rec.autos.simulators

    Over my dead body!

--

Mr. H.R. Bradshaw(Deceased)
Head Minister, Ministry of Silly Walks
*Is your life in a rut? Then head down
to your local silly walks recruiter today.*

Join now and we will send you a free Sh***y.

this pearl of wisdom...

Don't know if it's the same thing, but someone sent out a press release a
few years ago stating they had a patent on something that sounded similar
to this, and that they were looking for royalties from Sierra, LucasArts
and other big players in the adventure game biz.

Never heard about it again until now.

--
--------------------------------

editor - computer games strategy plus | www.cdmag.com

"In the arts, the critic is the only independent source
 of information. The rest is advertising." -Pauline Kael
"...professional critics make me sick. " - Ernest Hemingway

"And Lo, I created life one... frame... at... a... time...
 And on the seventh frame... I REALIZED I HAD 8,633 more to go!"

La Musique Petite Challenge and the DORK page
(Dearmad's Official Raytracing Krud) are at:
http://www.europa.com/~dearmad

I just read at www.pcme.com that some attorney has sent a letter
to Apogee about a patent from 1987 (US Patent 4,662,635).

This patent covers things like "playing video sequences of people
or animals by selection made by the player of the video game" (not
the correct words, but something like that).

That means that Encarta and Cinemania, for example, are illegal
in the USA. You could find A LOT of other games that could be
looked at as illegal. They seem to have begun with Apogee asking
them to stop doing everything they do. I guess they didn't have
the guts to send a letter to Bill Gates and asking him to stop
all multimedia/video/FMV production.

This sounds crazy. My girlfriend is a patent attorney and she says
that this sounds very strange as it is not a technical invention.
If you could get a patent like this you could get one for milking
a cow (not a new way of milking a cow thanks to new technique but
just the idea of milking a cow). This is weird!

Well, I guess you Americans will have to do without games in the
future :-)

/Michael

Sick stuff - everyone out for the easy buck rather than earning it in
a fair competative market.  aka, I'll sue you because I can't compete
with you, it must obviously be somebody's fault except for mine.  

--

PGP public key at a keyserver near you.
1024/1024  DSS/DH  0354ECE4  
     1538  RSA     8193DA4F

writes:

    Only in America.

    BTW, I am an American, so let's not start an "America Sucks"
thread, Okay?

Mr. H.R. Bradshaw(Deceased)
Head Minister, Ministry of Silly Walks
*Is your life in a rut? Then head down
to your local silly walks recruiter today.*

Join now and we will send you a free Sh***y.

Cat. ;)

Most ridiculous patent claim I've ever heard.
Trying to patent a "method" of motion capture could, of course, be
legitimate.  But trying to "patent" a style of presentation or a medium
itself -- puh-lease...

Sheesh, should be counter-sued for initiating "frivolous and vexatious"
lawsuit.

Desslock

RPG Therapy Column: http://www.gamepen.com/therapy/pc.rpg
Special "Ultima Online" Phase 1 Report:
http://www.gamepen.com/therapy/pc.rpg/rpgspecial.html

Here's the meat of the primary patent claim:

"A video game, comprising video recording means for visual reproduction and
eventual play-back of a plurality of separable action events performed by
living beings which remain as originally recorded when played back..."

This would seem to apply to games like WIng Commander III & IV, where
different videos are played based on what the player chooses to do.
However, I don't see how it could apply to things like Quake or Duke Nukem,
because it doesn't involve "events performed by living beings".

This sounds a little like a typical patent vulture scheme. There are law
firms, primarily centered in New York, who buy up patents like this one,
usually from inventors or small companies that have run into financial
troubles. Then they send out letters to every company they can dig up that
might have a product remotely resembling the patent claim, threatening
legal action if they don't agree to pay a license. They price the license
so that it's cheaper to settle it than fight it in court. Given that a
simple patent infringement case can cost well over $100,000, more if it
goes to appeal, you can see how a law firm might rack up over a million
dollars off a patent that they paid a few thousand dollars for.

Dave Sparks
IWCCCARS Project: http://www.theuspits.com/iwcccars/index.html-ssi
Late Night Series: http://www.sequoia-dev.com/Hawaii/latenite.html

You can read the digest of the patent at the interesting
http://patent.womplex.ibm.com/ site.  It seems to describe a dedicated
sports videogame that showed prerecorded video clips in response to
controller input.  I wonder what storage medium they planned to use back
then, videotape?  Think of the blazing fun as the VCR spends 2 minutes
rewinding and cueing up a 5-second clip!

Charles Tyson
For email replies, delete all "X"s from my address

                                             ___________
 Adam Littman                               /     ^     \

                                          /__\__/___\__/__\
                                         /    \( ) ( )/    \
                                         \    /\  o  /\    /
                                          \  /  \( )/  \  /
 "Four minutes twenty-two seconds,         \/____\_/____\/
     Baldric, you owe me a groat"           \     \     /
        --Blackadder                         \   / \   /
                                              ---------

Laser disc. That game with the cartoon guy running around in the
dungeon came out sometime in the mid-80's. What was the name of it?
The sequel was "Space Ace."

a bottle washed ashore containing the following desperate message from

Dragon's Lair!

Patrick
_____________________________________________________________________
"Rest assured that my decisions always have in mind the ultimate good.  
I shall now ask you some test questions, as a security measure."
_____________________________________________________________________

*Disclaimer*:  These are my own opinions and do not necessarily reflect
those of the Central Intelligence Agency.