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Accurate remake of Pac-Man in JavaScript

shaunew.github.com

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Re: Accurate remake of Pac-Man in JavaScript

#31

Post by guilloche »

Jach wrote: post #18

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4431197 Double standard, HN? At least qxcv sees the light: "It's one thing to make a Pac-Man-like game. But this is being called the trademarked name Pac-Man, and you've copied the artwork straight from Pac-Man. Seems certain this isn't an official licensed version. In which case, you should change all those items immediately. It's illegal and it's just not cool. Here are the guys…

I donot think that this application is illegal as long as the author did not use any original art work and trademark (if it still applys, trademark needs to pay to extend it, right?). 1. Any patents related to pacman expired already. 2. Copyright law does not forbid recreation of original games. The JS author just need to make sure all the code/art was created by himself. Please point out what is wrong about my understanding of the law system if there is any.

Re: Accurate remake of Pac-Man in JavaScript

#32

Post by Timothee »

modarts wrote: post #25
Timothee wrote: post #13

Uncompiled source code is available here: https://github.com/shaunew/Pac-Man/

The term "source code" implies that no compilation has occurred /nit

I'll nitpick right back at you: since JavaScript is not compiled in the software sense, I could only mean compile in the sense of "produce (something, esp. a list, report, or book) by assembling information collected from other sources: the local authority must compile a list of taxpayers."

;-)

Re: Accurate remake of Pac-Man in JavaScript

#33

Post by akldfgj »

arn wrote: post #28
tylerneylon wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it morally wrong that this was created? I appreciate that this exists, and personally am more likely to purchase or promote official Pac-Man products because of it. I think it's a good thing. Legality is important, but underneath that is the purpose of law itself. I like the idea of keeping in mind both legality and the intent of the law. If you are making something cool, that adds value (including entertainment),…

So I presume that the person who made this knows it's "illegal" to use the pacman name and doesn't care. So that's fine, its not like I am not going to report him to whoever owns the ip. The previous example, a) it wasn't clear that the author knew it was not right b) the people affected where the type of people who would post to HN. Let me ask you this, do you see anything wrong with someone creating a hipmunk clone…

hipmunk is not over 30 years old, though, and is not far older than the USA's originally agreed upon reasonably limited lifetime of copyright protection, before Disney lobbying created the never-ending copyright extension in the 20th century. So there's that distinction.

Re: Accurate remake of Pac-Man in JavaScript

#34

Post by akldfgj »

rkaplan wrote: post #6

Looks very nice. My only complaint is that all the JavaScript code is in one file, which makes it a bit harder to casually peruse (I was curious how you implemented the ghosts' AI).

official ghost AI: http://home.comcast.net/~jpittman2/pacman/pacmandossier.html

Re: Accurate remake of Pac-Man in JavaScript

#35

Post by akldfgj »

ChrisNorstrom wrote: post #10
bjornsteffanson wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks like there was an attempt to copy at least some of the original AI behavior. If you click on the "Learn" tab, you can choose which ghost to play and visually see their AI objectives via a little node that travels infront of the ghost's body. As you probably know, each ghost had their own AI objective and behavior in the original arcade Pac-Man. While their movement's appeared random, they were actually not,…

I could of swore in the original Pacman the blue ghost will flee when confronted and there's a path for him to escape into.. Which would explain "Bashful"s name (and Japanese name which translates to Fickle).

Only if red Shadow is behind pac-man. Bashful targets the location (pacman + (pacman - shadow))

Re: Accurate remake of Pac-Man in JavaScript

#36

Post by Evbn »

Menus broken on galaxy nexus of touch Browser. When I tap on a menu item, the tap registers twice, including whatever occupies the same position on the next menu. Example: Quit - No, which loops back to the game. Also, Credits.

Re: Accurate remake of Pac-Man in JavaScript

#37

Post by ghshephard »

guilloche wrote: post #31
Jach wrote: post #18

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4431197 Double standard, HN? At least qxcv sees the light: "It's one thing to make a Pac-Man-like game. But this is being called the trademarked name Pac-Man, and you've copied the artwork straight from Pac-Man. Seems certain this isn't an official licensed version. In which case, you should change all those items immediately. It's illegal and it's just not cool. Here are the guys…

I donot think that this application is illegal as long as the author did not use any original art work and trademark (if it still applys, trademark needs to pay to extend it, right?). 1. Any patents related to pacman expired already. 2. Copyright law does not forbid recreation of original games. The JS author just need to make sure all the code/art was created by himself. Please point out what is wrong about my under…

I just played Ms Pacman for 10 minutes. It looks like they used all the original artwork and ghost behavior routines (Red, Pinky, Brown all do the right thing) - right down to the timing of the reversals around 5 and 20 seconds.

Re: Accurate remake of Pac-Man in JavaScript

#38

Post by CognitiveLens »

Timothee wrote: post #32
modarts wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The term "source code" implies that no compilation has occurred /nit

I'll nitpick right back at you: since JavaScript is not compiled in the software sense, I could only mean compile in the sense of "produce (something, esp. a list, report, or book) by assembling information collected from other sources: the local authority must compile a list of taxpayers." ;-)

Is it therefore accurate to say that the uncompiled source code is compiled in https://github.com/shaunew/Pac-Man/?

Re: Accurate remake of Pac-Man in JavaScript

#39

Post by wamatt »

tylerneylon wrote: post #22
Jach wrote: post #18

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4431197 Double standard, HN? At least qxcv sees the light: "It's one thing to make a Pac-Man-like game. But this is being called the trademarked name Pac-Man, and you've copied the artwork straight from Pac-Man. Seems certain this isn't an official licensed version. In which case, you should change all those items immediately. It's illegal and it's just not cool. Here are the guys…

I enjoy seeing recreations of code like this. It's educational and fun, and this Pac-Man does not take anything away from the original. It's unfortunate that IP law is so vague and intimidating. It can easily have a chilling effect on innovation and creativity -- you're afraid something might not be ok, but you don't really know, so you just don't try. For me, that's a red flag in a legal system. Competition, creativ…

Agree, esp. regarding creative suppression and intimidation.

While one should respect the law, I do wonder how the GP can so factually and confidently, conclude the project's legal status.

For example, only as recently as April 2012, did Namco Bandai choose to even register the trademark for "Pac-man" in Europe. In addition, Midway Games, who previously owned the distro rights in the USA, filed for Chapter 11 in 2009.

I certainly have no clue as to it's status, but I do know there is often a digression between what a person thinks is illegal, the actual law, intepretation of the law, case law (e.g. precedents), politics of the law, pragmatic issues etc. Hence the reason we have lawyers, that understand these issues better (and even then, they often disagree with each other). There are also degrees of legality (civil, criminal etc) from jay walking, copyright infringement, patents to mass murder and genocide.

Is Wikileaks illegal? Did Samsung illegally create certain Android smartphones? etc.

Is illegal?, does not seem like a simple boolean, for a wide range of values.

The author of this project, is clearly a huge Pac-man fan, does not appear to be profiting financially (released the source on GH), and is generating interest in a product, that could be potentially be capitalized on by the rights holder.

Re: Accurate remake of Pac-Man in JavaScript

#40

Post by pooriaazimi »

Jach wrote: post #18

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4431197 Double standard, HN? At least qxcv sees the light: "It's one thing to make a Pac-Man-like game. But this is being called the trademarked name Pac-Man, and you've copied the artwork straight from Pac-Man. Seems certain this isn't an official licensed version. In which case, you should change all those items immediately. It's illegal and it's just not cool. Here are the guys…

It's not double standard IMO.

You don't buy Pac-Man from namco anymore (I hope they've stopped selling it). So, nobody (much less them) gives a damn if it is being ripped off.

Doodle Jump, on the other hand, is a game that you can (and millions do, every month) buy from the App Store. If you build a clone of it, the Lima Sky guys might lose some customers.

That's why creating a Doodle Jump clone is wrong, but creating a Pac-Mac clone is not.

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