How the video game “Clones” created the games we love today

For every original video game that becomes a massive hit or revolutionizes the industry, you can be sure that hundreds of similar “clones” will follow. While some of these clones are blatant fakes, the rest are more important than you might think.

What are video game clones?

In the early days of the video game industry, programmers and game designers didn’t have many examples to follow. It was an emerging new medium, and most of the developers who helped build it from the ground up had to rely on completely original ideas. This was not the case for all early developers, as many amateur creators took advantage of the fact that copyright laws for games barely existed in the 1970s and 1980s.

Many famous video games such as Donkey Kong, Goand Space invaders It was succeeded by waves of unlicensed imitators. Aside from minor changes to legally distinct objects and titles, such as Artic International Bookmana very inaccurate imitation of pac man—Many of these games were almost identical to the games they copied. This blatant plagiarism has led to these games receiving a large number of lawsuits and being labeled as “clones” of the more popular titles.

Some early versions managed to achieve greater success than the original games. Pong On the Atari 2600 it was a copy of Magnavox Odyseys table tennis. Later, the original Atari games were copied by games from other companies such as Taito, who developed the Atari game Go-Inspired Arkanoids. Likewise, you’ve probably never heard of it before siege from 1976, but there’s a good chance you’ve played at least one of the countless knockoffs, like snake, Nibbleror slide.io.

Near-exact copies of popular video games gradually faded away in the late 1980s as companies increasingly protected their original ideas and took legal action to enforce their patents. However, this did not prevent developers from using each other’s ideas.

Throughout the 1990s, new releases and changing gaming trends helped redefine the concept of video game clones. Rather than being a direct imitation of another game, this type of clone refers to a game that copies the mechanics of another title while changing other aspects such as presentation, story, and level design.

In most cases, these clones did not rely on plagiarism or stolen assets, but their apparent attempts to replicate the success of more popular titles made them divisive among gamers.

If you hear someone refer to a game as a “clone,” they’re probably using the second definition. death clones, Pokemon Clones of other popular games became widespread during the early 1990s and 2000s. While it’s easy to dismiss many of these games as lesser versions of your favorite games, clones have played an important role in shaping the modern gaming industry.

Clones have begun in most video game genres

Copies present a unique dilemma for video games. When a game introduces a new, innovative concept that doesn’t quite fit into a pre-defined genre, every other game that follows its example is often considered a copy. While these games are initially criticized for taking ideas from other games, they often become the basis for entirely new genres.

First-person shooters (FPS) have been around before Wolfenstein 3D and death– I beat them Maze War (1973) and Combat zone (1980) – But id Software’s iconic shooters were responsible for defining the FPS formula in the 1990s.

At the time of its release, the first-person shooter genre had not yet been properly defined, and most games that followed did not stray far from the mechanics and level design of id’s shooters. It may seem reductive to call all shooters in the early 1990s “death clones”, but it was an accurate description of deathHuge impact on the genre.

This gradually changed as first-person shooters began to improve deathformula. Duke Nukem 3D It brought a new degree of environmental interaction to the species, and Marathon The series showcased the genre’s ability to tell masterful stories.

the “death Clone” gradually, as first-person shooters shifted away from id Software’s original formula. The rise of tactical shooters such as Rainbow six,story-driven shooters such as half lifeand multiplayer shooter games like id’s own game earthquake All of them proved that the FPS genre consists of more than just a game death Clones.

This story is not unique to first-person shooters. Like a lot death, Street Fighter II It wasn’t the first of its kind, but it laid the foundation for future fighting games. but, Street fight The clones were very competitive and constantly trying to one-up each other.

Unlike first-person shooter games, Street fight The clones were contested for the attention of players in the arcades. This forced new developers to find ways to innovate and differentiate themselves, while the giants of the genre – Capcom and SNK – had to adapt to increasing standards with a constant stream of new games.

Street fight The clones were a mixed bag of quality ranging from cheap imitations such as History of the fighter To all-time classics like Mortal Kombat And criminal disparagement Breakers series. Regardless of their quality, clones forced the genre to evolve rapidly, helping it escape “clone” status and gain recognition as a niche genre long before first-person shooters.

until Street Fighter II It received several updated versions to compete with the games it directly inspired.

Although it only takes one game to introduce a new idea, it takes a group of clones to develop that idea into an entire genre. Copies validate new gameplay concepts not only by asserting that they are worth copying, but also by demonstrating that these ideas can be developed and improved beyond their original appearance.

without death clones to push the genre forward, we’ll likely never receive genre-defining classics like aura, Call of dutyor the countless shooters released in recent years.

The same can be said about other species that arose from copying. Kart racers started out as Mario Kart Clones and farming simulators such as Harvest moon Clones, and open-world shooters as well grand theft auto Clones, the list goes on. Without other developers to build on their ideas and properly establish these genres, it’s unlikely any of these series would be as prolific as they are today.

Every successful game series learns from its imitators, and as a result, the gaming industry is constantly improving. New ideas thrive under new genres and develop further through unique twists that can inspire their own subgenres.

Clones still make up the gaming landscape

Game genres are much better defined than in the 1980s and 1990s, but new genres are still being established through the process of “cloning”. Perhaps the most successful recent example is the battle royale genre, which began with PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) but it was quickly overtaken PUBG Clones such as fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone. Today, these imitators are much more recognizable than the game that inspired them.

In most cases, modern gaming has moved away from considering games as “copies,” and for good reason. Soulslikes, Metroidvanias, and roguelikes all borrow familiar mechanics and design elements from their namesakes, but these genres now include much more than just direct imitations of the original titles. Many modern games in these genres share little resemblance to their inspirations. This is especially true for roguelikes, which are defined by their uniquely punishing progression rather than specific gameplay.

Even recently created categories like Bullet-Heaven inspired genre games Vampire survivors-It quickly stopped being classified as clones due to the massive influx of new releases. Thanks to the growing importance of indie development, more games are being released than ever before, which has also led to genres evolving at a rapid pace.

The modern gaming industry rarely lets new ideas stagnate, with other developers constantly looking for new ways to improve upon or completely reinvent these ideas with their own exciting twists.

Despite a reputation for inauthentic or outright stolen versions, “clones” have been some of the hottest games in the gaming industry. They are responsible for the creation and development of almost every genre of game, and continue to influence the gaming landscape to this day.

Although the use of this term has gradually declined in recent years, clones still make up the average imitator every time.