28 replies to this topic

[TheRedEye]

See here: http://www.gamasutra..._From_Atari.php

[Curt Vendel]

You beat me to it...

Couldn't discuss until it went public.   I performed an extensive forensic examine of several of the bootleg units and there was conclusive evidence to show that they were illegal, but some of the components, such as the plastics were done utilizing the Fb2 tooling during the FB 2+ run, can't go into heavy details, but some heads are going to roll for this one...



Curt

 TheRedEye, on Wed Jul 6, 2011 5:48 PM, said:

See here: http://www.gamasutra..._From_Atari.php

[Random Terrain]

 Curt Vendel, on Wed Jul 6, 2011 7:46 PM, said:

. . . some heads are going to roll for this one...

I thought most of those heads were in china, so not much could be done about it.

[edweird13]

Sorry you had guys had to waste your time with this.FB Mobile please!!!

[toptenmaterial]

 Random Terrain, on Wed Jul 6, 2011 7:53 PM, said:

 Curt Vendel, on Wed Jul 6, 2011 7:46 PM, said:

. . . some heads are going to roll for this one...

I thought most of those heads were in china, so not much could be done about it.

I was thinking the same thing. Mr. Vendel, are these companies that you guys can seek damages from, or are they Chinese fly-by-nighters?

 edweird13, on Wed Jul 6, 2011 10:27 PM, said:

Sorry you had guys had to waste your time with this.FB Mobile please!!!

Like an iOS app, or a Lynx? A dedicated Lynx would be sweet! Just a dream, but a sweet dream.

Edited by toptenmaterial, Wed Jul 6, 2011 10:43 PM.

[Curt Vendel]

Quite true, the offices in China are difficult to go after, but Tomo has a significant presence in the US in California, plus is has a lot of ongoing business with companies in the US, so that is where it is being targeted by Atari, they may be untouchable in China, but if any product or office exists on US soil, they'll go after all it now and in the future....

[segasaturn]

Finally!!!!!!!!! I hope Atari wins the case.

[nathanallan]

This pirate clone business is weird.

Even if Atari wins it, then what? They are going to go about their merry way, not pushing any FB ideas forward. To me it seems like a hollow victory. Kind of like "yay the other bad guy wins" kind of thing.

If the outcome was to have Leg make FB3's according to their specs, then that would be another thing altogether and a great win. As it is, it's just ... whatever. A Chinese clone maker stops making rip off clones. THAT is the end of the story, with no great reward or opportunity at the end.

[Rex Dart]

nathanallan's got a point.  If all this does is direct more cash to Atari so they can pinch off another Yars' Revenge (the recent one), I'd rather see the pirates win.

Atari's not even making these anymore, are they?

Edited by Rex Dart, Thu Jul 7, 2011 5:57 PM.

[Fixitguy74]

Can anyone tell me how the FB3 that was spotted at E3 fall into all of this? Is it too a pirate clone, or legit Atari?

[horseboy]

 Fixitguy74, on Thu Jul 7, 2011 6:06 PM, said:

Can anyone tell me how the FB3 that was spotted at E3 fall into all of this? Is it too a pirate clone, or legit Atari?

That was a legit Atari product apparently, but it appears to be turning into vaporware.

[toptenmaterial]

@Nathan & Rex: Yes, but I can see how the creator of FB2 is emotionally involved in this. Pirating Mr. Vendel's work must feel to him a bit like plaugerism.

[Random Terrain]

 toptenmaterial, on Thu Jul 7, 2011 6:13 PM, said:

@Nathan & Rex: Yes, but I can see how the creator of FB2 is emotionally involved in this. Pirating Mr. Vendel's work must feel to him a bit like plagiarism.

And if Atari does nothing and this broken rip-off crap ends up selling more than the original, it could kill off any hope of classic-style Atari consoles in the future since a lot of people out there would assume the crap they bought was made by Atari.

If this version of Atari doesn't create more classic-style consoles, the next company that buys the Atari name might, so it's good that they are suing. They should sue as loudly as possible to make sure every person knows that the piece of garbage they bought wasn't made by Atari.

[Curt Vendel]

The thing is, through the FTC and FBI, if a company brings product onto US soil, it can be seized and they lose their money, and inventory... plus if its a firm such a Tomo who also had deals with other companies, what happens is an alert goes out to the Consumer Electronics Association and those companies are blacklisted, and wont get business from Atari, EA, Disney, etc... so they are cut off from the US market completely...

[toptenmaterial]

 Curt Vendel, on Thu Jul 7, 2011 9:00 PM, said:

The thing is, through the FTC and FBI, if a company brings product onto US soil, it can be seized and they lose their money, and inventory... plus if its a firm such a Tomo who also had deals with other companies, what happens is an alert goes out to the Consumer Electronics Association and those companies are blacklisted, and wont get business from Atari, EA, Disney, etc... so they are cut off from the US market completely...

Out of curiousity, were the fake FB2's sold at chain stores or was it these off-shore websitea? Just trying to assess the damage. Thanks.

[svenski]

 toptenmaterial, on Thu Jul 7, 2011 9:20 PM, said:

 Curt Vendel, on Thu Jul 7, 2011 9:00 PM, said:

The thing is, through the FTC and FBI, if a company brings product onto US soil, it can be seized and they lose their money, and inventory... plus if its a firm such a Tomo who also had deals with other companies, what happens is an alert goes out to the Consumer Electronics Association and those companies are blacklisted, and wont get business from Atari, EA, Disney, etc... so they are cut off from the US market completely...

Out of curiousity, were the fake FB2's sold at chain stores or was it these off-shore websitea? Just trying to assess the damage. Thanks.

They were sold at MAJOR US online retailers as well as major conventional retain chains, probably in decent numbers .

[onmode-ky]

 toptenmaterial, on Wed Jul 6, 2011 10:41 PM, said:

I was thinking the same thing. Mr. Vendel, are these companies that you guys can seek damages from, or are they Chinese fly-by-nighters?

 toptenmaterial, on Thu Jul 7, 2011 9:20 PM, said:

Out of curiousity, were the fake FB2's sold at chain stores or was it these off-shore websitea? Just trying to assess the damage. Thanks.

I don't want to sound mean . . . but these questions were answered, in detail, in the Gamasutra news article linked in the original post. . . .

 Curt Vendel, on Thu Jul 7, 2011 9:00 PM, said:

The thing is, through the FTC and FBI, if a company brings product onto US soil, it can be seized and they lose their money, and inventory... plus if its a firm such a Tomo who also had deals with other companies, what happens is an alert goes out to the Consumer Electronics Association and those companies are blacklisted, and wont get business from Atari, EA, Disney, etc... so they are cut off from the US market completely...

Curt, do you foresee Tommo actually getting blacklisted as a likely outcome?  While they should certainly face consequences for their crime, their being blacklisted would be a fairly sizable hit on the video game industry, I think; aren't they a fairly large games distributor in the retail space?  It might be pretty bad for some of the smaller publishers to lose Tommo distribution.  Of course, blacklisting could be the least of their worries if the court case kills them outright.

onmode-ky

[toptenmaterial]

 onmode-ky, on Thu Jul 7, 2011 10:10 PM, said:

 toptenmaterial, on Wed Jul 6, 2011 10:41 PM, said:

I was thinking the same thing. Mr. Vendel, are these companies that you guys can seek damages from, or are they Chinese fly-by-nighters?

 toptenmaterial, on Thu Jul 7, 2011 9:20 PM, said:

Out of curiousity, were the fake FB2's sold at chain stores or was it these off-shore websitea? Just trying to assess the damage. Thanks.

I don't want to sound mean . . .

Then don't.

[AtariLeaf]

 svenski, on Thu Jul 7, 2011 9:33 PM, said:

 toptenmaterial, on Thu Jul 7, 2011 9:20 PM, said:

 Curt Vendel, on Thu Jul 7, 2011 9:00 PM, said:

The thing is, through the FTC and FBI, if a company brings product onto US soil, it can be seized and they lose their money, and inventory... plus if its a firm such a Tomo who also had deals with other companies, what happens is an alert goes out to the Consumer Electronics Association and those companies are blacklisted, and wont get business from Atari, EA, Disney, etc... so they are cut off from the US market completely...

Out of curiousity, were the fake FB2's sold at chain stores or was it these off-shore websitea? Just trying to assess the damage. Thanks.

They were sold at MAJOR US online retailers as well as major conventional retain chains, probably in decent numbers .

I wonder then, if these retailers knew they were selling illegal counterfeits.

[Retro Rogue]

 AtariLeaf, on Fri Jul 8, 2011 5:19 AM, said:

I wonder then, if these retailers knew they were selling illegal counterfeits.

No, Krogers had no clue and were very cooperative.


I'm puzzled by the Woot thing though.  Don't remember anything being on there other than the 2+'s.  Unless the counterfeit 2's showed up in their deals sub site?

Edited by wgungfu, Fri Jul 8, 2011 10:48 AM.

[onmode-ky]

 toptenmaterial, on Fri Jul 8, 2011 4:40 AM, said:

 onmode-ky, on Thu Jul 7, 2011 10:10 PM, said:

I don't want to sound mean . . .

Then don't.

Well, it's good that I didn't say anything mean, then.

 wgungfu, on Fri Jul 8, 2011 10:48 AM, said:

I'm puzzled by the Woot thing though.  Don't remember anything being on there other than the 2+'s.  Unless the counterfeit 2's showed up in their deals sub site?

I was surprised by the Woot allegation, too.  I assumed that Gamasutra's source for that was Legacy, though (through Atari), so if it's not from you, then it could simply be an error arising out of what they assumed, based on Woot's association with Amazon.

onmode-ky

[AtariLeaf]

 wgungfu, on Fri Jul 8, 2011 10:48 AM, said:

 AtariLeaf, on Fri Jul 8, 2011 5:19 AM, said:

I wonder then, if these retailers knew they were selling illegal counterfeits.

No, Krogers had no clue and were very cooperative.


I'm puzzled by the Woot thing though.  Don't remember anything being on there other than the 2+'s.  Unless the counterfeit 2's showed up in their deals sub site?

Glad to know they weren't knowingly selling counterfeits and happy they're co-operating. I look forward to how this all unfolds. Please post updates as it goes, if you're legally allowed of course.

[Retro Rogue]

 onmode-ky, on Fri Jul 8, 2011 8:28 PM, said:

I was surprised by the Woot allegation, too.  I assumed that Gamasutra's source for that was Legacy, though (through Atari), so if it's not from you, then it could simply be an error arising out of what they assumed, based on Woot's association with Amazon.

onmode-ky

No, Atari is doing the lawsuit so the source would be someone through them.  They're also the ones who tracked down the source of the pirate consoles.  As designer of the console, all we did was analyze a few of the seized pirate consoles and provide a report on the differences and such.

[toptenmaterial]

 onmode-ky, on Fri Jul 8, 2011 8:28 PM, said:

 toptenmaterial, on Fri Jul 8, 2011 4:40 AM, said:

 onmode-ky, on Thu Jul 7, 2011 10:10 PM, said:

I don't want to sound mean . . .

Then don't.

Well, it's good that I didn't say anything mean, then.

 wgungfu, on Fri Jul 8, 2011 10:48 AM, said:

I'm puzzled by the Woot thing though.  Don't remember anything being on there other than the 2+'s.  Unless the counterfeit 2's showed up in their deals sub site?

I was surprised by the Woot allegation, too.  I assumed that Gamasutra's source for that was Legacy, though (through Atari), so if it's not from you, then it could simply be an error arising out of what they assumed, based on Woot's association with Amazon.

onmode-ky

I am perfectly entitled to have a no-consequence temper tantrum on AA every now and then.

Interesting article, by the way. The FB2 I used to have had a glitch in Pong where the ball passed through the top of one of the paddles. I wonder now if my FB2 was actually a bootleg?

[BrianC]

 toptenmaterial, on Sat Jul 9, 2011 6:05 PM, said:

Interesting article, by the way. The FB2 I used to have had a glitch in Pong where the ball passed through the top of one of the paddles. I wonder now if my FB2 was actually a bootleg?

No, that's a known issue with genuine FB2s, according to some threads I read here. Most of the China made games on the real FB2 have issues. Some threads mentioned that it was fixed on the FB2+.