manhunter

[moondust man]

anyone ever played either of the manhunter games the old ones released by sierra between 1988-1992 i think

does anyone know of a third being made or how closely sierra hold the rights to the games and if at all possable would people be willing to help in making a third

[Radiant]

No, I'm pretty sure that nobody ever played either of the manhunter games

There exists no third game, and I've heard of some plans remaking one (in LA, IIRC) but I think it was abandoned.

Vivendi holds all rights to the series, and as such, making the third game would be a breach of copyright, and is therefore vulnerable to legal action. Caveat emptor.

And if you're going to ask help for any game, please first specify what exactly your job is going to be. Just having an idea is not enough, everyone has ideas. You should also have some skills that are required on the team.

[strazer]

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=13363

[BerserkerTails]

I'm pretty sure there was a third Manhunter game planned, "Manhunter London", as the second game ends with a teaser for it. Unfortunately the Manhunter games didn't sell too well and the series was canned.

Another neat tidbit of information (Which I've only heard about, can't find any reference site right now), is that the original designers of the Manhunter series bought the rights to it back from Sierra in the early to mid 90s. Right now they're only working on edutainment games, but perhaps in the future we might see the return of Manhunter.

[Etcher Squared Games]

Vivendi holds all rights to the series, and as such, making the third game would be a breach of copyright, and is therefore vulnerable to legal action. Caveat emptor.

ok, so I have a question:
So, what type of games or items in games could produce legal action?
As you say, if someone makes a manhunter 3 on here, even if not for profit, could they get sued?  Or does it matter if a series has been abandoned or not?  What about using ideas from games (I see a lot of games referencing the Monkey Island series).

[MrColossal]

Chances are so slim that you'd be sued.

You'd be sent a nice letter saying "Stop." and that's about it.

So if you want to make one, just make it and don't tell anyone, then just release it. If you make it public with a website and all that before it's done you might attract attention and be shut down.

Make the game, release it, they may send a letter saying, stop distributing it! But they can't stop everyone from passing your game around.

[moondust man]

No, I'm pretty sure that nobody ever played either of the manhunter games

And if you're going to ask help for any game, please first specify what exactly your job is going to be. Just having an idea is not enough, everyone has ideas. You should also have some skills that are required on the team.

i never asked for help if u read it it says willing to help but as u ask ill be doing the animation and user interface but im sure i can do the rest myself aswell just thorght sharein the load would get it done quicker

[Radiant]

What type of games could produce legal action? All of them.
Your game being non-profit has nothing to do with it. A series being 'abandoned' would only count as such if its copyright had expired, wich is 95 years after the death of its creator, by current copyright law.
Using ideas from games, well, that really depends on how far you're going and how 'recognizable' the ideas are. In general, using backgrounds or major plotline elements is a legal hazard (e.g. "a wanna-be pirate who's in love with the local governor and defending her from a ghost" would constitute legal hazard; despite what many people think, simply changing the names doesn't protect you).

MrColossal is right in that they'll simply ask you to stop (aka Cease 'n Desist). If you don't, they might sue, but more likely they'll get your webpage host to remove the page. It would seriously hamper the distribution of your game, though - try getting ahold of QfG4.5 or QfO these days.

[PaulSC]

They're classics! Albeit very flawed classics. I liked the references to it in Pleurghburg.

I really loved that tracking system that lets you follow the progress of the different suspects as they move about the map, going about their murdering business and getting killed. But like a lot of these old games some of the puzzles were insanely harsh, and some of those action sequences were damn near impossible. The story was a little muddled, also. it's a shame the series ended on a cliffhanger, though.

[GarageGothic]

I actually came across something interesting on the Murray brothers' website, evryware.com a while back. In the products section (http://evryware.com/products.htm), there's a dead link titled "Manhunter 3: Ultimate Online Adventure"  :o

Imagine what could have been...