Heroquest program for solo playing

[Ryno]

I don't know about android and other mobile devices, but I do know that you cannot run silverlight on iOS (iphone/ipad) devices. Also, if you were interested in developing for iOS, you'd have to use a mac I think which might not be fun because of all the money upfront. Some people make really good money though. I am working my way up the developers ladder slowly so I can one day develop apps for mobile devices since it is such a booming economy.

[Patroclus]

Yes, the traps are all visible, and I haven’t put a “search for traps” function. If you are entering a room with traps you are seeing all of them right in front of you, or if the trap is on a chest you will read it in the event text. And that is because I can’t make people to press on every square checking if there is a trap or not... I understand the cost of loss of the hidden trap part of gameplay (only when you are playing with no GM)… But at the end it is like you are searching for traps every time you are entering a room, it is not a big deal, on the other hand it is necessary to keep it simple. Maybe for some of the players it is very important and I could add an option for that. Yes, on iPod it will be a lot better for sure...

ps: to bypass the problem when you are playing with no GM, you can roll a dice for every visible trap in the room to check if you fall on the trap or not. If it is skull, you can choose one of your heroes and place him on the trap, roll for damage, etc etc

ps: “cannot run silverlight on iOS”... nice job apple... lol

[HeroQuestFrance]

What about Hero Quest? It is 20 years now from its last publish… ???Patroclus

Call the juridic office of your local hasbro you will see they still own the exploitation licence and brandname (they renew the licence each 20 years)
Games Workshop doesn't list HeroQuest into their products since it was a cooperative one with MB (later hasbro) but you can call their juridic office too in England : they have the rights on the brand name too, figurines, photos, contain etc.

normally it takes 5O years before a thing comes in public domain.

Not true.

The question is that Mona Lisa can be printed on books, t-shirts, cups, etc, because no one could ask about the rights, it is part and belongs to the history.

Not true too.
I explain : in fact if there is no family, it should be "free" but it isn't !
Why because orchestral versions of classical music or copies of paints are done by someone else.
And this "someone else" is winning royalties on it and has a lot of rights on it. (edition, publication, printing, exploitation etc) ... Yep copyright is the cancer of those 2 decades and industrials, majors etc won't evolve this.

But you can cheat. Sell your product with another name (don't use Heroquest but Meroquest for example)

Good idea ! But if they catch you... you can always say it's Gravaillon who told you to do that !

[drathe]

Not sure of copyright law in Europe, but in Canada and the United States, a copyright lasts for the life of the author/artist plus 50 years. A corporation is legally deemed as an entity in itself and has legal rights. The difference between a corporation and an individual is that a corporation's lifespan is deemed infinite. Copyrights of corporations last forever, but if they don't defend their works, then they can actually be lost. (Which is one reason Games Workshop defends their IPs, even when they haven't used them in 20 years). Trademarks have a set lifespan, but may be renewed repeatedly. Patents have a lifespan of 17 years, but if another person or company changes one thing, it often counts as an improvement, which can be patented by itself.

Long story short, if Hasbro and/or Games Workshop don't bark, then you are technically okay. However, if they do protest, then you're in hot water. Do you wish to take the chance?

[gravaillon]

"Good idea ! But if they catch you... you can always say it's Gravaillon who told you to do that !"

I can't approve that

[washi]

That guy gave up to earn-some-money-on-what-all-you-do-for-hobby or the program was released? (Yes, I know this post is 3 years old...)

[Daedalus]

Not sure of copyright law in Europe, but in Canada and the United States, a copyright lasts for the life of the author/artist plus 50 years. A corporation is legally deemed as an entity in itself and has legal rights. The difference between a corporation and an individual is that a corporation's lifespan is deemed infinite. Copyrights of corporations last forever, but if they don't defend their works, then they can actually be lost. (Which is one reason Games Workshop defends their IPs, even when they haven't used them in 20 years). Trademarks have a set lifespan, but may be renewed repeatedly. Patents have a lifespan of 17 years, but if another person or company changes one thing, it often counts as an improvement, which can be patented by itself.

Long story short, if Hasbro and/or Games Workshop don't bark, then you are technically okay. However, if they do protest, then you're in hot water. Do you wish to take the chance?

For our benefit, I've reproduced portions of section 302 of US copyright law.

S302 . Duration of Copyright:

Works created on or after January 1, 1978

(a) IN GENERAL.--Copyright in a work created on or after January 1, 1978,
subsists from its creation and, except as provided by the following subsections,
endures for a term consisting of the life of the author and 70 years after the
author's death.

(c) ANONYMOUS WORKS, PSEUDONYMOUS WORKS, AND WORKS MADE FOR
HIRE.--In the case of an anonymous work, a pseudonymous work, or a work
made for hire, the copyright endures for a term of 95 years from the year of its
first publication, or a term of 120 years from the year of its creation, whichever
expires first.

Stephen Baker was working for Milton Bradley in the UK when he created Hero Quest. That makes Hero Quest a work for hire covered under subsection c. Perhaps one day some of our indoctrinated offspring will live long enough to reproduce Hero Quest in their replicators when 2084 rolls around. Then again, if corporate-created deals such as the Trans Pacific Partnership get their way, then our decendants will have to wait for 2189 (or perhaps one day indefinitely, as drathe has mentioned.) Oh, wait. Maybe Europeans will get to keep the 95-year wait if they can remain free from such trade entanglements. And if North Americans wake up and shout loudly and quickly enough, especially 'Muricans with congressional interference to halt Obama, their kids can keep the 95-year wait as well. Sign a petition today, and one day your family name may be on the 100th Anniversary Edition of Hero Quest!

[washi]

There is some place where I can find quests developed for HQGM for download? I don't mean the quests available in the HQGM site, 'cause I have already downloaded all quests from there (Basic and Expansions).

[HeroQuestFrance]

Re: Heroquest program for solo playing
Unread postby Daedalus » Saturday July 5th, 2014 5:31pm

drathe wrote:
Not sure of copyright law in Europe, but in Canada and the United States, a copyright lasts for the life of the author/artist plus 50 years. A corporation is legally deemed as an entity in itself and has legal rights. The difference between a corporation and an individual is that a corporation's lifespan is deemed infinite. Copyrights of corporations last forever, but if they don't defend their works, then they can actually be lost. (Which is one reason Games Workshop defends their IPs, even when they haven't used them in 20 years). Trademarks have a set lifespan, but may be renewed repeatedly. Patents have a lifespan of 17 years, but if another person or company changes one thing, it often counts as an improvement, which can be patented by itself.

Long story short, if Hasbro and/or Games Workshop don't bark, then you are technically okay. However, if they do protest, then you're in hot water. Do you wish to take the chance?

For our benefit, I've reproduced portions of section 302 of US copyright law.


S302 . Duration of Copyright:
Works created on or after January 1, 1978

(a) IN GENERAL.--Copyright in a work created on or after January 1, 1978,
subsists from its creation and, except as provided by the following subsections,
endures for a term consisting of the life of the author and 70 years after the
author's death.

(c) ANONYMOUS WORKS, PSEUDONYMOUS WORKS, AND WORKS MADE FOR
HIRE.--In the case of an anonymous work, a pseudonymous work, or a work
made for hire, the copyright endures for a term of 95 years from the year of its
first publication, or a term of 120 years from the year of its creation, whichever
expires first.

Stephen Baker was working for Milton Bradley in the UK when he created Hero Quest. That makes Hero Quest a work for hire covered under subsection c. Perhaps one day some of our indoctrinated offspring will live long enough to reproduce Hero Quest in their replicators when 2084 rolls around. Then again, if corporate-created deals such as the Trans Pacific Partnership get their way, then our decendants will have to wait for 2189 (or perhaps one day indefinitely, as drathe has mentioned.) Oh, wait. Maybe Europeans will get to keep the 95-year wait if they can remain free from such trade entanglements. And if North Americans wake up and shout loudly and quickly enough, especially 'Muricans with congressional interference to halt Obama, their kids can keep the 95-year wait as well. Sign a petition today, and one day your family name may be on the 100th Anniversary Edition of Hero Quest!

You lost your time with that.
If you would call Hasbro Inc legal service :

1 you will learn HASBRO INC has the trademark and bought everything from Games Workshop. The entire game is the property of HASBRO INC.
The illustrators, drawers, creators of the rules, writers etc have no right today : they were paid to do the work by Games Workshop & MB and there is no royalty story about this in their contract.
Some were even not mentioned into the credit list ...

2 the trademark HEROQUEST is no more exploited for more than 5 years in the country of the original guy who post this message according to the official trademark website.
So if someone takes or uses the original illustrations, the mecanic or something else he has no risk, no fear. He cannot be sued for piracy or deloyal concurrency.
This is the third party advantage if you do not exploit your trademark.

It's not the same if this person does it under the same trademark name registered in his country.
In this case, he has to ask an authorization to the previous holder of this trademark (hasbro inc) which is in fact an exploitation licence and there are restrictive (or not) guidelines.

That's what I had to do when Hasbro had in France a living trademark for the remaster.

[Daedalus]

You lost your time with that.
If you would call Hasbro Inc legal service :

1 you will learn HASBRO INC has the trademark and bought everything from Games Workshop. The entire game is the property of HASBRO INC.
The illustrators, drawers, creators of the rules, writers etc have no right today : they were paid to do the work by Games Workshop & MB and there is no royalty story about this in their contract.
Some were even not mentioned into the credit list ...

Yeah, I've spent a lot of time checking on the IP (intelectual property) that bears on Hero Quest, but I don't consider it time wasted. I realize Hasbro owns the game--that's what I meant when I mentioned Hero Quest is considered a work for hire under US copyright law. However, not all of the IP copyrights are owned by Hasbro. Games Workshop still retains copyright to Fimirs and Morcar as the evil overlord. Chaos Warriors might also be individual enough to defend.

The Gary Chalk illustrations are copyrighted to that artist, not Games Workshop. At the time HQ was created, GW practice wasn't to buy the copyright of thier artwork--it was too costly for the then-smaller company. They simply had a license agreement with Gary to produce his work for a limited time. GW's non-ownership of his illustrations for HQ came out in his court testimony in one of GW's court battles. There is a chance Hasbro bought this copyright from him, but I don't think this likely as Gary never mentioned such legal standing in court.

2 the trademark HEROQUEST is no more exploited for more than 5 years in the country of the original guy who post this message according to the official trademark website.
So if someone takes or uses the original illustrations, the mecanic or something else he has no risk, no fear. He cannot be sued for piracy or deloyal concurrency.
This is the third party advantage if you do not exploit your trademark....

Apparently something is lost in translation here. Trademark covers the recognizable name and image of a product. Copyright covers the other elements you allude to. Gary Chalk holds the copyright of the card illustrations for 70 years after his death, as this is covered under subsection a. IN GENERAL. of US Duration of Copyright.

Game mechanics aren't covered by copyright, though the specific wording and images that express those mechanics are covered by Hasbro's copyright and need to be respected. The combat dice can't be identically copied, nor can an accumulation of similar terms such as the exact wording on a Water Spell Card. Stephen Baker created those words and images with others as a work for hire while employed by Milton Bradley in England. Hasbro owns those expressions now, and its copyright of such material lasts for 95 years after the game's first publication in 1989.

Meanwhile, anyone can make a dungeon crawler sharing the same mechanics of attack dice with three hits, two defends, and an odd face for monster defends or whatever. Spell cards featuring sleep effects will also likely pop up in games. The important thing is that a new work is innovative and not too derivative of the original work beyond game mechanics. You have personal knowlege of one such game being made. I'd like to see this work out, but retaining details like Morcar as a big baddie combined with the Hero Quest name worry me. I hope you're right about trademark registration--the matter will come out soon enough. I wish you success in your efforts.