[GBC] weird history question: Super Breakout...by Konami!?

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

I was reacquainting myself with the Game Boy Color Super Breakout cart the other day when I noticed that copyright for the game was attributed to Konami. What the heck!? I've never known anyone but Atari to hold the copyright to this game. What gives? Any insights?

[Ed Oscuro]

Was the copyright sold off during Atari's troubles (which isn't to say it's doing very well now, just that there's nothing of value left from Atari so it can't get much worse)?

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

I'm not sure. It's shown up on a lot of Atari compilations without so much as a single nod to Konami, so I dunno.

The GBC Super Breakout cart was made by Majesco, by the bye, which seemed to be in cahoots with Hasbro Interactive (the then-rights-owners of Atari). I'm just not getting where Konami had anything to do with it. :)

[Ed Oscuro]

Very odd...in that case, I say something strange happened. Is the notice in the ROM itself or just on the packaging? I can't imagine the packaging being outsourced, but...

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

It's in the ROM - this is what it says on the screen itself:

(C) 1997 HASBRO INC.
(C) HASBRO INTERACTIVE, INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

SUPER BREAKOUT IS A TRADEMARK OF KONAMI CO., LTD.

(C)1981 KONAMI
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

(C) 1998 MAJESCO SALES, INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

LICENSED BY NINTENDO

[Ed Oscuro]

Those crazy 'tater heads at Hasbro done it again, looks like :/

Now that I think about it, this sounds familiar...

Whatever the case, here's what IGN has to say about it:

http://pocket.ign.com/articles/161/161995p1.html?fromint=1


And as a final note, just looking at the copyright screen is proof enough that the game was thrown together as quickly as possible ? Super Breakout's copyright is credited to Konami, not Atari or Hasbro. Obviously someone quickly cut and pasted a few lines of code from the Frogger source before this game was sent out the door...

Simple programmer error when the programmers had to work on a batch of game. Question answered, looks like.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Frogger's copyright screen is a completely different style from that of Super Breakout, but they're both by Majesco and that's as close to a good explanation as anything I can think of. LOL

[Lady Jaye]

I knew that something else was wrong with this info! I just checked, and Super Breakout came out in 1978 (according to www.klov.com). So it makes even more sense that the programmers at Majesco cut and paste the wrong copyright info (and in this case, it's gotta be Frogger... what other well-known game of 1981 was made by Konami and remade by Majesco?).