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This article comes from the official account of Wechat: ID:chuappgame, author: etc.

"Star Insurance Company wants to do something with Internet Raiders, but doesn't know what to do because it's an insurance company."

"Yes, we have the copyright of 'Raiders on the Internet'. What do you want to do with it? make a sequel?" Asked the man on the other end of the phone.

The person who threw the question on the phone was not from the game publisher, but for Star Insurance Company, an insurance company. More interestingly, the audience on the other side of the phone was not Ken Levin, Warren Specter, or a famous game designer who previously worked for Looking Glass Studios and Irrational Games-a "nobody" named Stephen Kirk, a newly unemployed game artist on vacation in Guatemala.

Surprise Raider, or System Shock, is a science fiction action game launched by legendary game development company Looking Glass in 1994. It is famous for its complex story background and groundbreaking play. Later games such as biochemical Raiders, Breaking out of siege and Predator are its spiritual successors. " The series of "Internet Raiders" has not been a great commercial success. Many years after "Internet Raiders 2" in 1999, the series did not release a sequel, and its copyright and trademark were constantly changed hands in the development and distribution company.

When Kirk called the insurance company, it was already 2012. Kirk did not have any business background at the time and did not know how to negotiate contract or licensing fees, with total savings of less than $5000. Given the huge influence of "Internet Raiders" and "Internet Raiders 2" in the gaming world, he doesn't seem qualified to develop follow-up works for the series.

"I was deep in the jungle of Guatemala and had to surf the Internet by satellite." "I didn't plan for the next step in my career," Kirk recalls. " He just took a chance and proposed to the insurance company to reissue "Internet Raider 2". Unexpectedly, the other side agreed without hesitation.

"I was so happy that I felt like a dream. for me, the purpose of a long journey is to get in touch with new things, recharge my brain, and maybe find inspiration from things I didn't know before. the sudden project ignited my passion and wanted to take a chance to see how far I could go."

Kirk has a high-end computer at home, but he always likes to play "old" games. Kirk and his brother Alex founded game studio Nightdive Studios, which later became famous for recycling the rights to old classic games. Nightdive made a full remake of the original "Internet Raiders", and the game was officially released at the end of May this year. In a sense, the "Internet Raiders" series inspired Kirk to start Nightdive, which grew and grew until it was acquired by Atari. However, the Guatemalan jungle is not the starting point of this entrepreneurial trip.

The relationship between Kirk and "Internet Raiders" began in 2000. In the snowy winter, a friend recommended "Internet Raider 2" to Kirk, who likes "half-life", and asked him to borrow the game home.

"it was a perfect night. Although the weather was a little cold, I felt comfortable sitting by the computer. I was fascinated by it and was completely immersed in it. I played for hours." Kirk is used to playing games while listening to music. "when the villain SHODAN revealed what had happened on the space station, I happened to hear a song by the industrial rock band Filter... an ethereal female voice tells why human beings are the cancer of the earth, and the mood of the song and the game match perfectly. I will never forget that moment."

Nightdive has released more than 125 games, most of which are classic game rereleases, as well as agency release and reproduction programs. After graduating from college, Kirk joined Sony online Entertainment in San Diego as a character art. Kirk met his girlfriend there, and both resigned and traveled to Central America together. "We put everything in the car and drove across the border into the Mexican city of Tijuana for 10 months in a row." Before leaving, Kirk installed a lot of old games in his notebook, such as "Curse of Monkey Island", "Speed Dragon", "radiation" and so on. On a rainy day in Guatemala, he launched Internet Raider 2.

"the system always reported an error, tried all the methods did not work, simply can not make the game work properly." "so I went to GOG.com and thought I could find Internet Raider 2 there," Kirk recalled. GOG likes to rerelease old games, so how could it not be there? it's one of the greatest games of all time. "

But, really, no. Kirk quickly thought of another question: where is the copyright of "Internet Raiders"? Why can't GOG release "Internet Raiders 2"? Unable to find the answer on the Internet, Kirk searched the online archive Wayback Machine and finally found an article published by the media when Looking Glass was closed. "in a report on G4TV, author Jared Newman mentioned that all copyright in Looking Glass had been carved up, in which 'Raider of the Internet' went to an insurance company, but the trademark belonged to EA."

So Kirk went to the insurance company and sent an email to the contact person on the website. A day later, the general counsel of the other party contacted him and asked him if he wanted to make Internet Raider 3.

Kirk prefers to reproduce the original version of "Internet Raiders." in 2016, he raised $1.35 million through crowdfunding. Coincidentally, around the same time, EA's trademark of "Internet Raiders" expired and was later registered by the insurance company. Legally, the only way to protect that trademark from invalidation is to use it to make games again. "Star Insurance Company owns all the puzzles and wants to do something with 'Internet Raiders' but doesn't know what to do because it's an insurance company."

This is an incredible story. In the game industry, Kirk was just a nobody at that time, and it was hard to imagine that he would have the opportunity to get the authorization of 'Internet Raider'. " Even GOG didn't believe me and even reprimanded me in an email for talking nonsense because they wanted to sign up for the game and had been working on it for years. They can't figure it out at all. Why can the kid do it? They asked me a lot of questions, such as who in my family works in that insurance company? "

Finally, Nightdive and GOG reached a partnership to facilitate the production of the "Internet Raider 2" patch, which will be available on GOG in February 2013, which can run on the new generation PC system.

After the rerelease of Internet Raiders 2, Ken Levin's agent got Kirk's contact information and suddenly called to ask him his true identity. "it felt like an interrogation, and I thought,'Oh, my God, what on earth is going on?'"

Discover Classic Kirk often studies the community wish list of GOG stores, looking for old games that are popular with players but have not yet been adapted into a digital version. For some digital versions of classic works exclusively owned by GOG, Kirk will also try to contact copyright owners and propose to bring them to the Steam platform. " In this way, we got the adaptation rights for the Seventh visitor (The 7th Guest) and the eleventh hour (The 11th Hour). We have also partnered with writer Harlan Ellison to produce a modern version of I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream. Since the copyright of these games still belongs to individuals, it is much easier to talk about cooperation. "

The physical version of "Silent howling" was once sold at a high price, and now you can get an electronic reproduction for as little as $6. Over time, Nightdive's business capabilities have been widely recognized and have begun to work with mainstream publishers to bring games such as Dinosaur Hunter and Doom 64 to modern platforms. At the same time, the studio has always been in close contact with the "Raiders of the Internet" series, and in 2015, Nightdive decided to make a high-definition reproduction for the first generation of "Raiders of the Internet," which came out in 1994.

"We haven't made any major changes to the original, and players won't think it's changed much." "for example, we want to keep the labyrinth of level designs, but we also add the backpack management and interactivity of Internet Raiders 2 and Bio Raiders to this new remade version," Kirk said. "

In the remake of Raiders on the Internet, Nightdive did not disrupt the narrative structure of the original campaign, but rewrote some lines in order to enhance the emotional connection between the characters. In addition, the development team retains the shooting mode in the original and provides players with optional types of ammunition to encourage the selection of appropriate weapons for different enemies. "because the backpack space is limited, you have to make sure that players have a lot of opportunities to try in the game and find the best combination. Players know that they can only carry a certain amount of ammunition and weapons, so they will think about their choices."

The Computer Node screen in the original version of Internet Raiders

The same scene in the remake version of the Nightdive also retains the original "Internet Raiders" very forward-looking difficulty option. In the game, players can not only adjust the difficulty of battles and puzzles, but also change the complexity of the story according to their preferences. "if a game allows players to change many elements before playing, it will be more acceptable." But Kirk stressed that unlike some modern 3A games, Internet Raiders remake still requires players to use their brains while playing. "if you want to get the original 'Internet Raiders' experience, you have to listen to audio logs, and you may even need to find a piece of paper to record the password of the door."

After 7 years of tortuous production, the remaking of "Internet Raiders" has been officially launched on May 30.

Kirk admits that the success or failure of remaking Internet Raiders is a high-cost and difficult project, and its success or failure will determine whether Nightdive will develop repetitive games of the same size in the future-just as it did 11 years ago, Raiders will once again affect Kirk's future. But in any case, the core philosophy of Nightdive remains the same. "I want to encourage people to make games that are inspired by the past. We do everything we can to achieve our goals. The only way to do this is to preserve and display the old games so that players can play them all the time."

This article is compiled from: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/how-system-shock-2-made-stephen-kick-and-nightdive-studios

Original title: "How System Shock 2 made Stephen Kick and Nightdive Studios"

Original author: Jeremy Peel

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