[games sig] Downloader for shareware data files for gpl engines such as vavoom

[Michael Thomas]

Following up to my own post...

Michael Thomas wrote:
> Jason L Tibbitts III wrote:
> 
>>>>>>>"HdG" == Hans de Goede <j.w.r.degoede at hhs.nl> writes:
>>
>>
>>HdG> Hi, I had this idea last night, it would be nice to package doom
>>HdG> (and other) gpl game engines, or improved spinoffs such as
>>HdG> vavoom, but they are kinda useless without the shareware
>>HdG> datafiles.
>>
>>The packaging guidelines specifically mention Doom:
>>
>>----
>>Shareware
>>
>>Shareware applications are not Open Source code, and are not
>>acceptable for Fedora.
>>
>>However, it is worth noting that some non-executable content exists
>>that is required to make Open Source applications functional. An
>>example of this would be open sourced game engines, such as Doom,
>>Heretic, and Descent. These game engines come with freely
>>distributable shareware gamedata files.
>>
>>In this case, the gamedata files can be packaged and included in
>>Fedora Extras, as long as the files meet the requirements for binary
>>firmware.
>>----
>>
>>HdG> Now the shareware files are freely redistributed by a lot of
>>HdG> sites, but nowhere there seems to be a clear license under which
>>HdG> this is done, which makes things kinda dodgy.
>>
>>This seems to be the case for xu4, which is an (open source) engine
>>which plays the Ultima 4 data files.  I would like to package it, and
>>the data is available all over (including from Sourceforge, which I
>>understand has significant restrictions on what you can host there).
>>But I can't find any statement that it's OK to distribute the data
>>except for some archived emails.
> 
> 
> Let me approach this from a different angle:
> 
> Let's start with the assumption that we are not allowed to redistribute
> the game files, and thus, can't include them in Fedora.  Can we still
> include the game engine?  It would seem like we couldn't, because the
> data files are required to make the application work.
> 
> If someone were to come up with an alternate set of game data files that
> were redistributable, then we should be allowed to distribute both the
> game engine and the data files.  There seem to be a number of
> community-authored DOOM .wads available.  Are any of them usable without
> a copy of the original shareware data files?

After poking around a bit, I found these:

http://freedoom.sourceforge.net/
http://openquartz.sourceforge.net/

It seems to me that we could have two packages:

freedoom - Data files for doom engines.
    Requires: doom-engine

linuxdoom - or any other GPL doom engine):
    Provides: doom-engine

Multiple doom engines could be included, perhaps using the alternatives
system to set the default one.

I haven't tried out freedoom or openquartz yet, but I'll try to do it in
the next few days.

The fact that the game engines can play the original
shareware/proprietary DOOM files becomes secondary, because all of the
components for a fully functional game will already be present.  A level
editor would also be nice, and it seems that there ought to be several
freely available.

--Mike
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