Where to download vanilla GP4?

Hi all, with GP4Central being down at the moment, does anyone know of a safe source to download the full original game from?
Thanks!

Not really, GP4Central may be back up soon.

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[www.mediafire.com] Some say you should click it, you know you want to. [www.gp4central.com] <----GP4 Central

Okay, thank you.

I just searched about possible remaining rights upon the game and I can't find any so far (I would be interested if someone knows the exact status of the game nowadays).

@Nileblackflame : check your pm





Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 06/06/2016 12:40PM by Lo2k.

@Laurent: I was looking at this, some months ago... GP4 is not considered as an abandonware at the moment.... You may know the french site LostTreasure.fr (abandonware-france.org: [www.abandonware-france.org] ) I am going on this site from time to time to get some oldies but goodies... They take care of which games are really abandonwares and non abandonwares with useful informations sometimes...

About the remaining rights upon the game, I guess that GP4 is still the property of Atari SA. For the story:
In 2001, Infogrames acquires Hasbro Interactive and renames the set of his commercial subsidiaries Atari, from 2003.
In June, 2009, Infogrames Entertainment takes the name of Atari SA. In January, 2013, Atari Inc. files for bankruptcy at the same time as the parent company Atari SA. In December, 2013, Atari limited company regains control over his American subsidiaries Atari Inc. and Atari Interactive.
Frédéric Chesnais, an old employee of Infogrames Entertainment from 2000 till 2007, president of Ker Ventures, made reborn the brand by launching the creation, at the beginning of 2014, of a new platform of on-line game called Atari Casino, whose purpose is to concentrate on the social games of casino.
Into an interview of Chesnais from febuary 2015, he said that he wanted to give a new birth to old games such Alone in the Dark, Roallercoster Tycoon, Asteroïds online but that he had also ideas with next Gen consoles, mobiles etc...

Sources:
[fr.wikipedia.org]
[fr.wikipedia.org]
[www.lsa-conso.fr]
[frenchmorning.com]

So, after years of takeovers, company mergers, bankrupcy, and rebirth of Atari SA, it seems that GP4 license is a bit drowned among all these informations but that the license still belongs to Atari company.

Strange thing: Alone in the Dark 1 & 2, developped by Infogrames are considered like abandonwares but not Alone in the dark 3 and followings episodes distributed by Interplay, Darkworks and Eden Studios.

That's all that I know for the moment. Maybe Frederic Chesnais himself could answer about the GP4 rights. I tried to contact them by phone today to get some informations but without success (and they have got no responder). Their games support page is down, also...
[www.atari.com]

Edit: I should get some precisions soon... to be continued...

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/06/2016 04:04PM by Excalibur.

Wow, that's what I call an investigation

I asked for some help from some people that are close to video game development and they also told me licence might not be completely without owner, and possibly still hold by ATARI (whatever this society is today).
We found no proof of it alas so far.
Anyway, the people I asked told me he wanted to share another game with no clear owner left and sent mails to every past owners and even game creators and they were all OK to know their game could be shared for free, just to keep a way for enthousiast players to play it.

As I had the box, I also noted it was an official FIA licence back then.
So even if no gaming studio/brand still have the rights over the program, maybe FIA could still sue people sharing the game for the "official" 2001 F1 skins...

I couldn't go any further on my side.

PS : I just followed some of your link and came on atari official page, but no presence of GP4 in their game catalog. Shouldnt they sell it up there if they still had the rights on it ? [www.atari.com]





Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/06/2016 04:31PM by Lo2k.

Does anyone remember one of the interviews conducted with Geoff Crammond in recent years where if I remember correctly he was asked about releasing source code or programming new things for the game and I think he implied that he would be unable to do so for legal reasons... I'm not 100% sure but it's certainly food for thought on a very interesting topic

@ Laurent: Thanks for these useful informations. About the "official" 2001 f1 skins, there would be something illogical to sue people for this. It would means that people who are buying original copies of the game today, on Amazon, ebay, Priceminister etc... with original 2001 f1 skins, would be out of the law? ... Even if the game is not distributed officially anymore, his content is legal! .... I understand that making HD F1 skins over the original game is modding but modding has been always tolerated by Infogrames, Atari until now. Geoff Cramond is also aware of this and has understood that modding allows to keep his game alive after all these years, as we don't make it for commercial purposes... So, the question is: giving a new youth to the original content of the game with the authorized 2001 F1 license could be unauthorized in 2016? If yes, it would means for me that , since Codemasters, GP4 should be illegal to sell, even the few original copies that we can find at resellers today.... It would be ridiculous... The FOM, by looking only to their purse and their profits, should have a more rational behavior by looking at the interest of the players and the F1 generally. It would be even more beneficial to them...It is representative of what is F1 today and what it becomes...

This would be awesome if some new developpers would share such a game with the the benediction of its past owners!

Anyway, back to the original question: I managed to contact Atari and send the question to Frédéric Chesnais about who owns GP4 rights, nowadays. I hope to get an answer form him or his collaborators soon...


@GP4tifosi28: Geoff Cramond didn't said this exactly. He said that it would be impossible to make a new F1 game with the official FIA license but... as we talked about this, it would be possible to make a F1 game with fictional liveries and without official brands, names etc....

@Laurent: Indeed, I checked also into the Simulation, Sports and Free to Play games catalog and I didn't find it... Thanks for the link....

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Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 06/06/2016 05:20PM by Excalibur.

I believe there was a missunderstanding concerning my words about in-game 2001 skins that could be claimed by FIA.

I meant : GP4 has FIA official licence, so when you buy the game, FIA is retributed in some way for licenced material (official driver names, liveries and so on...)
And thus that's why I wonder if we can share freely the game today as it would mean this official content would be "distributed" to some people wihtout they had pay FIA for the licenced material.

To be clear : I paid my GP4 and thus the licenced material in it. But if I share it, 10-100-1000 people could get this licenced material for free then... doesn't sound great (for FIA).

By the way I have no clue if FIA keeps rights over past seasons and licences. As we both know, FIA licence agreement with Infogrames is finished. Sony got it, EA got it and now codemasters.
So I don't know if FIA could still claim rights over this 14 years old game material.

By the way, knowing if mods and custom liveries (either 2001 or else) are 100% authorized is another topic :p

@Gp2tifoso28 : good point. I just re-read the interview (as I noticed it was in Mortal's mediafire shared folder in his signature a few posts above) and he only replies he had no plan to release source code. So he doesn't speak about current compiled version of the game.





Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 06/06/2016 09:37PM by Lo2k.

All right. Understood , Laurent.... Yes, this is not the topic for this debate (my personal thoughts were out of subject)... If the game becomes an abondonware, it could be shared for free, whatever it please to the FIA or not, anyway...And I hope that in a way or another, it will be accessible to people who wants to own it legally because it is more and more difficult to find it and some people continue to ask me where they can buy it...

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hey guys, I know this is somewhat off topic, but here is the interview I was referring to [www.meanmachinesmag.co.uk]

In short when asked on being consulted on mods for GP4 Geoff said: "I have never got involved with the mods. I think that because those activities are unofficial, there was never any question of me being involved for contractual reasons."

This interview was conducted in 2009. I find it fascinating that he would be contractually bound in any way 7 years after the closure of the studio... sorry to go off topic but it's an interesting subject. Either way, I think it would be unrealistic for the FIA, or more likely FOM, to pursue legal action against anything to do with GP4, as the game is so old and niche that it doesn't pose a serious threat to any intellectual property from a financial or image standpoint. Even if they had legal grounds to stand on, the ends wouldn't justify the means.