InfoTech: Sony gets not too heavy over Lemmings iPhone port

Lemmings will be 20 years old next year. Originally designed for the Commodore 64 (a supposed home/games machine that ran on the spectacular Motorola 68000 chip - far superior to anything out of Intel then or for many years later), it was ported to several other platforms by its original developer Psygnosis, now part of the Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) group.

The game is utterly addictive and utterly simple in its gameplay. It is perfectly suited to hand-held devices and that includes the iPhone.

That was the market Ardiri wanted to attack. Unfortunately, he didn't ask Sony if they had any objection.

In June, Ardiri posted a video of his port running on an iPhone onto social network site YouTube. That came, indirectly, to the attention of Sony.

Sony said "you can't do that - it's our intellectual property." And wrote an extraordinarily nice letter informing Ardiri that CEEE's rights were infringed by his actions and that he should stop distribution and not port any other CEEE games. If he did so, within two days, they said, they would take no further action; if he did not, then they would sue and claim damaged and costs.

In June, Adiri's website at mobile1up.com carried the following notice: "while are did this as a tribute to the game - we can only hope that Sony actually does a conversion for platforms like iPhone and Palm Pre in the near future. we will open communication with Sony to explore the rights for these platforms! stay tuned!"

So far, nothing has resulted.

But with the iPhone reaching the very people who were obsessed with the game two decades ago when they were four or five years old, it's highly likely that a port to iOS (and - please - Android) would result in enormous sales.

All CEEE have to do is negotiate with Ardiri for the code for his port - or licence it to him.

And there will be millions of happy former Lemmings players delighted to be able to play on the train, plain or in the back of automobiles. And anywhere else that they happen to sit for just a few minutes - only to become children once again and find themselves lost for hours.

CEEE, of course, acted properly and entirely within their rights. But the rest of the world is still waiting!