Sir F. Raynal mini-Interview

[Axx]

Hi Ahmad,

/*Irrelevant information edited out*/


Regarding LBA3

• Have any plans been made to commence development

Not yet and not before the end of my Ubisoft project

• If so, have you resolved isses concerning collaboration with LWS and Philippe Vachey

There are no issues with them, everybody waits for the right time frame.

Regarding your current work

• How has the project progress commenced so far?

Very good, I really enjoy it, it's something very special, hope you'll like it...

• Is there a release date, or possible details regarding the project?

No release date yet, but I think Ubi will start speaking about it middle next year.

Regarding Ludoid

• I see the website is not yet up, is there any hope to see it come up soon?

I have a lot to do with my projects, and don't really know what I can put on it. (except an annoucement to tell I bought MBN that was a good joke. I wanted to answer with another joke, like I wanted to suit MBN for that annoucement but didn't take the time.)

• Will you expand the company into a full working studio in the foreseeable future?

That could happen, we'll see that at the end of my Ubisoft project. Now, it's good to work the way I do, like a consultant but very integrated in studios.

/*Irrelevant information edited out*/

Best wishes to your family,
Fred.

So there you have it. From this we can deduce that

• The project he is working on is not "Lost", as it is released early 2008 (to the best of my knowledge, as well as the team working on it being based in Canada, while Fred is working with a team based in France)
• It is not nearing completion, and announcements will only begin in the middle of 2008(can someone give us a time frame from when a game is talked about till release approx?)
• Confirmed - There no-longer exist an issues (rights and such) regarding LBA.
• Sorry El, your misc questions weren't answered, and from the looks of his reply, and the time it took him to reply, he seems to be very busy!

[Streg]

Good to know that he's busy

[Darkflame]

Is there a release date, or possible details regarding the project?
No release date yet, but I think Ubi will start speaking about it middle next year.

WOW...this is wonderfull news.

If its not being talked about till mid next year, then it has to be something
a) Unannounced
b) Big enough to justify that development time.

Sure, its not LBA3, but these are both good signs what he is working on is something significantly interesting. (unlike, say Raving Rabbits 3, or generic lisence game 45)

[Kobold]

He even saw our April Fools joke, heh.

[SebZ]

Originally Posted by Axx

• Confirmed - There no-longer exist an issues (rights and such) regarding LBA.

So does that mean that we can now redistribute LBA here?

[Darkflame]

Sadly, I think the rights to code (eg original game) distribution are seperate from rights to use the charecters/settings like making a sequal.

[Dino-Fly]

So when can we?

[Streg]

70/90 years

[Axx]

If I make another lba site, ill be more than happy to distribute LBA (all versions) simple because
a)It no longer generates profit
b)It could help keep the memory alive to generate more profit when LBA3 comes around
c)who cares if its illegal? Even EA wouldn't care if i uploaded it!

[morshem]

OMG! LBA 3 news!!!!!!!!1111

Spoiler:

toggle spoiler

[Dino-Fly]

Originally Posted by morshem

OMG! LBA 3 news!!!!!!!!1111

Spoiler:

toggle spoiler

Hows that ment to make us happy, reminding us that we'd all be dead by the time they make LBA3

[Kitarii]

Morshem, I hope you are not being pessimistic over there.
LBA3 is coming!
If not then I will come to the Kibbutz and poke you in the eye with a banana.

[leoboe]

Good news (at least most of them )

But i wander what he means with Ubisoft-project

[Axx]

Originally Posted by morshem

OMG! LBA 3 news!!!!!!!!1111

Spoiler:

toggle spoiler

If you have nothing good to say

Don't say it

[Streg]

he's talking about the game he's making ofcourse

[Axx]

Im talking about how positive thinking and the LBA3 campaign actually had an effect and are the reason plans for LBA3 are actually on the table.

[LBAWinOwns]

Is there a full version with 'irrelevant info'?

[Darkflame]

If I make another lba site, ill be more than happy to distribute LBA (all versions) simple because
a)It no longer generates profit
b)It could help keep the memory alive to generate more profit when LBA3 comes around
c)who cares if its illegal? Even EA wouldn't care if i uploaded it!

Id agree with all that too, the problem is more the hosting end.
Hosts can be very scared of hosting stuff, and even a single complaint can often get you kicked off, even if its from no one even vaguely to do with it.

[Axx]

No way to hide my host?

[Assassin]

Originally Posted by Axx

Im talking about how positive thinking and the LBA3 campaign actually had an effect and are the reason plans for LBA3 are actually on the table.

Where do you see they're on the table?
As far as I can see Fred is saying he's working on some other project now and isn't thinking of LBA3 at the moment, so not much has changed.

[quetchKiwi]

Originally Posted by Axx

If I make another lba site, ill be more than happy to distribute LBA (all versions) simple because
a)It no longer generates profit
b)It could help keep the memory alive to generate more profit when LBA3 comes around
c)who cares if its illegal? Even EA wouldn't care if i uploaded it!

Originally Posted by Axx

No way to hide my host?

I think we can work on that point..

i.e: the games are hosted (in anonymous archives) on a hosting space that hasn't nothing to do with lba
than, the download page (on another site) will link somehow to the archives....

surely that's possible -don't know exactly how-


PS: Fred answered me too about CitadelItaly, I'll post his reply soon

[elmuerte]

Originally Posted by Darkflame

Sadly, I think the rights to code (eg original game) distribution are seperate from rights to use the charecters/settings like making a sequal.

You mean copyright of the games vs ownership of the intellectual property?

First of all, I won't if EA, Activision and Virgin have any copyrights on the game. Just regional exclusive distribution rights.

For LBA1 it clear states copyright for the software (=game) belongs to Adeline Software, and the manual's copyright is owned by EA. Same goes for LBA2.

Since Fred has no problems with redistribution of the games as freeware and assuming he owns the rights it is ok to redistribute.

Now... if we can get an official statement from Fred that the games are now released as freeware it will be easy to distribute through various channels (like liberatedgames.com).
It would be best if we made special images with all required stuff included (autorun + proper installer and documentation for various non-Windows/Dos machines, etc.)

[Axx]

Originally Posted by Assassin

Where do you see they're on the table?
As far as I can see Fred is saying he's working on some other project now and isn't thinking of LBA3 at the moment, so not much has changed.

Check out my interview with him during the LBA3 campaign, as well as my visit to lyon last summer. On both occassions he announced that upon completing his current project, he would begin development on LBA3, Didier Chanfray and Philippe Vachey have all accepted the idea, and now its just a matter of 'As soon as were done with this project'

Okey, here's my announcment. I will upload (by the end of september/1st week of october) all the different versions of LBA to my rapidshare, and will post links on my current site.

[Axx]

Originally Posted by El_Muerte

You mean copyright of the games vs ownership of the intellectual property?

First of all, I won't if EA, Activision and Virgin have any copyrights on the game. Just regional exclusive distribution rights.

For LBA1 it clear states copyright for the software (=game) belongs to Adeline Software, and the manual's copyright is owned by EA. Same goes for LBA2.

Since Fred has no problems with redistribution of the games as freeware and assuming he owns the rights it is ok to redistribute.

Now... if we can get an official statement from Fred that the games are now released as freeware it will be easy to distribute through various channels (like liberatedgames.com).
It would be best if we made special images with all required stuff included (autorun + proper installer and documentation for various non-Windows/Dos machines, etc.)

I can try to secure such a statement, but Im more than sure he dosnt mind anyway.

[Darkflame]

Can we also distribute the LBA1 PSX version?

I think its relivent as its
a) Increaseingly rare to find.
b) Is possible, in theory, to run on portable devices ver emulation. (even if its not possible at present exactly...I got very close with my gp2x...)

I have a rar of the PSX version somewhere. Its not that big, actualy. 100MBish I think.


Also, hosting suggestion;

http://www.attuhosting.com/

150MB free.
(no rapidshare bullshit either...allthough theres a bandwidth limit per month, but then, if LBA starts getting shitloads of downloads, thats a happy problem to worry about )