LinkedIn request sent. As per tfishell's recommendation, I included my email as well. Though LinkedIn makes contacting difficult, with a 300 character limit and no web address or email allowed (had to spell my address out).

Yeah, because of the limit I can't always be as detailed or professional as I might want to be, but it's not something you want to pass up.

He probably doesn't check here anymore, but I'll PM him a message of support. :)

Grits almighty, World War II has been over for 65+ years, region lockers! Japan is a thriving market now! :P

Death Rally was made freeware by Remedy a couple years back. There's a link buried on their website to a download page.

Gold Rush I believe is still being sold by a firm called Software Farm.

Thanks for the tip! I'll be sending them an email shortly.

I've been following this thread and the other one on small devs/ publishers and the whole subject in general - I've got to say I'm impressed by the great work you're all doing.

I have a quick question regarding this thread and the planned db. Since the db is going to be private, will this thread be left to die or will you keep us updated?
I've learned interesting details about a number of games I like and I'd appreciate it if you kept us in the loop - I assume I'm not the only one intrigued by what you're coming up with.

My idea was mostly to transcribe the information given in the thread into a more readable format, so this should be no danger to this place :-)

Thanks muchly! I've become emotionally invested in getting Project Nomads re-released, so I hope it comes through.

I still have it on CD, but I'm actively keeping myself from re-installing it, because I want to play it next when everyone can.

Still haven't received any replies to any of my other requests. Like I said, I'll try by different means by month's end if I don't (or if anyone else doesn't) hear back from any of them.

I've e-mailed Brett Sperry about the rights to Legend of Kyrandia. I have reason to believe he still retains them.
Edit: Digging deeper, Michael Legg, now president of Petroglyph, may be holding the rights.
Edit 2: Deeper still, and it looks like EA still has the distribution rights. Basing this on an old Neowin thread where they contacted the Kyrandia developers and EA to re-release the games:
www.neowin.net/forum/topic/65246-classics-for-free/

Also, here's an interesting article on game rights, and how they can revert back to their creators:
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/DanRogers/20130813/198132/Hitting_the_Reset_Button_on_Video_Game_Copyrights.php
Essentially, as long as the game wasn't a work-for-hire (i.e. Legend of Kyrandia Book 1, which was first made by the devs then shipped around to publishers like Sierra), about 35 years(!) need to pass before the devs or their heirs can try to reclaim the games, and even then it might be tricky.

I've also been skimming through the issues of Computer Gaming World I've downloaded from the CGW museum. Some great stuff in there, and very informative interviews. If there's a game from a specific time period you're looking for, I highly recommend browsing through the issues from those years:
museum.org/

I've been looking into Powerslave/Exhumed, and it appears that the global publisher, BMG Interactive, was acquired by Take-Two, so they would have the rights to the game. Which would also mean other stuff published by BMG Int., like Mass Destruction and Bermuda Syndrome, are also with Take Two
http://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/bmg-interactive-entertainment/published-by/

Never heard back from Talin, but I found this about the rights to Faery Tale Adventure 1 + 2:
"Although Faery Tale Adventure was developed by David "Talin" Joiner, the original publisher Microillusions owned the rights initially. When that company when belly-up, allegedly the rights were purchased by Hollyware or its owner David Boyles. Hollyware has been out-of-business for over a decade, and I have lost contact with Mr. Boyles.

I tried to buy the rights to FTA from Mr. Boyles at one time, but nothing came of that.

The rights to Halls of the Dead (FTA 2) are not clear to me. although Wyrmkeep Entertainment does own some rights related to the game engine (as it is a successor to the Inherit the Earth game engine)."
http://www.wyrmkeep.com/forums/index.php?topic=174.msg2218#msg2218

Some more Abandonia games (some of these may be reposts from earlier):

Manhunter - New York, from Sierra
Manhunter 2 - San Francisco, from Sierra
Mechwarrior (1989), from Activision (did the rights go to Microsoft?)
Mega Lo Mania, from Ubisoft
MegaTraveller 1 & 2, from Paragon Software Corporation
(could possibly come, if those Microprose rights [Microprose bought Paragon] ended up with Infogrames/Atari)
Menzoberranzan, from SSI (if GOG gets D&D rights from Wizards of the Coast)
Micro Machines 1 & 2, from Codemasters
MicroProse Soccer, from MicroProse (from 1989; not worth it if Sensible Soccer 97/98 is on GOG?)
Millenium - Return to Earth, from Paragon Software Corporation
(could possibly come, if those Microprose rights [Microprose bought Paragon] ended up with Infogrames/Atari)
Mines of Titan, from Westwood and Infocom
(so maybe EA or Activision would have the rights?)
Mixed Up Fairy Tales, from Sierra (kiddy, but imaginative?)
Mixed Up Mother Goose (original + VGA), from Sierra (bundle with Fairy Tales)
Moebius - The Orb of Celestial Harmony, from Origin/EA (bit odd looking)
Montezuma's Return, from WizardWorks/GT Interactive/Infogrames/Atari
(if the rights did actually transfer)(compatibility issues?)
Moonstone - A Hard Days Knight, from Mindscape
Murders in Space, from Infogrames
Murders in Venice, from Infogrames ("Murders" bundle)
Museum Madness, from MECC (perhaps if Broderbund or TLC had rights, they're with Ubisoft? Maybe Gameloft?)

Some comments.

Mega Lo Mania, from Ubisoft - Previously mentioned but worth an endorsement again. Good game, rather like the Lord Monarch game I posted earlier only deeper.

MegaTraveller 1 & 2, from Paragon Software Corporation - Possible licensing issue, as this is derived from the early sci-fi RPG system Traveller. (I used to run campaigns of this back in the day, along with about a dozen other RPG systems.)

Menzoberranzan, from SSI - Another good D&D RPG title, welcome here if they can get the rights.

Millenium - Return to Earth from Paragon Software Corporation - Adore this game, played it on the Amiga under the title Millenium 2.2. Great building/planning/resource game with some combat and a wonderful storyline. Even better is its sequel Deuteros, which unfortunately does not have a DOS version. But if GOG ever goes for Amiga releases, I will be agitating strongly for these titles.

Moonstone - A Hard Days Knight, from Mindscape - Another good game from Mindscape. They didn't always have the most cutting edge production values, but Mindscape seemed unafraid to tackle games that didn't hew to convention.

I'd be happy to pursue Millenium - Return to Earth if you like, just let me know if you have any preliminary work done on tracking Paragon Software or Ian Bird already.

Good stuff, thanks, I'll be posting these comments into another text document.

And you're welcome to start tracking Millenium if you want; I'm somebody who is willing to leave that to GOG since there's a possibility that it could be owned by a publisher already here, but if you're quite interested in it, go for it.

I just have a few links:

Paragon Software Corporation: MegaTraveller 1 & 2, Millenium - Return to Earth

http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/660/MegaTraveller+1+-+The+Zhodani+Conspiracy.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paragon_Software
http://www.mobygames.com/company/paragon-software-corporation
- founded in 1985 by Mark E. Seremet and Antony Davies
Maybe brought to Infogrames/Atari when purchased by Microprose?

Sounds good, I might ping a bluetext before I go down that rabbit hole. I suspect that the game may still be owned by Ian Bird, as a lot of Amiga titles remained in the hands of their creators. But no point in me haranguing him if GOG already has one claw in the pie, so I'll check with the Powers That Be first.

I might be able to gather some info from the folks at Deuteros X as well. Another of those fan-based projects that seem to languish forever, but there is recent activity on the forums and the folks there may know about the game's rights since they are ostensibly engaged in releasing it again.

Someone's put together a fairly comprehensive list of war-themed games and the name of the company and person who published them and may have the rights to them. Lot's of old stuff in there, but also some info missing.
[url=http://home.comcast.net/~evanbrooks/publisher.htm]http://home.comcast.net/~evanbrooks/publisher.htm[/url]

Back to Thalion. You now get what I found out (or am just speculating) so far.
After some intense research everything points to a guy called Marco Hüsges (Marco Huesges). I think he is the one who sold the rights to the Thalion games.

From what I could see he didn't make anybody happy when he entered (bought in?) Thalion and started to "restructure" it. It appears to me (I don't have proof though!) that he or his plans didn't agree with the Thalion developers and they left then. After that Thalion worked unsuccessfully with some freelancers and all valuable properties were sold.
Thalion was going down like a stone.

Some speculation from me:
I wouldn't be surprised if the devs blame it on Mr. Hüsges. (And looking at what he did in the years after that, they might even be right.)
This would explain why we only get answers like "We don't have the rights" from people like Erik Simon and Hans Ippisch (who answered me from Computec) but no hint to where the rights are. They really don't know. And of course they don't want to point anybody in the direction of Mr. Hüsges who caused so much trouble (and doesn't seem to be a pleasant person all around.)

Anyway, Mr. Hüsges is our best lead. He should know where the rights to the Thalion games went, especially Amberstar because that's a PC game and therefore interesting for GOG.
Sadly I didn't manage to get hold of him.

Could somebody try his LinkedIn account?
http://de.linkedin.com/pub/marco-h%C3%BCsges/40/b30/178

It says there that he's still working at McGame but the company register tells me that he left that position in July. So it might be that he doesn't log in at LinkedIn very often.