This Company Made Knock Off Games...With Great Success

Рет қаралды 10,670

Күн бұрын

It’s common to see knock-off versions of games that try to capitalize off the success of well-established titles. Pac-Man saw a lot of bootlegs that were ROM hacks of the original. Nintendo and Atari also had bootleggers make unauthorized versions of their games. Then there’s Universal, who made numerous knock-off games of their own. How were they able to avoid lawsuits when other companies were getting in trouble? And were Universal’s games just shameless rip-offs, or did the company actually make some good games?
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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
1:35 Bootleg Games
4:00 Universal’s Early Titles
6:15 Space Panic
7:30 Lady Bug
8:20 Mr Do!
9:22 Home Console Ports
10:05 How Universal Avoided a Lawsuit
11:31 Outtro
Special thanks to the following users from pexels.com for the stock footage:
84LENS, 霍天赐, A frame in motion, Ahmet Akpolat, Andrew Hanson, Anna Hinckel, Anvar Tushakov, Artem Podrez, Caleb Oquendo, Cottonbro, Cristian Dina, Curtis Adams, DAV Grup 1, David McBee, Distill, Drones Scot, Edward Jenner, EKATERINA BOLOVTSOVA, Ekrulila, Evgenia Kirpichnikova, Free Videos, George Morina, Glen McBride, Jack Sparrow, Joseph Redfield, Kampus Production, Karolina Grabowska, Kelly, Kindel Media, Ksenia Chernaya, MART PRODUCTION, Mikhail Nilov, Miguel Á. Padriñán, Mike B, Monstera, Nazim Zafri, Nicole Michalou, Pavel Danilyuk, Pete Wales, pickarick, Pixabay, Polina Tankilevitch, Pressmaster, Ricky Esquivel, RODNAE Productions, Ron Lach, Sora Shimazaki, Steve B, Thirdman,Tiger Lily, Tima Miroshnichenko, Tom Fisk, Tony Schnagl, Vlada Karpovich, Yan Krukov, Yaroslav Shuraev
Special thanks to streambeats.com for the music used in this video.
#nintendo #atari #namco

Пікірлер: 102

@Larry 8 ай бұрын

The "digging a hole and burying the enemy in it" concept was started a few years before in the game Heiankyo Alien, though that was a top down pac-man type game. But that top down concept has been copied many many times since. BTW If you're doing all these lawsuit videos, you got to cover KC Munchkin at some point ^_^

@gentlesoul221 8 ай бұрын

'Ello you

@MrMegaManFan 8 ай бұрын

Honestly Mr. Do is so good I never even thought of it as a Dig-Dug clone. They are (to me) completely different games with completely different strategies for success.

@longWriter 8 ай бұрын

They are quite different; I'm a fan of Mr. Do! myself, and there are four different ways to pass a level: get all the cherries, defeat all the dinosaurs, spell EXTRA, or find a diamond. Dig Dug only clears the level one all enemies are dead or escaped. That said, Mr. Do was _meant_ to be made to compete with Dig Dug.

@mchenrynick 8 ай бұрын

@@longWriter I do feel that Lady Bug was also different enough [from Pac-Man] to feel original.

@ThunderFist1978 8 ай бұрын

Same here. I personally like Mr. Do! better for the same reason as @longWriter - the various ways to clear the stages gives it so much more play variety than Dig Dug, and the fact that two top Mr. Do! scorers could be playing the game totally differently from one another is fascinating to me, and you’re a lot less likely to see that between two Dig Dug top scorers.

@SweetStevieAaron 8 ай бұрын

Dig Dug is ridiculously simple compared to Mr Do! I feel every time I play Mr Do! (Like just now) something different happens and it’s completely unpredictable. Lots going on.

@longWriter 8 ай бұрын

@@mchenrynick I haven't yet tried Lady Bug, but I do know Lady Bug doesn't have energizers---IIRC from a playthrough I've seen, it's possible to trick enemies into stepping on pesticide, which is _way_ different from energizers!

@urbanknish 8 ай бұрын

Universal was a big reason the Colecovision was great. They offered something different to consumers in a tired market and did them with arcade quality. I remember when the Colecovision debuted how impressive some of those Universal games were. It's too bad there isn't some kind of Nintendo Switch Universal collection.

@paxhumana2015 8 ай бұрын

Mr. Do did get a pretty good SNES/NSFC port, though.

@pojr 8 ай бұрын

Agreed. Want to play Universal games? Only Coleco can offer that.

@kameoosama 8 ай бұрын

GCC wasn't really doing bootlegs though, they were making unauthorized conversion kits for the original boards. It's kinda popular now for collectors of the games GCC made kits for to set it up so you can switch between the original game and the "upgrade" version.

@audiosex 8 ай бұрын

So Universal is like a hip-hop producer in the 90s? They sample something already out there and make it their own......LOVE IT

@ChristopherSobieniak 8 ай бұрын

I guess.

@luckylukev 8 ай бұрын

I own an Universal arcade cabinet with Mr. Do and added a swappable LadyBug pcb, quality product. Games are deep and replay value is high. Great video!

@pojr 8 ай бұрын

Really cool that you have the original cabinet!

@ConsoleCombat 8 ай бұрын

I have no words to express how happy it makes me to have pojr do his signature smile after his intro. That and his Chicago accent makes me click right away. Oh and the content is great too. :)

@apr2499 8 ай бұрын

I was unaware that There was a Chicago accent?

@ConsoleCombat 8 ай бұрын

@@apr2499 ⁠do you mean with pojr or in general? If you mean in general then just look up any snl skit with “bill swerski” to hear an exaggerated version of it. Or any svengoolie intro.

@DJSwagz 8 ай бұрын

Pojr is big pimpin

@zfunk9 8 ай бұрын

Da bears!

@lifespanofafry1534 8 ай бұрын

@apr2499 ya deaf?

@FeralInferno 8 ай бұрын

Mr. Do felt like more of a sequel to Dig Dug than Dig Dug 2.

@pojr 8 ай бұрын

Actually yeah. Never thought about that, but Dig Dug II was definitely way out there.

@FeralInferno 8 ай бұрын

@@pojr Happy Thanksgiving, Pojr!

@myflyisopen.8732 8 ай бұрын

Universal games were top notch. They perfected Pac-Man, Dig Dug, and Scramble. The Mr. Do series is excellent!

@lawrencemoody738 8 ай бұрын

This guy comes up with some really original and interesting topics. Keep up the good work

@pojr 8 ай бұрын

Thank you!!

@mabus42 8 ай бұрын

I remember playing ladybug on my cousin's colecovision back in the day... Not only was it a pretty faithful port that didn't lose much graphically compared to the arcade, it had really swift, precise controls, some decent musical cues and tons of replayability. Thanks Pojr... this was a great video! Already subscribed and smashed that like for ya as well.

@paxhumana2015 8 ай бұрын

Ladybug could have honestly used NES/FDS and SMS ports as well.

@pojr 8 ай бұрын

Thank you!! And yeah, the home version came out really well

@jackofallgamesTV 8 ай бұрын

Universal introduced the concept of having Sequels be totally different concepts than the original. Of the 4 Mr Do games. Only the first and Do Run Run are similar enough the be "gameplay sequels". Mr Do's Castle was basically a rethemed Space Panic 2. And Mr Do's Wild Ride was totally original. Who owns the rights to Universal video games? Are they still in business? Why not release them as modern downloads for Switch?

@kins749 8 ай бұрын

Great concept, please cover some other less known arcade companies, Century Electronics springs to mind. And totally right about Mr Do! it was a great game that I still enjoy playing, Dig Dug was boring. Minor point - Cosmic Alien was a copy of Galaxian not Galaga.

@nahumgardner 8 ай бұрын

Pojr time is a little early today. The first arcade game I ever played was 'Ladybug'. I'll never forget that. Also, Happy Thanksgiving.

@pojr 8 ай бұрын

Yeah the video uploaded shockingly quick. I guess I wasn't being throttled lol.

@gentlesoul221 8 ай бұрын

Honestly, I would say Mr Do! Is an original title, though it did get a pc competitor called Digger in which you play as a drill collecting fruit and squashing monsters.

@NeilForker 8 ай бұрын

I would say that Mr. Do’s Castle was another classic title of theirs.

@juststatedtheobvious9633 8 ай бұрын

Universal deserves way more credit for trying to rip-off Galaga before Namco could invent it.

@jeffreyscottshamblin149 8 ай бұрын

Just subscribed not too long ago. You really deserve more subscribers! 💯

@pojr 8 ай бұрын

Really appreciate that!!

@docsigma 8 ай бұрын

One of the most underrated creators in the space. You deserve all the subs!

@pojr 8 ай бұрын

Thank you so much!!

@jfgaxeworks3447 8 ай бұрын

I played Ladybug in the arcades in the 80's. it had so much more allure than Pac-Man.

@SnipeMD 8 ай бұрын

Not sure if you've made a video about it yet, but I've always been curious about the differences between the old _Atari Flashback Classics_ collection and _Atari 50_ on modern consoles. _Flashback Classics_ is rather expensive, but I've been wondering if it's worth getting for the price.

@pojr 8 ай бұрын

That would be a cool video. I'll consider thia

@rollingfog1 8 ай бұрын

This was so good it should have been much longer. I was really getting in to it. Make a part two please.

@basicallysnake 8 ай бұрын

My mom ended up playing Ladybug and remembers it fondly. She never played any other universal game, though.

@KrunchyTheClown78 8 ай бұрын

Great video, i love knock offs! This is why people make rom hacks of existing games. It breathes new life into those games.

@Koexistence13 8 ай бұрын

Lady Bug was a good game and deserves more than just being disregarded as a pac man clone

@pojr 8 ай бұрын

100% true

@Koexistence13 8 ай бұрын

@@pojr so is my other comment on this post 😂

@SweetStevieAaron 8 ай бұрын

Is Mr Do! really a Dig Dug clone? It’s never been proven has it? I thought it was just a coincidence that it involved digging and you could drop a boulder on your enemies’ heads. Everything about it is better. The gameplay, the graphics, the sound, the changes… I don’t think it’s anything like Dig Dug either other than you dig underground and the boulder weapon. The mechanics are completely different, there’s total gameplay changes when you collect the object in the middle of the screen and tunnelling in Dig Dug honestly feels like a chore. You just glide around the screen in Mr Do! I just feel it’s far superior in every way.

@gaeshows1938 8 ай бұрын

Is this the same company that made horror movies?

@pojr 8 ай бұрын

LOL

@ajsingh4545 8 ай бұрын

You have a very chill style ... I watch you vids while eating

@segahatty 8 ай бұрын

Why am I so surprised that early arcade games are released in Japan?

@dontcoloroutsidethelines6815 8 ай бұрын

When I went to Hong Kong in the 90's I was told the video games were 10 years ahead of U.S. games. Two things I remember is I was playing a soccer game and The other team had a corner kick and a topless girl came out and the screen said what happened. I don't know the title though. The other one was I bought a 250 in 1 cartridge for my Game Boy. There were all kinds of games that looked like one game or another. It would be interesting to see what Hong Kong has now since Playstation and Xbox are around.

@misterxar 8 ай бұрын

I really like the format of your videos.

@elmono6299 8 ай бұрын

Ladybug is one of my favorite arcade hidden gems and is a fun yet underrated arcade title that deserves more recognition. The game itself is a maze game similar to Pacman with a similar objective but the gameplay is unique enough for it to stand out on its own. In my opinion, it's one of the few knockoffs to be good just like how Congo Bongo and Kangaroo are the only good Donkey Kong knockoffs in my opinion. Still, i would love to see a remake someday but i highly doubt it. 🐞

@edrosa3485 8 ай бұрын

Loved Mr. Do but was absolutely nuts for Space Panic.

@pojr 8 ай бұрын

Yeah, Space Panic is really something.

@wieldylattice3015 8 ай бұрын

2:37 you telling me some of the people who worked on bootlegs went on to work on Ms. Pac-Man and potentially even Ridge Racer 6?

@CarlToonist 8 ай бұрын

I played a lot of Lady Bug in the day... but it was on the colecovision... I would play the demo system at the local Safeway grocery store.

@CoachTabe 7 ай бұрын

GCC didn't do ROM hacks or anything illegal. They sold add-on boards and conversion kits.

@b.o.4492 8 ай бұрын

Put a ton of quarters in Mr Do in the arcade in Cirus Circus way back when. So happy I actually got the diamond once back then. Dig Dug was okay. Mr Do was a blast.

@BlueMSX. 8 ай бұрын

Universal is a great company so many good games released by them over the years, Mr. Do! is a big favorite of mine. Great Video Pojr!

@bes03c 8 ай бұрын

Pojr always delivers unique videos.

@atarileaf 8 ай бұрын

To me, mr do and ladybug are superior to dig dug and pacman

@DanglyLingham 8 ай бұрын

the outro music. who is the artist ?

@jeffm5056 8 ай бұрын

Universal arcade cabinets were so unique, with really cool art designs too.

@pacthesir 8 ай бұрын

Are we not gonna mention that Mr. Do got a sequel!? Mr. Do's Castle?

@luisreyes1963 8 ай бұрын

Whatever became of Universal? Their last game supposedly was Neo Mr. Do for the NEO-GEO.

@dazzer_ 8 ай бұрын

I think Universal took the best features of other games, and managed to make better ones. I can score a million points on both Dig Dug and Mr. Do!, and the gameplay of Mr. Do! is much more in depth. That is, it's not just a simple rip-off. A lot of effort went into improving the gameplay.

@brado426789 8 ай бұрын

Totally agree... Mr. Do is way better than Dig Dug... Though I love both, I play my Mr. Do machine about 10x more than my Dig Dug.

@terminateshere 8 ай бұрын

I remember playing an unofficial version of Mr.Do called 'Mr.Dig' - and there were many others. A rip-off of a rip-off that was still quite playable? The 8-year old me was happy to take it.

@wlsmojo 8 ай бұрын

I always liked Crazy Kong better than Donkey Kong :-)

@pojr 8 ай бұрын

Crazy Kong is definitely really cool, especially the second version they made.

@wlsmojo 8 ай бұрын

I think that was the only one I saw when we got it in Australia. And the music was much more memorable.

@fazares 8 ай бұрын

Wow i didnt know about MR. DO original creators :O

@poil8351 4 ай бұрын

how the heck did gcc get away with basically stealing pac man, iam staggered that namco doesn't own the rights to ms pac man or haven't been able to sue to acuqire the rights.

@jaspal666 8 ай бұрын

MrDo is so much better than DD… I still remember the first time I played Do as a kid😂

@Naedlus 8 ай бұрын

Heh, my pops has a cocktail machine of Ladybug. I first found out about Ladybug on the Colecovision, and I have to say, I enjoyed it more than Pac Man. That said, I still prefer Mouse Trap as my Pac Man variant of choice.

@lawrencemoody738 8 ай бұрын

Also, he's right, Mr. Do is better than dig Dug.

@VEGANVANIA 8 ай бұрын

The legal test for this (established in the famous Pac Man vs. K.C. Munchkin court case precedent, which is worth reading, BTW) is whether or not a reasonably ignorant consumer would be able to distinguish one game from another: the fact that consumers and retailers were looking at K.C. Munchkin and saying, "This is a version of Pac-Man" established that the resemblance between the two games was too great. Ladybug would never have that problem. So, likewise, you can rip off all the ideas in Mario, as long as a consumer can look at the game and see immediately, "This is not a Mario game" -not a sequel or a derivative work, etc. This is actually much harder to enforce with a novel about a detective solving a mystery, or an opera about broken hearted lovers, etc., than it is with a pixelated cartoon character.

@paxhumana2015 8 ай бұрын

While you are talking about that particular case, two other related cases can, as well as often do, apply here, not just with video games, but also with all forms of media as well, namely, Epyx, Inc. v. Data East Co. Ltd. and Capcom Co. Ltd. v. Data East USA, Inc.

@VEGANVANIA 8 ай бұрын

Thanks for mentioning those two cases: I'm familiar with one of the two, but not the other (I've never heard of Epyx, v. Data East before, but I do know the notorious Capcom case).@@paxhumana2015

@riversarcadereview385 8 ай бұрын

Crazy Kong was easier than Donkey Kong

@paxhumana2015 8 ай бұрын

Is the ladybug miraculous, though?

@Riz2336 8 ай бұрын

Their first games were blatant rip offs but I guess they lucked out and didn’t catch any attention

@alkohallick2901 8 ай бұрын

Gail-a-ga??

@mrmadmight266 8 ай бұрын

What about rock ola's nibber?

@TMS9918A 8 ай бұрын

Bah, as a huge fan of Universal and classic gaming in general, I find this video rather disappointing.

@Koexistence13 8 ай бұрын

Dennis Millers clone

@lifespanofafry1534 8 ай бұрын

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

@OM19_MO79 8 ай бұрын

Oh, dear... You are just making no effort essays based on very little research and knowledge to reach the threshold or monetizing easily. First, Universal Entertainment is the current name, back then it was Universal Co. Ltd. or Kabushiki-kaisha Yunivāsaru. Second, back in the early days, companies such as Atari and Taito would license game concepts to other companies to sell their own games and fulfill the demand. Nintendo, Nichibutsu, SNK and Universal were some of those companies. The most licensed were Breakout and Space Invaders. Third, Space Panic is based on Heiankyō Alien, not Lode Runner and the later possibly had the same inspiration as Space Panic. Universal has quite story, as many Japanese companies, video games were and extension of their amusement business. They went back to create pachinko, pachislots and slot machines for casinos in the US. They grew so big that they started acquiring other video game companies and... No, I’m not gonna do the job for you.