Upcoming Unreal Alpha and Beta versions release

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

No compromises, just the CD checks etc, any conversions can have bugs and it was already difficult with the leaked beta and I was one of few who got it even right (maybe even one of two). These can be made later.

And why not email Cliff Bleszinski or the level designers? They are usually more open to it. But Cliff doesn't have the files anyway, neither I think anyone who he is working with, he surely asked.

 

[GreatEmerald]

You see, ultimatums fail a lot more often than negotiations. I'd rather have something released, in any form, than nothing at all.

Sure, those channels are good as well, but the problem is getting their contact information.

 

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

You see, ultimatums fail a lot more often than negotiations. I'd rather have something released, in any form, than nothing at all.

Sure, those channels are good as well, but the problem is getting their contact information.

Even David Kelvin didn't get it right at rtnp. And it is quite the opposite for me, unless I would be given the real betas and promise not to release them in their form. That way I could check for sure that the conversion is nice enough. And they won't care for bonuspacks of old game anyway.

Ultimatum...sigh, I am not making ultimatum at all, I am just proposing something.

And yes the letters need to be written in a right way. I am not an expert for that actually, but I think my letters were not that bad.

And contact information, you can just look at their websites and stuff. That is how I found out Cliff Bleszinski's adress. Then he sent it from the Epic one and I knew even his work adress suddenly. It is not that difficult.

Not only that, but their email adresses are very easy to guess, they are mostly their name(sometimes just first name, sometimes both, separated by dot or _) @epicgames.com

 

[GreatEmerald]

And it is quite the opposite for me, unless I would be given the real betas and promise not to release them in their form. That way I could check for sure that the conversion is nice enough. And they won't care for bonuspacks of old game anyway.

Well yes, that was my idea, if they can't release the actual beta publically, they can give a personal license for us so we could create a BP out of it, then possibly send it for verification and release it. Having them make a BP would be pointless and waste of their staff, at least from their perspective, anyway, seeing that they even gave the 226 source to Smirf instead of creating a patch themselves.

 

[Gizzy]

I've made a (Probably fruitless) attempt to obtain more info on these Betas/Alphas.

Looking though the many archived websites, I've gathered a few E-Mail addresses and I've sent E-Mails to each Admin/Moderator of that particular site. A few have bouced back, but most actually sent.

 

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

What sites? Good luck..I hope some will respond, but I would like to know more about this.
Anyway as I said...it should be done through contacting some of the people who had the contract too, etc. I think only the original owner can recover them now....with some effort. I have gave him one contact which can be useful, but if not, he can just try to search for other betatesters who might have the stuff....

 

[Gizzy]

What sites? Good luck..I hope some will respond, but I would like to know more about this.
Anyway as I said...it should be done through contacting some of the people who had the contract too, etc. I think only the original owner can recover them now....with some effort. I have gave him one contact which can be useful, but if not, he can just try to search for other betatesters who might have the stuff....

Use this and do a search of www.unreal.org. You'll find loads of links to other old, archived Unreal sites from around 96/97/98.

I think contacting other people who were under this contract would be quite difficult becuase:
1. Not many people were part of it.
2. Even if they could be contacted, they might not have them anymore.
3. Some of them have died.

It's difficult for the original owner to get in contact with Epic becuase they stopped resopnding to his E-Mails a while back. I don't want to pester him for info either

 

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

Well it is the only way and it is more prone to succeed than contacting Atari, which is imo really ridiculous given what they have done.
Just a more patience is needed of course. But I had responses from people I would not expect it to you know.

 

[Exus Tecius]

heh ?
what happened here ? evolve deleted all his posts.why ?

 

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

heh ?
what happened here ? evolve deleted all his posts.why ?

eVOLVE never posted in this thread...he posted in the Unreal PSX one.

 

[Exus Tecius]

hahahaha roflmao this is epic.
meh i need a drink.sorry.

 

[GreatEmerald]

At least I know that Atari do have them, or at least, have had them...
Also, funny how GT Interactive, Infogrames and Atari all merged into Atari, SA

 

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

At least I know that Atari do have them, or at least, have had them...
Also, funny how GT Interactive, Infogrames and Atari all merged into Atari, SA

Well...go ahead and contact them then. As I said...good luck.

And if the original owner still had them there is chance other copies still exist around.

 

[Gizzy]

Wouldn't hurt to try contacting them

I've not recieved any response from my topic at Digital Extremes forums, which is a shame. I wish I knew the E-Mail of some "Higher-Up" people over at DE. I'd contact them that way instead.

 

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

I contacted the person from DE I talked to before, when I was asking for Jean Rochefort. I asked her about the betas, but no response...anyway at their site they've got informations contact, you can send there emails and they should answer you. Try that?

 

[Mental-HunteR]

I don't think they will give us the beta's unless we'll pay them like a fortune or something.

 

[Gizzy]

It's nothing to do with money per se, but more to do with bloody legal. Epic's legal department just flat-out won't comply. I think someone said it was becuase some old code could be copied by licensees of the Unreal Engine, as well as other developers. I think that it was said that some of the code in the betas is super-special for some reason.

Looking at code from a beta of a game from 1996 would not help anyone in their project. It's UScript, so It's only useful in games that utilise the Unreal Engine. Not only that, but since the game is unfinished the code would be too. Nobody would want to try and fix all the errors to make it totally playable. That's why the full game was released! A remake in UDK would be illegal, just like a UT remake (But who would want to remake a beta of a game?) The code is seriously, SERIOUSLY deprecated and anyone trying to use it in, let's say, a UDK project for example, would not be able to due to the age gap. 15 year old game code from an unfinished game engine over 10 years old would be of no use to anyone. Why would someone set out to translate the beta code to UnrealEngine 3 standards, actually manage to compile it AND sell their project they created while giving NO credit to Epic, where it would have been so much quicker to write the needed function themselves?

Take the already-leaked '95 Tech Demo and 97/98 beta. The tech demo has snazzy music and shows off the potential of the Unreal Engine and the 97/98 beta has a few different levels, sounds, music and textures but seriously, who thinks Epic would have lost any money becuase of these leaks? The beta has netplay disabled and the tech demo doesn't even have netplay! The tech demo has 0 Single Player experience and the Beta crashes, has horrible controls and is glitchy. If anything, seeing these betas would encourage people to buy the full thing.

I understand where their Legal department is coming from. It's not as easy as "Ok, heres the betas. *Hands over link to FTP*". LOTS of contracts would have to be signed. I personally think that the release of the source code (The code that CREATED Unreal) is more risky than allowing public access of the Alphas and Betas. They don't even need to release them entirely. Like Leo said, they could release specific files and the content could be ported over as a mod (Completely seperate from 227 of course.)

A "All guns blazing" bethod to obtain these in my opinion, would be for as many people as possible to write a small part about why they would like the Betas, (Pros, Cons etc...) or for everyone to sign a petition. If Smirf (Or someone who would likely get a reply from Epic) could E-Mail this to Epic, then maybe they might see reason and an agreement could be made.


tl;dr
Legal department won't allow it becuase they don't want to risk losing a few pounds (Dollars...w/e)

 

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

No, they meant that they won't release source code to public, that would be so special, But the betas have no source code included, they are just betas....for ****s sake.

They wouldn't lose any pounds at all etc....and the 98 beta is not even a full beta, it is a press leak. And press versions tends to be more messy in general. Besides nobody cared about them, they only cared when it was leaked prior to release. But did anyone charge these people? No actually, they were just asked to put it down even. But with a CD checks etc it would not be a free game anymore or as a mod. But the older betas would be really tricky to convert over. So the CD checks etc is more appropriate idea. Or just install check, because I don't know how would they want to check anthology version.
And it won't have to be signed etc. Anyway first these files must be found before anything. I mean Cliff Bleszinski could maybe succeed who knows...but they need to be FOUND.
And they can be found there is still a chance, so don't lose it.

 

[AWW SNACK]

No, they meant that they won't release source code to public, that would be so special, But the betas have no source code included, they are just betas....for ****s sake.

They wouldn't lose any pounds at all etc....and the 98 beta is not even a full beta, it is a press leak. And press versions tends to be more messy in general. Besides nobody cared about them, they only cared when it was leaked prior to release. But did anyone charge these people? No actually, they were just asked to put it down even. But with a CD checks etc it would not be a free game anymore or as a mod. But the older betas would be really tricky to convert over. So the CD checks etc is more appropriate idea. Or just install check, because I don't know how would they want to check anthology version.
And it won't have to be signed etc. Anyway first these files must be found before anything. I mean Cliff Bleszinski could maybe succeed who knows...but they need to be FOUND.
And they can be found there is still a chance, so don't lose it.

The problem with the CD checks is that it would cause problems for people that have the Steam or other digital versions of the game. I think a better idea would be a check for the Unreal .exe and a few other files so that people that have the digital version or plan on only having the digital version in the future (like me) won't get left in the dust if this is released.

As for the legal problems; have you blatantly told them that you have no intention of obtaining the source code? All you want is the beta files (like textures and models), .exes and the versions of UnrealEd attached to the betas.

 

[GreatEmerald]

Yea, those should be install checks, just like what patches use. You can even create those, too.