Mystery House in public domain

Buddha · Post by **Buddha** » Wed May 02, 2012 10:57 pm

I just found out that Sierra's first game Mystery House is in public domain.
I wanted to check that it really is and dug out my The Roberta Williams Anthology CD with Mystery House on it and looked further.
And yes, it has indeed been put into public domain in 1987.

This is from MYSTERY.HELLO.BAS from inside MYSTHOUS.DSK (Use e.g. CiderPress to open that .DSK-file) from The Roberta Williams Anthology CD:

"FROM A GREAT MOMENT IN HISTORY:
MYSTERY HOUSE, THE FIRST GRAPHIC ADVENTURE,
WAS CREATED IN 1980 BY SIERRA ON-LINE FOUNDERS KEN AND ROBERTA
WILLIAMS, AND RELEASED INTO THE PUBLIC DOMAIN IN 1987 TO
CELEBRATE SIERRA'S 7TH ANNIVERSARY.

WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO COPY THIS GAME, FOR YOURSELF OR TO SHARE.
IF YOU HAVE ENJOYED IT YOU MAY SEND A $5 DONATION TOKEN AND
ROBERTA'S FAVORITE CHARITY, SIERRA HISTORIC SITES ASSOCIATION,
P.O. BOX 451, OAKHURST CA 93644

NOTE: BECAUSE IT IS NOW FREE, SIERRA'S GIFT TO YOU,
WE CAN NO LONGER TAKE CALLS ON THIS GAME. IF YOU NEED HELP,
WE SUGGEST YOU CONTACT YOUR LOCAL APPLE USERS GROUP TO TALK
WITH OTHERS WHO MAY HAVE PLAYED IT."

So there it is, I uploaded the MYSTHOUS.DSK to DropBox and you can get it using this link.
If anyone feels a nostalgic urge to look into adding support for Mystery House to ScummVM
now they at least have the public domain data for it.

Yay

Kari Salminen / Buddha^

Pseudo_Intellectual · Mon May 07, 2012 10:43 pm

If you like that, you'll love http://liberatedgames.com/about.php

Definitely there are criteria for SCUMMVM support beyond "we have access to the source code", but there are some compelling curiosities there, mostly out of scope here.

Post by **Strangerke** » Tue May 08, 2012 10:29 am

This site has a couple of issues, in my opinion. Mainly, they don't take into account the dozen of mails I sent them to notify new freed games availability, nor mails concerning un-freed games (such as Cinemaware games).

The availability of source code helps a lot for sure, but the first criteria is that the game has to be a point&click adventure game: don't expect Prince of Persia, even if the sources are available, we won't support it.

Cire · Post by **Cire** » Tue May 08, 2012 2:00 pm

What games are missing from Liberated Games?

dreammaster · Post by **dreammaster** » Tue May 08, 2012 2:45 pm

Cire wrote:What games are missing from Liberated Games?

I had the same experience as Strangerke. I previously sent them an email about Soltys, and I never got a reply, nor was an entry for it added to their game list.

Cire · Post by **Cire** » Tue May 08, 2012 3:01 pm

That's unfortunate. The only other site I know of that has the same goal is Remain In Play, but that is even worse I think since it hasn't been updated since 2009! It makes it hard to find such freed games, but I would be interested in finding out about them. Do you know of any games not listed on Liberated Games which has been freed, or other sites that list such games?

alpeyn · Post by **alpeyn** » Sun May 13, 2012 8:45 am

i am hoping that i can use these games too! i was a fan of those game until a lot of games came out and these old ones are not so sure if they will still work and if they will be compatible with the new versions nowadays.