The game is a pirate / hacked copy of Donkey Kong with new levels...
It might have been a fair amount of work to create, but you'd be pushed to say he owns the rights to it because most of the code he's selling isn't his..
If you take something made by somebody else (Donkey Kong) change a few things (new levels) it doesn't really make it yours to sell. Independent developer is probably pushing it a little. Independent rom hacker maybe ;-) If reports are to be believed he was a complete arse over people wanting the bugfixed versions too, not simply allowing people to program their own by sending them the updated ROM, but insisting the whole thing was returned and/or they pay for the upgrade chip which is reportedly why somebody who did pay for it put it online, for others to use. If that's true I have little sympathy for him, sorry.
Definitely +1
It baffles me that people think he has the right to sell this and that it's bad to add it to Mame

It's a rom hack - it doesn't matter how elaborate it is or how much work was put into it, a hack is a hack. Think of it this way. If someone made a hack of a popular game that came out this year and tried to sell it, they'd get shutdown real fast. I'm glad this guy did this, because I think it is a cool hack, but he doesn't own it for the most part.
I always wondered why there weren't more sequels to these types of games - how hard would it be to release another Ms. Pac-man game with 4 new stages? The graphics could stay exactly the same!
If you want Pacman/Ms. Pacman sequels, there are a ton of rom hacks in MisfitMame that give you new mazes to play. I like to play them from time to time. Sure, they're not "official" sequels, but then again, neither was Ms. Pacman really.
