History Main / AshcanCopy

* ''VideoGame/UltimaEscapeFromMtDrash''. Only tangentially related to the [[VideoGame/{{Ultima}} legendary RPG franchise]] (Richard Garriott was a friend of its creator, Keith Zabalaoui, and gave permission for the name to be used as part of a publishing deal), it was released in 1983 for the VIC-20. A computer whose successor (the Commodore 64) was already out by that point and was well out-of-date as a result. Sierra clearly had little faith in it succeeding, as they ran exactly one advertisement for it in Compute! magazine and printed only the bare minimum number of copies needed to fulfill their contract with Zabalaoui. Sure enough it sold very poorly and is now one of the rarest commercially-released video games of all time, with around thirteen copies in various states of completeness known to still exist. In a strange parallel to [[VideoGame/ETTheExtraTerrestrial another infamous 1983 release]], one of the only complete copies was salvaged from an illegal garbage dump in Canada...

* ''VideoGame/UltimaEscapeFromMtDrash''. Only tangentially related to the [[VideoGame/{{Ultima}} legendary RPG franchise]] (Richard Garriott was a friend of its creator, Keith Zabalaoui, and gave permission for the name to be used as part of a publishing deal), it was released in 1983 for the VIC-20. A computer whose successor (the Commodore 64) was already out by that point and was well out-of-date as a result. Sierra clearly had little faith in it succeeding, as they ran exactly one advertisement for it in Compute! magazine and printed only the bare minimum number of copies needed to fulfill their contract with Zabalaoui. Sure enough it sold very poorly and is now one of the rarest commercially-released video games of all time, with around thirteen copies in various states of completeness known to still exist. In a strange parallel to [[VideoGame/ETTheExtraTerrestrial another infamous 1983 release]], one of them was literally salvaged from an illegal garbage dump in Canada...

* ''VideoGame/UltimaEscapeFromMtDrash''. Only tangentially related to the [[''VideoGame/Ultima'' legendary RPG franchise]] (Richard Garriott was a friend of its creator, Keith Zabalaoui, and gave permission for the name to be used as part of a publishing deal), it was released in 1983 for the VIC-20. A computer whose successor (the Commodore 64) was out by that point and was well out-of-date as a result. Sierra clearly had little faith in it succeeding, as they ran exactly one advertisement for it in Compute! magazine and printed only the bare minimum number of copies needed to fulfill their contract with Zabalaoui. Sure enough it sold very poorly and is now one of the rarest commercially-released video games of all time, with around thirteen copies in various states of completeness known to still exist. In a strange parallel to [[VideoGame/ETTheExtraTerrestrial another infamous 1983 release]], one of them was literally salvaged from an illegal garbage dump in Canada...

* ''VideoGame/UltimaEscapeFromMtDrash''. Only tangentially related to the [[VideoGame/Ultima legendary RPG franchise]] (Richard Garriott was a friend of its creator, Keith Zabalaoui, and gave permission for the name to be used as part of a publishing deal), it was released in 1983 for the VIC-20. A computer whose successor (the Commodore 64) was out by that point and was well out-of-date as a result. Sierra clearly had little faith in it succeeding, as they ran exactly one advertisement for it in Compute! magazine and printed only the bare minimum number of copies needed to fulfill their contract with Zabalaoui. Sure enough it sold very poorly and is now one of the rarest commercially-released video games of all time, with around thirteen copies in various states of completeness known to still exist. In a strange parallel to [[VideoGame/ETTheExtraTerrestrial another infamous 1983 release]], one of them was literally salvaged from an illegal garbage dump in Canada...

* ''VideoGame/UltimaEscapeFromMtDrash''. Only tangentially related to the legendary RPG franchise (Richard Garriott was a friend of its creator, Keith Zabalaoui, and gave permission for the name to be used as part of a publishing deal), it was released in 1983 for the VIC-20 - a computer whose successor (the Commodore 64) was out by that point and was well out-of-date. Sierra clearly had little faith in it succeeding, as they ran exactly one advertisement for it in Compute! magazine and printed the bare minimum number of copies needed to fulfill their contract with Zabalaoui. Sure enough it sold very poorly and is now one of the rarest commercially-released video games of all time, with around thirteen copies in various states of completeness known to still exist. In a strange parallel to [[VideoGame/ETTheExtraTerrestrial another infamous 1983 release]], one of them was literally salvaged from an illegal garbage dump in Canada...

* The licensed ''Series/StreetHawk'' game would have been even more obscure than the series itself if it weren't an ashcan copy. Ocean Software had sold a gaming magazine the rights to bundle the game with a particular issue, but development stalled and they were in danger of missing the deadline and having to give the mag their money back, so an ''entirely different game'' was hastily thrown together to meet the letter of the contract. The stand-in game ended up being poorly-received, and the proper ''Street Hawk'' game didn't fare much better with reviewers when it came out a year and a half later.

* ''VideoGame/TonyHawksProSkater 5'' has been [[http://www.hardcoregamer.com/2015/10/02/wait-is-tony-hawks-pro-skater-5-an-ashcan-copy/170093/ called]] an Ashcan Copy, as it was released in [[ObviousBeta a horribly unfinished state]] with {{game breaking bug}}s galore. Professional skateboarder Tony Hawk's long-term contract with Creator/{{Activision}}, signed in 2002, was set to expire at the end of 2015, so Activision allegedly rushed the game out the door in September of that year as one last cash-grab (and possibly to generate enough renewed interest to put a new deal on the table). Unsurprisingly, the game received harsh negative reviews.
* The Spectrum version of ''[[VideoGame/{{Sqij}} SQIJ!]]'' was hastily slapped together [[ContractualObligationProject to fulfill the creator's contract with his publisher, The Power House, even though he had no real interest in working for them]]. The game is horribly slow, lacks proper collision detection, and shipped with a GameBreakingBug caused by accidentally activating the Caps Lock key on start-up.
* The licensed ''Series/StreetHawk'' game would have been even more obscure than the series itself if it weren't an ashcan copy. Ocean Software had sold a gaming magazine the rights to bundle the game with a particular issue, but development stalled and they were in danger of missing the deadline and having to give the mag their money back, so an ''entirely different game'' was hastily thrown together to meet the letter of the contract. It was almost universally panned as pure UsefulNotes/{{shovelware}}, and the proper ''Street Hawk'' game didn't fare much better with reviewers when it came out a year and a half later.

* After the marketing team for ''Anime/RoyalSpaceForceTheWingsOfHonneamise'' decided to hold the "official' premiere at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood rather than in Japan to drum up more hype, they quickly commissioned a [[{{Macekre}} not very good]] English dub named ''Star Quest'' so that the film could be played to Hollywood journalists and insiders without subtitles. [[note]]Allegedly, the localization was done not by a professional translator, but by someone who had previously written for ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyAndFriends''[[/note]] It vanished without a trace after said premiere and was superseded by Creator/MangaEntertainment's dub, and wouldn't be seen again until a copy was uploaded to the Internet Archive in 2023.

* In 2010, Creator/TurnerClassicMovies quietly aired [[http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article.html?id=484547%7C488308 a bizarre special]] where Leonard Matlin intervs Creator/WarrenBeatty in-character as ComicStrip/DickTracy. This special was made solely so that Beatty could extend his rights to make a second ''Film/DickTracy'' film. A second special would air in 2023, with Beatty again portraying Dick as well as himself, with [[ActingForTwo Dick actively complaining to Beatty about the film and the modern film industry]].

* DC Comics, owners of ComicBook/WonderWoman, made a huge mistake when creating the character: they never thought about making a "Wonder Man". Marvel Comics played a prank on them by doing so first. They didn't take this very seriously: he was a one-time villain who died at the end of the story. But when the rights to this minor character were about to expire (and DC would be able to lay claim to the name), Marvel Comics resurrected the character and gave him a recurring role in the Avengers series, retaining the rights.

* ComicBook/SheHulk and ComicBook/SpiderWoman were born from an ashcan copy. After witnessing the success Creator/{{ABC}} had with ''Series/BionicWoman'', a spinoff of ''Series/TheSixMillionDollarMan'' that starred a DistaffCounterpart to Steve Austin, Marvel took a look at their contract for the upcoming ''[[Series/TheIncredibleHulk1977 Incredible Hulk]]'' TV series and realized there was nothing stopping Creator/{{CBS}} from creating a female version of ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk that they would own the rights to. Although Creator/StanLee normally opposed such spinoff characters, he made an exception for She-Hulk in order to secure the rights to such a character for Marvel. Spider-Woman was likewise created to preempt Creator/{{Filmation}}'s attempted to create a Spider-Woman character for ''Tarzan and the Super 7'', forcing them to rename the character Web Woman.

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/5_cent.png]]
[[caption-width-right:250:The humble, but legally sufficient, debut of Dan Dare.[[note]]An American detective character from the 1940s, not the [[ComicStrip/DanDare British space explorer]] of the same name.[[/note]]]]

* ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfareIII'' is suspected by many to be a case of this. According to leaked documents pertaining to Microsoft's acquisition of the series' publisher Activision, the duration of the latter's contract with Sony for marketing ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' games was, rather than for a certain number of years as is the usual, instead set for a certain number of games released, presumably because the series releases one game a year anyway. Before ''MWIII'' was announced, it was heavily rumored that 2023's entry would have just been an extra year of support for ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfareII Modern Warfare II]]''; between the rushed development of this game (most ''Call of Duty'' games since Sledgehammer Games entered the mix in 2011 have had three-year development cycles, but they were only given two years to work on ''MWIII'') and how heavily the game links with its predecessor (most everything players could buy or unlock in ''Modern Warfare II'', from weapons and their attachments to operators and vehicle skins, carries over to and is available in ''MWIII''), many strongly suspect that the work put into a second year of support for ''MWII'' [[MissionPackSequel was hastily repurposed into a full game]] to exhaust the contract and return full marketing control to the publisher's new owners more quickly.

* ''VideoGame/{{Popeye}}'' received a cheap (alleged) remake for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch in 2021 to retain the rights to the character. It's cobbled together in the most slapdash way possible from a [[https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/historic/polygon-pirates-low-poly-3d-art-by-synty-92579 low-poly pirate-themed asset pack]] and some [[https://www.turbosquid.com/Search/Artists/3dmpro free Popeye models from TurboSquid]]. Development studio Sabec was so aware of how low-quality it was they didn't even bother to put their name on the title screen or box cover.
* ''VideoGame/CrashTeamRacing'': Creator/NaughtyDog only had a three-game contract with Creator/{{Universal}} regarding the ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'' IP, meaning that ''CTR'' was made with very little funding on Universal's end. Couple this with poor work conditions due to the contract being over and the deadline for the game's development being less than a year, and Naughty Dog created ''CTR'' as their last hurrah before they lost the rights to ''Crash Bandicoot'' (including them attempting to TorchTheFranchiseAndRun using Nitros Oxide). Despite all of these setbacks, the final product turned out to be an [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools incredibly polished game]] that was one of the UsefulNotes/PlayStation's best-sellers.

* When ''VideoGame/DeadByDaylight'' announced in 2021 that it would release non-fungible tokens ([=NFTs=]) based on ''Hellraiser'' to tie in with a recent DLC pack featuring Pinhead, many fans of the game were outraged and saw it as a cash grab. Some immediately [[https://www.reddit.com/r/deadbydaylight/comments/qau23j/hellraiser_nft_situation_who_is_behind_it_all/ speculated]] that the release of the [=NFTs=] was largely due to the rights to the ''Hellraiser'' franchise being set to revert back to Creator/CliveBarker in December of that year; the rights holders created the [=NFTs=] as one final attempt to get some money out of the property.

* ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfareIII'' is suspected by many to be a case of this. According to leaked documents pertaining to Microsoft's acquisition of the series' publisher Activision, the duration of the latter's contract with Sony for marketing ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' games was, rather than for a certain number of years as is the usual, instead set for a certain number of games released, presumably because the series releases one game a year anyway. Before ''MWIII'' was announced, it was heavily rumored that 2023's entry would have just been an extra year of support for ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfareII Modern Warfare II]]''; between the rushed development of this game (most ''Call of Duty'' games since Sledgehammer Games entered the mix in 2011 have had three-year development cycles, but they were only given two years to work on ''MWIII'') and how heavily the game links with its predecessor (most everything players could unlock in ''Modern Warfare II'' carries over to and is available in ''MWIII''), many strongly suspect that the work put into a second year of support for ''MWII'' [[MissionPackSequel was hastily repurposed into a full game]] to exhaust the contract faster and return full marketing control to the publisher's new owners.

* Borderline example: after the marketing team for ''Anime/RoyalSpaceForceTheWingsOfHonneamise'' decided to hold the "official' premiere at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood rather than in Japan to drum up more hype, they quickly commissioned a [[{{Macekre}} not very good]] English dub named ''Star Quest'' so that the film could be played to Hollywood journalists without subtitles. [[note]]Allegedly, the localization was done not by a professional translator, but by someone who had previously written for ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyAndFriends''[[/note]] It vanished without a trace after said premiere and was superseded by Creator/MangaEntertainment's dub, and wouldn't be seen again until a copy was uploaded to the Internet Archive in 2023.

** The 1994 ''Film/TheFantasticFour'' movie is the truest to the spirit of the trope, being ashcan fodder extraordinaire. German studio Constantin Film acquired the rights in 1986 and was about to lose them forever, so they made the film [[NoBudget cheap]], hired famed BMovie schlock-meister Creator/RogerCorman as producer, and it never got a wide release. It exists only in bootleg copies, some of which have made their way [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eN0FoR_FlZg online]]. In 2004, Constantin teamed up with Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox and finally filmed a movie that saw release the following year.

* In 2010, Creator/TurnerClassicMovies quietly aired [[http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article.html?id=484547%7C488308 a bizarre special]] where Leonard Matlin intervs Creator/WarrenBeatty in-character as ComicStrip/DickTracy. This special was made solely so that Beatty could extend his rights to make a second ''Film/DickTracy'' film. A second special would air in 2023, with Beatty again portraying both Dick and himself, with [[ActingForTwo Dick actively complaining to Beatty about the film and the modern film industry]].

* A film based on the ''ComicBook/{{Vampirella}}'' comics had been in DevelopmentHell for decades under different companies. Creator/RogerCorman's company had acquired the rights from the previous property owners at some point, but ultimately only made [[Film/{{Vampirella}} the 1996 film]] because they only had six months left before the license expired, requiring them to rush ''something'' out. After an incredibly TroubledProduction, the final result was a [[WhatTheHellCastingAgency miscast]], critically panned film that the director Jim Wynorski later [[OldShame regretted ever making]].

** ''Film/ChildrenOfTheCornGenesis'' was also rushed together by the Weinstein Company for the same reasons, and ended up about the same way.

* ''Film/HellraiserRevelations'' was quickly whipped together, with a mere 11 days of filming and about three weeks of post-production, specifically so Creator/TheWeinsteinCompany could hold onto the rights to the ''Franchise/{{Hellraiser}}'' franchise long enough to get a planned remake off the ground. The result is widely regarded as the worst film in a franchise that has seen its fair share of bad sequels, to the point where Creator/CliveBarker (who wrote and directed the original film) [[https://twitter.com/RealCliveBarker/status/105189711416524800 publicly]] [[DisownedAdaptation disowned it]] and Creator/DougBradley (who played Pinhead in every film prior) refused to take part. ''Film/ChildrenOfTheCornGenesis'' was also rushed together by the Weinstein Company for the same reasons, and ended up about the same way.

* Creator/FourKidsEntertainment's infamous ''Manga/OnePiece'' dub only exists because it was licensed as part of the same package that gave them the rights to ''Anime/OjamajoDoremi'', and Creator/ToeiAnimation ''forced'' [=4Kids=] to dub the show under penalty of losing the ''Doremi'' license.