I came across this and thought it may be of interest to some. It lends a little insight into the trouble Kairus had in getting (or not getting) permission to publish his fan game.
http://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software/garfield/garfield.htm
Didn't Kairus ask for permission? It's weird then. The fan game part of this community came up with after Kairus' problem that it is pretty much better to not ask for permission, release it, and then have it taken down, which it will live on through other downloadable site anyways.
I wonder why this get to be released, but poor ol' Kairus gets the shaft.
My first thought would be the radical difference between graphic quality. I doubt Jim Davis expects many people to download and play an old atari game prototype, and atari games aren't marketable anymore, whereas someone could possibly make a 2d graphic adventure with Garfield and sell it for cheap. IP holders are typically always thinking of the marketing side of things, and I doubt Jim Davis is any different.
The point that stuck out in my mind was the part where the game was canceled because of the amount of royalities Garfield & co were expecting. If Atari couldn't afford it I don't see how Kairus could either.
The interesting thing is this: How many comercial Garfield games have been made over the years? I'm no expert but I'm thinking the answer is around zero and so consequently the amount of royalties earned off of games is around the same figure. I think it was a bit short sighted of Garfield's creators to not take advantage of the infant game market to sell their wares. Even if they had to buy their way into the industry by giving someone a sweet royalty deal the first go around, it seems to b\me it would have been worth it. Once it was established that "Garfield" was just as succsseful as a game character as he is a cartoon character then the value of the royalties would be self-evident and easily negociate rather than being a show stopper.
I believe there were quite a few garfield games made that fell under the radar, actually, such as Garfield: The Search for Pooky for the gameboy advance and the Garfield 2 game which I believe is being made/has been made for the DS. There was also Garfield: Caught In the Act for the Genesis, which was rather neat actually:
(http://www.consoleclassix.com/info_img/Garfield_Caught_in_the_Act_GEN_ScreenShot2.jpg)
And for the NES, Garfield: A Week of Garfield. There have been others as well, I just think they flew under the radars (yours as well) and weren't all that popular, which is probably also why Garfield isn't so highly marketed in videogames. There have certainly been enough games on different platforms for the franchise to have become successful if it was ever going to be, imo. There was also Garfield: Big Fat Hairy Deal that came out for the c-64 and spectrum, so he's been around.
ProgZmax, Thanks for the info. I had a feeling I was out on a limb and didn't know what I was talking about. ;)
(http://area64.classicgaming.gamespy.com/games/images/g/garfields_bfh_deal_1.gif)
(http://www.cpcgamereviews.com/g/garfield_big_fat_hairy_deal.png)
Big fat hairy deal! I had this game! For all I know, I might still have it up in the loft!
Game design wise it was awful and too hard. But I was kid and played it over and over again, even if I always got lost and died of hunger/thirst/energy/whatever.