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Episode I Racer on DC
   ^{[ posted by: R.I.P ]}

Our new reviewer, Zubalove, has added a review for Star Wars: Episode I Racer to the site. He has indicated that he's planning to send in a new review each week, so be sure to check back.

As far as other reviews, ???? is apparently sitting on six or seven reviews now, that he hasn't e-mailed me. So as soon as I can put a fire under his butt to send them in, I'll have them up on the site. We're looking at a number of RPGs, and some PS2 titles.

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StarFighter dispute
   ^{[ posted by: R.I.P ]}

If you haven't heard the news yet, 3DO is suing LucasArts over their use of the name "Starfighter" in the new game Star Wars Starfighter. The problem is that back in 1995, 3DO released a game entitled Star Fighter (which we have reviews and screen shots of the 3DO release here on the site), and as companies do, they trademarked, copyrighted, etc... their title. All told, the game was released on the 3DO, PC, PlayStation and Saturn platforms over 1995 and 1996.

To be honest here, 3DO may or may not have a case. It all depends on if LucasArts can prove that "Starfighter" or "Star Fighter" is a generic term, because 3DO clearly has prior, unchallenged use in the market for the title of a videogame. While I'm not an attorney, I can't see how LucasArts could defend themselves on this. The games have a very similar look to the casual viewer (you're piloting a "jet"-like aircraft on various missions over large terrains). So I would think their only hope of winning this suit would be to settle out of court (which is highly unlikely), or try to get the case thrown out by saying that "Starfighter" is a generic term dating back to the 70's... therefore 3DO can't have exclusive ownership of the term/title.

Personally, I would like to see the case thrown out, because I would love to see 3DO release a sequal to Star Fighter on the PS2. I always liked the original game, and I think it could be pretty impressive on modern hardware. Besides, then Lucas wouldn't be able to do a damn thing about it since they themselves would have legally established "starfighter" as a generic term open to anyone to use. You just know this would cheese off Lucas, and for once Lucas' legal arms would be left flailing (what an image). Besides, it would confuse the hell out of everyone, but that's just the little anarchist in me speaking out. ;p

Cheers!

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