Ancient rights
Hasbro, the toy company that bought the remains of Atari, has started suing software houses over the copyright to antique games such as Asteroids, PacMan, Missile Command and Centipede. Many of the arcade games that appeared in the early 80s were widely copied - Acorn, for example, published rip-offs of several classics, and its version of Defender was better than the real thing. But now Tom Dusenberry, Hasbro Interactive's president, has decided to get tough.
"Hasbro Interactive has the best brands and content in this business and we will vigorously protect what is rightfully ours," he says. "Consumers should be aware that the companies named in this suit are making games based on properties they don't own or control." A string of defendants including eGames, Xtreme Games and GT Interactive have been asked to recall and destroy copies of Intergalactic Exterminator, 3D Astro Blaster, TetriMania, TetriMania Master, 3D Maze Man, Tunnel Blaster, Xtris, Patriot Command, HemiRoids, Bricklayer, 3D TetriMadness, Mac-Man, 3D Munch Man, and 3D Munch Man II.
Out of the dark
Rare, the UK's most respected games developer, has dropped the Game Boy Camera feature from its long-awaited Nintendo 64 game, Perfect Dark. But not because the technology was too difficult: the company says it wants "to avoid any controversy during the game's release". The original idea was to enable players to superimpose faces on game characters. Second thoughts may have been prompted by the idea that kids could put, for example, their teachers' faces on characters and frag them.
Reynolds quits
Brian Reynolds, the lead programmer/designer on some of the world's greatest games, has unexpectedly left Firaxis Games, the company he founded with Sid Meier and Jeff Bridges in 1996. Reynolds worked on Civilization and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, and was leading the development of Civilization III, under Meier's direction. C/net's online Gamecenter managed to get a few words with Reynolds. He said: "I don't want to discuss why I left. Things happened between Sid [Meier] and Jeff [Briggs] that I don't think need to be discussed."
Net worth?
GameCampaign, a start-up based in Bath, has started publishing a top 50 that purports to show how companies rank "in terms of internet coverage. It's derived from an algorithm combining breadth of coverage, amount of coverage, and comparisons to competitors." The list is headed by Microsoft (100), Sega (89), Sony (85), Nintendo (84) and Activision (78). However, some well-known names are well down the list. Hasbro (59) is 20th, UbiSoft (37) is 41st, and Codemasters (30) a horrifying 47th. See www.gamecampaign.com
On the way
LucasArts is working on a first-person shooter called Obi-Wan, based on Star Wars, while Activision is well advanced with a Spiderman game for the Sony PlayStation. Shiny Entertainment is developing a fantasy-based real-time strategy game called Sacrifice, and Take 2 is working on a science fiction adventure, Martian Gothic: Unification Explored, for the PC. In the UK, Codemasters is coding a PlayStation title, Mike Tyson Boxing, Bullfrog is developing Dungeon Keeper 3, and Rare is working on a Nintendo 64 game codenamed Dino, which could be "Zelda with Dinosaurs". Deep Red Games, in Milton Keynes, has signed a deal with SCi to develop Thunderbirds titles for the PC and PlayStation 2.
