I own both games on disc and played part of the first one a couple of years ago on Windows 10. Absolutely stellar game, I’ve always meant to finish one of these days and get to the sequel…
IIRC it did indeed require some fiddling with config files and maybe even community patches to get a wide aspect ratio to work, and weapon viewmodels would still end up stretched.
Highly recommend giving these games a shot!
The legality of this seems questionable, though? The site itself doesn’t appear to acknowledge anything related to that.
My understanding of this is that no one will actually confess to owning the IP, so this project also serves the purpose of baiting someone to actually come forward and submit a takedown notice as that would presumably reveal who owns it
There's an issue with the rights to the No One Lives Forever games which is why it hasn't re-appeared on Steam (et al). Nightdive Studios tried to get the rights to republish it but couldn't nail down between these parties who actually had the rights to the game and could authorize this.
Kind of absurd, but I guess it might be because there are multiple rights involved, ie art and music, characters and gameplay and whatnot? It's not just one neat "NOLF IP" package?
Somebody once tried to clarify the situation with a similar stunt, but failed spectacularly. From the NOLF Wikipedia page:
In May 2014, Nightdive Studios, a publisher of classic PC titles, filed trademarks for "No One Lives Forever", "The Operative", "A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way", and "Contract J.A.C.K.", Nightdive had also been able to acquire the source code for the games, which would enable them to remaster them for modern computer systems. However, Nightdive had yet to comment on the situation regarding who owned the rights to the game. At this point, the rights to the series were unclear, as the property may have been owned solely or in part by 20th Century Fox (which owned Fox Interactive at the time of the game's release), Activision (which acquired and merged with Vivendi Games, which in turn was the parent to Sierra Entertainment, the publisher of No One Lives Forever 2, and had acquired Fox Interactive in 2003), and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (which acquired Monolith Productions). Warner Bros. did file opposition to Nightdive's trademark, leading Nightdive to try to seek a license arrangement. However, Warner Bros. representatives were concerned that if either Fox or Activision had a part of the ownership, that they would also need their approval. Nightdive attempted to work with Fox and Activision to search their archives, but as these transitions pre-dated computerized records, neither company wanted to do so. Nightdive's efforts were further stalled when they were told by Warner Bros. that they had no interest in partnering or licensing the IP, leading Nightdive to abandon their efforts to acquire the rights.
If the owner of the IP doesn't enforce their ownership of the IP then there isn't much to do about it. This is pretty common in the "abandonware" gaming community. Lots of old games are technically piracy but nobody cares.
IIRC it did indeed require some fiddling with config files and maybe even community patches to get a wide aspect ratio to work, and weapon viewmodels would still end up stretched.
Highly recommend giving these games a shot!
The legality of this seems questionable, though? The site itself doesn’t appear to acknowledge anything related to that.