gametechmods
Robot Arena => Discussion => Topic started by: RFS on May 29, 2014, 01:00:30 PM
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Since there's so much talk about simply downloading the game from GTM's servers I wanted to inquire here to see if anyone has still found the game on store shelves and if so, for how much?
I don't know why I did not bring this up earlier but I like to do a lot of scrounging around at Half Price Books stores for things like comics and abandonware and lo and behold sitting on the shelf with the PC games were two sealed retail copies of RA2. They were $5 each. With the exception of the time that I bought it in person at a CompUSA store 11 years ago (I had to preorder it and everything) I have never once seen the game on store shelves. I thought it was a pretty cool find. I still have my retail copy but I bought one of the two from the Half Price Books to give to my youngest brother so he could make the mistake of wasting all of his free time playing the game. :dumb)
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I'm fairly certain the game is abandon-ware.
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That would explain why it showed up at an HPB which tends to be a magnet for those kinds of games (seriously you can find all sorts of random classics).
If it's abandonware does that make the game public domain? I am unfamiliar with the legal terminologies behind what-means-what. I remember several years ago there was a lot of clamor over trying to obtain the game's source code -- would that now be available if the game is recognized as "abandonware"?
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i got it online (i forget where)
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I saw it in a store as late as 2007, but I doubt it's still being sold.
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I got my first ra2 disc off amazon for about £10
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I doubt it has ever been sold in germany. got my not quite legal copy of the game from a former classmate.
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I found it in the bargain bin at a K-Mart or something
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I doubt it has ever been sold in germany. got my not quite legal copy of the game from a former classmate.
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Haven't seen it in stores since it came out....and kmart hustled me for $35 full price.
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Haven't seen it in stores since it came out....and kmart hustled me for $35 full price.
Damn. It was twenty bucks at CompUSA. :P
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Haven't seen it in stores since it came out....and kmart hustled me for $35 full price.
Damn. It was twenty bucks at CompUSA. :P
It was £10 on Amazon :P
(I have a feeling this will turn into a barrage of quotes)
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So nobody else saw/got it with the combo of Bumper Wars, RA2, and Tuff Trux? They were all good games. Thats how I bought it way back when.
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I'm intrigued by other other two games. What are they like? I never saw RA2 sold as a package anywhere.
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Well they sound like other combat games, google it
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So nobody else saw/got it with the combo of Bumper Wars, RA2, and Tuff Trux? They were all good games. Thats how I bought it way back when.
Bumper Wars was awesome. But I didn't get mine bundled with RA2. I believe I got RA1 at a Scholastic Book Fair and the same can be said for Bumper Wars. My RA2 box has a Target price tag on it for $5.99. I believe it was a Christmas gift from my parents since they knew I liked Battlebots.
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I bought it off of Ebay iirc
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If it's abandonware does that make the game public domain? I am unfamiliar with the legal terminologies behind what-means-what. I remember several years ago there was a lot of clamor over trying to obtain the game's source code -- would that now be available if the game is recognized as "abandonware"?
We could use the source code, if we had it... however, Atari has no obligation to make it available, and they've shown no interest in doing so. We have to get the source code the hard way, by reverse engineering the exe. Serge is the only person to seriously attempt that, and he hasn't gotten very far.
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If it's abandonware does that make the game public domain? I am unfamiliar with the legal terminologies behind what-means-what. I remember several years ago there was a lot of clamor over trying to obtain the game's source code -- would that now be available if the game is recognized as "abandonware"?
We could use the source code, if we had it... however, Atari has no obligation to make it available, and they've shown no interest in doing so. We have to get the source code the hard way, by reverse engineering the exe. Serge is the only person to seriously attempt that, and he hasn't gotten very far.
Atari is more or less dead. Would it do any harm in just giving the source code of game that didn't sell to a dedicated couple of people?
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If it's abandonware does that make the game public domain? I am unfamiliar with the legal terminologies behind what-means-what. I remember several years ago there was a lot of clamor over trying to obtain the game's source code -- would that now be available if the game is recognized as "abandonware"?
We could use the source code, if we had it... however, Atari has no obligation to make it available, and they've shown no interest in doing so. We have to get the source code the hard way, by reverse engineering the exe. Serge is the only person to seriously attempt that, and he hasn't gotten very far.
Atari is more or less dead. Would it do any harm in just giving the source code of game that didn't sell to a dedicated couple of people?
No, but it wouldn't do any good (=make money) either, therefore no interest.
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If it's abandonware does that make the game public domain? I am unfamiliar with the legal terminologies behind what-means-what. I remember several years ago there was a lot of clamor over trying to obtain the game's source code -- would that now be available if the game is recognized as "abandonware"?
We could use the source code, if we had it... however, Atari has no obligation to make it available, and they've shown no interest in doing so. We have to get the source code the hard way, by reverse engineering the exe. Serge is the only person to seriously attempt that, and he hasn't gotten very far.
Atari is more or less dead. Would it do any harm in just giving the source code of game that didn't sell to a dedicated couple of people?
No, but it wouldn't do any good (=make money) either, therefore no interest.
Really seems to be all the industry cares about these days.
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It's important to note that the Atari that exists today is nothing like the company that created the 2600 console in the seventies. That company has long since been dismantled and its parts absorbed into other companies. Depending on who you ask, Jack Tramiel did a lot of the initial damage that ruined the company. Infogrames acquired Atari Corp in 2004(?) and finished off the last vestiges of the company caring about its thriving fanbase. Infogrames stirred up a lot of trouble in the early 00's by sending cease and desist letters to homebrew programmers of the Atari 2600 even though at the time the console was nearing thirty years old and hadn't had an official game released for it in two decades.
Of course Infogrames doesn't care about your plans to build off of their game. It's "theirs", even though the RA2 community has done enough collective work to remake the game several times over.
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yeah there was a thread about the atari dismantling like a year back.
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we will offer chuck e cheese one dollar for the source code
(Nolan Bushnell founded chuck e cheese so they must have it...)
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we will offer chuck e cheese one dollar for the source code
(Nolan Bushnell founded chuck e cheese so they must have it...)
Nonono, Nolan Bushnell founded Showbiz Pizza Inc which was then bought out by someone else and became Chuck E Cheese's. :dumb)
Unfortunately Bushnell has no stake in either company anymore and hasn't for a very long time.
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we will offer chuck e cheese one dollar for the source code
(Nolan Bushnell founded chuck e cheese so they must have it...)
Nonono, Nolan Bushnell founded Showbiz Pizza Inc which was then bought out by someone else and became Chuck E Cheese's. :dumb)
Unfortunately Bushnell has no stake in either company anymore and hasn't for a very long time.
obviously the code was part of showbiz pizza and now chucky has it
we
have
to
mug
chucky cheese
for source code