BdR
Junior Member
Posts: 94
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Post by BdR on Jul 3, 2019 16:43:48 GMT -5
I'm a big fan of the game Bejeweled, it's simple yet hard, clever mechanics and just an elegant game design. Bejeweled was released in 2001 and was a big hit, and games like Candy Crush remain popular to this very day. Only recently I found out there was an msdos game called Shariki ("Шарики" in Russian) and it is just fascinating. It's the exact same game as Bejeweled, except from the looks of it, it dates back to the 90s. You can download the game and the file dates are from 8-april-1996. The only thing is, it's almost impossible to verify the release date because file dates are unreliable and can be manipulated. But if this really was programmed in the 90s, predating Bejweled and even Diamond Mine that's just remarkable. For what it's worth, the Russian text during the game at the bottom of the screen reads: Программа "Шарики"
Автор Женя Алемжин.
Пишите письма: sandra@sandra.kemerovo.su
Привет всем!Which according to google translate translates to: Program "Balls"
The author Zhenya Alemzhin.
Write letters: sandra@sandra.kemerovo.su
Hello to all!Interestingly there is a Youtube channel by someone called Yevgeny Alemzhin with videos from 2013 of a game Match-3 in 3D. So I assume it's the same guy. I mean, it's kind of spectacular that such a well designed yet humble msdos game was turned into the world famous money making machines we now know as Bejeweled and Candy Crush. I mean there's definitely a story there with parallels to Tetris except with maybe a not so happy ending for the original developer. |
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Post by dsparil on Jul 3, 2019 18:27:04 GMT -5
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Post by derboo on Jul 3, 2019 21:25:10 GMT -5
In a 2011 post mortem, PopCap co-founder Jason Kapalka claimed they did not know Shariki, but a different, more primitive looking game called Colors Game (which apparently could not be found again, at least by that time). Not sure if Shariki and Colors Game were later proven to be the same game or just got confounded in retellings. (Watching the talk I got the feeling that Colors Game might have been a early webgame clone of Shariki?) www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1jlw64ddlg |
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Post by Owlman on Jul 4, 2019 4:36:20 GMT -5
I don't think any game this basic developed post-2000 is original. The concept is too simple and will have been done before, and even if it's just some hobbyist's DOS homebrew and not a major release. This also happened with Angry Birds (Crush the Castle copy) and Flappy Bird (clone of a French-developed game). However, I think that this may sometimes happen accidentally.
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BdR
Junior Member
Posts: 94
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Post by BdR on Jul 4, 2019 6:02:46 GMT -5
I don't think any game this basic developed post-2000 is original. Obviously every game borrows some things from other games but that doesn't mean that in the 21st century originality is dead. Geez. Just look for example at Blocksum or Tumblestone or Baba Is You to name just a few. Blocksum borrows from Tetris Attack, Baba Is You borrows from Sokoban but they put such a clever new spin on it that it's genuinely an original game imho. Anyway, what strikes me about the Shariki game is that Bejeweled is so clearly a copy of the game (same rules, same grid size), yet Shariki is a relatively obscure game while Bejeweled is practically a household name. |
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BdR
Junior Member
Posts: 94
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Post by BdR on Jul 4, 2019 14:24:22 GMT -5
I was thinking the same thing, a Shariki inspired clone written in Perl or early PHP or something. |
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Post by kingmike on Jul 5, 2019 13:36:47 GMT -5
I don't think any game this basic developed post-2000 is original. The concept is too simple and will have been done before, and even if it's just some hobbyist's DOS homebrew and not a major release. This also happened with Angry Birds (Crush the Castle copy) and Flappy Bird (clone of a French-developed game). However, I think that this may sometimes happen accidentally. Funny when things happen like one mobile/Facebook game company accused another of copyright-infringement in like 2008 or something, when both games were a ripoff of SimTower, from 1994. 
Nickelodeon has sold before Spongebob mobile games that looked like total ripoffs, one of Puzzle Bobble and another of RollerCoaster Tycoon. Because when a billionaire corporation (Viacom) does it, how do they not get sued?  |
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Post by mainpatr on Jul 5, 2019 14:30:08 GMT -5
I don't think any game this basic developed post-2000 is original. The concept is too simple and will have been done before, and even if it's just some hobbyist's DOS homebrew and not a major release. This also happened with Angry Birds (Crush the Castle copy) and Flappy Bird (clone of a French-developed game). However, I think that this may sometimes happen accidentally. Funny when things happen like one mobile/Facebook game company accused another of copyright-infringement in like 2008 or something, when both games were a ripoff of SimTower, from 1994. Nickelodeon has sold before Spongebob mobile games that looked like total ripoffs, one of Puzzle Bobble and another of RollerCoaster Tycoon. Because when a billionaire corporation (Viacom) does it, how do they not get sued? If you think that's bad enough, Nick's newest mobile\browser game is part of their "Super Brawl" series. Super? Brawl? How much more blatant can you get,Nick? Yes,it plays like Smash. |
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cacao
Junior Member
Posts: 69
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Post by cacao on Jul 11, 2019 18:48:10 GMT -5
Pardon my ignorance, but isn't Bejewelled a matching game?
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BdR
Junior Member
Posts: 94
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Post by BdR on Jul 16, 2019 14:34:22 GMT -5
Pardon my ignorance, but isn't Bejewelled a matching game? Not sure what you mean, but yes Bejeweled and Candy Crush are match-3 games. With every move the goal is to match 3 or more of the same color in a row of column. |
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