Johnathon
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Posts posted by Johnathon
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Guys, I can clarify:
I'll only speak on what I know for sure (the rest I learned within the last few months but just don't remember for certain).
A work is techincally considered copyright simply by the autrhor writing the C with the circle around it, on his/her work (though this does no good if there is an infringement case (authors are advised to have their works registered so that if there is an infringement claim, the process is easy).
Same goes for TM (TM is not register with the USPTO, yet simply for a person to use it indicates his/her intent to consider said design his/her trademark. It is best to register trademarks to avoid issues when claiming a dispute for infringement.
One may wonder what is the point of not registering, when the government will not gaurantee to stand behind you if you haven't registered through their systems (otherwise, think about it, it's your word against theirs); but it does seem to help deter those who are not educated on the matter.
Now, the stuff i can't claim I remember perfectly accurately: patents expire after 20 years, to avoid uncontrolled monopoly; yet extensions can be filed in some caes (patents don't apply to these adventure games, as far as I know (just trademakrs and copyright).
I don't believe that trademakrs expire, yet it seems Roger Wilco was never a "registered" one.
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I've tried all 3 thus far.
I'll admit that Incinerations hooked me for the longest, and I believe I'm neaerly done with it; but of course, things got tighter as the semester went on, and I havfen't played it for a good 2.5 months.
VSB seems to have fantastic potential, though I'll admit I gave up when the fartulance creature kept hindering me. (Not for good of course, just haven't bothered to get back to playing it yet).
SQ2vga I've played nearly all the way to the end, but am stuck at the part with the droid that guards the escape shuttle.
Is it just me, or dfoes Roger's close-up remind of Paris Hilton...? I tihnk he talks way to nerdy (through his nose too) - just my reaction; though sq2vga is certainly a very nice play through in vga.
EDIT: part with the bunny ordanance was just wrong.
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From what I learned in Patent Research, any trademark expires after 20 years. I could be slightly off.
EDIT: Or was that patents?
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Two Guys update: https://vimeo.com/40775383
Haha! (Y)
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Awesome! (Y)
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...hopeful limbo.
Now, that doesn't sound wonderfully bad. :wink:
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Heh, I just now noticed the Battle Cruiser score ticks. (Y)
EDIT: and hey! Those are some of the datacorder chips scribbled out, upside-down, across the top. :D
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I wonder if we can get Topper back?
and really? :D
Say, whatever happened to that Lucretius guy? He seemed really cool.
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Yes, welcome!
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Is this really happening?
Did I wake up back in 1992?
Tell me about it, and I've always felt like I'd missed the train as far as the high-point of the SQ Community goes, considering I hadn't entered it until 5 years after SQ7 had been cancelled.
The fact that the two original authors are making this one, and Gary Owens is narrating, is enough to make an avid fan pass out from excitement. Hell, I can't stop checking in to see what happens next, despite I have a foreign language presentation due tomorrow morning in a class I may wind up flunking - but I just don't flat out give a shit (the honey badger wouldn't).
What next? We find out that Josh Mandel jumps in to tackle half the character voice talents?
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Magnificent. Simply incredible. :)
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Okay, I see what you're saying. With a little remark or two in SQ3, or even just as a fancy, subtle retcon in SQ5, I agree the whole scenario could've been saved. But it wasn't intentional. Mark Crowe confessed it was a quick way to tie SQ3 into the rest of the series and that the "free" bit had simply slipped their memory. So we know it wasn't intentional, but seeing as we're apparently the only people left who care about this, we could all just agree it was intentional all along and no one would be the wiser. ;)
Hehe. Wow. I hadn't known of that confession from Mark Crowe. I don't suppose we have to pretend it was intentional, but I'll say for practical purposes it worked out just fine for me (I was 9-years-old, of course, at the time of playing it). We could compare this scenario to if an artist had accidentally spilled red wine over a dark red area of his/her painting where it is unnoticeable. Whether or not there's anything wrong with it becomes, interestingly, quite a philosophical debate. :)
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Just speaking the truth, my friend.
Back to Mad_C33 (and ya'll in general), can you guys tell me why so many seem to see the Gippazoid Novelty event(s) as a plot inconsistency...?
I was always under the impression the "sense" of contradiction on Gippazoid's part and randomness in coming after Roger was nothing more than a great joke in reference of mail spam, telephone harassment, and similar laughable things that exist in the real world. Kind of like how when you sign up for a car insurance quote via an online site promising never to give away your personal information, and you suddenly get a crapload of correspondence from other companies who want your business, or like the fine print on your credit card agreement.
I mean think about it, the Two Guys made fun of insurance salesmen after all, joking of how they "WON'T TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER!" and Mark Crowe continued the mail fraud joke as far as SQ5. Would they make the same mistake twice? I really believe it's meant to be taken as humor in light of the fact that Roger didn't really commit mail fraud but is being hunted for it. That's the whole joke. It's a hit on how conveniently companies can lose or mix records, or gouge based upon the wording of a contract. Reminds me of the time I received a delinquency notice from a treasurers's office in a county I'd move away from 3 years prior (and they knew I had moved out and I even had records of the correspondence proving I'd owed them nothing! ;) )
If you deal with a shady company, they'll always try to stick you, and it will be difficult to fight them if you're unorganized and don't keep a file cabinet, or frozen in cyrosleep for an undetermined amount of time.
Also, in my opinion, misinterpreted, was the idea that the sequel police men sequence on the super computer tower was buggy because they shoot Roger after telling him to halt, even though he does halt. I always took it as mocking trigger happy police members. Almost every hollywood film with police in it mocks the trigger happy members. The closest example that springs to mind for me is actually the bear in hoodwinked that just can't wait to cuff ANYBODY and take them in, so long as it's ANYBODY.
What more indication do we need that it's meant to be taken sarcastically, than the sequel police man's own words, spoken in the most smartassed tone, "SOME people just DON'T follow instructions! ;) )
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You speak English well enough that I never would have guessed it wasn't your first language.
And, hey, Troels, that part in your video when you get pissed and grab the beer and start opening it. (Y) Great stuff! ;)
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I can't accept that Vohaul is naturally blue. I've never seen any other blue Xenonians. I really don't believe that he's a clone of Slash and a relative of Quirk's or anything else the Companion has spewed out, but I think it's easiest to assume from the facts of the games themselves that he's a "victim of his own experimentation" and hooked to a life support system, he was "human at one point," he was enraged at his "fellow sissy scientists" from Xenon, he destroyed his home planet of Xenon and took over complete control in SQXII, and he was blue in the hologram because that was his last known appearance before he died and (from a game design standpoint) had to be familiar for people to know exactly who he was. Changing things and assuming facts by turning Vohaul and his family into all-blue aliens just doesn't make sense in my view of the series' canon. It's also a bit like altering things and assuming things kind of like how Curse of Monkey Island completely altered Monkey Island into this Saturday morning cartoon with a juvenile and childish nemesis instead of the fearful and truly evil nemesis LeChuck was in the first two games. Guybrush marries Elaine when Ron never ever saw their relationship as anything but platonic or brother/sister-like. I suppose VSB's standpoint is just as valid as CMI's, however, because much like the MI series there is truly nothing in the SQ games themselves to outright contradict VSB's assumptions and there's certainly enough material to draw valid conclusions from. It's just one of those things we'll probably never really know the answer to as the Two Guys probably never gave it a second thought and if they had continued to develop SQ games they probably would have thrown in some game facts that might have explained Vohaul's origin in some way (albeit intuitively so). So we'll never know.
Interestingly, I'm noticing a lot more how VSB's approach to Space Quest is very similar to CMI's approach to Monkey Island.
(Y) Johnathon likes this...
...minus the statement:
It's just one of those things we'll probably never really know the answer to...
...because, to him, the following fact:
...makes the truth of the author's intent clear....he was "human at one point,"...
Vohaul did begin with human flesh tone. Wether or not he was intended to STILL have that tone by SQ2 is unclear due to the differing sprites in the game and the Space Piston documentation. Even if we want to assume that by the time SQ4 rolls around he is supposed to be blue in tone (having faith in the game box), there's no reason - not by deduction nor induction - that VSB should have assumed his family to be blue as well. It clearly challenges the canon.
That said, great job on the game otherwise. (Y)
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Olzen,
Granted that I'm always accused by others even in my non-internet life of being a 'realist' or a "very detail-oriented person," I'll admit that it's likely the majority would not take issue with it the same as I would. But for whatever it's worth, I find that fan-fiction is much more enjoyable when the player is able to cross-reference it with the officials in the series as much as possible without experiencing any discrepancies.
You say that's the benefit of fan-fiction. I'll agree that fan-fiction is fun and good for extending and padding, and even for solving problems posed in the officials when they themselves are discovered to contain plot inconsistencies. Nonetheless, I believe the freedom is only successfully exercised to this point. When you make a change that seems openly to contradict the officials, it takes away from the positive experience.
For example: Some people may interpret that Kerona is closer to Xenon than Magmetheus. It is not clear whether or not it is, from the officials, so deciding whatever you want doesn't challenge the officials. However, with something more obviously inferred or openly stated in the officials, that freedom is not exercised without upsetting people who take the officials for canon.
I'll give you a more specific example regarding my own plot. Bodge is a character I got from the RW comics, I use him to flesh out the prequel because there's no official prequel to contradict. However, comic #3 depicts him taking the golden mop and Roger being recognized as his mere sidekick. The official game depicts Roger being the only hero and the one to receive the mop. My direction from there is easy. Bump off Bodge before my prequel ends, so that the official is not challenged.
Now, my prequel will of course contradict the very comics from where I pulled the new character, but then, the comics contradict the officials themselves in a few notable ways already. My aim to to make the experience fit in with the actual games. Short of that, of course I concur that creative freedom is quite freely accepted.
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Hey, don't forget SQ4 box cover, where Vohaul's skin is green.
I was actually waiting for someone to point that out. The gamebox is such a vital marketing tool, and I'd doubt the two guys wouldn't have had enough say over it before it was distributed.
I find the green of his skin on the box to convey the same perception regardless. When it comes to printing and publishing, a number of techniques are utilized to take greatest advantage of things like tones and color compliments, to draw the eye where it is desired or to make things appear more aesthetic. Arguing green versus blue is like arguing apples to apples, where blue or green to caucasian a whole other story.
For instance, I could point out that during the holographic image of Vohauls during SQ4's intro, Roger's hair is ORANGE. This is not detrimental to the conveyed idea, and is merely a visual technique such as I mentioned above. We perceive it as blonde because that is what we have come to expect.
I'll agree he didn't specifically mentioned his blue skin tone as a result of his experimentation, but I find that it is clearly implied. The blue skin would make sense going along with whatever oxygenation issues he's having relating to his cardiovascular system (heart pump, varicose veins, etc...)
I respectfully hold to my interpretation. I feel it is significantly substantiated. The sq2comic, also being included directly in the game box, speaks to its credibility regarding the skin color. It was not a third party piece in the same light as the RW comics.
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Guys,
I don't believe the SQ Companions should be taken as canon as they contradict so strongly what the real authors of the series have said/would have to say in more than one instance.
Olzen,
Let me first tell you I am one of those avid fans who quickly downloaded VSB upon its release and have played through some of it already. Much kudos to you and your team; but I've got to admit if you chose to make both Vohaul's blue-skin toned, I don't find much credibility in that proposal, because Vohaul refers to the reason for his oddly appearance in SQ2 when he says "...being [his] own guinea pig has had its disadvantages," and Scott Murphy, when inquired about the matter of the two names, mentioned that Sludge is the evil twin. So, I must ask, "why should the good one of the two twins also have oddly appearance or blue-skin," and "why when the oddly appearance was a result of Sludge's experimentation on himself."
The fact that SQOEOE is a direct prequel to SQ1 and I have the datacart issue to contend with has already required me to ponder the matter much myself.
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Yes, and it becomes not so much a concern of what's already there to work with: more of how you utilize and compose it.
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...we'd probably want some confines so Roger doesn't save the universe every point along the way or keep visiting Monolith Burger.
You'll be amused to know knowledge of this has been eating away at me since having played the SQ2 remake that has just been released. When I came up with the original idea for SQ:OEOE, I reasoned Monolith Burger, in the timeline of the series between an sq1 prequel (which is what I was to make) and SQ3, would not be too overbearing; though now it'll seem more as though the idea had been inspired by my supposed playing of sq2 remake.
A similar though not quite as obvious example, is Agatron (the name of the planet which will be the test subject of the SG in my prequel, a name I derived as an 18-year-old by spelling Ortega backwards :oops: ) which I had always intended to be an ice planet (making perfect sense because it is at the far reaches of Earnon, further away from the star. Though, VSB features an ice planet already, beating me to the punch when it comes to depicting something new that hadn't been done in the original series of games, or, as in the case of Monolith Burger, expanding upon a shortly visited area which many of us anticipate other fans would have wanted to see more of.
I don't mean to sound competitive about it, but there does come a point when things become worn out, and it becomes more difficult to be original the more that time passes by and the more things that are already done. It's really quite natural that the Monolith Burger and ideas of an alternate climate planet such as an ice planet would be the subjects of fixation to some degree when any fan were to sit down and think of making an adventure. We always naturally try to take the next step derived from what has already been done, whether fully or partially, and to make our subject matter unique in comparison while still reminiscent.
When it comes to an issue such as this, I imagine it's best for the author (I in this context) to adapt and make changes inasmuch as it is possible without sacrificing the purity of the original idea. However, if it requires sacrificing the purity and fitness of the original idea, it's best off just riding it out and having a little faith in your instincts. I'm really not so much worried as I am slightly annoyed (by having seen this lapse of time create what may be as an artificial/coincidental sense of my having been short-cutting or uninspired in my ideas/methods); after all, my take of Monolith Burger is more than a brief store front such as is basically depicted in sq2vga (much respect to those folks for delivering a good fan game) or that depicted in sq3, or sq4. I'm going to be taking you DEEP into Monolith Burger. As for the ice planet, it will definitely not be a rip-off of VSB. It's screens and atmospheric feel were derived from my imagination plenty before I'd ever seen a screenshot of that game.
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Oh, and thank you for being so attentive that you spelled my last name PLeimert, with two capital letters. That was actually a typo when I created the account and now I can't fix it because I can't edit my name.
Think nothing of it, my good man. :wink:
And I'll never forgive myself for staring twice at Roger's pulsating pecs.
I stared at them for half the game's development before it suddenly dawned on me one day... Roger has boobs. And forever shall it be since fixing them would take another year worth of re-renders.
I'll tell you honestly, I didn't even notice that Roger had... moobs ;) until Stellar mentioned it in the adventure. I wonder if your attempt to rectify the situation was quite as necessary as you'd anticipated, Chris.
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Nice (Y)
Mind if I post a link to your site on mine?
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Woohoo!
Brandon, you took the words right out of my mouth.
Let me just say, Frans should really get off his ass and start posting some news updates. This has been a fantastic new year, and while I understand he has stopped updating the site long ago, it'd be a real shame for SQ.Net to miss covering these releases. :oops: :wink:
The Big Three (VSB, Incinerations, SQ2+)
in World O' Fan Wonders
Posted
I can't belive it's that simple. Perhaps I remember it wrong.