a new level of piracy for the ds now exists

Give the DS more time. PSX has a vast library but it also had over 6 years to get there, wait till the DS has that long. Plus look at GB/GBC/GBA. That started getting pirated like hell with GBA, and it has a library as vast as PSX.

 

Pirating anything "relatively" new is sad.

The day before Dark Crusade came out, there were people asking for the torrent.

A lot of people are just cheap. I've also heard some of the worst excuses for pirating, too.

"I don't see it as "stealing", I see it as getting as many games as you can without spending a shitload of money!"

Memorable words from a Gamefaqs user.

 

people are entitled to have their own minds, shaped around what they hold ethical vs economical. Although i wouldn't support piracy myself, I can understand why some people would. I would say that their arguments are valid , from their point of view.

But it's like always, a class struggle, per Carl Marx.

 

I don't think anyone could really justify pirating new games if they understood what they are doing could be costing people at those developers their jobs. We all know the excuses. The games cost too much. I'm just one person it won't make a difference. If I like it I'll buy it. I'm sure you all know even more excuses.

For older games I don't think it matters so much. Once a game is no longer actively being sold/supported by the developer it's different. Esspecially if you are talking about a gamer that copies some old game that they would have to pay a hefty collector premium to play. Also things like the MAME project, I don't think that's wrong either.

But newer games you can find on store shelves, you can't justify downloading them. Only a fraction of people that might download a new game actually do it cause they are some impatient fan that is going to be buying it when it comes out anyway. And even then it's not nessisarily ok.

I do understand though, that many people out there don't have the money to buy all the games they want to play so they pirate them. The only thing I could suggest is renting the games you want to play, or only buying what you can, and buy what you think will entertain you best since you can't buy them all. That's something I think is true too, few people can buy every single game they'd like to play. But, anyone can pirate every game they want to play. So they get greedy and have at it. And while renting games certainly can help those that can't afford games, it seems to be pretty pricey these days and you also have those people that would rent games once and copy them.

It makes more sense if you think from a game developer's point of view really, because they are the victim.

 

Shit, we got iPods and PMPs with 30GBs and more, but we're still using cartridges in portables...

I cant begin to explain how annoying is to choose between the games I can carry around while I can have all of my MP3s in one compact player.

Making an iTMS-like download service for a DS with internal memory is indeed possible, and I would buy my games there as long as they (as apple does) sell them cheaper than the boxed version.

Man if they keep the DS running for six years somebody at nintendo is going to die. I had enough with the GB-GBC monopoly...

 

What was wrong with GB/GBC? I can't say I bought alot of GB/GBC games, but I enjoyed the few I did buy. Why don't you think DS could last for a 5 year life cycle? I guess it'll last around how long GBA did.

 

While I understand what the objection to these devices is, I resent the implication that they're all used for piracy by everyone.

I will surely buy this device, but it will *not* be to play pirated DS roms.

I collect DS games, and they're not good to me without box, manual, all inserts, etc... in flawless condition. I have no interest in the roms themselves.

Then why would I want this? Homebrew apps and "dead console" emulation of course! This will finally allow me to play GB/GBC games on my DS!! I know I'm a dork, but that idea excites me, lol.

$125 to be able to play NES, SNES, Genny, GB, GBC, and who knows what else is a steal, not to mention the bazillion super-neato-gee-whiz homebrew apps that are out there for the DS.

And my long shelf of minty-fresh US & import DS games > hDD full of pirate garbage

 

dude the GBC was "old fart" obsolete from even before it was released, and the GBA well it was kinda good at the very beggining but when the PSP was officially announced (little before ninty said something about the DS) most gamers were already piss-off for the GBA's lack of raw power.

Anyway, the DS is slightly less powerfull than a N64, so if ninty doesnt releases a new version for at least 2008 theres a big chance that the system may go downhill in sales.

 

I wouldn't go as far as to compare the DS to the N64 really. Two very different goals in mind of the hardware architects, miles apart in efficiency. When one talks about power in video games they shouldn't just imagine visual power, as battery-life and low consumption is a sign of (relative) power of a machine (i.e making efficient use of resources is an advantage).

Speaking of visual processing ability however, the DS is about two inches further than a GBA really, nowhere near the nintendo 64. I don't see that slowing it down , even compared to the very impressive portable graphics of the PSP.

Relating ti piracy:

For most people, passing on pirated material in exchange for expensive legitimate versions is like asking a junkie to pass on free junk. Won't happen any time soon, and if there's addiction, there's a substantialy good excuse from the user's part ;p

 

I thought the whole "DS iz weak" discussion was over after subbie say one or two things about it in that thread.

On the other hand, guys the reason the PSP is doin so bad is simple: it has no games at all, and the little it has is of sub-par quality, most of them being poor ports.

the point is simple, as soon as the PSP gets at least a decent amount of good games the DS is going to look underpowered.

Believe me, is the same problem than the Game Gear: If SEGA had made a little research to increase battery life (like ninty did with the GBpocket) then things would be very different today.

 

come on, you have to give nintendo some credit for their touch-screen interface. Doyou propose that things would have been the same if nintendo kept it a single-screen product right up there in competition with the PSP?

 

All the best systems are "old fart" obsolete. Yeah the new stuff that comes out now is on a totally different level than the ol' Snes and Genesis, but for some reason the games today just aren't as appealing to me. I think it has something to do with the fact that they look really good, but don't play half as well as they look.

 

I do, but you got to accept that the craptastic PSP games (or the lack of any games at all) do boost the DS catalog.

Its way easier to win a market when the competition is either bad or nonexistant...

 

You have to flash your DS for those, and it doesn't work with all the types of DS. Not like i'd want one.. *happily collecting ds games ^^*

 

I am still not convinced that the lifecycle of portables should be as short as consoles have been, but I would agree Nintendo should get a successor ready soon, assuming PSP ever starts competing.

 

Is it a mismarketing scheme? I thought that cartridges were measured in bits since the begining of time... or at least the Atari-age.

You don't have to flash your DS. You can buy a "passcard" or "passme" device for around US $20 that does all the work of a firmware hack, with none of the "brick"-risk.

All debate aside, I still think this is a really slick piece of hardware. From what I've been reading it seems to have a great UI, good build quality, and just plain works... something that is lacking in a lot of consumer devices as of late. I wouldn't mind owning one for those reasons alone; in addition to the fact that I'm increasingly interested in DS dev. Despite all of this, it is important to point out that using a device like this for piracy is morally wrong, but saying that here is like "preaching to the choir."

 

That was true, but times change and no one uses bits for memory size anymore. If that weren't the case, I would have just picked up a 16 Gbit USB stick. :dance:

 

So you won't use it to pirate DS games, but you will use it to happily pirate "NES, SNES, Genny, GB, GBC, and who knows what else" games.

Good to know that you're taking a stand.

-hl718

 

Pirating games that can still make money for the developer and publisher is a bit different from pirating games that have long been abandoned and are only available at second-hand markets.

But we all know that already, don't we (so why bring it up?).

 

Obviously I agree with this.

Emulating dead systems isn't piracy, at least not from a practical (i.e. financially material) standpoint.

Besides, I own legit copies of 90% of the old games I would be "pirating" anyway, but I don't want to play it on the NES, I want to play it on my DS while I'm waiting in line at the DMV or whatever.

In conclusion (hl718): Fall in a well and die