how did Pizza Chef end up on CCE

[chewy]

If this was a US Vidco/ZiMag prototype, how did it end up in brazil?

[Rom Hunter]

Nobody knows.

Same goes for the other ZiMAG and Vidco titles and TechnoVision's Stone Age.

[chewy]

there must of been a connection we dont realize between USA and Brazil- maybe one of the programmers sold it on the side?

[Magmavision2000]

I'm assuming they either had a deal and they somehow got the rom from it, the Brazilian company bought the prototype off the company or they stole it. 

 

it's probably the third explanation 

 

Edited October 31, 2019 by Magmavision2000

[Supergun]

The other thing to keep in mind is that things were very different back then. When the crash hit, video games were literally considered to have been merely a “fad”; they compared them to the hula hoop. So it would not be surprising if some of these smaller companies just dropped them and moved on. (with little or no regard for the remaining unreleased and/or unfinished products) Buildings closed, companies disappeared, employees were let go, etc. And the remaining games likely had no perceived value to anyone. Some programmers kept copies of them to have something to show for months of hard work or even just for posterity. And some may have had industry contacts of knew of other companies that might employ them and/or purchase their wares.

 

In addition, South America was literally like a world away from here. The game market there would not feel the effects of the 83 slump or the 84 crash until like 85 or 86. It was also somewhat isolated enough to be able to sell pirated wares with little or no consequences. Odds were that anyone here in the states who might even still care, would even ever know anyhow. Hell look at Zellers, they were even more brazen by using Atari, Activision and Imagic software, and they were closer, in Canada.

 

If Activision (one of the financially stronger and larger companies) didn’t know or care that “Keystone Kapers” was being sold as “Busy Police”, then imagine how much less significant it would be that an unreleased game (Pizza Chef) from a small time company (Zimag) turned up on carts being sold in Brazil? It’s borderline irrelevant.

[chewy]

now we're getting somewhere- we know all about pirates of course.  but the fact that unreleased prototypes are known to have been published..........thats where it gets interesting!!!!  Brazils a long ways a way.  They didnt sent spies to the silicon valley to do brazillian-poison-drink-trick on CommaVid programmers dawg.  There has to be a different explinaion.   The programmers must of known of the companies and reached out to cut deal somehow.  Who do we know here on the baord that worked for CommaVid?  

 

oh wait no its Zimag, well zimags even a whole different story--- god yea well anythings posible w/ them right-

Edited October 31, 2019 by chewy

[Supergun]

Don’t overthink it either my friend! It didn’t always have to be Cold War spies smuggling secret rom files. Some of these scenarios could have actually been completely approved & arranged by the companies themselves. They may have legitimately sold some of these games to other individuals or companies who purchased them with the intention of releasing them or reselling them to other companies. Etc.

[+Psionic]

9 hours ago, chewy said:

oh wait no its Zimag, well zimags even a whole different story--- god yea well anythings posible w/ them right-

Anything is possible since they were a thoroughly crooked operation.

One of the brothers who owned Syncro Software told me that non-payment of contracts for games they had developed for Zimag was a major contributor to Syncro's bankruptcy. 

[+bfstats]

When business started waning for Atari in the US, due to the crash or whatever, they marketed more aggressively in the UK and Europe, hence the release of their PAL-only games and, especially, the PAL console pack-in cart, 32-in-1.

 

"Companies" who appeared and released games in the US during and after the crash - namely Zimag (mid '83), Panda (late '83), and Froggo (late '87 in time for Christmas), did the exact opposite of Atari. Most of their releases were NTSC versions of previously-released PAL games in Europe and Asia.

 

As has been pointed out so astutely, copyright laws in other countries are not likely to be the same or as stringent as they are in the US, if they even exist at all. The production of many of the pirated works in Taiwan and South America didn't require a "deal" between "companies". Just buy the legit US-made cart, extract the ROM, alter the graphics slightly, put a new name on it, then sell it ANYWHERE as your own trademarked product!

 

So as legit (or not) as the US companies in question may have been, it is fairly safe to assume their acquisition of the ROM images contained in the games they released was NOT a product of legitimate, legal commerce. Would the US Copyright Office have compared, for example...

 

Zimag's I Want My Mommy to Taiwanese Bit Corp's Open Sesame? or...

Panda's Space Canyon to then-defunct Apollo's Space Cavern?, or...

Froggo's Task Force to sold-company-to-Bondwell Spectravideo's Gangster Alley?

 

I think not, since each of these releases has its own copyright, according to its labeling, if that can be believed. Would the "Copyright Police" have issued C&D orders (through the courts) to these companies had anyone protested? Probably, but were Bit Corp, Games by Apollo, and Spectravideo going to be the ones protesting? Probably NOT because they were either overseas or out-of-business, their products/copyrights having been sold off, and their execs/copyright holders having moved on. Again, these are, I think, fair assumptions by someone who was monitoring the US video game market closely, especially after the crash, and ESPECIALLY after having bought Space Canyon only to find it was a rip-off of Space Cavern which I already owned. And that's why I didn't buy Lochjaw when it showed up in the bargain bins at Kay-Bee. I already owned Shark Attack. Game-cloning left a bad taste in my mouth and made me wary of every "company" during that era.

 

Some other easy assumptions:

 

When Mystique receives bad press in the US for Custer's Revenge, just start another fly-by-night company and sell in Europe (where consumers aren't so damned uptight), and name it Playaround.

 

When Ultravision fails to get its console into the US marketplace before the crash, just start another company, named Funvision, in Taiwan where you can get away with cloning anything, EVERYTHING, even games by a legit US and still-existing company like Activision.

 

And, since the dreaded Jim Redd of Pleasant Valley Video was able to get his hands on the unreleased prototype ROMs credited to Vidco (including Pizza Chef), surely a pirating South American "company" like CCE would be able to get them, too. Doesn't really seem to matter how although, like the rest of you, I'd really like to KNOW.

 

These assumptions are based on human nature; if there's money to be made, no matter how, there will always be someone who will find a way to make it.

 

But if any of my assumptions have been proven to be incorrect by anyone, please set the record straight.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 31, 2019 by bfstats
grammar

[Supergun]

I’ve got nothing to correct there! Excellent write up. You presented even more information then we had gathered thus far. Thank you.

[chewy]

yes! very interesting!!! who is Jim Redd of Pleasant Valley Video? why is his cataloge listed as imfamous jim redd?  is this something i dont know about?

Edited October 31, 2019 by chewy

[chewy]

wait ok ok i looked up a thead so how did he get or even know about Atari prototypes--- he has Dukes of Hazzard listed...... i wonder if anyone ever got that one in reality

[+bfstats]

13 minutes ago, Supergun said:

You presented even more information then we had gathered thus far. Thank you.

Please be sure to distinguish between "information" (my experiences) and "assumption" (no substantiating data). I have no desire to cast aspersions on possibly-legitimate transactions, if they indeed happened. And I'm not a Cold War conspiracy theorist. I just want my assumptions to be proven wrong... if possible.

 

15 minutes ago, chewy said:

who is Jim Redd of Pleasant Valley Video? why is his cataloge listed as imfamous jim redd?

 

8 minutes ago, chewy said:

he has Dukes of Hazzard listed...... i wonder if anyone ever got that one in reality

I was one of his "victims" after mail-ordering Chase the Chuckwagon for $19.95 (it worked even though it was in a Mystique shell), and then sending him another $300 for an extensive list of his unreleased titles. I actually spoke to him on the phone once... BEFORE he got my check. Seemed like a great guy. AFTER he got my check, he never answered his phone again. If he hadn't seemed so hurried during our brief chat, I would have asked how he was able to "acquire" all those prototype ROMs. There is no way to know how he got them or if he ever had them at all, yet clearly he had the Zimag prototypes as Atarimania's photos prove.

 

I'd very much like to know the answer to your question. CTCW was released. He likely owned the cart, dumped the ROM, burned a new chip, and put it into another cart. Homemade piracy.

 

So how about it? Anyone here receive a cart from Pleasant Valley Video that contained an unreleased game?

 

 

[Supergun]

I can comment a bit on this, but at the moment I’m out hunting for candy this evening. I’ll be back.

[classicgamer74]

Personally, I really enjoyed the game.  It was original and fun.  My only complaint is that constant music when you are walking.  This is a game to play with the sound turned off!  

[chewy]

I've loaded it up on my harmony cart, and thats really sayin something. i havent just put everything on willy nilly.  i have a very very curated and originzed cart.