Atari Wants To Reinvent Pong 180
mikejuk writes "Atari is offering up to $100,000 in a contest for a new version of Pong, the classic game that launched video games 40 years ago, for the iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch. The judges for the contest include Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari, who came up with the original idea for Pong. So, what does a 21st century Pong look like? How does it play? And what role does touch have in this, the simplest of games?"
Curveball (Score:4, Informative)
already been done... http://www.addictinggames.com/sports-games/curveball.jsp
Related article (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.indiegamemag.com/slicing-the-industrys-atari-just-how-offensive-is-the-pong-indie-developer-challenge
No further comment. Just read it!
They already made that game (Score:5, Informative)
Re:What's in a name? (Score:5, Informative)
Apparently everything, as it turns out. Atari is nothing but a name, bought and sold like something found at Best Buy, and now brandished by a company with no resemblance or heritage to the company that defined the name.
Yep- the current "Atari" is really just the company formerly known as Infogrames, who bought the name from Hasbro Interactive around a decade back.
The original- and most famous- Atari Inc. was split in 1984. The computer and home division became Jack Tramiel's Atari Corp. (legally separate, but an obvious successor in interest) which fizzled out in the mid-90s and merged with a second-rate hard drive manufacturer that went bankrupt soon after. The arcade division (Atari Games) was sold to Midway who dropped the "Atari" name in the late 90s, and closed it altogether a few years later.
IMHO that's where anything resembling a true continuation of the original Atari ended.. Hasbro Interactive and Infogrames were/are connected in name and rights only, but obviously it serves Infogrames', er... *Atari's* retro-credibility better if they get to present themselves as the "classic" Atari and present Bushnell as- or at least imply that he was- their founder.
Re:Hah! (Score:3, Informative)
Seriously, anyone entering this should read the rules very carefully. First of all, it isn't a straight 100k. It's 50k with POTENTIAL for 100k depending on how well it sells. Also, they take all rights for anyone who even enters the contest. Why is that? That's because they aren't going to just sell a new Pong. They're selling a Pong Pak (c) according to the rules. So they're going to take all the entrants that are decent and create a PAK of Pong games and sell that for pure profit.
Oh, and bonus, the whole 50k to 100k revenue sharing part is minus any and all costs they can conjure up to defray it. So if the CEO flies to Jamaica for a week to "promote" the game, that's coming our of your pay check. Just an FYI.
This contest is bullshit pure and simple. It just ain't worth it.
This contest is bad for the contestants (Score:3, Informative)
Gamasutra covered how much of a scam this contest is [gamasutra.com].
The executive summary: Atari gets full ownership and rights to every submission, winning or otherwise, and you'll never earn anywhere near $100k even if you win the top prize.
All of this is rather unsurprising, given the dirty tricks Atari Legal have been playing lately. [slashdot.org]
Think about your intellectual property before you (Score:4, Informative)