If you were looking forward to playing Jeff Minterās Tempest-inspired TxK on a platform besides Vita, keep waiting. For now, Minter is relenting to Atariās demands.
Minter revealed yesterday that Atari had been hassling him about TxK, claiming the Tempest 2000 designer was infringing on Atariās copyrights with TxK. When the news spread, the two went back-and-forth through various public statements. It didnāt paint a pretty picture, and suggested Minter and Atari werenāt merely a few emails away from coming up with a deal.
āI donāt think thereās much left to be done, given that I cannot release the ports,ā he said over email. āTxK on the Vita has run its course and only a trickle comes in per month, not really worth changing the status quo there really.ā
Minter said TxK on Vita only earns him a few dollars every month right now.
āThereās no money left from its earnings for āAtariā to try to take; that got used up during the time it took to make the ports,ā he said. āIn fact we are now running on money borrowed against the release of one of the ports that we will have somehow to pay back out of any future projectās earnings.ā
Itās possible Atari could come after the one version of TxK thatās out there, and bring TxK down from PlayStation Network. While Minter doesnāt expect that to happen, he didnāt rule it out.
āCommon sense doesnāt seem to have played much of a part in their actions thus far,ā he said.
Since issuing an initial public statement, Atari has not responded to my requests for comment.
For now, Minter has to look beyond TxK. Unless things change, the project is now dead.
āAtari through their actions have damaged us quite enough already, far more than they claim we damaged them,ā he said. āI expect them to leave us the hell alone now.ā
You can reach the author of this post at [emailĀ protected] or on Twitter at @patrickklepek
