Back in 1995, Namco threw in a playable, miniature version of the arcade classic Galaxian to keep players amused during the lengthy loading times for PlayStation launch title Ridge Racer. In the decades since, other developers have largely been prevented from copying the idea of minigames on loading screens. That's because of a broad US patent Namco got for games that prevent "unnecessary wastage of time... by first loading the smaller, auxiliary game program code into the games machine, before the main-game program code is loaded, then loading the main-game program code while the auxiliary game is running."

Some games, like FIFA and Bayonetta, have managed to skirt that patent by including load-screen minigames that are simply smaller versions of the full game rather than "auxiliary" games as mentioned in the patent. Still, for the most part, developers have been forced to use those unskippable load times to display concept art or in-game statistics rather than playable diversions.

The dark era of dull loading screens may finally be coming to an end, though, because the 20-year term on Namco's 1995 patent expired last week. To celebrate, a number of indie developers are getting together for a Loading Screen Game Jam, devoted to "creating interactive loading screens... and defiling the patent that held back game design for so many years!"

Submissions are open until December 7, but there are already a handful of extremely meta submissions that base entire games around the act of loading itself.

Gaming’s dubious patent history

While the patent's expiration is welcome news for developers, there's significant reason to doubt whether Namco should have been granted the exclusive rights to loading screen minigames in the first place. Plenty of games, PCs, and consoles had implemented similar minigames well before 1995. The Commodore 64 Space Invaders clone Invade-a-load is just one notable example that predates Namco's patent by eight years.

This is far from the first time the US Patent and Trademark Office has granted protections to somewhat dubious game design "inventions," though. Over the years, everything from racing game "ghost modes" to Mass Effect's dialogue wheel to Eternal Darkness' sanity meter to the entirety of Crazy Taxi has been acknowledged by the USPTO as a wholly new, useful, and nonobvious idea that shouldn't be copied by other developers.

Many of these game-design patents would likely fail one or more of those tests in a court of law. Still, once the patent is granted, most publishers would rather not pay to test that theory in court. Instead, developers have to pay to license the patented idea for use in their game or leave the feature out of their game entirely.

In any case, don't expect a flood of games with amusing load screen minigames to pop up immediately now that Namco's patent has expired. Developers couldn't even start working on such ideas until November 28, even if the games were set to ship after the practice was once again legal. That means 2016 could finally be the year we can play Crash Bandicoot while waiting for Uncharted 4 to load. What a time to be alive.