Does anyone have an inkling as to where the rights to FTL Games properties may have ended up? Might they have been bought out somewhere along the line? I have a sudden penchant to research the rights to Dungeon Master.

You could ask FTL co founder Wayne Holder. In Europe DM was published by Psygnosis btw.

And here the website of Bruce F. Webster. Maybe easier to get a hold off.

Thanks. I just reached out to Doug Bell on LinkedIn, who seems like a good place to start. Something that's pretty cool is when I went to my account I had a link request from Alex Koshelkov at Crytivo Games. So my connection to game industry folks has grown by one more. :)

Doug Bell is connected to Bruce F. Webster through the Sundog project. Wayne Holder seems harder to get a grasp on. That old Java blof page was the only one I could find up to now.

The Universim! :-)

Yes, I'll probably try one of those guys if I don't hear back from Bell. I like to go through LinkedIn first, as it feels more professional, and they can see that I am connected to a number of other gaming industry people and thus am less likely to be a random looney. :)


Exactly! Of the "cows in space" fame. :D

Just heard back from Doug Bell on LinkedIn regarding Dungeon Master:

Sure. The rights are held by Wayne Holder. You can find him on LinkedIn, but he's notoriously difficult to get in touch with.

So I guess I have my next target. I think I'll talk with GOG first and see if they have any interest in the game, as it sounds like I'll probably need some leverage to get my foot in the door with this one.

Good work!

Ta! I've PM'd my GOG contact to see if there is interest in the games (the DOS titles from the series are Dungeon Master and Dungeon Master II: Skullkeep). If they give the nod then the hunt will continue.

[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_Master_(video_game)]Wikipedia[/url] also mentions a DOS release for Chaos Strikes Back.

Thanks, I had thought that was on PC as well. Just not mentioned as such on Mobygames.

Some good news, as I heard back from Bob Bates at Legend Entertainment. Back in October of 2014 I had been in touch with him and he expressed interest in buying the rights to his games back from Atari. I got in touch with the new Atari's CEO and he in turn put me in touch with their employee for such negotiations. Then suddenly Bob went silent. I emailed him today to see if he was still interested and it turned out he had a drive crash right around the time we were previously talking and thus didn't get my latest info. He is going to follow up with Atari, and I will keep you all apprised of the progress.

I would be very shocked (and disappointed) if GOG wasn't interested those classics. I mean, they really belong here. Getting them to run in DOSbox shouldn't be that hard (even if Amiga-emulated (ask the Cinemaware guys?) would be better).

Of course there is the fact that the sourceports are freely available as complete, working games. But they don't include high quality scans of manuals and stuff and are probably in a grey area anyway. Maybe GOG could even Team up with Mr Holder and Paul R. Stevens (CSBwin). If there is no money to make from it, it would at least be a nice freebie worthy of former GoodOldGames glory :-)
Spellcasting X01? Eric the Unready? That would be awesome.

Callahan's Crosstime Saloon is another that folks here have shown interest in. And Mr. Bates told me that he is still in touch with a number of the authors whose works inspired the games, so he could potentially negotiate those rights too. A real blessing, as tie-in games can be an absolute nightmare in that regard.

That would be great - Gateway 1+2, Companions of Xanth, Death Gate, Shannara... With their hand drawn graphics and eloquent prose these games are pretty much timeless.