All Jeff Minter fans

[Heretic]

Just heard the news that whoever own ataris copyright are now preventing him from releasing TxK on any new platforms.

A real shame hes one of the last of a dying breed of classic old school designers. forget this retro fad on mobiles and tabkets this guys been making some of the best quirky games on multiple platforms for over 30 years!

If you havent heard of him please wikipedia the guy, youve more than likely played or neard of at least one of his games

Gridrunner, Tempest 2000(which thry claimed wasnt even his code, the blood thing even had the blessing of jarvis himself!) and the minotuar project games for ios(deflex goatup minotron)

sure they have some mechanics inspried by the greats but very few today has it feel for making such games in a non superfical way.

i hope these people calling themselves atari today go bankrupt, bullying a small developer like this is wrong. he took no assests or code from any bloody product just inspration. a mad mad world

all hail the mighty ox

edit - some more information ! http://pastebin.com/HHCZwyEd

 

[neglectoid]

gridrunner and tempest 2000 are great games.

 

[Fungi]

Eugene Jarvis was Defender & Robotron. Dave Theurer was Tempest.

 

[Heretic]

and fungi is anally rententive , wasnt reakky the point was it? your one of ataris lawyers arent ya?!

 

[Fungi]

Hey, if you're gonna make a point of Who's Who, and who it was that gave him his blessing, might as well get the name right or else you undermine your own point. And yes, I'm anal. YOU of all people should know that Hairy.


Wait, that doesn't sound right.

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

"Atari's" Facebook ratings plummeted from 4 to 3. Hope this will wake them up. Also:

"Copyright does not protect the idea for a game, its name or title, or the method or methods for playing it. Nor does copyright protect any idea, system, method, device, or trademark material involved in developing, merchandising, or playing a game. Once a game has been made public, nothing in the copyright law prevents others from developing another game based on similar principles. Copyright protects only the particular manner of an author’s expression in literary, artistic, or musical form." (Source: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html)

What boggles me even more is that THERE ARE CLONES of Tempest 2000 on every other platform, including mobile devices. Yet they only go after Jeff's TxK. And the trademark of Tempest 2000 was lapsed in 2006, so basically making the claim invalid. "Atari" even haven't announced another Tempest game after the trademark lapsed.

Even further, they're going into the gambling and casino business.

Suck it, Infogrames. You'll lose. #freethellama

 

[GibGirl]

Even further, they're going into the gambling and casino business.

Ugh. I really hate that they're doing that to the Atari name. I have an Atari logo tattooed on my body for a reason - they got me started in gaming - and it makes me said what's happened.

 

[Fungi]

I have an Atari logo tattooed on my body for a reason .

Yep. I'm a little turned on by that.

 

[Bowflex]

Ugh. I really hate that they're doing that to the Atari name. I have an Atari logo tattooed on my body for a reason - they got me started in gaming - and it makes me said what's happened.

Atari really started frustrating me in the 90's when lots of their mid 80's missteps began seeing the light of day. I preferred to consider Atari games (the arcade division later sold to midway) as the true heart and soul of the company.

 

[Tabe]

"Atari's" Facebook ratings plummeted from 4 to 3. Hope this will wake them up. Also:

"Copyright does not protect the idea for a game, its name or title, or the method or methods for playing it. Nor does copyright protect any idea, system, method, device, or trademark material involved in developing, merchandising, or playing a game. Once a game has been made public, nothing in the copyright law prevents others from developing another game based on similar principles. Copyright protects only the particular manner of an author’s expression in literary, artistic, or musical form." (Source: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html)

What boggles me even more is that THERE ARE CLONES of Tempest 2000 on every other platform, including mobile devices. Yet they only go after Jeff's TxK. And the trademark of Tempest 2000 was lapsed in 2006, so basically making the claim invalid. "Atari" even haven't announced another Tempest game after the trademark lapsed.

Even further, they're going into the gambling and casino business.

Suck it, Infogrames. You'll lose. #freethellama

Trademark has nothing to do with this case - not sure why you even mention it.

As for this case, where Jeff went wrong IMHO is that he used an identical copy of the Tempest ship in his game. It is very obvious he sought to make a Tempest game in all but name and I have no problem with Atari telling him to knock it off. Whether they've ignored other clones or not doesn't matter.

I know Jeff is a user here and it sucks he had this issue.

 

[Fungi]

Sucks for us too. Being an owner of a Tempest machine, it's easily my favorite Atari title ever. Even though I will never own a Vita, I was hoping that TxK would eventually find its way to other platforms. Guess not.

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

I should also mention that the forums aren't working at Atari's website. What a shame.

http://forums.atari.com/ links instead to a game called "Alone in the Dark." Proceed with caution.

 

[Heretic]

wuick update for andorid users jeff minter has rleased some wip game that came out on ios for free via his website...go go gadget, but thry are pretty fun weird and wacky...someone buy the poor man a curry heh,

a real shame shamtari wont get the hell out of the way

suoer ox wars goatup caverns of minos and five a day

first 3 are pretty great five a days an aqquired taste but fun all the same

if he outs out minotron thatll be a true must have

 

[MontanaFrank]

wuick update for andorid users jeff minter has rleased some wip game that came out on ios for free via his website...go go gadget, but thry are pretty fun weird and wacky...someone buy the poor man a curry heh,

a real shame shamtari wont get the hell out of the way

suoer ox wars goatup caverns of minos and five a day

first 3 are pretty great five a days an aqquired taste but fun all the same

if he outs out minotron thatll be a true must have

Thanks for the update Mr. H. I appreciate it and sure glad life is treating you well.

 

[Baron Rubik]

wuick update for andorid users jeff minter has rleased some wip game that came out on ios for free via his website...go go gadget, but thry are pretty fun weird and wacky...someone buy the poor man a curry heh,

a real shame shamtari wont get the hell out of the way

suoer ox wars goatup caverns of minos and five a day

first 3 are pretty great five a days an aqquired taste but fun all the same

if he outs out minotron thatll be a true must have

Cheers man - on my way there now.

 

[SilverBalls]

I heard about this and already posted some complaints about it elsewhere. Like people have just what are they doing to the Atari name.

I used to buy Jeff's game on my Atari 400, plus some of his later stuff.

By the way Jeff was an active member on this forum for those of you who didn't know. He loves Pinball too.

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

Looks like "Atari" just released a new Alone In The Dark game (which isn't really that...). Maybe the developers of Alan Wake can sue "Atari" and give them a taste of their own medicine

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

Bump. If you haven't bought the TxK Soundtrack from Bandcamp yet, it's still there. Some amazing music in there.

https://txk-ost.bandcamp.com/

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

Any news?

 

[Baron Rubik]

I was messing about with an Android Sinclair ZX81 emulator when I came across this...

https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=C9bybUbxKcU