Atari stops Jeff Minter's 'Tempest' style game...

[adder]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-03-18-jeff-minter-beyond-disgusted-with-atari-over-txk-block

[SavannahLion]

After a little research, I figured out why I never heard of TxK and I'm a big fan of Tempest. It is my desired white elephant.

It was released on Vita and, I'm sorry, I hate the Vita. But I digress, TxK is a money maker and that's probably what got Atari's (or rather... Infogrames  ) attention.

AFAIK, the previous "Tempest" incarnations were freeware type releases and never pulled in any cash.

And after reading about Jeff Minter, you would think he ought to know better. He worked on a variety of platforms and with companies including Atari, Nintendo, Microsoft and Apple. After working on so many games and with so many games, you would think he would be, at least, peripherally aware of the legal ramifications of his games. It was probably in any number of contracts he signed as a developer for those companies, just because you make a game for a company doesn't mean you always have legal access to that game after the project is done.

From what I've read so far, I'm pretty hard pressed to side with Minter on this one. I say Minter got too big for his britches and thought he could tromp through the IP garden without getting shot at.

I'm not ashamed to admit my dislike for Infogrames/Atari, but that isn't outweighing what I've read so far about the whole ordeal. I might change my position once I learn more but....