Video game clone
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A video game clone is a video game or game series which is very similar to or heavily inspired by a previous popular game or game series. Some video game genres are founded by such archetypal games that all subsequent similar games are thought of as derivatives.
The term is sometimes derogatory, implying a lack of originality but clones can be anything from a pure "ripoff", to a legitimate derivative or improvement on the original or even a homage to it.
In the early video game industry, making a clone of a game was not illegal, provided no outright copyright violation or trademark infringement was involved but as the gaming market grew, large developers gained the ability to sue the developers of clones which were too similar to originals.[1] Look and feel lawsuits, such as the one Capcom filed against Data East over the game Fighter's History[citation needed], are an option for developers who feel their franchises are at risk, but are not common due to the legal complexities involved. With the adoption of software patents in some countries, e.g. in the United States in the 1990s, clone games are at far greater legal risk.
At times, games can be considered clones by the uninformed gamer if they resemble a modern popular game regardless of whether or not the game that has been "cloned" was completely original or not. An example of this is the way the majority of isometric RPG titles are considered clones of Blizzard's popular Diablo game, despite the fact that Diablo did not pioneer this style of gameplay and was in itself heavily influenced by Ultima VIII.
Early arcade games such as Space Invaders have been cloned very widely especially in 1980s and still in early 1990s. Most of clones have been published by freeware computer game designers but there have also been many commercially released clones of those games. Freeware released have often been very straight clones with only some minor elements and possibly the game's title changed.
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[edit] Notable cloned games
- Arkanoid. The 1987 release of the computer conversion of this arcade game - which is itself a clone - triggered a flood of clones made for leading home computers of the day.
- Grand Theft Auto, possibly one of the most cloned games in recent memory[citation needed] (see GTA clone).
- Commando (1985), a vertical scrolling shoot 'em up, produced many clones such as Ikari Warriors, Rambo II, Dogs of War, Leatherneck, Battle Isle.
- Dungeon Master (1987) was the first 3D-roleplaying game (though early Ultima games contained similar dungeons). It was followed by many clones, though it took few years before the clones really start coming. Some of the clones took the game idea to a sci-fi setting but most of them remained in fantasy world.
- Tetris has been ported to all but the most obscure platforms, often under different non-infringing names. See Tetris variants.
- In the 1990s, first person shooters were called Doom-clones. Doom (1993) itself was the spiritual sequel to Wolfenstein 3D (1992), by the same designers.
- Great Giana Sisters (1987), famous platform game for late 1980s home computers, was a Super Mario Bros clone to the extent that its publisher was threatened to be taken to court and the game was withdrawn from market.
- Warcraft was originally a Dune II clone being a second game of the new genre.
- Guitar Hero has spawned a great number of clones: Frets On Fire, Freetar, Guitar Zero and Flash Hero are the more notable ones.
- Famous early arcade games were cloned often, especially by freeware game designers
- Asteroids (clones include Stardust, Sinistar, Comet Busters!, and Minestorm, which was built into the notable Vectrex console)
- Defender (clones include Star Ray, Attack of the Mutant Camels, Datastorm)
- Gravitar (clones include Thrust, Gravity Force, OIDS)
- Pac-Man (clones include Munch Man (the most popular TI-4/99A game) and countless others)
- Space Invaders (clones include Galaga, Phoenix, TI Invaders)
- Missile Command (clones include Liberator, Bio-ship Paladin)
- Qix (clones include Gals Panic, Xonix, JezzBall)
- Tron (clones include Armagetron Advanced, GLtron)
[edit] Trivia
Fedora will not include any rhythm games that may infringe on patents in Guitar Hero or Dance Dance Revolution.[2] Specifically, this affects their respective open source clones, Frets on Fire and Stepmania.
Many famous titles by Jeff Minter were clones of arcade games in which graphics were turned from the original robot/spaceship graphics to animal creatures.
