Normally, for older retail PC games no longer available, I visit Abandonia.com. Anyhow, I was thinking of Maniac Mansion Deluxe and saw it on there, but instead of the game being available for download, a little icon said, "Protected by the ESA" Yet, I can come onto BigBlueCup.com and download Maniac Mansion Deluxe with no problem. Any insight on this would be appreciated. Thanks :)
Maniac Mansion Deluxe on THIS site is a remake of maniac mansion made in AGS and is therefore freely distributable (provided Lucasarts never complains about the characters,etc).
Quote from: ProgZmax on Sat 22/05/2010 00:09:26
Maniac Mansion Deluxe on THIS site is a remake of maniac mansion made in AGS and is therefore freely distributable (provided Lucasarts never complains about the characters,etc).
Yep. That's exactly what I thought, and wondered how it could be ESA protected, because i'm thinking its the same game
My guess is Abandonia just didn't want to risk treading on LucasArts' toes by providing a download for an unofficial remake of one of their games. Probably it's just the original Maniac Mansion that is ESA protected?
Quote from: Lyaer on Sat 22/05/2010 01:06:39
My guess is Abandonia just didn't want to risk treading on LucasArts' toes by providing a download for an unofficial remake of one of their games. Probably it's just the original Maniac Mansion that is ESA protected?
That was one of my thoughts as well, that Abandonia didn't want to risk a battle with LucasArts. Here is the link to the game on their website http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/300/Maniac+Mansion+Deluxe.html
Apparently the game was remade by "LucasFan" back in 2004 but doesn't give any details as to what program was used for recreating the game.
Abandonia needs to be contacted about that because it is, in fact, a fangame made by an AGS user with the AGS engine and not an 'official' Lucasfilm Games/Lucasarts title and is therefore NOT protected by the ESA in any way, shape or form. The worst they coudl do would be for Lucasarts to issue a cease and desist (it's too late for that) and they've never shown public interest in the maniac mansion fangames.
Frankly I'm a bit baffled why they would even make such an erroneous claim, but by all means download it from here and enjoy!
I disagree (although, yes the wording is misleading) - Maniac Mansion Deluxe isn't protected by ESA, however the original Maniac Mansion *is*, and thus distribution of a derivative work is restricted by that very same protection. Whether or not LucasArts have issued a cease and desist notice or intend to do so in the future isn't important. Unless LucasArts have given express permission Abandonia are doing the right thing by covering their asses. Even LucasFan knows that he's treading murky waters as his decision to "shut down our web appearance" (http://www.lucasfangames.de/) demonstrates.
If I recall correctly, AB pulled the download because ESA had just declared war on them, and ordered them to pull every ESA-related game on their site, or be closed down (a few ESA games had accidently slipped through). AB was playing safe, and decided to pull that one as well.