Battle Of Hoth - New ColecoVision Homebrew!

[TL]

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[size=140]Defend Echo Base against the Imperial AT-ATs!

Imperial scouts have discovered the location of Echo Base, the Rebels' main base of operation, on the planet Hoth! The Empire has dispatched AT-AT walkers to destroy the base's shield generator, and it's up to you to keep these attackers at bay while Echo Base is evacuated! Pilot your Snowspeeder across the frozen wastelands of Hoth and take the AT-ATs head on! Keep shooting at them until they explode, or use your limited supply of grappling hooks to make them fall. Return to Echo Base for quick repairs, and then go back to the battlefield! Only you can ensure the safety of the Rebels as they try to escape the wrath of the Empire![/size]



[size=140]PROJECT STORY

Back in January 2012, some casual discussions on the AtariAge forums surrounding a potential (and much desired) ColecoVision version of the Atari 2600 game "Star Wars - Empire Strikes Back" sparked some private exchanges between myself and Jean-Philippe Meola (a.k.a. youki on AtariAge). Jean-Philippe was adamant about programming the game, and I was more than willing to publish the fruit of his labours once it was completed. So while he worked on the game over the following months, I worked on the box template with some online associates.



Late into the project, Jean-Philippe received depressing news: Daniel Bienvenu backed out of helping us with the background music for the game. Luckily, I was able to involve my good friend Mystery Man, who worked to deliver some very nice music for us.

All parties involved were careful to keep the game a secret, so that Jean-Philippe could post a "mysterious" YouTube video of the game in action in December 2012.

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[size=240]TEAM PIXELBOY WEBSITE![/size]

[TrekMD]

This is so cool!  Definitely a fun game on the 2600 and a cool "port" to the ColecoVision. 

[zapiy]

Great work by these guys again.

[onthinice]

Very nice looking game.

[retromod]

yes indeed but it seems these guys have not verified if other products exists with that name:
http://shop.lego.com/de-DE/Battle-of-Hoth-75014

so I'll bet there is a lawyer in place if they ever release them with that name as the brand "battle of hoth" is a trandemark so using this name may be not wise....

[TL]

yes indeed but it seems these guys have not verified if other products exists with that name:
http://shop.lego.com/de-DE/Battle-of-Hoth-75014

so I'll bet there is a lawyer in place if they ever release them with that name as the brand "battle of hoth" is a trandemark so using this name may be not wise....

Given that homebrew versions of stuff like Mario Bros, Lode Runner and Pac-Man have been released for the ColecoVision I doubt they are that bothered.

[retromod]

well PacMan and all the others are "obsolete" regarding brands and there are not "active" titles available, but here it is a living product with name "battle of hoth" which is 1:1 to the title Lego is using for it's brand new game. So I'll bet specially Lego the trademark owner is not very happy to see there are games with equal names available without permission. May be wise to change the name or to ask them for permission.

[TL]

well PacMan and all the others are "obsolete" regarding brands and there are not "active" titles available, but here it is a living product with name "battle of hoth" which is 1:1 to the title Lego is using for it's brand new game. So I'll bet specially Lego the trademark owner is not very happy to see there are games with equal names available without permission. May be wise to change the name or to ask them for permission.

Pac-Man and Mario Bros are far from obsolete, new games using those names have been released with the last couple of months, let alone the number of titles along the years.

A lot of people in the homebrew community simply don't care about copyrights.

[retromod]

but that is stupid - sorry for that word. because any lawyer is able to send you a bill for thousend of euro/dollars. A simple rename solves this issue.

Using trademarks also doesn't allow big number of sellings. You can't on ebay as they follow trademarks and copyright. So flying under the radar is the only option. all this worth after spending thousend of hours in programming? I remember the game "attack from the mutant camel" which was nothing else than the first clone of "empire strikes back" for Atari 8-Bit homecomputers with a clever name to avoid any naming problems. And even if you rely on the name why not simple asking the trademark holder to use the name and may be doing some sponsoring ?

It seems programmers and hardware developers are not able to follow the changed market these days. you can't simple develop something and sell it, most of the time and a lot of money runs through lawyers to check for any problems regarding name, brand, trademarks etc. As we are today not isolated as in the past it is quickly a problem for you if you do not follow the rules of copyright or regulations. If you have family then you must be carefully to not ruin your life.

simple rename it to "battle on ice planet" or "battle of rebellion" or whatever - it doesn't matter finally as the gameplay finally speaks for the quality and not the title itself.

[TL]

Yep, I agree. Companies are very protective of their I.P. and it isn't really worth taking the chance. Better to just ask the holder, doesn't hurt. Look at Halo for the Atari 2600, that was released with permission from Microsoft.

Then look at Princess Rescue for the 2600 - where even after changing the name from Super Mario Bros. it still had to be pulled thanks to an intervention by Nintendo's I.P. lawyers.

[retromod]

Then look at Princess Rescue for the 2600 - where even after changing the name from Super Mario Bros. it still had to be pulled thanks to an intervention by Nintendo's I.P. lawyers.

well sometimes a gameplay is protected at all or simple using single characters and name them Mario is not wise too. Not sure why it is sooo important to copy characters if the gameplay itself has the focus. We know that graphics possibilities are limited in comparison to other consoles but even with block graphics the gameplay is fun. Playstation and XBOX lacks of this even if better graphics or sound