Zaxxon - the legal backstory....

[kiwilove]

I can't remember if this was mentioned in any thread here in this forum - or not?

 

For those interested in what went on behind the scenes - as far as the rights for the home version goes... here it is in great detail.

 

Do a google search on:

 

zaxxon Lawyers on Trial: Understanding Ethical Misconduct

 

And this will take you to the above book - and pages from it. This only deals with the legal rights to it as such - and does not cover anything technical.

 

It really goes into too much detail and length - I would appreciate it, if someone could maybe write a summary of it - and post it here.

 

I haven't got a proper URL for it...

https://books.google.co.nz/books?id=Uu1MAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA233&dq=zaxxon+Lawyers+on+Trial:+Understanding+Ethical+Misconduct&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwisqsWb89LRAhULj5QKHSiXAaQQ6AEIGjAA#v=onepage&q=zaxxon%20Lawyers%20on%20Trial%3A%20Understanding%20Ethical%20Misconduct&f=false

 

This URL starts too early - so if you use this - go to around page 232.

 

The story about Zaxxon itself - is that Sega did not actually develop/design this game at all - but got another company to work on it?

I think Future Spy is suppose to use the same kind of graphics viewpoint... but I haven't looked into it to see if it looks like it's tied to the Zaxxon game in any way?

 

Harvey

[+Psionic]

It really goes into too much detail and length - I would appreciate it, if someone could maybe write a summary of it - and post it here.

I'll do my best, but first a bit of background on the American wing of Sega that's relevant to the chapter in this book. Even though Sega had some early success in the arcade market, their entry into the home market in North America was somewhat delayed. Initially, Sega licensed a few of their hit coin-ops (Carnival, Space Fury, Turbo, Zaxxon et al) to Coleco, who developed and sold home versions of these games not only on the ColecoVision but the Atari 2600 and Intellivision as well.

 

In early to mid 1982, Sega made the decision to form a consumer division that would develop and publish games for home consoles and computers in North America. They went on to hire nine programmers to work on ports of Sega arcade games for the Atari, Apple, and Commodore machines. This group of programmers worked at the same facility in San Diego where their peers in coin-op also worked, although they were kept separated - they were housed in a separate room and had their own software manager. Due to the volume of work in doing conversions for the various gaming machines of the day, Sega also hired several subcontractors (including Beck-Tech, McT and Syndein Systems) to work on these ports. This was not an unusual practice at that time.

 

It was also not an unusual practice at that time for the rights to a certain game, regardless of developer, to be held by different publishers on different formats (i.e. cartridge vs. magnetic media). This is where the book chapter you linked to becomes relevant. Apparently, when Sega initially made the decision to enter the consumer market they only intended to publish games on cartridge format, not believing that the magnetic media market (disk and tape) was something they wanted to pursue.

 

Sensing an opportunity there, a member of Sega's legal department named Robert Crane, who was in charge of licensing opportunities, formed a shell corporation called Universal Licensing with the intention of approaching Sega and offering to market a disk version of Zaxxon for the Commodore 64 through a licensing agreement. He then used his legal influence at Sega to negotiate a contract with Universal for the Zaxxon rights, without disclosing to anyone at Sega that he in fact was Universal (running the bogus company using the alias "Steve Kness"). He also didn't disclose that Universal had neither the cash to pay the $10,000 licensing fee, nor the ability to produce or distribute the intended product. But he had a plan...

 

To get around this problem, Crane used his legal powers at Sega to amend the agreement between Sega and Universal, granting Universal the ability to sublicense Zaxxon. Acting as Universal, he then sold the Zaxxon rights to Synapse Software for $50,000, using a portion of that money paid to Universal by Synapse to pay the $10,000 fee for the initial licensing agreement made between Sega and Universal. He then helped Synapse obtain programming info from Sega so they could develop the Zaxxon port. Basically, he "robbed Peter to pay Paul". He made money without having to invest any of his own, and without having to actually produce a product. But he didn't stop there...

 

After learning that another company would have paid twice as much for the Zaxxon rights as Synapse had, Crane again used his legal authority at Sega to further alter the agreement between Sega and Universal, this time amending it to include Super Zaxxon as well. He did this even though Sega had deliberately denied a request to include Super Zaxxon in the original license, and despite the fact that as a lawyer for Sega he had previously prepared the copyright registration for the two games showing Super Zaxxon to be a derivative work of Zaxxon. Universal then sold the Super Zaxxon disk rights to HesWare, although both Sega and Synapse objected to this blatant "double-dipping" on the Zaxxon license for obvious reasons.

 

The rest of the chapter basically explains all the legal problems that resulted from Crane's blatantly unethical actions as Sega's counsel, which ended up getting him canned. I often wondered why the disk versions of Zaxxon and Super Zaxxon for the Commodore 64 were developed and sold by two different companies...now I know why. That was an interesting read, thank you for posting it.

 

The story about Zaxxon itself - is that Sega did not actually develop/design this game at all - but got another company to work on it?

I think Future Spy is suppose to use the same kind of graphics viewpoint... but I haven't looked into it to see if it looks like it's tied to the Zaxxon game in any way?

Actually yes, Zaxxon and several other coin-ops based on the same hardware (including Future Spy) are believed to have been designed and engineered by a Japanese company called Ikegami Tsushinki, although the true extent of their involvement is not known, and that's not what's being discussed here. The scam summarized above only involved certain home versions of Zaxxon.

[kiwilove]

Thanks for writing that excellent summary and providing some more details about the overall home conversions.

 

With the C-64 there's actually 2 versions of Zaxxon that was made - the Synapse one, most know of - but there's another - that wasn't as successful with it's conversion - but may stand alongside the Atari version as regards to it's quality? But probably rated a bit lower than that. I saw a video of it, on Youtube.

 

For the C-64 there is a Zaxxon inspired game - Leviathan - but it doesn't look as interesting with it's landscape.

 

Space Raid for the 2600 was a homebrew attempt at Zaxxon - but the hardware doesn't lend itself towards a successful conversion.

 

Harvey

[+Psionic]

With the C-64 there's actually 2 versions of Zaxxon that was made - the Synapse one, most know of - but there's another - that wasn't as successful with it's conversion - but may stand alongside the Atari version as regards to it's quality? But probably rated a bit lower than that. I saw a video of it, on Youtube.

The Synapse version was released on disk (and possibly tape) here in the States, and Sega of course commissioned another version that they published themselves on cartridge. That version (which was probably developed by McT) has nice graphics but slow, clunky gameplay. You can view comparative screenshots of the two versions here.

 

I imagine that one (or both) of these versions was released overseas on disk and tape by U.S. Gold. I also imagine that the cartridge by Sega could possibly be found in shops that carried imports and such, although it's quite rare. I'm not aware of any other official releases although I'm sure there were bootlegs and rip-offs.

 

For the C-64 there is a Zaxxon inspired game - Leviathan - but it doesn't look as interesting with it's landscape.

There was no shortage of games inspired by Zaxxon to one degree or another. Look at Blue Max for one.

 

Space Raid for the 2600 was a homebrew attempt at Zaxxon - but the hardware doesn't lend itself towards a successful conversion.

Maybe not, but it certainly proved that a much better version was possible than the first effort for the 2600 by Coleco. Oddly enough, I still don't know who developed that original port (or the similar Intellivision conversion).

[Mclaneinc]

Wow, great back story, the world of dodgy dealing knows no bounds..

 

Zaxxon on the Atari was ok but it was never a favourite of mine even in the arcade, fair play to the Atari port, it looked ok but its played sort of 'meh' and felt ponderous. The only Zaxxon inspired game I did like was Viewpoint on the Neo Geo, loved that, think it was called 'heavy metal zaxxon' as a side name, could be wrong there.

 

Leviathon on the c64 was a decent bash but just didn't cut it for me....As said, there's so many Zaxxon inspired games, some feel ok, many don't...I guess its the isometric thing, some love it, some are not so keen on it, the nearest I got to liking it was Fairlight on the C64 (music was great) and Cadaver on the Amiga but that was more for the graphics which from memory looked like or were by the graphics team behind the Bitmap Brothers..

[+H.E.R.O.]

Zaxxon on the C64 in the USA, if my old 80's gaming mags are telling the truth, was done and/or published by a company called Datasoft.

 

[Mclaneinc]

Yes, but it was licensed to multiple devs..Hence the hooo haaa

[Bryan]

Zaxxon was popular mostly because it looked cool. That isometric 3D hadn't been done before but it really made for a confusing experience where your main enemy was the vague perspective. With practice, you could mostly learn where you needed to be, though.

[Mclaneinc]

Yes, saw a similar thing on a Snes game called Air Strike Patrol (ASP) but the devs added a sprite / shadow on the floor so it gave you an indication of where you were because without it you flew without a clue where you were shooting.

Edited February 27, 2017 by Mclaneinc

[+FujiSkunk]

Zaxxon on the C64 in the USA, if my old 80's gaming mags are telling the truth, was done and/or published by a company called Datasoft.

 

Datasoft published the Atari 8-bit and Apple II disk versions of Zaxxon. Synapse published the C-64 disk version. There's a picture of a Datasoft catalog here which shows no entry for Zaxxon on the Commodore.

 

Also, interesting read on the lawyer shenanigans. I rank that up there with Universal's (the movie studio, not the shell software company) attempts to bully Nintendo and Coleco into paying up for Donkey Kong, after they themselves got out of a similar lawsuit by successfully arguing King Kong is in the public domain. Thanks for sharing!

[jhd]

This is really great!

 

I love reading about the various legal entanglements that the video game industry went through in the 1980s.

 

There is so very little formal, archival documentation publicly available that lawsuits (and the associated records) are an important research source, and they provide a glimpse into the inner-workings of these companies.

[ijor]

When you read something like that, you can't help and think: Was that lawyer really that unethical and that stupid at the same time? Or this is just one side of the story?

[R.Cade]

Ah, Ikegami- I remember reading about them. They originally wrote Donkey Kong for Nintendo (Yes, Miyamoto was not a programmer) and their logo is hidden in the code. When Nintendo modded the board and code and made Donkey Kong Jr., Ikegami sued, and eventually won- although that took many many years.

 

They continued to build games for other companies, including Congo Bongo, Zaxxon, etc.

 

http://gdri.smspower.org/wiki/index.php/Company:Ikegami_Tsushinki

Edited February 28, 2017 by R.Cade

[kiwilove]

Like other iconic games - Zaxxon would either impress you or not? Anyone graphics orientated would have been wowed by how original it was back in it's day - and how it's designs worked so well.

I do aim to have a go at trying to at least do what was done in the Synapse C-64 version to the Atari - or some manner of coin-op likeness - to see how it might have looked like? That is - as regards the graphics designs - to see if anything good can be done? I don't have anyone interested in doing the programming yet - but maybe if I can get some reasonable graphics working - some one might take interest to take it further? I don't think the programming would be easy to do - but possibly the way to do it, would be something like what was done in Atariblast!? To make use of animated characters (to have some added animation present) - and a rear screen as such?

Zaxxon really impressed me a great deal back in it's day - that I like to see a really nice looking version on the Atari 8-bit hardware. Even though I'd imagine I'm only going to try for a demo - if I can get that far with it? I might just end up with something crap looking - that's not worthy of showing publicly - and I'm in no hurry to get it completed by any date...

 

I was disappointed with the Atari versions of Zaxxon and Super Zaxxon and think something better could be done? It is of course - simply too hard to get it looking very close to the arcade hardware - as the hardware differences are so very different. It's certainly not an easy game to convert over - but I'll guess something can be done - that could have the Wow factor to it?

 

A game that comes to mind - making use of the Zaxxon viewpoint - is maybe Desert Strike on the MegaDrive/Genesis and Super NES - in which an attack helicopter is made use of. I don't have any desire to work on a Desert Strike like game as Zaxxon has better elements working in it's game.

 

Blue Max did work beautifully in transitioning a Zaxxon like game to the Atari 8-bits - and I think it's an excellent example of borrowed game design fitting in with the target hardware. Dropzone comes to mind also of how it's Defender-nesque origins transformed into a deluxe Defender game.

 

Harvey

[+Andromeda Stardust]

When you read something like that, you can't help and think: Was that lawyer really that unethical and that stupid at the same time? Or this is just one side of the story?

Greed and stupidity know no bounds. Very smart people can make unethically stupid decisions when large sums of money are involved. Like a gambler, the bigger the payout, the more they are likely to risk it all...

[+FujiSkunk]

It's possible for book-smart people to be comically stupid otherwise. I've seen it in person. Throw in the greed of your stereotypical lawyer, and you have a recipe for hilarious(ly sad) disaster.

[+Psionic]

Yeah, I have no problem believing this guy Crane was really that unethical. What he did was hardly stupid, it was actually kind of genius...right up until the part where he got caught. The video game industry really was the Wild West back then and there was no shortage of stuff going on behind the scenes at various companies ranging from mildly unethical to outright illegal, believe me.

 

Actually, I can think of several instances where people siphoned off development contracts using middleman tactics like this guy. With access to good developers being a treasured commodity, that went on quite a bit back then amongst people who were in a position to take advantage of it. While it my have been a bit shady, it wasn't outright illegal. What makes this case a bit unique is that this guy actually worked for the company he was bilking over and he blatantly engaged in forgery and fraud to do so. Of course he was also a lawyer and should know better, although his legal knowledge and powers are what allowed him to pull off the scheme in the first place.

[+Cafeman]

I always wondered who in "Gremlin" programmed Zaxxon, because I read that SEGA hadn't coded it themselves. So this is saying that the team who made Donkey Kong also programmed Zaxxon, and Congo Bongo too? Huh. They really lit the gaming scene on fire in the early 80's with DK and Zaxxon!

[Joe Durnavich`]

After seeing the disassembled and commented Donkey Kong code on the net, I disassembled Zaxxon and compared the two. The routines at the top of the program (initialization, interrupt handling, task lists, score display, etc.) are essentially identical -- so much so that I could copy comments over intact from Donkey Kong to Zaxxon. Zaxxon definitely came from the same code base as Donkey Kong, but modified, to my eye, by a different hand. The game play code is quite different, of course, which I haven't looked closely at yet.

[Tempest]

After seeing the disassembled and commented Donkey Kong code on the net, I disassembled Zaxxon and compared the two. The routines at the top of the program (initialization, interrupt handling, task lists, score display, etc.) are essentially identical -- so much so that I could copy comments over intact from Donkey Kong to Zaxxon. Zaxxon definitely came from the same code base as Donkey Kong, but modified, to my eye, by a different hand. The game play code is quite different, of course, which I haven't looked closely at yet.

 

Are there any hidden or unused things in the Zaxxon code?

[+Andromeda Stardust]

I always wondered who in "Gremlin" programmed Zaxxon, because I read that SEGA hadn't coded it themselves. So this is saying that the team who made Donkey Kong also programmed Zaxxon, and Congo Bongo too? Huh. They really lit the gaming scene on fire in the early 80's with DK and Zaxxon!

The only think DK and Congo Bongo have in common is the antagonist is a gorilla. Congo Bongo shares it's isometric perspective with Zaxxon, though very different gameplay mechanics. It would not surprise me any to learn they used similar hardware.

 

What really floored me was playing Radarscope for the first time on my Raspberry Pi MAME arcade, and learning that so many assets in DK were ripped straight out of Radarscope, it's sacrilege. Everything felt like it was made for Donkey Kong, not some lackluster space title, and 37 years of classic arcade reference ingrained into my head was all a lie. Nearly all the sampled sound effects in both games were exactly the same...

[Jetboot Jack]

I always wondered who in "Gremlin" programmed Zaxxon, because I read that SEGA hadn't coded it themselves. So this is saying that the team who made Donkey Kong also programmed Zaxxon, and Congo Bongo too? Huh. They really lit the gaming scene on fire in the early 80's with DK and Zaxxon!

 

 

Designing and programming are two different things - coding duty does not conflate with creating the idea or the gameplay beats always...

 

sTeVE

[Jetboot Jack]

learning that so many assets in DK were ripped straight out of Radarscope, it's sacrilege. Everything felt like it was made for Donkey Kong, not some lackluster space title, and 37 years of classic arcade reference ingrained into my head was all a lie

 

That Radarscope became Donkey Kong is rather well known - it's not a matter of ripping, they were re-purposed deliberately as the many dozens of accounts describe....

 

sTeVE

[+Andromeda Stardust]

 

That Radarscope became Donkey Kong is rather well known - it's not a matter of ripping, they were re-purposed deliberately as the many dozens of accounts describe....

 

sTeVE

I am well aware of the Radar Scope backstory. Playing it in person (well if you count a miniature Pi Mame as in person ) and hearing Mario's iconic jumping sound effects displaced into a space game just feels wrong IMO. It's like Radarscope was the bad knockoff that reused Donkey Kong assests. Those sound effects simply don't belong in a space game. But the very few people who played this when it first released did not have the historical reference or mental association of those sound effects with Jumpman (which hadn't been created yet), so to them it was just a another forgettable space game.

[R.Cade]

I don't think that Radarscope uses as many sound effects that you recognize from Donkey Kong, except in emulation. The sounds are wrong in MAME. There are recordings of gameplay from the real machine you can find that are not like this...