Hard Light Productions Forums

Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: DaBrain on July 20, 2004, 07:15:58 am

Title: Descent license ?
Post by: DaBrain on July 20, 2004, 07:15:58 am
If I remember right Descent 3 was published by Interplay.
So the hold(held?) the licens for it.

Who has it now ?
Descent was far more popular than FS2. I liked them.
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Turnsky on July 20, 2004, 07:33:27 am
Infidel! :p

actually, i have no idea who has the rights, good as it was, there's not much more to Descent that you can redefine.

but that's just me.
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Flipside on July 20, 2004, 07:50:26 am
Don't let Hunter see that ;) hehehehe

I think [V] still carry those rights? I seem to recall they blocked a purchase attempt recently?
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Starks on July 20, 2004, 08:31:49 am
I seriously need D3 and Mercenary...

I MUST FIGHT THE HELLION ONE MORE TIME!
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: kasperl on July 20, 2004, 10:45:40 am
Outrage or someting like that? According to the :V:/FS2 webby (can't remember, the old, dead one) the "sister company" has it. Forgot which one.
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Bobboau on July 20, 2004, 10:51:48 am
outrage
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Rictor on July 20, 2004, 10:55:56 am
last I heard, the were working on a PS2 game, though I forget the name. It looked pretty innovative from what I read at the time, though I haven't heard anything about it for a while.
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: .::Tin Can::. on July 20, 2004, 11:10:10 am
I have all the Descent games, and actually played the very first one when I was a kid, on a Mac. I pwned n00bs all the time on it.
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Inquisitor on July 20, 2004, 11:57:09 am
Outrage doesn't exist anymore. I believe THQ disbanded them.

Parallax (which right now is 2 people) holds the right to develop the next Descent game, with some of the rights belonging to Interplay to publish it. Descent IV was "in the works" by an independent development team named Orbital Design Studios, who claimed to have Interplay's blessing, but without Parallax's was "forced" to terminate the project.

I believe there was more behind the scenes, but that is the public gist of what happened to Descent.

So, if all that is true, the "Descent" name is protected until Parallax decides to make it or give up the right to make it.

More personal speculation: If I were the CEO of Volition (who, I believe is 50% of Parallax), I would have engineered similar rights ownership in all my dealings with Interplay, including the FS franchise, as it began with a Descent name. But that IS idle speculation on my part.
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Flipside on July 20, 2004, 12:12:07 pm
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is the case.
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Starks on July 20, 2004, 12:12:29 pm
Is there any way for me to get D3?
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: WildWolf on July 20, 2004, 12:24:10 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Inquisitor
More personal speculation: If I were the CEO of Volition (who, I believe is 50% of Parallax), I would have engineered similar rights ownership in all my dealings with Interplay, including the FS franchise, as it began with a Descent name. But that IS idle speculation on my part.



I _believe_ that is the case. I can't remember the specifics, but I'm pretty sure Volition holds some legal right to Freespace - I mean, everything in FS was made up by Volition, surely Kulas owns some type of intellectual property rights to that, eh?
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Nico on July 20, 2004, 12:24:52 pm
videogame stores? ebay?
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Lonestar on July 20, 2004, 12:32:09 pm
I think Interplay holds the FS2 rights, however Volition holds the rights to the Freespace Engine, hence why Volition released the source code.

Technically Volition can build a new game with the FS2 engine, but cant name it FS3 as they dont own the rights to the name of the game, but they can use the engine for a new breed of games.
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Mongoose on July 20, 2004, 12:42:40 pm
LLiving Large, the gaming store Chips N Bits (http://www.chipsnbits.com) sells inexpensive copies of D3.  Their D3/Mercenary pack seems to be out of stock, but you can get D3 for just $4.95.  By the way, if you're into D3, visit PlanetDescent (http://www.planetdescent.com) or the Descent Bulletin Board (http://www.descentbb.net), the two most active Descent sites around.  If you need any help, look me up at either site under the name "Top Gun." :)
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Stealth on July 20, 2004, 12:52:48 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Lonestar
I think Interplay holds the FS2 rights, however Volition holds the rights to the Freespace Engine, hence why Volition released the source code.

Technically Volition can build a new game with the FS2 engine, but cant name it FS3 as they dont own the rights to the name of the game, but they can use the engine for a new breed of games.


;yup, that's exactly right.
Interplay only holds the name rights.
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Inquisitor on July 20, 2004, 01:30:56 pm
WildWolf: That would indeed make sense.
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Nuke on July 20, 2004, 05:50:01 pm
i did not like descent 3 one bit. at first i was pissed that there wanst gonna be a descent 4, but i dont really care now.
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Vertigo1 on July 20, 2004, 05:55:25 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Inquisitor
Parallax (which right now is 2 people) holds the right to develop the next Descent game, with some of the rights belonging to Interplay to publish it. Descent IV was "in the works" by an independent development team named Orbital Design Studios, who claimed to have Interplay's blessing, but without Parallax's was "forced" to terminate the project.

I believe there was more behind the scenes, but that is the public gist of what happened to Descent.


Yeah, thats pretty much it.


btw, I post on the Descent Bulletin Board as "MD-2389". (some of the HLP oldbies will remember me from the old VBB or here before Shrike changed my name...)
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: LOKO on July 20, 2004, 07:18:23 pm
i actually like feespace 2, better then descent 3, bigger explosion, bigger ship, bigger lasers beams. everything was just bigger, althought desenct was hard.
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Nico on July 21, 2004, 02:31:49 am
Quote
Originally posted by Vertigo1


Yeah, thats pretty much it.


btw, I post on the Descent Bulletin Board as "MD-2389". (some of the HLP oldbies will remember me from the old VBB or here before Shrike changed my name...)


Yeah, I remember you, material defender :p

Pffff... just reinstalled D3, and I realize I didn't backup my saves... damnit.

edit: bah, it's barely playable anyway, for some reason, no matter how much I increase the mouse sensibility, it turns way too slowly.
It's at those time you really see the benefits of the Freelancer way :doubt:
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Turnsky on July 21, 2004, 06:11:46 am
Quote
Originally posted by Inquisitor
Outrage doesn't exist anymore. I believe THQ disbanded them.

Parallax (which right now is 2 people) holds the right to develop the next Descent game, with some of the rights belonging to Interplay to publish it. Descent IV was "in the works" by an independent development team named Orbital Design Studios, who claimed to have Interplay's blessing, but without Parallax's was "forced" to terminate the project.


IIRC, Parallax was split into Outrage and Volition., this is why the First FS game held the name "Descent: Freespace" in the US and Asia/Pacific areas.

Parallax was kept intact because of PXO.
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Flipside on July 21, 2004, 06:28:12 am
Must admit Descent 3 was difficult to play, especially after playing Unreal Tourney etc, where you can flip yourself 180 degrees with ease. Like Nico says, Descent seems a bit 'sluggish' after that :(

Still, damn fine game for it's age :)
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Fineus on July 21, 2004, 06:37:49 am
Thats why Descent 2 will always be the best of the series. Shame it won't run on my machine anymore.
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: wolfdog on July 21, 2004, 07:13:06 am
Well.. We're still playing descent 1 at my school.. now.. that game owns:D


Quote
Originally posted by Flipside
Must admit Descent 3 was difficult to play, especially after playing Unreal Tourney etc, where you can flip yourself 180 degrees with ease. Like Nico says, Descent seems a bit 'sluggish' after that :(

Still, damn fine game for it's age :)


It won't..?? why not..??
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Nico on July 21, 2004, 07:16:37 am
Quote
Originally posted by Flipside
Must admit Descent 3 was difficult to play, especially after playing Unreal Tourney etc, where you can flip yourself 180 degrees with ease. Like Nico says, Descent seems a bit 'sluggish' after that :(


Nah, you completly misunderstood me. There's something wrong, there's a bug, it doesn't like my mouse, dunno, but it's not like it was last time I installed it ( I could move my pyro lightning fast then ), and that seriously annoyes me.

As for Descent2, that's one of the few games I can say I was really good at  :o
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Fineus on July 21, 2004, 07:23:43 am
That said, D1 - level 7- will always hold a special place in my heart.
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Nico on July 21, 2004, 07:50:49 am
Mmhh... Isn't that the last shareware mission? Mister Big Eye with smart ( must resist bad joke ) missiles?
What holds a special place in my heart is my first mega missile shot, and the big whooof! that followed :D
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Fineus on July 21, 2004, 08:25:51 am
Hehe, yeah - that's Level 7 alright.

I remember when I was younger, I played that level for hours round at my friends house - trying to be really cautous when infact the best way is just to move and keep moving.

Level 24 (the end mission) was a bit pants though. At least Descent 3 got that right, Hellion pwn'd.
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: JR2000Z on July 21, 2004, 10:07:00 am
I remember the good ol days when I used to watch my dad play it (since we gave the game to him as a birthday present). And I was about 10 when it came out so I wasn't a pro at it or anything.

Anyway, I was always scared as hell when he was up against those red hulks (the ones with the homing missiles) and when he blows the reactor and tries to get out. I was probably more nervous than he was. And yeah, that Super Hulk in level 7 was no joke. Even with that patch that came out to weaken him. We actually had to cheat to get past him (probably the same with most people). D3's last boss was a joke compared to him. That kinda dissapointed me, being the last boss and all.


Anyway, it was good times. :)

Probably the biggest 'father-son' things we've done together. :blah:
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Stealth on July 21, 2004, 10:24:27 am
yeah if anyone's considering buying the Descent rights, good luck, because Descent was MUCH more popular than Freespace.  Everyone you talk to has heard of or played Descent.  The rights would probably go for a fortune :p

Yeah D1 was badass.  i remember the reason i got into Descent in the first place was there was the Descent demo on my graphics card driver CD in 1998.  i played through it in a few days, then again, then again and again and again.  then i went online to the Interplay website, and downloaded the D2 demo, and from the website i noticed "Descent: Freespace"... it looked interesting, so i downloaded it, installed it, and ran it.  I sat for like 10 minutes in awe at the "Main screen" (with the main hall, and all the graphics and sounds from it :D ;) )... yeah it was badass.  the rest is history
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Admiral LSD on July 21, 2004, 11:55:34 am
Quote
Originally posted by Kalfireth
Thats why Descent 2 will always be the best of the series. Shame it won't run on my machine anymore.


There are ways around that ;)

The trick is to somehow get the framerate below 60fps, that's why the controls become sluggish among other problems (such as the ship bobbing being ridiculously fast etc).
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: wolfdog on July 21, 2004, 12:08:49 pm
Just use D2X.....
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Nico on July 21, 2004, 01:05:31 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Kalfireth
Hehe, yeah - that's Level 7 alright.

I remember when I was younger, I played that level for hours round at my friends house - trying to be really cautous when infact the best way is just to move and keep moving.

Level 24 (the end mission) was a bit pants though. At least Descent 3 got that right, Hellion pwn'd.


Don't know, never got there, I stopped playing after being stuck in a stupid, unbeatable secret level.

For the D1 level7 boss, I think it was actually pretty easy, because he was using smart missiles: smart missiles track rather poorly, and the green things are easy as cake to dodge, so the trick was actually to avoid the corridors and walls, stay in the open space and rush TOWARD the missiles while strafing in any direction you like.

The last boss, on the other end... iirc, it warped, and that alone was a pain coz I'm rather unlucky with that kind of mobs, they always warp right on me :p
It looked groovy tho, with that huge globulous eye :D
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Vertigo1 on July 21, 2004, 02:18:52 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Kalfireth
Thats why Descent 2 will always be the best of the series. Shame it won't run on my machine anymore.


http://www.icculus.org/d2x/bin/d2x-cvs-20031107_mingw.zip

Be sure and follow the instructions in the readme.txt as there are two files you need to download. (They come with previous versions, but they're so out of date that they cause sound lag issues.)

Click here to download the original D1 levels converted to D2 format (http://www.koolbear.com/Descent/levels/d2/d1conv15.zip)

Again, follow the instructions in the readme.

Don't say I didn't do you any favors.... ;)
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: mrfun on July 21, 2004, 08:32:54 pm
D1 was one of teh very first computer games I ever bought, along with Dark Forces.  Still cant remember which was first- oh well.  I've still got D1 on my hard drive- I use a Direct3d conversion for it that lets it run without being mega-accelerated (4978 FPS, or something like that- everything happens too fast if you play it stock on a modern machine)

Odd things about it though- something about the compluter clock being so much faster, homing missiles never miss anymore =(  Their turning radius is almost nonexistant.  Makes those red hulks even meaner.  Plus you can't hit them with the vulcan to keep them from firing like you used to able to, now they fire whether they are being hit or not.

And lvl 27 was the last lvl.  24 was the last in D2.  Here, let me draw a map of all of them for you *scirbble scribble*
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Stealth on July 22, 2004, 12:30:41 am
i paid Interplay's "web store" about $50.00 5 years ago, for Descent 1, 2, and i believe Freespace... to this day i haven't seen either of the games :(
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Nuke on July 22, 2004, 01:01:10 am
Quote
Originally posted by Vertigo1


http://www.icculus.org/d2x/bin/d2x-cvs-20031107_mingw.zip

Be sure and follow the instructions in the readme.txt as there are two files you need to download. (They come with previous versions, but they're so out of date that they cause sound lag issues.)

Click here to download the original D1 levels converted to D2 format (http://www.koolbear.com/Descent/levels/d2/d1conv15.zip)

Again, follow the instructions in the readme.

Don't say I didn't do you any favors.... ;)


Sweet! i didnt think they were ever gonna do anything with it ever again. and it will ruin on a pocket pc too! just wish it had support for usb joysticks.

*edit*
oooooh ip netgame support! game anyone?
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Vertigo1 on July 22, 2004, 03:32:45 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Nuke


Sweet! i didnt think they were ever gonna do anything with it ever again. and it will ruin on a pocket pc too! just wish it had support for usb joysticks.

*edit*
oooooh ip netgame support! game anyone?


Your best chance to play anyone is to hang out on kali (http://www.kali.net) on the -> Descent server.  That, and start hanging out on the Descent BB (http://www.descentbb.net/).
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Nuke on July 22, 2004, 03:47:13 pm
kali sucks!
i could never get it to work during descent2's peak, and i still dont care to try.
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Vertigo1 on July 22, 2004, 03:59:23 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Nuke
kali sucks!
i could never get it to work during descent2's peak, and i still dont care to try.


Now thats rather ignorant...

Just because you're incapable of using a simple program doesn't mean it sucks.  If it sucked, then why have nearly 300,000 people registered since its creation?

By the way, Kali has changed a great deal since the D2's peak.
Title: Descent license ?
Post by: Nuke on July 22, 2004, 10:53:59 pm
it may have sounded ignorand but kali has pissed me off on more than one ocasion. the program was simple enough to use but it never managed to get me into a game.