Battlezone1 kerfuffle

[sabrebattletank]

Ermm... there was just an 8th page... something about selective enforcement?

[Blunt Force Trauma]

It's exactly the "selective enforcement" issue that created the extremely sensitive environment here.  A casual link to the front page of a site that somewhere on it has a "grey area" all-in-one installer for a single ten-year-old game that the developer and publisher no longer cares about is exactly what started the whole thing, simply because someone took it on themselves to bring CmptrWz's provider into the fray.
-Av-

I agree, but at some point, you have to say what the hell.

[ssuser]

I believe Dx said at some point that he had heard from Activision that they really don't care too much about what goes on with the game as long as no one is making illicit money from it, i.e. selling pirated discs or mods based on violations of the "new game materials" license, etc.

Maybe an official inquiry to Acti could be sent on this issue, though I expect they may draw the line at the all-in-one installer, just because of its implications for newer games still on the market.

Still, all of this is keeping the "Battlezone" genre alive, maybe Acti wouldn't mind someone providing such things if they also agreed to advertise for Activision on their site.

[Dx]

It's not up to Acti now, it's up to Atari Inc.

[Ultraken]

In my opinion, licensing the Battlezone name was a huge mistake since it got us the wrong sort of name recognition at the time and caused problems like this ever since.  That's why Battlezone 2 was subtitled "Combat Commander"--we planned to shed the Battlezone name at some point.

[General BlackDragon]

If you guys had done that, I wouldn't be here

I got VERY lucky (also very excited) when I saw Battlezone II on a shelf in a used book store in 2003

[Ultraken]

It was more for the future of the series, had it continued.

[ssuser]

Acti did the same thing with Civilization: Call To Power - they dropped the Civilization moniker (which they licensed from Sid Meier and Co.) when they released Call to Power II. IMO not such a good strategy - I think people associate quite a bit with the original names when looking for good sequels. Although IIRC they had no choice with CTP - Sid wanted his title back for Civilization III. 

I think using the name Battlezone was perfect for Battlezone 1 - superb 3d world, shooting tanks, radar - it all fits with the original.

[Firestorm29]

Infinity Ward attempted the same with with the recent release of Modern Warfare 2, but so few people recognized it as the successor of Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare they were forced to add it in so people would pick up the title.

[Red Devil]

Yes, you'd miss it if Googling for it, too.

[AHadley]

Lucasarts did the same with the Dark Forces Saga, which went from Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight to Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. It was quite a significant change in the series, especially considering that it moved from id-Tech 2 to id-Tech 3, which is quite a leap in tech level even though it's only one number.