Planet Bob - Wow! Atari patented Gauntlet!

RSS Bot · May 2, 2006

Hi there!

Uihjah, uihjah... See what I found in my research about Gauntlet:

CODEMulti-player, multi-character cooperative play video game with independent player entry and departure

Abstract

A multi-player, multi-character video game where the games rules force the players to cooperate in negotiating the maze at least until the characters reach a portion of the maze where a specific objective is located. Certain limited resources to change the attributes of the characters or to increase their longevity are displayed in a maze. The players may compete to obtain possession of these limited resources when the characters have cooperated in their movements sufficiently to move to the location of the limited resources. Cooperation among the characters is forced by forcing all characters active in the game to remain visible in the displayed window. Players may enter the game at any time, and they may leave the game at any time without affecting the status of the game or the status of the other characters in the game. All active players may simultaneously, independently control their characters so long as they do not attempt to move their characters outside the currently displayed window.

Find the full patent info by going there:

http://patft1.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.htm

querying: "RE35,314"

I think this is pretty interesting. They could've tried to sue Blizzard for Diablo, no? :twisted: