Title: Monkey Island Post by: Tiberian on July 17, 2009, 11:59:31 pm I recently purchased the entire Tales of Monkey Island -collection from Steam and I played through the first episode. Today I just realized that The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition is already out. I haven't seen/heard anyone talking about it. This is an outrage.
And since I just found out about it today, I assume that not everyone, who is interested, knows about it. For those who know nothing about it: http://www.telltalegames.com/community/blogs/id-458 (http://www.telltalegames.com/community/blogs/id-458) There must be Monkey Island fans here. Report in if you have spent money on either of the new projects. Title: Re: Monkey Island Post by: Alvarin on July 18, 2009, 05:24:15 am It is one of my favorite genres , but didn't get into the game at a time , and never gave it another chance ... What I wanted to say is , isn't it abandonware and therefore free ? I am a member of dedicated site , cdosabandonware dot com , which prouds itself on uploading ONLY freeware/abandonware games , and the whole Monkey Island series are available . So you can either download for free and save some money , or if not better notify the cdosians to remove it .
Title: Re: Monkey Island Post by: Tiberian on July 18, 2009, 09:26:57 am I can say for sure that Monkey Islands 3 and 4 are not abandonware.
Looks like you didn't read the link I posted so I'll explain this shortly: Telltale Games made a new episode based Tales of Monkey Island. The first episode was published just recently. They also completely remastered the first Monkey Island - the special edition was published last Wednesday. The Sercret of Monkey Island: Special Edition costs 9 euros (in Europe) when purchased from Steam. The complete Tales of Monkey Island pack costs 33 euros. One more time: These are NEW games. Title: Re: Monkey Island Post by: Novus on July 18, 2009, 02:01:44 pm I heard about both these new Monkey Island releases via Slashdot (http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/02/0642248) about a month ago. As its name suggests, The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition (http://www.monkeyislandspecialedition.com/) is an updated version of the original game. In fact, according to the "Making of" video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb_FaGcmTPM), the underlying game is still the same as in 1990. You can even switch the graphics back to MCGA/VGA if you like! Like UQM, it's more of an updated version than a remake (albeit one that updates essentially everything except the gameplay).
Tales of Monkey Island (http://www.telltalegames.com/monkeyisland), on the other hand, is clearly a sequel and an entirely new game; it seems to be essentially Monkey Island 5 released as five episodes (which ought to work out fine; the previous games were clearly divided into separate chapters). In any case, the concept of "abandonware" does not exist in any copyright law I'm aware of and would contradict the Berne Convention (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention_for_the_Protection_of_Literary_and_Artistic_Works). Copyright usually does not expire for several decades and is not affected by whether the copyright holder (or anyone to whom the copyright holder has granted permission to distribute the work) actually does distribute the work in any way. Naturally, you have a better chance of getting away with copyright violation if the work has no commercial value (and even more so if it is unclear who, if anyone, holds the copyright), but this does not make it legal. In any case, this is great news for adventure game fans! :) Title: Re: Monkey Island Post by: Anarch Cassius on July 20, 2009, 11:35:42 pm Abadonware is an ethical concept not a legal one. The argument is not that the distrubition of such software is legal, but that it is acceptable and even nessicary if the software can no longer be ontained on the market through standard legal channels. The legal status may not change but many abadonware groups would take down software like this that has become availible again.
Title: Re: Monkey Island Post by: meep-eep on July 21, 2009, 08:52:55 am The Berne convention does allow for concepts such as "fair use", and depending on the national implementation, a case could be made for the legality of abandonware.
Title: Re: Monkey Island Post by: Tiberian on July 21, 2009, 09:15:49 am I like where this thread is going.
Title: Re: Monkey Island Post by: Alvarin on July 21, 2009, 03:10:11 pm Sorry about that ...
Title: Re: Monkey Island Post by: Shiver on July 28, 2009, 11:25:58 pm I've seen someone else play a few of Telltale Games' new(ish) Sam and Max episodes. Wasn't impressed with them, and I loved Sam and Max Hit the Road. The impression I got was that Telltale has been cashing in on other franchises. I confess that I am woefully ignorant on this subject and am in need of playing through a heap of old adventure games.
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