Venice Cull

Yep. I belive Microsoft were funding it. Yeah, Softaid, that's it. Rygal will kill himself for not getting it. Apparently he's the 'Norris McWhirter' of Spectrum games.

Fairly sure. I might be wrong about Medal of Honour, but it was definately an high profile EA war game. Thing is, according to the news article it was coming out next week. The Charity was 'ECS' (or similar), and provided interactive educational tools for kids or something. But, like I said, the story dissapeared, and I can't find it anywhere. Still, the idea was great. Cheap games, charity benefits, publishers see IP no longer on the shelves being played by people who didn't own the originals (and thus raising the titles profile). Good P.R. Win/Win and all that.

and more to the point, when will they be reviewing Mario Kart DD, and what score will the give it?

Can't recall the last time a 'charity' compilation came out (Spectrum games collection for Band Aid?). Anyway, I saw a news story on Monday on Gamesindustry.biz which revealed that Microsoft were releasing a compilation CD next week containing (I think) Hitman 2, Burnout 2 and Medal of Honour all for £29.95, the proceeds of which were going to a childrens charity. Does anyone know why this story has now been removed - was it simply not true? Anyway, videogame industry in possibly not greedy shocker.

I could play a Sega GT and GT 3 and quite easily draw the conclusion that Sega 'stole' the idea to make a game with a heap of cars and tracks and all that shit, but I don't see sony taking anyone to court.

Simply purchase 'Donkey Kong Country' for the SNES, as it contains the most authentic and wonderful snow ever created within a videogame. I know I'll be playing it on Christmas eve. Bit of a tradition like.

I quite enjoyed 1080 on the N64, but snowboarding games for me in general don't 'do it' for me, for reasons you Snowboarding game 'dudes' might not grasp... but here goes. I do like a good extreme sports game, mainly Hawks and Mirra (Mirra especially) because I quite like the sandpit nature of them. If I find a little jump, or grind or an area I can make some decent transitions on I can repeatedly have a go at it, i.e. turn round and have another bash immediately. With snowboarding games you're pretty much committed to reaching the end. You see a jump or rail to slide along, but you only get one go at it - after the first attempt its gone - and you have to wait until the course has ended before you can have another go at it. So... what's the attraction? Is it the 'racing' aspect?

Oh, I completely agree, I was merely discussing the legal implications. There's certainly a moral argument there. For a second I actually thought Codemasters had ripped Stu off.

Ideas/contents. All the same to me. Unless they ripped off the actual code of course. Who's to say Nintendo would have won had the case gone to court? Like I said though, has there ever been a case where a company has been 'done' for nicking 'content/ideas' within the games industry? This is all an aside from Stuarts problem of course, but it did raise an interesting question (in my head).

Legally? Like I said, the slightest wiff of a legal letter will have small companies running. What I'm asking is, is there any legal precedent in the gaming industry where someone was successfully sued for ripping an idea off? (ignoring the joystick patents that Atari had).

So how come Atari got away with suing all those 8-bit companies over unlicensed Pac-Man clones, since they obviously didn't pinch the actual code? They didn't though did they? I mean, the only one that springs to mind is 'Jelly Monsters' on the Vic 20. But it was only the threat of legal action that saw the game being pulled off the shelves. Same with Great Giani Sisters. I can't recall a company being successfully 'sued' for ripping an idea off. Using actual code though, that's a completely different matter. I'm sure someone will now correct me.

Can I be the first to say... PULL-AZ-IMA!!!

You should have been a zen master at Mario64 like wot I am. Wall jumping- no problem - unless you're a PANSY.