"Future Wars" copy protection vs. legal donwloads

[Koyder]

I was very excited to hear "Future Wars" is now supported by ScummVM. However, I am unable to play the game because of its copy protection. The game is publicly available at [CENSORED], which doesn't allow illegal downloads as far as I know, so my conclusion is that the game has been made free to the public (correct me if I'm wrong). And if that's the case, couldn't the copy protection be removed, since the game can be legally downloaded? It sure would make me and many other gamers happy. Thanks in advance for answering my question.

[eriktorbjorn]

The game is publicly available at [REDACTED], which doesn't allow illegal downloads as far as I know, so my conclusion is that the game has been made free to the public (correct me if I'm wrong).

No, I'm afraid that's just wishful thinking. If you read their FAQ, you will see that they admit that "abandonware" is not legal. So far, only two of the games that ScummVM supports can be freely distributed: Beneath a Steel Sky and Flight of the Amazon Queen.

[Koyder]

Damn, that's a real shame, especially since the game is virtually impossible to obtain today (physically, that is). Anyways, thanks for the reply, eriktorbjorn.

Any chances of contacting the game's publisher and asking him to set the game free?

[fac]

Any chances of contacting the game's publisher and asking him to set the game free?

Delphine software doesn't exit anymore. See this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphine_Software

You could contact someone who had made the game, to know if that's possible.

[Koyder]

You could contact someone who had made the game, to know if that's possible.

And so I did. I just wrote a letter to Eric Chahi:

Dear Mr. Chahi,
My name is Tomasz Kojder, I live in Poland and I'm an admirer of your artworks and a huge fan of the games you've created. As such, I was extremely excited to hear that the creators of the ScummVM virtual machine (www.scummvm.org), which allows older games to be played on modern systems (including those for which they were never designed, like Mac OS X or Linux), had made it possible to play "Future Wars" in the aforesaid virtual machine.

The problem is "Future Wars" is virtually impossible to obtain legally today. The game can be downloaded on numerous abandonware sites, however - due to its copy protection - it's unusable.

Hence my question/request: would you (or any other creator of the game, whom I am unable to contact) be kind enough to make the game available free to the public? Making "Future Wars" free would allow the developers of ScummVM to remove the copy protection from the game, letting lots of people enjoy your creation again. Two other games supported by ScummVM: "Beneath a Steel Sky" and "Flight of the Amazon Queen" were set free by their creators, and lots of people have been enjoying them ever since.

Thank you for reading this message. I'm looking forward to hearing from you. I'm sorry for not writing in French, but English is the only foreign language I know.

PS I am not personally involved in the ScummVM project - I'm just a gamer. If you would need to contact the ScummVM developers, I can ask them to drop you a line.

Best regards,
Tomek

I have no idea if this will have any effect (probably not), but I'll let you know if he writes back.

[saulob]

Nice move.

Let's wait to read the reply.

[Big Bottom]

How did you get his email address?

Just looking at the list of games on wiki, Delphine had 5 straight classics in a row (if you count Corpse which was well reviewed at the time). Pretty impressive.

[Kaminari]

Éric Chahi. He worked on the graphics of Future Wars, but it's doubtful he's the current copyright holder of this game.

[sev]

In fact, Future Wars quite often gets sold on eBay. Right now there are DOS and Atari ST version on sale, but Amiga version is more common there.

Prices go from 2 bucks up to 60 like that DOS version now.

All version are supported, though Amiga and Atari version lack sound at this moment.

I also recommend to watch Operation Stealth aka James Bond: Stealth Affair. It is pretty common on eBay as well. Right now there are 2 copies on sale, and one of them is pretty cheap.


Eugene

[Koyder]

How did you get his email address?

As Kaminari said, I wrote to the address supplied on his website. Unfortunately, he hasn't replied.