Back Sidam

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  1. By Flipcommons AI Descriptions (Manufacturer)
    description
    Sidam was a coin-op maker in [[location:italy/to/turin]] that, before it built a single video game, turned out foosball tables, photo-booth cabinets and similar amusements.[1] In 1978 it began copying arcade video games — [[manufacturer:atari]]'s above all — at a time when Italian law did not yet extend copyright to software, so that cloning a game was widely treated as legal.[2] Sidam rebuilt hit after hit by reading and reworking the circuit boards rather than the cabinets, and one Italian retro-gaming history remembers it as the "queen of the bootlegs."[3] One clone, *[[model:rugby-sidam]]*, carried the practice even into the video-pinball genre by reskinning Atari's *[[model:video-pinball]]*. The copying ended in court. Atari, through its Italian concessionaires the Bertolino brothers, sued Sidam for plagiarism over games including Asteroids,[4] and the court upheld copyright in video games, classing them as works of the intellect in a precedent-setting judgment that punished the plagiarism.[5] Condemned in 1983, Sidam thereafter built and distributed its games under proper license, trading as SIPEM and continuing to distribute until 2010[6] — putting out officially licensed Namco titles across Italy, France and the Benelux.[7] The company itself outlived its games: it survives in Turin today as a maker of industrial ventilation systems.[8]
    1.
    TILT.IT — https://www.tilt.it/deb/sidam-en.html
    A company in Turin: before videogames it produced fussball tables, photo cabinets and such.
    2.
    RetroCampus — https://retrocampus.com/2015/12/31/sidam-videogiochi-a-torino/
    La SIDAM era una ditta di Torino che nel 1978 inizia a copiare videogiochi, specialmente ATARI. [...] Questa pratica della copia era molto in voga al tempo ed in italia non essendoci nulla che tutelava i diritti d'autore, nel settore informatico e videoludico, questo era ritenuto legale.
    3.
    Strananet — https://www.strananet.it/tutorial/bootleg-arcade-italiani-come-taroccavamo-i-videogiochi-da-bar-negli-anni-80
    Sidam, la regina dei bootleg
    4.
    ArcadeItalia — http://www.arcadeitalia.net/viewtopic.php?t=10034
    Finalmente sono riuscito a trovare l'atto dove è documentata la causa condotta dall'Atari per mezzo dei fratelli Bertolino (concessionari Atari in Italia) contro la Sidam, azienda italiana, colpevole di aver copiato alcuni loro giochi (tra cui Asteroids, Space invaders...)
    5.
    ArcadeItalia — http://www.arcadeitalia.net/viewtopic.php?t=10034
    La corte però ritenne valido il diritto d'autore anche nel campo dei videogiochi classificandoli come opera d'ingegno (fu una sentenza che fece giurisprudenza) e punì il plagio.
    6.
    TILT.IT — https://www.tilt.it/deb/sidam-en.html
    Sidam was condemned in 1983, the judgment was confirmed in various degrees. [...] Acknowledged its modus operandi was illegal, Sidam started to build and distribute games on a regular license. [...] It went on to distribute the games until 2010.
    7.
    Pac-Man Fandom — https://pacman.fandom.com/wiki/Sidam
    The company produced arcade machines of several Pac-Man and other Namco titles; these were distributed in various European countries, including Italy, France, and Benelux (likely among others).
    8.
    TILT.IT — https://www.tilt.it/deb/sidam-en.html
    It still exists. It is based in Turin, in strada Francese, but now produces industrial ventilation systems.
  2. By Flipcommons Catalog

    Turin coin-op maker, best known for video games; tilt.it lists its one pinball-style machine. Renamed SIPEM late in its arcade era, kept as an alias (one corporate entity until a source separates them).

    manufacturer_alias
    Alias value
    SIPEM
    TILT.IT — https://www.tilt.it/flipper_pinball/ipdb/sidam
    SIDAM/SIPEM
    name
    Sidam
    TILT.IT — https://www.tilt.it/flipper_pinball/ipdb/sidam
    SIDAM/SIPEM
    slug
    sidam
    status
    active