Could there ever be a Parker Bros Plug and Play?

[tom]

with VCS games?
I mean we had the Atari stick PnP, the Flashback 1 and 2, numerous Activsions even as Action packs for PC.
Parker games on VCS were always one of my faves company, and I would buy a Parker VCS PnP without question.
I guess due to Nintendo, Konami, LucasArts and others licensing it's probably a big no-no nowadays, which is a shame, or could there actually be a possibility?

[Leo_A]

Never going to happen, almost all of the stuff they developed didn't used their own IP. All their games just about used IP from companies like Konami, Lucasarts, Marvel, Gottlieb, Nintendo, Universal, King Features Syndicate (Or whoever owns the Popeye stuff now), etc. That would all have to be relicensed at significant cost.

Plus, I doubt anyone at Parker Brothers realizes they were a Atari 2600 developer/publisher 25 years ago, or could pinpoint who owns what.

Lastly, who would buy it besides DP and AtariAge users? The public has largely forgotten about it. And if someone had memories of playing Frogger on their Atari 2600 or something, they'd likely not remember that Parker Brothers was the developer, or realize what they're looking at as a TVGames version of something they played as a child.

[Greg2600]

I wonder if you could license individually without going through Parker Brothers? Though I agree with Leo, the demand wouldn't be that great for 2600 games. I have most of their games for CV and 5200, but those would be better candidates. They were good games. Montezuma's Revenge, Tutankham, Frogger and Frogger II, Gyruss, Popeye, Q*bert, Super Cobra.

[Leo_A]

You couldn't bypass Parker Brothers. While they don't own the intellectual property used as a basis for their titles (The design for the Popeye title from Nintendo, characters, names, etc.), they or whoever they sold the titles to (If that ever happened), do own the code and their creations. The games are all theirs, they just can't do anything about it without violating copyright laws, unless they relicense things like the Frogger name and concept from Konami, etc.

I suspect Parker Brothers couldn't even pinpoint just who owns what if someone inquired about it, the company that developed these titles disappeared long ago through merger, and later, several aquisitions. Unless a very good paper trail exists, I doubt today's Parker Brothers would really know for certain (Remember, this was just a side business PB was in very briefly in the early 1980s). That doubt right there would be enough to kill a project, even if licensing cost wasn't an issue.

Just check out the butchering CBS did to their DVD releases of My Three Sons for a example of what I'm talking about. They're replacing the musical scores and cues with horrible generic computer generated replacements (We're talking about a 60s television series here) because they couldn't figure out who owns the rights to the Capitol Music Library (Which was relied on for much of the audio).

So rather than take the risk and release intact shows that use some of those assets like other companies do, they're rescoring classic shows rather than risk getting sued for copyright infringement someday. The abundance of risk-averse intellectual property lawyers I suspect would kill such a project even if a miracle happened and they thought it was financially viable and secured low cost licensing for all the IP involved. What would happen if someone showed up afterwards with documented proof they were sold the rights to the PB videogame library 25 years ago?

[PingvinBlueJeans]

Just check out the butchering CBS did to their DVD releases of My Three Sons for a example of what I'm talking about. They're replacing the musical scores and cues with horrible generic computer generated replacements (We're talking about a 60s television series here) because they couldn't figure out who owns the rights to the Capitol Music Library (Which was relied on for much of the audio).
Wow...I didn't know about that. That sucks!


What would happen if someone showed up afterwards with documented proof they were sold the rights to the PB videogame library 25 years ago?
Atari acquired the rights to the PB video games after the latter left the industry...who knows where the trail goes from there.

[tom]

Ah yes, that's why there was a version of Q*Bert from Atari.

[PingvinBlueJeans]

Ah yes, that's why there was a version of Q*Bert from Atari.
Correct. Atari also acquired the Coleco games, hence the reissues of Donkey Kong, Venture, etc.

[Leo_A]

I knew about them buying the Coleco library, but not the PB titles. Thanks