Keen GBC copyright issues?

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RoboBlue
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Keen GBC copyright issues?

Post by RoboBlue »

I stumbled upon this site today (http://www.vertwelder.co.uk/gbc.htm, apparently made by someone who worked on keen gbc. The second sentence caught my eye:
My main was job to recreate and animate the enemies from the original CK games (although due to copyright restrictions, some could not be used).
Are certain aspects of Keen owned by Tom Hall, or is there someone else involved?
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Post by kuliwil »

hmm, is that why Keen's skin colour changes? DOES TOM HALL OWN KEEN'S IMAGE!? Probably not, as all colours of everything changed somewhat....

but still, it'd explain why iD never complain about Keen mods....
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Post by tulip »

Maybe good ol' Keen 6 legal limbo
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Post by kuliwil »

actually ur probs right Tulip
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Post by Calvero »

But there are Blooguards in Keen GBC. Are there creatures from Keen Dreams in Keen GBC?
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Post by DHeadshot »

Calvero wrote:But there are Blooguards in Keen GBC. Are there creatures from Keen Dreams in Keen GBC?
No, but there are Keen Dreams style keys.
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Post by VikingBoyBilly »

are there any yorps or gargs?
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Post by DHeadshot »

Nope, but the Dorp and the Darg are fairly remeniscent of them...
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Post by RoboBlue »

The Vorticons ImageImage and Shikadi Image look nothing like the originals though.
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Post by The Keen Commander »

The Vorticons and Shikadi look nothing like the originals though.
*Resists strong urge to barf* Too Late!!! :barf
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Post by DHeadshot »

Those aren't Vorticons! They're the Droidicans! The first is a Droidican Soldier, the second a member of the Droidican Elite!

From the manual:
Keen GBC Manual wrote:Droidican Soldier: These robotic troopers are the Droidican Emporer's prime defence - serving to keep the Warp Drive technology safe. Droidican Soldiers aren't very smart though, so they need a lot of discipline.

Droidican Elite: The Droidican Elite are master soldiers, and the Emporer counts on them to keep the other troops in line. Armed with deadly lasers, these droids are a serious threat!
That is quoted verbotem - the spellings in the manual are unusually correct for an American game and the sentences are double spaced! It's like they got an Oxford graduate to write it. Mind you, I don't much like that use of the "Oxford Comma" in the Droidican Elite description...

[Edit]The "Dood" appears to be somewhat like a Shelley though:
Keen GBC Manual wrote:Dood: This tiny guy seems pleasant enough until you least expect it, then he goes all to pieces!
Keen 5 Help wrote:This tiny darling seems pleasant until you least expect it, then she goes all to pieces!
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Post by RoboBlue »

The artist identified them as vorticons (check the filenames), so maybe that was the issue? Did id share the copyright for keens 1-3 with anyone?
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Post by DHeadshot »

I saw the filenames, but I dunno. Maybe they're meant to be the Vorticons' robot army?

Keen 1 was going to be released on the SNES, but that never happened. I don't think there were any other projects to cause the Copyright to be shared, unless Apogee is involved...
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Post by VikingBoyBilly »

The whole idea of intellectual property is ridiculous, even though I completely understand the need to keep other people from profiting from them :dopefish
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Post by gerstrong »

RoboBlue wrote:The Vorticons ImageImage and Shikadi Image look nothing like the originals though.
Yeah! They look shi... I better don't write it. Have had a filthy mouth lately.
Having fun developing stuff...
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