Well, now that the print publications of both Dragon and Dungeon magazines have been killed, isn't it time to release the truly complete run of both magazines on CD-ROM or DVD-ROM? You can get 75 years of the New Yorker on 8 DVD-ROMs, and I recently heard that the complete Rolling Stone is available on CD as well.
Does anyone know if there are plans to release the complete Dungeon or the complete Dragon? It seems like a complete and utter waste to let such great magazines go to such ignominious deaths...
The dragon is slain, its treasures are plundered.
The dungeon is ruined, its foundations sundered.
Does anyone know if there are plans to release the complete Dungeon or the complete Dragon? It seems like a complete and utter waste to let such great magazines go to such ignominious deaths...
I doubt they will -- what killed the last CD-Rom release was a large number of rights headaches -- many of the articles, such as nearly everything written by Gary Gygax, are owned by their authors, and the release had to be ended after the author of "Knights of the Dinner Table" raised a stink over rights (this is why Paizo had to redact some articles -- and even artwork -- in the PDFs they released of recent Dungeon and Dragon articles, and why they probably never even tried to release TSR-era issues on PDF). Unless they can retain a good number of competent IP lawyers and track down each and every contributor who ever contributed even a single article to sign on the dotted line (with, possibly, a royalty check involved), I doubt such a project will ever happen.
Back in 1998, when TSR finally died and Mattel/Wizards of the Coast bought the D&D franchise, the complete (at the time) backlog of Dragon Magazine was released on CD-ROM. Convenient!
Wizards of the Coast acquired TSR. Hasbro then acquired WotC. Last I checked, D&D contains no lead. :evillaugh
Does anyone know if there are plans to release the complete Dungeon or the complete Dragon? It seems like a complete and utter waste to let such great magazines go to such ignominious deaths...
Some material have rematerialized in some products already (like the ninja class in Complete Adventurer; came from #318).
If WotC sees profit in releasing it in PDF format, and do not have to go through reprint rights again, then we might see a limited run.
[M]any of the articles, such as nearly everything written by Gary Gygax, are owned by their authors [...] . Unless they can retain a good number of competent IP lawyers and track down each and every contributor who ever contributed even a single article to sign on the dotted line (with, possibly, a royalty check involved), I doubt such a project will ever happen.
MacrossSD - Thanks for the info; alas, I hadn't considered digital rights. (Strange, what with the current writer's strike being engaged over that very issue...) It seems like a complete and utter waste, but there you go. Thanks for the answer!
Added Dec 27, 2007: So, I wonder how the New Yorker and Rolling Stone managed to put all of their back issues into a digital format without tracking down every last person that ever contributed a doodle or sniglet...?
Wizards of the Coast acquired TSR. Hasbro then acquired WotC.
My mistake ~ thanks for the clarification.
Added Dec 27, 2007: So, I wonder how the New Yorker and Rolling Stone managed to put all of their back issues into a digital format without tracking down every last person that ever contributed a doodle or sniglet...?
They probably have a clause that states that any material submitted becomes the property of the magazine, and the author waives his copyright by sending it in. Fairly standard stuff, really.
However... I know the contract for the comics was very different. The artist retained all rights, and just granted the magazine a license to publish it once in a specific print issue. It's my understanding that many of the comics, for example, don't appear in the PDF versions.
Art also has different contracts from the writer's contracts. I think the art contracts cover both dead tree and digital versions, but they may not cover an "anthology" type product.
Issues prior to Paizo's run had different contracts. This is what caused so many problems when the first CD set came out - TSR/ WotC didn't have digital rights to most (if not all) of the articles. And in some cases, they didn't have any rights, digital or otherwise.
I would like to see WotC at least take all those issues that are already in PDF and add the ones from when Paizo quit doing them (because they lost the license) until the end of the print magazines and create a CD of those. If that is not feasible how about allowing Paizo to finish up putting the rest of the Paizo era magazines into PDF format. I am sure that they would generate money. I have Issues 82-139 only missing three issues that Paizo never did (83, 92, 138). I also have the original Dragon CD Compilation which goes to 250 and then Paizo started up at 274 (only missing about 25 issues in the middle) and they stopped at issue 345.
I love it when someone on a board someplace talks about a certain article or Dungeon adventure and I can just flip over and bring it up. Print it if I want and not have to search through magazines. I am considering selling off all of my actual magazines that I already have in PDF.
I am considering selling off all of my actual magazines that I already have in PDF.
I would buy many of those magazines.
Also, a giant Dragon Compendium PDF would be sweet. A collection of all of the Paizo magazines in one resource would be worth the money for me, especially the 2002/2003 era of when 3.5 was just getting introduced. They could have a couple discs in the set, really, one for each era of the game. D&D=Disc 1, AD&D=Disc 2, etc.
I would buy many of those magazines.
Also, a giant Dragon Compendium PDF would be sweet. A collection of all of the Paizo magazines in one resource would be worth the money for me, especially the 2002/2003 era of when 3.5 was just getting introduced. They could have a couple discs in the set, really, one for each era of the game. D&D=Disc 1, AD&D=Disc 2, etc.
Check out the Paizo website (www.paizo.com) and at the top there are links to Dragon and Dungeon. They have a lot of issues in PDF and back issues.
I agree having a Compendium on CD would be nice.
Check out the Paizo website (www.paizo.com) and at the top there are links to Dragon and Dungeon. They have a lot of issues in PDF and back issues.
I agree having a Compendium on CD would be nice.
The earliest DPF file of Dungeon that they have is #82. To me that seems like it would indicate that they don't own the copyright of earlier issues.
Oops! Came here through a link and didn't check the date. Sorry for the thread necromancy!
I never got a subscription to Dungeon, but I wish I had. I've got a couple laying around and a small handful on pdf, but I'm sure that getting a complete collection would be costly and difficult. It will be a shame if a anthology never comes out.
I got 3 issues of Dragon and want more.
You can order more of them from Paizo. At least while they are in stock.
