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Art Alive exclamation mark

This is an open ticket.
Category: Generic
Reference: 0122

alcoatjez » 2023-08-19 02:47:30

I think the exclamation mark is part of the title: It's on the title screen, the manual consistently uses it and it's the internal ROM name

Psychofox11 » 2023-08-23 17:28:41

Looking at the North American version's materials, it isn't used outside of the software itself. I think that means it is optional, even if it was used everywhere within the software, which is (world) with only one version, it was officially used without it there. The US box, manual, and top of cart do not have an exclamation mark.

Psychofox11 » 2023-08-23 17:32:43

In fact, googling around, I don't see any box, manual, or cart with an exclamation point on the cover, for US, Japan, or Europe. I don't have the manual and can't find the inside of an English version, but even if used consistently there, it isn't on the front.

Psychofox11 » 2023-08-23 20:15:15

Actually having second thoughts on this one and would like someone else to chime in. It is kind of like the people making the game, manual, and copy for the back of the box were told to use the exclamation point, but the people designing the covers with the big titles weren't.

However, the manual does consistently use "Art Alive!" in italics, and the copy rights in the fine print on the back of the manual say "Art Alive!" is a copyright of etc...

I'd think the name they registered the copyright under would take precedence, but would love another opinion!

alcoatjez » 2023-08-25 14:39:21

Thank you for your reply.

Here is it in the manual: https://segaretro.org/index.php?title=File:ArtAlive_MD_US_Manual.pdf&page=3
This is how one of the developer calls it: https://web.archive.org/web/20011201172459/http://www.farsightstudios.com/history.htm

Psychofox11 » 2023-08-25 18:31:07

Yeah I agree that's the name as I see it, but would like to hear from someone a bit more veteran around here. What takes precedence - the box/cart/manual label, the in-software name, the registered copyright? It seems like the copyright would be the thing to use, which would be Art Alive! according to the fine print on the manual's back.

The only thing I'd say has no bearing is the in-rom name. If we went by those, things would have lots of weird names, sometimes they are gibberish, a working title, a previous title that was used as a starting point that never got updated, etc.