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King in Yellow Oct 22, 2020 @ 2:28am

This game is illegal

You do not own the rights to Rogue, you have absolutely no right to sell it.

I contacted Steam about it and suggest other users to do the same.

Wanna make a few bucks? Then make your own game instead of trying to cash in on other people's work.

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Showing 1-15 of 49 comments

Tchey Oct 22, 2020 @ 3:00am

I’m curious about it too.

So far i’ve read open allegations, nothing factual, so i’m open to any answer.

Etchasketch Oct 22, 2020 @ 3:44am

Originally posted by King in Yellow:
You do not own the rights to Rogue, you have absolutely no right to sell it.

I contacted Steam about it and suggest other users to do the same.

Wanna make a few bucks? Then make your own game instead of trying to cash in on other people's work.

This is Epyx Rogue. It seems they bought the rights to most Epyx titles like California Games.

You should make sure before posting topics like this.

King in Yellow Oct 22, 2020 @ 3:51am

Originally posted by Etchasketch:
This is Epyx Rogue. It seems they bought the rights to most Epyx titles like California Games.

You should make sure before posting topics like this.

Epyx went bankrupt in 1989 and ceased to exist in 1993.

The only assets that were sold were sold to a publisher named System 3, in 2006.

I can't find any info about Pixel Games UK buying anything from Epyx (or System 3).

You should make sure before posting answers like this.

Homer Pimpson has Rogue

Oct 22, 2020 @ 4:15am

Originally posted by King in Yellow:
Originally posted by Etchasketch:
This is Epyx Rogue. It seems they bought the rights to most Epyx titles like California Games.

You should make sure before posting topics like this.

Epyx went bankrupt in 1989 and ceased to exist in 1993.

The only assets that were sold were sold to a publisher named System 3, in 2006.

I can't find any info about Pixel Games UK buying anything from Epyx (or System 3).

You should make sure before posting answers like this.

so where do you fit in with all this? are you just some blowhard online, or are you involved with any of these companies in a meaningful way?

Lil Sprankles has Rogue

Oct 22, 2020 @ 4:38am

knock it off. Its a great port of an abandonware title. Just enjoy it, you trolls.

Del_Duio

Oct 22, 2020 @ 4:54am

I would think this is a perfectly legal thing to do, I mean it's not like they're selling some no-name product on the black market where nobody goes. It's one of the originators of a damn genre on the biggest online storefront this side of the galaxy (and Beverly Hills!)

King in Yellow Oct 22, 2020 @ 4:59am

To be fair, I'd be fine with it if they had bothered to add something to the game: tiles, revamp the UI, achievements... anything really.

But downloading a free game, slaping your name on it and selling it on Steam should not be okay.

Hazen

Oct 22, 2020 @ 5:08am

There is always the option to play if on the vanilla ascii version, but you may need a virtual machine or msdoxbox.

Stinkflipper Incarnate has Rogue

Oct 22, 2020 @ 5:44am

Originally posted by King in Yellow:
To be fair, I'd be fine with it if they had bothered to add something to the game: tiles, revamp the UI, achievements... anything really.

But downloading a free game, slaping your name on it and selling it on Steam should not be okay.

That's not what they're doing. This is specifically the version of Rogue for the PC, that was published by Epyx as a commercial product.

I don't know any details of the original contract between Epyx and the developers, and what that allows or not in terms of reselling the game on Steam.

But regarding the rights to the Epyx games in general, the Steam-page states the following:

Epyx Rogue™ is used under official license from Code 10 Digital Ltd and Bridgestone Multimedia Group. The Epyx logo is a registered trademark of the Bridgestone Multimedia Group. All rights reserved.

So there are deals in place with two distinct rights holders to distribute this on Steam. Again, I don't know if the original contract between Epyx and AI Design allows for redistribution and how it would work with royalties et.c. But it's not like the distribution rights to Epyx' games just vanished, and the current owners seem to be Code 10 Digital and Bridgestone Multimedia Group. How that came to be I've no idea, but that's how it often is with rights to old games and publisher catalogs.

Last edited by Stinkflipper Incarnate; Oct 22, 2020 @ 5:49am

Hazen

Oct 22, 2020 @ 6:01am

Who is Epyx and do you have a lawyer to go with that? I'm just a consumer and supporter of games developers.

#10

Stinkflipper Incarnate has Rogue

Oct 22, 2020 @ 6:03am

Epyx were basically the EA of home computer games in the early eighties. Then they tried making their own console, and other dumb things, and now nobody knows who they are...

Last edited by Stinkflipper Incarnate; Oct 22, 2020 @ 6:05am

#11