Excrement_Cranium
May 10th, 2005, 02:14 AM
As appeared in Game Informer Issue 145 May 2005:
Legislation Lags Bhind Technology
Far more blatant than our mundane, modern piracy, the code theft of the '80s actually involved designing replicas of existing games and selling them to arcade owners across the land. The situation came to a head when the United States District Court, District of Massachusetts began hearing arguments of trademark and copyright infringement shown in General Computer's SUper Missile Attack (a conversion pack made to transfrom Atari's Missile Command cabinets into GCC's game). Atari won the suit and as part of the settlement, General Computer Corp. made Food Fight and Quantum for the company
Financial Facts
- Who says that women don't play games? The gernerous earnings in the arcade sector during 1981 are largely credited to the fairer sex. In addition to the $5 billion spent in arcades, it is estimated that Americans spent an additional $1.2 billion on home video game consoles.
- The average, run of the mill arcade standup grossed between $140 and $150 each week.
- More than 30 million americans played an arcade game each week.
- By the end of the year, Bally/Midway sold 96.000 Pac-man coin operated games. Ina ddition, franchise licenses for products as varied as wrapping paper and jewelry wer sold to over 30 companies.
First come, First Mentioned
The freedom of video games as a new and open entertainment medium let developers try to create unique experiences for their players with interesting technology. Some, obviously, were more successful than others.
Defender II(Williams Electrinics)-
Originally released as Stargate, the game was renamed by Williams Electronics to play off of the success of the first game. It also included an eloborate code that, if executed correctly, showed players the development credits.
Freeway (Atari) -
Essentially Frogger with a chcken playing the part of amphibian, Freeway offered to vertically moving objects and 24 seperate moving sprites. On the Atari 2600, this was a very big deal indeed.
Omega Race (Midway) -
This title was the only vector game released by the publishing giant.
Shark Attack (Pacific Novelty) - Betting that the terror of nose would heighten the game's otherwise average gameplay, Shar Attack was the first arcade titile with quadraphonic sound and also had an actual cassete tape that played the screams of the victims when you ate a diver.
to be continued....
Legislation Lags Bhind Technology
Far more blatant than our mundane, modern piracy, the code theft of the '80s actually involved designing replicas of existing games and selling them to arcade owners across the land. The situation came to a head when the United States District Court, District of Massachusetts began hearing arguments of trademark and copyright infringement shown in General Computer's SUper Missile Attack (a conversion pack made to transfrom Atari's Missile Command cabinets into GCC's game). Atari won the suit and as part of the settlement, General Computer Corp. made Food Fight and Quantum for the company
Financial Facts
- Who says that women don't play games? The gernerous earnings in the arcade sector during 1981 are largely credited to the fairer sex. In addition to the $5 billion spent in arcades, it is estimated that Americans spent an additional $1.2 billion on home video game consoles.
- The average, run of the mill arcade standup grossed between $140 and $150 each week.
- More than 30 million americans played an arcade game each week.
- By the end of the year, Bally/Midway sold 96.000 Pac-man coin operated games. Ina ddition, franchise licenses for products as varied as wrapping paper and jewelry wer sold to over 30 companies.
First come, First Mentioned
The freedom of video games as a new and open entertainment medium let developers try to create unique experiences for their players with interesting technology. Some, obviously, were more successful than others.
Defender II(Williams Electrinics)-
Originally released as Stargate, the game was renamed by Williams Electronics to play off of the success of the first game. It also included an eloborate code that, if executed correctly, showed players the development credits.
Freeway (Atari) -
Essentially Frogger with a chcken playing the part of amphibian, Freeway offered to vertically moving objects and 24 seperate moving sprites. On the Atari 2600, this was a very big deal indeed.
Omega Race (Midway) -
This title was the only vector game released by the publishing giant.
Shark Attack (Pacific Novelty) - Betting that the terror of nose would heighten the game's otherwise average gameplay, Shar Attack was the first arcade titile with quadraphonic sound and also had an actual cassete tape that played the screams of the victims when you ate a diver.
to be continued....