60% sale on EA Selection including SMAC

[sisko]

Alpha Centauri is again on sale at GOG this weekend. You can buy it for $2.39.

[Green1]

Still no SMAX without resorting to the methods of Svensgard....

A terrible disservice to those getting into AC in this era.

[Buster's Uncle]

It's an annoyance for us content producers, too, now that you mention it.  It's hard to remember that not everyone has X, and troublesome to lose audience that way.

How do you suppose we could raise a stink and get GOG to rectify?

[Green1]

They HAVE been raising a stink on GoG forums.

As a side question, when does something legit become abandonware? If you ask me, the expansion is. Yeah, you can go to E-bay and purchase some neckbeard's decade old CD for an arm and a leg. But, that is too much.

If it IS abandonware, I am wondering the legality suggesting this to Abandonia or Home of the Underdogs for them to host. Then we link to them.

Yeah, there is Pirate Bay. But I doubt we want that drama if we eventually want cool visitors from Firaxis/EA/ or Take Two like they show up on other legacy game communities.

[Buster's Uncle]

My position is that the Ulrik shortcut is wrong.  If you do it, I don't want to know about it.  That also serves our practical/legal purposes.  We don't condone it.

I do, however, openly condone getting yourself a crack if you want as long as you own a legal copy and everybody got paid - even if your copy is scratched up/unusable (though GOG would surely beg to differ and not be wrong).  That's different.  Also, OT.

If there's a stink on GOG's forum, there's even more people not speaking up who want it.  Is this even physical copies they sell?  It seems obvious that they can't make a deal to sell X.  I wonder why?

[Green1]

If it is legally abandonware and no copies are being sold anywhere, there is no legal deal. Many classic games from SSI are on Abandonia including the classic Panzer General series. Problem is, from my reading, most of the legal abandonware is from defunct companies like SSI. SMAX is under EA still I think. But then again, Archon I and Archon II (EA) from the 80s are considered abandonware and are legally available for free download. You need a Commodore 64 emulator, though for most of the versions.

I hear you about no drama. My copies are legit. Although all the unofficial patches do contain the much needed CD crack that gets around the decade old DRM. Raises an ire on places like CFC, which I can understand because CFC gets news and insider stuff from Firaxis and they would not want to jeopardize that perk. Still, you are right. Hurts us and puts us in a situation.

[Buster's Uncle]

[ninja'd and written in advance]

-And no, I don't see us having anything to do with Abandonia or Home of the Underdogs.  That's just a neckbeard piracy rationalization in the eyes of the lawyers.

[Buster's Uncle]

If it is legally abandonware and no copies are being sold anywhere, there is no legal deal. Many classic games from SSI are on Abandonia including the classic Panzer General series. Problem is, from my reading, most of the legal abandonware is from defunct companies like SSI. SMAX is under EA still I think. But then again, Archon I and Archon II (EA) from the 80s are considered abandonware and are legally available for free download. You need a Commodore 64 emulator, though for most of the versions.

I hear you about no drama. My copies are legit. Although all the unofficial patches do contain the much needed CD crack that gets around the decade old DRM. Raises an ire on places like CFC, which I can understand because CFC gets news and insider stuff from Firaxis and they would not want to jeopardize that perk. Still, you are right. Hurts us and puts us in a situation.

Legal according to whom?  The pirates who run those sites? 

I have some media law from my Broadcasting degree; they're depending on exactly the same thing as anyone who publishes Star Trek fanfiction.  They're just not worth going after.  It's not legal just because they couldn't track down who owns the rights and because the IP in question is pretty near-worthless.  It still belongs to SOMEone, and they. are. pirates.

-CFC, on the other hand just likes forbidding things.  It's run that way.  I ain't got a problem with cracks as long as you're ethical.  I can't guarantee that our owner agrees with that, though.

[Green1]

Point taken.

Just wishing there was some way some of these new guys could experience the joys of spore launchers on IoDs and some of the devs making money off of this.

[Buster's Uncle]

That's what kills me - if money's to be made selling the 1997 original, money's to be made selling 1999.  It doesn't make any sense.  There has to be a story to that.  I wonder what it is.

I wonder if they've planned all along to wait two years and release X if vanilla sells.  Anecdotal evidence I've seen is that it definitely has.  I keep seeing people saying they just got it for the first time.  It's been good for the online AC community in the last year, though people who've had it always still show up more.

[Green1]

I hear you, BU. Unless they do a proper sequel, this game is a cult classic. Same for some of the other games of that era: Masters of Magic, Galactic Civ, and Age of Wonders. Hell, Stardock unleashed Gal Civ for a weekend on GoG for a great sale and sold more copies in that weekend than they sold on the original release dates. Just like folks still play the Beatles, some things are just classic and age very well.

What's up with SMAX? Yeah, there was a lot of flak that somehow the new factions detracted. But, I think the new factions are more relevant today than 1999.

I agree.

[Alfapiomega]

If I may enter the discussion - one thing that is to be considered too is longevity. I bought the original AC disk when it was released for around 35USD at the time. The disk survived couple of years and then it was broken during me moving away from my home.
Now at that time I tried to get another copy but I couldn't so I downloaded a copy of the internet. I DID buy the game back in 90's so I don't feel bad about doing that.

But now that it came to GOG I bought it again (and I would even if it costed 10USD) because I am sure this copy won't get lost. If I feel like the company is going under I will just download all of the games I purchased there, make physical and electronical copies and be happy about it. Back in the 90's that was much harder that it is now.

For the same reason I hope they will release SMAX as well I want it too. It was a lucky coincidence that I came to this forums this Friday to learn about the sale

[Buster's Uncle]

Complete agreement.   15 years is asking a lot of old plastic.  My CDs are mostly fine, but I've been lucky.

[Buster's Uncle]

What's up with SMAX? Yeah, there was a lot of flak that somehow the new factions detracted. But, I think the new factions are more relevant today than 1999.

I thought the same thing, sorta, when I finally got to try X about eight years ago - I don't think X is much of an expansion, and the new factions just plain aren't as good.

But they ARE good, and I don't know what all that has to do with the business end.  The thing that occurs to me?  X doesn't add 20% to vanilla, at a guess.  Make the market wait the right interval, and, just like the original release of X, pretty much everyone gives you their money twice - short-sighted to offer both in the initial release, when it virtually halves the long-term profit.  Look for X on sale sometime next year, I predict, assuming it's not all because they couldn't get the rights to sell X for some reason. 

My hypothesis would explain why they haven't shut down the ruckus on their own forums with the simple explaination that T2/EA/whoever wouldn't deal.

[Alfapiomega]

Complete agreement.   15 years is asking a lot of old plastic.  My CDs are mostly fine, but I've been lucky.

Exactly. Especially if you think about the fact that (if I am not mistaken) their life-span is estimated as 10 years?