Horace and the Scissors

Propose new game/software design concepts or new game/software ideas. They can be as whimsical as you like, just be careful you don't ask someone to make it for you...
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Alessandro
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Re: Horace and the Scissors

Post by Alessandro »

I was just joking ;) In fact, I wouldn't even know where to start from because I have no connection with that kind of business whatsoever, haven't the faintest idea of how much such intellectual property rights would cost, and I am unable to determine how many people would be willing to part with their money to fund not a real project, but just my promise...
Bitmapsoft
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Re: Horace and the Scissors

Post by Bitmapsoft »

You may or may not know that we are releasing a physical copy of this game, not soon after announcing it we was emailed to tell us that the copyright was owned by Subvert, this email was from Paul the owner of that company, what followed was a few emails that eventually lead us to an agreement in how we can still publish, this was to add a copyright to the game and make a donation per tape sold for the MS Charity in the UK.

I must admit that I thought we would have to cancel the release but as he was the one that came up with the solution, and to be fair its a solution we was happy with.

Anyway the events after did leave a bitter taste but there is always two sides to a story, this is ours, if I am honest, we are doing this for Alessandro now.
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PeteProdge
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Re: Horace and the Scissors

Post by PeteProdge »

Actually, further questions about Paul Andrews's ownership of the Horace character have been raised in a new video from American YouTuber Tipster - his second on the subject...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNzCAoHZrq8

I've watched his video in full, it's quite an eye opener. A few things Paul Andrews has described in his communication has been denied by the recipient - Octav1us Kitten.

Also, Octav1us Kitten is slowly restoring her YouTube channel today. Her two videos covering the ZX Spectrum Horace games (including homebrew) are here and here. At time of writing this, she is not obeying the stipulations that Paul Andrews publicly announced this morning.

I've seen things in the past with people hoovering up retrogames IP, acting very heavy-handed, getting way out of their boundaries - like Edge's Tim Langdell and more recently, Elite's Steve Wilcox. Both got called out on that, their fibbing was exposed.

Can't come to a full conclusion on Paul Andrews. Things are just murky and questions do need answering.
Reheated Pixels - a combination of retrogaming, comedy and factual musing, is here!
New video: Nine ZX Spectrum magazine controversies - How Crash, Your Sinclair and Sinclair User managed to offend the world!
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Spud
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Re: Horace and the Scissors

Post by Spud »

Never heard of Octav1us before but from what I've seen of her content since she started re-enabling it I have to say I'm a new fan. Good light hearted fun (with the exception of the videos where she looks like a nervous wreck, obv.)
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Joefish
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Re: Horace and the Scissors

Post by Joefish »

PeteProdge wrote: Mon Oct 21, 2019 10:42 pmI've seen things in the past with people hoovering up retrogames IP, acting very heavy-handed, getting way out of their boundaries - like Edge's Tim Langdell and more recently, Elite's Steve Wilcox. Both got called out on that, their fibbing was exposed.
The other obvious stunt is to pick on people with few resources to counter the claims, get them to publicly capitulate, then cite that as an example to others, as if somehow it lends credence to their subsequent claims (it doesn't).
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1bvl109
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Re: Horace and the Scissors

Post by 1bvl109 »

This discussion is mainly about the looks of Horace, right?

In this case I would propose a technical solution - one I'm inept to implement myself, I'm quick to admit - but well, here goes. Horace is just
1. a name and
2. a bundled of bitmaps

IP laws differ from country to country, but there seem to be ways around 1. by either parody (Huray! and the Ski Shores) or reference (Tribute to ...).

Maybe you know about the Mii Channel on Nintendo's Wii https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mii or ktuberling https://games.kde.org/game.php?game=ktuberling or similar character generators. So a workaround to 2. would be to deliver the game without preset sprites, but generate them according to user settings. A Horace look-alike would be only a set of parameter values within the myriads of possibilities, say
Number of rattail = 1
Number of feet = 2
Number of eyes = 2
Size of Eyes = 7
Number of arms = 0
etc.
Now your generator needs some default values to start with, so the user can fiddle with them.This just might be 1,2,2,7,0, ... I would of course prefer three feet and three eyes, i.e. 1,3,3,7,0, .. 'cus he 'd look soooooo leet'o!

This is basically taking the "You can't copyright a pure idea" to the game character level i.e. if it is legal in your jurisdiction to program a clone of say Pac-Man from scratch and distribute it, it should be legal to do the above.
"Truth would quickly cease to be stranger than fiction, once we got used to it." - H.L. Mencken
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Juan F. Ramirez
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Re: Horace and the Scissors

Post by Juan F. Ramirez »

Now it's time to make wise decisions...

https://www.instagram.com/p/B37LIY4JKcZ ... clhwq2ebip

"Evil midweek cutie" :lol:
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