The Apogee Anthology

[Uncle Duke]

I'm sure someone's asked this before, but I'm asking for my own edification.

A big ol' compilation on a couple of CDs of everything ever released under the Apogee name. Well, everything that Apogee/3DR still has the rights to, anyway. Why not? Just print up maybe 500 of them, put it up for sale online, and the few people out there that want them will scoop them right up.

I understand some stuff is public domain or no longer belongs to Apogee or what have you, but there's MONEY to be made here--just take all the old full registered versions of ancient stuff like Secret Agent, dump it all on a couple CDs for, say, eighty bucks, call it good.

Who seriously shells out ten bucks for a registered version of Secret Agent, anyway? How many orders for THAT come through every year?

[Scotty]

Some games were discontinued, as it had become difficult/impossible to support them on modern platforms.

If they released any of these, even for free, they would be putting themselves back on the hook for support.

If they actually sold them, they would *definitely* be on the hook for support.

[Krid]

... You mean like they are for Lameduke?

[Scotty]

If they knew back then they would later be trolled to death for LameDNF (abandoned Q2 version of DNF), they probably would've never released LameDuke in the first place...

[Joe Siegler]

Who seriously shells out ten bucks for a registered version of Secret Agent, anyway? How many orders for THAT come through every year?

More than you think, obviously. The mere fact that we still sell it should tell you that it sells enough to warrant keeping it in the product line.

And if you search the old msgs, you'll see that we've been asked this before. They may have scrolled off now that I think of it, but the answer has been given many times. The rights issues with all the authors, and all the titles make this an item that won't happen. Suffice it to say that the contracts with all the authors make it such a situation that selling it all on one CD isn't worth it. We'd lose money on such an arrangement. You may not think it's such a big deal, but there's tons of things behind the scenes that you're unaware of that make your idea unworkable.

I really cannot go into it any further than that - remember, not everything that happens here is information meant for the public.

Having said all that, I would love to do this personally. In fact, over the years I had already mastered such a CD in my spare time. I've taken all our PC games (and I mean ALL of them), and put 'em together on a single CD. All except the two Max Payne games, obviously. I think I called the "Apothology CD", if I remember right. It was something I did for internal use so we could access all the old titles if we needed 'em. Yes, I made the CD. No, you can't have it - for reasons I stated above. Again, I personally would love to tackle the legacy of the company. But it won't happen.

[Uncle Duke]

Again, I personally would love to tackle the legacy of the company. But it won't happen.

That's seems so sad to me . . . I mean, it's awesome that you DID it, but that it can't happen in any sort of market-feasible sort of way is sad. Seems to me somebody should be keeping tabs on that kind of stuff, acting as a historian. I suppose you're sort of unofficially that guy, though, eh? Thanks for the answer, either way.

And, yeah, it does sort of blow my mind that you get enough orders for Secret Agent or Crystal Caves to justify having it available for sale.

[8IronBob]

More than you think, obviously. The mere fact that we still sell it should tell you that it sells enough to warrant keeping it in the product line.

And if you search the old msgs, you'll see that we've been asked this before. They may have scrolled off now that I think of it, but the answer has been given many times. The rights issues with all the authors, and all the titles make this an item that won't happen. Suffice it to say that the contracts with all the authors make it such a situation that selling it all on one CD isn't worth it. We'd lose money on such an arrangement. You may not think it's such a big deal, but there's tons of things behind the scenes that you're unaware of that make your idea unworkable.

I really cannot go into it any further than that - remember, not everything that happens here is information meant for the public.

Having said all that, I would love to do this personally. In fact, over the years I had already mastered such a CD in my spare time. I've taken all our PC games (and I mean ALL of them), and put 'em together on a single CD. All except the two Max Payne games, obviously. I think I called the "Apothology CD", if I remember right. It was something I did for internal use so we could access all the old titles if we needed 'em. Yes, I made the CD. No, you can't have it - for reasons I stated above. Again, I personally would love to tackle the legacy of the company. But it won't happen.

Well, if you could've used a DVD-ROM to put everything on, then you'd have almost the whole Fort Knox of Apogee/3DR stuff in there by then. Max Payne series and DNMP included. I believe that a DVD-ROM could hold about two CD-ROMs in one disc, or at least I think that ratio's right.

[moron]

ah a CD holds 700MB
a DVD holds 4700MB

so you can almost fit 7 CD's on a dvd

[8IronBob]

Yeesh! Boy, I should've known that a DVD-ROM would be about as big as a hard drive, with that, Joe could fit almost the whole hard drive of games into a DVD-ROM, including the most recent on one DVD-ROM, and maybe lock that in a safe somewhere for a long, long time. That's surprising to know how much bigger that DVD-ROM is from a CD, thanks for that!

[Rider]

Alright Joe, now that you're answering questions anyway...

What is the big difference between selling your games sepperatly or all on one bigass (and probably over-expensive) CD anyway?

if it has something to do with the fact that certain game developpers had a contract that said that the product should be sold on it's own then just hint us off or something.

[tpz]

I think they pay certain ppl for each game they sell, wether is the author or the rightfull owner of that game. If they would put all of those games together on one CD, the total amount of money that they must pay per CD to those ppl, would far exceed the maximum price they can sell it for.

That's just a thought. The deal probably is far mor complex, but this sounds logical to me.

[wxpoet22]

ah a CD holds 700MB
a DVD holds 4700MB

so you can almost fit 7 CD's on a dvd

Don't forget dual layered DVDs which hold 8500MB.

[Rider]

Don't forget dual layered DVDs which hold 8500MB

*FAINTS*

That's just sick! that's more then twice my old Hard-disk!

[8IronBob]

Yeah, if Joe can stick as many games on a CD-ROM as he said, just think about how many games he'd be able to fit on a DVD-ROM, that is, if 3DR can afford to burn every single game in 3DR/Apogee existance on there. That would be something!

[Night Hacker]

You better sit down... Double Sided, Double Layered DVDs hold 17Gigs.

Here's a link from HowStuffWorks.com (great website to learn about all this stuff, especially how CDs and DVDs work!) that shows the three sizes DVDs can be.

How DVDs Work

Now there will only ever be 4.7 and 8.5 gig DVD writers, single sided and double sided, but double layered are also possible from commercial vendors. I can see these things, DSDL 17Gig DVDs being used in the future to prevent pirating.

I'll probably be picking up a DVD writer soon, they're only $115 CDN for an 8x DVD +/- writer up here in Canada where I live. ($90CDN for the cheapest 4x!)

I want to grab one for backing up my hard drive, be nice to put 40 CDs worth of backups onto 6 DVDs.

[Rider]

I think I'll wait 3 months for the price to drop and the speed to go up.

[Joe Siegler]

Yeah, if Joe can stick as many games on a CD-ROM as he said, just think about how many games he'd be able to fit on a DVD-ROM, that is, if 3DR can afford to burn every single game in 3DR/Apogee existance on there. That would be something!

As I said, I can already fit everything in the company history on a single CD-ROM (except for Manhattan Project and the two Max Payne games), so these uber format DVD's aren't an issue.

As to why not, I believe I already answered that when I said there are issues that you aren't aware of, nor will be told about that prevent this from happening. I'm sorry, but remember - not everything is info meant for the public. Hell, even I don't know the full details. I don't get involved in developer contracts.