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Post by Blaze The Movie Fan on Sept 6, 2012 12:44:04 GMT -8
...I left?
It's been over two years now since I last went to this message board. It's also been over two years since I played Gruntz, the reason for that is because I have been doing other things. However, I still think Gruntz is a fun game, so I am returning to it.
EDIT: Correction, I actually did play Gruntz in 2011, and I did make some videos about Gruntz in 2011. So "over 2 years" was an exagguration. In fact I did make a new Gruntz video on YouTube by the beginning of the year. But still, the videos I made on Gruntz were made few months between, but I still got that wrong.
The last project I worked on before I left is the level TheSwordsGruntAndTheJungle and I am willing to get back to work on that level.
One more thing I wanna say, I really want this game to be popular, not many people know about it, and that's bad because it deserves to be as popular as games like Pokémon and Sonic games. Because it really is a fun game, I want to discuss the game with more people than just the members of this message board. I have made a game review of the game, but not many people saw that review. If you guys can tell me any way I can make this game more popular, let me know. Making videos about it can help, but I think I need to do something more.
So yeah, I'm sure there are a few new levels to play since I last left. Any good ones you recommend? I want a level that's not too hard, but not too easy either, and has a reasonable challenge.
I'm not officially back at playing Gruntz yet, but I ensure you I will be in a few days if not few weeks.
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Post by SwordGrunt on Sept 8, 2012 19:09:10 GMT -8
I don't think it can be made much more popular, honestly. The big problem about Gruntz is that its Multiplayer is terrible, which makes it hard to compete with modern gamez, which have a lot of replay value with good multiplayer experiencez. There are the Custom Levelz, of course, but they don't have a lot that can be modified from the original game, so after a while it just gets boring (IMO).
Take Doom, for instance: six yearz older than Gruntz, completes two decadez of existence next year. It's always been a multiplayer success and can be modified in many more aspectz (originally soundz and graphicz, and more recently pretty much anything in the game)
That, coupled with the fact that Gruntz was not very well known when it came out (even Monolith never seemed to give much attention to it), makes it pretty hard to introduce people into the game today, with so many more attractive and popular gamez out there. I mean, even buying the game is hard, most people wouldn't bother giving it a try despite how fun it might sound.
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Post by Blaze The Movie Fan on Sept 9, 2012 16:33:24 GMT -8
You're absolutely right, there are only four copies of the game left on Amazon, and I found no copy on ebay. So how people are gonna buy the game I recommend to them isn't gonna be easy.
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GooRoo
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Post by GooRoo on Sept 9, 2012 18:24:27 GMT -8
If it could be proven that Gruntz is now 'abandonware', the game could be made downloadable from this site ... free. But I will not violate copyrighted material ... so it must be provable that there are no longer any claims for any limitation on distribution of the game.
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Zu
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Post by Zu on Sept 10, 2012 1:12:05 GMT -8
And is there any way to actually prove it? Like asking some lawyer to do a research (even if for money), or SOMEHOW managing to get a reply from Monolith on the subject? Or, as a last resort, buying the franchise out of Monolith?
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Post by GooRoo on Sept 10, 2012 6:14:50 GMT -8
None of my early days' e-mail contactz workz any more. When I attempted to contact MPI in order to send the share for movie salez, the e-mail was returned undeliverable. Perhapz I can find a telephone number for MPI in the Seattle area, and get someone to talk to me ... and then get someone with authority to resolve the copyright issue ... one way or another. (Free would be nice!)
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Post by Blaze The Movie Fan on Sept 10, 2012 16:43:12 GMT -8
I don't think the game should be a downloadable copy, ever. I think anyone who truly wants the game should be able to pay for it.
But the big problem is there are only four copies left on Amazon, and I found none on Ebay. Let's say I did manage to get the game popular, how are people gonna buy it if all the copies on Amazon are gone? Four copies is very little unfortunately.
But at least I can still play the game myself.
I have something to add and since I didn't wanna double post I decided to delete my other post and put it in this one.
The solution to the big problem is if more copies of the game were made on CD. In fact I think more copies should be made on CD, but I'm sure Monolith doesn't care about the game anymore.
That's the best solution, because that way more people can buy it. Unfortunately I can't think of any legal way to copy the CDs.
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GooRoo
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Post by GooRoo on Sept 10, 2012 17:11:41 GMT -8
I can create CD-ROMz for Gruntz as I do for my own back-up and am willing to be a "back-up" service for people whose CDz have gone 'kaput' ... I have done so two or three timez, requiring proof of legal ownership (such as the non-working CD). So I can easily create CD-ROMz for Gruntz, which I would bundle with the Gruntz Extraz CD-ROM for my cost plus a dollar or so ('handling'). But only if I could do so without being a target for a lawsuit.
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Post by Blaze The Movie Fan on Sept 11, 2012 7:32:11 GMT -8
Alright, Ninetalescommander (who is a friend of mine on YouTube) pointed out that the main problem is the fact that the game is outdated, and SwordGrunt also pointed that out.
As much as I don't want it to be true it unfortunately is. Maybe I should give up trying to get the game popular and appreciate the fact that there is a small community that is keeping the game alive.
Yeah, my friend said that the limited amount of copies isn't the biggest problem, but the fact that the game is outdated.
What do you guys who post here think? Do you think I should give up on trying to make this game more popular?
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Post by SwordGrunt on Sept 11, 2012 10:35:58 GMT -8
Alright, Ninetalescommander (who is a friend of mine on YouTube) pointed out that the main problem is the fact that the game is outdated, and SwordGrunt also pointed that out. As much as I don't want it to be true it unfortunately is. Maybe I should give up trying to get the game popular and appreciate the fact that there is a small community that is keeping the game alive. Yeah, my friend said that the limited amount of copies isn't the biggest problem, but the fact that the game is outdated. What do you guys who post here think? Do you think I should give up on trying to make this game more popular? Indeed, outdated, and I can only see a solution if some sort of sequel is made (and since Monolith obviously isn't going to do that, we'd have to make sure that someone legally could). A lot of work would be needed to "upgrade" the game to modern standardz, such as much more versatile editing and infinitely superior multiplayer experience. And it could actually be a big success, we never know. The first step is defining whether it'll actually be possible, by finding a way to contact Monolith... which only seems to get harder.
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Post by Perfect Grunt on Sept 19, 2012 6:30:53 GMT -8
At this time, playing Gruntz is just getting trickier (with the installer not working under WIN7).
It will just get more and more difficult while time goes by, and the sooner we somehow could make a sequel, a clone or modify the existing game, the better.
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Post by Blaze The Movie Fan on Sept 19, 2012 14:05:52 GMT -8
So that's the reason this message board is becoming more and more inactive.
If there is something I could do to help, I really would because I love this game and don't want it to die.
But sadly there isn't anything I can do.
Please can someone find a way to contact Monolith? I think it's now more important than ever, this game doesn't deserve to be outdated, it deserves to get more recognition, which is probably not happening.
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Post by BattlezM on Sept 19, 2012 14:30:11 GMT -8
Personally I think the inactivity is a result of lack of new custom levelz. There are so many puzzlez that have been designed, even with all the combinations of elementz in Gruntz. It's getting harder to come up with something that hasn't been done already. I haven't come up with ideaz to work on myself, and levelz that I have worked on that I've taken another look I've forgotten what was going on. Plus I have a million other things going on outside of Gruntz.
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Zu
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Post by Zu on Sept 19, 2012 19:10:14 GMT -8
There are so many puzzlez that have been designed, even with all the combinations of elementz in Gruntz. It's getting harder to come up with something that hasn't been done already. Well, to be honest, there is one idea that I don't think anybody tried yet and I wanted to create a level based on it, but I'm lacking ideas for how to cleverly exploit it.
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Post by ILoveGruntz on Sept 20, 2012 0:29:34 GMT -8
Really, this game has near infinite possibilities. I have a 5-6 untested ideas that I never made in a CL, but limitations on Windows 7, and the fact that my computer crashed losing my last half finished CL really took a lot of the joy out of it for me.
A fan made sequal would be really fun, but we need the license from Monolith if that is ever going to happen.
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Post by Blaze The Movie Fan on Sept 20, 2012 15:14:45 GMT -8
Is no legal way to get the game updated? Come on, I don't want this community to die.
If the players can't play the game Gruntz, this community will die soon.
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Zu
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Post by Zu on Sept 20, 2012 19:38:18 GMT -8
Let's start with the fact that for all intents and purposes, we can basically do anything we want except for selling Gruntz 2 with such an aggressive advertizing that even Monolith wouldn't be able to miss it. The reason being: Gruntz is no longer being sold anywhere, Monolith does give a buck about the game, and thus it's essentially an abandonware.
That, and we already had an individual who were trying to turn Gruntz into a Java version, with pretty interesting results. Dunno what happened to that project.
So yeah. My opinion is: let's just do it, legal or not. Unless we're going to be extremely loud about it and going to sell stuff for notable amounts of money, Monolith will probably not care even if they'll hear about us.
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Post by Perfect Grunt on Sept 21, 2012 1:46:06 GMT -8
Perhaps it could be possible to buy Gruntz from Monolith (not a copy but the whole thing including sources and all the rights), but I do not have any idea what it would cost (for Blender3D it has been 100.000 €, but Gruntz is far less important).
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Post by GooRoo on Sept 21, 2012 6:16:07 GMT -8
I'll look into that ... right after I win the lottery.
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Post by SwordGrunt on Sept 21, 2012 11:37:35 GMT -8
The thing is, either we'd have to program it from scratch, find a way of reverse-engineering or actually buy the game (which is probably the hardest option, considering Monolith can't seem to be contacted; but maybe if we talk money, they might actually give it some attention... someone should actually try this)
Making it from scratch would take a pretty damn long time, and if there's no financial return in the future, I can't see people dedicating such a huge amount of time to it.
Getting the actual source would make it easier... some adjustmentz, to enable a higher level of customization by CL authorz, would be ideal, and that would probably be less time consuming as well.
I'd love to work on remaking Gruntz with more modern technology - 3D Gruntz is something I've alwayz liked to think of - but that requires larger amountz of people, and even then some modern gamez take yearz to come out. It's far from impossible though. I know a guy who started a FPS game project, with a few people helping him, and it's actually going really far, looks great and perfectly playable.
If done with Gruntz, I'm sure it could become a very popular game, as it has such a good concept and interesting aspectz. We just need to actually get it going, as hard as it is, or it'll never be done.
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