I really loved the first three George Romero Zombie movies, so I've been
hoping for a really good zombie game for PC that might run on my rig.
I liked the first two "Resident Evil" games on Sony Playstation, third was
so-so, and number four was worse than awful.
So, I was excited to discover "Land of the Dead: Road to Fiddler's Green" on
Gamer's Gate. The two reviews there were highly favorable, and almost
certainly completely phoney. A quick Google search reveals that this game
was a complete abortion-----almost certainly because it got rushed out to
capitalize on the buzz from the movie (which also sucked). What is amazing is that
Gamers Gate has the gall to sell this turkey for the five-year-old original list price.
At best, it's a five dollar game.
The point of this post is this:
I'm wondering if there is any sort of organization that tracks down the copyright
owners of botched games, to persuade them to release the source code, so that
amateurs can fix the bugs. In the case of this one, I'm sure that asshole movie lawyers would make it impossible, but there are literally dozens of "broken" games I've literally had to throw in the trash.....games with amazing aspects, but deep
flaws. Such a waste.....
It's good to dig up the "good old games", but what about taking that rotten game, ripping the cancer out of it, and bringing it back to life as the game it was always meant to be?

Sounds like you want to resurrect it as a zombie
Many times sloppy games are just a nightmare of bad code and not much can be done other than throwing the lot away and starting from scratch

All the Resident Evil games were on PC by the by.
As for the question, I'm sure dedicated fans of many games pressure devs for such things, but in the end games so far under the radar to not have much of a fanbase don't really get attention. That's one of the dangers of DRM, that games no one really cares much about will become unplayable because there isn't a fanbase to make sure they're still working in 10-20 years.

Do I get points for knowing your Topic name (New Lamps For Old!) is a quote from King's Quest 6? :-)

Aladin

That's the first thing I was thinking when I read the thread title as well. :-)

Aladdin, actually ;-) And yes, if that line is in KQ6, then the game is quoting Aladdin.

In KQ6 he says "old lamps for new."

Having played through land of the dead, I wouldn't know how they could increase the quality without removing likek 90% of the game. The only think remotely likeable about that game was the cinema level, when you are stuck with the moving body bags and have to defend it against THE HOOORDEEE.
On the other hand, if the mother company isn't a complete asshat, a fanmade remake could be made.

Ugh, my insufferable re-translation of titles in my head. x/
Al-ad-din to be sure.

Land of the Dead: Road to Fiddler's Green, set as a prequel to the LoTD film, was originally intended as a free addition to the Special Edition DVD release of Romero's Land of The Dead. When the game is judged in this context, I don't think it was nearly as bad as it was made out to be. If you were a fan of the movies and like zombie games, you'll probably enjoy it to some degree. The game had co-op, survival mode, and deathmatch to list a few of the multiplayer features. In DM, not only would you have to look out for other players, but the maps would contain random zombies as well.
At some point it was decided by some higher-ups to get the game published and on the market. Although the PC version was appropriately priced as a budget title (around 20 USD), the console version was priced as a full AAA title (around 50 USD). Since the majority of consumption is on the console and it's more prevalent, it was generally reviewed in the context of AAA full priced games - hence the level of backlash. I honestly believe the game wouldn't have experienced as much backlash had the console version been appropriately priced.
As far as recommendable zombie games, it doesn't get much better than the left 4 dead series. I'm not sure if you own these already but a search on youtube will reveal that they're playable even on modest integrated video chipsets like the geforce 6150 series for example.

... if we're going a bit offtopic, on the subject of zombie games: They Hunger & Left 4 Dead. They hunger is ... sublime. Scary, too. I was spooked the first time I heard the female zombies :(

No, it was "New lamps for old." The guy was offering his new lamps in exchange for anyone bringing him an old lamp....hoping to find one old enough to contain a genie.

No, he says "old lamps for new," I just booted it to check as I was so sure. He means he will take an old lamp for a new one, as you say.

Oooooooooh....I had the right idea, just got it backwards. My bad!