Atari's Indie Pong Project...

[Curt Vendel]

When I glanced over this announcement first thing this morning, i thought "Oh, okay this is a nice outreach...."

 

Well, seems the gang at Gamasutra read all of the fine print, I'll let you read for yourselves, but essentially this is the WORST developer bait & switch deal ever.... the developers get royally (and royalty) screwed, loose their rights to their work, even if they don't win and Atari is the only one that walks away the winner in all of this....

 

Read on:

 

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/BrianRobbins/20120228/163180/Why_Ataris_Pong_Indie_Developer_Challenge_is_bad_for_developers.php

 

Curt

[fiddlepaddle]

Ah yes, more attorney-generated muck designed to gum up the world...

[+wood_jl]

**ANY** time I see the current Franco-entity - who is currently masquerading (and I am serious when using that term) as "Atari," I know it is - in all likelihood - slimy BULLSHIT. It's their specialty. They've had FEW products worth even mentioning. The FIRST worth mentioning (IMO) is the Flashback 2. The LAST worth mentioning is Flashback 2+. END.

 

There are but TWO remaining questions:

(1) How many people (ha ha, guffaw) actually take this entity seriously, anymore? :lolblue: :lolblue:

 

(2) How long until they croak, and the Atari intellectual properties go to someone who isn't so "limp and clueless?" Buying **anything** currently branded as "Atari" only prolongs the misery. DIE, already!

[chrisbid]

im not going to argue that the terms arent unfair, and that modern atari isnt a bad company. im not going to argue that this contest isnt bs. all of this is given.

 

 

but modern atari indeed holds the ip for pong, and they can do whatever they see fit with the ip. its not as if programmers are singing away original IPs to atari to enter this contest.

[Arkhan]

I was excited about this, having just wrote a Pong game for the PC Engine.

 

Then, I saw the fine print, read Gamasutra's article, and then was like oh wait, it's Apple only? lolnothanks

 

My idea is sweet, and Atari can't have it.

[Reaperman]

All submission contests are a bit of a ripoff for the contestants, but this one really does take the cake.

 

I was excited about this, having just wrote a Pong game for the PC Engine.

Shhh. You have to say it's a tennis game or or Atari will send nasty letters or make you 'disappear.'

 

This is my least favorite of the Atari name revivals. Maybe if they fail hard enough we can pool our pocket change, buy them, and give Atari a proper burial.

Edited February 29, 2012 by Reaperman

[Arkhan]

I should submit one called Dong.

 

guess what the paddles are.

[chrisbid]

just call it air hockey... ping pong isnt a good reference for the game

[carmel_andrews]

I await with interest to see if ATARI will actually release something original (i.e not relating to the IP's it owned under tramiel, warners, bushnell etc)

 

Their again, perhaps Atari are only interested in making money out of it's prehistoric IP's, after all how many iterations of it's classic IP's have been released since the big A became a software only entity (which was under hasbro if i recall correctly)

[Rybags]

With luck, practically nobody will bother entering and the whole operation will be a loss for Atari.

 

Doing another Pong... what a waste of time anyway, except maybe as a "Hello World" type exercise when learning a new language or platform.

[+HammR25]

This sounds like a standard music recording contract.