Does anyone know what sort of copyright can be held on old computer games?

Take an old game such as Pac-Man.

It's over 30 years old now. There are many clones out there (some even call "Pac-Man"). The AI algorithms have been released as have most of the timing calculations etc...

Is there anything to stop someone (say me) creating a Pac-Man clone on the iPhone and applying to put it on the AppStore and charging/making money from it?

I've been thinking of writing something anyway (more as an exercise/tutorial than anything else) and started wondering.

Thanks

Yes

Pac Man might be 30 years old but the copyright still exists on the name/likeness and the only ones released are from Atari (or the new copyright holder if they sold it)

How about you remake Star Wars seeing as it's over 30 years old and they released most of how they made the special effects etc

You would be best off taking the theme of the game and making a generic version along the same idea, and avoiding mentioning the name at all

Mac-pan?

Pan-Mac, Travel across a world of raincoats

Apple Mac?

Pac-Man (the official one) is already in the App store. I'm not sure how long copyright can apply to a game, but if it's anything like Music/Art, it's a very, very long time (70 years after death IIRC).

EDIT: This fact sheet looks useful:

http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyr ... yright_law