FreeGameDev

Hi,

Here's one of my very old source from 2003. It is a rewrite of the MS-DOS StoneAge game under Linux (it was so long ago, that the original game was already public and free to download in 2003). Back then there was no dosbox, and I wanted to play this game under Linux, that's the reason for the project. The source is licensed under GPL, uses X11 only, nothing else (no sound, sorry). Graphics are upscaled to 640 x 400. Originally it was switching to full screen, but I've removed that since Xorg does not support XFree86's XF86VidMode extension (yeah, back then we used a different X11 implementation :-) ).

https://gitlab.com/bztsrc/xstoneage/

Screenshoots






The game is fully playable, save the fullscreen everything is working and running nicely on modern hardware too. Includes about 70 levels and a built-in level editor too! Enjoy!

Cheers,
bzt

edit: phrase "public domain" replaced by "public and free to download"

Hey awesome work!

bzt {l Wrote}:it was so long ago, that the original game was already public domain in 2003

What do you mean "public domain"? Given that copyright terms usually expire after about 70 - 100 years after the author's death, no SW will be in the public domain by age for many more decades. I see the original was released in 1992 so supposing the author lived at least 10 more years the game won't enter a world-wide public domain in this century.

Ntech {l Wrote}:Hey awesome work!

Thanks!

drummyfish {l Wrote}:

bzt {l Wrote}:it was so long ago, that the original game was already public domain in 2003

What do you mean "public domain"? Given that copyright terms usually expire after about 70 - 100 years after the author's death, no SW will be in the public domain by age for many more decades. I see the original was released in 1992 so supposing the author lived at least 10 more years the game won't enter a world-wide public domain in this century.

I mean that that 10 years expired by 2003, the OS it was running on reached end-of-life before that (DOS support ended in 2001). There's nothing on the internet about the developer company, they probably doesn't exists any more. You can download the original game for free as public domain and abandonware (for example here or here), nobody claims any rights nor asks for any fee for it any more.

Does this answer your question? But if somehow Stonehenge Soft Art gets resurrected from the grave and asks me to remove my rewrite, I'll. Until that very unlikely event, be happy for another Linux game and enjoy! :-)

Cheers,
bzt

"Public domain" is legally speaking something totally different from the legally non-existent and vaguely defined term "abandonware".

Edt: I'll move this to off-topic then as it isn't open-source in the legal sense. I hope that doesn't cause any hard feelings

Edi2: Hmm, so this is a clean-room re-implementation of the code and only using the art-assets in a copyright infringing way?

Good reimplementation effort, I liked this!

ffaf {l Wrote}:Good reimplementation effort, I liked this!

Thanks!

Julius {l Wrote}:"Public domain" is legally speaking something totally different from the legally non-existent and vaguely defined term "abandonware".

I think "public domain" isn't a legal term either, as far as I know it means no legal terms apply because nobody claims any right at all (hence no individual but the public owns it). But okay, I rephrase not using that two words together: the original game is in the public for free, already was in 2003, and nobody claims any rights on it any more.

Julius {l Wrote}:Edt: I'll move this to off-topic then as it isn't open-source in the legal sense. I hope that doesn't cause any hard feelings

Edi2: Hmm, so this is a clean-room re-implementation of the code and only using the art-assets in a copyright infringing way?

Absolutely, I've implemented everything from ground up, all the code is mine and GPL licensed. This includes the recreation of the effects and visuals (some, not all, there are differences to the original game), assets file (in a gzipped, upscaled tga "pak" file) and levels too (I've created all of them with the built-in editor manually). I haven't used any of the original source nor the distributed files. Images were taken from screenshots made by a small assembly TSR I wrote. The tga sprites were created using GIMP, cutting and pasting parts of the screenshots, and for example the crumbling effect was entirely drawn by me because I couldn't take enough screenshots to catch the original animation.

As for the assets btw, I'm not sure you can say "copyright infringement" if the original copyright holder entity vanished from the face of the Earth several decades ago and all of it is already in the public for free (independently to xstoneage).
But as I've said, if the original author does still exists and shows up after nearly 30 years and demands xstoneage to be removed, I'll oblige. If I could ask their permission to use their assets I would have, but no contact, they're gone.

Cheers,
bzt

Public domain is indeed a legal term.

It means no copyright is applied.

As you say yourself: If ever the original publisher/author shows up he could claim copyright. And yes that is unlikely.
Greetings
Peter

Ok, I moved it back, but you should probably mention in the first post that the art-assets are ripped from an old title you don't have any copyright claim on.

Sadly copyright doesn't work like you seem to wish, it sucks but that is the legal situation in most countries on earth.

Julius {l Wrote}:Ok, I moved it back, but you should probably mention in the first post that the art-assets are ripped from an old title you don't have any copyright claim on.

Sadly copyright doesn't work like you seem to wish, it sucks but that is the legal situation in most countries on earth.

Well done showing understanding and moving this thread back, Julius. Indeed, sadly there is no "usucapition" re: copyright matters.

Julius {l Wrote}:Ok, I moved it back, but you should probably mention in the first post that the art-assets are ripped from an old title you don't have any copyright claim on.

I thought I did. Sorry if I wasn't clear. Thanks for moving it back!

Julius {l Wrote}:Sadly copyright doesn't work like you seem to wish

I know, and I've really tried to contact the original authors, but after a couple of days of search with different engines I couldn't find any contact, just the abandonware links.

Cheers,
bzt