1995 reference to Freedoom

[Linguica]

Not really, but I was just reading this http://www.montefiore.ulg.ac.be/~quinet/games/sellingwads-en.html and thought this part was interesting:

It is also legal to distribute (or sell) a brand new IWAD file created from scratch, which would have the effect of transforming any shareware version into the equivalent of the registered game. But this would not be an easy task because you have to create new levels and new textures, but also new color palettes, new fonts, etc. This means more than a Total Conversion, which is already very complex.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

Would that actually have worked the way he describes it? I was under the impression that the shareware versions didn't just remove graphics/sound for the registered stuff, but the code to make them work as well.

[funduke]

ETTiNGRiNDER said:

Would that actually have worked the way he describes it? I was under the impression that the shareware versions didn't just remove graphics/sound for the registered stuff, but the code to make them work as well.

The executable of the v. 1.9 shareware version of DooM is identical with the executable of Registered DooM and DooM II v. 1.9 (Please note, that Registered DooM means in this case the full version with three episodes, not Ultimate DooM).

Greetings
Funduke

[Buckshot]

so you could technically bundle the doom executable and release or resell so long as the iwad was built entirely from scratch?

[chungy]

No, but you might have gotten away with directing people to downloading shareware Doom and combining the EXE with your own IWAD.

Of course, these days, it's far more practical and not legally questionable to direct people to a free/open source engine (or simply bundle/sell one of them directly; for some historic reasons Freedoom has avoided this, but I've considered making installable bundles with Odamex to make it dead-simple to run).

[Nikita_Sadkov]

You guys should consider publishing Freedoom for handheld devices. I'm sure it'll rise some money for future development, as well as get you wider audience.

[Gentlepoke]

Nikita_Sadkov said:

You guys should consider publishing Freedoom for handheld devices. I'm sure it'll rise some money for future development, as well as get you wider audience.

Couldn't such an undertaking still need an id Tech 1 licence though to cover the engine?

[Linguica]

Gentlepoke said:

Couldn't such an undertaking still need an id Tech 1 licence though to cover the engine?

No, that was the whole point of GPLing the source code.

[Nikita_Sadkov]

Gentlepoke said:

Couldn't such an undertaking still need an id Tech 1 licence though to cover the engine?

Doom engine is GPL. So the only requirement is publishing the source for the Android version.

Although I do suggest going with better name, than FreeDoom, which is both cheesy and trademark infringing. Besides, that setting has nothing to do with original Doom, using Doom can possibly enrage the fans of the original.

[raymoohawk]

im pretty sure freedoom has already been on sale at least two times. if anyone decides to sell it again i suggest going with "damn 2 inferno on mars" (hazebandicoot came up with it on a freedoom texture he edited)

also freedoom is not trademark infringing, in the same way other games that include doom in the title are not infringin, freedoom doesnt even use the word doom (freedoom is a single word)

funny that you think including an arachnotron look alike is fine, but not the freedoom title

[Gentlepoke]

Linguica said:

No, that was the whole point of GPLing the source code.

I believe I was thinking about DMX sound library issue however yeah, when the Linux source code was ported the DMX code wasn't really required as that was for the DOS version. Sorry for my mistake.

[chungy]

Nikita_Sadkov said:

You guys should consider publishing Freedoom for handheld devices. I'm sure it'll rise some money for future development, as well as get you wider audience.

It is a good idea, though I think I can speak for all the maintainers that we don't have any plan in the near future to pay people to develop Freedoom. While not really being against the project goals, it would feel a little bit dishonest, like taking away the community-built aspect to it.

As noted, Freedoom has been sold at least a couple times by other people. These are neither endorsed by us, nor do we see any profit from it.

This being said, an official Freedoom release for mobile platforms, at no cost, might be something to look into... :-)

[Nikita_Sadkov]

chungy said:

As noted, Freedoom has been sold at least a couple times by other people. These are neither endorsed by us, nor do we see any profit from it.

Why wont you sell it yourself and share profit between major contributors, like raymoohawk? I'm pretty sure other versions are buggy and unmaintained, because people quickly put them together, without much care.

[HorrorMovieRei]

chungy said:

This being said, an official Freedoom release for mobile platforms, at no cost, might be something to look into... :-)

Now, that's a good thing to hear :D

[raymoohawk]

Nikita_Sadkov said:

Why wont you sell it yourself and share profit between major contributors, like raymoohawk? I'm pretty sure other versions are buggy and unmaintained, because people quickly put them together, without much care.

because freedoom has had many, many contributors, and deciding who is a major contributor is a subjective thing, what if someone made a lot of ok maps, but someone else made a single excellent map, opinions on who is a major contributor would inevitably vary. also a lot of the contributors can no longer be reached

if one of the contributors wants to profit from this they can always go and sell it on their own

[Nikita_Sadkov]

raymoohawk said:

because freedoom has had many, many contributors, and deciding who is a major contributor is a subjective thing, what if someone made a lot of ok maps, but someone else made a single excellent map, opinions on who is a major contributor would inevitably vary. also a lot of the contributors can no longer be reached

Well, you can go the other way - create targeted funds and the person completing the goal gets paid. A competition can also be introduced, where each entrant creates some asset, while the users or donators vote on the best one.

That way the project can gain prestige and attract more and better contributors.