New efforts!

[pinballdave]

What? Cheap jetpacks not your style? heh.

I thought teleport in the shard was hilarious.

Sorry, not what I was angling for. I mean shard teleportation from Liberty to Triumph, etc

[MM3squints]

TRS 80

I actually had to Google what that was xD

[Power Gamer]

I actually had to Google what that was xD

We called them Trash 80.

Guess why...

[JWBullfrog]

We called them Trash 80.

Guess why...

Hey, hey, hey... I learned to program on one of those....


Which might explain my computer skills today.

[Tyger42]

Okay so I haven't checked in here for a while. Is this still the place for latest updates on this or would that be in the "mask comes off" thread now? The first post in here hasn't had a status update edit since August, and the other doesn't have that handy quick-glance reference...

[ivanhedgehog]

Hey, hey, hey... I learned to program on one of those....


Which might explain my computer skills today.

remember using the cassette tapes to save your code? the good old days

[Cailyn Alaynn]

Okay so I haven't checked in here for a while. Is this still the place for latest updates on this or would that be in the "mask comes off" thread now? The first post in here hasn't had a status update edit since August, and the other doesn't have that handy quick-glance reference...

Prolly, Although any new updates in regards to the purchase will prolly end up it's own thread... There's not much left to announce between now and the yes/no on the purchase.

[Noyjitat]

Okay so I haven't checked in here for a while. Is this still the place for latest updates on this or would that be in the "mask comes off" thread now? The first post in here hasn't had a status update edit since August, and the other doesn't have that handy quick-glance reference...

I'm hoping all the crickets means a big leap may happen soon and I don't mean a cricket leaping...

[Joshex]

Spoiler for Hidden:

UPDATE 06/12/2014:

A price was given and deemed 'doable'. They're working on proving their viability as developers. We're not likely to hear anything before August or later. No news is good news.

(08/13/2014: no change)

Timeline of significant events:
.

The bold comments are direct communications from the team. I have edited them slightly to remove names and such.

Timeline:
March 6 - I get the information and start working on a way to possibly open source CoH.
March 12 - got letter back from Chris Chung - it showed that is WAS possible to buy the game.
March 13 - the team makes its first contact with me and says this: You are an evil, evil man. I'd given up hope after learning of the tax issue. Now here I am now grinning from ear to ear. Likely going to lead to heartbreak, but damned the torpedos. Full speed ahead.
March 21 - Honestly, we had given up hope. Now, you've given us hope, so we're discussing it.
March 28 - We have been reaching out and putting the proposal together. The concern has been the "Golden Handcuffs" option, being shackled to NCSoft again and having the sword of damocles once again hanging over our heads but this time knowing it is there.
April 5 - Made some headway. Now we know who we need to talk to, and a general idea of price. It is very doable.
April 16 - At the end we'll announce it one way or the other. For now it is just this silly business dance in order to reach [Redacted contact]
April 18 - Second studio expresses interest in the game
April 21 - investor expresses interest and is passed to the team
May 1 - third studio expresses interest in the game.
May 21 - I ask how the talks are going and if they are making the team jump through hoops:Stupid. Stupid amounts of hoops, as far as I know.
June 19 - Slow but not dead. Not a big deal, we were focusing on August anyhow.
June 24 - former paragon Dev contacts me and is forwarded to the team
July 3 - Yesterday, we were directed to the man whose signature is needed.
July 3 - after MY reading WAAAY too much into the first message - Er... we're not days away from anything. We're just now in direct contact, which means we're past another hurdle. We still have at least two months of negotiations left ahead of us, at best. This is where the monsters truly do lie.
July 7 - another investor/studio contacts me and is forwarded to the team
July 11- the fifth studio contacts me and is forwarded to the team
July 24 - Direct quote: "we're working very hard on something to show someone. things will be quiet for a bit."
August 13 - Direct quote: Things are moving along. We should have things worth showing fairly soon, made a great leap forward yesterday.
----

ORIGINAL 03/06/2014:

We have some new efforts under way now and I will try and explain where we are currently with the efforts to return City of Heroes. Some folks have dropped off the stage and it is unknown if they will return. Those members are; VV and Ammon. Quinch was working on a proposal to Valve and it is unknown whether or not it was submitted.

One person was left with all of the work and Rae had some family issues arise that stalled everything further.

Now we start again and while I am do not have the stature of VV or Ammon - I am stubborn. I want this game back and I will float my idea to you folks for your input. Contrary to some things we have heard - apparently NCSoft WAS willing to sell the game. Everything was nearly complete when things went awry. The main point is they were willing to sell the IP in good faith.

Now where do we go? Rae is back in at least an advisory function and then there is myself with my wild ideas. Well guess what? I have another wild idea.

I am going to again speak to the Earth and Beyond folks and see how they managed to persuade EA to allow them to openly use the game. Then I am going to go directly to NCSoft and make our case like this:

The game while open and running had a certain value – with servers running, Developers in place, accounts paying in and players in the game – this value was roughly grossing $10 million a year. The net amount I would say could be in the $3-4 million a year if the game had been directly supported and updated alone with exploration into CoH2 taking only a few programmers.
However, that was then and this is now. Let's take a honest appraisal as one would for a house for sale. The game was based on a custom made engine that is very dated. The game no longer has servers running, there are no accounts in place and you have no players. IF - a large IF – the game returned some players would not come back feeling it just might close again and waste their time. Others have moved on to new games or have pulled back from gaming entirely (I know a few of these). So what is the value of the game now?

I would honestly say under $1 million.

It has some positives in that a lot of people have good vibes for City of Heroes and would like to see it back – even those who didn't play it. My pitch then is we ask openly for NCSoft allow the players to either openly reverse engineer the game or to allow us to host it and continue development in an open source not for profit manner much like Earth and Beyond. We can point to that game as an ideal solution to aging software. They retain all rights and IP privileges and the players get to play for a much reduced cost.

In fact I would say all AT's would be open and yet retain the cash store for items and to raise funds for servers and for developers to make updates. Do I hold out a lot of hope on this?

Honestly no, but it has worked for at least one other game.

Nice, I heard about this a while back on twitter, glad to see some specifics. if this is any indicator we could possibly have CoH back and playable in maybe 6 months that's still a lot better than not at all!

can't wait to rebuild/play my tank again. well I can wait and will lol. Just hyped.

[Blondeshell]

remember using the cassette tapes to save your code? the good old days

I remember the owner's manual for my TI-99/4A describing the read/write sounds made by the cassette drive as like "a love-sick gorilla."  Ah, such was home computing in 1983. :)

https://images.weserv.nl/?url=oldcomputers.net%2Fpics%2Fti994asystem.JPG

[Power Gamer]

I remember the owner's manual for my TI-99/4A describing the read/write sounds made by the cassette drive as like "a love-sick gorilla."  Ah, such was home computing in 1983. :)

https://images.weserv.nl/?url=oldcomputers.net%2Fpics%2Fti994asystem.JPG

Indeed!

[dwturducken]

TRS 80

Color? :)

I still have two working C64 decks, but my PS crapped out. Looking for one that isn't sealed to replace it, once I can shake loose the "extra" cash. Also, I seem to have misplaced my 1541 floppy drive, and most of my stuff is on floppies. The kids got a kick out of some of the old cartridge games, though, while the PS was working. :)

It's ironic that, of all the toys that I saved (Transformers, Legos, Star Wars, etc), it's the computers and video games from that era (add NES, Sega Genesis, and Tele-Pong) that my kids are interested in.

[Teikiatsu]

Sorry, not what I was angling for. I mean shard teleportation from Liberty to Triumph, etc

Naming conventions would have to be sorted out ahead of time, I'd imagine.

[Remaugen]

Color? :)

We still have a Trash 80 CoCo in my dads storage unit, with TWO external floppy drives and a dot matrix printer.

[Power Gamer]

It is what we had once upon a time.

[rebel 1812]

Prolly, Although any new updates in regards to the purchase will prolly end up it's own thread... There's not much left to announce between now and the yes/no on the purchase.

Can't see why NCSoft would say no.  Its no risk for them but they get a share of the profits and keep ownership of the IP.

[JanessaVR]

Can't see why NCSoft would say no.  Its no risk for them but they get a share of the profits and keep ownership of the IP.

Last I heard, no they wouldn't (keep the IP).

[Fanta]

Can't see why NCSoft would say no.  Its no risk for them but they get a share of the profits and keep ownership of the IP.

Umm, no. AFAIK the main reason the current effort is under way IS to purchase the IP and transition the game from it's former engine to the Unreal 4. I've been out of the loop for a while so correct me if I'm wrong.

[Cailyn Alaynn]

Can't see why NCSoft would say no.  Its no risk for them but they get a share of the profits and keep ownership of the IP.

Purchase the I.P. from them.

[Little David]

We called them Trash 80.

Guess why...

So that's the significance of Tim Lamb's stage name!