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

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".

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:)