To learn or to keep hidden...

Hey everyone!
Now, I'm new here, and I feel I am taking liberties a little because some of you may be offended by what I'm about to write, but I figure it's better off here in a seperate thread at least.

13years ago, SEGA lost a cartridge. Somehow, somewhere, this cartridge got into the hands of people wanting to make a quick buck, rom pirates. This cartridge was of course, the Sonic 2 Beta. Thanks to their sharing of copies of this cartridge, we have this in SMD format, avaliable on the internet, and countless people have admired the rom and been facinated by this insight into Sonic 2's development. This one "lost" rom has caused people to stop what they're doing, and learn how to use Hex Editors, write programs, and even learn 68k assembler.

Amazing how one rom can cause such amazing developments huh?

However, the attitude of some people on this forum, quite honestly shocks me. What we have is people hoarding prototype roms and CDs, instead of sharing them with the world. This games are a piece of history in my opinion, that should be accessable to everyone. As a good friend of mine told me, Science doesn't progress from one person keeping all the secrets.

So I ask of you this, have some generosity in your heart. The majority of the people who've learned assembler and whatnot are too young to afford to buy these carts and cds, and so we rely on you guys, the collectors, to share your rom data with us. Of course I myself am from the Sonic Community, and am only peticularly interested in Sonic prototypes. But I'm sure there are more communities out there, looking for prototypes, unaware that many collectors probably have them. You're probably laughing at this thinking "why would I want to devalue my collection?" and it's true it may have that effect. But in my opinion the happiness and knowledge it would give some people would be worth the little lost.

 

While I agree, I also think that it's within the owner's right to keep the prototype for themselves. Whether or not you think they owe you something shouldn't matter - they bought it, and it's their game.

 

Then i would advise you to stop asking collectors to share something they spent a great deal of money on and start talking to game companies to share it with "everyone".

 

Well said.

 

So it's asking collectors who spent a lot of money...or asking developers who spent a lot of money. Um....

Not to mention the fact that game companies may not have the protos anymore, e.g. SEGA burned a load of their saturn stuff if I remember rightly.

But if they never use it for anything more than a photo opportunity to wave in the faces of those of us not blessed with an endless font of money then why do they deserve it?

 

Quite simply, because they paid for it

 

Because they worked 10 hours a day to spend $2000 on a demo that he wanted. Why do you think you deserve it more then him?

Because you (not being personal or anything) and everyother bum (like me) is sitting here thinking oh the things i could do with that?

Also a colector has alot more to lose by releasing a game then a company like sega. Im sure they havent burnt all their protos.

 

We deserve it because we bust our nuts in shit jobs with piss poor money to buy them, that's why.

You know why my clothes are crap, my tv is crap, I have no social life and my diet is bad? That money goes somewhere else ...

I've personnaly spent thousands on the buggers and offered to dump the cheaper titles in return for meeting half of my expenses, but all that leaves me with really is losing half of my investment as once everyone has the stuff for free they're no longer interested in the originals - they may as well be coasters.

Recent hard times mean I have had to sell my unreleased games though, but one day when I'm in a better financial position you bet your ass I'll be buying them again

 

Tell me about it. I'm now learning the reality of this kind of hobby: my paintball gun will stay broken for a few more weeks, I can't pay for anything until Thursday, and I currently owe my dad about $200.

People make sacrifices for these sorts of things, which is something I've never really thought about before. I don't mean this too harshly, but if you want to dump it, then you save up some money and buy it.

 

i don't like this example. at all.

by the way, people who spent money on protos, demos and such have the right to do what they wish with them... since it is their hard gained moneys, not some leaking or gift.

 

I can see both sides of the arguement. It would be nice (though of course the owner can do whatever the hell he/she wants with their property) to see more of the deuce and (dare I say) Propellor arena style rips. The Owner gets money, people get to play it, and although the beta/proto is arguably worth less, the owner will have recouped at least some of their money.
Had the propellor arena dump "worked" better, then I'm sure that may have been the template for many future dumps, particularly as itwas quite high profile on multiple forums. Unfortunately, it didn't, and people are wary of doing something similar. Note that over $100 was raised for deuce, which had the prospect of a public release, wasn't a highly anticipated game and wasn't actually that interesting, plus was only (AFAIK) offered on this forum. I'm sure considerably more could be made in different circumstances.

 

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I agree, at all.

 

LMAO sorry best post of the year.... your quality.

 

How old are you? I'm 17 and have a job. I've spent more money than I'd like to think about on videogames.

As for the prototypes "rotting away", the person who owns it is an idiot if they never make a personal backup. That is the one thing that really gets on my nerves.

 

Actually he will lose the glorious feeling of having something rare, that nobody else can enjoy, in any other place. i don't have any protos or demos or such but i can understand it well, since i feel happy when i call my friends home and they play sega saturn, and after playing and having fun they say "what is a sega saturn by the way? never heard of it..."

 

I agree, Why do I get so excited when I get an Iron Maiden album on release day? Because I am one of the first guys to hear it. It Seems mad and illogical, but there is a subconcious part of the human mind which wants exclusivity. One reason people like limited editions and rare games is for the fact they are rare. I'd rather have a FF:CC cube than a plain black one - They do the same thing, but one is far more exclusive, and is cool because it is.

 

You don't get it - when you buy an unreleased game the original media is more for authenticity than anything - it's the contents that hold the value, and the original media which grants it.

Distribute the contents = prototype may as well rot because it will be hard as hell to resell.

 

i think this thing comes from the ancient desire to have a woman all for oneself