, hard work should pay more. only if there was an option to take the publishers to court for never providing the original source code.]]>12/12/2010
Sad to say you might have been breaking the MAME license. Depending on how you define redistribution and commercial activity. http://mamedev.org/legal.html]]>12/12/2010
great story!]]>12/12/2010
Awesome story dude.. makes me want to go and make some big quotes for publishing houses and give them crap mame rips ;)]]>12/12/2010
you're a fucking hero.]]>12/12/2010
Awesome story :) Back a long time ago I ran EmuHQ.com along with Peter, and big supporter of emulation. So many games are not lost because of the hard work of emulator authors!]]>12/12/2010
@Alex, that's all very well and good, but that line at register 3 isn't going to ring itself up.]]>12/12/2010
@Anon, your first line (after @Alex obviously) perfectly described this article, duh. @Matt, no, you are, and these guys are. The article said the contract included they'd receive the resources required, when they didn't receive that, the breach of the contract on the publisher's side. Unless the contract didn't say all this in which case they were morons to sign it in the first place. But anyway, the end result is, they delivered, they got paid, the publisher got the game, and the customers got the shaft. Yes, I totally hope developers like this keep making ports like this, so true! Anyway, bye, fanboys (of people you don't even know, gotta love the internet) and idiots alike.]]>12/12/2010
Ever worked with that publisher again? That's some f***ed up stuff.]]>12/12/2010
I know many developers even for modern consoles use modchips, hacks, and flash cartridges - all the same tools pirates use - to test their games on off-the-shelf consoles because they can't afford enough dev kits for everyone.]]>12/12/2010
Hopefully the chap who was served the takedown will never know why they found him. Copyright truly can set up some unpleasant scenarios.]]>12/12/2010
@Alex Hey look! someone complaining on the internet! I suppose you would have done a better job given the time and resources available?]]>12/12/2010
Somehow Alex misses the point. How can you port something when you're not given the source code? You can't, and if they didn't get this done then they would have probably gotten dropped for someone who could come up with something that probably wouldn't even be nearly as close. It's a business and people need to make money. Good story, Mr. Feldman, thanks for sharing.]]>12/12/2010
Really interesting read! Great work! @Alex: You're a moron. A god damned moron. Did you not read the guy was pinned to the floor by his nuts? That there was no other choice besides losing his entire company because the suits above him screwed him over on contract? You should seriously keep your damn mouth shut next time you think about opening it.]]>12/12/2010
"The publisher refused....their legal team were already writing up a cease-and-desist letter ordering him to remove the assets from his fan page." Next time, just give credit without asking.]]>12/12/2010
You get insane props for your final trick. I'm surprised that even came *close* to working. ;)]]>12/12/2010
So you're among those "developers" who do the infamous shoddy "ports" of classic titles that actually don't feel anything like the original because you thought your poor result was good enough to get past the suits that pay you? And you blame them? What a joke. Go indie if the publishers are so evil and you have actual talent and design sense beyond hacks like what you just described here. This is now more plausible than ever and proven by many, many indies out there (not just the "famous" like 2D Boy, Notch or Blow, you don't need to be the best and richest indie to prove it is viable). Otherwise, keep being the code monkey hack you deserve to be.]]>12/12/2010
that was an entertaining read. thanks for sharing.]]>12/12/2010
Great idea using gameplay and pixel mapping to create tiles! How many hours did you work that week?! :D]]>12/12/2010
I wonder if it might not be helpful to the game dev community to go a step further. Specifically, to create a MAME site where all the ROM images are 'de-constructed' into usable game assets such as sprites, tile map arrays, game play mechanics, AI algorithms, etc. These could then be indexed and categorized further for reference. Such a site would of course exist in a legal grey area, to be charitable, but would certainly be an incredible educational boon to those younglings learning the dark arts of game design and programming.]]>12/12/2010
to remove all the black kids from the game (because "it hurts sales in Germany") is total bullshit.]]>12/12/2010
@onedayitwillmake Same here. Came from ycombinator as well. I'm just glad I'm not a game developer. I would love doing the work, but hate working for the man because of situations like this. But that's pretty awesome what you did.]]>12/12/2010
Love the hack! :D]]>12/12/2010
ycombinator sucks this article rules]]>12/12/2010
I haven't read a more interest article in a long long time! :) Btw you made ycombinator!]]>