Why Nintendo never sued Color Dreams? (Wisdom Tree)

So I was reading stuff about Nintendos history and I came across something that said that they didn't sue Wisdom Tree due to possible backlash from parents and didn't want to look bad as if they were going after religion.

I never really thought about it like this before, but now it makes sense to me.

Many times parents complain about violence in video games and blame companies like Nintendo for makes these games. So if Nintendo actually went after a religious organization then it would be nothing but bad press. Just imagine on the news, Nintendo sues a Christian organization for making a Bible based video game. Then some parents would call Nintendo The DEVIL or SATIN and boycott the company.

Many families not only adhere to religion because of their culture and upbringing, but also because of morals and ethics too. Most people regard The Bible as being a good book and that going to church is good because it teaches people life lessons ect.

So no wonder Nintendo didn't touch these Christian companies!

So next time you want to make that fan game of Chrono Trigger (you know the one that was shut down) just put at the top of your website "Church of Jesus Christ" and say, we Christians believe in honoring this great SNES game in the name of JESUS OUR LORD! If you do that then nobody will mess with you. LOL

Nobody messes with Jesus, not me nor you, not the devil and not even Nintendo.

Also did you know that Nintendo was against video game rental stores? They even sued Blockbuster and got them to remove the instruction booklet from their stores. "Haha kids, now that you don't have instructions you can't rent games because you can't figure them out" that's I guess what Nintendo was thinking. Too bad as a kid I mostly didn't even read instruction manuals for games.

After reading tons of stuff about Nintendo in the 8 bit era it honestly seemed like Nintendo was a monopoly run by a bunch of A-Holes would just want to earn as much profit from their games as they physical possibly could.

The sued the Game Genie guys, they sued Tengen and ran their business such that only they could produce cartridges and even told retailers who sold unlicensed games that they would discontinue their licensed games with them if they continued to still sell those unlicensed games.

But, in the end it really didn't matter how bad Nintendo was with its business practices because we all loved playing on that darn system and playing those games brought joy to our lives!

I'm guessing N didn't sue Color Dreams because Color Dreams used the same CIC stun exploit as Camerica, which had beaten N in court.

The reason the Chrono Trigger fan game got shut down was because it was named Chrono Trigger. If Square at the time didn't demand a cease and desist, they literally can lose control of the trademark.

Trademarks are worth big money.

Or for a more general concept, don't name your sidescrolling platform fan-game starring a man in overalls Comparative Adjective Mario Noun, and you'll be fine. Also don't lift its look and feel directly, as that becomes a "trade dress" issue. Nintendo did pressure and convince stores to take Great Giana Sisters off of the shelf, but if not for Time Warp Productions's bone-headed move of copying the look and feel of the first level almost exactly, then they would have had a good chance of suing and winning against Nintendo for collusion with stores.


I am not a lawyer.

Because there is no way Nintendo could potentially win, considering Color Dreams didn't break the law ?

Tengen did reverse engineer and clone the CIC chip, but Color Dreams didn't.

Of course (IANAL), in the US, at least, if your game is a bona fide satire, your right to free speech takes precedence. Hmm, NSFW homebrew video game version of Super Hornio Brothers, anyone? Although in that case, Midnight Videos, the original satirist, might have an infringement claim against you... :p

What you're doing being probably legal doesn't help if you don't have the money to defend yourself in court, though. You will be forced to bail out before the judge can determine that you did no wrongdoing.

If the facts in your case are not substantially different from the facts in another case, a lot of things can be dealt with in summary judgment, which is a lot cheaper than a trial. We don't know if N's lawyers sent a cease and desist to Color Dreams, but if so, Color Dreams' lawyers could have sent a reply mentioning cases N lost against other cart makers using CIC stun. "In closing, we believe that proceeding with this legal action would not be the best use of your time and your client's money."

I thought it was because Nintendo used the [non-judicial] leverage of not selling official products to vendors who sold unlicensed games, and then Color Dreams re-did their games to religious-branding [becoming Wisdom Tree] and sold them in religious bookstores that neither had nor needed official Nintendo products?

Take with salt, I can't remember where I picked up that information...

This is maybe a bit off topic, but isn't the stun CIC potentially damaging to the hardware unlike Tengen's CIC clone?

Yes, I am by all means no expert but I heard this many times about the USA : It's more how good or famous your attorney is rather than how much you broke the law. In other countries it's noting (as much) like that though.

Also, I think in Europe people or companies bringing other to court is much rarer, you really need a good reason to do so, nobody does it solely for marketing or intimidating or whatever. Of course since the USA is still influential towards Europe, this might be changing by the time we speak.

Nintendo's way of harassing Color Dreams was to revise the NES mainboard to prevent their CIC defeat. There are multiple revisions, and IIRC, I've heard one of them prevents all the CIC defeats. I can't remember if it was from Color Dreams, but seem to remember seeing an instruction sheet about cutting pin 4 on the lockout chip that was with an unlicensed cart.

Game Genie was mentioned, and though Nintendo sued, they completely lost that case. Since they prevented it from being released for a time, you can bet Nintendo ended up paying in damages for the production of quite a few Game Genies.

On a related note, I always thought the text on this game box was hilarious.

And all this time I thought Tepples was the most exciting video game puzzler ever created...

Magic Bubble has a multiplayer mode? o_o


http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RosstinM ... Finest.php


Yeah, the US is said to have a lawsuit culture precisely for that reason, by general rule other countries aren't anywhere like that. Maybe it depends on which countries have the most money involved though (and how hard it is to get through the legal system).

Here's a flipside: in Japan, in many civil court cases the judge tries his utmost to get the parties involved to meet again and again, and reach an "agreement" privately, so that the case doesn't have to go to trial. This happens even in clear David vs. Goliath cases where the David is seeking redress (and would be at a disadvantage out of court). It's almost as if judges are trying to work against having a functioning legal system.

In the United States, resolving a suit in a motion for summary judgment is supposed to be the same thing, where questions of law get resolved before the trial. "Even if the facts are as the other side says they are, you're still within the law."

Yeah, Japan has the opposite culture, where they avoid confrontation at all costs so things rarely ever reach court (the percentage of lawyers compared to population is about 1/3 that of the US, to give you an idea). On the flipside, this same culture is what makes abuse of power so prevalent (this is why nearly every employee is forced to do overtime and to go to the business parties and never spend even a second with their families or even resting, or why there are teachers that like to force students to do things like clean toilets with their bare hands - those below in the hierarchy are never allowed to say no, even if it'd be blatantly illegal).