[Coco] Dungeons of Daggorath - Source Code

[Andrew]

Answering everyone in-turn...please note I'm not trying to turn this 
into an argument or anything; just clarifying what I found, etc...

Nathan Byrd:

Your link to "http://computerarcheology.com/CoCo/Daggorath/Code.html" I 
don't believe is the "original source" - because on this page:

http://computerarcheology.com/CoCo/Daggorath/

...which links to the "Code.html" page, specifically says it's 
"Disassembled Code" - which I take to mean was a ROM dump of the code, 
disassembled, and then only 40% completed (again - see the left-hand 
sidebar) as to total functionality. It looks like the author of that 
effort was trying to basically figure out what each and every piece of 
code does/did, how it all works together, reasoning as to the logic 
behind the code, etc.

Which seems to be mainly the point of the entire site, hence the site's 
name.

Definitely all the code is probably there, and likely the authors 
comments are more in-depth than what was in the original assembler 
source (but that is pure speculation). Highly useful and interesting, 
and definitely it became a part of my "archive" of things. But again, I 
don't have reason to believe it's the original code.

---

Tim Lindner:

You noted that "But his instructions were to not pass it along."

I decided to re-read the license, so while I believe this statement to 
not pass it on is likely true, it seems strange that this would be a 
stipulation, outside of the original license, because on my second read, 
it seems that the license is for the game design, not for the code 
itself. The license reads (in full):

"I hereby grant a non-exclusive permanent world-wide license to any and 
all Color Computer site administrators, emulator developers, programmers 
or any other person or persons who wish to develop, produce, duplicate, 
emulate, or distribute the game on the sole condition that they exercise 
every effort to preserve the game insofar as possible in its original 
and unaltered form."

That is the entire licensing. It mentions nothing about the code, but 
rather "the game" itself - the design.

I believe that you could, with this license, recode the entire thing in 
some other language, but it has to look and act like the original - 2D 
wireframes, same monster design, game play, rules, maps, etc. You can't 
extend it. You can't add or remove monsters. You can't change combat 
rules or scoring, etc. You couldn't redo it in OpenGL (unless you made a 
shader, etc - that made it look like an old-school 2D vector-style game 
- but no free-looking, no animation, etc).

The license says nothing about the code - so why even distribute the 
code at all? And - by distributing it, without a license (other than for 
what seems to be a "verbal" agreement to not pass it on, which doesn't 
appear to be in writing anywhere), where does that leave the code that 
-is- out there in other's hands? That is, in a legal sense?

I'm not expecting you to answer that, Tim; but the question hangs in the 
air when you think about it. It seems almost obvious that he didn't run 
the verbiage by any kind of lawyer on copyright and IP law - because 
they would have never allowed such a thing. The code is definitely not 
"public domain", and the owner in some manner (but not publicly) has 
tried to keep copyright on the code proprietary, but release the design 
of the game with a license that allows more latitude (but not enough to 
allow any kind of more advanced derivative that would purport to be 
"Dungeons of Daggorath").

Regardless - I find it a strange thing; something someone else would 
have to try challenging in the future, I guess.

---

William Astle:

Thank you for posting about your disassembly of the code; I'll have to 
check it out. If you read the rest of this reply, you understand 
what/where I was talking about the "40% complete" disassembly. I wasn't 
as clear as I should have been; I do believe the disassembly is likely 
complete, but the person behind the "Computer Archeology" site is only 
40% of the way done with the explanation of the code, logic, etc - as I 
noted before.

---

Well - I guess this basically concludes almost everything, and thank you 
to everyone who chimed in. Again, I think the license is for the game 
design, but I really don't know that for certain, it just seems to be 
worded in a manner that reflects that, and says nothing about the code 
itself, which would seem to indicate that the code is still under 
copyright and proprietary (so, who knows what the legality of any 
disassembly is, and/or copies of the game that exist out there). A field 
day perhaps awaits for a future law firm, maybe?

-- 
Andrew L. Ayers
Glendale, Arizona
phoenixgarage.org
github.com/andrew-ayers