Game publisher Atari has filed a lawsuit against a company that Atari claims is trying to sell a knockoff of its now discontinued Flashback 2 game console. Gamasutra reports that the company in question is Tommo Inc. In its lawsuit, Atari claims that Tommo has tried to sell "wholesale quantities of unauthorized and pirated copies of Atari software and Atari Flashback 2 consoles."
Atari launched the Flashback 2 game console in 2005. It was designed to look like the classic Atari 2600 console of the 1970s. It had 40 Atari 2600 games programmed directly in the console"s hardware. Most were classic games from the 70s although there were a few new games and previously unreleased prototypes added as well. However the article states that Atari dropped the Flashback 2 console in 2006.
The story states that even after the Flashback 2 was discontinued by Atari, bootleg versions of the console have popped up for sale in various retail locations in the US. According to the story these knockoffs look almost like the authentic Flashback 2 machines. However the software included in these copies have a number of bugs and issues. The story states that Atari wants damages in the amount based on the sales of the Flashback 2 version sold by Tommo. It may also try to get $150,000 for each of the copyrights Atari claims Tommo has infringed. Atari says that up to 80 of its copyrights could be affected which means that it may be looking to get as much as $30 million from Tommo.