Robin Antonick, the developer behind the original Madden, is suing EA for unpaid royalties that allegedly were promised as part of a contractual agreement inked in 1986. That’s right, he let more than 20 years pass by before deciding to take action. Wait — what?

Ridiculous timing aside, Antonick’s core complaint lies in the guts of the Madden software. While each iteration of Madden NFL has been tweaked with new changes and features over the years, Antonick contests that the fundamentals still draw heavily from his work on the MS-DOS, Commodore 64 and Apple II original.

EA called the lawsuit and its associated claims “utterly without merit,” and we’re inclined to agree. There’s gotta be a statute of limitations here.

Thanks, Reuters.

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