Aug 08 2007
Stealing Innovation
Nintendo: Literally Taking Candy from a Baby
I came across this Wikipedia article the other day and noticed something a little odd about it. Most of you probably don’t remember the game Snake Rattle n Roll by Rare.
It is notable for being one of the earliest platform games to use a 3D isometric playing field.
The concept of this game was originally designed and created by a small boy in Montana. The project was sent to Nintendo of America where it was later sent to Rare entertainment for production. Nintendo however sent the boy a letter explaining that they were not taking suggestions for games from the public and later refused to send back the design concepts after numerous requests.
So under the assumption that Rare did steal the idea way back when, how would anybody prove anything legally? Yet, this goes to show you that you can’t hide secrets for very long anymore. With sites such as Wikipedia, the rusty handle to the closet will turn and door to those skeletons will eventually open.
I’d just like to leave with something to think about. If there is one instance like this, don’t you think there might be others?
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Yeah, plagiarism happens across almost every industry. But equating Rare with Nintendo is just disinformation.
Do you have documentation of the boy and the approximate date of his submission?
If a small boy back in the 80’s could encode a 3D platform, it seems more likely that Nintendo would hire him. Where are your citations?
You seem to be making a claim without citing your sources. If the boy submitted via suggestions, it usually becomes the intellectual property of the company submitted to for quality control purposes.
This was a very interesting post. And one that I was not expecting it!
As the article states, “concept.”
The purpose of this article is not to primarily accuse anyone of fraud or misinformation. Yet, my intent was to show how powerful Wikipedia can be as an information source. If you did in fact commit a wrong doing in the past, there is nothing to keep it from becoming public. So even though submitting ideas to companies becomes their intellectual property, shouldn’t they respect the inventor enough to cite him as a contributor?
Wikipedia is awesome! I cant tell you how much info I get from them each day!
I think the example also shows how powerful Wikipedia can be as a source of disinformation. We don’t really know whether a small boy in Montana developed the concept for this game or not. With Wikipedia being an open information source, someone could edit an entry to add whatever they wanted. Someone, who was a small boy at the time, might have thought Rare stole his idea and edited the entry to reflect that. Or, maybe someone thought it would be funny, and made up the story.
On a popular topic, errors may be more easily corrected. I mean, if someone changed the entry on Apple Computer to say that it was founded by John Chow and Bill Gates, it won’t be long until that is corrected.
But, Rare is more obscure. How many people know about it? Of those, how many people will check it out on Wikipedia? It’s easier to get away with posting inaccurate information (whether intentional or not) on a more obscure topic than on a more popular one (or one with a legion of fans).
I was the small boy. The only reason it was posted here is because he was told about it from a friend of a friend. I also put “small boy from Montana” simply because wikipedia is not a place for me to take credit. I don’t care about credit. It just pissed me off back in the day that they stole my idea. I didn’t program the game, I basically designed the concept of snakes eating items that makes their tales grow longers, etc etc etc. When I sent it into Nintendo that was my own mistake. I should have known that they would steal it, there was no way for me to prove it. I was a little kid for christs sake, I didn’t know anything about copywrites!
Again, I didn’t nessesarily want credit, its been a long time. I just wanted everyone to know how the TRUE idea of the game came to be, and the actions of Nintendo in relation to that idea.