View source for Blog:Legal Brief: Atari vs. Sega

__NOTOC__
<small>[[User:CRV|CRV]] ([[User talk:CRV|talk]]) 05:49, 6 August 2017 (CEST) [[Blog:Legal Brief: Atari vs. Sega|[permalink]]]</small>

We now have "official" evidence of certain developers' involvement in certain Sega 8- and 16-bit games. But first, here's some background on the case that produced it:

In October 1993, Atari Corp.<sup>1</sup> filed a lawsuit against Sega of America alleging infringement of a 1984 patent involving "horizontal scrolling on a video display."<sup>2</sup> The Tramiel family company sought a preliminary injunction that would have halted the manufacture, use, and sale of Genesis and Game Gear hardware and software.

:<small>1. Atari Corp., incorporated on May 17, 1984, as Tramel [sic] Technology, Ltd., was started by ousted Commodore founder and president Jack Tramiel to create a new computer. In July of that year, the company bought Atari, Inc.'s consumer assets and was renamed Atari Corp.</small>
:<small>2. U.S. Patent No. 4,445,114 ("Apparatus for Scrolling a Video Display")</small>

The court found that the harm caused to Sega, retailers, developers, and peripheral manufacturers by this injunction would have likely outweighed whatever harm had been done to Atari, so the motion was denied. Nevertheless, a settlement was reached in September 1994 between both parties — Sega would acquire $40 million worth of stock in Atari and would also pay Atari $50 million for a license to use over 70 patents issued between 1977 and 1984. The companies agreed to cross-license up to five games per year through 2001. They also agreed to drop all claims against each other.

For the cash-strapped Atari Corp., this infusion of money was very important and likely helped enable deals with Williams, Acclaim, and EA and other projects that were in the hopper in 1995. Unfortunately, Atari president and CEO Sam Tramiel later had a heart attack, which prompted his father Jack to take back the reins of the company.<sup>3</sup> Jack felt it was safer to tie up with JTS, a manufacturer of hard drives — a "brown box commodity" that required little marketing — than to continue piddling away money on video games and the Jaguar, which sold so poorly.<sup>4</sup> Atari entered a reverse merger with JTS on July 30, 1996.

:<small>3. Jack Tramiel was CEO of Atari Corp. until his son took over in 1988. Jack had been and would remain Chairman of the Board.</small>
:<small>4. 125,000 units sold</small>

Ultimately, no Sega games ever made it to the Jaguar, but Atari did show interest. Sega sent a list of games available for licensing and, as you'll see in the memos posted below, eventually did approve a few. There was some speculation in the press that ''Virtua Fighter'' and ''Daytona'' could turn up on the Jag, but these were apparently off the table. Instead, Atari received a catalog of 8- and 16-bit games that also didn't include ''Sonic'' or ''Ecco''. The list also notes if royalties would be owed to or need to be negotiated with a third party, usually outside developers, many of which are covered on this site.

<small>References: [http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/869/783/1495595/] [http://www.movieprop.com/videogames/atari/lawsuits.htm] [http://www.digitpress.com/cge/2k4_mp3/hi/atari%20timeline%20panel%20at%20cge2k4.mp3] [http://atariage.com/forums/topic/227975-jaguar-vr-display/page-2] [http://atariage.com/forums/topic/212861-jaguars-demise/] [http://atariage.com/forums/topic/239388-atari-jaguar-vs-3do/page-6] [https://assemblergames.com/threads/jaguar-unreleased-games-info.20747/page-5#post-943232] [http://mcurrent.name/atarihistory/tramel_technology.html]</small>

<includeonly>[[Blog:Legal Brief: Atari vs. Sega|Continue reading to see the list and related memos, followed by a summary and breakdown of the developers mentioned]]</includeonly>

<noinclude>[[Blog:Legal Brief: Atari vs. Sega|Continue reading to see the list and related memos, followed by a summary and breakdown of the developers mentioned]]


<center><gallery>
File:Sa11301994 1.png
File:Sa11301994 2.png
File:Sa11301994 3.png
File:Sa11301994 4.png
File:Sa11301994 5.png
File:Sa11301994 6.png
File:Sa11301994 7.png
File:Sa11301994 8.png
File:Sa12021994 1.png
File:Sa12071994 1.png
File:Sa12121994 1.png
File:Sa01111995 1.png
File:Jaguar 95 96 pending titles.png
</gallery></center>

<small>''Special thanks to Scott Stilphen for providing the preceding scans''</small>


(There are no earth-shattering discoveries, and there may even be errors, but otherwise this does back up claims we've made on this site for years.)

[[Sanritsu]]:
*GG ''Aerial Assault''
*SMS ''Aerial Assault'' (music royalty to "Ishino")
*SMS ''Alien Storm''
*SMS ''Assault City''
*SMS ''Bonanza Brothers''
*SMS ''Dragon Crystal''
*SMS ''Dynamite Duke''
*GEN/SMS ''E-SWAT''
*SMS ''G-LOC''
*GEN/SMS ''Gain Ground''
*GEN ''Out Run''
*SMS ''Psychic World''
*SMS ''Running Battle''
*GEN ''Wrestle War''

(SMS ''Aerial Assault'' was definitely by Sanritsu, but the music was by Izuho Numata (nee Takeuchi). GG ''Aerial Assault'' doesn't seem like a Sanritsu game, and it came out in Japan in June 1992, a year after Sanritsu's "successor" SIMS was started.)

(''Dragon Crystal'' shares a graphic designer with ''Line of Fire'', "Gaga," who also worked on SMS ''Shadow Dancer'' and nothing else. Programmer "XYZ" doesn't turn up on any other Sanritsu/SIMS games.)

(On ''E-SWAT'', a platform isn't specified for Sanritsu's royalty, which would imply they were owed for both the Genesis and Master System versions. A look at the credits suggests Sanritsu only did the latter.)

(I had a suspicion Sanritsu or SIMS was involved with ''Running Battle'' because of sound designer Hikoshi Hashimoto's involvement. Opera House also worked on it, and it was [http://web.archive.org/web/20161220184805/http://www.opera-house.co.jp/works.html listed on their website].)

(''Wrestle War'' used to be [http://web.archive.org/web/20000808220449/http://www.sims.co.jp:80/img/megadrive.gif pictured on the SIMS website], but it looks like they handed off development to [[GDRI-010|some other group]].)

[[SIMS]]:
*SMS ''Line of Fire''
*SMS ''Masters of Combat''
*GG ''Out Run''
*GG ''Putt & Putter''

[[I.T.L]]:
*GEN ''Arrow Flash''
*GEN ''Bonanza Brothers''

[[JSH]]? ("Nihon")
*GG ''Streets of Rage 2''

[[Whiteboard]]:
*SMS ''Danan: The Jungle Fighter''

[[Santos|San]][[Santos (2)|tos]]:
*GG ''Space Harrier''
*SMS ''Streets of Rage 2''

([http://www.smspower.org/forums/9383-WhodunitJSH#46537 Code comparisons] suggest both the SMS and GG versions of ''Streets of Rage 2'' were by JSH.)

[[Megasoft]]:
*GG ''Shinobi'' (list says ''Shinobi II''; code number given, "2402," is for the first game)

(Megasoft was behind ''Shinobi III'', but no one from Megasoft is credited on GG ''Shinobi'' as far I can tell.)

"Softarc" ([[Arc System Works]]?):
*GG ''Ax Battler''

(We've had this listed for [[Aspect]] because most of the programmers worked there, and it was released after Aspect was started. However, Noriyuki Tabata doesn't appear to have ever worked for Aspect; he worked at Arc and later at [[Minato Giken]]. Programmer/Aspect president Kazuyuki Oikawa previously worked on Arc's ''Road Spirits'' for the PC Engine.)

[[Hot-B]] ("Hottorei"):
*GEN ''Crack Down''

([[Interview:Kimihiro Endoh|An interview with one of the programmers]])

[[Tiertex]]:
*SMS ''GP Rider''
*GEN ''Turbo Out Run'' ("Taitechs")

"Token":
*GEN ''Golden Axe''
*GEN ''Golden Axe II''
*GEN ''Golden Axe III''

(Token?)

Probe:
*GEN ''G-LOC''

Amusement:
*GEN ''Jewel Master''

(Amusement was originally making this game for the Sharp X68000 computer, under the name [http://murakun5555.at.webry.info/201112/article_36.html ''Blade of the Great Elements'']. Incidentally, Amusement also worked on the Famicom RPG ''Double Moon Densetsu''.)

Climax:
*GEN ''Landstalker''
*GEN ''Shining in the Darkness''

[[Westone]]:
*SMS ''Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap''

[[Gau Entertainment]]:
*GEN ''Ranger-X''

Digital Pictures:
*SCD ''Double Switch''
*SCD ''Prize Fighter''

Ancient ("Enshant"):
*GG ''Shinobi'' (music royalty)
*GEN ''Shinobi III'' (music royalty)
*GEN/SMS/GG ''Streets of Rage'' (music royalty)
*GEN/SMS/GG ''Streets of Rage 2'' (music royalty)
*GEN ''Streets of Rage 3'' (music royalty)

(Ancient is Yuzo Koshiro's company. Neither he nor Ancient were involved with ''Shinobi III''.)</noinclude>