Acclaim "intellectual" property for sale

[KingMike]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6140853.html

Wow, bid now! I know you want to own the rights to such quality titles as Bart's Nightmare!
(though admitably, Bart's Nightmare had unique gameplay, which is more than I can say for some of the other licensed drivel we've all probably played. *cough*Home Alone*cough*
Too bad it was of course poorly executed, ie. confusing gameplay, no continues)
(although I do wonder about Crazy Taxi. Isn't that Sega's IP?)

[Nightcrawler]

That's actually fairly interesting.  I'm not sure I completely understand it all.  You can bid on their games and you get what? The full rights to distribute, produce, and do whatever you want with them? Would it also give you the rights to make another game in said series? Something like this might be an interesting aquisition for an amature game developer.

[KaioShin]

I read the article. You get the rights for the game,yes but you have to check the license of the franchise first. According to the text you have to check the license-relation between Acclaim and the original owner for yourself. I assume most licenses run out by now so you could actually get into trouble when you even just re-release the games. I would be very careful about this stuff.

[EienNiHen]

I read the article. You get the rights for the game,yes but you have to check the license of the franchise first.  I would be very careful about this stuff.

That sounded kind of suspicious to me.  It seems like you get the liscence, but then you have to do all the leg work in figuring out if you own all the rights to the game or not.  It sounds like more trouble than it's worth.

[The_Big_Joke]

Haveing the right to re-publish barts nightmare would not be that bad actualy.. i really liked that game, and i'm sure that there are others out there who did as well.

[KingMike]

I didn't think it was a bad idea, just that it was kinda confusing (especially since the area between levels just has so much stuff that you likely wouldn't figure out without the manual, which describes all the objects). (you're supposed to spit at the walking TVs to make a homework page appear? And then you're supposed to jump on the page to enter one of the 5 worlds (8 levels)?)
Also, it was pretty difficult (I found myself relying more on button-mashing luck than skill (yeah, you're supposed to mash the X, Y, B? buttons depending on where the enemy is coming from) in getting through the first Bartzilla level). Temple of Maggie would've been impossible if not for a magazine I used to have that printed the exact button sequence to pass it.  
Also, you have to start over from scratch when you lose all your Zs in the Windy World (the area between stages).
I agree with a review that said Acclaim should've pulled a Square (success of the FF series) after releasing Krusty's Fun House. That was actually a good game. Not too hard to figure out, but it really made you think, quickly. Only down side is having to repeat each section (up to 13 levels) from scratch when you lose all your lives (but they were smart of enough to include passwords, so at least you don't have to do the whole 60-70 level game in one shot).