Sega Saturn Waterworld

[gameofyou]

Ok, after learning Waterworld was completely finished for the Saturn (but unreleased), I contacted one of the Ocean programmers. Here is his response:

"Hi Kent,

It does exist! I really like playing it, but I'm kind of biased towards it

I may be wrong about this, but I think the problem will be getting the OK from Universal, or who ever owns the rights to any WaterWorld products.

I would really like to have the game out there and be playable on emulators or what ever. I think people would love the game. I'm just thinking back and there were only three of us working on that game from start to finish.

If you've got any legal ideas on how to make this game available to the masses, I'd love to hear it!

Cheers,
Steve Woita

Senior Game Designer / Producer / Developer
Eat Donuts, play DunkIt 2 at:
http://www.tinygames.com"


If anyone has some helpful ideas about getting this released, please post!!

[StoneAgeGamer]

Interesting... who owns Ocean's properties now?

[Shadow Kisuragi]

Infogrames owns Ocean now, according to Wikipedia. Ocean is known as Atari UK now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_Software

I'm not quite sure who owns the rights to publish video games based on the Waterworld property.

[StoneAgeGamer]

Yeah the movie license would probably be a big hurdle if you wanted to go the legal route.

[ottojello]

Wouldn't you be able to get away with calling it something else? Just get rid of or change the title screen?

[StoneAgeGamer]

Wouldn't you be able to get away with calling it something else? Just get rid of or change the title screen?

Maybe SwordQuest: WaterWorld 3D?

[Ryaan1234]

It does exist! I really like playing it, but I'm kind of biased towards it

I don't have much advice, but all I can do is hope that the Saturn version is better than the Virtual Boy version of this game

[Swamperon]

I'd guess legal would be a non-starter as there would be almost zero profit from releasing it.

Try to convince him to dump it on the internet? I doubt anyone is going to really care about it.

[motley6]

You may convince someone at Universal that by granting the license for a small print run for a dead system, they would be getting free publicity for the DVD special edition release.

[Kitsune Sniper]

... You mean someone is actually MAKING a special edition DVD? o_O

[motley6]

They already did.

http://www.amazon.com/Waterworld-2-D...1327341&sr=8-1

[JohnnyBlaze]

They already did.

http://www.amazon.com/Waterworld-2-D...1327341&sr=8-1

THE APOCALYPSE IS COMING! WE'RE GONNA DIE!

Seriously though, I don't see the big deal. If it was never released and no one is making a profit off of it, why worry about legal trouble?

For example, Suburban Commando came out for the PC, yet the game is freely available on several Abandonware sites. Time Warner never bitched about it. Usually they are among the VERY FIRST to sue.

My point is: If the game was never released and no one is ever going to make a profit, why worry about legal issues?

ANY court can back the programmer up on it. A piracy/infringement case is ONLY tried if the company lost money because of it. Since this was unreleased and distributed free, there's no case.

[nhm]

That's not really true. It doesn't matter if no money is involved. They could take it to court and get a cease and desist order.

Can you make a million copies of a current game and sell it at zero profit legally? Nope. Same here.

THE APOCALYPSE IS COMING! WE'RE GONNA DIE!

Seriously though, I don't see the big deal. If it was never released and no one is making a profit off of it, why worry about legal trouble?

For example, Suburban Commando came out for the PC, yet the game is freely available on several Abandonware sites. Time Warner never bitched about it. Usually they are among the VERY FIRST to sue.

My point is: If the game was never released and no one is ever going to make a profit, why worry about legal issues?

ANY court can back the programmer up on it. A piracy/infringement case is ONLY tried if the company lost money because of it. Since this was unreleased and distributed free, there's no case.

[TheRedEye]

I don't have much advice, but all I can do is hope that the Saturn version is better than the Virtual Boy version of this game

Pretty sure Steve coded that one too, and it's the same basic idea. I might be wrong though.

[JohnnyBlaze]

That's not really true. It doesn't matter if no money is involved. They could take it to court and get a cease and desist order.

Can you make a million copies of a current game and sell it at zero profit legally? Nope. Same here.

That's different. That "current" game would've already been sold at stores where companies CAN make a profit. That's piracy. This is an unreleased PROTOTYPE!

Let me give a perfect example since it seems I wasn't clear the FIRST time.

Remember Smoke and Mirrors? That wasn't released, yet anywhere you look on the internet you can find it, along with numerous documents. Did Penn and Teller sue? NO! They ENCOURAGE it! They refer to Desert Bus all the time and tell people interested that it can be found on the internet.

Same would apply in this situation. If a game was never released, there is NO MONEY TO BE MADE! CASE CLOSED!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5QGkOGZubQ

[nhm]

It has nothing to do with "profit". It has to do with copyright, intellectual property laws, and whether or not an owner wishes to protect that property. All of the examples have been of worthless properties owned by relatively smaller companies. It doesn't matter who owns "Suburbian Commando", it's not worth paying a lawyer to defend the copyright. As for Penn and Teller, it's their CHOICE not to pursue their copyright. Actually, the copyright to that game, and all associated footage was probably owned by Absolute, NOT Penn and Teller.

Just to sum up...the legality has NOTHING, ZERO, NADA, ZILCH to do with "profit."

That's different. That "current" game would've already been sold at stores where companies CAN make a profit. That's piracy. This is an unreleased PROTOTYPE!

Let me give a perfect example since it seems I wasn't clear the FIRST time.

Remember Smoke and Mirrors? That wasn't released, yet anywhere you look on the internet you can find it, along with numerous documents. Did Penn and Teller sue? NO! They ENCOURAGE it! They refer to Desert Bus all the time and tell people interested that it can be found on the internet.

Same would apply in this situation. If a game was never released, there is NO MONEY TO BE MADE! CASE CLOSED!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5QGkOGZubQ

[gameofyou]

^ I agree. We just need Universal to give their OK, since they hold the rights to the Waterworld property.

[nhm]

Let me drop some learnin' on tha' kids. Go here if you want to *gasp* actually learn copyright laws:

http://www.copyright.gov/

[Kitsune Sniper]

I know very little about copyright, but it would definitely be best if Universal gave its approval to such a release. They -probably- won't care about the game, but there's always ONE GUY who might think otherwise.

And personally, I don't want to see the programmer get sued over releasing a game that isn't entirely his (in regards to IP.)

[Robocop2]

I'm sure Universal would love to make something off of Waterworld....