GENERAL: activsion

[Locutus]

Welcome back, Mr Ogre!

Thanks a ton for anything you can do for us, even if it doesn't lead to any results. The effort is very, very much appreciated

[J Bytheway]

Indeed. Thanks very much . Good to finally see you post after hearing so much about you.

[ískallin]

All heil the ogre!!

I remember in the far past when i first came here you were there and now you've returned

I truly think that with help of mr ogre w'll have the codes

And mr ogre how come yove haven't posted here since i don't know what?

[Solver]

Thanks Mr. Ogre

Now, finally, after these months of debates, I am getting my hopes up.

Old good Activision... eh, we all realize that they have products published such as Quake, for whom they of course care much more than CtP. Now, if we offered free customer support for CtP, they would undoubtedly be pleased .

Now, here, thinking (dreaming) out loud. Any chance that, at getting the source, and fixing the bugs, CtP2 + bugfixes + mods + other stuff could be made a commercial product?

[Solver]

More thoughts here... frankly, I can't believe that the source is lost. All in all, anything as complex as CtP2 is a very big investment of job by programmers, and I think that sources are preserved if at all possible. Even art is, but well, art for specific units take less time than programming.

Ogre, I wonder, as the lead programmer, were you not allowed to keep certain pieces of source yourself?

[Martin Gühmann]

First welcome back Mr. Ogre.

Originally posted by Solver
Even art is, but well, art for specific units take less time than programming.

Even if there is no art in the archive this doesn't matter we want to fix the ctp2.exe and the art is on the CD and on my cumputer as well anyway, at least the art is used and some art not used in CTP2. We can open the *.zfs files and the *.til files, and a sprite extractor is actual not so difficuilt as well.

Originally posted by Solver
Ogre, I wonder, as the lead programmer, were you not allowed to keep certain pieces of source yourself?

I don't know whether he has the the source code or not. Even if he has it, he signed probably a contract that does not allow to give code away, so he has to ask Activision at least.

-Martin

[mrmitchell]

Sorry to intrude and not be a CtP2 player, but I saw "source" in the newZ on the front page and my interest was piqued. I must say, if Activision really won't give you the source code, then they either really did destroy it and are thus incompetent, or want to hog it and are thus greedy. I suspect they can give it to you but it would take too much effort to figure out where they put it, and are thus just trying to get rid of you.

I hope that you're successful in your search for the code; I myself think there should be a law that software should be made freeware or its source be distributed after 5 years from its last patch. I dunno how long CtP2 has been out (not that long of course ) but I figure that would at least give you guys some hope, wouldn't it?

Good luck getting your source code...I myself have my Firaxis altar where I pray for civ3 patches, but I can probably set up an Activision altar with my CtP1 box...

Oh Great Activision,
Though I have laughed at puns rendered at your name,
and Though I have strayed from Your ways and gone to other Games,
Forgive me, for I am but a mere mortal that does not truly know the Light...
Direct me, O Great Activision, to your games "Call to Power" and "Call to Power 2"...
Give me, O Great Activision, Their Source Code, so that I might understand Your creations, and be in awe of them...
Amen.

in case anyone was in need of a good prayer

[Solver]

Martin, right you are. But at least if Mr. Ogre has the source, it's easier... I assume that persuading them to let Ogre disclose might be easier than for Activision to find the source, as noone seems to know where exactly it is.

[Maquiladora]

Does anyone know of any other instances like this one? and how did they approach it? Wasnt there a similar situation with the BOTF source or was that hacked somehow?

Still thanks Mr Ogre

[Peter Triggs]

Yet more thanks, Mr Ogre.

Azmel2 suggested this a couple of years ago:

Personally though, I think it would be good for CTP as a brand and Activision as a company to make this code available in some way. Perhaps you could start a grass roots effort to open source game code after some number of years of release. The folks at Loki arranged a "hack-a-thon" at LinuxWorld (?) for CTP1 inwhich a group of people off the street could sit in a specially network-isolated room to look and modify the code. Maybe somone can talk Activision into doing that again. I wouldn't hold my breath, but who knows.

I haven't been holding my breath, but like he said "who knows".

[Solver]

Sorry to intrude and not be a CtP2 player, but I saw "source" in the newZ on the front page and my interest was piqued. I must say, if Activision really won't give you the source code, then they either really did destroy it and are thus incompetent, or want to hog it and are thus greedy. I suspect they can give it to you but it would take too much effort to figure out where they put it, and are thus just trying to get rid of you.

Somehow I failed to respond to this excellent comment. Well, if they did happen to lose the source, they're really incompetent, but, as I have already said, I don't believe this is the case - too much work it is, after all, and Activision is a big company. It's more likely that they lost it somewhere, and it's on some hard drive that is on a shelf in the basement infested with spiders...

Maybe, they don't want to give the code to us, but that can hardly be greed, for holding the source doesn't do them muhc good anymore.

Finally, if we are persuasive enough, they may want to give us the source and get rid of us that way .

I am now though more hopeful than I was, especially because Ogre emailed the vice-president, great stuff !

Up to today, though, I didn't believe that something like this will truly happen .

[Locutus]

Originally posted by Solver
Activision is a big company.

The bigger the company, the easier it is to loose something. Especially if you throw in some reorganizations...

Up to today, though, I didn't believe that something like this will truly happen .

Which gave the rest of us all the more reason to believe the opposite

[stankarp]

Keeping fingers crossed.

[child of Thor]

All it would take on Activisions part is a little effort to;

1. Decide that it WOULD be in their interest to do this as they would get for FREE a Civ contender as the modders did their magic(adding infinate resale value to the game).

2. Decide to try to find that code, or WHO might still have it.

3. Maybe arrange something with Apolyton where by it is made clear that NO MONEY will be charged for anything that comes from the modders.

After all this is a great opportunity for future programmers to cut their teeth no?

Big companies like Activision NEED to spread a bit of goodwill around sometimes, the games communities are getting smarter and more informed about bad customer treatment or as is the case with CTP2 an almost complete lack of after sales support. It would be good for them to get a few browny points.(I might even buy another Activision game again!) .

[Solver]

OK, yeah, if you guys at Activision do this, I will buy another of your games, although none actually interest me, but I will .