Boom! Original John Madden Football designer files lawsuit against EA
No, John Madden isn't the person who designed John Madden Football. That credit goes to a man named Robin Antonick, who created the first game in the megahit sports series (and its little-known spinoff, Tough-Actin' Tinaction) for C64, Apple 2, and MS-DOS back in 1988. Twenty-three years later, the series is a multi-multi-million-selling institution, and he's seeking some of the revenue from it in addition to the credit.
Antonick has filed suit against Electronic Arts, seeking (as Reuters puts it) "tens of millions" in royalties, plus a portion of the enormous profits EA has made on the series. "According to recent statements by Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins," Antonick's complaint reads, "the current generation of software apparently derived from software developed by Antonick."
And though "he was responsible for the development of virtually all of the ground-breaking technology at the heart of the game," Electronic Arts has not issued a royalty payment to Antonick since 1992, according to the claim -- though it has tried to settle in the past.
[Image: Retro Games DB]
