Poll: would you pay for SimCity and Ultima II for the IIgs?

[Toinet]

Dear All,
I've been recently in touch with Electronic Arts, owner of Maxis and
Origin Systems, former publishers of SimCity and the Ultima series
respectively.

My idea was to finish what Becky Heineman started on SimCity. Yes, the
game exists, I have a copy. With Ultima II, I would have liked to work
from Becky's source code of Ultima I for the IIgs to keep the same
level of quality.

I've officially requested the permission to port those two games on
the Apple IIgs and the answer was quite clear: "We would require a EUR
20,000 minimum guarantee and a 10% royalty rate."

To make it short, it would require 10,000 sales at EUR 20 (or 5,000 at
EUR 40, etc.) which is, to be honest, far from being realistic in our
today's market. And, I also need to make it clear if that amount is
for the two games or per game.

So... here are the simple questions...
Would you pay for those games?
If yes, how much would you pay for them?

Answers can either be sent in this thread or at info AT brutaldeluxe
DOT fr

Thank you,
Antoine

[The Wizard of Oz]

Post by Toinet
Dear All,
I've been recently in touch with Electronic Arts, owner of Maxis and
Origin Systems, former publishers of SimCity and the Ultima series
respectively.
My idea was to finish what Becky Heineman started on SimCity. Yes, the
game exists, I have a copy. With Ultima II, I would have liked to work
from Becky's source code of Ultima I for the IIgs to keep the same
level of quality.
I've officially requested the permission to port those two games on
the Apple IIgs and the answer was quite clear: "We would require a EUR
20,000 minimum guarantee and a 10% royalty rate."
To make it short, it would require 10,000 sales at EUR 20 (or 5,000 at
EUR 40, etc.) which is, to be honest, far from being realistic in our
today's market. And, I also need to make it clear if that amount is
for the two games or per game.
So... here are the simple questions...
Would you pay for those games?
If yes, how much would you pay for them?
Answers can either be sent in this thread or at info AT brutaldeluxe
DOT fr
Thank you,
Antoine

In Winnipeg (Canada) we are renowned for a number of things. The major
one is we are the largest city in the middle of nowhere. Another is this
area was settled by some of the downright cheapest groups on the planet.
I myself belong to half of them. ;-) You can use my opinion for the
lower boundary.

I would pay for them but would prefer not to. I already own a copy of
SimCity I and III for the PC, and so would be less interested in this
one. In general I'd pay $2.00 (Canadian) for a GS game (shipping
included - shipping is terribly expensive here). Particularly if it will
install and work under an emulator running under OS X or Linux. *I*
might go as high as $10.00 for an "Ultimate Ultima" collection (all the
Ultima games before they changed the graphics). I'd double that to
$20.00 if you also included a Linux engine. That might mean a major
rewrite of the code though. A separation of code and data. Oh, and no
DRM. It's a pain to go through this validation nonsense when I change a
hard drive every five years or so. Who can remember codes... Who can
remember where the box is stored...

Later
Mike

[Bill Buckels]

In Winnipeg (Canada) we are renowned for a number of things. The major one
is we are the largest city in the middle of nowhere.

You must not get out much. I live in Gimli which according to our proximity
must then be "nowhere"... when I lived in Winnipeg it felt like "nowhere" so
I can certainly understand. I was born there.

Another is this area was settled by some of the downright cheapest groups
on the planet.

My people were not rich. The dollar had a value back then...

I myself belong to half of them. ;-)

The other half use PC's. I belong to that group and if weren't for the fact
that I actually made money by writing software on the Apple II I would never
have bothered... too damned expensive.

You can use my opinion for the lower boundary.

Or mine. I would pay for the media and small duplication charge. In this day
and age the software should be free and open source. There aren't enough of
us using Apple II's or Gs's on the planet to gouge anymore... not too long
from now there will be less of us.

I would pay for them but would prefer not to.

Well, exactly...

In general I'd pay $2.00 (Canadian) for a GS game (shipping included -
shipping is terribly expensive here).

That's exactly what I was thinking... maybe we are cheap around here. Or
realistic...

Particularly if it will install and work under an emulator running under OS
X or Linux.

I think the disk images should just be uploaded and made available for free
download and that's the end of it. Then a guy could just put them on his
microdrive and make his own disks if he wanted real ones.

Regards,

Bill

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Bill_Buckels

http://www.cpm8680.com/
http://www.appleoldies.ca/
http://www.c64classics.ca/

http://www.aztecmuseum.ca/

http://www.teacherschoice.ca/
http://www.clipshop.ca/

http://www.grindstoneharbour.com

[rich12345]

Post by Toinet
So... here are the simple questions...
Would you pay for those games?
If yes, how much would you pay for them?

I was never a big fan of Ultima or the Sim series. I would think
about
paying for SimCity if the price was right and the game was totally
awesome....

Any chance you could modify the code enough to make it unique
enough to call it your own?

SimCity seems like it wouldn't be too hard to clone. Economy,
disasters, growth, weather... You could do a text simulation, and
then add a GUI with neat animated graphics :-)

Rich

[Steve Nickolas]

Post by rich12345

Post by Toinet
So... here are the simple questions...
Would you pay for those games?
If yes, how much would you pay for them?

I was never a big fan of Ultima or the Sim series. I would think
about
paying for SimCity if the price was right and the game was totally
awesome....
Any chance you could modify the code enough to make it unique
enough to call it your own?
SimCity seems like it wouldn't be too hard to clone. Economy,
disasters, growth, weather... You could do a text simulation, and
then add a GUI with neat animated graphics :-)
Rich

What of the open source version, Micropolis? Would be harder to port but
it would be less expensive.

-uso.

[Sean Fahey]

Post by Toinet
I've officially requested the permission to port those two games on
the Apple IIgs and the answer was quite clear: "We would require a EUR
20,000 minimum guarantee and a 10% royalty rate."

I think you got a passive "get lost" reply to your inquiry.

[magnusfalkirk]

Post by Sean Fahey

Post by Toinet
I've officially requested the permission to port those two games on
the Apple IIgs and the answer was quite clear: "We would require a EUR
20,000 minimum guarantee and a 10% royalty rate."

I think you got a passive "get lost" reply to your inquiry.

I'd be saying "get lost" to EA. Are they out of their mind asking that
kind of money for a game for a computer that hasn't seen commercial
support in at least 14 years? I'd second the idea of trying to go with
the freeware Micropolis port to the GS.

Dean

[Michael J. Mahon]

Post by magnusfalkirk

Post by Sean Fahey

Post by Toinet
I've officially requested the permission to port those two games on
the Apple IIgs and the answer was quite clear: "We would require a EUR
20,000 minimum guarantee and a 10% royalty rate."

I think you got a passive "get lost" reply to your inquiry.

I'd be saying "get lost" to EA. Are they out of their mind asking that
kind of money for a game for a computer that hasn't seen commercial
support in at least 14 years? I'd second the idea of trying to go with
the freeware Micropolis port to the GS.

I think you misunderstand their intent--this is a lawyer's way
of saying "No."

-michael

NadaNet 3.1 for Apple II parallel computing!
Home page: http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."

[Steven Hirsch]

Post by Michael J. Mahon

Post by magnusfalkirk

Post by Sean Fahey

Post by Toinet
I've officially requested the permission to port those two games on
the Apple IIgs and the answer was quite clear: "We would require a EUR
20,000 minimum guarantee and a 10% royalty rate."

I think you got a passive "get lost" reply to your inquiry.

I'd be saying "get lost" to EA. Are they out of their mind asking that
kind of money for a game for a computer that hasn't seen commercial
support in at least 14 years? I'd second the idea of trying to go with
the freeware Micropolis port to the GS.

I think you misunderstand their intent--this is a lawyer's way
of saying "No."

Precisely my impression, having been down this road many years back with a
very large company and a very obsolete product.

[Alex Lee]

I'd pay $10 for each, which is more than what I've been paying for
iPhone games. I could possibly go higher than that. $15?

I also encourage you to check out Micropolis - there might be something
in that making it easier to port.

- Alex

[Sean Fahey]

Post by Toinet
Dear All,
I've been recently in touch with Electronic Arts, owner of Maxis and
Origin Systems, former publishers of SimCity and the Ultima series
respectively.

http://www.ultimaaiera.com/blog/concerning-ultima-4-or-in-which-i-have-to-be-the-wet-blanket/

[wyeo]

Like Alex, between US$10 - US$15 if there are no fancy boxes or
printed manuals.

If they asked for a token sum of $1,000 I guess everyone will be
willing to chip in something.

However, it may end up like Wolfenstein 3D, where it might eventually
be "for free" ... considering that.

But you should be able to get around changing the name to "Micropolis
GS" since the original version is released to the GPL Open Source as
"Micropolis", but EA was keeping the trademark name "SimCity".

[rich12345]

Post by Toinet
"We would require a EUR
20,000 minimum guarantee and a 10% royalty rate."

According to:

http://www.xe.com/ucc/convert/?Amount=20000&From=EUR&To=USD

that would be $28,468.00 USD

I wonder if there is $28,000 left to be made in Apple II hardware and/
or software.

[bloomer_au]

I'd pay $20 for Ultima II. I'm not interested in Sim City, myself,
though I'd still enjoy trying it if it gone done.

But with Ultima II, my thinking is 'Yes, I'd pay to help that project
get realised on the IIGS.

- Wade

[limtc]

Post by Toinet
Dear All,
I've been recently in touch with Electronic Arts, owner of Maxis and
Origin Systems, former publishers of SimCity and the Ultima series
respectively.
My idea was to finish what Becky Heineman started on SimCity. Yes, the
game exists, I have a copy. With Ultima II, I would have liked to work
from Becky's source code of Ultima I for the IIgs to keep the same
level of quality.
I've officially requested the permission to port those two games on
the Apple IIgs and the answer was quite clear: "We would require a EUR
20,000 minimum guarantee and a 10% royalty rate."

My suggestion is this:

Just port it over, called it SCGS and UGS. Sell them in
comp.sys.apple2. Don't have to pay a cent. We all know what they are,
and nobody will look into this forum.

[Enrico]

Post by Toinet
Dear All,
I've been recently in touch with Electronic Arts, owner of Maxis and
Origin Systems, former publishers of SimCity and the Ultima series
respectively.
My idea was to finish what Becky Heineman started on SimCity. Yes, the
game exists, I have a copy. With Ultima II, I would have liked to work
from Becky's source code of Ultima I for the IIgs to keep the same
level of quality.

Sorry for bumping a very old post, but I was wondering if, after more and more years have passed, if we could try to ask again EA to release SimCityGS.