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Worst of the Retro Rip-Offs 109

Posted by Zonk from the mining-the-past dept.
1up has a piece looking at some of the worst blatant rip-offs of classic games. By retooling old ideas and putting new labels on them, a developer can make a pretty penny at the cost of our childhood memories. From the article: "Space Invaders, right? Nope -- it's actually Space Fever, one of the first arcade games produced by Nintendo. Lest certain internet forums break out into a rash of OMG TAITO COPIED NINTENDO threads, I'll be very clear: it was Space Fever that was the ripoff. Much like how America was taken over by Pong and clones in the 1970s, a few years later, you couldn't swing a dead neko in Japan without hitting a Space Invaders machine. The fad was so prevalent that all sorts of imitation machines sprouted up."
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Worst of the Retro Rip-Offs

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  • Thank god Tetris is sacred! (Score:5, Funny)

    by evil-osm ( 203438 ) on Friday February 03, 2006 @07:55PM (#14639288)
    If someone was to copy/redo that, I'd just die!

  • First Psot!!! (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    (This is actually a bad rip off of the now famous "First Post!')

    • Re:First Psot!!! (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Spy der Mann ( 805235 )
      (This is actually a bad rip off of the now famous "First Post!')

      Actually, from the place of your posting, I think the full name would be "First Psot from the Second Place" :P

  • How about the *best* of the retro rip-offs (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Zork the Almighty ( 599344 ) on Friday February 03, 2006 @08:06PM (#14639335) Journal
    How about a list of the best video game rip-offs ? Some ripoffs improved on the original considerably. For example, Tengen's unlicensed NES Tetris is much better than the official Nintendo version. Pole Position was copied endlessly, eventually spawning an entire genre of games. There were various ripoffs of Pac-Man, some inspired by the "Pac-Man is drugs craze", where Power pellets and "fruit" (now mostly mushrooms) produced strange side-effects in Pac-Man. Last but not least are all those hacked Street Fighter 2 arcade machines. Eventually you started seeing entirely new graphics added to the ROM, with bizarre new characters and moves, and many of these were way more fun to play than the original because you never knew what the hell was going to happen.

  • One man's ripoff is another man's homage. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TechieHermit ( 944255 ) on Friday February 03, 2006 @08:19PM (#14639390) Journal
    Everyone in the art and fashion world seems to run around with their hair on fire whenever someone's work resembles someone else's. The game world seems to work similarly. Here's my two cents:

    First of all, EVERYTHING is based on EVERYTHING ELSE. Each of us creates new things by assimilating and processing all the old things that surround us. Our culture is a huge collaborative thing, and anyone who tries to tell you they've come up with something entirely new with no basis in anything that exists already is lying to you (or to themselves).

    Second, THIS IS A GOOD THING. I don't want every new first person shooter that comes out to have some new and unusual control scheme. I don't want grenades to work totally differently in every game. I don't want to have to read a fucking book before I can start playing. I WANT and EXPECT my games to follow some sort of reasonable conventions. This goes for storyline elements, too. I want a plot with a beginning, middle, and end. I want a game that places me in the middle of some sort of interesting situation and allows me to be, for at least a little while, right in the middle of things. In other words, I want game companies to figure out what is fun, and what works well, and produce it dependably. This means studying what already works, which means duplicating to some extent the gameplay of other games. AND THIS IS GOOD.

    Third, since when did everything have to be brand new and different to be valid? We don't suddenly decide that cars are "so last century" and begin driving 10 foot hamster wheels, do we? NO. We stick with the tried and true, with old reliable. Cars haven't been new and different for a hundred years; every car is totally derivative, a "ripoff" of the very first car. SO WHAT? It drives, it's nice, I like it.

    Anyway, that's my piece. People who use the term "ripoff" as though it's some kind of sin need to get over themselves.

    • Re:One man's ripoff is another man's homage. (Score:5, Funny)

      by mctk ( 840035 ) on Friday February 03, 2006 @08:33PM (#14639437) Homepage
      Hey guys, I just thought you might like to read my personal opinion. I'll take full credit for it, thanks:

      First of all, EVERYTHING is based on EVERYTHING ELSE. Each of us creates new things by assimilating and processing all the old things that surround us. Our culture is a huge collaborative thing, and anyone who tries to tell you they've come up with something entirely new with no basis in anything that exists already is lying to you (or to themselves).

      Second, THIS IS A GOOD THING. I don't want every new first person shooter that comes out to have some new and unusual control scheme. I don't want grenades to work totally differently in every game. I don't want to have to read a fucking book before I can start playing. I WANT and EXPECT my games to follow some sort of reasonable conventions. This goes for storyline elements, too. I want a plot with a beginning, middle, and end. I want a game that places me in the middle of some sort of interesting situation and allows me to be, for at least a little while, right in the middle of things. In other words, I want game companies to figure out what is fun, and what works well, and produce it dependably. This means studying what already works, which means duplicating to some extent the gameplay of other games. AND THIS IS GOOD.

      Third, since when did everything have to be brand new and different to be valid? We don't suddenly decide that cars are "so last century" and begin driving 10 foot hamster wheels, do we? NO. We stick with the tried and true, with old reliable. Cars haven't been new and different for a hundred years; every car is totally derivative, a "ripoff" of the very first car. SO WHAT? It drives, it's nice, I like it.

      Anyway, that's my piece. People who use the term "ripoff" as though it's some kind of sin need to get over themselves.

    • Re:One man's ripoff is another man's homage. (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Taking an existing idea and improving it is a good thing, and is what drives innovation. Changing a few surface details and slapping a new name on it is intellectual theft. There's a huge difference, and you'd be wise to understand it.

      Most of what you're talking about is the former, and the article (which you obviously didn't read) is about the latter.

    • Third, since when did everything have to be brand new and different to be valid? We don't suddenly decide that cars are "so last century" and begin driving 10 foot hamster wheels, do we?

      Clearly you've never travelled in the comfort, style, and security that only a giant hamster wheel can provide. I'd be happy to give you a ride some time in my 9-foot wheel. It's not quite as large as the 10-foot model, but I think that's just a little too 'flashy'. I drive one for the gas mileage, not to make a spectacle
    • First of all, EVERYTHING is based on EVERYTHING ELSE

      Two words, Katamari Damacy. Actually, thats's based on some odd drug trip
    • I agree with you for the most part, but if you go through the article "ripoff" is a pretty accurate term. There is a difference between similar games and ripoffs. Some of the games mentioned in that article are clearly ripoffs meant to steal profit by producing a nearly identical replica, not on any similarities. Look at the Super Mario Bro vs Great Giana Sisters vs Commander Keen. The sisters game is clearly a ripoff and the Keen games are clearly based on, yet original. Hell the screenshots of half o
      • Yeah, but what's the difference, really? If two games are very similar, and one is technically a "ripoff" of the other, who cares, as long as they're both fun? A while back, I played though Psy-Ops, and then later, I played through Second Sight. Initially, people thought one was a ripoff of the other, but it turned out they were developed at the same time (And, how did THAT happen? Interesting).

        It didn't matter, though. I didn't care if one was a ripoff of the other. I had a ball playing BOTH of them. I wis
        • The situation changes a great deal with the type of game involved. A game that you play through the story line is a bit different there are lots more things you can change so its not just a ripoff. A Pacman or Super Mario Bros ripoff is more of a direct competition, copied graphics and all. In more modern complex games I think the ripoff thing has mostly gone away, and it really is just variant games. In the early games it was a bit of a different situation. Imagine if all of the wall textures and enem
          • I see where you're coming from; you might have a point about the old games. Maybe, being so simple, they were easy to copy without doing anything innovative or interesting.

            You see what I'm saying about modern games -- the graphics are so good that when you create a game, you're really writing something more akin to a movie, so when people produce similar games it's more like their "take" on the subject matter. This is where I was going when I said that the "ripoff" term was unfair... I see lots of people ap
            • Many modern games use the same game engines with different graphics and plotlines. To me that just seems efficient, no use reinventing the wheel. My only concern with that as far as ripoffs go is when the engine is copied almost exactly without credit or licensing. To me ripoff has more to do with the stolen idea part, rather than the copying part.
    • First of all, EVERYTHING is based on EVERYTHING ELSE. Each of us creates new things by assimilating and processing all the old things that surround us.

      Of course, this is correct. But the actual combination of parts into a new synthesis, that's where creativity lies. Do not discount the importance of this! In a way, the degree of separation from an included idea from that expected is a measure of the creativty inherent in the inclusion.

      Our culture is a huge collaborative thing, and anyone who tries to tel
      • Fair points, fair points... I'd like to offer these in return (things I didn't comment on, I agree with):

        As far as games being too insular, I wasn't talking about storyline. I was talking about the controls, and the dynamics of gameplay (i.e. there's a button for crouching and for jumping, some sort of inventory system, at least some kind of boss battle here and there, some puzzles, etc -- user interface elements and gameplay elements). My point is that there is already a relatively "perfect" interface and
        • My point is that there is already a relatively "perfect" interface and general approach used in videogames. Since this is just a framework that lets the player have an adventure, why not stick to the standards and not gum up the works with some new and bizarre control scheme, or random, potentially boring game dynamics?

          Because what is often forgotten in game design is that controls can be part of the fun. That's a large part of the fun of Robotron 2084, of Katamari Damacy, of Dance Dance Revolution, and wi
          • Ok; on narrative, we'll have to agree to disagree. I find your "axiom" to be a matter of opinion (and wrong, but that's MY opinion, equally valid as yours). There's no point in us restating our sides over and over again.

            On game engines being part of the benefit of games, I disagree. Like all software (I'm a software engineer) games should adhere to common industry UI conventions and test for usability. It's simply good practice. Most games actually do. Virtually all shooters use the standard in which the le
            • First, I have to apologize for my previous comment, I included an imcomplete section that I had intended to remove, but I forgot to take it out completely when I hit the Submit button, sorry if it was confusing.

              Ok; on narrative, we'll have to agree to disagree. I find your "axiom" to be a matter of opinion (and wrong, but that's MY opinion, equally valid as yours). There's no point in us restating our sides over and over again.

              Except, are we really at that point? I do sometimes have to "agree to disagree,"
              • Oh, man, you've got it bad. The mental image I'm forming of you is an angry, disappointed starbucks cashier who went to a community college to learn how to "write games for a living", was shot down in his first round of resume submissions, and now rants for 45 minutes about how "the gaming industry SUCKS" whenever anyone mentions anything even remotely computer related. Such bitterness! If you happen to have blue hair and piercings, that would really perfect the mental picture... Do you?

                Heh heh heh... Let u
                • Oh, man, you've got it bad. The mental image I'm forming of you is an angry, disappointed starbucks cashier who went to a community college (etc etc)

                  Ah, because if you can't respond logically to someone the best thing to do is stereotype them? No I don't work for Starbucks no I don't have blue hair and piercings no I don't rant for hours about Evangelion no etcetera. On the other hand, you are fulfilling more than one stereotype of your own -- AND you are resorting to ad hominem attacks, and are verging o
                  • Oh, blah blah blah. Mr. Ad Hominem himself now wants to complain that I saw his ad hominem and raised him an appeal to authority? Bullshit. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, kiddo.

                    And, yes, your unfounded assertions that the gaming industry sucks, that my choice in games sucks, etc, etc, are all ad hominem arguments. I was kind enough to have a sense of humor about yours.

                    Now, as far as your "arguments" go, you're not providing ANY as far as I can tell. At best, all you've done is make blanke
                    • Oh, blah blah blah. Mr. Ad Hominem himself now wants to complain that I saw his ad hominem and raised him an appeal to authority? Bullshit. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, kiddo.

                      Then, if you please, give me your example of my using an Ad Hominem.

                      And, yes, your unfounded assertions that the gaming industry sucks, that my choice in games sucks, etc, etc, are all ad hominem arguments. I was kind enough to have a sense of humor about yours.

                      Oh for the love of....

                      The game industry DOES suck, and
                    • Thank you for your delicious last post! First you challenge me to show you where you use ad hominem, then you provide me with several examples! Amazing. But, my dear conversational partner, I am not trolling. I am DISAGREEING, which you seem to have some difficulty with. You're too persnickety for my tastes.

                      I shall hereby banish you with Godwin's Incantation: "You know who ELSE doesn't like disagreement? The NAZIS, that's who! Yeah, boy, if you said a NAZI gaming industry sucked, they'da nailed yer thumbs t
                    • I am DISAGREEING, which you seem to have some difficulty with.

                      If you were just disagreeing, you'd respond to my points instead of ignoring them when convenient. That, and your absurd hyperbole, are why I say you're trolling.

                      I not only say you're doing it, but you probably know you are, and are just trying to get a rise out of me.
                    • Huh. Godwin's incantation bounced right off you. So much for Godwin.

                      Anyway, No, I'm not trolling; I think you're a putz and I'm disagreeing with you. Now, go ahead and reaffirm your incorrect assumption again. It's all in good fun, here on Slashdot.

  • Yeah, Nintendo's Guilty Too... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by macserv ( 701681 ) on Friday February 03, 2006 @08:25PM (#14639407)
    Lest certain internet forums break out into a rash of OMG TAITO COPIED NINTENDO threads, I'll be very clear: it was Space Fever that was the ripoff


    Most of that article, however, is about Nintendo getting ripped off, way bigger than Space Invaders. In its early days in the video game business, Nintendo did indeed make clones of Space Invaders (Nintendo's had COLOR!) and Joust. However, after Shigeru Miyamoto joined the Big N, they became the company to rip off: Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Super Metroid, and Donkey Kong are all mentioned.

  • Pot, meet Kettle (Score:4, Insightful)

    by The-Bus ( 138060 ) on Friday February 03, 2006 @08:29PM (#14639419)
    I find it funny that this is a front-page article that appears a few days after the article praising Geometry Wars to no end.

  • it's ksirtet, so what? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by twitter ( 104583 ) on Friday February 03, 2006 @08:36PM (#14639449) Homepage Journal
    this is about serious plagiarism, the sort of copyright-infringement stuff that makes the lawyers come running. Half of these games spawned court cases; the other half by all rights should have.

    The author likes lawyers?

    Three cheers for Namco for not bothering with them for Pacman clones. Some ideas are so obvious and have so much non computer prior art that anything but a direct copy is hard to call plagiarism. It would suck if you could not borrow bitmaps for parody. I'm glad big dumb companies can't claim the IDEA for a game and that clones can be made. Sure, those clones might not have the genius the "original" creator did, but that's not always the big dumb company anyway.

    • I agree that most of the time lawyers shouldn't become involved, but I think that a lawsuit would have been perfectly justified when it came to stuff like "Hangly Man."
    • Some ideas are so obvious and have so much non computer prior art that anything but a direct copy is hard to call plagiarism.

      I'm curious what the "non-computer prior art" is for Pac-Man. In any case, prior art applies to patents, not copyright.

    • It's worth noting that Namco, themselves, never really ripped off the original Pac-Man in the classic era.

      The most popular sequel, Ms. Pac-Man, was actually originally a Pac-Man rip-off that Midway bought from General Computer Corporation. Both of Namco's direct sequels, Super Pac-Man and Pac 'n Pal, while having a similar theme and graphics, had substantial gameplay differences from the original game.
  • The worse re-use of a video game character is when they made that Pac-Man 2d side scroller for SNES. From what I remember the game played horribly and didn't offer nearly as much fun as the original.

    Found an image: Pac-Man's Hizzle [animeboredom.co.uk]
  • One of the things that pisses me off is people raving about Diablo and its sequels. It's a blatant rip off of Angband, but with all the gameplay removed, and dumbed down to make it appeal to the masses. But no one ever acknowledges the fact (in fact, few are even aware of it in the first place). Sigh.
    • ...This is a joke, right? Is there another Angband game that I'm not aware of, because the only Angband I know is a bit different from Diablo. That's the joke, right? Right?
    • I have friends who play Diablo. I've introduced them to Nethack, etc. They keep playing Diablo. Obviously, Diablo added something important.

    • Re:Angband - Diablo (Score:5, Informative)

      by gpw213 ( 691600 ) on Friday February 03, 2006 @11:15PM (#14640074)
      And Angband, of course, was a rip-off of rogue, which is about 10 years older. In fact, hack, nethack, moria, angband, etc are collectively referred to as "roguelikes".

      You might take a look at Wikipedia's article [wikipedia.org]

    • Funny, I always considered Diablo a ripoff of Nethack. But the more I think about it, Diablo had more of the mindless charging ahead of Angband (which is a ripoff of Moria, which I played a lot of in the 80s). It's much more of the "slot machine" feel of work/reward than Nethack's more refined, thoughtful gameplay.
      • I don't know that I'd call Angband a ripoff of Moria. It actually is based off of the Moria source code, though it's gone through radical code rewrites on major sections of it since then. As such, I believe it would be considered more of a fork then anything else. Of course, being roguelike games, you could consider Moria, Angband, Nethack, and Diablo all ripoffs of Rogue. I don't know that I'd really consider Angband slot-machinish, either. Both do require strategy. NetHack & Angband just have rather
    • Diablo is real time, not turn based so can't be a rip off. It has some roguelike ancestry, but games like Gauntlet are also in it's pedigree.

    • Re:Angband - Diablo (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Actually, one of the developers mentioned "Nethack" as an inspiration, rather than Angband, in an interview I saw ages ago about Diablo I.
      In response to the guy who considered Diablo innovative because it's real-time -- that's nothing original, there have been real-time roguelikes going back at least as far as this old VIC-20 cassette tape of Epyx's "Star Quest I - Rescue at Rigel" I've got, and it was printed in 1980.
      (By the way, just to taunt those who know what I'm talking about -- I also
  • Rip-offs are really common nowadays in the casual game space. I swear, at some point, it seems like all of Popcap and Gamehouse's games were rip-offs of each other. Popcap's Big Money [popcap.com] and Gamehouse's Collapse [gamehouse.com] are two obvious examples. (And I wouldn't be surprised if they're rip-offs of some other game as well).

    In general, the whole "match 3 or more colors" gameplay has been done many times over. Just take a look at Bejeweled [popcap.com], Zuma [popcap.com], and Hexic [msn.com].
  • I was expecting a Metroid Prime clone in the article. I didn't know they made Pong and Donkey Kong too.
    • There is mention of Metroid clones in the article. At one point, he said that all the recent game in the Castlevania series are somewhat a ripoff of that game. My opinion is that this is true since now in a Castlevania game, you have a map, partly hidden at first and to go to one of those hidden area you must somehow upgrade your character with things like items to jump higher, go into water, make your way into little passage...etc.
      • My opinion is that this is true since now in a Castlevania game, you have a map, partly hidden at first and to go to one of those hidden area you must somehow upgrade your character with things like items to jump higher, go into water, make your way into little passage...etc.

        That's a bit thin. By that reasoning, "Resident Evil" is "Metroid, in 3rd Person cinematic[0], without the map." "Ratchet and Clank" could be "Pac man in 3rd person following, with offensive capabilities and increased variety of enemies
        • Just to be thorough, Carlin says that volleyball is actually "racketless team ping pong played with an inflatable ball and a raised net, while standing on the table." Take it with a grain of salt though. This is the same guy that says gymnastics isn't a sport because Romainians are good at it.
          • That was it. It's been a while since I heard that bit. :)

            This is the same guy that says gymnastics isn't a sport because Romainians are good at it.

            Though, IIRC, he does admit that one took him some work to come up with.

        • That's a bit thin.

          I don't think so. I've often seen the later 2D Castlevania games being refered to as "the Metroid-Style Castlevanias" or something similar, in order to distinguish them from the earlier, linear games. I think it's pretty much an accepted meme that these games borrowed quite a few concepts from the Metroid games. Konami took a lot from the Metroid series, and for what it's worth, it made the Castlevania series a whole lot better without blatantly ripping off Metroid, so I don't think any

    • Well, I got the joke. Dunno why nobody else did. (:

      For everyone else: Retro Studios developed Metroid Prime, the 3d first person version of Metroid for the Gamecube. So based on the title of the article, the parent was looking for Metroid Prime rip-offs.

      I'd give you mod points, but I had to respond instead. Sorry!

  • Rip-offs? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by cgenman ( 325138 ) on Friday February 03, 2006 @09:15PM (#14639650) Homepage
    You know, that's very hypocritical of him to write: plagiarism has long been the foundation of the writer's humble craft. (For example, that last sentence was stolen from somewhere.)

  • OK, I RTFA, and there's something I don't get. Can somebody point to me the similarities between Castlevania and Super Metroid, besides the obvious "metroid syndrome" in SOTN?

    I enjoyed both SuperCastlevania IV and SuperMetroid, the gameplay was very different. The only similarity between those two are the grappling hook / whip balancing. So, I really don't know which Castlevania they're talking about. I actually have the suspicion that the author only said it to look cool and have us all startled wondering

  • Rainbow Arts (Score:4, Informative)

    by Perseid ( 660451 ) on Friday February 03, 2006 @09:47PM (#14639770)
    I'm sure nobody cares, but the company that made Giana Sisters was not a "tiny shareware outfit." They were a moderately sized, commercial game company in the early 90s, making mostly C-64 and Amiga games.

    http://www.the-underdogs.org/company.php?name=Rain bow+Arts/ [the-underdogs.org]
    • Your link doesn't work but the team behind Giana Sisters was known for Turrican, Katakis/Denaris (blatant R-Type ripoff that got them a lawsuit from Irem) and the R-Type port to the C64 (which Irem let them do after the lawsuit was settled). Most of the team is part of Factor 5 these days, known for great looking but buggy and mediocre Star Wars games and various tools for consoles (divx for GC and XB, dolby pro logic for GC, etc).

      If Chris Hülsbeck doesn't ring a name, I don't know what.
      • Nitpicking, but it wasn't Irem who sued Rainbow Arts but Activision, who held the home computer license for R-Type. It was also Activision who then hired RA for the official port after they ran into problems with their own port.
    • At the time they wrote GGS they were, though. It was one of their first (if not the first) retail games.

  • Not-retro: Tattoo Assassins (Score:3, Interesting)

    by British ( 51765 ) <british1500@gmail.com> on Friday February 03, 2006 @09:50PM (#14639784) Homepage Journal
    It was a blatant Mortal Kombat ripoff. But it is oh so bad it's good. You play a round if it and can easily count the similiarities to it and MK, but it copies it badly.

  • Gaiden != Castlevania (Score:3, Funny)

    by Taulin ( 569009 ) on Saturday February 04, 2006 @03:38AM (#14640745) Homepage Journal
    Sorry...no relationship between Gaiden and Castlevania. Very lame. Everything else in the article was Ok.
    • There are actually many substantial simularities. Not enough that I'd say that Ninja Gaiden ripped off Castlevania, but enough that I've noted them long before the article was written.

      Where I differ with the author is in his assertion Castlevania was a bad game. On the contrary, it has excellent design and "flows" well, while Ninja Gaiden seems twitchy and stuttery to me, and is a lot more annoying than Castlevania. Both games are fairly difficult, though.

  • Frozen Bubble (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Let us not forget the flagship of open source gaming which is a rip-off (or homage if you like) of Puzzle Bobble / Bust-a-Move.

  • Oh, indeed it was a ripoff, BUT: the intro music (no, not the loader music, although that one's great too) in Giana Sisters must make up for that. I mean, Chris Huelsbeck's music to that game is just soooo awesome.

  • This still goes on a lot, the most popular arcade games now are simply adapted a bit and put out by other manufactures under a different brand. The fact is that there is only so many ways people want to play at arcades, so most shooting games will all seem similar after a while, it is very hard to be creative in a field that has been trying to do so for the last 30 years.
  • ...which are all rip-offs of Wolfenstein 3d?

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