🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Oct29.201137.22351@cs.uoregon.edu> mkelly@mystix.cs.uoregon.edu
 (Michael A. Kelly) writes:
>
>I'm working on a new arcade game for the Mac.  It started out as a clone of
>an old (c. 1983-84) video game I used to play in high school, but has since
>been added to extensively.  The new game is essentially the old game plus
>a whole lot more; but the old game is still there and easily recognizable
>by anyone who ever spent time with the original.
>
>Is there a potential copyright problem here?  Assuming the company that made
>the game is still around, would it be prudent to contact them?  If the
>company isn't around any more, do I have to do anything?
>
>It's difficult to describe the similarities between the two games without
>getting specific, and I'm not at liberty to do so.  But it's kind of like
>the difference between Blasteroids and the original Asteroids.  Blasteroids
>is like an ultra-enhanced Asteroids.  If I was making Blasteroids, would
>I have anything to worry about from the makers of Asteroids?  (Sorry if
>you're not familiar with Blasteroids, but that's the best example I could
>think of.)
>
>BTW, is there a more appropriate newsgroup for this discussion?
>
>Later,
>
>Mike.
>-- 
>_____________________________________________________________________________
>Michael A. Kelly                                               Senior Partner
>mkelly@cs.uoregon.edu                                      High Risk Ventures
>_____________________________________________________________________________


Considering that the idea of a spaceship floating around knocking the stuffings
out of various asteroids is the whole idea around Asteroids/Blasteroids *oids 
(usually), then I'd assume, that yes, you should get in touch with the original
folks who wrote the program.

After all, they're the ones that made the original so popular and gave other 
folks inspiration to do ports and changes to make it faster/better/more 
addictive.

If you've put in this much time and effort to produce a quality game, nothing's
wrong with checking out what the original software folks have to say.

And, IMHO, you should get a competent attorney to make sure you're doing it 
right.  The last thing a good programmer needs is a loophole in a document
that turns his work into copy-able code with no royalties.
-- 
*>  Neil Haldar                                                              <*
*>  nhaldar@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu                                        <*
*>  neilh@well.sf.ca.us                                                      <*
*>  364 West Lane Ave #225, Cols., OH 43201   614.299.8529                   <*