ebert@arisia.Xerox.COM (Robert Ebert) (09/27/90)
Last weekend I spent some time at my local arcade wasting money, and noticed that both Columns and Brickwell were available as stand up video games. I didn't make note of the companies, nor play the games, but they were set up next to the tetris and 3-D tetris (name?) games. The columns game is called Columns II, and it provides color and some added graphics around the playing area and to the blocks, but it looked otherwise like the Mac version. I forget what brickwell is called, but rather than dropping blocks it has the blocks approaching on a conveyor belt. Also adds color and additional graphics, but the basic strategy looks unchanged. Now, I'm not a huge fan of either of these games, nor am I a fan of litigation in general, but it seems like something strange is happening here, when I see almost identical rip-off versions of games appearing like this. I actually don't know which came first, but I suspect (given the about boxes on the Mac versions) that the Mac authors came up with the ideas. (And names.) Anyone have good information on this? Are we going to see a SimCity videogame soon? Or PipeDreams perhaps? Probably not, since those are commercial and hence protected by some corporate entity. Shareware game authors beware! --Bob "Go GlobalView!"
taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com (Dave Taylor) (09/27/90)
Robert Ebert notes, in comp.sys.mac.games: > The columns game is called Columns II, and it provides color and some > added graphics around the playing area and to the blocks, but it looked > otherwise like the Mac version. Columns is from, I believe, SEGA. If the Mac version looks like it, it's because the Mac version is a ripoff. > I forget what brickwell is called, but rather than dropping blocks it > has the blocks approaching on a conveyor belt. Also adds color and additional > graphics, but the basic strategy looks unchanged. That sounds a lot like Klax, which is a very popular arcade game from Atari Games (and is also available on many home video game systems as being from Tengen; which is the same company, in essence). > Now, I'm not a huge fan of either of these games, nor am I a fan of > litigation in general but ... almost identical rip-off versions of > games appearing like this... Right. That's because what happens is that either games spawn off of original ideas (like anyone want to guess how many games have ended up being inspired along the way by, say Space Invaders?) or people create shareware/freeware versions that are deliberate rip offs of the idea in the arcade. Based on my experiences with this market niche, you can be sure that a company like Atari Games, SEGA, Capcom, or any other video game manufacturer is going to be damn sure they have legal rights to a game before they spend the money to pursue it. (there are some exceptions, like Tengen's Tetris for the NES fracas, but I believe this is generally true) > Are we going to see a SimCity videogame soon? No, but Populus is available on the Sega GENESIS ... and SEGA has systems that look to me like Genesis machines in the arcades now... (in nicer boxes, of course! :-) As to whether Maxis would release SimCity for the arcade, I'd guess not -- it's far too involved for a five minute quarter or two play... > Or PipeDreams perhaps? That'd be cool, but it's not too likely. We will, however, shortly see Pipe Dream on not only the Nintendo Entertainment System, but on the GameBoy too! Good news! Even better, the port is being done by Bulletproof Software, the same people that did the Tetris port onto the GameBoy (an incredibly well done port + extensions). -- Dave Taylor Intuitive Systems Mountain View, California taylor@limbo.intuitive.com or {uunet!}{decwrl,apple}!limbo!taylor