Most recent binaries for the games of mine being pulled. All in one place.

[tkarner]

5 hours ago, PacManPlus said:

Unfortunately, yes.  That and Adventure III  

But other Adventure sequels are not being removed (Adventure Plus and Adventure II). Why would Adventure III be affected?

 

Glad I have a copy of Defender Arcade. That's the best home version of the game in my opinion, so thank you. I already had about 12 of your titles. I just ordered four more.

 

I saw your statement on ZPH. I really hope you keep doing this, perhaps through another avenue that isn't visible at the moment.

[PacManPlus]

Thank you!

 

Regarding Adventure II, Ron did that a bit ago while it was still a different Atari, and he was sort of given permission (I believe with the stipulation that it was back-ported to the 2600).  I currently can't do anything with Atari's IP at the moment.

 

I still have to watch the ZPH stream, as while we were on, as soon as it got to my comments, I was forced to watch 5 commercials in a row that couldn't be skipped 😡 so I missed the whole thing.

[gambler172]

5 hours ago, PacManPlus said:

Thanks so much for the kind words, guys...  I can't tell you how much I appreciate them.

 

Unfortunately, yes.  That and Adventure III  

Hi my Friend

Give Adventure another name

[+DrVenkman]

30 minutes ago, PacManPlus said:

I currently can't do anything with Atari's IP at the moment.

 

I know you aren’t likely to know much (or necessarily share all that you do know), but I didn’t see your 7800 Asteroids Deluxe on the Last Chance list - it’s one of my casual faves and been on my “Gotta buy someday soon” list for a couple years now. Do you have any indication if that game will continue to be available indefinitely or is slated to be axed eventually too? 

[PacManPlus]

Actually, I don't know.  I'm learning things as we go along too...  I figured Space Duel, Asteroids Deluxe, Frenzy, Failsafe, and Crystal Quest would have been first on the list.

[Vanguard71]

Thank you SO MUCH!!!!

[+Mitch]

Why would Crystal Quest be pulled? It is an original game not a port. The Bently Bear trademark had expired so you should be fine there. Unless I am missing something.

 

Mitch

[Thomas Jentzsch]

3 hours ago, PacManPlus said:

I still have to watch the ZPH stream, as while we were on, as soon as it got to my comments, I was forced to watch 5 commercials in a row that couldn't be skipped 😡 so I missed the whole thing.

uBlock Origin removes all ads. And you should really watch that.

[+littaum]

49 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

uBlock Origin removes all ads. And you should really watch that.

 

Indeed - it was very touching. 

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

On 6/27/2023 at 11:08 AM, PacManPlus said:

Hey All:

 

Here are the most recent full ROMS of the ports that I've done that will be unavailable soon.  I ask that you still support Al and get the games while you can, but the roms are:

 

Thank you Bob! I just bought a number of boxed games from the AA store that I'm missing of yours. 🙂

 

Thank you once again for all these incredible ports and thank you for posting the binaries to your games for others to enjoy.

 

- James

[PacManPlus]

3 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

uBlock Origin removes all ads. And you should really watch that.

Thank you!  I will, as soon as it appears on youtube.

Thanks,

Bob

[PacManPlus]

4 hours ago, Mitch said:

Why would Crystal Quest be pulled? It is an original game not a port. The Bently Bear trademark had expired so you should be fine there. Unless I am missing something.

 

Mitch

I was unaware that the Bentley Bear trademark had expired.  Does everyone know this?

[+DrVenkman]

25 minutes ago, PacManPlus said:

I was unaware that the Bentley Bear trademark had expired.  Does everyone know this?

 

 

Both of those listed were used to market stuffed animals:

As far as I can tell, neither "Atari" nor "Atari Games" ever held a mark for Bentley Bear, though a search will show any number of live and dead Atari-related trademarks listed.

 

Here's the link to USPTO's search portal for anyone who wants to go poke around:

https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/search

 

DISCLAIMER: I am an attorney but I am not YOUR attorney, nor am I an intellectual property attorney as such. Nothing above is offered as legal advice. No attorney-client privilege is created or implied by my comments. Do Not Taunt Happy FunBall!

 

[RevEng]

Unlike copyright or patents, trademarks don't have a time limit, and don't expire. The registration on a mark can expire (you need to renew it periodically) but registration just makes court proceedings easier. To own a trademark, you only need to do trade with that mark. To keep the mark you need to do trade with it within a 3 year period, or it can be considered abandoned.

 

Complicating things is the fact that characters (descriptions and depictions) are also covered by copyright. My non-lawyer non-legal-advice observation would be be that Bentley Bear is definitely copyrighted, and almost certainly covered by trademark.

[+DrVenkman]

47 minutes ago, RevEng said:

Complicating things is the fact that characters (descriptions and depictions) are also covered by copyright. My non-lawyer non-legal-advice observation would be be that Bentley Bear is definitely copyrighted, and almost certainly covered by trademark.

Not getting into US copyright right now (because that’s an even bigger quagmire than trademarks …

 

However, regarding the link you posted: “Crystal Castles” has both a live word mark (filed in 2007 by Atari interactive, renewed in 2018) and a dead one for the same words, filed by Atari, Inc. in 1984 and cancelled in 2005. The name “Bentley Bear” as such has no mark associated with it that I could find. 

 

Complicating things even further is a concept called “trade dress” which applies generally to logotypes and fonts, colors, etc. even if not 100% identical to the allegedly infringed elements. This is where a game that uses similar graphical elements (e.g., an animated bear), similar font design for the title screen and the word “Crystal” in the title (creating a mental connection with the original Crystal Castles) might come into play, especially since “Crystal Castles” is still an actively maintained mark for “Electronic, video and multimedia game software for use on personal computers and electronic game playing machines; recorded computer game software programs; video game machines for use with television receivers; downloadable video game software; and magnetic, optical and numerical computer game programs.”

 

*****

 

In my ideal world, the smart thing for the current “Atari” to do would be to look at Bob’s game (a masterpiece, I might add), hand him a license agreement and a nice check, then start selling it themselves. But unfortunately I don’t run the world.

[PacManPlus]

Interesting regarding Bentley Bear; I'm not sure what will happen with that now...

 

So I just watched the video of the stream on youtube.

I've sent James a separate message, but I can say that both myself and Rose Mary were *very* moved by all of the love and support...  Thanks, guys - you are all wonderful 💖

 

I told this to James too: I know I haven't been as active lately on AA as I've greatly slowed down on my projects.  That with the removed of games from the store was the 1-2 punch that told me it was time.

But I thank you guys - as I always say, you are the greatest!

 

(I promised James that if I do end up doing something in the future, he will get first showing)

Thank you, thank you, thank you

Bob

Edited June 29, 2023 by PacManPlus

[RevEng]

1 hour ago, DrVenkman said:

However, regarding the link you posted: “Crystal Castles” has both a live word mark (filed in 2007 by Atari interactive, renewed in 2018) and a dead one for the same words, filed by Atari, Inc. in 1984 and cancelled in 2005. The name “Bentley Bear” as such has no mark associated with it that I could find. 

Right, there's no registration for a mark. But if they've been doing actual trade with the character mark, so that would be covered by common law rights, no?

[Jinks]

15 hours ago, PacManPlus said:

Thanks so much for the kind words, guys...  I can't tell you how much I appreciate them.

 

Unfortunately, yes.  That and Adventure III  

 This is all a shame. We will always have 2013 and the glory days of a one man 7800 game factory  keeping the 7800 scene alive so it could survive to see today. 

 

 

 

Btw your Collection cart and your special Frenzy are my most precious video game related anything in all my collections new and old. 

Oh also the pink Baby Pac. 

 

Best of luck in everything you do. 

 

See you on the flip side.  

 

Paul

 

 

 

[OldStyle]

[PacManPlus]

Thanks, guys.  Like I always say: you are all too kind.

 

I'll pop in from time to time and say hello

 

[juansolo]

I've just had a thought. Will the Kiloparsec BIOS be effected by all this or is that just written off now? Was kinda looking forward to having that dual bootable on my machine with the Asteroids BIOS.

[PacManPlus]

Honestly, I don't know.  The graphics are from Parsec, and some of the gameplay,  so it's kind of half-and-half.  We'll see how this plays out.

 

[+DrVenkman]

10 hours ago, RevEng said:

Right, there's no registration for a mark. But if they've been doing actual trade with the character mark, so that would be covered by common law rights, no?

Common law is an even bigger mess and it can vary from state to state. If Bob (or Al or anyone else) wants referral to a great IP law firm, I can pass along contact information for a nationally well-regarded firm (disclaimer: the firm’s namesake was a professor of mine *mumble mumble* years ago). 

[PacManPlus]

I think it might be much less sticky to just change the graphics and title screen, if the need arises...  Just to be safe.

[+DrVenkman]

19 minutes ago, PacManPlus said:

I think it might be much less sticky to just change the graphics and title screen, if the need arises...  Just to be safe.

Maybe so, but I’m glad I got the real deal.