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Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 11:57 am
by Narfig_Agar
Volition had been purchased by THQ a week before that. Interplay owned the distribution rights to the Descent name (as a video game). THQ wouldn't let Volition create something to be distributed by Interplay.

As far as I know, you still need Mike and Matt's permission to use things like a \"Pyro\" or \"Material Defender\" or to use any of the Descent storyline. If Interplay does manage to make a Descent 4, it might be Descent in name only. If this isn't true, please let me know as it could effect Into Cerberon!

Re:

Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 1:14 pm
by Trackball
BUBBALOU wrote:Also i think that first on is actually from Pyromania
Ah, sorry. Found that on some random Descent fansite a while back that claimed it was "the first d4 screenshot". Apparently not. :D

Was there anything from the MS/Orbital projects that might be of interest? Engine shots, renders, or art?

Re:

Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 1:25 pm
by Narfig_Agar
Trackball wrote:Was there anything from the MS/Orbital projects that might be of interest? Engine shots, renders, or art?
Nothing from the Orbital project that's worthwhile other than some tunes, and a bunch of sounds (some live on in IC). As someone else mentioned, that project was pretty much doomed.

Re:

Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 1:27 pm
by Trackball
BUBBALOU wrote:SO i guess you are the host of descent4.org, you can fix that too at your site
I believe ccb056 is the host of http://www.descent4.org

A very nice site btw.

Re:

Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 3:06 pm
by ccb056
Trackball wrote:
BUBBALOU wrote:SO i guess you are the host of descent4.org, you can fix that too at your site
I believe ccb056 is the host of http://www.descent4.org

A very nice site btw.
That is correct, Thanks :)

I'm hopping that with more news from Interplay regarding Descent 4, I can justify the cost of moving from the free Google Apps server to paying for a server and having access to some php/mysql. Get a much better interface/portal going.

In regards to the D4/Pyromania picture:
From what I've researched that image was taken at the Suncoast II LAN in 2001, Valin and the rest of MS had already started working on Descent 4, and that was a model of the ship that they were going to use. They just ported it into D3.

Pyromania was something different, and included that model in addition to others.

Re:

Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 3:27 pm
by TOR_LordRaven
ccb056 wrote: That is correct, Thanks :)

I'm hopping that with more news from Interplay regarding Descent 4, I can justify the cost of moving from the free Google Apps server to paying for a server and having access to some php/mysql. Get a much better interface/portal going.
PM me about this, I have a server if you need access.

Re:

Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 4:35 pm
by Sirius
Aggressor Prime wrote:Because it should be even more realistic than Crysis considering its coming 2010-2012.
Well... there's the little problem of "sci-fi"... it's quite hard to actually think it's real. ;)

Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 9:29 pm
by Aggressor Prime
Well, the environment looks real. The characters, maybe not so much.

Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 5:33 am
by Gekko71
I'm seriously considering buying Interplay shares but frankly I'm not convinced that Interplay can produce another Descent, on the basis of IP ownership.

Seriously - who DOES own the respective rights to Descent? Interplay gave up the videogame and movie trademarks, but trademarks and copyright are separate issues.

If the copyright to the storyline and other associated IP stayed with Matt and Mike, did those rights transfer to THQ upon the buyout of Volition and Outrage? If so, then Interplay *can't* do a sequel without THQ's okay. So therefore they *don't* have the rights to do another Descent and they have been misleading shareholders with their SEC filings.

If the rights remain with Mike and Matt however, then Narfig_Agar is right - any sequel could only go forward with their blessing.

Interplay may well have had a contract giving Parallax / Interplay the right of first refusal with any sequels - but upon Outrage being dissolved by THQ, that contract:

A: Would have been nullified

OR

B: The rights to Descent's IP may have been signed over to Interplay ...or to THQ.

Am I off base here? Do Interplay really have all the rights required to do a Descent sequel or not? I'm confused.

Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:29 am
by Moon
Well I've bought a Voodoo 3 3000 back in the days just to get my hands on D3 Sol Ascent before the full retail was released so I might upgrade again for D4. But I'm quite confident Starcraft ][ will come out before that so this will be my first step towards new hardware that can do more than handle websurfing, mails, office and D3.

On the other hand since Zico's progress with D1X-Rebirth I've gotten back into playing D1 and as long as they keep that level of fun I don't care too much for realistic graphics.

Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 12:46 pm
by Duper
A side note. Both Volition and Outrage were purchased by THQ. Outrage, iirc, was disband while Volition is still going strong.

Here is a VERY interesting article I just found. This is a MUST read by any descent player.

**** This is the same article in Moon's post HERE****
(thanks ccb)

CLICK!!!


I read this YEARS ago on Outrage's site. I was posted on the Project head's Journal (now known as blogs). This is an incredible insight on how NOT to develop a game. ;)

I saved this to a Word Doc and it weighs in at 12 pages, images and all. Mostly Due to the way winblows auto formatted the info....ie.. putting it all in a straight line ...if you call that formatting.

Anyways. The article is 4 pages long.

Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 1:06 pm
by CDN_Merlin
I read this ages ago. Considering all the problems they had, Descent 3 still kicks ass.

Re:

Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 1:07 pm
by Foil
Duper wrote:Here is a VERY interesting article I just found. This is a MUST read by any descent player.

CLICK!!!
Wow, I hadn't seen that before; definitely an insight into what went well, and what didn't work well in the Descent3 development. As a programmer on a small team, some of it sounded really familiar. Thanks, Duper!

Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 1:58 pm
by Sergeant Thorne
Now if we could get one on what all when together to make the initial D4 into Red Faction.

Re:

Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 2:31 pm
by ccb056
Duper wrote:A side note. Both Volition and Outrage were purchased by THQ. Outrage, iirc, was disband while Volition is still going strong.

Here is a VERY interesting article I just found. This is a MUST read by any descent player.

CLICK!!!


I read this YEARS ago on Outrage's site. I was posted on the Project head's Journal (now known as blogs). This is an incredible insight on how NOT to develop a game. ;)

I saved this to a Word Doc and it weighs in at 12 pages, images and all. Mostly Due to the way winblows auto formatted the info....ie.. putting it all in a straight line ...if you call that formatting.

Anyways. The article is 4 pages long.
viewtopic.php?t=13843

Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 3:19 pm
by Duper
Now THAT's too funny.

I found this on a quik google looking up the status of Outrage or rather if they still had their own site up. ..which is nope.

Sorry about that and thanks. I did this at lunch and didn't take the time to read through the other post.

Sorry Moon, this was a genuine \"oops\". Didn't mean to try and steal any thunder. :oops:


(man, I've had to edit more posts of mine today. :p)

Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 11:49 pm
by Moon
Don't worry, dude.

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 5:02 pm
by Trackball
Does anyone have high quality files of the Descent 4 soundtrack? I remember finding some a while back, but must of it was low quality and glitchy, like the Descent 4 \"Hogbert\" track on Planet Descent.

Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 7:23 pm
by TigerRaptor
Interesting video on Parallax Software and Descent with Mark Allender. I don't know why this video has been cut into 8 parts. But here is a link that will play each one automatically.

Link

Re:

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 5:22 pm
by Gold Leader
ccb056 wrote:
Duper wrote:A side note. Both Volition and Outrage were purchased by THQ. Outrage, iirc, was disband while Volition is still going strong.

Here is a VERY interesting article I just found. This is a MUST read by any descent player.

CLICK!!!


I read this YEARS ago on Outrage's site. I was posted on the Project head's Journal (now known as blogs). This is an incredible insight on how NOT to develop a game. ;)

I saved this to a Word Doc and it weighs in at 12 pages, images and all. Mostly Due to the way winblows auto formatted the info....ie.. putting it all in a straight line ...if you call that formatting.

Anyways. The article is 4 pages long.
viewtopic.php?t=13843
In my Descent Gallery I do have this Shield Orb Render which was meant for Descent 4 :)
Image

here's the rest of my gallery if you'd like to take a peek around :)
http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/v/3dfx_colle ... i/Descent/

Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 2:34 pm
by ccb056

Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 5:27 pm
by DarkHorse
It means they're not sitting on their hands, but I don't see any news on funding for it yet.

Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 10:30 am
by ccb056
Im sensing the website update is soon. Right now IE is timing out and it isnt even displaying the splash page.....

Re:

Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 3:26 am
by floppyfreak
ccb056 wrote:Im sensing the website update is soon. Right now IE is timing out and it isnt even displaying the splash page.....
may also mean they are gone. down . bye. :x

Re:

Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 6:17 am
by jshaner
ccb056 wrote:Im sensing the website update is soon. Right now IE is timing out and it isnt even displaying the splash page.....
Works for me.

Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 3:16 am
by Jon the Great
What the hell is D4? :D

Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 4:14 am
by Sirius
Vapourware on the scale of DNF.

Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 11:17 am
by Dakatsu
There is a small update that shows a shareholders meeting...
http://interplay.com/investor_relation.htm

Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 1:11 pm
by Duper
ouch.

Re:

Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 6:16 am
by Zetal
Dakatsu wrote:**** Jesus holy ***** on **** dog balls, teh wiki has spoken!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descent_4
I just got done rephrasing it, too. It was pretty much stating that Descent 4 was under current development while Interplay's Quarterly Report clearly says that it was going to work on the sequels if they had the funding after their project with the Fallout MMO.

I'm noticing everyone is putting money into their stock. Probably a better move is to dump money into their Fallout MMO when it comes out. That's where they're going to get the funding.

You can call me a backstabber, but I think a Freespace 3 would be much more beneficial to them than a Descent 4. Freespace 3 is a game that could be marketed a whole lot easier since it was less likely to give people motion sickness. Plus, that game had possibilities for a sequel more than Descent 3. Descent 3 pretty much did close the book on MD's issues. But I know what we're all looking for though: Descent 4 multiplayer. :D

Hopefully, they will balance their checkbook this time. :P

Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 1:38 pm
by Duper
Excellent points Zetal. I think you're spot on with Freespace 3. Apparently, they've gotten moneys from some where as they reopened the gametap stuff. I'm thinking that would have to be difficult to finance with only $350,000-something capital. But that was in March. Also, I'm not knowledgeable as to how business is done with GameTap.

Oh, should the Into Cerberon mod be mentioned with the other projects? It's actually playable and done quite well.

Re:

Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 3:30 am
by Gekko71
Duper wrote:...Apparently, they've gotten moneys from some where as they reopened the gametap stuff...
Plus Earthworm Jim and Earthworm Jim 2 will be re-released on the Wii sometime later this year.. ...they should get some revenue out of that.

Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 5:10 am
by Sirius
Not only that, the demand for a Freespace 3 is actually pretty substantial from the sound of things.

Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 9:40 pm
by SirWinner
Descent 4:

I would like to see it... but doubt that Interplay would ever do it.

---

Freespace 3:

While it would be great to have a REAL Space Sim with Joystick Support... FS3 is most likely not going to happen.

---

:x

Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 4:14 pm
by Aggressor Prime

Re:

Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 6:34 pm
by Aus-RED-5
Aggressor Prime wrote:The site got updated again:
http://www.interplay.com/

The page added:
http://www.interplay.com/investor_relation.htm
**Cough** :P

Re:

Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 6:15 am
by jshaner
Aus-RED-5 wrote:
Aggressor Prime wrote:The site got updated again:
http://www.interplay.com/

The page added:
http://www.interplay.com/investor_relation.htm
**Cough** :P
A bit more hope... Any progress now to me is a milestone.

FS3 would be a good one to see come out also.

Re:

Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 3:02 am
by Zetal
Duper wrote:Oh, should the Into Cerberon mod be mentioned with the other projects? It's actually playable and done quite well.
That page is just for Descent 4 and that was only a mod. But I did add it to external links on the Descent wiki a year ago I believe.

Re:

Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 11:52 pm
by Grendel
Narfig_Agar wrote:No, the game too. Cancelled in 2002! Don't forget that Interplay does not and never did own the IP for Descent. Matt Toschlog and Mike Kulas do (as Parallax Software).

http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regs ... y=74527218
Reapplied for on 12/24/07.

Re:

Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 10:17 am
by jshaner
Grendel wrote:
Narfig_Agar wrote:No, the game too. Cancelled in 2002! Don't forget that Interplay does not and never did own the IP for Descent. Matt Toschlog and Mike Kulas do (as Parallax Software).

http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regs ... y=74527218
Reapplied for on 12/24/07.
Does this mean that Interplay is trying to gain the rights to the Descent titles?