Commercial games released as PD

[Tim Janssen]

Currently I am scanning my British Amiga magazines for PD-reviews of games which were released commercially in other countries. So far I have found this list of games which can eventually provide interesting information for HOL:

Black Dawn: This title really puzzles me. It is reviewed in the PD section of CU Amiga, January 1994. HOL has a game called Black Dawn VI which has a very similar interface but looks like a fantasy-game, but the version reviewed by CU Amiga takes place on a spaceship. Does this mean Black Dawn is a series of games?

Blizzard: This game is reviewed in a PD section in CU Amiga somewhere in 1993. Seemingly it is part of a PD-compilation called “4 Games Pack“. The review does not mention the other games.

Crazy Sue 1: Reviewed in the PD section of Amiga Format, August 1992.

Punica Spiel: Reviewed in the PD-section of CU Amiga, December 1993.

Read and Learn – Volume 1: Three little pigs: Reviewed in the PD-section of CU Amiga, somewhere in 1994.

Time Runners: A version of this game is reviewed in the PD-section of CU Amiga, January 1994.

Through the red door: Reviewed in the PD-section of CU Amiga, somewhere in 1994.

[Twistin'Ghost]

Some of those games entered into the public domain stream because they were 1-parted, put on compilations, then ended up being circulated as freeware on bulletin boards. The PD libraries were scraping up a lot of product from BBS's and very often, these products were introduced to their catalogs, followed by other libraries.

You'll note that on the 17-Bit Collection on CD, several titles are absent because they had to be removed due to being commercial products.

Some of the other games that would end up being reviewed in Amiga mags were shareware versions of games that had commercial counterparts.

Then there are games which are considered commercial, but as advertising promos (Pepsi, Sony, Kellogg's, etc.) and these were considered fair game for free distribution.

And some games were purchased by the mags and featured exclusive on coverdisks, thus making them a commercial entity (the idea is to buy the mag and disk); a false perception was that the games were freeware, which was never established.

So there's some different dynamics that got games reviewed in the PD section of mags.

[alexh]

Trex Warrior - Thalion was released PD in the UK having never been published before in the UK. It was commercial in Germany and so is only PD in the UK AFAIK. It was on the Cover of The One Magazine.

[DrBong]

Originally Posted by Twistin'Ghost

Some of those games entered into the public domain stream because they were 1-parted, put on compilations, then ended up being circulated as freeware on bulletin boards. The PD libraries were scraping up a lot of product from BBS's and very often, these products were introduced to their catalogs, followed by other libraries.

Aye! Cubulus was included as PD on a CU Amiga coverdisk (Oct '91 issue). Apparently many PD houses had it on their catalogue lists. They brought it to the attention of readers in the Jan '92 issue and advised PD houses to stop advertising or selling the game until it could be proven one way or another.

There was a more blatant occurrence of a commercial game being passed off as PD. Crystal Hammer '93 Edition was sold by PDSoft in the UK and they didn't even bother to remove the cracktro