There’s nothing quite like Cookie’s Bustle, a computer game released by Japanese developer Rodik in 1999.
The game has built a cult reputation over the last few years because of its unusual, genre-defying content, which is too complicated and confusing to summarize accurately in one sentence. But we’ll try anyway: You play as a 5-year-old girl from New Jersey, who enters an international sports competition that becomes engulfed in civil war and intergalactic intrigue.
A few years ago, the Video Game History Foundation was donated a rare physical copy of Cookie’s Bustle by multimedia researcher Misty De Méo. We are excited to preserve this rare and artistically unique game as part of our collections.
Because Cookie’s Bustle has been out of print for nearly three decades, we documented the packaging and physical materials of the game in our digital archive for research purposes. Since we are unable to share controlled research access to the game itself, we have also provided access to a video demonstrating the gameplay of Cookie’s Bustle, recorded by community member sebmal. We hope these resources are valuable for researchers who want to understand more about this remarkable game.
A typically mysterious scene from Cookie’s Bustle, taken from the longplay video in our digital archive.
Unfortunately, our efforts to document Cookie’s Bustle were impacted by the actions of an aggressive copyright troll. An individual going by Brandon White, or using the corporate name Graceware, SL, has repeatedly sent DMCA takedown notices to the Video Game History Foundation (via the trade association Ukie) over our legal use of materials related to Cookie’s Bustle.
We were not alone in this problem. Since 2022, a number of websites and individual creators have received frivolous takedown requests on behalf of Graceware, covering everything from Let’s Play videos and fanart to simply mentioning the title of the game.
Although Graceware’s actions against us were incredibly disruptive, we saw this as an opportunity to get to the bottom of what was happening.
We looked into it with our legal team, and we do not believe there is any proof that Brandon White actually owns Cookie’s Bustle. He has never been able to produce legally meaningful evidence that he owns any enforceable rights to any part of this game.
We are happy to report that after bringing these facts to Ukie’s attention, Ukie has suspended takedowns for Cookie’s Bustle on behalf of Graceware, SL. This is a big victory for the gaming community, hopefully bringing an end to a rights-squatting campaign that has dragged on for years.
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