14 replies to this topic

[anthias]

OK so I am stepping outside my lane a little here.

 

This is a personal mod of Gorgar. I started it to play with VPX a while back, learning a few things about it. 

 

I DON'T KNOW who made the Gorgar version I was using. THe table info is empty. So I can't even ask for permission, but if there is a version where an author GIVES permission for the mod, I will happily apply the art to it and move on with it if its a wanted table. If such permission isn't forthcoming, I won't continue with it as it stands. I may end up rebuilding the layout myself and coding it but that would be a LONG wait.

 

But does anybody want it? 

 

Aside from Test Pilots, Mods are not a thing I generally have done. ANd I tend to steer away from licenced themes as well. I HAVE done a couple of music based tables in FP. One was my own album, Road Trip, with 14 original songs and the other was a retheme of the same table, themed around a fictional band, with fourteen AI generated tracks called Sand Reapers: Assassins of the desset.

 

I have a few ideas for approaching this, it would be themed around the first two albums, Boston and DOn't look back. I felt the album art suits the gorgar table. I'd love a Third Stage table, but that album would consume an entire modern style table on it's own!

 

But given I am out of my usual territory a collaboration would not be out of the question.

 

That of course all depending - would people want it?

 

Screenshot below. OBVIOUSLY the plastics are awful and need work, butI think the playfield came up nice.

.  boston wip.jpg   987.76KB   0 downloads

[Fusionwerks]

It shouldn't matter if WE want it. If you like it, make it for you. If permission comes, then release it. There are people that would play it. It actually amazes me that a Boston table doeant exist yet

Edited by Fusionwerks, 19 November 2024 - 05:07 PM.

[jpsalas]

Just go ahead and release it. If the author comes by and say something then we'll deal with it

[anthias]

thanks guys for the confidence! I guess I need to decide if I dig out my vynils for that crackly authenticity or scour the net for hi fidelity awesome! Teenage me has waited forty years for this table

Edited by anthias, 20 November 2024 - 01:01 AM.

[Fusionwerks]

If it's that close to you, dont do a reskin, I say go all in and make it an original layout, and I vote crackly vinyl, but I'm old.

[anthias]

If it's that close to you, dont do a reskin, I say go all in and make it an original layout, and I vote crackly vinyl, but I'm old.

ill admit that's tempting. I can do it with my LEMESS template (My work in progress template on which the 6 Murray Leinster tables, death note, meducks, unicorcs and cat burglars were all built on)which I would adapt to the two 3 target banks for this. (the template has 2,3,4 and 5 banks)

I'd borrow some design cue from gorgae I think. if I decide to go that route I'll post images.

[anthias]

I am thinking about the music. I do not wish to be facilitating piracy. Including it in full risks the entire hobby - that's a major beef I have with Pup packs. It only takes one major copyright claim to decimate our community. But including short samples embedded in the table will be less of an issue. However, the full experience requires full music. So my plan is to code to search for files and play them if they are there. The user is responsible for sourcing them fair and legally. Eg from their vynils or cds. If they are not present the table will revert to just the samples. I would of course document the required file names. If somebody else chose to do a pup etc that's on them and my conscience is clear.

[Fusionwerks]

I agree, that's why almost every table I've made ended up being not released. I was too worried about copyright, either with the music or the IP. Just make it as easy for the end user as possible to insert the correct tracks. I seem to recall there were a few tables in the past that we released with the MIDI version of the song as a placeholder and a batch file to crop and rename the real songs once the user had them in a specific file. I just cant remember what table it was. Maybe someone with a better memory will chime in

Edited by Fusionwerks, 20 November 2024 - 03:28 PM.

[Fusionwerks]

Maybe it was TNA, or Blood machines?

[jpsalas]

TNA was released with just one song, the one that was free, then you needed to buy the other songs.

 

What I do in my tables is to crop the songs to a max of 1 minute, and try to make a nice loop. What I do is to load them into the table, so it doesn't look like we have ripped of a complete CD and we distribute it with the table. But a few songs, cropped into a table which we give for free, I don't think people will get upset by that. And if they do, then they just need to tell me and I'll remove the songs from the table, no problem. 

 

I mean a bigger problem is the use of pup packs, with Gb of music and videos. Sometimes I wonder how they get away with them without having a copyright problem.

[anthias]

yeah it's all good if a friendly request comes in. I had a table about fifteen years ago where the IP owner reached out personally and I respected their wishes to remove the table from all the download sites where I had uploaded it. They then said if it was modified to fit their desires for the IP and was shown to them for approval it could be released. Sadly they passed away before that could happen so out of respect I never re-released that table. It was one of the events that steered me to my focus on original themes.

[anthias]

 PXL_20241121_122656477.jpg   212.81KB   0 downloads

I decided Fusionworks made the right call. So I deleted the reskin and have commenced working up an original layout.

[jpsalas]

I have made a table as a request from a Spanish friend. The table is Mago de Oz. I told this friend that I could make a table, but I'm not sure about the copyright of the music and the images. This friend took contact with the group Mago de OZ and their record company, and they sent me high resolution images of all their album's images and I was welcome to use any song I felt will fit the table. When I was finished with the table I sent it to them, and they were really happy with the result. So, not all copyright holders are the same, but I guess it all depends about how you approach them or use their songs. I think this is the only table where I included full versions of the songs

[Itchigo]

While I'm no fan of reskins, all you have to do is make some subtle changes to make it different. Did I mention I suck at graphics?

 

[anthias]

I was contemplating changes to that area. Thanks! I think that might work.