Virtual Console = more agression towards ROM use?

WJYkK · Post by **WJYkK** » Tue Aug 03, 2010 1:43 am

peppers wrote:namco is out of there minds

Correction: Namco wants... money.

Post by **tepples** » Tue Aug 03, 2010 6:13 am

I looked at this before, comparing Atari v. Philips (the original Pac-Man copyright case, Atari being Namco's licensee) to Capcom v. Data East (the Street Fighter copyright case), and came to this conclusion: Philips lost because Munchkin looked too much like Pac-Man. Data East got away with it for "scenes a faire": the characters of Fighter's History looked like characters in kung fu movies at least as much as they specifically looked like Street Fighter's characters.

So don't copy any graphics that aren't dictated by the game rules. Don't put Pac-Man himself into your game; use an original character instead.

Nintendo put a Pac-Man homage in the first WarioWare for GBA, except the main character was Wario, not Pac-Man, and the dots made SMB1 "coin" noises when collected. Even Namco has done some copying: Katamari series is just Bubbles (1982) by Williams, redone as a 3D platformer. But again, original characters and original art style keep it from being a violation.

peppers · Post by **peppers** » Tue Aug 03, 2010 12:43 pm

WJYkK wrote:
peppers wrote:namco is out of there minds
Correction: Namco wants... money.

That particular "violation" has no potential of earning them any money nor dose it have any potential to cost them anything.

ReaperSMS · Post by **ReaperSMS** » Tue Aug 03, 2010 2:18 pm

Most likely it violated a trademark, which must be actively protected to retain the rights. Ergo, law-ninja strike.

UncleSporky · Post by **UncleSporky** » Tue Aug 03, 2010 3:20 pm

tepples wrote:Even Namco has done some copying: Katamari series is just Bubbles (1982) by Williams, redone as a 3D platformer. But again, original characters and original art style keep it from being a violation.

I don't think this is a fair comparison at all. There is far more that separates the two games than characters and art style. You might as well claim that EVE Online is a direct copy of Asteroids or Star Fox is a copy of Millipede.

Extreme technicalities and vague similarities in the most basic form of gameplay aren't worth considering.

Post by **tepples** » Tue Aug 03, 2010 3:29 pm

UncleSporky wrote:
tepples wrote:Katamari series is just Bubbles (1982) by Williams, redone as a 3D platformer.
I don't think this is a fair comparison at all.

True, but the first step of legal wrangling is to get the obviously unfair comparisons out of the way.