The manual has a copyright of Dec. 1986 (the manual is specifically for Atari ST), most gaming sites list the game as from 1987 and print publications reviewed the game in spring 1988. So don't look at UVL's 1986 as the one and only possible year of release in this case. 1987 might be possible as well.
Edit: Due to the comments I think that 1987 might be the best guess as release year.
About 500cc Grand Prix
Copyright is probably based on original release then. The CPC version came out in 1986.
I feel I should point out that the authors of these games and the game manual writers (often the authors of the game also) generally came from an era and environment where computer programs (including games) were freely shared as if they were scientific knowledge. Often author/writers were completely unaware of the copyright status of the games and manuals they created. Often the 'business guys' were not much removed from said community or were generally unaware of how copyright applied to videogames. Usually, the end result was all they cared about (executable binary contained in the cartridge, box, label, game manual). Most did not realize that if they had no specific paperwork by the author, then the author owned the source materials (and source code). This is why you sometimes see authors these days releasing their source code (often documented assembly code) without the companies that own the results of said code stopping them. Other somewhat silly situations exits due to lack of knowledge. For instance, David Crane believes to this day (2012-06-26) that the copyright owner is the company/person who pays the workers. But the experienced 'business guys' often got it wrong as well. For instance, Parker Brothers' early console games (2600, ColecoVision, Intellivision, etc.) listed the copyright notice as "'The Rules' of this game are copyright by Parker Brothers". This may or may not have, at the time, voided their copyright on the digital version of their games. Fortunately for whoever gets the money, Congress has retroactively 'fixed' digital copyright so they could have said "(c)we own a computerized pink baseball playing ape and a trademark on "sippinwipple" on the package and still to this day hold copyright on all their game carts (even if someone else had illegitimately claimed the copyright in the intervening gap). A big gaping hole that shows just how bad a company can blow it is the fact that most early Famicom games are currently not copyrighted. Nintendo applied the same copyright procedures to them as they did for arcade games and their other toys. Much later they discovered their mistake and fixed it. But this was too late for games published the old way. This is why there were a bunch of plug-in-play TV console-in-a-controller units made in the USA and sold in legitimate outlets in the late 90s. It was perfectly legal to dump the Japanese Famicom games, translate them, and sell them.
Bottom line
What is says on the box, on the title screen, on the cart, on the disk concerning copyright for 80s and previous games may be completely bogus. But, 99.9999% of the time someone does own the copyright somehow and it starts on some date (whether said date is known or not)
Bottom line
What is says on the box, on the title screen, on the cart, on the disk concerning copyright for 80s and previous games may be completely bogus. But, 99.9999% of the time someone does own the copyright somehow and it starts on some date (whether said date is known or not)
The manual might've been printed before the game's release. They usually are printed ahead of time as part of preparing for packaging, but year difference is only to be expected for approx. Jan-Feb actual releases.
Another good point