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Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 7:03 pm
by locke_gb7
it doesn't have the latest fixes Gil did though, or Mad Max ;)

Thanks again for sending. What a weird feeling game that was

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 7:15 am
by locke_gb7
Do you guys know who actually owns the copyright to the game music?

Published? Developer? Composer?

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 8:36 am
by Doommaster1994
Mindscape developed and published the game. The game design was apparently ripped off of a game called Road Raiders but the game design is from Gray Matter (who Mindscape worked with a lot).

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 8:47 am
by locke_gb7
Oh I meant in general for any given game, which of the 3 holds copyright to music in video games

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 9:21 am
by Doommaster1994
The publisher.

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 12:07 pm
by cak
I thought the way it worked was the composer signed over the music to the developer as "work-for-hire", then every element of the game was entered under exclusive license to Nintendo. So technically the developer owns it, but in practice only Nintendo can use it.

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2012 7:02 am
by tepples
cak wrote:then every element of the game was entered under exclusive license to Nintendo.
Then explain any game that is ported to both NES and Sega Genesis, like Battletoads or Smash TV.

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2012 8:12 am
by Doommaster1994
Yeah, I talked to the founder of Realtime Associates since I wanted George Sanger's NES MIDI files (which I never got) and he said I'd have to talk to the publishers.

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2012 12:14 pm
by rainwarrior
There is no standard for assignment of intellectual property in a game deal.

In general, whomever funds the game will have the leverage when making the deal to get the rights to everything. Usually this is a publisher, but occasionally development of a game is self (or otherwise) funded. Even when funded by a publisher, it is not uncommon to find agreements where the developer retains some of the rights.

Sometimes, but especially in the cross platform case, the game has multiple publishers. A variety of things could have happened here. Most likely one of the port publishers has struck a deal with the rights holder for a license to make and distribute that port. Very often they will hire the original developer to do this, but not always.

In general, all material produced for a game is done as "work for hire", meaning its rights are immediately assigned to the developer who hired them (who may reassign them to the publisher). This makes it a lot easier for the developer to ensure there are fewer problems when working out rights deals.


So, the short story is usually the publisher owns it. Sometimes the developer owns it. In some rarer cases, the artist himself may own it.

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2012 12:59 pm
by rainwarrior
In a case like Battletoads, the title screens of the various games are pretty clear on ownership.

Rare owns the copyright.

Tradewest is the primary publisher, to whom Rare has given what appears to be a fairly wide license to sell and distribute their game. Their name appears on every port of the game I've seen.

On various platforms other publishers are involved. For Nintendo, you would license Nintendo to take part of the sales, sell you cartridge materials, give your game the "official seal" and official recognition by Nintendo, etc. In the vast majority of cases, it is unlikely that Nintendo would take any ownership of the game's materials for a deal like this.

Anyhow, if it says "licensed to" this is an indication that the party it is licensed to does not own the rights. (It does mean they had some limited right to profit from it.)

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 2:16 pm
by locke_gb7
Thanks for Clarifying :)

The Blue Marlin

Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 11:59 am
by locke_gb7
Sadly, one of my favorite NES games NSF i just realized is missing the "Noise" layer :( The Blue Marlin

Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 6:02 pm
by bucky o'hare
Has the PAL (expansion-less) version of Mr. Gimmick been ripped?

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 12:03 pm
by Jandazekon
Custom zelda music by Wkter in NES format:
http://www.2shared.com/file/RY7aVRK7/House.html
http://www.2shared.com/file/E5lEX_l8/Gerudo.html

NSF files is not available. He said he used Famitracker v0.3.5 and NESASM.
And yet no FTM files is available. Wkter is available here:
http://nesdev.com/bbs/profile.php?mode= ... ile&u=3812

And he have more music that is only streamed and it's here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz--cgwxdAY

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 1:10 pm
by Dwedit
Jandazekon wrote:Custom zelda music by Wkter in NES format:
http://www.2shared.com/file/RY7aVRK7/House.html
http://www.2shared.com/file/E5lEX_l8/Gerudo.html

NSF files is not available. He said he used Famitracker v0.3.5 and NESASM.
And yet no FTM files is available. Wkter is available here:
http://nesdev.com/bbs/profile.php?mode= ... ile&u=3812

And he have more music that is only streamed and it's here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz--cgwxdAY
It clearly uses expansion sound.
But do we really need random Famitracker songs in this thread? There's a whole board for that.