Lemmings port gets thrown off cliff by Sony cease and desist 34
As we have previously reported, Aaron Ardiri, who had long ago ported the classic video game Lemmings to palmOS, had been liveblogging the efforts of his games studio Mobile 1up to re-port it to both iOS and webOS. Unfortunately, things are now on hold due to cease and desist its efforts to bring these versions of Lemmings to the public after hearing from the lawyers from Sony, which currently owns the copyright to the game..
For now, development is halted, and we won’t be seeing the game on webOS unless either Sony publishes it itself, or Ardiri and his team can work out a deal to do so.
while are did this as a tribute to the game - we can only hope that Sony actually does a conversion for platforms like iPhone and Palm Pre in the near future. we will open communication with Sony to explore the rights for these platforms!
(Unfortunately, Adriri's old PalmOS version doesn't currently run under MotionApps' Classic.)
Source: Mobile1up blog
34 Comments
bastards.
bastards.
Aw, sad day indeed.
I was actually really looking forward to this. Are there any clones out there?
boycott SONY.. Keep our money here & stop sending it to China!
Tokyo is in China?
Japanese, Chinese, Koreanese, they all the same, dontcha know!?
I dont remember much since Laos bombed Pearl Harbor.
laos is a beautiful place!
ahh bs.. Hope all goes well and it comes out
Typical Sony!
boycott Sony? Poop i've been doin that for years!
I'll never buy anything from Sony again. Unless it's a Bravia TV. Love those. Also Playstation. Love that. Also internal DVD ROMs. Love those. Or DVD media. Love those.
Samsung LEDs. Lite-On DVD Burners. Superior alternatives.
My Samsung 23" monitor is fantastic.
DRAT!!!!! I used to LOVE to play Lemmings on my Amiga and was really looking forward to this one. Poopie on you, Sony!
Yes, curse a company for wanting to protect it's intellectual property. Sony has developed ports of the game for most major platforms. This isn't abandonware we are playing with.
Maybe Mobile1Up should focus on the GNU version, Pingus.
Ding ding! You really can't blame Sony for this. If they don't do anything here, then it would be very difficult to protect their IP in the future. I mean, what the hell do all these people expect when they take an IP of another company's and very publicly start doing things with it
The best we can hope for is Sony gives them some sort of non-commercial license, or works out a deal to publish it themselves once it's done. Seeing as how they somewhat recently ported it to the PSN, I highly doubt they'd be willing to let it out for free though.
poopie?
They should just make their own version of the game. Change the graphics and name, make their own maps. They don't have to make Lemmings, just something like Lemmings.
this already exists in the form of Pingus.
http://pingus.seul.org/
it's a linux game that uses penguins in place of lemmings, but same gameplay. Very fun.
besides, webos IS linux, so might even be easier. Get to work game porters!!
That was my first thought. Just change the name to Plemmings and switch a couple graphics.
That's disappointing to hear, hopefully Sony can work out a deal to release a port cause I'd definitely buy it. Lemmings was by far my favourite game after we got it bundled with a Creative sound card back in the early 90s. Sony should definitely look into either buying the port off Mobile1Up (more likely) or sell the rights (probably too expensive for Mobile1Up).
Sony does enough evil things that I might not particularly like them but they are absolutely in the right here. Sony did have to protect their rights, let's just hope they don't sit and ignore the market for the game, buying or licensing the existing port should almost be a no-brainer.
Sony just don't like HP or Apple! If it was for PSP they would be all over it
Lemmings was released for the PSP in 2006. They likely don't want it released for any other platform so that they can push sales for the PSP.
wmmc2001: Sony is a Japanese company dumbass.
They were right here. We just have to live with that.
Well, if he's not using Sony's code, and not using their graphics, just rename the thing and be done with it?
So much for "let's hear it for the lawyers!"
Lawyers maye come in handy from time to time, but for the most part, they flat out suck.
Of course Sony doesn't want it on the Pre, as a matter of fact any other mobile platform. They want it on the PSP.
I put the brakes on supporting Sony years ago... two words 'memory stick'.
Sure, NOW they notice us!
Wait, why would Mobile1up think it's ok to take a copyrighted work and give it away for free? Did they think the ip was public domain? What series of events caused them to think that it was OK to do that?
Just port UAE to WebOS, then we can play the original Lemmings, Cannon Fodder and other great Amiga games.
While we cant get the app, this website works in the Pre browser www.elizium.nu/scripts/lemmings/ or google Lemmings Online (first link).