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Legends Of Mata Nui


GregF

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A number of people have asked recently about the old Legends of Mata Nui computer game from 2001 that never got released, so I thought I would share what info I have on this here:

 

* The game, as most of you know, was cancelled before release due to its not being up to our quality standards and so not fitting into our marketing plan.

 

* I know at least one BIONICLE fan spoke to our Legal dept. about getting a copy of the game. My understanding is that Legal's position is that we are not releasing any part of the game to the public, and since we own the copyright, anyone outside LEGO who did have a copy of the game would not be able to share it either. However ...

 

* I also spoke to the one person I know here who did get a copy in 2001, prior to cancellation. He says all that was available on the LEGO servers at that time were random sound files -- nothing even remotely like a playable game. What this means, I don't know -- it's possible that, since the game was being developed by an outside developer, and not finished yet, we did not have the main files here. If we did, my guess is they were scrapped long ago, but that is just a guess.

 

Regardless, since it was not something LEGO considered to be high enough quality, for obvious reasons there is no interest in having it see the light of day. And even if we did, I honestly don't know that there would be anything for us to release.

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People,

 

LEAVE GREG FARSHTEY ALONE!!!

 

I'm sorry, but he's already stated he has nothing to do with LOMN, we've got some good arguments,

 

But we're telling the wrong person!

 

While I bet LOMN will eventually be released,

 

Let's continue this in the 'Legend of Mata Nui Videos' topic, and stop pestering Greg.

 

He gives most of his free time just to answer your questions, and I firmly believe he deserves some time out.

 

Sorry if I sounded rude, but it just makes me so ticked off that we're bugging him so much about something that isn't in his department.

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You're right Protohuman; it's just that the legal dept. is taking SO LONG. Anyway, I'll stop talking about it here now. :D

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GT - The legal dept. already made their decision, so I am not sure what it is you are waiting on. They aren't required to provide justification for their decisions.

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I can't speak to BIONICLE: The Game, never played it. At any rate, point is moot because LOMN is not being released.

 

It wasn't very good other than the graphics. Just a bunch of thrown together action sequences with a confusing version of the 2002-2003 storyline. The Toa couldn't even use their elemental or mask powers, just shoot a little ball of light called their mystical "elemental energy"(which was their only attack by the way).

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Keep in mind that would have been made during the very stringent anti-violence era of LEGO, which is probably why you didn't have Tahu shooting fire at someone, etc. In those days, our action games were not known for a lot of action.

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Keep in mind that would have been made during the very stringent anti-violence era of LEGO, which is probably why you didn't have Tahu shooting fire at someone, etc. In those days, our action games were not known for a lot of action.

 

Oh, that's why. That reminds me: what was this "Maori law suit" thing I keep hearing about? Did it have anything to do with MNOG? Also, didn't we go through almost the same thing with "the game I won't mention" as with MNOG?

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The Maori objected to the use of some of their native terms in BIONICLE. It did not have to do with MNOG, specifically, because it was terms like Tohunga which were also appearing in other places. They never filed a lawsuit to my knowledge -- I believe LEGO met with their representatives and a compromise was reached in which we were allowed to keep using some names, like Turaga, Tahu, etc. and changed other ones, like Jala, Tohunga, etc.

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GT - The legal dept. already made their decision, so I am not sure what it is you are waiting on. They aren't required to provide justification for their decisions.

Does this mean they will not be responding to submitted enquiries? (Aside from the note here, of course)

 

~ Bioran

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Sorry to keep discussing. . .

 

Um, you guys do realize that this is a TEN-YEAR-OLD game right?

I can count ya know? :P

 

Not to mention a buggy, incomplete ten-year-old game?

It is not incomplete, it is unfinished.

 

Even if LEGO gave permission to release it, we would have to find someone with the beta CD, and then all we would end up with is a glitchly level.

We already found a (not) beta. :rolleyes: And even if there is only one level playable, that's way more than we have now. ;)

 

It certainly doesn't sound like it would be worth all that trouble to get, and I certainly see why LEGO doesn't want to be bothered with allowing release.

LT, my good friend. Would you do me a favor? In 10 years, look me up, and tell me how far your give-up-and-forget-about-it attitude gets ya.

 

 

And speaking as a future video game developer,

Lol, what? "[A] future video game developer"? If making video games is what you love, get started now! Take my advice, any good employer isn't going to want you to tell them you want to make video games, they're going to want you to show them you can.

 

even if a group of fans wanting to finish the game got the game, it would be so obsolete (Not to mention buggy) that it would be better to just start from scratch. There's nothing really to be gained by trying to get LEGO to release this game.

 

~LT

If you want to re-write it all from scratch, I got no problem with that. But you can't do that until you have the original game to examine and rebuild. Otherwise, it will just be a fan game.

 

And speaking as a current binary reverse-engineer, I'll tell you. There is no glitch you cannot beat and there is no incompatibility that cannot be made compatible.

 

Lord Trionx, go here to answer your comments.

 

Um, the game suffered mostly from bugs, not quality issues.

I have a very reliable source in connection with the game's development that tells me that the reason it was cancelled was because it wasn't compatible with some of the graphics cards of the day. Big deal. :rolleyes: All you need is a work-about. The Battle for Mata Nui was released, even though it doesn't seem to work for half the population. :lol:

 

And if it had to be scrapped because of that, it would be better to just make your own version.

If I wanted a game for the playing experience, I certainly wouldn't care about this game. :P

 

And like I said, it would be using nearly a decade old game engine. In terms of software and hardware advancements, it's like a century old game. :P

 

~LT

And yet, these games (which, BTW, are older ;) ) still work!

 

Insectoid game 1

 

Insectoid game 2

 

Insectoid game 3

 

 

Well, let me put it to you this way -- suppose you wrote a fan fiction story that you ended up really not happy with and feeling wasn't a good representation of your writing? Would you want someone posting it publicly, and having it reflect badly on you? The game was not of the quality LEGO wanted, so we have no interest in the public seeing it.

However bad it was, I think I would still let them have if if enough people really wanted it, but maybe that's just me.

 

Also, LEGO had intended to release 100 copies of this incomplete game up until they cancelled it and thanks to archive.org, I can show you.

 

 

 

By the way, as far as I can tell, it wasn't as bad as these LEGO video games:

 

LEGO Island: Terribly lame, even for the ancient game it is. I believe half the buttons are 1 pixel by 1 pixel making clicking them next to impossible.

 

LEGO Island 2: Terribly glitch-ridden. If, at any time, you loose one of the mini-games, it locks itself into unplayability. If you drive a car off the rode and get it stuck (very easy to do), you will not get it back. There are more glitches like landing zones that act as if there is something already there.

 

Extreme Island Stunts: Corrupts its own save files after a few days of game play.

 

All of these were just re-released, too. :???:

 

If you dislike Hero Factory, I can't see how releasing what has accurately been called a 10 year old, bug-ridden, unfinished game is somehow going to make you like it more.

Tell you what. If LEGO releases this game, I'll become a Hero Factory supporter and actually buy a set. (I am joking, but I can be seriouse in an instant :P .)

 

 

By the way, LEGO, after about 3 years of screaming fans, eventually put Mata Nui Online Game up for download. You wouldn't happen to know what it took to finally achieve that, would you?

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My goodness JMMB, must you debate me on everything? :P

 

All I was pointing out here is that spending large amounts of time asking LEGO to allow the release of something that they obviously don't want out there is just wasting everyone's time. We could certainly fix the game given enough time and resources, but since there is a similar fan-game being worked on I don't really see the point. :shrugs:

 

(BTW, when I said future video game dev, I meant professional dev. I've already started some college classes on the subject, and am working on a small game to release in the coming months. :P )

 

~LT

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One more thing Greg, can you tell us what possition the person you talked to held at LEGO?

 

My goodness JMMB, must you debate me on everything? :P

Only when you say something that makes no sense to me. :P

 

All I was pointing out here is that spending large amounts of time asking LEGO to allow the release of something that they obviously don't want out there is just wasting everyone's time.

Mata Nui Online Game. Clearly LEGO didn't want it around anymore, because they took it off. Asking LEGO for it back must be a waste of time. It doesn't even advertise their current set line. We'll never get a download or anything. :P

 

We could certainly fix the game given enough time and resources, but since there is a similar fan-game being worked on I don't really see the point. :shrugs:

Don't get me wrong, fan games are nice and all, but I still want the original. It simply won't be the same game that was intended to be the 2001 canon story line. As I said above, I don't want this game simply for the playing experience.

 

(BTW, when I said future video game dev, I meant professional dev. I've already started some college classes on the subject, and am working on a small game to release in the coming months. :P )

 

~LT

Well then says so dude. It gives you more credibility. I think it's safe to say 1/4 of the population would like to make video games. ;)

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Mata Nui Online Game. Clearly LEGO didn't want it around anymore, because they took it off. Asking LEGO for it back must be a waste of time. It doesn't even advertise their current set line. We'll never get a download or anything. :P

MNOG was a completed game that many enjoyed, and also was a free product that LEGO kept on their servers. This game was canceled and deleted. Not to mention that it was going to be a product, and thus has copyright issues to go through beforehand so people can release it. (If we can even find anyone who has it and can.) There are a lot more issues with this than LEGO just not wanting to release it, and it's a lot more complicated than re-releasing MNOG was.

 

Well then says so dude. It gives you more credibility. I think it's safe to say 1/4 of the population would like to make video games. ;)

Not to be rude, but I don't see how my future career has anything to do with this discussion, nor why I need to justify/elaborate on it.

 

~LT

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Mata Nui Online Game. Clearly LEGO didn't want it around anymore, because they took it off. Asking LEGO for it back must be a waste of time. It doesn't even advertise their current set line. We'll never get a download or anything. :P

MNOG was a completed game that many enjoyed, and also was a free product that LEGO kept on their servers. This game was canceled and deleted. Not to mention that it was going to be a product, and thus has copyright issues to go through beforehand so people can release it. (If we can even find anyone who has it and can.) There are a lot more issues with this than LEGO just not wanting to release it, and it's a lot more complicated than re-releasing MNOG was.

It's true, they're not the same, but they are comperable. TLOMN was cancelled, but not entirely deleted (though LEGO apparently doesn't have a copy). I'm not sure how it was going to be a product is a problem. MNOG was going to be released as a video game too. Just an autorun.inf file like so:

[autorun]
OPEN=matanui/autorun.exe
ICON=matanui.ico

And you have your self a CD-ROM. While probably easier to release than this game, it doesn't look like they just zipped up the folder. They had to edit all 347 of the text files to replace "Tohunga" with "Matoran" (While one might expect they used a program like Notepad++, I think they did it by hand.) Also for the 3 cutscenes that contained "Tohunga", they clearly went out and bought a Flash decompiler to recover the source code for them to re-publish it without that word (BTW, if it were me, I'd have just used a free/easy hex editor :P ). They also scrambled (either that or that's how they were to begin with) 400+ file name capitalizations so that Linux systems (i.e. most web servers) wouldn't be able to load the game.

 

A person with the game was located back in 2003, so, we already did that. :P And yes, making copies shouldn't be a problem. There wouldn't even be pesky program like SafeDisc.

 

Well then says so dude. It gives you more credibility. I think it's safe to say 1/4 of the population would like to make video games. ;)

Not to be rude, but I don't see how my future career has anything to do with this discussion, nor why I need to justify/elaborate on it.

 

~LT

I didn't mean it that way. What I meant was that if you intended to state that you knew something about how video games work/are made, you should be a little more clear about it. The way you said it, it sounded like you didn't currently have any knowledge on the subject, which was clearly a misunderstanding.

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