Dear All, I've been recently in touch with Electronic Arts, owner of Maxis and Origin Systems, former publishers of SimCity and the Ultima series respectively.
My idea was to finish what Becky Heineman started on SimCity. Yes, the game exists, I have a copy. With Ultima II, I would have liked to work from Becky's source code of Ultima I for the IIgs to keep the same level of quality.
I've officially requested the permission to port those two games on the Apple IIgs and the answer was quite clear: "We would require a EUR 20,000 minimum guarantee and a 10% royalty rate."
To make it short, it would require 10,000 sales at EUR 20 (or 5,000 at EUR 40, etc.) which is, to be honest, far from being realistic in our today's market. And, I also need to make it clear if that amount is for the two games or per game.
So... here are the simple questions... Would you pay for those games? If yes, how much would you pay for them?
Answers can either be sent in this thread or at info AT brutaldeluxe DOT fr
> Dear All, > I've been recently in touch with Electronic Arts, owner of Maxis and > Origin Systems, former publishers of SimCity and the Ultima series > respectively.
> My idea was to finish what Becky Heineman started on SimCity. Yes, the > game exists, I have a copy. With Ultima II, I would have liked to work > from Becky's source code of Ultima I for the IIgs to keep the same > level of quality.
> I've officially requested the permission to port those two games on > the Apple IIgs and the answer was quite clear: "We would require a EUR > 20,000 minimum guarantee and a 10% royalty rate."
> To make it short, it would require 10,000 sales at EUR 20 (or 5,000 at > EUR 40, etc.) which is, to be honest, far from being realistic in our > today's market. And, I also need to make it clear if that amount is > for the two games or per game.
> So... here are the simple questions... > Would you pay for those games? > If yes, how much would you pay for them?
> Answers can either be sent in this thread or at info AT brutaldeluxe > DOT fr
> Thank you, > Antoine
In Winnipeg (Canada) we are renowned for a number of things. The major one is we are the largest city in the middle of nowhere. Another is this area was settled by some of the downright cheapest groups on the planet. I myself belong to half of them. ;-) You can use my opinion for the lower boundary.
I would pay for them but would prefer not to. I already own a copy of SimCity I and III for the PC, and so would be less interested in this one. In general I'd pay $2.00 (Canadian) for a GS game (shipping included - shipping is terribly expensive here). Particularly if it will install and work under an emulator running under OS X or Linux. *I* might go as high as $10.00 for an "Ultimate Ultima" collection (all the Ultima games before they changed the graphics). I'd double that to $20.00 if you also included a Linux engine. That might mean a major rewrite of the code though. A separation of code and data. Oh, and no DRM. It's a pain to go through this validation nonsense when I change a hard drive every five years or so. Who can remember codes... Who can remember where the box is stored...
On Mar 31, 6:24 am, Toinet <antoine.vig...@laposte.net> wrote:
> So... here are the simple questions... > Would you pay for those games? > If yes, how much would you pay for them?
I was never a big fan of Ultima or the Sim series. I would think about paying for SimCity if the price was right and the game was totally awesome....
Any chance you could modify the code enough to make it unique enough to call it your own?
SimCity seems like it wouldn't be too hard to clone. Economy, disasters, growth, weather... You could do a text simulation, and then add a GUI with neat animated graphics :-)
On Thu, 31 Mar 2011, rich12345 wrote: > On Mar 31, 6:24 am, Toinet <antoine.vig...@laposte.net> wrote: >> So... here are the simple questions... >> Would you pay for those games? >> If yes, how much would you pay for them?
> I was never a big fan of Ultima or the Sim series. I would think > about > paying for SimCity if the price was right and the game was totally > awesome....
> Any chance you could modify the code enough to make it unique > enough to call it your own?
> SimCity seems like it wouldn't be too hard to clone. Economy, > disasters, growth, weather... You could do a text simulation, and > then add a GUI with neat animated graphics :-)
> Rich
What of the open source version, Micropolis? Would be harder to port but it would be less expensive.
On Mar 31, 9:24 am, Toinet <antoine.vig...@laposte.net> wrote:
> I've officially requested the permission to port those two games on > the Apple IIgs and the answer was quite clear: "We would require a EUR > 20,000 minimum guarantee and a 10% royalty rate."
I think you got a passive "get lost" reply to your inquiry.
On Mar 31, 11:49 am, Sean Fahey <a2...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> On Mar 31, 9:24 am, Toinet <antoine.vig...@laposte.net> wrote:
> > I've officially requested the permission to port those two games on > > the Apple IIgs and the answer was quite clear: "We would require a EUR > > 20,000 minimum guarantee and a 10% royalty rate."
> I think you got a passive "get lost" reply to your inquiry.
I'd be saying "get lost" to EA. Are they out of their mind asking that kind of money for a game for a computer that hasn't seen commercial support in at least 14 years? I'd second the idea of trying to go with the freeware Micropolis port to the GS.
magnusfalkirk wrote: > On Mar 31, 11:49 am, Sean Fahey <a2...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>On Mar 31, 9:24 am, Toinet <antoine.vig...@laposte.net> wrote:
>>>I've officially requested the permission to port those two games on >>>the Apple IIgs and the answer was quite clear: "We would require a EUR >>>20,000 minimum guarantee and a 10% royalty rate."
>>I think you got a passive "get lost" reply to your inquiry.
> I'd be saying "get lost" to EA. Are they out of their mind asking that > kind of money for a game for a computer that hasn't seen commercial > support in at least 14 years? I'd second the idea of trying to go with > the freeware Micropolis port to the GS.
I think you misunderstand their intent--this is a lawyer's way of saying "No."
> magnusfalkirk wrote: >> On Mar 31, 11:49 am, Sean Fahey <a2...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>> On Mar 31, 9:24 am, Toinet <antoine.vig...@laposte.net> wrote:
>>>> I've officially requested the permission to port those two games on >>>> the Apple IIgs and the answer was quite clear: "We would require a EUR >>>> 20,000 minimum guarantee and a 10% royalty rate."
>>> I think you got a passive "get lost" reply to your inquiry.
>> I'd be saying "get lost" to EA. Are they out of their mind asking that >> kind of money for a game for a computer that hasn't seen commercial >> support in at least 14 years? I'd second the idea of trying to go with >> the freeware Micropolis port to the GS.
> I think you misunderstand their intent--this is a lawyer's way > of saying "No."
Precisely my impression, having been down this road many years back with a very large company and a very obsolete product.
On Mar 31, 9:24 am, Toinet <antoine.vig...@laposte.net> wrote:
> Dear All, > I've been recently in touch with Electronic Arts, owner of Maxis and > Origin Systems, former publishers of SimCity and the Ultima series > respectively.
Like Alex, between US$10 - US$15 if there are no fancy boxes or printed manuals.
If they asked for a token sum of $1,000 I guess everyone will be willing to chip in something.
However, it may end up like Wolfenstein 3D, where it might eventually be "for free" ... considering that.
But you should be able to get around changing the name to "Micropolis GS" since the original version is released to the GPL Open Source as "Micropolis", but EA was keeping the trademark name "SimCity".
"The Wizard of Oz" <Wiz...@EmeraldCity.Gov> wrote:
>In Winnipeg (Canada) we are renowned for a number of things. The major one >is we are the largest city in the middle of nowhere.
You must not get out much. I live in Gimli which according to our proximity must then be "nowhere"... when I lived in Winnipeg it felt like "nowhere" so I can certainly understand. I was born there.
>Another is this area was settled by some of the downright cheapest groups >on the planet.
My people were not rich. The dollar had a value back then...
>I myself belong to half of them. ;-)
The other half use PC's. I belong to that group and if weren't for the fact that I actually made money by writing software on the Apple II I would never have bothered... too damned expensive.
>You can use my opinion for the lower boundary.
Or mine. I would pay for the media and small duplication charge. In this day and age the software should be free and open source. There aren't enough of us using Apple II's or Gs's on the planet to gouge anymore... not too long from now there will be less of us.
>I would pay for them but would prefer not to.
Well, exactly...
>In general I'd pay $2.00 (Canadian) for a GS game (shipping included - >shipping is terribly expensive here).
That's exactly what I was thinking... maybe we are cheap around here. Or realistic...
>Particularly if it will install and work under an emulator running under OS >X or Linux.
I think the disk images should just be uploaded and made available for free download and that's the end of it. Then a guy could just put them on his microdrive and make his own disks if he wanted real ones.
On 3月31日, 下午10时24分, Toinet <antoine.vig...@laposte.net> wrote:
> Dear All, > I've been recently in touch with Electronic Arts, owner of Maxis and > Origin Systems, former publishers of SimCity and the Ultima series > respectively.
> My idea was to finish what Becky Heineman started on SimCity. Yes, the > game exists, I have a copy. With Ultima II, I would have liked to work > from Becky's source code of Ultima I for the IIgs to keep the same > level of quality.
> I've officially requested the permission to port those two games on > the Apple IIgs and the answer was quite clear: "We would require a EUR > 20,000 minimum guarantee and a 10% royalty rate."
My suggestion is this:
Just port it over, called it SCGS and UGS. Sell them in comp.sys.apple2. Don't have to pay a cent. We all know what they are, and nobody will look into this forum.
