JrMasterModelBuilder

 

 

 

I am really excited about your mission, because I just love everything from Classic Bonkles years. I have always wished we could play this game or get some pictures of the rumored Shadow Toa that were supposedly part of the game. May the Mata Nui be with you in your mission.

Thabks. BTW what shadow Toa? They weren't in the original 2001 story until Greg added them in that 2003 book. Originally, the Makuta being nothing attacked you with junk to show his power. They weren't in the game.

 

 

Some people think that the whole Shadow Toa thing originated from LoMN. The problem is that no one can confirm or deny the Shadow Toa are in the game.

 

From Shadow Toas Biosector article: The Shadow Toa were originally going to appear in The Legend of Mata Nui. However, the media was cancelled. The Shadow Toa were referenced in The Bohrok Awake and made their first appearance in Tale of the Toa.

 

 

Is there some credible reason to believe that they are in the game? Clearly the were meant to be a part of the original story as they were mentioned in The Bohrok Awake (page 18 here), but there doesn't seem to be any indication that they are in the game. From the sounds of it, the game is more lke what we saw in the cutscenes of MNOG (which would seem to make sense). It would be great if they were in the game, but it seems to just be rumors at this point.

 

Does anybody have Mark Durhams email BTW? I know that he's on MoD but it's been a while...

 

Just curious, why are you trying to contact Mark Durham? I don't think he would be much help. He might even get in the way.

Some of the 2001 Mata sets had these pins rather than the notched ones, but I believe they were rare. Here's a Peeron inventory for Kopaka that also makes note of them. None of my sets ever came with them.

Templar Studios is likely a Windows based studio, so it's likely that they used FL Studio to compose the music. If you read the description, this sound was made in FL Studio.

I could do a translation in the next week or so. I don't know how to make .srt files, but I'll look into it.

An SRT file is pretty simple to make, they are plain text files that can be made in any text editor. Here's an example from the Wikipedia article:

1
00:00:10,500 --> 00:00:13,000
Elephant's Dream

2
00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:18,000
At the left we can see...

They are very well supported and can easily be loaded into VLC.

Nice! I'm guessing there's nothing especially new about the narration, but any chance of an English translation, or better yet, an SRT file? Here's a downloadable copy if it helps.

Wow, it's amazing how much this looks like ShaggyNerds recreations! A mudball would make sense seeing as the boss was a mud monster, The ruru and the huna were the two Kanhoi featured in DeepBricks walkthrough. That huna needs a lot of work... lol. Does it come with any textures?

I don't think so but it's possible some of the unknown files are textures.

I think I should preface this with a note that, if you have a copy of this game, please contact me! I'm your best chance of unlocking the entire gameplay!

I've successfully worked out the BLK format, extracted onua.blk, and uploaded the contents. You can grab a copy here.

The .x files are Direct X binary model files, as we already believed. Here are the interesting ones.

Onua:







Onua's claw:



Onua's mask:



Different expressions:






Other masks:



A mud ball?:


Rope:


There are some other files also, that appear to be custom data files for defining the level. Reversing them will require a copy of the game. Also, if we ever do get a copy of the game, I will publish a tool that can unpack the BLK archives and create new ones (unless it will run without archiving).

 

This post was originally posted here.

 

If they innovate, why are their screens as sturdy as tin foil?(an issue that's been around since the first Ipod touch, I believe.) Seems like that's something that should have been fixed a while ago. And the fact that most apps are tied to apple devices (Or at least the ones I want) is absolutely frustrating, as well as having some music only available on Itunes.

This type of thing is incredibly unhelpful to innovation. as it encourages companies to patent things and then sit on them for ages and rake in money while stopping anyone else from making any improvements to it. Which is how the system generally works. you don't look at a rock and see a bow and arrow. you see something that can be made into a crude blade, than tied to a stick to make a spear, then shot with tension to make a bow. If somebody patents the crude blade, the process is halted. It's not really Apples fault, they just exploit it to no end. Which is why I don't really like them.

 

It basically boils down to the patent/copyright system being broken. I really don't think you should be able to patent a shape, or how you open an app on a smartphone or how you unlock a smartphone, or how app icons are displayed on a smartphone or.... Anyway, I don't think Lego and Apple are very much alike.

 

Considering American patents expire after one year, I don't think that the system is broken or that abuse of the system halts innovation by any significant measure. One year may be a long time as far as technology is concerned, but there's nothing stopping rival companies from spending that year on R&D and developing the technology further. They just have to wait a year before bringing ideas derived from a recent patent to market.

 

20 years actually.

 

Also, it should be noted that LEGO owns over 600 patents compared to Apple's less-than 50, and attempted to obtain a trademark, on their brick design after their patent expired, to prevent competition. They were denied by the Supreme Court.

 

Those games you mention have nothing at all to do with the concerns of a toy company about its reputation of being kid-friendly and free of violence.

 

VNOLG has combat, so does MNOLG in the end.

The the Kaita fight cut scene is violent enough too.

VNOG was years later, and MNOG has cartoon violence at worst. Compared to CoD, no contest, plus the companies are completely different.

Here is the function resposible for creating the maze. Yes, it is randomly generated, though the scenes as consistently linked. I haven't tried to reverse-engineer the logic, but it appears that KantaisEntrance is set to the furthest link from the entrance, and KokoroRuinsApproach and KokoroWastesDeadEnd and positioned next to each other in a ramdon location somewhere in the maze.

function createMaze()
{
    connectionsList = [];
    var i = 1;
    while (i < 10)
    {
        connectionsList.push({name: "Scene" + i, direction: "north", link: ""});
        connectionsList.push({name: "Scene" + i, direction: "south", link: ""});
        connectionsList.push({name: "Scene" + i, direction: "east", link: ""});
        connectionsList.push({name: "Scene" + i, direction: "west", link: ""});
        ++i;
    }
    finalResults = [];
    startNode = connectionsList[random(connectionsList.length)];
    startNode.link = {name: "KokoroWastesEntrance"};
    var j = 0;
    while (j < connectionsList.length)
    {
        if (0 != (connectionsList[j].name == startNode.name) & 0 != (connectionsList[j].direction == startNode.direction))
        {
            connectionsList.splice(j, 1);
            --j;
            break;
        }
        ++j;
    }
    finalResults.push(startNode);
    var picking = 1;
    while (picking == 1)
    {
        fromNode = connectionsList[random(connectionsList.length)];
        if (fromNode.name == startNode.name)
        {
            picking = 0;
        }
    }
    safetyCount = 0;
    while (connectionsList.length > 1)
    {
        var toNode = connectionsList[random(connectionsList.length)];
        ++safetyCount;
        if (0 != safetyCount > 10 & 0 != (0 != (toNode.name != fromNode.name) | 0 != (toNode.direction != fromNode.direction)))
        {
            safetyCheck = 1;
        }
        else
        {
            safetyCheck = 0;
        }
        if (0 != (toNode.name != fromNode.name) | 0 != (safetyCheck == 1))
        {
            safetyCount = 0;
            fromNode.link = toNode;
            toNode.link = fromNode;
            finalResults.push(fromNode);
            finalResults.push(toNode);
            var j = 0;
            while (j < connectionsList.length)
            {
                if (0 != (connectionsList[j].name == fromNode.name) & 0 != (connectionsList[j].direction == fromNode.direction))
                {
                    connectionsList.splice(j, 1);
                    --j;
                }
                else if (0 != (connectionsList[j].name == toNode.name) & 0 != (connectionsList[j].direction == toNode.direction))
                {
                    connectionsList.splice(j, 1);
                    --j;
                }
                ++j;
            }
            var picking = 1;
            while (picking == 1)
            {
                fromNode = connectionsList[random(connectionsList.length)];
                if (fromNode.name == toNode.name)
                {
                    picking = 0;
                }
            }
        }
    }
    lastNode = connectionsList[0];
    lastNode.link = {name: "KantaisEntrance"};
    finalResults.push(lastNode);
    selectingNode = 1;
    while (selectingNode == 1)
    {
        secondExitNode = finalResults[random(finalResults.length)];
        if (0 != (secondExitNode.link != "start") & 0 != (secondExitNode.link != "exit"))
        {
            selectingNode = 0;
            thirdExitNode = secondExitNode.link;
            secondExitNode.link = {name: "KokoroRuinsApproach"};
            thirdExitNode.link = {name: "KokoroWastesDeadEnd"};
        }
    }
    _root.KokoroWastesMaze = finalResults;
    _root.KokoroWastesFlags = [];
}

Since the code is mostly JavaScript compliant, here is a JavaScript copy you can use to use if you want to analyze what it's doing, but basically it's creating a bunch of scenes, and asigning links between them:

_root = {};
function random(max)
{
    return Math.floor(Math.random()*max)
}

function createMaze()
{
    connectionsList = [];
    var i = 1;
    while (i < 10)
    {
        connectionsList.push({name: "Scene" + i, direction: "north", link: ""});
        connectionsList.push({name: "Scene" + i, direction: "south", link: ""});
        connectionsList.push({name: "Scene" + i, direction: "east", link: ""});
        connectionsList.push({name: "Scene" + i, direction: "west", link: ""});
        ++i;
    }
    finalResults = [];
    startNode = connectionsList[random(connectionsList.length)];
    startNode.link = {name: "KokoroWastesEntrance"};
    var j = 0;
    while (j < connectionsList.length)
    {
        if (0 != (connectionsList[j].name == startNode.name) & 0 != (connectionsList[j].direction == startNode.direction))
        {
            connectionsList.splice(j, 1);
            --j;
            break;
        }
        ++j;
    }
    finalResults.push(startNode);
    var picking = 1;
    while (picking == 1)
    {
        fromNode = connectionsList[random(connectionsList.length)];
        if (fromNode.name == startNode.name)
        {
            picking = 0;
        }
    }
    safetyCount = 0;
    while (connectionsList.length > 1)
    {
        var toNode = connectionsList[random(connectionsList.length)];
        ++safetyCount;
        if (0 != safetyCount > 10 & 0 != (0 != (toNode.name != fromNode.name) | 0 != (toNode.direction != fromNode.direction)))
        {
            safetyCheck = 1;
        }
        else
        {
            safetyCheck = 0;
        }
        if (0 != (toNode.name != fromNode.name) | 0 != (safetyCheck == 1))
        {
            safetyCount = 0;
            fromNode.link = toNode;
            toNode.link = fromNode;
            finalResults.push(fromNode);
            finalResults.push(toNode);
            var j = 0;
            while (j < connectionsList.length)
            {
                if (0 != (connectionsList[j].name == fromNode.name) & 0 != (connectionsList[j].direction == fromNode.direction))
                {
                    connectionsList.splice(j, 1);
                    --j;
                }
                else if (0 != (connectionsList[j].name == toNode.name) & 0 != (connectionsList[j].direction == toNode.direction))
                {
                    connectionsList.splice(j, 1);
                    --j;
                }
                ++j;
            }
            var picking = 1;
            while (picking == 1)
            {
                fromNode = connectionsList[random(connectionsList.length)];
                if (fromNode.name == toNode.name)
                {
                    picking = 0;
                }
            }
        }
    }
    lastNode = connectionsList[0];
    lastNode.link = {name: "KantaisEntrance"};
    finalResults.push(lastNode);
    selectingNode = 1;
    while (selectingNode == 1)
    {
        secondExitNode = finalResults[random(finalResults.length)];
        if (0 != (secondExitNode.link != "start") & 0 != (secondExitNode.link != "exit"))
        {
            selectingNode = 0;
            thirdExitNode = secondExitNode.link;
            secondExitNode.link = {name: "KokoroRuinsApproach"};
            thirdExitNode.link = {name: "KokoroWastesDeadEnd"};
        }
    }
    _root.KokoroWastesMaze = finalResults;
    _root.KokoroWastesFlags = [];
}
createMaze();
for(var o, i = -1; o = _root.KokoroWastesMaze[++i]
{
console.dir(o);
}

On the WayBack machine, on saffire a old site, there isn't any mention of Lomn. They do mention tot though... Not sure what this worth...

They did actually have a news article about their showing of the game at E3 2001: https://web.archive.org/web/20010802142437/http://www.saffire.com/news.html

 

Archive.org has issues sometimes, so here is the content:

Saffire Has Great Showing at the Electronic Entertainment Expo.

 

At this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Saffire was a shining example of what a quality developer can do working on quality projects. Saffire's three major projects all showed extremely well.

 

Steve Hardman from Yobro Productions noticed the buzz about Saffire, "I really liked the show. Two things stuck out: 1. The booth with the psychologists utilizing interactive multi-media to cure psychosocial disorders and phobias (it was actually pretty cool). 2. How people talked about Saffire. Everywhere I went, and almost everyone I spoke with had nothing but great things to say about Hal and Saffire".

 

Saffire's Game Boy Advance project, "Bionicle", currently being completed for Lego, was arguably the finest Game Boy Advance game showing at this year's expo. People stood in line to have a chance to see art and game play that is better than anything before seen on a handheld.

Saffire's PC project "Bionicle", also for Lego, was also one of the finest looking and playing games being shown. With smooth animation, great special effects, beautiful and massive environments, challenging puzzles, and flawless gameplay, the game is sure to be a success.

 

Though the target audience for these two titles is young boys, there is no doubt, judging from the number of people waiting to see the games, that there will be a much wider audience.

 

All in all, it was a great show for Saffire with many promising projects lining up in the future.

It was added to their site sometime between Jun 2, 2001 and Aug 2, 2001, and stayed until sometime after Aug 6, 2002, when the page was removed completely.

 

It seems they thought the gameplay was flawless.

For what it's worth, take a look at these screenshots and compare:

 

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/VezokofZakaz/TheLegendofMataNui/comparison/gali1.png

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/VezokofZakaz/TheLegendofMataNui/comparison/gali2.png

 

I missed this before. Nice catch on Gali's pins! Looks like Gali must have had her pins in the same place as Pohatu at some point in her design. Here's a more clear image of this:

 

http://www.unseen64.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/gali_view.jpg

 

 

 

This being said, where exactly did Mark go? Why did he just abandon BZPower? From Legos standpoint, it is just not important or nessessary to upload an old buggy game for a canceled toy line. First of, it makes them look bad for even having a buggy game on their site or in general. Funny thought: Lego talks about quality and yet they realeased Bionicle the game.

This being said, where exactly did Mark go? Why did he just abandon BZPower? From Legos standpoint, it is just not important or nessessary to upload an old buggy game for a canceled toy line. First of, it makes them look bad for even having a buggy game on their site or in general. Funny thought: Lego talks about quality and yet they realeased Bionicle the game.

How did you manage to sodge that up!? XD

What?

Your post content got duplicated. This often happens if you edit your post and click save twice, or if you double-submit your post and it auto-merges them. Or if you copy-past twice.

 

It's my understanding that LEGO was in charge of the story, and told Templar and Saffire what to incorporate. Saffire was supposed to tell the main cannon story line, and Templar the less-than-canon side story. When they cancelled the game, LEGO had Templar incorporate the canon story into MNOG. I doubt either borrowed much from the other, at least not directly.

 

Yet Kapura uttering the same dialogue in both games (though in different locations) clearly shows that one borrowed directly from the other at least once.

 

Exactly what line is the same? Also, we don't know where the line originated. It could have been required by LEGO.

 

 

 

The LEGO Group knows the game to be glitchy, sub-par, and incomplete. That's why they didn't release it in the first place.

 

The Game was sub-par and incomplete, considerably more so than this, but they had no problem with that being released in its dreadful state.

 

Plus, BIONICLE: The Game is hardly LEGO's worst game. I think the developers could have made TLoMN better, and less-glitchy than most of LEGO's other titles from that time, in about a weeks time.

It's my understanding that LEGO was in charge of the story, and told Templar and Saffire what to incorporate. Saffire was supposed to tell the main cannon story line, and Templar the less-than-canon side story. When they cancelled the game, LEGO had Templar incorporate the canon story into MNOG. I doubt either borrowed much from the other, at least not directly.

Who exactly is mark ken dell? I know he has the rights but how did RedQuark know? He's not in lomn's credits. I think the most logical explanation is that DeepBrick is an anonymous former employee of saffire. How else would RedQuark know?

He was an investor in Saffire Inc. We don't know how RedQuark knew this.

Java leaves a bad taste in my mouth, period. It's a syntax-heavy language that has ten bazillion classes. A print statement takes three words. Reading from a file takes 4 lines of code and a loop. Making a program that runs something takes a six-word method declaration, not to mention the class dec on top. It has this class system that is disorienting and confusing. Not to mention system-resource heavy. Just thinking about it makes my brain hurt.

You would be surprised how many devices you interact with that are running Java perfectly fine. Reading from a file requires a loop in most languages, though Java 1.7 can read a file straight into a string. Usually, it would be easier to parse if read by line though. The class based system is also great for OOP, MVC, and modular code, and is pretty much the same in all class-based languages.

 

Ack, so much misinformation going on here...

 

JavaScript is not Java and never has been. The name was a marketing decision back in the Netscape days because Java was cool. That said, they're both useful languages. Just don't confuse them if you want to be taken seriously.

Didn't we already cover this?

 

The primary source of the Anti-W3Schools movement is w3fools.com. You can find all the information you need there to decide your stance for yourself. My opinion: It's a useful resource in a pinch, but you shouldn't rely on it.

That's kind-of like saying Browse Happy or crashie8.com is the primary source of the Anti-Internet Explorer movement. W3Fools is just a resource, by web developers, for web developers, to point others to.

 

If you want to make games, web languages are not the place to start. You'll spend too much time dealing with web oddities rather than actually getting your game to work. That said, lots of engines nowadays - especially 2D engines - have an "HTML5 export" feature which lets you distribute your game on the web. If you want to make applications and utilities, on the other hand, absolutely learn web technologies. JavaScript will get you very far nowadays.

It should be noted that the only notable game engine that can publish 3D games (the kind of game the OP is looking to make) for web is Unreal Engine 3, and it's not clear if or how you can license it (unless you count games which require plugins, like Unity3D). Also, Python or C++ would be better languages for applications and utilities, unless you plan on making them in the browser. Out-of-browser JavaScript implementations are scattered and convoluted at best.

I forgot to mention before, the Source Engine is also really powerful, if more difficult to get into. I also think Unity has some draw-backs over their competitors, as they limit certain features to the pro version. I find the 3D graphics in Unity to be limited also. For a complex, script intensive game, I would recommend Unity, but for a 3rd person shooter (which is what TLoMN boils down to), I would recommend UDK.

 

Granted, but I have personally found the site to be riddled with errors, and uselessly vague information. It's also pretty clear they are concerned more with ad revenue than useful information, which is probably why they are pretending to be associated with the W3C.

Hm, could you site an example of such an error? It'd be nice to confirm if I should stay clear of it in the future. Ads are never a problem for me anymore, I run full ad-blocking in my browser(s). One noisy, blinking spam pop-up too many a few years ago made me completely unwilling to spend a second more on ads.

 

 

Yeah, I don't see their ads and their tracking code doesn't see me, but that's not the point. Here are a few example I can readily find, from forgivable to terribly dangerous.

 

Example 1 - Vague and Incomplete Information:

 

The HTML5 video tag page has vague and dated information on browser support, which is true of almost all of their pages, but especially notable here. MDN's article has detailed and, as far as I can tell, complete information, on browser support.

 

Example 2 - Wrong Information:

 

The CSS3 @font-face Rule page states that "Internet Explorer 8 and earlier versions, do not support the @font-face rule.", but this is not true. While it may not be ideal, Internet Explorer 5.5 implemented EOT web fonts, and I have personally seen web fonts in IE8. Their page also doesn't show the necessary hacks to make this work cross-browser in the real world.

 

Example 3 - Dangerous code:

Their PHP Secure E-mail may* be secure against mail injection, but it's definitely not secure against XSS injection. I really hope nobody uses this line in their code:

<form method="post" action="<?php echo $_SERVER["PHP_SELF"];?>">

Directly echoing PHP_SELF is vulnerable to XSS attacks. This is a basic attack vector that can easily be sanitized, but W3Schools makes no mention of this.

* I have not personally verified that the email injecition code is not vulnarable as well.

Example 4 - More Dangerous Code:

 

Ignoring the fact that their MySQLi code only shows the old-school, procedual way of using it, their MySQL tutorial has SQL injection vulnerabilities. If you use this code:

$sql="INSERT INTO Persons (FirstName, LastName, Age)
VALUES
('$_POST[firstname]','$_POST[lastname]','$_POST[age]')";

Expect you database tables to disappear one day. PHP's Magic Quotes might save you if enabled, but this can be bypassed in many databases. If they were using MySQLi correctly, this wouldn't be a problem.

 

Also, why no article on PDO? It's better than MySQLi.

 

Example 3 and 4 have remained for many years now.

 

This is a tad off topic, but still somewhat on topic. I was reading more about the game, and heard something about a WTC thing. This is the quote:

"The rumors that were reported to me included large numbers of programming bugs, inability to meet LEGO® quality standards, and, rather disgustingly, possible similarities to the WTC disaster. The WTC link is completely untrue, and whatever sick individuals thought it would be amusing to start spreading that sort of rumor really need to stop"

Doing a tad bit more research, I think it has to do with the Word Trade Centers.

But what were they talking about involving the WTC? Anyone know?

I don't think you're allowed to link to that site.

 

I've heard the 9/11 connection before, but it doesn't make any sense to me. What does a destructive terrorist attack on a city's buildings have to do with biomechanical warriors walking round an island fighting infected animals to reach magic masks?

 

There wasn't an official statement/report on the cancellation at the time, nor did anyone actually involved in the game ever discuss it publically, so exactly why it was cancelled has always been a bit of a mystery.

 

A higher-up from Saffire said that the WTC attacks played a big role in why it was cancelled. Different people have claimed different things, with questionable reliability due to differing perspectives. If it was a reason, it would doubtlessly be denied publicly. I agree that it wouldn't make much sense to cancel a childrens game becuase of it, but LEGO was very, border-line absurdly, anti-violence at the time.

Yeah, I mostly meant the syntax, and I know what you mean. Java apps can be somewhat rage-inducing at times.

Java in the browser has definitely left a bad taste. There are some really great desktop apps written in Java though, Eclipse is a great IDE, and is Java based. Many Android apps are also written in Java.

 

Your link does not cite any examples of faulty information W3Schools. I would take it with a grain of salt the same way you should take W3Schools (and any other tutorial page on the web) with a grain of salt. The site teaches you the very basics and has a list of functions to use. Many pages do this. Naturally every programmer have their preferred method of coding, and learning one good way of coding does not necessarily mean there is not an even better one out there -- but often if it works, it works; and so long as it does not have massive memory leaks or other errors it is perfectly acceptable code.

Granted, but I have personally found the site to be riddled with errors, and uselessly vague information. It's also pretty clear they are concerned more with ad revenue than useful information, which is probably why they are pretending to be associated with the W3C.

W3Schools.com is not affiliated with the W3C in any way. Members of the W3C have asked W3Schools to explicitly disavow any connection in the past, and they have refused to do so.

If I were going to do this, I would use UDK, Unity3D, or WebGL utilizing Three.JS and Bullet.JS. I would probably favor UDK in this, since the default game is pretty close, and the only things you would need to code are your custom gameplay elements. You will also need a 3D modeling/animation/texture painting package, I would use Autodesk Maya and Mudbox, but Blender is not bad.

HTML5 is based in Java as far as game-making goes.

JavaScript actually. While derived from Java at the most basic level back in the Netscape days, they are very different. Unless you mean putting an actual Java applet in an HTML page, in which case, don't. A Java applet will run far better out of the browser.

 

Learn HTML, JavaScript, CSS and XML. Web-based development will work better for you. This is the 21st century; there's no point using things like Flash nowadays. If you must go for a desktop-based application though, use Python, Ruby or Java instead of anything else, since it will work across platforms without having to be reprogrammed and recompiled for various platforms.

I don't know if this is what you want to program up a game. Katuko's suggestions ring more true to me as better.

If you want to know webcode to put your game in a browser, www.w3schools.com is your friend. But I've done HTML, CSS, and JS, and none of them seem ideal to program up a game. I've also never used Java for game design either - and I would advise against it personally, as Java is cantankerous to work with. If you really need to learn hard Java, C++, C#, etc, you need to take a programming class, and most aren't geared toward game design. Go with what Kat says - he's a game developer himself, and knows what he's doing.

I would recommend Codeacademy if you want to get started learning to code. W3Schools is problematic. Also, learning web languages beyond JavaScript isn't going to help you much, since the only way a 3D game can be made in a browser like this would be through WebGL, which is a 3D drawing context to the HTML5 canvas tag.

The trademark was filed on 28 August 2000, and last renewed on 15 June 2012.

 

LEGO still owns the trademark for Bionicle for the following goods and services: Video games. Clothing for children, namely, t-shirts, sweatshirts, socks and head wear; clothing for men and women, namely, t-shirts, sweatshirts, socks and head wear. Construction toys; toy building elements and connecting links; toy construction kits; toy figures; toy kits containing toy figures and toy construction elements for building human figure, animal figure and action figure robots.

Really? What are you using for a source? A search on ustop.gov turns up the following:

 

 

IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: video games without display. FIRST USE: 20010000. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20010000

 

(CANCELLED) IC 025. US 022 039. G & S: [ Clothing for children, namely, t-shirts, sweatshirts, socks and head wear; clothing for men and women, namely, t-shirts, sweatshirts, socks and head wear ]. FIRST USE: 20010000. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20010000

 

IC 028. US 022 023 038 050. G & S: Construction toys; toy building elements and connecting links; toy construction kits; toy figures; toy kits containing toy figures and toy construction elements for building human figure, animal figure and action figure robots. FIRST USE: 20010000. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20010000

 

It's a distinct possibility I'm missing something, as this is one of the worst websites I have ever used (I can't even link to pages on the site). The security of it is also questionable (are they seriousely piping the search query into a Windows executable?)

Disclaimer: This post should not be considered legal advice.

If you're selling them for a profit, it's trademark infringement. If the LEGO Group finds out about you doing this, you'll likely get a cease and desist order from their attourney's office. If you continue after that, you'll likely be taken to court for an injunction, which will have a hefty fine you'd have to pay. Just warning you, it's probably not the best idea.

It's worth noting that I don't think LEGO has any active registered trademarks for these specific products. From my understanding, trademarks are registered for 10 year periods, and must be renewed every 5 years. They can only be renewed if the company has a product which the trademark can defend. Seeing as BIONICLE products have not been sold in nearly 5 years, and only LEGO sets were sold in the last 5 years, I don't think they have a patent on these specific products. I know their registered trademark on BIONICLE cloathing expired. Their trademark on Rock Raiders has also expired, and has since been registered to Data Design Interactive, who is developing a new non-LEGO "Rock Raiders" game.

All of this being said, I don't know if having a registered trademark legally required is necessary to defend it.

Of course, any Bionicle designs and images are still copyright LEGO, and having a registered copyright is not necessary to defend it. So at most you could only call it BIONICLE, without using any official images. It would probably also be necessary to look sufficiently different from Bionicle, so that it is not a derivative work.

It should also be noted that people make and sell custom LEGO sets all the time, and LEGO never complains.

but if he isn't making any profit from it, and all the money just goes to creating the stuff and shipping it, then it will be fine

I don't think it would actually make a difference if he made a profit or not.

I think the question-ish thing here isn't so much about hosting it (since anyone can download it from a multitude of sites), but actually being able to stream is on BMP without having to download anything (XONAR mentioned this to me once). I already have it downloaded on a bunch of devices, but actually being able to play it directly on BMP would be awesome.

Is there such thing as a browser-based GBA emulator? I'm sure one could be made, but I don't know of any currently existing, and I'm really not about to make one.

 

Um, how do we know it's not already up on the internet somewhere? The real question is if there is a ROM that isn't filled with viruses: many, if not most sites purporting to provide such services are rather questionable in that regard. A ROM dumped by a BZP member, on the other hand, would be guaranteed to be safe, if still technically illegal.

There are loads of sites that do roms without viruses (3 of wich are fully 500% safe).

Then there are torrents, since good sites allow people to comment on the file you can see on them if anybody is shouting fake.

 

A ROM is not an executable file, it has to be run in an emulator, so basic knowledge of computer software and a secure browser like anything but Internet Explorer should be enough to keep you safe.

 

Also, how do you dump GBA games? I know it's pretty easy to dump disc-based games (I have done so myself on PS2, GCN, and Wii), but I always wondered how people made ROMs of games that don't go into computers very well.

You would need special hardware.