In the computer and video game industry, a clone is a game or game series which is very similar to or heavily inspired by a previous popular game or game series. Some genres are founded by such archetypical games that all subsequent similar games are thought of as derivatives. For example, there was a time when all scrolling shooters were called Galaga-clones. This article needs a complete rewrite for the reasons listed on the talk page. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Scrolling shooters are a type of video game, a subgenre of shoot em up . ... Galaga is a fixed shooter arcade game that was released by Namco in 1981 (and also licensed to Midway). ...

The term is sometimes derogatory, implying a lack of originality, but clones can be anything from a pure "ripoff", to a legitimate derivative or improvement on the original, or even a homage to it. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... For a description of the medieval homage ceremony see commendation ceremony Homage is generally used in modern English to mean any public show of respect to someone to whom you feel indebted. ...

In the 1980s, making a clone of a game was not illegal, provided no outright copyright violation or trademark infringement was involved, but as the gaming market grew, large developers felt the need and ability to sue the developers of clones which were too similar to originals [1]. These look and feel lawsuits, such as Apple v. Microsoft and Lotus v. Borland, are not common, but remain an option for developers who feel their franchises are at risk. Look and feel refers to design aspects of a graphical user interface - in terms of both colours, shapes, layout, typefaces, etc (the look); and, the behaviour of dynamic elements such as buttons, boxes, and menus (the feel). It is used in reference to both software and websites. ... This article is about the look and feel copyright lawsuit between Apple Computer and Microsoft. ... Holding The appeals courts decision was affirmed. ...

At times, games can be considered clones by the uninformed gamer if they resemble a modern popular game regardless of whether or not the game that has been "cloned" was completely original or not. An example of this is the way the majority of isometric RPG titles are considered clones of Blizzard's popular Diablo game, despite the fact that Diablo wasn't the starter of that style of gameplay and was in itself heavily influenced by Ultima VII Look up isometric in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Diablo is a dark fantasy-themed hack and slash action role-playing game developed by Blizzard North and released by Blizzard Entertainment on January 2, 1997. ... Ultima VII is the seventh part of the computer role-playing game series Ultima. ...

Early arcade games such as Space Invaders have been cloned very widely especially in 1980s and still in early 1990s. Most of clones have been published by freeware computer game designers, but there have also been many commercially released clones of those games. Freeware released have often been very straight clones with only some minor elements and game's title changed. This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... This article or section cites very few or no references or sources. ...

Many famous titles by Jeff Minter were clones of arcade games in which graphics were turned from the original robot/spaceship graphics to animal creatures. Jeff Minter at Assembly 2004 Jeff Yak Minter (born in Reading, April 22, 1962) is a British computer/video game designer and programmer. ...

Commando (left) is seen as the source of inspiration for Ikari Warriors (middle) that was released a year later. Dogs of War (right), released four years later, still looks quite similar.
Image File history File links Commando-mame. ... screenshot Ikari_Warriors by me This is a screenshot of a copyrighted computer game or video game. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Dogsofwar2. ... Commando is a vertically-scrolling shoot em up released in 1985. ... Ikari Warriors is a 1986 arcade game by SNK (manufactured in the United States by Tradewest). ... Dogs of War is a run and gun game developed and published in 1989 by Elite Systems for the Amiga and Atari ST. The name Dogs of War is probably taken from the 1981 movie The Dogs of War. ...

Llamatron (right) is a ten year after released humouristic tribute to Robotron (left). Image File history File links Robotron:_2084. ... Image File history File links A screenshot from the Amiga version of Llamatron This is a screenshot of a copyrighted computer game or video game. ... Llamatron is a computer game written by Jeff Minter of Llamasoft for the Amiga, Atari ST and PC (DOS). ... Robotron: 2084 (often simply called Robotron) is an arcade game created in 1982 by the company Vid Kidz (Eugene Jarvis and Larry Demar) for Williams Electronics. ...

Notable cloned games

• Arkanoid. The 1987 release of the computer conversion of this arcade game - which itself is also a clone too - triggered a flood of clones made for leading home computers of the day.
• Grand Theft Auto, possibly one of the most cloned games in recent memory (see GTA clone).
• Commando (1985), a vertical scrolling shoot 'em up, produced many clones such as Ikari Warriors, Rambo II, Dogs of War, Leatherneck, Battle Isle.
• Dungeon Master (1987) was the first 3D-roleplaying game (though early Ultima games had contained same kind of dungeons). It was followed by many clones, though it took few years before the clones really start coming. Some of the clones took the game idea to a sci-fi setting but most of them remained in fantasy world.
• Tetris has been ported to all but the most obscure platforms, often under different non-infringing names. See Tetris variants.
• In the 1990s, first person shooters were called Doom-clones. Doom (1993) itself was the spiritual sequel to Wolfenstein 3D (1992), by the same designers.
• Great Giana Sisters (1987), famous platform game for late 1980s home computers, was a Super Mario Bros clone to the extent that its publisher was threaten to be taken to a court and the game was withdrawn from the markets.
• The first Warcraft game (1994) was clearly a clone of Dune II (1992). The game idea of Dune II was taken from a sci-fi atmosphere to a fantasy world. At the time when the first Warcraft game was released, it was the second representative of its genre. Later Command & Conquer (1995), by the makers of Dune II, triggered the flood of Command & Conquer clones.
• R-Type: Most sci-fi themed side-scrolling shooters from the mid-80s onward were considered clones of Irem's game, although Gradius arguably defined the genre.

• Famous early arcade games were cloned often, especially by freeware game designers
  • Asteroids (clones include Stardust, Sinistar, Comet Busters!, and Minestorm, which was built into the notable Vectrex console)
  • Defender (clones include Star Ray, Attack of the Mutant Camels, Datastorm)
  • Gravitar (clones include Thrust, Gravity Force, OIDS)
  • Pac-Man (clones include Munch Man (the most popular TI-4/99A game) and countless others)
  • Space Invaders (clones include Galaga, Phoenix, TI Invaders)
  • Missile Command (clones include Liberator, Bio-ship Paladin)
  • Qix (clones include Gals Panic, Xonix, JezzBall)
  • Tron (clones include Armagetron Advanced, GLtron)

Arkanoid is an arcade game developed by Taito in 1986. ... 1987 1987 in games 1986 in video gaming 1988 in video gaming Notable events of 1987 in video gaming. ... Grand Theft Auto may refer to: Grand Theft Auto (series), a series of free-roam video games Grand Theft Auto (video game), the first game in the series Grand Theft Auto (film), a 1977 film by Ron Howard Motor vehicle theft, a felony in the United States This is a... GTA clone is a term used by videogame critics and players to refer to the slew of videogames released following the massive success of Grand Theft Auto III (GTA III) in 2001, which emulated, or at least attempted to, the gameplay functions of GTA III or other later games from... Commando (戦場の狼/Senjou no Ookami [Battlefield Wolf]) is a vertically-scrolling shoot em up released in 1985. ... 1985 1985 in games 1984 in video gaming 1986 in video gaming Notable events of 1985 in video gaming. ... It has been suggested that Scrolling shooter be merged into this article or section. ... Ikari Warriors is a 1986 arcade game by SNK (manufactured in the United States by Tradewest). ... Dogs of War is a scrolling shooter game developed and published in 1989 by Elite Systems for the Amiga and Atari ST. The name Dogs of War is probably taken from the 1981 movie The Dogs of War. ... Dungeon Master was the first 3D realtime action computer role-playing game. ... 1987 1987 in games 1986 in video gaming 1988 in video gaming Notable events of 1987 in video gaming. ... It has been suggested that Mongbat (Ultima) be merged into this article or section. ... This article or section needs additional references or sources to improve its verifiability. ... This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... A first-person shooter (FPS) is a computer or video game where the players on-screen view of the game world simulates that of the character, and there is some element of shooting involved. ... As evinced by how frequently the terms have been used on Usenet, Doom clone was more common than first-person shooter until the late 1990s. ... Notable events of 1993 in computer and video games. ... Wolfenstein 3D (commonly abbreviated to Wolf 3D) is the computer game that started the first person shooter genre on the PC. It was created by id Software and published by Apogee Software on May 5, 1992. ... 1992 1992 in games 1991 in video gaming 1993 in video gaming Notable events of 1992 in video gaming. ... Great Giana Sisters is a platform game developed by Time Warp Productions for the Amiga and Commodore 64. ... 1987 1987 in games 1986 in video gaming 1988 in video gaming Notable events of 1987 in video gaming. ... Super Mario Bros. ... Warcraft: Orcs & Humans is a real-time strategy computer game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment in 1994. ... 1994 1994 in games 1993 in video gaming 1995 in video gaming Notable events of 1994 in computer and video games. ... Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty (also known as Dune II: Battle for Arrakis in Europe and in the Mega Drive/Genesis port) is a Dune computer game, released in 1992 by Westwood Studios. ... 1992 1992 in games 1991 in video gaming 1993 in video gaming Notable events of 1992 in video gaming. ... Command & Conquer is the original title in Westwood Studios Command & Conquer franchise of real-time strategy video games. ... 1995 1995 in games 1994 in video gaming 1996 in video gaming Notable events of 1995 in video gaming. ... R-Type is a horizontally-scrolling shoot-em-up arcade game produced by Irem in 1987. ... The Gradius series, first introduced in 1985, is a series of scrolling shooter video games published by Konami for a variety of portable, console and arcade platforms, and has since its inception become synonymous with the phrase Shoot the core! []. In many games in the series the player controls a... Centipede by Atari is a typical example of a 1980s era arcade game. ... Asteroids is a popular vector-based video arcade game released in 1979 by Atari. ... Sinistar is an arcade game released by Williams in 1982. ... The Vectrex is an 8-bit video game console developed by General Consumer Electric (GCE) and later bought by Milton Bradley Company. ... Defender is a horizontally-scrolling shoot em up arcade game created by Williams Electronics in 1980. ... Attack of the Mutant Camels was a surrealist computer game released for the Commodore 64 in the 1980s by Jeff Minters Llamasoft. ... Datastorm was a popular game for the Amiga Datastorm is a Defender-like game for the Amiga published in 1989. ... Gravitar is a shoot em up arcade game released by Atari in 1982. ... Thrust is a computer game originally for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron. ... Gravity Force is a computer game released in 1989 for the Amiga by Kingsoft. ... Pac-Man is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution by Midway Games in 1979. ... This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Galaga is a fixed shooter arcade game that was released by Namco in 1981 (and also licensed to Midway). ... Phoenix is a popular shoot em up arcade game created and manufactured by Amstar Electronics (which was located in Phoenix, Arizona) in 1980, and licensed to Centuri for US distribution, and to Taito for Japanese distribution. ... TI Invaders is a video game designed exclusively for the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A home computer. ... Missile Command is a 1980 arcade game by Atari. ... Liberator is an arcade game by Atari. ... Bio-ship Paladin is a horizontally scrolling shoot em up arcade game from 1990. ... Qix (pronounced kiks) is an arcade game, released by Taito America Corporation in 1981. ... Gals Panic S Extra Edition. ... Xonix is a computer game from the Qix category. ... The initial appearance of the first level. ... Tron is an arcade video game manufactured and distributed by Bally Midway in 1982. ... Armagetron Advanced running in windowed mode. ... GLTron is an open source game based on the light-cycle portion of the movie Tron. ...

Notable cloned game franchises

• Tear Ring Saga, a clone of Fire Emblem.
• Star Ocean, a clone of Tales RPG series.

Tear Ring Saga is a simulation role-playing game for the PlayStation developed by Shouzou Kagas development studio Tirnanog and published by Enterbrain. ... Windows Desktop image featuring Eliwood, Hector and Lyn from Fire Emblem (Game Boy Advance), the first Fire Emblem to be released internationally. ... Star Ocean is a franchise of role-playing video games developed by tri-Ace and published by Square Enix (originally Enix). ... The Tales RPG series is a popular RPG series in Japan made by Namco with a few games being localized for North America or Europe. ...

See also

• Video game remake