In the mid-80s, EPYX licensed the game to be ported for multiple computer platforms including the PC, Amiga and Macintosh. In 1993, whittled down from a height of 145 employees down to less than 10, EPYX dissolved and sold its assets to UK company Bridgestone Media Group. In 2006, a couple of the EPYX's video game brands were licensed by System 3 in order to be ported to the Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, and Wii.
Rob Beschizza, writing for Boing Boing:
Just because EPYX published Rogue, does that give EPYX ownership to sell? EPYX also published Barbie and Hot Wheels. Good luck trying to even look at Mattel's IP, too.As Atari recently bought a number of 80s game IPs, the just-posted filing could signify an undisclosed aquisition [sic] of the Epyx portfolio. [...]
The recent filing covers game software and related interactive entertainment purposes, "blockchain software technology and smart contracts" and digital "collectibles" of characters, art, skins and what-have you.
As Shuck commented on the original article as posted on Boing Boing:
It feels very “on-brand” for the new “Atari” that this seems to make no sense, but also potentially makes total sense in the context of what Atari is now, i.e. a holding company for a bunch of semi-random “properties,” to which they have a very tenuous claim, and whose value is almost entirely limited to having a trademark on certain words in the context of video games. (Because in the case of the games, they’re old and primitive and so heavily cloned, imitated, elaborated upon and improved by multiple generations of games, the original games themselves have no value anymore.)
