Cross-Platform Gameranger

[xoclipse]

Hey everyone,
Well this summer has been similiar to most, very boring. So to take up my time, a couple days ago I started on a gameranger client. I am creating it in C++ using the wxWidgets GUI toolkit, which is cross-platform . Which means with the source code, little modifications are needed to port it to other OS's. I decided to do this open source, and share my findings with everyone, because i'm sure other people are interested too. You can visit my application's page at:

http://gameranger.sourceforge.net

Here is a screenshot of the program compiled and running on windows xp:
http://gameranger.sourceforge.net/gameranger.jpg

If you have any questions for me please feel free to contact me on AIM, screenname xoclipse, or just email me @ xoclipse@cox.net. I hope you guys find this very informative and enjoy the source code. Right now i don't have access to a mac, so i can't compile it for mac os x yet. If anyone is willing to help me, please let me know!

Bye,
xoclipse

[Supernatural Pie]

Um... What are you doing?

First of all, that appears to be blatant copyright infringement, and Evill could probably sue your ass to hell and beyond.

Second of all, I for one don't want PC players on GameRanger. Even if this would be used just for people's work computers, there's the chance of it getting into the public, and then gameranger would be totally stormed by PC users.

Please... don't release that.

And also, for your own sake, consult Evill before you do anything more, regarding legality issues.

[daf one]

omfg, lahl, hillus

[Supernatural Pie]

Sorry for posting again... but after reading what I wrote, I don't think I was strong enough.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!

GameRanger was designed to be mac-only!

The entire point of GameRanger was to be a place where mac users could play games together without the chaos and hell of the PC world!!!

Destroy it now! Before it's too late!

[BTs_Mysterio]

I have to agree that I like GR to be mac only, but if you are capable of coding something like this why not focus on making a legal alternative.

[l ! l Ross]

Interesting. How much stuff can this client do on a PC?

I would think joining a game would not work. As games that use GR are modified to handle GR with added code and stuff that the PC versions would not have. And there is those plugin things GR use's.

Anyone with a PC tested this to actually see if its real? and what its capable of?

Will be interesting to see what Evill dose.

Ross

[Daf One]

It really works.

I just had my friend test it out on his Windows XP PC.

here, I just uploaded the screenshot to my geocities site: http://www.geocities.com/krusader321/untitled.JPG

[l ! l Ross]

He tried joining a game? I am sure that would not work.

[Daf one]

if the link doesn't work when you click it: manually copy it and paste it in url box and it should load. sorry for dbl post

[Ross K.]

It appears that Xoclipse wrote this from scratch, and he didn't use any of Evill's source code. Doesn't look like copyright inifringement to me. He didn't copy anything, he just created something new from scratch.

I'm not really sure why Snipe thinks this is a copyright issue.

[Blufire]

Ross, it's a copyright infringement because it's a reverse-engineered version of Gameranger, which is against the EULA. Not only that, but it's named "GameRanger" (Ross, I suppose that's not copyright infringement, is it?), it uses the exact same GUI + icons + graphics, and uses the same proprietary protocol that Scott's GR uses.

xoclipse, I might try to compile it for OSX later tonight... I'll see how that goes.

[cO.gabe]

I'm not a big expert on this copyright stuff, but I DO know that I would cease to use GameRanger if PC users were ever allowed to.

[Soup]

didnt read anything
but probably vnfgj xoclipse
gl hf

[Ross K.]

Blufire: Yes, it's against the EULA, but did xoclipse ever sign the EULA? Heck, did xoclipse even USE the gameranger client to reverse engineer it? Who knows. It is named "Gameranger Client" which it is. That might be a Trademark violation, but not a copyright violation (as you know). It actually doesn't use the same GUI, it's just a similar layout, but the GUI is run by wxwidgets, instead of Quartz APIs. It uses the same protocol,  but that's never been a crime. Last I checked the protocol wasn't patented, and since xoclipse doesn't implement the protocol in the exact same way that evill does, but rather built the implementation from the ground up, I don't believe that it's breaking any copyrights.

[Ross K.]

Also, it's not a trademark violation. According to the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office), "GameRanger" is not a registered trademark in the United States of America.

[Supernatural Pie]

Ok, how about this for an example:

Hemingway wrote The Old man and the Sea. Suppose I found a copy of it online. Now, I don't want to violate Hemingway's copyrights on it, so instead of copy/pasting the entire thing, I type it all out in Appleworks and slap the same title on it. It's still copyright infringement.

[JunkYardDog]

Ok, how about this for an example:

Hemingway wrote The Old man and the Sea. Suppose I found a copy of it online. Now, I don't want to violate Hemingway's copyrights on it, so instead of copy/pasting the entire thing, I type it all out in Appleworks and slap the same title on it. It's still copyright infringement.

so what if it is!
let Evill  worry about it

[Ross K]

1st) The Old Man and the Sea is no longer under copyright. It's too old.
2nd) Xoclipse did not copy the source code, he rewrote it from scratch. The equivalent to this in your (rather unrelated) example would be taking the basic plot line of The Old Man and the Sea and rewriting it with new characters, new locations, and a different style of writing. This is done with books, movies, and music all the time.

[JunkYardDog]

1st) The Old Man and the Sea is no longer under copyright. It's too old.
2nd) Xoclipse did not copy the source code, he rewrote it from scratch. The equivalent to this in your (rather unrelated) example would be taking the basic plot line of The Old Man and the Sea and rewriting it with new characters, new locations, and a different style of writing. This is done with books, movies, and music all the time.

THIS is  a FACT all the movies,songs ect are rewritten all the time

[Blufire]

Blufire: Yes, it's against the EULA, but did xoclipse ever sign the EULA? Heck, did xoclipse even USE the gameranger client to reverse engineer it? Who knows. It is named "Gameranger Client" which it is. That might be a Trademark violation, but not a copyright violation (as you know). It actually doesn't use the same GUI, it's just a similar layout, but the GUI is run by wxwidgets, instead of Quartz APIs. It uses the same protocol,  but that's never been a crime. Last I checked the protocol wasn't patented, and since xoclipse doesn't implement the protocol in the exact same way that evill does, but rather built the implementation from the ground up, I don't believe that it's breaking any copyrights.

Okay, coming from the perspective of a fellow coder such as myself, it is quite literally impossible that he could have built this from the ground up. You'd need to at least connect to GameRanger's servers to analyze the protocol, which in itself is effectively agreeing to the EULA. If that isn't, then using his client to connect to GR certainly is a huge signature of the EULA.

Also, it really doesn't matter what API he used to build the GUI. The fact is that it's IDENTICAL (no, not just similar). Check the screenshots.