Hard Light Productions Forums

General FreeSpace => FreeSpace Discussion => Topic started by: Kaine on November 14, 2007, 08:08:41 am

Title: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Kaine on November 14, 2007, 08:08:41 am
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=16236

do they still own the Freespace IP?
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Dark Hunter on November 14, 2007, 08:35:02 am
Yes, I think they do.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Unknown Target on November 14, 2007, 08:44:27 am
Yes, and they own it until 2011 or something.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Flipside on November 14, 2007, 09:29:16 am
Quote
we are at the same time exploring ways to leverage our impressive portfolio of gaming properties through sequels and various development and publishing arrangements.

That sounds... interesting if nothing else, though, as a sequel Freespace 2 failed, so I don't know if they'll look at the Franchise again.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: jr2 on November 14, 2007, 10:38:59 am
Eh... but it could also be horrifying... what if they went and had DS do the sequel??
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Flipside on November 14, 2007, 10:55:57 am
The odds of Interplay contacting DS to make a sequel are so remote they aren't even funny.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: achtung on November 14, 2007, 12:01:08 pm
Dead link is dead.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: nubbles526 on November 14, 2007, 12:13:16 pm
Quote
showing sales falling 86 percent year over year to just $47,000

Ohhh...that is not cool. And the link IS working. I doubt they would ever have Freespace 3, and once their license time has run out at 2011, then we have to act quick. We don't want to have Derek Smart again...I hope he doesn't know when the license expires...
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: jaedub51 on November 14, 2007, 12:41:34 pm
I'm relatively new to the FS community, so please pardon the ignorance, but:

1. Who is Derek Smart?
2. Why would having him develop FS3 be so bad?

Does anyone really think that Interplay is going to actually revive the FS series? As far as I can tell, they want to revive themselves through the MMO category, and FS is not really a MMOG.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Jeff Vader on November 14, 2007, 12:45:10 pm
1. Who is Derek Smart?
2. Why would having him develop FS3 be so bad?
This (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,25162.0.html) is what happened the last time the HLP thought dsmart was about to do FS3. And this is Derek Smart (http://www.werewolves.org/~follies/).
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: achtung on November 14, 2007, 01:22:20 pm
BAWWWWW

Why is that link timing out?  :(
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Jeff Vader on November 14, 2007, 01:32:15 pm
What? The dsmart introductory page? Wouldn't know. Both work just fine at this end.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: jaedub51 on November 14, 2007, 01:56:39 pm
ROFL. Thanks for the link.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: achtung on November 14, 2007, 03:28:18 pm
What? The dsmart introductory page? Wouldn't know. Both work just fine at this end.

The link to the Interplay article.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Bob-san on November 14, 2007, 07:10:06 pm
They hinted--now it's time to see them announce sequels to their ancient game portfolio... now let's see; good games Interplay had...

What's to come (DREAMING HERE)
Descent 4
Freespace 2 10th Anniversary
Freespace Remastered
Freespace 3!!
Return to Return to Castle Wolfstein
Star Trek 35th Anniversary
Interstate 76 2!!
Mechwarrior
Railroad Tycoon
Tempest 3000

:P That would be a nice new portfolio.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Asuko on November 14, 2007, 09:24:51 pm
Here's to good times all around *toasts*

What if we could help them with FS3?
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Jeff Vader on November 14, 2007, 11:53:38 pm
Return to Return to Castle Wolfstein
I'd use a modification of a movie title we came up in high school: "The Son of the Revenge of the Return to Castle Wolfenstein Rides Again 2".
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: achtung on November 15, 2007, 01:03:49 am
Here's to good times all around *toasts*

What if we could help them with FS3?

No.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: jr2 on November 15, 2007, 01:06:45 am
Careful, Asuko... you'll arouse the wrath of the grouchy old generation of HLP'ers!  :lol:
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Asuko on November 15, 2007, 02:05:00 am
Ah, my apologies. It's really that bad of a heated debate?
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: jr2 on November 15, 2007, 02:33:38 am
No... the other side is all dead or converted.  :lol:  Although there are a few of us newbs, most of us know better than to bring it up.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Asuko on November 15, 2007, 02:38:22 am
Sounds good to me then. I won't think of it again.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: AlphaOne on November 15, 2007, 07:25:53 am
You better not! man you can so close to beeing boiled chopped into small pieces then deep fried in a rusty old pan with onions and garlic and served as an apetiser to a banquet for the shivan gods in order to get them to leave the GTVA alone .................wow........that was close.....!
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Stealth on November 15, 2007, 09:07:01 am
bahahaha lol
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Flipside on November 15, 2007, 10:53:13 am
FS3 threads don't annoy me, they merely keep cropping up about once every 6 months, and always end the same way, to cut a long story short, yes, it'd be nice if done by Volition, but the chances are it would be console based, and regardless of how the story ends, it's going to disappoint someone. ;)
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: AlphaOne on November 15, 2007, 01:06:23 pm
well then the same can be said about 90% of the sequals to other games! However i beleive everione should stop beeing so selfish and just accept whichever ending would happen to be decided to another FS installement! Oh and please god not for consoles please i rather not have it made then be made for consoles! :((
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Flipside on November 15, 2007, 01:09:31 pm
Volition have pretty much specialised in consoles for the recent past, and I believe their own manager stated that this was the direction they were firmly headed in.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: AlphaOne on November 15, 2007, 02:04:20 pm
So the answear to the question is one and the same ! Not gooing to happen any time soon and if it is gooing to happen then its most likely its gooing to be for consoles!
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Asuko on November 15, 2007, 10:25:00 pm
Yay? Oh wait . . damn.  :ick:
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: jr2 on November 16, 2007, 01:48:10 am
IDK what the heck they have against PCs... considering that you can take any standard XBOX360 controller, plug it into Windows XP SP2, and it will auto-install for you.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Asuko on November 16, 2007, 04:02:52 am
I'd have to agree but I run a Vista machine... Vista doesn't do drivers.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Snail on November 16, 2007, 11:19:13 am
I'd have to agree but I run a Vista machine... Vista doesn't do drivers.

Poor, poor Asuko...
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Marcus Vesper on November 16, 2007, 12:05:09 pm
Just because you can use a console controller on a PC, doesn't mean we should WANT to, especially for a Space Sim.  I cringe when I think of trying to play FS2 on one of those, so what does that tell you about designing a title to be played exclusively via a console controller?  Multi-platform development tends to kill sequels to excellent titles, because they keep getting dumbed down for the console crowd.

There are precious few titles exclusively for consoles that I'd even want on the PC, and just about every single multi-platform release would have been better had it been developed for the PC and ported to consoles, rather then the other way around.

Volition can develop for whatever they want, but if they made FS3 as a console title, I'd never play it.  Better no FS3 then FS3 with a consolectomy.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Asuko on November 16, 2007, 02:33:40 pm
Thinking realistically, using a console controller on a console (the obvious, yes) to play FS3 wouldn't be as immersive. We could always petition for :v: to make it for the PC.

I really don't want to say "Let's Wii up!"
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Bob-san on November 16, 2007, 03:46:55 pm
I'm going home to play with my Wii! No you pervert!! A Nintendo Wii with the Wii-mote! Again, get your mind out of the gutter! :lol:

Anyways--Joysticks should always be used for space sims and flight sims. No doubt in my mind about that.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Asuko on November 16, 2007, 04:03:17 pm
Exactly what I meant. Joysticks are the best for FS.

..Oh God *cringes* Why'd you have to put my mind in the gutter? :p
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Marcus Vesper on November 16, 2007, 04:28:03 pm
Ha ha, you just reminded me of an IRC conversation somebody posted on bash.org, where (in the interests of science of course) they replaced the word "wand" with "wang" in selected passages from the first Harry Potter Novel.  It was highly disturbing.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: jaedub51 on November 16, 2007, 04:40:05 pm
Thinking realistically, using a console controller on a console (the obvious, yes) to play FS3 wouldn't be as immersive. We could always petition for :v: to make it for the PC.

I really don't want to say "Let's Wii up!"

If FS3 were created for a console, Wii would be the best one. Yeah, still worse than a computer, but better than PS3 or Xbox.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: jr2 on November 16, 2007, 05:47:47 pm
Doesn't the XBOX360 run a modified version of Windows?  So, wouldn't it be possible to hack together a Joystick driver for it?  I know you can hook a USB keyboard up to it, and probably a mouse, too...
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: colecampbell666 on November 16, 2007, 07:17:23 pm


I'd have to agree but I run a Vista machine... Vista doesn't do drivers.
If you have an old copy of XP you can dual boot.

Ha ha, you just reminded me of an IRC conversation somebody posted on bash.org, where (in the interests of science of course) they replaced the word "wand" with "wang" in selected passages from the first Harry Potter Novel.  It was highly disturbing.
Any chance you could find that? It sounds funny.

And what happens in 2011? IP is forced to put up the license for sale?

Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: jr2 on November 16, 2007, 07:53:33 pm
I'd have to agree but I run a Vista machine... Vista doesn't do drivers.
If you have an old copy of XP you can dual boot.

If you have an old OEM copy... hmm.  There are ways of *acquiring* XP Pro SP2 Corporate ... *cough* Toorgle *cough*.  Since you own the software, I'd say you've a right to use it on your machine.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Asuko on November 16, 2007, 07:58:57 pm
Ha ha, you just reminded me of an IRC conversation somebody posted on bash.org, where (in the interests of science of course) they replaced the word "wand" with "wang" in selected passages from the first Harry Potter Novel.  It was highly disturbing.
*shudders* Don't even want to know.

I actually have some virtual machine software that I run XP under. Still, running XP under a main Vista frame does murder whenever I start up the VM. I should dual boot. I got XP Pro through my college's MSDNAA.

Oh and about the IP sale at 2011, I certainly hope FS3 is made before then.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: jr2 on November 16, 2007, 08:04:32 pm
Dual boot is easy... get GParted Live CD (http://gparted-livecd.tuxfamily.org/) (or Live USB), and shrink your partition down, then create a new one.... restart, let Vista check the drive for errors (this is a must!), then install XP to the second one... you may need to restore the Vista bootloader, not sure.  To resize / move partitions in GParted, keep in mind you have to move the actual partitions before you can move the extended partitions that they reside in.. click "resize / move", then play your mouse around the borders to see what you can do.  Do whatever you want, then after it looks good, hit the "Apply" button, and it will do it.  :yes:  If you need a walkthrough or something I can make one.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Asuko on November 16, 2007, 08:05:28 pm
Oh wow, that can be helpful. Thanks jr.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: colecampbell666 on November 16, 2007, 08:06:45 pm
I certainly hope FS3 is made before then.
No, you don't. If FS3 is made, :v: will probably not make it, and it will nullify all of the work on the SCP. I don't want to get into this discussion.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Asuko on November 16, 2007, 08:08:01 pm
Alright, it's just a hope really. Breath of fresh air, if you can think of it like that.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: EAD_Agamemnon on November 16, 2007, 10:47:44 pm
FS3? Read that caption below my name....INFERNO is as close to FS3 as I think we are going to get. Though it'd be nice to see BETAC included in Woomeister's mod somewhere....it would add some mystery. Though it'd be nice for a real sequel for PC. But as it stands....WOO IS GOD! LONG LIVE INFERNO! LONG LIVE FS3!  :p
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Unknown Target on November 17, 2007, 04:05:57 am
Just because Inferno is a big campaign does not automatically make it FS3. Yes it's well done, but it's no more FS3 than a newbie-made five mission campaign.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: colecampbell666 on November 17, 2007, 07:55:08 am
Though it'd be nice to see BETAC included in Woomeister's mod somewhere....it would add some mystery
BetAC isn't a mystery, it means Beta Aquilae Convention. Sort of like our Geneva Convention.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Asuko on November 17, 2007, 09:40:15 am
Maybe he was talking about ETAC. In retrospect, that would actually be interesting.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: colecampbell666 on November 17, 2007, 09:51:59 am
You mean ETAK?
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Jeff Vader on November 17, 2007, 10:01:04 am
Dude, I just realized something. ETAK is KATE backwards. Whoa.

Anyways, quite surely they both meant ETAK, since ETAC is clearly typoed and if someone says he'd like to see BETAC in FS3, it really doesn't mean anything.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Asuko on November 17, 2007, 10:05:26 am
Ah, my bad. What does ETAK stand for anyway? Extra Terrestrial Assimilation ... damn.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Jeff Vader on November 17, 2007, 10:08:14 am
It's a shortened version of Etamnanki, the tower which may have inspired the story of Babel.

Hmm, actually Wikipedia says Etemenanki. Whatever. Potato, potatoe.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Asuko on November 17, 2007, 10:31:26 pm
Interesting stuff. I didn't really know there were a ton of references to mythology or otherwise in FS.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Marcus Vesper on November 18, 2007, 11:51:52 am
Interesting stuff. I didn't really know there were a ton of references to mythology or otherwise in FS.
Only just about every single ship class, ha ha.  Mythological references are extremely pervasive in FS.
Ha ha, you just reminded me of an IRC conversation somebody posted on bash.org, where (in the interests of science of course) they replaced the word "wand" with "wang" in selected passages from the first Harry Potter Novel.  It was highly disturbing.
Any chance you could find that? It sounds funny.
Well since you asked......
Quote
<JonJonB> Purely in the interests of science, I have replaced the word "wand" with "wang" in the first Harry Potter Book
<JonJonB> Let's see the results...

<JonJonB> "Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Harry.
<JonJonB> "Oh, well -- I was at Hogwarts meself but I -- er -- got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wang in half an' everything

<JonJonB> A magic wang... this was what Harry had been really looking forward to.

<JonJonB> "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Harry Potter." It wasn't a question. "You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wang. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wang for charm work."
<JonJonB> "Your father, on the other hand, favored a mahogany wang. Eleven inches. "

<JonJonB> Harry took the wang. He felt a sudden warmth in his fingers. He raised the wang above his head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a firework, throwing dancing spots of light on to the walls

<JonJonB> "Oh, move over," Hermione snarled. She grabbed Harry's wang, tapped the lock, and whispered, 'Alohomora!"

<JonJonB> The troll couldn't feel Harry hanging there, but even a troll will notice if you stick a long bit of wood up its nose, and Harry's wang had still been in his hand when he'd jumped - it had gone straight up one of the troll's nostrils.

<JonJonB> He bent down and pulled his wang out of the troll's nose. It was covered in what looked like lumpy gray glue.

<JonJonB> He ran onto the field as you fell, waved his wang, and you sort of slowed down before you hit the ground. Then he whirled his wang at the dementors. Shot silver stuff at them.

<JonJonB> Ok
<JonJonB> I have found, definitive proof
<JonJonB> that J.K Rowling is a dirty DIRTY woman, making a fool of us all
<JonJonB> "Yes," Harry said, gripping his wang very tightly, and moving into the middle of the deserted classroom. He tried to keep his mind on flying, but something else kept intruding.... Any second now, he might hear his mother again... but he shouldn't think that, or he would hear her again, and he didn't want to... or did he?
<melusine > O_______O
<JonJonB> Something silver-white, something enormous, erupted from the end of his wang

<JonJonJonB> Then, with a sigh, he raised his wang and prodded the silvery substance with its tip.

<JonJonJonB> 'Get - off - me!' Harry gasped. For a few seconds they struggled, Harry pulling at his uncles sausage-like fingers with his left hand, his right maintaining a firm grip on his raised wang.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Retsof on November 18, 2007, 02:43:09 pm
 :eek: I have never read Harry Potter, yet I am now scarred for life.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Mobius on November 18, 2007, 02:51:09 pm
I read Harry Potter, but I don't know the meaning of that word :eek2:
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Jeff Vader on November 18, 2007, 03:05:49 pm
What? Wang (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wang)?

Besides, this sounds just about the same as taking the Star Wars movies and replacing certain key words from the lines with the word 'pants'.

"Han will get the pants down! We just gotta give him more time!".
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: colecampbell666 on November 18, 2007, 03:50:59 pm
Interesting stuff. I didn't really know there were a ton of references to mythology or otherwise in FS.
Only just about every single ship class, ha ha.  Mythological references are extremely pervasive in FS.
Ha ha, you just reminded me of an IRC conversation somebody posted on bash.org, where (in the interests of science of course) they replaced the word "wand" with "wang" in selected passages from the first Harry Potter Novel.  It was highly disturbing.
Any chance you could find that? It sounds funny.
Well since you asked......
Quote
<JonJonB> Purely in the interests of science, I have replaced the word "wand" with "wang" in the first Harry Potter Book
<JonJonB> Let's see the results...

<JonJonB> "Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Harry.
<JonJonB> "Oh, well -- I was at Hogwarts meself but I -- er -- got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wang in half an' everything

<JonJonB> A magic wang... this was what Harry had been really looking forward to.

<JonJonB> "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Harry Potter." It wasn't a question. "You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wang. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wang for charm work."
<JonJonB> "Your father, on the other hand, favored a mahogany wang. Eleven inches. "

<JonJonB> Harry took the wang. He felt a sudden warmth in his fingers. He raised the wang above his head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a firework, throwing dancing spots of light on to the walls

<JonJonB> "Oh, move over," Hermione snarled. She grabbed Harry's wang, tapped the lock, and whispered, 'Alohomora!"

<JonJonB> The troll couldn't feel Harry hanging there, but even a troll will notice if you stick a long bit of wood up its nose, and Harry's wang had still been in his hand when he'd jumped - it had gone straight up one of the troll's nostrils.

<JonJonB> He bent down and pulled his wang out of the troll's nose. It was covered in what looked like lumpy gray glue.

<JonJonB> He ran onto the field as you fell, waved his wang, and you sort of slowed down before you hit the ground. Then he whirled his wang at the dementors. Shot silver stuff at them.

<JonJonB> Ok
<JonJonB> I have found, definitive proof
<JonJonB> that J.K Rowling is a dirty DIRTY woman, making a fool of us all
<JonJonB> "Yes," Harry said, gripping his wang very tightly, and moving into the middle of the deserted classroom. He tried to keep his mind on flying, but something else kept intruding.... Any second now, he might hear his mother again... but he shouldn't think that, or he would hear her again, and he didn't want to... or did he?
<melusine > O_______O
<JonJonB> Something silver-white, something enormous, erupted from the end of his wang

<JonJonJonB> Then, with a sigh, he raised his wang and prodded the silvery substance with its tip.

<JonJonJonB> 'Get - off - me!' Harry gasped. For a few seconds they struggled, Harry pulling at his uncles sausage-like fingers with his left hand, his right maintaining a firm grip on his raised wang.
Do you have a link to the site? I'm going to send this to my friends.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Asuko on November 18, 2007, 08:14:20 pm
I, oh God. Scarred! What about the children?!

 :lol:
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Marcus Vesper on November 18, 2007, 11:26:03 pm
Do you have a link to the site? I'm going to send this to my friends.
The site is http://bash.org/
I don't unfortunately have a link to that particular quote, my guild (Guild Wars) has been clicking the random link and transcribing particularly funny/disturbing ones on our own forum so we can laugh at them as a group.  Consequently I have no idea where that particular IRC quote can be found on the site.

But doing a random selection is bound to turn up quite a few other funny quotes.  Most of them are extremely nerdy. 

Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Turey on November 19, 2007, 02:52:19 am
Here it is, it was in top 100:
http://bash.org/?111338
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: colecampbell666 on November 19, 2007, 12:48:53 pm
Oh God. My teacher got added to my friends list in GMail and I sent that to her! She replied "I'm not the type of person you want to send that to."
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Asuko on November 19, 2007, 05:58:36 pm
Good luck on that. :p
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: Gregster2k on November 28, 2007, 12:14:11 pm
http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6182846.html?tag=latestnews;title;0

Not sure if this was posted before, but GameSpot's version of the story is a little different (explicitly mentions Descent in the title too). I don't know if it's possible, but to revive Descent or FreeSpace, maybe they could sell off their Descent and FreeSpace franchises to THQ, which would then, with their ownership of [V], be able to actually develop. The problem is getting THQ to buy them. As an alternative path to reviving Descent (or even FreeSpace), Interplay might track down the original members of Outrage Entertainment, creators of Descent 3.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: TrashMan on November 28, 2007, 03:22:13 pm
I'll go with the pesimistic attitude of this one. It's a win-win scenario for me.
Title: Re: Interplay back in business...
Post by: jr2 on November 29, 2007, 01:20:14 am
Hmm... /me wishes they could get Descent, Descent II, Descent3, FS, & FS2 all under the same roof.  Then, either:

a) continue development
or
b) make them all freeware / opensource