Legalities of reproducing games

[mandissected]

Hi,

Does anyone known the actual legalities on reproducing a game that was released (and obviously has copyrights) by a company?

I am reproducing the original bomberman and was just wondering if I was actually entitled to release it or not. I've seen reproductions around before (I seem to remember a Zelda one on this forum not too long ago) but I just wanted to check before taking things too far.

Thanks for any help.

[tidenburg]

Its fine aslong as you dont use any of the original graphics or sounds from bomberman or call it bomberman.

[mandissected]

So I make my own game called bomb man rather than produce a bomberman reproduction and give the original company credit?

Seems daft but if that's the way it's got to be that's what I'll do. Everyone will know what it is and I'll put something in the info/credits anyway.

Thanks for the advice.

[renderhjs]

with all those gta3 clones WOF- ripp offs it should be obvious that at least companies with money in mind dont care that much about originality.

Many (of what you would call original) games are at least inspired from others- making a perfect clone is boring anyway

[mandissected]

making a perfect clone is boring anyway

It's good practice though. It's only my 3rd game and I've already learnt a lot of new tricks which gives me the confidence to go on to bigger and better things next time.

[renderhjs]

still I think for personal development it is important to try at least moving little steps yourself- even if those are little changes and hardly noticeable.

[mandissected]

Render - do you regret making the Zelder engine then?

[tonypa]

The game ideas are not copyrighted. The name usually is, and so are graphics, sounds, characters etc. The whole game industry pretty much lives on reusing same old ideas, giving them new name and prettier graphics and selling them over and over again.

[EvilKris]

If borrowing ideas from C64 games was illegal, I don't know where Squize's career would be right now ;-)

[Squize]

lol, I'd be asking if you want fries.

Little quote that's relevant to this thread,

"Sometimes, a publisher makes an unauthorized copy of another publisher's game. This "remake" is called a "clone". Making and publishing a clone is legal if no copyright or patent covers any essential aspect of the game (for example, Tetris), as long as the clone is published under a name that is not confusingly similar. Most clones, however, do not fall under this rule and are illegal."

( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_remake )

I did read the correct definition ages ago, it's something along the lines of not being able to copyright a concept, so if you could prove that the code and graphics were done a 100% from scratch you could get away with it, although again I'd be inclined to double check.
Things have been changing for a long time, old forgotten about IP is now relevant again for both mobile and iTV gaming.
Companies are making money from their back catalogues now, so will be more inclined to stop any of that money flowing away from them.

As to the subject of exact ports or not, I think it's a good thing to do to hone your actionscripting. I did a pretty accurate port of the C64 game Delta way back and I learned so much from that. One thing you do learn is that it's so much effort that you may as well alter it next time you do it so you can sell it rather than it just being cv filler

Squize.

[The Helmsman]

As far as I know, you can use even copyrighted game world ideas w/o any restrictions, as far as your project is not-commercial.

For example today I've read some interesting article on a guy who was former worker of Black Isle Studios (a part of Interplay) which was involved into The Black Hound title development (the original name was Project Jefferson).

Later when Interplay lost all their rights to use original D&D universe, this guy (who is working now in Obsidian Entertainment) announce a reincarnation of Black Hound game as a fan module for NWN 2. I'm talking about a lead designer of NWN 2 game (NWN - Never Winter Nights II).

[renderhjs]

Render - do you regret making the Zelder engine then?

so I tried, see:
http://mitglied.lycos.de/mmvr1/bkp/i...oncept_003.jpg
http://mitglied.lycos.de/mmvr1/bkp/i..._design_01.jpg
http://mitglied.lycos.de/mmvr1/bkp/i..._design_02.jpg
http://mitglied.lycos.de/mmvr1/bkp/i..._design_03.jpg

I also created some custom sprites but they didn´t make it into the release. And from technology I really tried some different attempts- I mean it was not like I was analyzing the snes engine and trying to port it- hope my point is clear now

[cadin]

As far as I know, you can use even copyrighted game world ideas w/o any restrictions, as far as your project is not-commercial.

That's not true, but it is a common misconception.
You need the copyright holder's permission regardless of whether or not it will be commercial.

[The Helmsman]

That's not true, but it is a common misconception.
You need the copyright holder's permission regardless of whether or not it will be commercial.

May be you right. I made a small research on subject and came to conclusion that the project I wrote about and several others I know as a remakes (the original Westwood's Eye of the Beholder remake and Thief - the dark mode project) we can see today because the companies that made original ones no longer exists.
May be someone with appropriate education in legal issues who's reading this forum will confirm it and make things clearer for us? Hope so.

[mandissected]

Thanks for the advice guys, I see there's quite a bit of confusion as to what is actually legal.

I think what I'll do is carry on with my remake and polish off some of my new skills. Once done I'll contact Hudson Soft for their permission for me to put it up on my site as a non-profit piece and a homage to the greatness that was bomberman (I already contacted them with no response but a friend suggested I may have more luck if I waited until I had a game to send them as example).

Also, after a little inspiration from render, I will move on to a new project once the remake is finished (I only plan on making a 5-10 level remake). It will have similarities to bomberman (namely bombs and explosions!) but will add a whole new heap of gameplay to it. I will probably be putting up a request later for a good artist to do the project with me (since my graphics could only be described as average) but as I've seen on here before I will wait until I have an engine and a decent plan of what I want to do.

If you guys have any further advice on the legalities of the original remake or on my future project it would be much appreciated.