The Apolyton Call to Power 2 Source Code Project: Welcome and Download!

[Dale]

Originally posted by J Bytheway


If you want a scripting engine for another project, I'll write one for you, so long as you don't mind me doing it in C# .

It's not so much that I don't know how to do it, but that I'm too lazy to code all that code for each command in the script-compiler.

[J Bytheway]

See:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=100265

for my progress so far at getting the source to compile.

[J Bytheway]

Originally posted by Dale
It's not so much that I don't know how to do it, but that I'm too lazy to code all that code for each command in the script-compiler.

Well, SLIC won't help you there, because all the commands are specific to CTP...

[DanS]

Has anybody set up a CVS at Sourceforge or similar? Is there any organization for this?

[runderwo]

I don't see how an open source project could legally be set up according to the EULA. Take a look:

You agree not to sell, rent, lease, license, distribute or otherwise transfer the Call to Power II Source Code, or any copies of the Call To Power II Source Code, without the express prior written consent of Activision.
You agree not to make copies of the Call to Power II Source Code or any part thereof, except for back up or archival purposes, or make copies of the materials accompanying the Call to Power II Source Code.

How can we put out our own releases, or even offer CVS access for an open source project, without violating the terms of the EULA? It seems ridiculously prohibitive. Why was this license chosen instead of a GPL-like license with the additional anti-commercial terms added that Activision needs to protect its business? Personally, I won't bother wasting time with this release until the license is changed to something that encourages a development community, rather than being something that will have to be constantly worked around for the entire life of the project.

[Locutus]

Let me repost what I posted on Slashdot before...


Okay, having read through the EULA carefullly (again), here's the deal:

The EULA makes a clear distinction between "Call to Power II Source Code" (i.e. the archive file available from Apolyton) and "New Game Materials", which is not explicitly defined but is clearly implied to mean 'fixed' (possibly compiled) versions of the game.

The EULA forbids anyone from distributing the "Call to Power II Source Code" without express consent from Activision. Apolyton has this consent, so Apolyton is (AFAIK exclusively) allowed to distribute the code. It doesn't say anything like this about the "New Game Materials". In fact it says quite the opposite: the EULA explicitly mentions that you can distribute "New Game Materials" to other gamers, as long as you do so free of charge and meet a couple of other demands (mostly mark it clearly as a non-Activision product).

This means that you're perfectly allowed to make "New Game Materials" from the source code and, once you've done so, you can distribute and copy those however you like (as long as the terms in the EULA are met of course). You don't even have to change anything about the game, just clearly mark it as non-Activision "New Game Material" in the documentation (and in the start-up screen, if it's compiled as an executable), slap your name and email on it, and you're good to go.

If you want to interpret the EULA very strictly, you could argue that a modified yet uncompiled version of the source code doesn't qualify as "New Game Material" but should rather be seen as "Call to Power II Source Code". In that case it can only be distributed through Apolyton. So in theory you might be violating the EULA if you distribute your own 'fixed' source code through any channel other than Apolyton, but I doubt Activision would sue you over that... As Apolyton staff member, I would actually think it would be rather cool if they did ;-)

[Aias]

The oddest thing happened to me today: I woke up in a parallel universe where Activision released the CtP I/II source code! Wierd huh?

[The Big Mc]

the you get a good look at the ctp 1 code cause as far as i can tell they haven’t realised it only ctp2 code

[Turambar]

Woah! I leave for a few days and all this happens!

Great news!

[MrBaggins]

Woah! I leave for a couple of months and look what happens!

*chuckles* Seriously great news.

I've already started looking at the code and figuring out how they've done certain stuff. I'll have to reload VS6, though.

[Keygen]

So the source code has been released already...

Much, much earlier than I expected, I could say.

Well, great!

Many thanks to Joe Rumsey for turning this dream into reality, David Ray and Winnie Lee for participating in this effort and contributing valuable information all this time and Big Mc and the rest for starting up the thread that started all this that we now see

And of cource many thanks go to Activision for realising and implementing a long dream of the CtP funs: the release of source code!