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Christmas Cheer PC Games (Games) Entertainment Games

Rockstar Republishes Wild Metal For Free 56

Posted by simoniker from the now-that's-wild dept.
Thanks to several readers for pointing to the download section on the official Rockstar Games site, where they've just released full PC title Wild Metal (also sometimes known as Wild Metal Country) for free download. The page explains: "Another vintage title from Rockstar North, then known as DMA Design, Wild Metal (1999) is a 3D strategic vehicular combat game." The game originally debuted on the Sega Dreamcast, with the PC version getting a limited release, and a C+VG review mentions "this is a good [LAN-specific?] multiplayer game... lots of tanks, lots of ammo, lots of big explosions." The original, top-down view Grand Theft Auto is also available for download on the site.
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Rockstar Republishes Wild Metal For Free More

Rockstar Republishes Wild Metal For Free

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  • Three Cheers... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by roseblood ( 631824 ) on Tuesday December 23, 2003 @02:05PM (#7796506)
    ...for Rockstar! The game would have otherwise been abandon-ware and never again seen the light of day. But they apparently see the value of releasing older games as a marking moev to gain better exposure and build a customer base (those who get the old game today might get a new game tomorrow, and that's money in Rockstar's pockets!)

    • Game Cycles (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Baron_Yam ( 643147 )

      Yeah, there ought to be a standard in the industry - develop, sell, wait 5 years, check if the title is ready for the bargain bin and if so, release to the public domain.

      It's nothing but good for the developer.

    • Re:Three Cheers... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Gothic_Walrus ( 692125 ) on Tuesday December 23, 2003 @02:22PM (#7796670) Journal
      Companies whine about their titles being put up for download as abandonware, but the majority don't do anything about it. There are, in my eyes, two general solutions.

      1.) Rerelease the game, either solo or as part of a collection. Not exactly gamer-friendly, but at least the company is showing that they do have a legitimate use for their older titles.

      2.) Authorize free download of it. This is the course that Rockstar and several other companies have taken, and it's worked wonders. Having a chance to play games like Grand Theft Auto and Hidden and Dangerous [bluesnews.com] again for free is a great thing for us gamers.

      This is the best way to combat abandonware - take it into your own hands. Makes gamers happy, great positive publicity, another use for those older titles...what more could a game publisher ask for?

  • ... it hits 88% and then ditches (source file can't be read). Did that to me last night both times I tried it, and once today. Argh!

  • Great Links (Score:2, Interesting)

    by daki ( 731824 )
    This is great! Thanks so much for the info. GTA has been a great dynasty of games, and even with the advances that GTA III and Vice City have reached, the original GTA still will always remain a classic. I haven't gotten to play Wild Metal, but I will as soon as I get home. I appluade Rockstar for their support of the open source world, in releasing these old versions of the games. Rockstar continues to impress me always, first with their games, then with their actions.
  • If you haven't played the original GTA, go download it. The graphics are no where near GTA3, but if you can get over the oldschool graphics it's still damn fun.

    Try firing a gun at the train station when the people get off the train. :)

  • Nearly Free Advertising (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Godeke ( 32895 ) * on Tuesday December 23, 2003 @02:20PM (#7796640)
    A lot of these companies have a huge backlog of titles that would require recompiles and minor changes to timing to make them usable on modern machines. Release them using the same bandwidth they are paying for to distribute patches, and you have a huge marketing opprotunity.

    It especially makes sense when you have sequels that are vastly improved (original GTA vs the double pack). So why don't we see this more often?

  • Wild metal conspiracy (Score:3, Interesting)

    by xmple ( 704367 ) on Tuesday December 23, 2003 @02:32PM (#7796746)
    Ok I got a little conspiracy theory here

    You are free to download the game from their website, but are not allowed to share that file to others.
    Also you get a download link that will only work for you (so you cannot share the link with others)
    Now, I think they add hidden data to their file wich contains your IP adress or something, so they can track who is sharing their files. ... I'm still working out a theory for what reason they would need that information, but anyway.

    Now my question is to all of you who downloaded the game from rockstar to make a MD5 sum of the file they received, to check if indeed the files are different, or that I'm just too suspicious about the whole thing.

    You can add your MD5 sum as a reply to this message, and of course any conspiracy theory is welcome.

    Oh yes if you need to download the MD5 summer program got to this adress:

    http://www.md5summer.org/

    • Re:Wild metal conspiracy (Score:5, Insightful)

      by MachDelta ( 704883 ) on Tuesday December 23, 2003 @02:55PM (#7797025)
      Whoa, whoa, whoa - put away the tinfoil hat there dude. The reason they don't want others distributing the file (or even links), is because they want people to actually have to stop by their website. Its all about advertising. They give away a free (classic) game, which makes them look good, and attracts attention. Then, people flock to download it from their site - and while they're there, they get to look at all the pretty ads and maybe browse around while they're D/Ling. Spread the word, maybe make a sale or two... all for the cost of bandwidth. If they just let the file run free on BT's and whatnot, no one would have a reason to stop by the R* website. Thats all. :)

    • Re:Wild metal conspiracy (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 23, 2003 @03:03PM (#7797108)
      Here's my MD5 sum:
      0xgetatinfoilhatyoufreak
    • So, wheres your MD5 sum?

      I'd post mine for the heck of it, but I deleted the zip, sorry
      • Well I tried to download the file a dozen of times, and I get disconnected every time from there server with an error message.

        Maybe they know that I discoverd their dirty little secret...

    • Re:Wild metal conspiracy (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I have yet another conspiracy theory; you work with Rockstar and you're now even trying to link the "unique IDs" that you're collecting data for with their SLASHDOT ACCOUNTS. You bastards are truly devious.

  • Wild Metal is a very bad game, but... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Pluvius ( 734915 ) <pluvius3NO@SPAMgmail.com> on Tuesday December 23, 2003 @02:34PM (#7796781) Journal
    I'm glad Rockstar has this much respect for its gamers. They actually seem to realize that if they lose sales due to people's preference of their old games over their new ones, then it's a problem with the new games, not with the "cheap" people who don't want to play them.

    Rob (Of course, I don't think Rockstar is in any danger of slipping into a creative slump, but still)
  • I'm having a LAN party over my christmas holiday! ;-)

    Seems their server is getting its buttox pummeled.

  • Yay, WildMetal. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Inoshiro ( 71693 ) on Tuesday December 23, 2003 @02:57PM (#7797050) Homepage
    Oh, wait, I played this game. Unless you're playing it for multiplayer (which is still crap), it's horrific. I made the mistake of spending 10$ on the Dreamcast version in a clearance bin. Don't waste your time downloading it unless you're playing it with at least 4 people.

    To summarize, it has horrid, empty, repetitive landscapes. You end up fighting the controls to v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y climb up cliffs to get at items. If you meet the AI, it'll usually wait until you're in range, and then fire a whole bunch. It doesn't really try to flank you or do anything cool, not that it'd matter (since all tanks tend to be really slow). Sound wise, get used to the sound of a tank engine. That and shooting is all that Rockstar included. There are no music tracks at all. It's one of the bottom 10 Dreamcast games ever released. Naturally, IGN gave it an 83% and called it a "surprisingly deep game once you get into it" -- but they're shills anyways. PlanetDreamcast's review [planetdreamcast.com] is much better.

    • Re:Yay, WildMetal. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by linuxkrn ( 635044 ) <[moc.nigolxunil] [ta] [nostawg]> on Tuesday December 23, 2003 @03:26PM (#7797344)
      Actually, this game did have a bit of enjoyment if you had force feeback joystick. I played it for a few hours.

      I had the most fun just driving around the landscape and feeling the different forces. You could feel the tank engine at standstill, then as you moved, you could "feel" the tank's weight shift as you started to gain speed. You actually knew when you were about to slip/spin out of control. Plus, the greatest thrill was jumping mountains!

      Try it with force feedback. The game content is a bit lacking but the feel makes the game. IMHO

      • The physics are indeed very good. The gameplay is of course ultra-simplistic; basically we're talking about a 3D update of Combat with more complicated controls. I didn't care for the controls on the Dreamcast version but the PC version worked pretty well, I thought; unfortunately I only played the demo and never got to try the full PC version, since it was only released in Europe (and as a bundled title with a few 3D cards). High marks for Rockstar for finally bringing this out.

  • When Free Isn't Free Enough (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jvmatthe ( 116058 ) on Tuesday December 23, 2003 @03:13PM (#7797208) Homepage
    You GNU folks in the audience should like this one.

    I'm in favor of giving away games for free. Honestly I am. But Sometimes Free Isn't Free Enough [curmudgeongamer.com] explains why game companies should be doing the free games thing a bit differently.

    The upshot is: learn from id Software. Their games will now live forever, with no overhead for the developer, because they released their source. Even source releases under a not-quite-free license would be better than a binary-only release. As a bonus, the game assets (graphics, models, music, sounds, etc.) can all be sold for use with the freely available clients, providing a small trickle of income over the longer term.

    Anyway, I got flamed for this in the comments on the story when I wrote it, and I expect more, so FLAME ON! :^)

  • I really wish more companies would start releasing their old games. It doesn't even have to be using their bandwidth. I'm sure there are tons of places like Fileplanet, Fileshack, 3DGamers, etc that would host them. I mean most of those games aren't even sold in stores anymore. Could it really hurt the developer that much to give it away?
    • Now that a court has ruled obsolete videogames are exempt from the DMCA, expect a lot more 3rd party companies to start rereleasing old games. Hopefully this will spur developers to rerelease the games themselves.
      • FWIW, the ruling was from the Copyright Office, and only deals with circumvention of access protection on games - so copyrights still apply, and only the rights-holder still has the ability to give away obsolete games freely.

  • Oh no! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by sbszine ( 633428 ) on Tuesday December 23, 2003 @05:03PM (#7798511) Journal
    Another vintage title from Rockstar North, then known as DMA Design

    So the makers of Lemmings [utahdesign.com] then went on to make GTA? That's awesome.

    • Re:Oh no! (Score:4, Informative)

      by Psykechan ( 255694 ) on Tuesday December 23, 2003 @10:36PM (#7800593)
      Yep, DMA Design also used to be part of Nintendo's "Dream Team" back in the day.

      Most people just remember them for the Psygnosis published games like Blood Money and the Lemmings series.

      BTW, don't expect Rockstar to release Lemmings anytime soon. I think Psygnosis still owns it.
  • Does it mean having a pirated copy of the Dreamcast version is legal too? :P
  • I'm not filling in my email address till I see a privacy policy. Is there one available because I couldn't see it... I know I am crazy but in this day and age...

    I guess I could just set up a disposable email but I'm too lazy

  • as in .. DNA Desing, the crew that came up with the oringinal Lemmings on the Amiga and published it with psygnogis?

    You've come a long way, baby...
  • the download keeps resetting on me, sometimes at 1%, sometimes at 80%. sucks that they dont support resuming.
    • Yep. And since the bastards won't let anyone redistribute it, the one guy who managed to download the thing before the site started shitting itself can't post a torrent.

      I think mine got as far as 48% before it crapped out.

      No hits for WMINSTALLER at filemirrors.com or filesearching.com either.

  • We used to play the orig GTA on a LAN at an old gig of mine...can this GTA run under Wine? If it does, I'm gonna try it, that was a fun game, more fun than the later GTAs IMO.

    CB

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