bikeguychicago Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 (edited) I get the Parker Brothers had the license to create Star Wars games but how did they obtain the rights to produce a port of the Star Wars arcade game, especially considering that Atari was the one who produced the game in the first place? One would think that Atari would retain exclusivity in this case and use that to their advantage with their consoles. Licensing in general during this time seems baffling. Somehow I don't see Nintendo allowing Sony to produce an exclusive Mario game for PS4. Edited January 30, 2015 by bikeguychicago Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VectorGamer Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 I started a thread about this before. I'm unable to get any results trying to search for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 It *is* interesting who got the rights to produce what back then. Bally games often going to CBS, Atari secured some Nintendo titles, where Parker Bros. secured others, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+FujiSkunk Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 Kenner originally had a deal to make Star Wars toys. Parker Brothers then bought Kenner. During the Atari 2600's heyday, video games were still largely perceived as toys, and usually sold in the toy aisle. Parker Brothers decided to creatively interpret their Star Wars toy license to include home video games as well. No one contested them. Atari then got permission to make the arcade game. With Parker Brothers claiming domain over all home ports, even those for Atari's own systems, any home port of that arcade game would have to go through Parker Brothers. So, the choice was, either Parker Brothers can release the home port, or the game goes unreleased. Atari chose the former. That's how some sources have the story, anyway. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bikeguychicago Posted January 30, 2015 Author Share Posted January 30, 2015 So Atari had to get a license from Kenner/Parker to make the arcade game first? Weird. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
high voltage Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 Kenner originally had a deal to make Star Wars toys. Parker Brothers then bought Kenner. During the Atari 2600's heyday, video games were still largely perceived as toys, and usually sold in the toy aisle. Parker Brothers decided to creatively interpret their Star Wars toy license to include home video games as well. No one contested them. Also, Kenner did the first official licensed Star Wars video game: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Tarzilla Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 So Atari had to get a license from Kenner/Parker to make the arcade game first? Weird. No, Atari's Coin Op division had the Arcade licence because that wasn't covered under the "All Toys" license that Parker had. , Also, Atari Coin Op and Atari Home were different divisions. I'm fuzzy on the timelines (get this book: http://ataribook.com/book/ ) but Atari Coin and Home where very independent entities. Given the amount of money the Star Wars merchandise was making, I'm sure Parker just went to Atari's Coin Op division and got a license from them to port and to release the home version. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nebulon Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 So Atari had to get a license from Kenner/Parker to make the arcade game first? Weird. I think what he's saying is that Parker Brothers got the rights to do a home port of the arcade game. As for the coin-op, I'm quite sure the arcade game was a deal directly between Atari and Lucasfilm. At the time arcade and home games were generally two totally separate beasts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torr Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 There were lots of weird combinations or creator/publisher/distributer/etc... Like Frogger... A Konami game, distributed by Sega, then published on the Atari consoles, by Parker Bros. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 There were lots of weird combinations or creator/publisher/distributer/etc... Like Frogger... A Konami game, distributed by Sega, then published on the Atari consoles, by Parker Bros. But Frogger gets even weirder than that - Parker Bros. had the right to make cartridges, but Starpath was able to license and make their own version because it was on cassette tape. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
high voltage Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 And Sierra the disc versions for computers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sloth-machine Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 Like everyone mentioned, Parker Bros went to Atari to port the game, Atari sold them the license. It's a great port too, programmed by a notable developer (an former Atari & Imagic employee) Bob Smith. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRV Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 Another twist: The 2600 and ColecoVision versions of Star Wars were developed by Imagic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gilsaluki Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 Dis is pretty kweeeewllll. Arnold S. (former Gov. of Cal-le-forn-nia) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyHW Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg2600 Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 Kenner originally had a deal to make Star Wars toys. Parker Brothers then bought Kenner. During the Atari 2600's heyday, video games were still largely perceived as toys, and usually sold in the toy aisle. Parker Brothers decided to creatively interpret their Star Wars toy license to include home video games as well. No one contested them. Atari then got permission to make the arcade game. With Parker Brothers claiming domain over all home ports, even those for Atari's own systems, any home port of that arcade game would have to go through Parker Brothers. So, the choice was, either Parker Brothers can release the home port, or the game goes unreleased. Atari chose the former. That's how some sources have the story, anyway. Parker didn't buy Kenner, both were bought years earlier by General Mills. I believe they operated more or less separately, with Kenner doing toys like action figures and PB's doing board games. Another twist: The 2600 and ColecoVision versions of Star Wars were developed by Imagic. They were not (Bob Smith and Wendell Brown did them). The Atari 5200 version WAS developed by Imagic! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapetino Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Impressive. Most impressive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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