Earth 2150. Perhaps not many know this 3D RTS, but it's amazing. When a tank has finished production, the goddamn factory doors open up to let the tank out. That's a level of detail not even modern games have, sometimes.
As weird as it may sound, decompiling and rewriting the code in a new language is not the same as copying the code as is, since you probably have to adapt it to the new language paradigm, or, even if it's the same paradigm, at least its specific structure and instructions. I imagine they look at the original code, understand what it's doing and write their own version. In a sense, it's paraphrasing...
Even if both codes do the same thing, you can't copyright intangible ideas, such as what's the code supposed to do.
If that was the case, the entire software industry could collapse at any moment under a multitude of lawsuits, since - if you look beyond games - a lot of competing software (such as, say, Word Processors, or Enterprise Management Systems) have similar features, due to their nature. Thus, they may have a very similar code underneath - since devs try to follow best coding practices, design patterns and check stackoverflow.com if they're facing an issue.
Comments 3
Re: Talking Point: Is There A Better-Looking 20-Year-Old Game Than Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II?
Earth 2150. Perhaps not many know this 3D RTS, but it's amazing. When a tank has finished production, the goddamn factory doors open up to let the tank out. That's a level of detail not even modern games have, sometimes.
Re: After 18 Months, Zelda: Ocarina Of Time Fans Are Almost Done Decompiling The Game
As weird as it may sound, decompiling and rewriting the code in a new language is not the same as copying the code as is, since you probably have to adapt it to the new language paradigm, or, even if it's the same paradigm, at least its specific structure and instructions. I imagine they look at the original code, understand what it's doing and write their own version. In a sense, it's paraphrasing...
Even if both codes do the same thing, you can't copyright intangible ideas, such as what's the code supposed to do.
If that was the case, the entire software industry could collapse at any moment under a multitude of lawsuits, since - if you look beyond games - a lot of competing software (such as, say, Word Processors, or Enterprise Management Systems) have similar features, due to their nature. Thus, they may have a very similar code underneath - since devs try to follow best coding practices, design patterns and check stackoverflow.com if they're facing an issue.
Re: After 18 Months, Zelda: Ocarina Of Time Fans Are Almost Done Decompiling The Game
@gcunit ha ha ha, could you imagine if people did that? Oh wait, people actually do that...