5 ms·

No One Lives Forever (NOLF) Revival Edition

147 points by Lammy 2y ago

wvbdmp 2y ago
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.
- AndrewDucker 2y ago
  Not just questionable - the rights to the game will either be with Monolith (now Warner Brothers) or with Fox Interactive (now Disney). I hope that whoever set this site up has protected their identity...
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - maximilianburke 2y ago
    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.
    - magicalhippo 2y ago
      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?
      - maximilianburke 2y ago
        If I recall it was something even sillier, like none of the presumptive rights holders could find the documentation saying who owned the rights.
        archagon 2y ago
        Heh. Well, I guess whoever sues this site has to be the rightful owner!
        tame3902 2y ago
        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.
        maximilianburke 2y ago
- chneu 2y ago
  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.
- poisonwomb 2y ago
  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
swhitf 2y ago
I haven't seen a .tk domain in probably 20 years. It was super popular with young gamers during the early 00s due to the free domain. What a blast from the past! Also a blast from the past, the OMM review of NOLF: https://www.oldmanmurray.com/longreviews/751.html https://www.oldmanmurray.com/longreviews/751.html
- joecool1029 2y ago
  Probably won't see it for much longer. Once it expires it's impossible to renew now even if paid: https://krebsonsecurity.com/2023/03/sued-by-meta-freenom-halts-domain-registrations/ https://krebsonsecurity.com/2023/03/sued-by-meta-freenom-hal...
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
michaelbuckbee 2y ago
These games were great. They really pushed the style and creativity of first-person shooters forward with their level and mission design.
magic_hamster 2y ago
What a great game series. This really shows what an innovative and campy gaming industry we used to have. You don't see games like this anymore, especially not from big studios. Maybe in the indie scene - but mostly not in the same scope.
- throaway89 2y ago
  Yes, not just creativity but actual humour and experimentation! Not to mention taste.
- keyringlight 2y ago
  Underneath the campy humor and old spy movie/TV series references, there was a number of elements on spying, about manipulating and using people, attitudes to women, the dull work spying is for the non-super spies. and so on. If someone was to make a follow-up, I don't think a NOLF copy/paste would do so well beyond pure nostalgia (and I don't think NOLF ever set the world on fire with its sales), but there's enough substance there where they could make something interesting playing it straight.
fmajid 2y ago
NOLF2 was hilarious. The samurai sword fiht in a trailer park while a hurricane blows through it! The fight against French mimes toting machine guns (Ah, ze pain is unbearable)!
skibz 2y ago
I feel compelled to say that NOLF is awesome, and it's also source-available: - https://web.archive.org/web/20020217233624/http://pc.ign.com/articles/095/095995p1.html https://web.archive.org/web/20020217233624/http://pc.ign.com... - https://web.archive.org/web/20010720053220/http://noonelivesforever.com:80/ https://web.archive.org/web/20010720053220/http://noonelives... - https://github.com/osgcc/no-one-lives-forever https://github.com/osgcc/no-one-lives-forever - https://github.com/haekb/nolf1-modernizer https://github.com/haekb/nolf1-modernizer Please be careful using a release distributed on a site without TLS and links to other certain well-known file sharing sites.
- NikolaNovak 2y ago
  This is my number one question - how to trust the executables from here :-/
  - kennysoona 2y ago
    You don't have to trust them to run them. Run them in a VM or sandbox.
  - Lammy 2y ago
    Don't worry about the FUD imho https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty,_and_doubt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty,_and_doubt Personally I would trust a fan-made work distributed through MediaFire and MEGA (and there is nothing wrong with these services!) more than some corporate re-release riddled with DRM and “““analytics””” (the word we've collectively agreed to pretend doesn't mean “spying” lol)
  - Spastche 2y ago
    that site has been around for quite a while, it's legitimate
- rightbyte 2y ago
  I mean, NOLF was way ahead of its time. A parody that also was a really good game. Like, a parody that was not sarcastic or ironic. It is hard to describe.
magicalhippo 2y ago
Monolith[1] made some of my favorite games growing up. It started with Shogo, but also No One Lives Forever, Tron 2.0 and F.E.A.R. left deep impressions. What stood out was the combination of their well-done 3D engine with world building and art direction. It wasn't the same from game to game, each game had their very distinct feel, and always interesting. And I think few shooters have as good enemy AI as the goal-oriented[1] ones in F.E.A.R. (sadly not used in the sequels) Good times, good times... [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monolith_Productions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monolith_Productions [2]: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/building-the-ai-of-f-e-a-r-with-goal-oriented-action-planning https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/building-the-ai-of-f-e-...
- nullify88 2y ago
  Condemned was pretty atmospheric too. Good to see they are still making games.
  - nullify88 2y ago
    This comment didn't age well. WB has closed down Monolith :(
- TheRealDunkirk 2y ago
  Tron 2.0 was great, and another game that has been lost to time. I got the Steam version working with a hack many years ago, but I doubt it would still work. That's another one that could use the same treatment as this version of NOLF!
  - magicalhippo 2y ago
    Indeed! It has great world-building, with lots of fun details. The disc throwing was also a bit different from a straight up shooter. I played it again some years ago but it was flaky, so yeah some TLC would be great.
- pathartl 2y ago
  Eh, LithTech was fairly impressive for the time, but I wouldn't necessarily call it good. It is incredibly fragile. I've been working on creating a library of games that works on modern platforms. LithTech games have taken at least 3-4 times longer because of frequent crashing.
Beijinger 2y ago
Can I run this under linux?
- IlikeKitties 2y ago
  Yes trivially with wine and dxvk
  - Beijinger 2y ago
    Count me in.
- thehoagie 2y ago
  Works for me on GE-Proton 9.9 . If you use Lutris there is even an installer for this already: https://lutris.net/games?q=no+one+lives+forever https://lutris.net/games?q=no+one+lives+forever
  - thehoagie 2y ago
    Sorry this was not Proton - this was system WINE version 9
phendrenad2 2y ago
Hilarious, hilarious game. Nightdive Studios, known for remastering old games such as System Shock, Doom 64, and Turok, tried their hardest to get the rights to the game, but apparently nobody knows who owns it! https://kotaku.com/the-sad-story-behind-a-dead-pc-game-that-cant-come-back-1688358811 https://kotaku.com/the-sad-story-behind-a-dead-pc-game-that-...
throaway89 2y ago
Wow I remember when this came out. Finding the different clues on the ground was pretty amazing back then. I played that PC Gamer demo over and over and over.
romanhn 2y ago
Oh wow, outstanding game. One of very few games I played through to the end. Reminisced about it recently: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41753079 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41753079.
AdmiralAsshat 2y ago
This game is on GOG's "Dreamlist" of games to preserve on their platform, so if you're interested in playing it, vote for it! https://www.gog.com/dreamlist/game/the-operative-no-one-lives-forever https://www.gog.com/dreamlist/game/the-operative-no-one-live...
vonunov 2y ago
Here, have some fresh NOLF-inspired tunes while you revisit (I had Ba De Dum stuck in my head, lol): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wry0IKvcjF4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wry0IKvcjF4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22CbAsfAV6M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22CbAsfAV6M

147 points by Lammy 2y ago

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.

AndrewDucker 2y ago
Not just questionable - the rights to the game will either be with Monolith (now Warner Brothers) or with Fox Interactive (now Disney). I hope that whoever set this site up has protected their identity...
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- maximilianburke 2y ago
  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.
  - magicalhippo 2y ago
    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?
    - maximilianburke 2y ago
      If I recall it was something even sillier, like none of the presumptive rights holders could find the documentation saying who owned the rights.
      - archagon 2y ago
        Heh. Well, I guess whoever sues this site has to be the rightful owner!
        tame3902 2y ago
        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.
        maximilianburke 2y ago
chneu 2y ago
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.
poisonwomb 2y ago
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

swhitf 2y ago

I haven't seen a .tk domain in probably 20 years. It was super popular with young gamers during the early 00s due to the free domain. What a blast from the past! Also a blast from the past, the OMM review of NOLF: https://www.oldmanmurray.com/longreviews/751.html https://www.oldmanmurray.com/longreviews/751.html

joecool1029 2y ago
Probably won't see it for much longer. Once it expires it's impossible to renew now even if paid: https://krebsonsecurity.com/2023/03/sued-by-meta-freenom-halts-domain-registrations/ https://krebsonsecurity.com/2023/03/sued-by-meta-freenom-hal...
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]

michaelbuckbee 2y ago

These games were great. They really pushed the style and creativity of first-person shooters forward with their level and mission design.

magic_hamster 2y ago

What a great game series. This really shows what an innovative and campy gaming industry we used to have. You don't see games like this anymore, especially not from big studios. Maybe in the indie scene - but mostly not in the same scope.

throaway89 2y ago
Yes, not just creativity but actual humour and experimentation! Not to mention taste.
keyringlight 2y ago
Underneath the campy humor and old spy movie/TV series references, there was a number of elements on spying, about manipulating and using people, attitudes to women, the dull work spying is for the non-super spies. and so on. If someone was to make a follow-up, I don't think a NOLF copy/paste would do so well beyond pure nostalgia (and I don't think NOLF ever set the world on fire with its sales), but there's enough substance there where they could make something interesting playing it straight.

fmajid 2y ago

NOLF2 was hilarious. The samurai sword fiht in a trailer park while a hurricane blows through it! The fight against French mimes toting machine guns (Ah, ze pain is unbearable)!

skibz 2y ago

I feel compelled to say that NOLF is awesome, and it's also source-available: - https://web.archive.org/web/20020217233624/http://pc.ign.com/articles/095/095995p1.html https://web.archive.org/web/20020217233624/http://pc.ign.com... - https://web.archive.org/web/20010720053220/http://noonelivesforever.com:80/ https://web.archive.org/web/20010720053220/http://noonelives... - https://github.com/osgcc/no-one-lives-forever https://github.com/osgcc/no-one-lives-forever - https://github.com/haekb/nolf1-modernizer https://github.com/haekb/nolf1-modernizer Please be careful using a release distributed on a site without TLS and links to other certain well-known file sharing sites.

NikolaNovak 2y ago
This is my number one question - how to trust the executables from here :-/
- kennysoona 2y ago
  You don't have to trust them to run them. Run them in a VM or sandbox.
- Lammy 2y ago
  Don't worry about the FUD imho https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty,_and_doubt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty,_and_doubt Personally I would trust a fan-made work distributed through MediaFire and MEGA (and there is nothing wrong with these services!) more than some corporate re-release riddled with DRM and “““analytics””” (the word we've collectively agreed to pretend doesn't mean “spying” lol)
- Spastche 2y ago
  that site has been around for quite a while, it's legitimate
rightbyte 2y ago
I mean, NOLF was way ahead of its time. A parody that also was a really good game. Like, a parody that was not sarcastic or ironic. It is hard to describe.

magicalhippo 2y ago

Monolith[1] made some of my favorite games growing up. It started with Shogo, but also No One Lives Forever, Tron 2.0 and F.E.A.R. left deep impressions. What stood out was the combination of their well-done 3D engine with world building and art direction. It wasn't the same from game to game, each game had their very distinct feel, and always interesting. And I think few shooters have as good enemy AI as the goal-oriented[1] ones in F.E.A.R. (sadly not used in the sequels) Good times, good times... [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monolith_Productions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monolith_Productions [2]: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/building-the-ai-of-f-e-a-r-with-goal-oriented-action-planning https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/building-the-ai-of-f-e-...

nullify88 2y ago
Condemned was pretty atmospheric too. Good to see they are still making games.
- nullify88 2y ago
  This comment didn't age well. WB has closed down Monolith :(
TheRealDunkirk 2y ago
Tron 2.0 was great, and another game that has been lost to time. I got the Steam version working with a hack many years ago, but I doubt it would still work. That's another one that could use the same treatment as this version of NOLF!
- magicalhippo 2y ago
  Indeed! It has great world-building, with lots of fun details. The disc throwing was also a bit different from a straight up shooter. I played it again some years ago but it was flaky, so yeah some TLC would be great.
pathartl 2y ago
Eh, LithTech was fairly impressive for the time, but I wouldn't necessarily call it good. It is incredibly fragile. I've been working on creating a library of games that works on modern platforms. LithTech games have taken at least 3-4 times longer because of frequent crashing.

Beijinger 2y ago

Can I run this under linux?

IlikeKitties 2y ago
Yes trivially with wine and dxvk
- Beijinger 2y ago
  Count me in.
thehoagie 2y ago
Works for me on GE-Proton 9.9 . If you use Lutris there is even an installer for this already: https://lutris.net/games?q=no+one+lives+forever https://lutris.net/games?q=no+one+lives+forever
- thehoagie 2y ago
  Sorry this was not Proton - this was system WINE version 9

phendrenad2 2y ago

Hilarious, hilarious game. Nightdive Studios, known for remastering old games such as System Shock, Doom 64, and Turok, tried their hardest to get the rights to the game, but apparently nobody knows who owns it! https://kotaku.com/the-sad-story-behind-a-dead-pc-game-that-cant-come-back-1688358811 https://kotaku.com/the-sad-story-behind-a-dead-pc-game-that-...

throaway89 2y ago

Wow I remember when this came out. Finding the different clues on the ground was pretty amazing back then. I played that PC Gamer demo over and over and over.

romanhn 2y ago

Oh wow, outstanding game. One of very few games I played through to the end. Reminisced about it recently: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41753079 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41753079.

AdmiralAsshat 2y ago

This game is on GOG's "Dreamlist" of games to preserve on their platform, so if you're interested in playing it, vote for it! https://www.gog.com/dreamlist/game/the-operative-no-one-lives-forever https://www.gog.com/dreamlist/game/the-operative-no-one-live...

vonunov 2y ago

Here, have some fresh NOLF-inspired tunes while you revisit (I had Ba De Dum stuck in my head, lol): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wry0IKvcjF4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wry0IKvcjF4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22CbAsfAV6M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22CbAsfAV6M