Maniac Mansion NES - prototype

[Adventureguy]

Wait, I thought about the whole thing...
You need the original cartridge to legally work on the ROM image, since it's a backup, right?
And you must have the original cartridge to be allowed to play the ROM, right?
So, if there's only one cartridge at all of that prototype, is only one person allowed to play the ROM image?
Or if you have the censored game cartridge, does this allow you to play the uncensored ROM?
If so, you could also legally work on the prototype while owning the censored cartridge version.
So there:
That prototype was released as the censored version, so the game should be the same as the prototype (only a little bit censored). This makes it legal to play the prototype while owning the released cartridge, am I right or what?

If my argumentation seems to be wrong, just tell me.

[Tinhead Ned]

That makes sense...by the same notion, someone with the European 'non-microwavable hamster' version should be able to play a rom of the American 'microwavable hamster' version.

[sev]

You need the original cartridge to legally work on the ROM image, since it's a backup, right?

yes.

And you must have the original cartridge to be allowed to play the ROM, right?

yes

So, if there's only one cartridge at all of that prototype, is only one person allowed to play the ROM image?

yes, at least from legal point of view.

Or if you have the censored game cartridge, does this allow you to play the uncensored ROM?

no. moreover, i suppose that that cartridge was sent on non-disclosure agreement.

If so, you could also legally work on the prototype while owning the censored cartridge version.

that's not correct.


Eugene

[sev]

That makes sense...by the same notion, someone with the European 'non-microwavable hamster' version should be able to play a rom of the American 'microwavable hamster' version.

If you'll continue, that will lead you to conclusion, that if you have PC version of Zak, you're allowed to warez ultra-rare and hyper-expensive FM-TOWNS version (last purchase I'm aware of was for $360) and all localized versions. That's wrong. That's why Joachim Eberhard spent his $300 on Indy4 FM-TOWNS for the Team (and he rocks ).


Eugene

[joachimeberhard]

That makes sense...by the same notion, someone with the European 'non-microwavable hamster' version should be able to play a rom of the American 'microwavable hamster' version.

If you'll continue, that will lead you to conclusion, that if you have PC version of Zak, you're allowed to warez ultra-rare and hyper-expensive FM-TOWNS version (last purchase I'm aware of was for $360) and all localized versions. That's wrong. That's why Joachim Eberhard spent his $300 on Indy4 FM-TOWNS for the Team (and he rocks ).


Eugene

Oh, you're flattering me.

Thanks.

[Jimbob]

That's why Joachim Eberhard spent his $300 on Indy4 FM-TOWNS for the Team (and he rocks ).


Eugene

Oh, you're flattering me.

Thanks.

So will you ever get to play it Joachim?

[joachimeberhard]

So will you ever get to play it Joachim?

Since I already owned a copy before the donation, yes!

[Tinhead Ned]

If you'll continue, that will lead you to conclusion, that if you have PC version of Zak, you're allowed to warez ultra-rare and hyper-expensive FM-TOWNS version (last purchase I'm aware of was for $360) and all localized versions. That's wrong. That's why Joachim Eberhard spent his $300 on Indy4 FM-TOWNS for the Team (and he rocks ).


Eugene

Well, not entirely...seeing as how they're all the NES version, I would assume it wouldn't apply to cross-platform releases. Having the PC version of MM doesn't automatically let you pirate the NES game, after all.

[Jimbob]

So will you ever get to play it Joachim?

Since I already owned a copy before the donation, yes!

Ah, I see. I understand the reason for such a large donation now. I guess you really really want to play Indy 4 FM-TOWNS in ScummVM (with as few gliches as possible) to make such a huge donation!

[The Spoony Hou]

That makes sense...by the same notion, someone with the European 'non-microwavable hamster' version should be able to play a rom of the American 'microwavable hamster' version.

If you'll continue, that will lead you to conclusion, that if you have PC version of Zak, you're allowed to warez ultra-rare and hyper-expensive FM-TOWNS version (last purchase I'm aware of was for $360) and all localized versions. That's wrong. That's why Joachim Eberhard spent his $300 on Indy4 FM-TOWNS for the Team (and he rocks ).


Eugene

Oh my God! I didn't know that existed! How is the audio?

[joachimeberhard]

That makes sense...by the same notion, someone with the European 'non-microwavable hamster' version should be able to play a rom of the American 'microwavable hamster' version.

If you'll continue, that will lead you to conclusion, that if you have PC version of Zak, you're allowed to warez ultra-rare and hyper-expensive FM-TOWNS version (last purchase I'm aware of was for $360) and all localized versions. That's wrong. That's why Joachim Eberhard spent his $300 on Indy4 FM-TOWNS for the Team (and he rocks ).


Eugene

Oh my God! I didn't know that existed! How is the audio?

Of the FM-Towns versions?

ZAK, INDY3, LOOM and MONKEY1 use CD-Audio.

While Monkey1, Monkey2 and Indy4 don't differ much from the PC versions (except they have more bugs with ScummVM ), Zak, Indy3 and Loom are known as the most interesting versions of the games.

Zak FM-Towns even has 256 Colors!

See http://www.scummvm.org/screenshots.php

[joachimeberhard]

So will you ever get to play it Joachim?

Since I already owned a copy before the donation, yes!

Ah, I see. I understand the reason for such a large donation now. I guess you really really want to play Indy 4 FM-TOWNS in ScummVM (with as few gliches as possible) to make such a huge donation!

Yes, this is one of the reasons.

The other one is that the ScummVM project went to my heart, and became one of the most important things of my sparetime.

I also donated MM NES German, even though I don't like playing german translated games myself. I prefer English, because of the word-fun.

At the moment, I'm trying to convince some spanish guys to donate MM NES Spanish. If they don't do it, I consider doing it myself, since it would only cost 20EUR. 20EUR!!!! That's not much money considered the work it means for the developers to integrate the games. In fact, if we had to pay for all those hours of free development, a project like ScummVM would not be affordable.
And 20EUR is not much considered all the money we spend for those lame-o-new-games we buy.

Sadly, donating still is not common among users.
Some of them even take the work of our great devs for granted.

I can tell you that the devotion of the ScummVM developers is a heaven's gift.

Compare the development of ScummVM to any other comparable open-source project, and you see what I mean.

[glokidd]

Compare the development of ScummVM to any other comparable open-source project, and you see what I mean.

you said it Joachim
Is there a list of needed donations?

[Jimbob]

and what donations will the team accept? Do they primarily want rarer games or hard cash?

[joachimeberhard]

and what donations will the team accept? Do they primarily want rarer games or hard cash?

Well, they do not primarly need anything for themselves.
They need it to support something we like to be supported.

Some good starting points for useful donations would be:

Rare games, not yet supported.

Buggy games. They are supported mostly because the game is similiar to another game engine, but in fact, some of those games run out of pure luck.

Games you want supported, eg some game version you know that is not yet supported.

Well, since both of you are native English speakers, you have the luck that your versions are supported best.
But it's much harder to get the localized versions supported, because the devs often don't have them.

Of course, money always helps, but it's the devs choice then what they use it for.

Hopefully what I wrote makes sense, it's almost 4am after all.