On November 27, 1995, Namco Ltd. filed patent US 5718632 A, which gave them ownership over the concept of loading screen minigames. Anyone who wanted to use minigames on their loading screen had to pay Namco, or find a clever way around it. Gamespot points out in their YouTube video that the patent only applied to minigames that used alternate coding from the main game. Therefore, things such as FIFA’s practice sessions or Bayonetta’s practice area were allowed, since they were just little parts of the main game.
As of November 27, 2015 the patent is now part of public domain and the concept of loading screen minigames is free to be used by all, and to celebrate, a Loading Screen Jam is being held. The description states that “The judging will be based on the loading screens themselves (and/or how they tie into your game), subtext/commentary on patents/trademarks that hold back design, and sheer disrespect to the original patent.”
Interestingly, David Hoppe points out on a blog post that the Commodore 64 had a program called Invade-a-Load that would let you play a Space Invaders clone during the initial loading and has a copyright date of 1987. That would make Invade-a-Load the first instance of the concept being used commercially.
Perhaps since by the time it was made, the United States’ Commodore market was mostly on a floppy disk format and it was written for Compact Cassette tapes, or maybe it was because the variation that Namco patented was different enough from the original. Maybe the patent expired too late, as games are reducing the amount of time they loads things and the load times in general. It’s possible that developers may be willing to have even longer load times since they can freely put in something for someone to do during the loading.
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Source: PC Gamer
Image: Venture Beat
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