Summary
- Release Year: 1981
- Genres: Arcade
- Platforms: Odyssey 2 / Videopac G7000
- Publishers: Magnavox, North American Philips Consumer Electronics Corp.
K.C. Munchkin!: The Pac-Man Clone That Changed Gaming Law
Released in 1981, K.C. Munchkin! was a Pac-Man clone that quickly faded into obscurity. However, the game would later gain notoriety for its role in a landmark copyright lawsuit that set an important precedent for the video game industry.
Gameplay
K.C. Munchkin! is a maze game in which the player controls a yellow circle with a mouth named K.C. Munchkin. The goal of the game is to eat all of the dots in a maze while avoiding ghosts that roam the maze. K.C. Munchkin! features several improvements over Pac-Man, including:
- Four different mazes to play through
- Power pellets that allow K.C. Munchkin! to eat ghosts
- Warp tunnels that allow K.C. Munchkin! to travel quickly around the maze
- A variety of different ghost behaviors
Legal Battle
In 1982, Atari, the publisher of Pac-Man, sued K.C. Munchkin!’s publisher, Bally Midway, for copyright infringement. Atari claimed that K.C. Munchkin! was too similar to Pac-Man and that Bally Midway had infringed on Atari’s copyright.
The case went to trial in 1983. During the trial, Atari presented evidence that K.C. Munchkin! shared many similarities with Pac-Man, including the game’s overall look and feel, the characters, and the gameplay. Bally Midway argued that K.C. Munchkin! was a new and original game that was not substantially similar to Pac-Man.
The jury ultimately found in favor of Atari, ruling that K.C. Munchkin! was a copyright infringement. The court ordered Bally Midway to stop selling the game and to pay Atari damages.
Legacy
The K.C. Munchkin! lawsuit was a landmark case in the history of video game law. It was one of the first cases to address the issue of copyright infringement in video games. The case set an important precedent that copyright protection extends to the overall look and feel of a game, not just to the specific code.
The K.C. Munchkin! lawsuit also had a significant impact on the video game industry. The ruling made it more difficult for developers to create clones of popular games. It also led to a wave of lawsuits in the video game industry, as companies sought to protect their intellectual property.
Conclusion
K.C. Munchkin! is a largely forgotten game today, but its role in the K.C. Munchkin! lawsuit has ensured that it will always have a place in gaming history. The case set an important precedent for copyright law in video games and helped to shape the industry as we know it today.
Additional Information
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K.C. Munchkin! was developed by Midway Games and published by Bally Midway.
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The game was released in arcades in 1981 and ported to the Atari 2600, ColecoVision, and Commodore 64 in 1982.
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K.C. Munchkin! was not a commercial success, selling only around 10,000 copies.
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The K.C. Munchkin! lawsuit was one of the first cases to be decided under the Copyright Act of 1976.
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The jury in the K.C. Munchkin! lawsuit found that Bally Midway had infringed on Atari’s copyright in three ways:
- By copying the overall look and feel of Pac-Man
- By copying the characters in Pac-Man
- By copying the gameplay of Pac-Man
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The K.C. Munchkin! lawsuit had a significant impact on the video game industry, making it more difficult for developers to create clones of popular games.
Review Score
7/10
Art
Cover Art
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