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Subject: Re: Historical Chessmaster ?

Author: John Merlino

Date: 11:41:10 04/25/05

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On April 25, 2005 at 13:48:28, John Merlino wrote:

>On April 25, 2005 at 10:35:37, Fernando Villegas wrote:
>
>>John:
>>Well, there is a couple of chapters I am still missing. One of them is about
>>you. Where are you working now? And the other about Majestic: is it a dead
>>proyect or there is still some life on it?
>>My best
>>(hey, you have not offered me new works by your wife...)
>
>I am now working at a company called Serious Magic (www.seriousmagic.com). We
>make software for videographers and video editors. It's a small company, about
>35 employees. I am Development Manager, meaning that I am in charge of all of
>the non-technical aspects of product development:
>
>-- Making sure that R&D deadlines are met.
>-- Being the R&D liaison for other company departments.
>-- Representing R&D at top-level meetings.
>-- etc. etc. etc.
>
>Majestic Chess is almost certainly dead. Fluent Entertainment originally had a
>three-product contract with Vivendi, and Fluent was working on Majestic Chess II
>when Vivendi decided that they did not want any further versions and simply paid
>Fluent for the remainder of the contract.
>
>Fluent said "You mean we get paid for doing nothing? Cool! Lay off all the
>programmers!" And so they did, after the company finished Aladdin Chess for
>Disney.
>
>http://www.vugames.com/product.do?gamePlatformId=1756
>
>This, of course, was based on Majestic Chess. There are no more developers
>working at Fluent Entertainment, to the best of my knowledge.
>
>I'll be sure to send you some of my wife's latest work very soon.
>
>jm

On more thing regarding Fluent Entertainment. I just recently learned that it no
longer exists and that there are several small claims lawsuits against the
company.

Apparently, the Directors of Fluent formed a new company (called "M-Games", I
think) and moved all of the assets from Fluent to their new company. However,
they left all the LIABILITIES with Fluent so they could claim bankruptcy and
wouldn't have to pay their contractors. So, several people who worked on
Majestic Chess had to sue for their payments.

Lovely, what money can do to people, eh? Especially to those who have a lot of
it already.

jm



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