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Nintendo Patents Insanity
theodp writes "Nintendo scored a patent Tuesday for a Sanity system for video game, which covers causing a game character to hallucinate - e.g., see bleeding walls and hear maniacal laughter - as its sanity decreases in response to encountering a creature or gruesome situation."
I wonder of the writers/copyright holders of Call of Cthulhu would say to that.
morcego
Anyone played Doom while on LSD?
--LWM
Filed: December 14, 2000
PCT Filed: December 14, 2000
PCT NO: PCT/US00/33717
371 Date: September 3, 2002
102(e) Date: September 3, 2002
PCT PUB.NO.: WO01/62359
PCT PUB. Date: August 30, 2001
This is not a dream, not a dream...we are transmitting from the year 1-9-9-9.
Rogue/ Nethack had this 20 YEARS ago, albeit in ASCII.
From TFA:
Filed: December 14, 2000
- "Nobody came out that night, not one was ever seen. But Old Man Stauf is waiting there, crazy sick and mean!"
The only game I can recall with a decent sanity system was Eternal Darkness for the gamecube. I'm sure there were others, but that was the only one that left an impression on me.
The Silent Hill games have an insanity system, but it's less related to the characters and more related to the world.
In theory, the new Cthulhu game has a sanity system, which may count as prior art, and that brings up an interesting idea. Does a system that has been developed but not yet released count as prior art?
I'm just hopeful that this leads to some new games exploring insanity.
You can't fool me....there ain't no Sanity Clause...
That's insane.
Seriously, how can this type of patent not get laughed out of the office?
Agreed.
It's patently insane.
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
Prior Art
Quaff what? [elr or *] r
Wow! Everything seems so cosmic now!
You hear the quarterback calling the play.
You hear Nieman and Marcus arguing.
You hear Doctor Doolittle!
You hear bees in your (nonexistant) bonnet!
The Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal bites!
You hit the samurai rabbit.
The Christmas-tree monster bites!
Open what? [fGi or *] f
The Barney the Dinosaur bites!
The Totoro bites!
The rodent of unusual size bites!
The tin contains sauteed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Eat? [yn] y
You consume sauteed cockatrice.
You die...
Do you want your posessions identified? [yn]
Rock Us, Dukakis.
Cthulhu fhtagn, Cthulhu fhtagn! Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!
OK, unleashing the Old Ones to devour your competitors is a little unscrupulous, but at least it's not unleashing lawyers.
(And yeah, there's some prior art in Angband and other roguelikes, but I think it's more binary (off/on) than progressive in effect. There might be some substance to the patent.)
//Information does not want to be free; it wants to breed.