Atari 2600 Lord of the Rings Discovered

TheAlchemist writes "Eighteen years ago a Lord of the Rings game appeared in a Parker Brothers catalog for the Atari 2600. Unfortunately, the game was never released, along with several other titles that appeared alongside it. Just in time for the first Lord of the Rings movie release next week, AtariAge.com has discovered a long lost prototype of this game, probably one of the most sought after 2600 vaporware titles. You can look at screenshots, a picture of the prototype box, the prototype cartridge, and download the binary image that you can then run in one of several Atari 2600 emulators. More information about the game can be gleaned here."

Comments

Why?

[Jobe_br]

I am curious as to why this game wasn't released. Why did it remain vaporware? Its interesting, though, that apparently the binary image can be posted w/o fear of copyright infringement. Are all 2600 games 'free' now? I recall that for SNES games and the like the ROMs are still considered warez or bootlegged.

At what age does a game enter the public domain? If it was never released, is it automagically in the public domain if you can get your hands on it? I'll have to wait a few hours!

I haven't personally checked out this site, though I'd like to, apparently its already suffered the ill effects of /., too bad.

Re:Why?

[OmegaDan]

In the world of atari the development costs were almost 0, so the only real risk was manufacturing cartridges that wouldn't sell -- thus it was somewhat common for games to be made but unreleased.

From what I know, usually 1 person was contracted to write the game, usually for a few thousand dollars ... Remember there was no art to be done, no music to be written ... just 4k of code :)

There was also lots of money to be made for a good game. Rick Mauer, was paid 11,000$ to make Space Invaders for the 2600. The game grossed over 100 million dollars! (source: despair 2000 calander:)

Another site

[the_radix]

This is another site with a screenshot and box cover (and is not /.ed yet).

Sonny Bono says it's still illegal

[yerricde]

Its interesting, though, that apparently the binary image can be posted w/o fear of copyright infringement.

Wrong. Much abandonware falls under the "no suitor, no judge" rule. For example, it's OK to distribute the "Zero Wing" ROM because Toaplan, its publisher, no longer exists and therefore can't sue. However, in this case, both Hasbro (Parker Bros parent) and Tolkien's estate (licensor of LotR franchise) still exist and still maintain legal departments.

Are all 2600 games 'free' now?

Copyright on corporate-authored works lasts ninety-five years plus the rest of the calendar year. Blame Sonny Bono and Di$ney for such a counterproductively long copyprivilege term.

I recall that for SNES games and the like the ROMs are still considered warez or bootlegged.

You're probably thinking of mask work copyright, which Nintendo claims prohibits even fair-use backups of software that happens to be stored on a semiconductor ROM chip. (A careful reading may show that it prohibits only burning the data back onto a ROM chip; however, this depends on how the courts interpret "reproduction" of a mask work and whether or not ROM is a "commonplace design" that goes unprotected.) Such copyright lasts only ten years plus December 31.

Re:Sonny Bono says it's still illegal

[cperciva]

Much abandonware falls under the "no suitor, no judge" rule.

I believe the phrase you're looking for is "Ubi non accusator, ibi non judex". Which translates roughly as "where there is no policeman, there is no speed limit".

No suitor, no judge, realistic?

[swb]

The rule makes sense, but how many gaming companies truly stopped business, settled their debts with cash or assets other than their intellectual property?

It seems to me that the most common scenario would involve a company going bust and their most valuable asset, their intellectual property, being sold off to debtors. Second most common would be the company getting bought out, including IP, by some other company.

The least likely event is that the company just gave up and stopped. Even in that case, there was somebody who can claim ownership of the company's assets.

It would seem to me that there would *always* be someone who owned the IP, although it might not be the original company. Awareness of ownership and desire to enforce copyright are probably in question, but ownership?

Re:atari emulator

[CoolVibe]

Better yet, try Stella which emulates it for your platforms (dos/w32) _and_ all the others...

Other LOTR games: 1979 to 2000

[mccalli]

Go here for a look.

The first Tolkien game I played would be The Hobbit. The next? Shadowfax, on the Spectrum. Great animation for its day.

Cheers,

Ian

Re:Blown away, already? We need a local cache!!!

[drinkypoo]

"I could try asking permission, but do you want to wait 6 hours for a cool breaking story while we wait for permission to link someone?"

Let's see, do I want to wait six hours for a story, or do I want the site to be down so I cannot actually get the details of the story? Hmm, this sure is a hard decision!

Re:A faithful rendition of the book.

[andkaha]

But, the book itself was monochrome, and its primary interface was text-- not even color text at that.

Ah, you didn't buy the one with the cognital interface? The version of the books that I read had a very nice interface which enabled me to somehow view the scenes from the book within my head while reading it.

I was quite amazed and I still haven't figured out how they did it...