> For
>God's sake, how many Wolfenstein clones are there (Doom and Quake are
>from the same company!)?
I believe the difference between the two examples you presented before
this one explain the story. The fact that Munchkin had a little fellow
running around eating dots gave it the same look and feel as Pac-Man.
The claim on the karate game fell short since the "look and feel" as
described by the copyright holder could have been extrapolated to nearly
any game that involved characters that kicked and punched! Karate was an
idea that existed before the games were made. This case, then, is quite
unlike Pac-Man, which was pretty danged original.
It does make me wonder what would happen if a game like football wasn't
as old as it is (and probably past copyrighting). I wonder if someone
will copyright ultimate frisbee?
Hopefully things like "platform games" (since that's what I was working
on!) and first-person shooters (like the id games mentioned above) are
generic enough they would not be able to be challenged in court. How do
you describe the look and feel of these games so that you show where you
were horribly original? "The man jumps from level to level, jumps over
potentially lethal stuff, and climbs up and down ladders." Might as well
be describing a Jackie Chan flick as a video game.
However any game that takes all the combinations of four square blocks
(thus the "tetris"; not just scoring four lines at once. Each shape is
made up of four squares) and has you smack them into lines to get them to
disappear is, um, suspiciously close to the original Tetris. As Matt
suggested to me via AIM today, Columns by Sega is a pretty good take-off
on Tetris that I don't think would be challenged successfully in court.
The premise of Tetris cannot be described so broadly as to include
Columns and still give someone who'd seen neither game an clear idea of
what Tetris is like.
It does make for interesting considerations before you make a game. Not
that anyone making a 2600 game is after all that big money, but neither
are they looking for a lawsuit!
Whew. That has to be my clearest post ever. ") Where's an editor when
you need one?
Ruffin Bailey | Write Atari 2600 games on your PPC Mac!
rufbo at bellsouth.net | http://members.aol.com/mactari
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