Latter Days of the VCS

[tz101]

How did Atari gain rights to re-publish all the Coleco and Parker Bros. games in the later days of the VCS? Games like Donkey Kong, Q*bert, Venture and so on.

 

Coleco was defunct so how would they have been granted legal permission?

[Rybags]

Nintendo dealt out rights to DK, and IIRC Coleco only had them for their own console. Atari had them around the same time for their 8-bit computer at the very least and also did versions for others like C64.

In all likelihood such rights would have been permanent for any given platform.

 

Did Atari ever release a Q-Bert? I thought that was Parker Brothers.

[fiddlepaddle]

Atari may have manufactured the cartridges for the actual license holder or sub-licensed the games at that time to ensure a large selection of games for the aging console. Just a guess.

[+FujiSkunk]

The original licenses may not have had an expiration date, or any sort of clause restricting transfers. Legalese was a much simpler language back then.

 

If so, then once Atari acquired Coleco's and Parker Bros.' assets related to the 2600, it would have been within their rights to republish those games.

[Atarian7]

Nintendo dealt out rights to DK, and IIRC Coleco only had them for their own console. Atari had them around the same time for their 8-bit computer at the very least and also did versions for others like C64.

In all likelihood such rights would have been permanent for any given platform.

 

Did Atari ever release a Q-Bert? I thought that was Parker Brothers.

 

 

Atari released a q*bert. It's a red label cartridge.

[Tempest]

Frogger and Turbo were the two Atari never released.

 

Tempest

[chrisbid]

there had to be some sort of deal with atari and nintendo. how else could atari get the rights to publish dk, dk jr and mario bros on the 7800?

[+FujiSkunk]

there had to be some sort of deal with atari and nintendo. how else could atari get the rights to publish dk, dk jr and mario bros on the 7800?

 

Again, it may be due to the old license they acquired from Coleco. Coleco's original license allowed them to publish Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Junior on multiple video game consoles, not just the Atari 2600. If the license did not have an expiration date, did not have a limitation on transfers, and did not give a specific list of what video game consoles were covered, then Atari's purchase of the license would have given them the ability to produce those games for the 7800.

 

Atari's original license for Mario Bros. may have worked the same way, except in that case no transfer of the license would have been necessary (unless you count the move from Atari Inc. to Atari Corp.).

Edited July 9, 2010 by FujiSkunk