I decided to do some searching on Proquest for articles on Socks the Cat.
From the June 15, 1993 edition of USA Today:
Quote:
CRUSADER CAT: At least one member of the Clinton clan is as popular today as he was upon entering the White House. Socks has shown up on T-shirts, mugs, stationery. Next up? Socks Rocks the House, a video game from Surge Entertainment in which the four-footed furball searches for an ex-KGB agent intent on detonating the Rush Lim-Bomb and destroying Washington, D.C. The $49.95, 16-bit video game from licensee Kaneko USA, Ltd., will be out in November for use on the Sega Genesis Entertainment System; Socks Rocks the Hill, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System 16-bit format, is due in January.
From the July 17, 1993 edition of the Edmonton Journal (obviously a wire story, it appeared in many papers):
Quote:
SOCKS THE CAT
A video game about Socks is being developed by the American division of the Japanese gamemaker Kaneko, says Forbes magazine, but royalties won't go to the White House cat or its owners.
The license is owned by Washingtonians Robert Platt and Jay Wind, who trademarked the name Socks the Cat and a Socks caricature just after the November election.
Perhaps those two guys would have a copy of the game.
From a CES overview in the July 18, 1993 edition of the Chicago Tribune:
Quote:
Most Politically Correct Software: Socks the Cat Rocks the House (Kaneko) puts you in the role of the First Cat, escaping "from the basement to the Oval Office to create havoc with the president's allergies." I am not making this up.
Here's a quote from a the June 14, 1993 issue of the Wall Street Journal about video game licensing:
Quote:
And here's a new property that may be lucky to last four years: Socks the cat, the presidential pet. Kaneko U.S.A. Ltd. is licensing the Socks likeness from Presidential Socks Partnership Inc. of Arlington, Va., for a video game. In "Socks Rocks the House," the First Cat searches the White House for a former KGB agent who is intent on destroying everyone in Washington by detonating the "Rush LimBomb."
Here is an archive of the group that held the copyright of the Socks the Cat image. Thank you to those who archived Geocities.
A more fleshed out story of licensing, from the June 20, 1993 edition of the Chicago Tribune:
Quote:
Then there is Socks, barely out of his first 100 days as First Cat and already starring in two video games-one from Sego and another from Nintendo-as well as appearing as a plush toy and a logo for coffee mugs and key chains. How does anybody go about securing licensing rights to Chelsea Clinton's personal cat?
The answer is, by law, Socks is nobody's personal cat. His image belongs to the person who copyrights it first, and Bob Pratt, of Presidential Socks Partnership, won the race, along with the right to license his image.
Though he didn't have to do it, Pratt has promised a share of his profits to the Humane Society and the Children's Defense Fund, which happens to be one of Hillary Rodham Clinton's favorite charities.
Socks himself didn't even get a bag of catnip out of the deal.
I contacted Ellen Fuog about Socks the Cat (and also Fido Dido, which was another unreleased Kaneko game). Apparently the game was not subject to any censorship, and Nintendo actually liked the concept of the game. I guess we can put that to rest.
Also, the Genesis versions of both games were going to be completely different from the SNES versions. So the prototype of Fido Dido for the Genesis that is floating around would not be indicative of what the SNES version would have been like.
The SNES version of Socks the Cat was developed by a guy named Foo Katan (He apparently programmed the first game by Argonaut). I guess I will try contacting him to see if he remembers the game.
I have a post of the entire exchange on my forum, look there if you wish.
Joined: 26 Aug 2003 Posts: 4192 Location: Oakland, CA
Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2012 3:39 pm Post subject:
Incidentally, there's a price on the SNES proto. It's way higher than I'm willing to pay, but if by chance any of you guys have a working Medieval Madness pinball machine you don't want anymore, you can bring it to Nashville and do a trade!
Incidentally, there's a price on the SNES proto. It's way higher than I'm willing to pay, but if by chance any of you guys have a working Medieval Madness pinball machine you don't want anymore, you can bring it to Nashville and do a trade!
He actually said he'd trade that machine and also throw in a couple other protos, so that doesn't represent the exact price of Socks on its own he's hoping for. He did say he'll trade Socks alone for a Stadium Events box though, so that gives a better idea of what it's worth to him.
Which is what, like $10,000? Or are all Google results for what a box of that game is worth not really representative of its real price anymore? Especially with how often the game itself is going up for sale these days
Ha, I am just looking through some scans I got for Socks. The original advertisement for Socks the Cat (which had Bill Clinton playing a saxophone), actually had a real picture of Clinton on it.
Edit: also DreamTR is selling the prototype on Nintendo Age.
He wants Medieval Madness, a pinball game, for it. The only auction for it on Ebay has a BIN of $13,000. yeah. Hell, an auction for the shell of the machine went for $1650.
I don't think we are getting this, folks. If someone wants to put a bid on this, I'll throw in $200.
If you're looking for anybody else... Someone from Realtime Associates might have been involved in the game. I know the music was done by Team Fat (The Fat Man).
Actually, DreamTR just added he could also take Stadium Events NTSC Box/Manual (Box and manual, condition does not matter). That is also quite rare...
Joined: 26 Aug 2003 Posts: 4192 Location: Oakland, CA
Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 9:46 pm Post subject:
KungFuFurby wrote:
If you're looking for anybody else... Someone from Realtime Associates might have been involved in the game. I know the music was done by Team Fat (The Fat Man).
I know George, he doesn't have it. He probably has the music somewhere though.
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