"grey area piracy" and the hypocrisy (was report t

If you look on a similar type of thing with n64 there was a Quest 64 memory pack.

 

There are countless limited edition memory cards, or memory card stickers out there.

 

Though the N64 only has a single variant showing a game like that one.

 

'dumb question'
is selling used games legal? and with more relevance to this site - how about proto software and hardware? anyone care to answer?

 

Selling used games is legal. Owning/selling/giving away prototype hardware/software is illegal unless you are the TOS/contract/copyright holder.

 

I think nintendo qualifies selling 2nd hand games as illegal if i'm not mistaken.

 

It qualified renting games as illegal at a certain time.

 

Ummm, not so sure. Processing, using a specialised facory, 5-10 cartridges (even if there are <256ko roms) is very expensive (i bet that this cost $30-40 if you build 10 carts only).

Anyway, i don't know why youre so furious ^^ i find this quite cool (a bit expensive but cool). :smt023

 

You need a special license for renting. You can't rent an ordinary copy (just like videos and DVDs), you need a special copy or agreement with nintendo or whoever.

Technically, you shouldn't sell second hand games, videos, DVDs.... but noone really cares. However, depending on where you are, traders need a license from the local council to sell second hand goods.

 

Who cares about the legality, the products look cool, i'd be interested if I collected NES games.

You cant buy these games in this way anywhere else, seems a worthwile service.

 

To fonzie:

say you had the original prototype cart. That would be unique, or nearly unique.

If you were to auction that, lots of people would want it. It would fetch a high price, let's say $150-$300

Now, someone copies the game and makes carts for $50 a pop. Sure, the collectors may still want the original, but the gamers won't want to pay such high prices. There is less demand for the card, and it makes less money (perhaps $80-100).

If you can't see our point of view, then there is another (slightly greedy) point of view for you to consider.

Piracy devalues our collections. Lots of gamers just want to play a game and don't care what they pay. This means there is less demand for our games, so they fetch less. It also damages the software houses (don't forget, most developers are small companies often, and even Acclaim went under, one of the largest publisher/developer houses).

 

$40 a "reproduction" is not expensive. With his service, he will pirate you almost ANY game for that price, not bad. Here is the shopping list for recreating Mother (Earthbound):

MMC3 Cartridge, lets say Star Tropics (which is probably the cheapest) - $5-15
2x 27C020 EPROMs, $8
Wire/new CR2032 battery - $2

Total = $15-25 or so for parts, also for any skilled person, this is probably over an hour long process unless they have industrial tools.

 

Baseley: this guy isn't even making anything. He's asking you to send him a cart to sacrifice that he'll put the game in. I hope he has the right screwdriver, or else he'll bugger it up and put normal screws in, yuck! How cheap is that? He's charging you that much to burn a small image to a cheap EPROM. It takes him no time at all. Oh, and he's charging you for his rip-off artwork with the nintendo seal on it, disgusting.

No, I wouldn't want this product if it was $5 even. And the Japanese ones are pure pirated cartridges in the traditional sense.

 

Has anyone reported this guy to nintendo then?

I liked his statement "ITs 100% legal", It's f*****g not, if anyone did this with a game i worked on that had not been released id be talking to my Soliciter (sorry i'm british don't you know :-D ).

 

I reported him 5 minutes after starting this thread.

 

Cool, i also reorted him, to some people i know in the development arm of Nintendo Europe, to say they were pissed off was a small understatement.

I would expect he'll be getting a stop and desist your activities letter, pretty soon.

 

:smt023 :smt043

 

well its about time...

(looks at the dirty, anger, replies of others...)

Well, it is!

 

Hello all.

Isnt this forum who organised the reproduction and sales of that unreleased dogfight game for the dreamcast? Complete with high quality covers and cd label?

I really doubt that sega got any of that money..