pretty dodgy looking copy of heretic for sale in the MS store

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/games/heretic/9wzdncrd2909?cid=appraisin

Your conclusions?

Edit: and final doom https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/games/final-doom/9nblggh39vgs

Does it contain the iwads or what? I don't see any user reviews mentioning this important detail.

Really seems like a cash grab fake listing. IMO should be flagged.

The fact that it says "+Contains in-app purchases", what are those purchases?

You are playing E1M1 and up comes a dialog saying "Congratulations! You found the yellow key! To fully unlock the door it goes to, you must pay 1 USD to continue."

However, if there is no source code listed on the MS site then it violates the GPL, if it is under the normal Heretic license then is not commercial usage forbidden?

GhostlyDeath said:

The fact that it says "+Contains in-app purchases", what are those purchases?

Maybe not implemented yet, though in some of his other games you can purchase cheats. Imagine how much more money the team at id could have made if they'd implemented micro-transactions in their game engines. ;)

The whole setup looks dodgy as fuck to me.

Look at the reviews for Final Doom. One guy says it doesn't even have sound. And the menu was made in microsoft powerpoint or something similar. Sounds pretty dodgy indeed.

Would be a funny "let's play" youtube opportunity though.

GhostlyDeath said:

The fact that it says "+Contains in-app purchases", what are those purchases?

It would be most appropriate (but not technically legal) if the in-app purchases got you E2-E5, and what you got for free was E1.

Is Zenimax OK with this?

All warez, clearly.

Just tried the trial version.

- It has E1M1 and E2M1
- It plays MUS_E1M1 everywhere.
- It has a shitty start menu with links to other games (one of them is "Wolf3D: Censored")
- Sound is all shitty, you can barely hear the sectors moving.
- The sky is static, it doesn't scroll when you turn.
- I don't have a widescreen monitor so everything is stretched vertically
- Tiny mouse sensitivity; standard WASD/E/mouse controls.

Main menu
Gameplay

EDIT: also tried the FREE version. It seems to have E1M1, E2M1, E3M1 and E4M1, but I can't load any of them because it quits to desktop (crash?).

Also cool Heretic logo in the splash screen, too bad the execution of the port sucks; who enhanced the logo?

I...I don't understand. Why would you purposely mutilate the game like this?

Marnetmar said:

I...I don't understand. Why would you purposely mutilate the game like this?

It's a no-brainer if you're a spiv looking for a quick buck.

printz said:

Also cool Heretic logo in the splash screen, too bad the execution of the port sucks; who enhanced the logo?
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5103936/pozeforum/winhereticlogo.png

Looks like it's clipped from a high-res scan of a poster or box-art.

NoXion said:

It's a no-brainer if you're a spiv looking for a quick buck.

But why not just illegally release the game as is? It takes a lot less effort than purposely breaking it and fucking it up.

>final doom
>ultimate doom pictures
That's suspicious as fuck.

Sounds like warez and those images are very suspicious to me, should be reported ASAP.

I hope the "Mike L." behind this isn't a certain Mike from before...

Question is that a screenshot from E1M1 in Ultimate Doom or a map that is indeed from Final Doom. I hate it when they include a screenshot of the game when it is part of a completely different set of levels. Like when they include screenshots from Heretic: SOTSR when they are advertising Magic and Mayhem or !HZone or other crap like that.

What the hell do they mean by “In App Purchases” the Steam version doesn’t do that crap? If you want a good version of the game download the steam version instead or play the game using Zdoom or your favorite source port. It seems like a no brainer to me. If you want to play the crappiest version of Heretic all you had to do was download the google play one instead.

Version at Google Play

In the description it also says; “Tome of Power - increase weapon power.” Technically it enhances or changes the weapons abilities not increase the weapon power. For example using the phoenix rod with the tome of power changes the weapon from being a long range weapon to enabling the user to use it as a short range weapon instead. Same with the firemace.

This version seems a bit wishy, washy to me.

Here's the guy's website

Gez said:

Looks like it's clipped from a high-res scan of a poster or box-art.

Poster art would require an A3 scanner and touching up to remove fold lines, so I'd say it's most likely from the Registered Heretic box-art.

But why not just illegally release the game as is? It takes a lot less effort than purposely breaking it and fucking it up.

Will DOS/Win95 executables run on Windows Mobile devices?


Heh - I noticed there's more than a passing similarity between the Papermare.com site icon and Microsoft's.

J.B.R said:

Sounds like warez and those images are very suspicious to me, should be reported ASAP.

I reported it when I noticed it, but I'd be surprised if anything happens quickly.

The main reason why these things still happen is that the stores won't do anything unless the actual copyright holder sends a takedown request.

Been there, tried that, no success. They also seem to be quite resistant when the requests come from smaller non-American outfits who can't easily put a lawyer on the case.

Graf Zahl said:

The main reason why these things still happen is that the stores won't do anything unless the actual copyright holder sends a takedown request.

Been there, tried that, no success. They also seem to be quite resistant when the requests come from smaller non-American outfits who can't easily put a lawyer on the case.

Yeah but in this case the offended party is big-time Zenimax whose CEO himself is a lawyer.

Marnetmar said:

Here's the guy's website

Lol he is using artwork from the new Wolfenstein game there... what a trainwreck.

Bashe said:

I hope the "Mike L." behind this isn't a certain Mike from before...

oh my god. you know what, it probably is the bastard.

Everything I can find points to this being him. He's used so many aliases, but it's not hard, or clever to go from using Michael to Mike L. I emailed this to Bethesda, but I couldn't find a direct legal email address, so we'll see if anything happens.

But he's pissed on so many small/independent devs something needs to be done. I imagine they don't have the resources for a legal battle, but I'm pretty sure Zenimax won't have an issue.

The Twitter is pretty funny too : https://twitter.com/papermare

It's like he's pretending he's actually developing these games himself.

#gamedev #indiedev

Jello said:

Everything I can find points to this being him. He's used so many aliases, but it's not hard, or clever to go from using Michael to Mike L. I emailed this to Bethesda, but I couldn't find a direct legal email address, so we'll see if anything happens.

But he's pissed on so many small/independent devs something needs to be done. I imagine they don't have the resources for a legal battle, but I'm pretty sure Zenimax won't have an issue.

The Twitter is pretty funny too : https://twitter.com/papermare

It's like he's pretending he's actually developing these games himself.

#gamedev #indiedev

Is this person unwell, non compos mentis? Or do they genuinely think they aren't doing anything wrong in this?

I'm just baffled someone would go to such lengths/risks reselling other people's work. Maybe they are just cretinous.

By the way, in order to summon Zenimax lawyers you must complete the blood rite by sacrificing an infant or two to Mictlantecuhtli on the first night of the new moon.

vadrig4r said:

By the way, in order to summon Zenimax lawyers you must complete the blood rite by sacrificing an infant or two to Mictlantecuhtli on the first night of the new moon.

Dammit, again? It's getting harder and harder to get a hold of infants.

But yeah, it seems like something's really wrong with the guy. Obviously a pathological liar, but it seems like there's some untreated mental illness going on as well. But it certainly doesn't make it ok to repackage and resell other people's works. One of the comments was from someone who made a freeware game, and this guy was reselling it for $29.