Rudy

I've searched for this case in the Northern District of Illinois where it was reported by contemporary newspaper articles to be filed. I searched under the names of the companies ("Atari" and "Coleco") in that district, and under the two Atari patents claimed to be violated. No order came up. But I'm not finished; I can use the patent numbers to see if anyone put the complaint online, which could be useful to tell us a lot about what happened in the case. And why do people think that Coleco won the case when the information I'm getting is that the case settled? I'm not done with this yet. I searched in the 7th circuit also, nothing. I found plenty of Atari cases, none against Coleco. Could the court order everyone is talking about be vapor?

Unrelated, but fascinating reading. Video games are apparently older than I thought: http://ipmall.info/hosted_resources/Activision_Litigation_Documents/09-12-84_to_12-06-84/Pretrial_Statement_Disputed_Issues_13Dec84.pdf

From http://mcurrent.name/atarihistory/wci_games.html December 8, 1982: Atari announced that it had filed suit in U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division against Coleco Industries, charging patent infringement and unfair competition under State and Federal law. Atari's lawsuit sought a preliminary and permanent injunction against the manufacture and sale of Coleco's Expansion Module No. 1 which was intended to allow Atari's VCS compatible cartridges to be played on the Colecovision home video game unit. Atari claimed that the Coleco cartridge adapter infringed two basic video game patents held by Atari--U.S. Patent No. 4,112,422 covering motion objects commonly referred to as players, missiles or sprites and U.S. Patent No. 4,314,236 relating to digital generation of sound and noise especially suitable to video games. Coleco said it would file a counterclaim charging violations of antitrust law by Atari. March 11, 1983: Atari Inc. and Coleco Industries announced they had settled their December 1982 lawsuits against each other. Under their settlement, the companies said Coleco could continue making and selling its ColecoVision Expansion Module No. 1 and also could ship its planned Atari 2600-compatible Gemini Video Game System. However, Coleco would do so as a licensee of Atari's patents, and would pay a royalty to Atari. This is probably why there was no order I could find. The case settled without being decided. But everyone I found commenting on this said there was a court order giving Coleco a decisive victory because it was possible to build a VCS with off the shelf parts and therefore there were no patents violated. Odd. Here's one of the Atari patents: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POKEY

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=19821209&id=r4JIAAAAIBAJ&sjid=nG0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=1542,2674102 http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2002&dat=19821208&id=AVkvAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9toFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5395,2081066

I'm trying to find this but if there was no appeal there may be no order to find. All I know so far is its northern district of Illinois.

I really want to find the 1980s case that allowed Coleco to create and sell clone VCSs.

Thanks I should have put this in batari. Sorry for the mistake.

I'm trying to learn batari so I thought a good first step was to look at other people's code. I have a background in basic but I was unfamiliar with some of the commands and other operators. So I decided to comment the code where I didn't understand what was going on I was looking at so I'd learn what it meant. I was able to do this by net searches; I did have to go on wikipedia to see what boolean was because I'd forgotten. I just wanted to offer this as an idea of how to learn code and maybe other people can benefit from it also.

I looked through the forum and found a lot of code. I'll see if any of it is helpful. Thanks again.

Ok thanks, I'll check that out. I'm nervous about downloading files with unfamiliar extensions anyway since I'm concerned about messing up the computer.

I think I looked at that page before I posted this thread and its good information but I really want to see a whole game and get an idea of how everything works and so far I haven't found that in bb but apparently assembly has it. Of course if (when?) that doesn't work I can give bb a try but I am not sure how I can do this without seeing complete disassembled code.

I'm thinking about switching to assembly since all the examples of disassembled games I've found are in assembly, not batari.

I figured out that the code I saw on this site was assembly language code, not batari, but I haven't found a complete code for a program in batari yet, hopefully commented. I guess I'll have to keep looking.

Thanks I'm going to try batari first since I have a background in basic.

I'm very new to programming for the Atari 2600, and over the last few days I've been researching how to code (very preliminarily) and what idea I should try to put forth for some example code that wouldn't be a finished game, but to which more details could be added later to make a completed game. I have the idea, the reason I'm posting is if anyone knows some good resources to get the coding done, I'd appreciate it. I already saw some example code that was commented and wasn't a complete game that looks helpful, but I'm not sure if it's batari code. Thanks!

Keep in mind some systems (like CV) go blank a few seconds after the game is over so be sure to take your picture quickly. I think this was to prevent tube damage from the same image being on the screen a long time. If you digitize your pictures you can even post them online.

I have the same problem you have. I think the best solution is to photograph the screen with the high score and pin it to an oakboard. When the score is superseded, replace with the updated picture. The photo provides instant veracity of the score.

I'd love to learn how to do this, I know a little basic and it could be a great way to contribute and to learn. I even had some ideas for games today but they're somewhat autobiographical.

I set the difficulty to easy and managed to beat Superman in 11:55. I won't go into all the details unless someone asks since I don't want to ruin the game. It was actually a fun superman adventure I just don't see exactly how things happened in the game also I don't see how the game is possible at the high difficulty because its very hard to avoid the kryptonite and it takes forever to find lois. I think the game's best feature is the beautiful backgrounds with the almost eerie buildings, but flying through screen after screen of them looking for lois is too much to take. I know the answer is not to get hit by the kryptonite. Maybe I'll get better.

I read the superman instructions I still don't understand how to make the bridge. And in e.t. they steal the phone so often I don't see how the game is possible especially since you can't even use the phone unless you find the special spot to stand on in the whole game.

I only have 13 or so atari 2600 games but I am finding superman and e.t. Very difficult to the point I'm seriously wondering whether beating them is worth the effort.

Thought some of you would like to see this. I haven't watched the whole thing yet but intend to.