Games, similarities and plagiarism.

Luny · June 2019

Do you remember back we all discussed out the game Tarantula had bits of Rollercoaster in it?

Well I as doing a bit of a speccy search and stumbled across this picture..

0010029-load-1.scr

And the images reminded me of an old magazine listing, which I think also sold;
worldofspectrum.org/infoseek.cgi

Seems to be no link between the two games.

Luny · June 2019

Luny wrote: »

Do you remember back we all discussed out the game Tarantula had bits of Rollercoaster in it?

Well I was doing a bit of a Speccy search and stumbled across this picture..

And the images reminded me of an old magazine listing, which I think also sold;
worldofspectrum.org/infoseek.cgi

Seems to be no link between the two games.

LevelUp · June 2019

I've always been very suspicious about the similarities between Battle of Britain (1983) and Panzer Attack (1984). Panzer Attack looks to be the same engine, turned 90 degrees. I wonder how similar the code is.

morph · July 2019

Very fond of Balloon Hopper. My first major type-in that worked.

But... Paddy by Dollarsoft is listed as MIA.Where was your image from?

Luny · July 2019

morph wrote: »

Very fond of Balloon Hopper. My first major type-in that worked.

But... Paddy by Dollarsoft is listed as MIA.Where was your image from?

The internet is my friend! :)
I was doing a random spectrum games search to past the time.

dmsmith · August 2019

yeah a couple of the graphics are pretty similiar, the balloon is the same, but it seems pretty minor. How many versions of space invader, under different names has there been? How many pong games?

Luny · August 2019

oh sure, and it is minor but obvious but identical as is the alient. This was the fun of the old days of 8 bit everyone borrowed something somewhere in the very early days. :)

dmsmith · August 2019

LevelUp wrote: »

I've always been very suspicious about the similarities between Battle of Britain (1983) and Panzer Attack (1984). Panzer Attack looks to be the same engine, turned 90 degrees. I wonder how similar the code is.

Failing to see much similiarities from the screen shots in the links.

Using an ABC cross reference system would hardly count as plagarism unless the gameplay is very similiar.

Though I see the cross reference system is identical, but still I don't know that that would count as plagarism, isn't one game about an air battle and the other about tank warfare?

Luny · August 2019

(scratches head), yeah good point!

dmsmith · August 2019

Some original games clearly became styles, like PAC MAN, SPACE INVADERS, BREAKOUT, ASTEROIDS. I don't know if they were copyrighted in that respect. But my guess is that pretty early there was a flood of lookalikes, and company's maybe just didn't bother pursuing it, unless it clearly was a case of complete plagarism.

It is head scratching in a way, because these still were original ideas, but eventually they became game styles.

I am doubting myself now - was there a lawsuit to do with SPACE INVADERS, or am I confused? It may be that because it was such a new phenomenon that the law had not caught up in the early days of Arcade games, and soon there was lookalikes coming out all the time.

dmsmith · August 2019

Luny wrote: »

oh sure, and it is minor but obvious but identical as is the alient. This was the fun of the old days of 8 bit everyone borrowed something somewhere in the very early days. :)

Oh yeah, for sure!! I never had a game released, but I did use the odd sprite and background graphic from published games when testing my own graphics routines. I remember using the sprite from Stainless Steel (the flying car) in my own routines for testing - but not the fully animated version of it. I think I did modify it a bit.
^#(^

dmsmith · August 2019

If developers or publishers had taken every case of a lookalike to the courts games would have been thin on the ground. How many adventure games have a goblins dungeon of some sort, or are set in a underground cave system!! That said it would have forced games designers / developers to come up with genuinely new styles of game, or become very clever in their imitations. But there would only have been a few dozen games available - bit like owning a Vectrex. People don't tend to buy too many of the same sort of game. Top down scrolling shootemups got a bit samey after a while.

Genuinely new styles of game are few and far between.

I am not a legal expert or anything, just my thoughts on it, but there must be copying some particular aspect that counts for plagarism? Obviously I am not talking about remakes. For instance isometric 3D in itself would not count I don't think. But if you had published a game about a sheriff who wanders around a scrolly 3D old west town hunting down four foul fiends....Ultimate might have been thumbing their rolodex.

Luny · August 2019

Also, the very early games most of the companies weren't big enough to be able to pay for courts or probably didn't even care too much.

dmsmith · August 2019

double thingamajig

dmsmith · August 2019

My breaded chicken fillets have just got cremated - must not leave the kitchen when making my tea meal!!!

dmsmith · August 2019

Luny wrote: »

Also, the very early games most of the companies weren't big enough to be able to pay for courts or probably didn't even care too much.

Yeah, I don't think they cared a lot. Then there might have been the thought "what if my idea I am suing for was itself not as original as I thought in some aspect!!"

Its more likely to come to court if someone makes a fortune.

Also copying quite novel ideas like putting on a pantomime horse to move faster.

LevelUp · August 2019

dmsmith wrote: »

LevelUp wrote: »

I've always been very suspicious about the similarities between Battle of Britain (1983) and Panzer Attack (1984). Panzer Attack looks to be the same engine, turned 90 degrees. I wonder how similar the code is.

Failing to see much similiarities from the screen shots in the links.

Using an ABC cross reference system would hardly count as plagarism unless the gameplay is very similiar.

Though I see the cross reference system is identical, but still I don't know that that would count as plagarism, isn't one game about an air battle and the other about tank warfare?

Granted the graphics on Panzer Attack display are more detailed and the scenarios are different but both games use the same game mechanics. You don't even have to play the games to see, just scroll through the onscreen instructions until you find the Key To Commands and Symbols page. They're near identical and this is true of the gameplay as well.

dmsmith · August 2019

The most original arcade game I seen on the Spectrum was Nebulous. At least it put pay to my Fred Dibna Simulator idea!! :))

dmsmith · August 2019

LevelUp wrote: »

dmsmith wrote: »

LevelUp wrote: »

I've always been very suspicious about the similarities between Battle of Britain (1983) and Panzer Attack (1984). Panzer Attack looks to be the same engine, turned 90 degrees. I wonder how similar the code is.

Failing to see much similiarities from the screen shots in the links.

Using an ABC cross reference system would hardly count as plagarism unless the gameplay is very similiar.

Though I see the cross reference system is identical, but still I don't know that that would count as plagarism, isn't one game about an air battle and the other about tank warfare?

Granted the graphics on Panzer Attack display are more detailed and the scenarios are different but both games use the same game mechanics. You don't even have to play the games to see, just scroll through the onscreen instructions until you find the Key To Commands and Symbols page. They're near identical and this is true of the gameplay as well.

Sounds like they used the same or similar game engine as you say, was there any comments in reviews back in the day?

Games, similarities and plagiarism.

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