Porting Existing Game

No it's not legal. You don't own it, whether its free or not makes no difference. You can either ask SEGA for permission (don't count on it...), or make a different game.

See this example of a guy who developed clone of his favourite game "Streets of Rage" for 8 years to be shut down by Sega few days after releasing it:
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/04/fan-made-streets-of-rage-remake-pulled-after-request-from-sega/

This must have been painful for him but you can also say his time wasn't just lost - he learned how to make professional games

One thing to consider is that there are exceptions in the DMCA for "compatability". I am neither a lawyer nor an American though, so you'll need to research whether this applies yourself. However, my understanding is that - at best - this allows you to develop some kind of emulator or patch for the original game to run on new hardware and distribute only this. You would not be legally allowed distribute the original game because you do not hold the copyright. Re-creating the game from scratch would be a derived work and again would not be allowed without permission.

An important point: whether you are making money or not is irrelevant. Copyright law doesn't care about this. Nor does it care if you give credit. It merely cares whether you have been given permission by the copyright holder, and some edge cases like fair use.

One option, if you are serious, is to approach SEGA about getting permission for this. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a positive response.

Hello,

I played Phantasy Star in my Master System many years ago and I would like to play it in my cell phone (iOS plataform), but there's no port of it to any other plataform besides Master System.

I'm wondering if I can develop this game for iOS to play in my cell phone and plublish it freely on App Store. Is that legal if I simply show the credits to SEGA on initial screen ? I will not make any money from it. What can I do to develop it and make avaliable to all freely ?

Regards,
Alex.

For a console game this is definitly a big no-no , writing a compatible engine (or a full system emulator) that can run the original game data might be legal but in the case of a console game your users won't have a good legal way to get the data to their phone.

You pretty much only have 2 options:
1) Contact SEGA and try to work out a deal with them (The odds of them allowing you to create a free remake is close to 0, a commercial remake has a higher chance of happening but it won't be free)
2) Contact SEGA to let them know what games you want to play, (There are a few post like this on their forums and they've allready released Phantasy Star 2 + a bunch of other games). (Phantasy Star II for the iPhone costs $2.99)

I don't belive SEGA will give me permission to develop this game. It`s sad because the fanatic gamers who likes descontinued games like me have no escape. We depend on SEGA to (re)make such games on actual plataforms.

Maybe in some decades, when the copyright expires, I finally can make this game... or just deploy it because nothing can stop me to make this game for personal use.

You do know Sega has ported Phantasy Star several times, right? It's available in English on GameBoy Advance (in Phantasy Star Collection) and Wii Virtual Console, and is an unlockable bonus in Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection on PlayStation 3 and XBox 360.

And in Japan, it's also available in the Saturn and PlayStation 2 versions of Phantasy Star Collection, and there's also a remake on the PlayStation 2 titled Phantasy Star Generations: 1. So they're not exactly shy about keeping the game available.

As for the copyright expiring, don't hold your breath - the Japanese version enters the public domain in 2037, but the English version is covered by copyright until 2083.

Instead of Phantasy Star create Fantastic Milkyway, a clone, and avoid any similarities to the original product. Then you could create something unique.

Hello,

I played Phantasy Star in my Master System many years ago and I would like to play it in my cell phone (iOS plataform), but there's no port of it to any other plataform besides Master System.

There have been many ports of Phantasy Star.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic's_Ultimate_Genesis_Collection
http://en.wikipedia....Star_Collection
http://en.wikipedia....ar_Generation_1
http://en.wikipedia....ar_Generation_2

Part 2 has been ported over to IOS: http://itunes.apple....d382953129?mt=8