Atari Announces the $100,000 Pong® Indie Developer Challenge

[mr.Ugly]

Atari’s contest is exploitation of people desperate for cash or recognition. It’s a contradictive effort which its hoping no one notices. It’s taking away indie development so it benefits the corporate belly. It’s the last clutch for life from a company driven to desperation.

You’d think, with it being the big 40 for Atari this year, that we would be celebrating its contribution to the industry. In actuality, we’ll have to continue resenting its existence as it claws for another breakthrough, no matter what the cost. What a sorry state for a company to be in.

Atari is shameless, ruthless in its actions and a thorn in the side of the industry – happy to drown the youth (in this case the indie scene) so that it may use their corpses as a float. You’d hope a company that helped to found the industry would have some dignity it its final breath.

http://www.indiegamemag.com/slicing-...per-challenge/


well if you put together junk your chance to win is nil .. of course they expect high quality anything else will be disregarded..

thsi thing is every entry in this scam hurts indies because it makes their behaviour right so rid the appstore of every indie game thats even in close resemblance to their ancient games just to mock the indie community (which they just rolled over) to make them new pongs at ridiculous terms..

again everyone is free todo as he wishes.. but being part of a scam is hardly something to be proud of..

[Charybdis]

Yuck, something smells rotten!

[NinthNinja]

Originally Posted by mr.Ugly

http://www.indiegamemag.com/slicing-...per-challenge/


well if you put together junk your chance to win is nil .. of course they expect high quality anything else will be disregarded..

thsi thing is every entry in this scam hurts indies because it makes their behaviour right so rid the appstore of every indie game thats even in close resemblance to their ancient games just to mock the indie community (which they just rolled over) to make them new pongs at ridiculous terms..

again everyone is free todo as he wishes.. but being part of a scam is hardly something to be proud of..

I think you need to be corrected on a major point here. Atari only own the trade mark on the name Pong. In the 70's there was a court settlement between Atari and (I wish I can remember the company), who actually came up with the concept of Pong but for the home systems. Nolan actually saw a version of this and told his engineers to nick the idea.

There is no way on earth Atari can pull similar games from the App Store over a name Trade Mark. You could call your game "Bat and Ball" and still publish it with the same mechanics as Pong.

The point here is this competition is exploitive. But if you entered and your idea failed then you could actually develop the idea away from Atari. If Atari argue that you cannot then you get your lawyers to write them a letter about the court case from the 70s.

But Atari has no right to say that all ideas belong to them when in fact they only have the TM on the name Pong!

[LiamAtDevour]

Originally Posted by NinthNinja

But Atari has no right to say that all ideas belong to them when in fact they only have the TM on the name Pong!

If you sign an agreement when entering the competition relinquishing rights to your game, then yes they do have the right. Although all you'd have to do is change the art-style and name when releasing it for yourself and you'd get away with it. Owning the pong trademark isn't giving them the right, having you sign (or click "agree") is giving them the right.

edit: Actually, if you're referring to pre-existing games (which I think Mr. Ugly might have been talking about) then yeah, they have no right.

[mr.Ugly]

see the previously links.. i talk about other atari-esque games that where taken off the store.. asteroids, battlezone, breakout inspired games.

if you had a game in that categorie with a vector look you got mail by lawyers.

again, no matter if you are right or not an indie can easily be strong armed by a bigger companie like atari.

edit: some links

http://toucharcade.com/2011/12/30/at...tanks-extreme/
http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=107606
http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=108449

[LiamAtDevour]

Ahh, my apologies. I skipped through some of the thread tbh -_-