What are the rules about producing protos?

[Cassidy Nolen]

Hi all,

 

I will have a burner in my hands by the middle of next week and I can't wait. I have spent the last year of my life dedicated to owning one of every CX number from 01 Combat through 100 (of course, there is not a 100, so 99). I am now at the point where I am going to make the protos into carts for myself. I have the scans of the labels, I have donor cases, and soon will have hardware to make the EPROMS. Here is my question.

 

If I make these up, I have a set. Can I sell copies of the protos? I am sure I would have to get permission from someone and pay royalties. It would be obvious on the cover that these are not originals (I would add that to the label) so there is not a threat of them being passed off as originals, but I know there are some people who would be interested in having a "complete" collection (thats why I am doing it). The ones I want to make are

 

RealSports Basketball

Tempest

Frog Pond

Xevious

Dukes of Hazzard

 

 

Not trying to get rich, just have resources others may not have access to. I appreciate your thoughts.

 

Cassidy

[King Asmo]

Doesn't Hozer sell copies of these prototypes?

 

KA

[Alex]

If you get permission from the copyright owners, there is no reason why you can't do this. Hozer, Best Electronics, and CGE already do this without getting permission and nothing has happened so far. Indicating that they are copies on the label would be very nice, as that has caused confusion in the past, and not doing so would probably anger some people. Personally, I would want to get permission if I was actually selling something at a profit. I'm very curious to hear the reactions of the companies you approach (amused? surprised? greedy?). Best of luck.

[Atari-Jess]

what about the CX-26100 to CX-26199 games? (not all of them being around of course but still)

[Cassidy Nolen]

quote

what about the CX-26100 to CX-26199 games? (not all of them being around of course but still)  

 

Honestly, I just needed a limit on what to get. There is soo much out there for 26K, I needed a reasonable goal. Next is boxed Activision carts, then who knows what....

 

Cassidy

 

BTW,

 

Any way of knowing who holds the rights to those games? Where can I go to find out?

TIA

[jahfish]

there's a german expression saying "don't wake up sleeping dogs".

 

maybe it's better not to contact those companies .... contact the programmers, they are the only ones who deserve a royalty and it's surely easier than to find the right person in a big company.

[Osmeroid]

Hi Cassidy, you appear to be in the same quandry as myself. As for the boxed protos of Activision games, I do not think that you will have much of a problem (Kabobber & Thwocker). The guy who designed the labels for these games has his own web site full of cart labels. Apparently he has sent his work to Activision who have in turn given their blessing to them (See the cart labels for these games in Atari Age).

 

I think that as long as the words "Unreleased Prototype" appear on the cart label, not too many get tetchy. As for games produced as tie-ins, (such as Garfield, Star Wars etc.), I would not like to say.

 

I have been working on the box design (that works OK, for Atari/Activision carts) but I still do not have ideal conditions for the authentic print quality of boxes and manuals.

I have asked a friend of mine (worked in a print shop for 3 years) if he could help.

 

If this is the sort of stuff you are interested in creating, I will let you know asap. I wish to make "authentic" looking boxed games (with manuals) for several protos.#

 

Keep up the good work, I would like to see the label/box artwork and manual for games like Frog Pond & Dukes of Hazzard (the latter one I thought might look good with a black hatch design on a white background, something like Snoopy). I for one would love to own a few complete protos.

[Albert]

quote:

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Originally posted by osmeroid:

Hi Cassidy, you appear to be in the same quandry as myself. As for the boxed protos of Activision games, I do not think that you will have much of a problem (Kabobber & Thwocker). The guy who designed the labels for these games has his own web site full of cart labels. Apparently he has sent his work to Activision who have in turn given their blessing to them (See the cart labels for these games in Atari Age).

---

 

I wouldn't be so sure of this. Of all the companies out there, Activision is one of the few that's aware of what properties they have and are actively attempting to make money from them. We know they're working on a project for the PS2 that will involve many Activision games, including prototypes that were never commercially released. I'd say the odds of them taking notice of someone releasing a boxed Activision game are pretty high, although I don't know what stance they'd take. They might just let it slide if it's a small effort where only a few copies are produced. Not sure what would happen if someone tried to go the CGE route and produce 250 copies of a game like Kabobber or Thwocker. I don't think it's something I'd want to chance.

 

..Al