GORF

[pocketmego]

To me GORF for the 2600 is like Pizza...

 

When I'm in the mood for it, there is not much better. A cool game, that I think captures just enough of the arcade gaes feel to work and is generally colorful and fun to play over and over.

 

However, I've always beena bit confused about the loss of the Galaxian levels in the home versions of this game. Surely when the original game was created Namco knew that the possibility of home versions was logical. If they were going to license the Galaxians for use in GORF in the first place why would they not allow the use of them in any version o the game produced?

 

Secondly, has anyone here amongst all our talented game hackers and homebrewers considered the idea of porting over levels from the 2600 Galaxian into Gorf to make a complete game?

 

Is it even possible to do that?

 

Just some thoughts and questions.

 

-Ray

[D.Yancey]

Likely too difficult to program at that time.

[Lord Thag]

Probably had to do with the cost of the extra ROM space necessary to add the level. Chips like that were put in very few games due to the high cost at the time. Sure, a galaxian level was do-able, just not affordable.

[keilbaca]

Anyone up for tackling a Gorf Arcade version?

Edited September 6, 2006 by keilbaca

[JimmydelaKopin]

Hey, remember...Gorf is the bastard child of Namco's Galaxians and Taito's Space Invaders, hacked together by Midway.

 

For the 2600 version, a lot was dropped so that one could play the many different waves in the original game...or at least a 2600 version of them.

[Lord Helmet]

There must have been a copyright issue with the galaxian level, because none of the home versions of Gorf included it IIRC.

[Inky]

There must have been a copyright issue with the galaxian level, because none of the home versions of Gorf included it IIRC.

 

ThaT'S exactly what the problem was.

[jboypacman]

I loved Gorf as a kid and i still do now.I have both the 2600 and Colecovision versions of this game.

[pocketmego]

There must have been a copyright issue with the galaxian level, because none of the home versions of Gorf included it IIRC.

 

ThaT'S exactly what the problem was.

 

yes, but no one thought there might be home versions when GORF was first made as an arcade game?

 

Was this game made so far ahead of the VCS?

 

-Ray

[godzillajoe]

There's not even a Galaxian in the Pac-Man home version.

 

It *IS* a bit weird.

 

You'd think when you licensed a home version, you'd get ALL of it.

 

And as far as Pac-Man goes, Atari had the freaking rights the Galaxian outright

 

So why was Galaxian "off limits?"

Edited September 7, 2006 by godzillajoe

[+bcombee]

I saw Jamie Fenton talk about GORF at CGExpo a few years ago. One of the reasons the game existed was because of a change in the legal understanding of copyrights. She said that it wasn't until late in 1980 that congress amended the copyright act to make it explicit that computer programs had copyright protection. Lots of people had cloned the idea of Space Invaders, but GORF allowed Bally/Midway to reintroduce the graphics and characters from the Space Invaders and Galaxian games under the new rules, asserting their right to use those and preventing others from using them.

[Lord Helmet]

There's not even a Galaxian in the Pac-Man home version.

 

It *IS* a bit weird.

 

You'd think when you licensed a home version, you'd get ALL of it.

 

And as far as Pac-Man goes, Atari had the freaking rights the Galaxian outright

 

So why was Galaxian "off limits?"

 

Atari had the rights to Galaxian, but not Gorf (which CBS had already released). You would need the rights to both in order to release a complete game.

[godzillajoe]

I meant for the bonus "fruit" in 5200 Pac-Man

 

They used the Fuji symbol instead of the Galaxian

 

But as someone said, the Galaxian is sorta the Bally/Midway symbol and Atari changed it to their own symbol

[pocketmego]

Still, it would have been GREAT if any of the home versions would have been complete. Even the C64 one is missing the Galaxians. But, I wonder if the name and likenesses of the Galaxians was even necessary. Much like the 'Invasion from Space" mission, you could have had a board that played like Galaxian, but wasn't Galaxian. Atari or any other company could easily have gotten away with that, I think.

 

-Ray

[jpfalcon2003]

Never got into this one when I first tried it out. I'll try it again since I'm hearing alot of positives also.

[Lord Helmet]

Still, it would have been GREAT if any of the home versions would have been complete. Even the C64 one is missing the Galaxians. But, I wonder if the name and likenesses of the Galaxians was even necessary. Much like the 'Invasion from Space" mission, you could have had a board that played like Galaxian, but wasn't Galaxian. Atari or any other company could easily have gotten away with that, I think.

 

-Ray

 

This version has all the levels...but it is no longer for sale:

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...312&hl=Gorf

[pocketmego]

Still, it would have been GREAT if any of the home versions would have been complete. Even the C64 one is missing the Galaxians. But, I wonder if the name and likenesses of the Galaxians was even necessary. Much like the 'Invasion from Space" mission, you could have had a board that played like Galaxian, but wasn't Galaxian. Atari or any other company could easily have gotten away with that, I think.

 

-Ray

 

This version has all the levels...but it is no longer for sale:

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...312&hl=Gorf

 

That's OK, I don't own a Jag.

 

I'm still kind of hoping someone hacks a 2600 version.

 

-Ray

[diggs130]

Still, it would have been GREAT if any of the home versions would have been complete. Even the C64 one is missing the Galaxians. But, I wonder if the name and likenesses of the Galaxians was even necessary. Much like the 'Invasion from Space" mission, you could have had a board that played like Galaxian, but wasn't Galaxian. Atari or any other company could easily have gotten away with that, I think.

 

-Ray

 

This version has all the levels...but it is no longer for sale:

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...312&hl=Gorf

 

That's OK, I don't own a Jag.

 

I'm still kind of hoping someone hacks a 2600 version.

 

-Ray

 

 

I own the game but not a working cd player

 

2600 gorf is one of my favorites.

[moycon]

Would be cool to have a 2600 version using the AtariVox.

[Shannon]

This version has all the levels...but it is no longer for sale:

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...312&hl=Gorf

 

Another classic example of the Jaguar community at it's finest.

 

Too bad I missed that. Even though I don't have a CD drive I probably woulda picked it up.

[Inky]

I meant for the bonus "fruit" in 5200 Pac-Man

 

They used the Fuji symbol instead of the Galaxian

 

But as someone said, the Galaxian is sorta the Bally/Midway symbol and Atari changed it to their own symbol

 

 

Here's my gues.. Perhaps Atari didn't have the rights to Galaxian when they created the 8-bit Pac-Man?

 

That's the orly thing that could make sense.

[BrianC]

I meant for the bonus "fruit" in 5200 Pac-Man

 

They used the Fuji symbol instead of the Galaxian

 

But as someone said, the Galaxian is sorta the Bally/Midway symbol and Atari changed it to their own symbol

 

 

Here's my gues.. Perhaps Atari didn't have the rights to Galaxian when they created the 8-bit Pac-Man?

 

That's the orly thing that could make sense.

 

I don't know what the deal is. The Atari 2600 and 800/5200 versions of Galaxian have boss aliens that look like the regular aliens instead of looking like that symbol. The Atarisoft versions on non Atari systems like the C64, Vic 20, Colecovision have the original look for the boss galaxians, though.

[BLarry71]

I don't understand, if a company was licensed to do a home version of gorf it should include all 5 levels like the arcade game.