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> People really do just want a one click solution for creating adult content, and consuming adult content. Once they know it's possible, people want a one clic
by da_chicken 5y ago
> People really do just want a one click solution for creating adult content, and consuming adult content.
Once they know it's possible, people want a one click solution for anything. The subject being taboo has nothing to do with it.
This is one reason why Youtube, Spotify, Steam and Netflix did such a good job combatting piracy for music, video games, and movies, while ROM sites are still a ubiquitous problem for 20 year old consoles. Youtube, Spotify, Steam and Netflix made content easy to get. There's no equivalent for most ROMs, so they're still widely pirated.
- fnord77 5y agothere'd probably be a netflix for ROMs if there were enough demand (I imagine the copyright holders would get onboard if the demand and $$ was there)
- kbenson 5y agoI can see it now. Most ROMs would be available, but Nintendo would be notably absent from any of the platforms and only allow their ROMs to be streamed from their own service.
- entropicdrifter 5y ago>Nintendo would be notably absent from any of the platforms and only allow their ROMs to be streamed from their own service. They already do this, you need a Switch online subscription to access the NES/SNES ROMs they have available
- kbenson 5y agoOh, I know, but in the theoretical world where there's a Netflix like subscription, I would assume that means a lot of different IP was also gathered there, like Sega, Atari, older Playstation and Xbox titles, etc. There's not a lot of incentive for some of those groups to come together, but I imagine even if most could be assembled, Nintendo would be particularly resistant.
- ansible 5y agoI doubt that's going to happen any time soon. Nintendo would rather publish its old games on its own store. Ditto for Microsoft and Sony. The older consoles now usually have a collection of ports for old games sold on the newer platforms, though those don't always behave true to the original platforms without special hardware.
- jandrese 5y agoThe only thing that prevents this from existing is the licensing nightmare of trying to track down who still owns the rights to those old ROMs. So many defunct companies and cases where even the people who worked on it have no idea who currently owns the rights. Had we kept the 28 year copyright duration from 1831 almost all ROM images would be in the Public Domain now.
- tialaramex 5y agoAnd some of the licensing conflicts are because of an alliance that existed and made sense in say 1995 and today seems like inexplicable nonsense. For example indie creator studio makes video game for the PS1. It's a huge hit, they go on to make other popular games, and one day Microsoft buys them, morphs them into an in-house team. And then one day you realise you're arguing that, Microsoft (now the owner of the license) should release this Sony Playstation game. No. Not going to happen. When this stuff happens for individual humans, often even if the money doesn't mean anything to one person who is an obstacle, it does mean something to their co-creators and they'll do it for that. For example it would be possible for Alan Moore to have blocked a lot of stuff that uses his work, from the V for Vendetta movie (which lots of people liked but I felt missed the whole point) to the re-issues of Miracleman, but while Alan doesn't care about money, the artists on that work do, and him blocking it would hurt them. So e.g. that's why modern copies of Moore's seminal run on Miracleman say they're by "The Original Author" in big text but never mention Moore by name, that's his condition, he doesn't want the Mouse's money, but his artists do. Corporations don't care though. If they can inconvenience a modern competitor by snuffing out an important cultural artefact that is exactly what they'll do. I'd actually advocate outright abolition of copyright. The associated moral rights have some place, but copyright is almost entirely a means for corporations to try to control culture for their own profit and we don't need it. But 28 years is a more acceptable middle ground I guess.
- tialaramex 5y agoSorry that should credit Moore as "The Original Writer" for Miracleman not "The Original Author". Had to go check my actual copies of the books.
- entropicdrifter 5y agoThe issue is that the VG industry is pretty far behind in this respect, not that there's a lack of demand. Just look at how the NES/SNES classic consoles sold out in the blink of an eye and there were mass shortages. The demand is there, it's just a question of having a convenient enough package
- brundolf 5y agoI think Nintendo in particular revels in the scarcity. They value their IP above all else, and they know that's what their customers value, and they want to squeeze it for every last drop of fan loyalty they can. See the artificially limited-time (digital!) release of "Mario 3D All-Stars": https://www.nintendo.com/products/detail/super-mario-3d-all-stars-switch/ https://www.nintendo.com/products/detail/super-mario-3d-all-...
- toyg 5y agoSony kinda wrote the book on artificial scarcity with the first 2-3 playstations...
- netgash 5y agoProbably not. Most cartridge games outside of first party titles are mired in a confusing mess of IP ownership. Consider what happens when the developer doesn't exist anymore, the publisher was acquired, the brand for the franchise is owned by one company, and the code for the original game is owned by a different company, which has no interest in making games.
- kipchak 5y agoGameTap had a Decent collection of Sega consoles and arcade titles back in the day, though it unfortunately never got off the ground. Nintendo has been particularly aggressive regarding ligating against ROMs historically and sold them as individual units, though with the Switch's online service's free NES/SNES games it seems like they're dipping their toes into the model. I think the risk to them is if someone winds up playing say the GB version of Link's Awakening for free instead of the $60 remake.
- CobrastanJorji 5y agoI worked on GameTap! Old ROM websites at the time had these click-through agreements that would say things like "you may only download these ROMs if you have explicit, written permission from the publisher" and I may be on of the only living people who've clicked one of those "I agree" links in good faith. Technically, GameTap had some really neat little features. For example, it would track your high score for most emulated games, and for really old games where the score would rollover to zero, it noticed that and would let you see your effective grand total score. So there would be a global Galaga leaderboard that could happily go into the millions. Regarding the success of the service, Gametap was live for a few years. It totally had its shot. GameTap was regularly advertised on TV. It had a pretty big library covering a dozen or so platforms: Several Ataris, ColecoVision, Intellivision, Sega, PC games, and more. They did a few high profile things like buying some failed MMOs and keeping the servers running for all GameTap subscribers. At the end, I think it turned out that the folks who get really excited about playing ColecoVision games are the same folks who are very comfortable downloading ROMs.
- kipchak 5y agoReading back I definitely come off a bit too harsh on gametap - It was a good service from the start. but I remember it seeming like there was trouble figuring out a pricing/content model that worked, as you said a lot of people who were excited for those sorts of games are often able to download roms as well. I think it may just have been ahead of it's time in terms of model in the era of battlepasses, paid online and gamepass, as well as monthly paid streaming services in general.
- crtasm 5y agoUntil then, archive.org has lots playable in-browser. e.g. https://archive.org/details/internetarcade https://archive.org/details/internetarcade https://archive.org/details/sega_genesis_library https://archive.org/details/sega_genesis_library https://archive.org/details/atari_8bit_library_games https://archive.org/details/atari_8bit_library_games
- knodi123 5y agohaha, the genesis library is about 90% just different hacked versions of Sonic 1, with different sprites replacing Sonic. And one I found particularly cute, "Sonic's Unexciting Quest", which starts in a level called "Straight Line Zone".
- crtasm 5y agoThat one sounds hilarious. I didn't know how to filter out the romhacks, if you scroll down the majority of the collection is original games.
- lawn 5y agoAnd also why piracy is increasing again as the movie/TV series space is becoming so fragmented.
- Sebb767 5y agoI've actually heard that quite often and it seems anecdotally true to me, but is there actually any study to prove this?
- Mindwipe 5y agoNope. There was a little upkick at the start of the pandemic according to Sandvine, but Sandvine's methodology is not watertight and lots of people staying at home with not much to do seems a more likely culprit than service fragmentation.
- toyg 5y agoanecdotally, I freeload on a Netflix account paid for by a friend, and last year I was tempted to get my own subscription. Then I noticed Netflix had fewer and fewer movies I was interested in, and just went back to sailing the high seas.
- whoaisme 5y agoPeople like you always say you will pay but never do, not because of BS like selection but because you are cheap and will never pay for something you can steal. I dont even know why you'd pretend to be interested in paying.
- hellbannedguy 5y agoYea, it's their Achilles heel. You can throw money at directors, and actors, but there are just so many great movies, and most were made by hollywood years ago. The owners of those great films, started their own streaming service.
- 5y ago
- rusk 5y agoThese files are so simple to distribute - there’s no engineering challenge and it’s very hard to justify building a moat. That’s one thing the notables you list did, beyond merely gatekeeping content.
- jedberg 5y agoNetflix is getting into games for a reason. It's unclear if they only play to make new ones or also license old ones. But I agree with you, I'm surprised Steam doesn't have a way to get old ROMs.
- kbenson 5y ago> But I agree with you, I'm surprised Steam doesn't have a way to get old ROMs. Not quite old ROMs, but gog.com sells old computer games prepackaged for Dosbox, which because of that work on Windows, Mac and Linux. That's basically the old PC computer equivalent of what I believe Nintendo does by shipping the emulator with the ROM when you buy it through the Virtual Console so it runs as a whole.
- speeder 5y agoI am abandonware collector of sorts, and one thing I liked is how all major abandonware site happily link to GOG.com when the game is up there.
- munk-a 5y agoGOG has been earning a lot of my praise recently for not only hosting binaries - but actually putting labour into making sure their games run on modern systems. This is particularly important for games from the era of weird sound cards that can't render audio quite right without a vintage soundblaster - but also goes for games that were simply designed with DOS expectations in place. Back in the day I was a big fan of an SSI game called Imperialism - this game pretty much refuses to run on modern software - it needs DOSBox to run smoothly and even then it does custom cursor stuff that tends to screw up very obviously on modern systems - the GOG version of the game runs smooth like butter. Why would I ever pirate a copy of Imperialism and spend a day actually getting it set up to run sorta decently on my machine - when I can grab it off GOG for 1.89 CAD? A day of my time, even an hour of my time (even my leisure time), runs well above 2$ at this point - the convenience is there so pirating becomes a bad value proposition.
- 5y ago
- Romulus968 5y ago"ROM sites are still a ubiquitous problem for 20 year old consoles. Youtube, Spotify, Steam and Netflix made content easy to get. There's no equivalent for most ROMs, so they're still widely pirated." The only example I can think of is Nintendo Online. You can play select NES and SNES games on the Switch with a N.O. subscription. I collect ROMs, I've got damned near 4Tb worth. I collect for two reasons: 1. Archiving 2. Most of the "good" vintage games carry ridiculous prices. Games that had over 10 million copies pressed going for $100+. Even if we assume 1 million were destroyed, that's still 9 million copies floating about. Not exactly rare or worth $100.
- aidenn0 5y agoI swapped my NES cart of Dragion Warrior IV with a friend for his copy of Dragon Warrior III in high school; it was supposed to be temporary but we both went off to college and never saw each other again. I looked into buying a copy of DW IV online and choked on the prices ($150 cart only). Apparently that game was a limited run though.
- dumpsterdiver 5y agoYep, I recently bought Dragon Warrior 1, 2, and 3. I’ll buy 4 soon, but wow - it is not cheap. I play them on a Retron 5 which can play NES, SNES, GBA, Sega, and even Famicon cartridges. It also lets you set hot keys and toggle turbo mode. It’s pretty great.
- aidenn0 5y agoIf it makes you feel any better it cost $100 in 2021 dollars new ($50 in 1990)...
- dumpsterdiver 5y ago> If it makes you feel any better it cost $100 in 2021 dollars new ($50 in 1990)... That does actually make me feel better knowing that DW4 would cost $100 if it were "new" now. These days a sealed copy of DW4 graded at 7.0 will run you $1549. I'd be nervous paying anything less than $170 for a working cartridge alone right now. As a consumer of these things, I've thought many times how easy it would be for someone to just print off "original boxes and content" for these old games, and sell them as if they were mint. As someone who wants this kind of thing... please don't be afraid to charge premium prices for replicas! As long as you tell us it's a replica, and it's high quality - everyone wins. Once enough time passes, replicas and forgeries all just become history.
- cblconfederate 5y agoWell there is BitTorrent and filesharing but they made it illegal
- munk-a 5y agoIt's never been more legal than it is today - it's not like in 1997 KaZaA and Morpheus were bastions of legal activity.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- funnyThing7 5y agoFor a very long time in the Netherlands you could download movies and music from unauthorized sources, as you were indirectly paying content creators because of “copy taxes” on data drives, burnable discs etc. It was sort of a loophole but it was completely legal. Those were the days. Then suddenly the highest court disallowed it. Guess what, we still pay the copy tax. Clarification: The copy tax was meant to compensate copyright owners for consumers making copies (for private use) of purchased media. It was widely interpreted as to allow downloading from the internet as well (even from pirated sources).
- munk-a 5y agoAh sorry yes - my comment was made from an American/Canadian perspective - I know that other parts of the world have been significantly more progressive in the past.
- jstanley 5y agoWhy is piracy of games for a 20-year-old console a problem? Is anyone still selling new games for those consoles?
- kevingadd 5y agoThe rightsholder wants to be able to sell the game to you again on a new platform to keep collecting revenue off it
- jjav 5y agoIf that's the motivation, it's pretty misguided, since it is a completely different motivation to buy. I buy (or pirate if I can't) the old games for nostalgia fun, not so much for the gameplay or graphics. I then also buy the new game for the modern experience & gameplay.
- kadoban 5y agoThey want to have the option to resell you the exact same game emulated on the new systems too, see Wii Virtual Console I think it was called, and NES classic system, all of those.
- aeturnum 5y agoPeople getting ROMs to play on another device doesn't stop them from doing that any more than the original systems and game carts stop them.
- mkw2000 5y agolike 7 , maybe 8 people
- salamandersauce 5y agoYes actually. You can still buy brand new copies of titles like Kingdom Hearts, FFXII and others for PS2 directly from Amazon.com and not a third party seller. For a while Square Enix was selling PS1 versions of FF games too although they have seemed to have stopped in the last few years.
- markpapadakis 5y agoApologies for linking to something I wrote; I believe convenience is addictive: https://markpapadakis.medium.com/convenience-is-key-2aad97d531cd https://markpapadakis.medium.com/convenience-is-key-2aad97d5...
- dmarlow 5y agoIt's funny how the wheel goes round and round. I loved it when Netflix had a lot more content, but now that each studio/production/company offers its own, it's ending up like nothing more than streaming a la carte and people are returning to piracy rather than spend hundreds across various streaming services (like cable/dish...).
- tortarga 5y agoAnalyst Ben Evans frequently refers to cycle of bundling and unbundling of produtcts in tech. Once the market becomes completely fragmented, a new service offering to bundle it back up will inevitably come along.
- mod50ack 5y agoThe other thing is that a lot of games from 20 years ago can't even be bought anymore from the original source. But from ten years ago is even worse --- you just CAN'T get any piece of WiiWare without pirating it. You can't buy it used.
- biztos 5y agoYouTube was an absolute cesspit of copyright violation until (well after acquisition) it wasn’t. Move fast, break things, but I guess it matters which things.
- deepdmistry 5y ago> Once they know it's possible, people want a one click solution for anything Agree, I think a more general term for 1 click solution is ease of use. Its the same reason why people compromise for privacy and use main stream products like google maps.
- bserge 5y agoSeems like more of a benefit than a problem. Current games that need a server side will die off this decade with no chance of being played ever again. Zero long term marketing/awareness for the brand, developer, console maker. A good thing overall, tbf.
- theCodeStig 5y agoI don’t see how ROMs for a 20 year old console would be a problem. The console and games are no longer sold. The producers have made all of the profit that they would make, on the original sale. They don’t see any profit on sales of used consoles and games.