id Software Nuking Ports from Android Market
id Software is crying DCMA on ports of Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein loaded on the Android Market.
id Software and its new-found parent company ZeniMax Media announced today that they are filing a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) complaint against developers providing ports of classic id titles on the Android Market. There are eleven applications in question, including Android versions of Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein, and another non-gaming app called Doom Soundboard.
One developer contacted the Android and Me website, reporting that his free Doom for Android app was removed thanks to the DMCA notice. "Although the Doom source code was open sourced, and the application was based on a port of the PrBoom engine, the application is still suspended," the developer stated in an email. "My mistake was allowing the download of the Plutonia and TNT WADs... at least that is what I suspect."
Android and Me also provides a fax from id Software that lists all the titles in question, including Quake GL, Wolf 3D: Spear of Destiny, Doom II, and more. According to the fax, the Android games are unauthorized versions, or they contain content from the three main copyrighted games developed by id. Seven out of the eleven apps were developed by someone named "Sharky." Still, for curious gamers who want to see Doom in action on the Android platform, check out the video posted below.
In other id-related news, parent company ZeniMax Media regained control of the publishing rights to the upcoming game Rage. The game will actually be published by the company's other subsidiary, Bethesda Softworks. This means that Electronic Arts will no longer be involved in the sales and marketing of Rage.
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"In other id-related news, parent company ZeniMax Media regained control of the publishing rights to the upcoming game Rage. The game will actually be published by the company's other subsidiary, Bethesda Softworks. This means that Electronic Arts will no longer be involved in the sales and marketing of Rage."
Best news Ive heard all day.
The source code is GPL. The game content (sounds, graphics, maps, etc) still belong to id. I can see why they're complaining but I hope the ports find their way back to the marketplace.
Boo!
Hardly surprising if the porters supplied the wad files for the full versions of games. They should really have tried to find a way where users can add the wad files themselves obtained from legally obtained copies of the games. ID aren't really being IP trolls. They're not sueing people, they're just stopping what is effectively very public piracy. If users had to supply their own WAD files then it'd be down to the end user as to whether they want to pirate or not.
heh, "oh its open source now, look at me, I'm such the hero to all those bedroom programmer open source advocates! aren't I awesome! oh wait... I can still make money from it?? ok, hold the phone on that one then..."
Obviously they are in the right, the assets were never released for free use.
anyway, whats a good android phone for games?? like with a decent processor and Graphics chip?
Sing it!
"hey hey we're the nazis..."
uhhhh why didnt they cry about quake being ported to the ipod touch/iphone?
I first thought this news was about Duke Nukem Forever...
Of course this is their artwork and they have full right to enforce copyright. But I think this is not the core of it. Recently ID started selling iPhone port of Doom. It looks like they are cleaning Android landscape before starting to sell thei Doom port on Android.
Playing games on these tiny screens is stupid anyway.
Why are they "Crying DCMA" in the headline? What is DCMA?
Why are they "Crying DCMA" in the headline? What is DCMA?
A misspelled version of DMCA
@matt87_50
The Moto Droid has the same graphics and processing capabilities as an iPhone 3GS.... because it has an ARM Cortex based processor. Its currently the best bet for Android gaming at the moment, since other Android devices have slower ARM 11 based processors. (eg. HTC Hero, Dream, Hero, Eris).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture
Really soon, as in January, we should start seeing Snapdragon based Android phones.... which will have higher clockspeed processors. The first wave will be between 700MHz-1GHz... and, while it hasn't been proven yet, they should probably game a little better than the 550Mhz-ish Cortex phones.
uhhhh why didnt they cry about quake being ported to the ipod touch/iphone?
John Carmack has an irrational love for the iPhone. Its fucking weird.
It could be possible that they simply planned a port themselves that was going to be retail. Or id could simply have a contract with Apple to only release their games to them when regarding gaming on a phone.
Games are one of the reasons people are attracted to the iPhone. So DMCA filed this unofficial port could be for this very reason.
One thing is for sure however. This port seems to have much better controls than on a iPhone.
@matt87_50The Moto Droid has the same graphics and processing capabilities as an iPhone 3GS.... because it has an ARM Cortex based processor. Its currently the best bet for Android gaming at the moment, since other Android devices have slower ARM 11 based processors. (eg. HTC Hero, Dream, Hero, Eris).http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architectureReally soon, as in January, we should start seeing Snapdragon based Android phones.... which will have higher clockspeed processors. The first wave will be between 700MHz-1GHz... and, while it hasn't been proven yet, they should probably game a little better than the 550Mhz-ish Cortex phones.
cool.
I wonder how java affects performance? it was my understanding that you have to use java if you want any chance of your app working on all android phones, but some manufactures have c++ sdks but the apps will only work on their phones?
I wonder what the speed differences are between iPhone OS with c++ sdk and Andriod with java sdk. c++ should theoretically be faster but I'm not so sure the iPhone OS is that great, and google have done wonders with Java. would also depend on the implementation of android by the manufacture on their device, i.e. driver performance.