This one may be a little on the political side of gaming. And to be honest I dont know if we’ve ever weighed in on this issue. Namely the issue of “dead software” being resurrected by fans. In this case, a group of fans dedicated to creating a sequel to King’s Quest, that eternal classic set of games from Sierra (Now Vivendi Universal).

Now, they seem to have gotten along a ways (near the end even), and Vivendi has shut them down. I can’t say I blame Vivendi. They do still hold the rights to everything around King’s Quest, however I also feel that if a group of fans were willing to put in alot of love and time into trying to make a great sequel, perhaps Vivendi could have struck some sort of deal. Like:

“We dont shut you down, and we won’t help you at all, but in return , we own it, you distribute it for free, and our brand will get a free boost. Oh.. and if it sucks, you have to change the name.”

Also as a fan of the original series, I would love to see more of these games. Hell, couldn’t Vivendi just allow them to release it with a nice disclaimer that it is a fan work?

Well, at any rate, I’ll at least pass on to YOU the gaming world, the note I got, and let you decide what you want to do:

Russell,

I ran across your site monkeygames.org, and since you write about the gaming industry, I thought you might find this story of interest.

Are you familiar with the King’s Quest games by Sierra? They were very popular adventure games from the 80’s & 90’s.

After Sierra (now owned by Vivendi) decided it wasn’t going to make anymore adventure games, some fans got together to make their own King’s Quest fan game. After it was finished, they planned to offer it as a free download to anyone who was interested. These fans were doing this for no other reason than they loved King’s Quest, and they wanted to pay homage to the series.

http://www.kqix.com

After over three years of work, they were about to release it in December. However, just a couple of weeks ago, Vivendi issued a cease & desist letter — essentially shutting down the game.

A group of fans, including myself, got together to try to save the game. We recently launched a website.

http://www.savekqix.org

What we’re really trying to do right now is get the word out about both the game being shut down, and our effort to save it. If you find this story of interest, please feel free to blog about it. If you have any questions, I’m happy answer them. Feel free to email me here.

Thanks,

Matt Compton

P.S.

Hey Matt, if you can’t save the game. Just change all the names, and alter anything originally relating to Kings Quest(tm) and release it as your own universe. Remember, while they can trademark a name, and a brand, no one can copyright gameplay.