ConsulCaesar: One wonders how this keeps happening. Whoever (or perhaps it's multiple "whoevers") holds the license would probably prefer the game to make them some money, as opposed to doing nothing.
StingingVelvet: They wouldn't want to renew the license for cheap because it would lessen the value of it overall for other projects and licensing. Also with this game you've got the conflict of the old publisher with Westwood being sold to EA and other factors. With No One Live Forever the problem is that the companies literally don't know who owns it anymore and it's not worth the cost to hire lawyers to figure it out. Blade Runner's probably in a similar spot AND would have to pay Dick's estate and the movie production house and all that.
Luckily abandonware is a thing and most companies don't care if they legally can't sell it. No One Lives Forever literally has a public website set up to download the games from, with no one seeming to care.
True, but NOLF is a franchise unto it self, whereas Blade Runner is part of a bigger franchise. Even if they don't realy care about the game, they might move against someone distributing the game simply because they don't want a prededent set.
I am going to wait on buying a used copy of Blade Runner until I get a confirmation the the issues with timing in the game have been fixed in the ScummVR program.
That the Blade Runner game takes place in real time has created a lot of issues on modern computers. The game runs much faster then intended, and this has created some real problems where you only have alimited amount of time to complete an action. You have much less time then you did int he original. If this is fixed in the ScummVR program,,then I will spend the bucks on a used copy.
PraetorianWolfie: Any timing issues that I'm aware of should be resolved in the ScummVM version, but please check and report for specific cases.
Also a bunch of other bugs should be fixed as well :)
Korell: The PCGamingWiki mentions that the timing issue (which is due to modern CPUs) is as follows:
"On modern CPUs, shooting range targets never appear or take minutes to. A similar issue occurs with the "rat in the tunnel" portion of the game."
Now I've not played the game before, so have only started playing it using ScummVM. I have tried the shooting range part, though, and I did notice that it took a while for targets to start appearing. I was able to get through it, but I have no reference with which to compare it.
The most notorious one is the bomb issues;At one point you have to disarm a bomb in a limited time range, and on a modern CPU it's almost impossible to do because the game runs faster.
