CASA ::

As Penguin Software and Polarware are the same company all of their games should appear in the same company search. What is the best way to achieve this? Should all of their games be labelled as both Penguin Software and Polarware (1), or is it possible to have a redirection so that a search for Penguin Software leads to Polarware being included and vice-versa?


Edit below.

(1) Perhaps this would be better if all Penguin Software titles were also labelled as Polarware titles, but not the other way round as the later titles would never have been sold under the Penguin Software label.

There are a few other companies that have followed this path. Gameworx/Softgold and Trillium/Telarium spring to mind. Re: your edited suggestion, I wouldn't know exactly what titles to place under which company when it comes to the companies I mentioned.
I talked to one of the developers, and as the number of affected companies is rather tiny, we thought it easiest simply to rename the company "Old name/New name" and then give an explanation in the company profile.
The alternative, adding both companies as separate tags to the game, might indicate that the game was developed by two different companies, which isn't correct, of course.

I hope this is an acceptable workaround?

Gunness wrote:The alternative, adding both companies as separate tags to the game, might indicate that the game was developed by two different companies, which isn't correct, of course.

I thought company meant who published the game rather than the developer, with Magnetic Scrolls being the notable exception (hence the information given at http://solutionarchive.com/list/company,64/ ). Thus, returning to this thread's example, it would be perfectly reasonable to label all Penguin Software releases as also being Polarware releases - though I admit that I am assuming that all Penguin Software titles were later released as Polarware games.

Another alternative would be to have information on the company profile pages linking to the other names used by a company.

My mistake, I meant "published".

Another alternative would be to have information on the company profile pages linking to the other names used by a company.

So, sticking with your example, would all the games then be listed under Polarware and the Penguin game list be empty, or would the games be split evenly between the two companies? If the former, the result could look like this fake setup which may or may not be satisfactory. If the latter, the problem would be that you couldn't get a complete list of games for what is essentially a single company.
This is complicated!

On second thought, the first solution isn't all that great either. When browsing through the company list, one of the two companies would show 0 games, which would probably keep most users from clicking on their link.

I'll try and make an example. Say that there used to be a company called OldNameSoft which published the following:
Adventure Game A
Adventure Game B
Adventure Game C

At a later date this company became NewNameWare and published:
Adventure Game C (again)
Adventure Game D
Adventure Game E
Adventure Game F

Ignoring the Company, Year, and Documents headings, for each company the games list would look something like the following (but with better information):

Games - OldNameSoft (3 results)

This company would later be called NewNameWare (this is supposed to represent a clickable name that will take you to the NewNameWare entry)

Title
Adventure Game A
Adventure Game B
Adventure Game C


Games - NewNameWare (4 results)

This company used to be called OldNameSoft

Title
Adventure Game C
Adventure Game D
Adventure Game E
Adventure Game F


The disadvantages of this are that there is no single list of all the games, and that some games will be duplicated in the two or more listings. The advantages are that it allows people to see that a company changed its name, that you can see what was published under which particular company name, and it should be pretty easy to implement on the current site.

Yes, I understand your example and your points.
Again, it's not an easy decision. For companies like Penguin and Trillium, the name changed, but everything else (?) remained the same. Hence I think it would be a missed opportunity not to be able to see all their games listed together. As for seeing what games were released under which name, the information could be given in the company introduction ("until 1984 all games were released under the Penguin banner").
But I do acknowledge that the Old/New moniker seems a bit clumsy.

I'm waiting for some flash of inspiration on how best to deal with this. Perhaps someone else has some ideas on how to best tackle this problem.
Hint! Hint! :D

Penguin turned into Polarware.

Trillium turned into Telarium.

EOA turned into Electronic Arts.

There is the original Penguin/Polarware website run by the man who OWNED the company. Google for it - of course he can no longer call his old company Penguin OR Polarware as he's almost been sued for the names by Penguin Books. GREAT SITE too - has most of his older games on that site. Most of the games released by Penguin Software were re released under the Polarware name.

Yeah, the entire case again Mark Pelczarski is as far-fetched as it is saddening. Thanks for the reminder regarding his site. I'll add a link to it from the Penguin.... whoops, make that Polarware page

Maybe we should ask him if he would comment on his games?

Mark is a VERY kind guy and cares about the folks who enjoyed his games Gunness. I would ask. Believe it or not, I just ran across "Bouncing Kamungas" for the Apple emulator! Great game.

I grew up on Transylvania, Crimson Crown, Coveted Mirror (Apple // only and that is a real shame), Oo-Topos and Talisman.

Mark would more than likely be kind enough to post some info at this wonderful site. Ask him since I on numerous occasions got to actually talk with him via email. He's a great guy.

As for Penguin Books suing him, that was just the most flat out and blatant amount of bull I had ever seen. Parts of his site have "Penguin" and "Polarware" crossed out because of this. I actually emailed Penguin Books and threatened them that I would sue them if they didn't cease to desist. Eventually they did stop harrassing him - Doing this to man who STILL OWNS the rights to that company is simply not tolerated. I was pissed and Penguin Books STILL knows I'll go after them if I hear one more peep about it. I will.

Ask him Gunness; he'll do it

billy7720

You could ask him if Oo-topos was indeed ported to the Macintosh (as it's apparently rumored) and how the Japanese ports of Starcraft came to be.

Thanks for the input - I'll fire off a mail to Mark in the immediate future