I know it's shallow to promote my work repeatedly, but this is too good to pass up. The Super Sprint remake (right panel has the download link) will never go away in my mind. I really like what I did with it. In December, during the heavy production phase of the game, I joked about buying the actual Super Sprint trademark so I could license the game on my own. As you know, Super Sprint was once owned by Atari, picked up by Midway, and now Midway is dead. So the Super Sprint trademark is in limbo...right?
I recently discovered a website that lists all trademarks & patents filed in the US. I was curious so I typed in Super Sprint and now I know who owns the rights to the game:
WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT. Apparently, they picked it up in 2006 and have done nothing with it. Sure, a Super Sprint/Spy Hunter GBA port was released in '05 but that's it. Nothing about the game remains.
I tell you this--if I so felt like it, I'd probably pay at most four digits in US Dollars for the Super Sprint trademark. I know WB is stingy but not nearly as much as evil Viacom. But just imagine for a sec...I could own the rights to a classic arcade game. I'd have it for ten years and that could be my claim to fame. Yeah that's right...kids would say "Who the hell are you?" and then BAM, I'd whip out that trademark and they'd be like "DAYUM, this dude's the man."
But that's besides the point. It would be a bit impractical to own the license. I could change the game's name to "Hyper Sprint," ditch the music & interface, and work with that. Besides, "Hyper Sprint" logically makes sense since I'm going above and beyond the scope of the original Super Sprint game. I don't even know that much about law with regards to patents & trademarks so maybe I'm overdoing it. Seriously, though, DOES ANYONE CARE ABOUT OWNING THE SUPER SPRINT TRADEMARK BESIDES ME???
But no, I'll tell you this. Version 1.0 of Super Sprint is really nice but it can be vastly worked upon. More stages, more features, better sound effects, more cars on the screen, stat-keeping. Polish & optimize the game. V1.0 doesn't have sloped turns, sliding doors, or ramps. I can picture in my head the means in which I'd go about it so it wouldn't be as hard as it looks. I'll give you a hint: bump maps. BUMP MAPS....
...it gets better though. At FIEA, we have a long-term assignment for Programming class. It's a "personal project" that involves diving into a specific aspect of programming. It was a really close call between car physics (it would be in some crummy rendering engine, not in Unity or UDK or anything) or online gaming. I went with online netcode. You know what that means...?
It's not going to be easy one damn bit but it can be done! After that, we get a small team to cover the art & advertising aspects of the game then WE PRESS START TO RICH!!!
I'm probably getting way over my head but a Super Sprint remake is one of those things that would revive my faith in the game industry once again--up there with a new Daytona, Shenmue, San Francisco Rush, Advance Wars, Monster Rancher, et. al.
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Also, I have some sucky news...turns out that the Rolling Start website (arcade racing game news) has been taken down. "Account Suspended" my ass. Hopefully they will get back online and start posting again. Lord knows we can't lose any more racing game websites, especially with the abysmal state of the genre these days.
I recently discovered a website that lists all trademarks & patents filed in the US. I was curious so I typed in Super Sprint and now I know who owns the rights to the game:
WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT. Apparently, they picked it up in 2006 and have done nothing with it. Sure, a Super Sprint/Spy Hunter GBA port was released in '05 but that's it. Nothing about the game remains.
I tell you this--if I so felt like it, I'd probably pay at most four digits in US Dollars for the Super Sprint trademark. I know WB is stingy but not nearly as much as evil Viacom. But just imagine for a sec...I could own the rights to a classic arcade game. I'd have it for ten years and that could be my claim to fame. Yeah that's right...kids would say "Who the hell are you?" and then BAM, I'd whip out that trademark and they'd be like "DAYUM, this dude's the man."
But that's besides the point. It would be a bit impractical to own the license. I could change the game's name to "Hyper Sprint," ditch the music & interface, and work with that. Besides, "Hyper Sprint" logically makes sense since I'm going above and beyond the scope of the original Super Sprint game. I don't even know that much about law with regards to patents & trademarks so maybe I'm overdoing it. Seriously, though, DOES ANYONE CARE ABOUT OWNING THE SUPER SPRINT TRADEMARK BESIDES ME???
But no, I'll tell you this. Version 1.0 of Super Sprint is really nice but it can be vastly worked upon. More stages, more features, better sound effects, more cars on the screen, stat-keeping. Polish & optimize the game. V1.0 doesn't have sloped turns, sliding doors, or ramps. I can picture in my head the means in which I'd go about it so it wouldn't be as hard as it looks. I'll give you a hint: bump maps. BUMP MAPS....
...it gets better though. At FIEA, we have a long-term assignment for Programming class. It's a "personal project" that involves diving into a specific aspect of programming. It was a really close call between car physics (it would be in some crummy rendering engine, not in Unity or UDK or anything) or online gaming. I went with online netcode. You know what that means...?
ONLINE SUPER SPRINT!!!!!
It's not going to be easy one damn bit but it can be done! After that, we get a small team to cover the art & advertising aspects of the game then WE PRESS START TO RICH!!!
WASSAM BRUUUUHHHH
I'm probably getting way over my head but a Super Sprint remake is one of those things that would revive my faith in the game industry once again--up there with a new Daytona, Shenmue, San Francisco Rush, Advance Wars, Monster Rancher, et. al.
------------
Also, I have some sucky news...turns out that the Rolling Start website (arcade racing game news) has been taken down. "Account Suspended" my ass. Hopefully they will get back online and start posting again. Lord knows we can't lose any more racing game websites, especially with the abysmal state of the genre these days.
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