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from the how-many-copies-of-each-will-he-sell? dept.
Al Lowe reveals his Sierra source code collection—then puts it on eBay
Al Lowe, one of Sierra On-Line's seminal game creators and programmers, has been sitting on a pile of his original games' source code files for over 30 years, fully convinced that they are worthless.
Gallery: Taking a look back at some choice Sierra gaming moments"I’m 72 years old, and none of my kids want this junk!" Lowe said in an interview with YouTube personality MetalJesusRocks (aka Jason Lindsey, himself an ex-Sierra developer and a friend of Ars). "Does anybody?"
Lowe is about to find out, as the developer has begun posting eBay listings for his entire source-code collection. (You read that correctly. The whole shebang.) The sale's opening has been accompanied by a MetalJesusRocks video (embedded below), which offers a 12-minute tour of backed-up files, original game boxes, original hint books, and more.
As of press time, Lowe has listed auctions for the first two Leisure Suit Larry games' source code, with bids already climbing (both well above the $400 mark after they went live). Lowe indicated to Lindsey that more games' code will follow on eBay, and this will likely include a stunning treasure trove: Lowe's other Leisure Suit Larry games, King's Quest III, Police Quest I, and Lowe's games based on Disney franchises Winnie The Pooh and Black Cauldron.A truly graphic adventure: the 25-year rise and fall of a beloved genre
What's more, Lowe also has original backups of his complete programming pipeline, including the Sierra utilities that converted plain-text, ASCII commands to interpreted code. When pressed about how curious users could peruse these disks' files, Lowe plainly responds, "It's a text file! Put it in Notepad."
[...] Lowe's listings clarify a few things: first, he has not tested any of these disks, and second, owning these disks is not the same as owning the legal rights to freely or commercially distribute their contents. "Realize that, while you’ll have my data as of the day of Larry 1’s creation, you will not own the intellectual property rights to the game, the code, the art, or anything else," Lowe says in the LSL1 listing. "Nor do I. The IP rights were sold over and over again, until they are now owned by a German game company."
(Score: 3, Informative) by bzipitidoo on Saturday December 01 2018, @02:26PM (2 children)
Mothers can't be copyrighted, nor duplicated.
(Score: 3, Touché) by linkdude64 on Saturday December 01 2018, @11:20PM
Either you're missing the point, or I am. I took OP to mean that owning the disks means nothing because you can't copy them and don't own rights. So having the original source code to a game you love has no sentimental value at all - operative word being value? He's saying it's a pile of old disks, and that they aren't special because you can't copy or duplicate them. Mothers, you can't copy or duplicate either, as you said, yet you would be facetious beyond the pale to state that there is an equal lack of sentimentality to be had regarding uncopiable disks and mothers.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday December 03 2018, @06:14PM
Yet.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"