6 ms·
Downloading games that you don’t own is definitely illegal, of course, and it hurts the content providers. The only reason that we have games to play
by cocoflunchy 14y ago
Downloading games that you don’t own is definitely
illegal, of course, and it hurts the content providers.
The only reason that we have games to play is because
people pay for them - so please don’t download ROMs of
games that you don’t actually own. It’s easy to buy huge
packs of second-hand console games on ebay, often with
the actual systems included, and it doesn’t cost a lot
of money.
This argument always seems a bit weak to me... I don't see how buying second-hand games and consoles is going to benefit the original gamemakers in any way.
Of course if you could buy the original games directly from their authors it would be a different story, but you can't! Is there something I'm missing here?
- webwielder 14y agoI'd say the economic harm of bootlegging 10+ year old games from large publishers on platforms that are no longer produced is close to zero.
- mparlane 14y agoActually, Nintendo introduced "Virtual Console" on the Wii system to make money off of these old games you can't buy anymore.
- pudquick 14y agoInteresting (somewhat related) side note about the Virtual Console games: they are emulation shells around the original ROMs. There are toolkits out there that will let you peel them apart and see / replace the resources inside. I used this to swap out one ROM for another so I could play the Nintendo NES version of Tetris on my Wii.
- rcfox 14y agoFor me, the biggest value in emulation is playing the fan translations of games that were never originally made available in English. Some of my favourites: Downtown Special: Kunio-kun no Jidaigeki Dayo Zenin Shuugou! http://www.romhacking.net/translations/226/ http://www.romhacking.net/translations/226/ Romancing SaGa 3 http://www.romhacking.net/translations/416/ http://www.romhacking.net/translations/416/ Seiken Densetsu 3 http://www.romhacking.net/translations/440/ http://www.romhacking.net/translations/440/ (Note: None of those links will point you at the ROMs themselves, just translation patches.)
- mparlane 14y agoI thought half the fun was in NOT understanding the Japanese text ?
- tiglionabbit 14y agoHell yes. Also check out Wonder Project J 1 and 2. And then there's Star Fox 2, which is an awesome game that was never released.
- ronaldj 14y agoThey should sell them on the app store and get it over with.
- joezydeco 14y agoNamco is pretty tight about their IP, especially since they now have a tidy little business remaking their old arcade titles again using the original ROMs: http://www.amazon.com/Namco-Arcade-Party-Cabaret-Cabinet/dp/B004AUGOA6 http://www.amazon.com/Namco-Arcade-Party-Cabaret-Cabinet/dp/... The funny thing is that these titles aren't emulated, per se. They have re-implemented the original hardware (including Z80 core and various sound chips) and distilled it down to an FPGA, playing the code off of the ROMs stored in EEPROMs or Flash memory.
- pyre 14y agoThe target market for that cabinet is not the same as the majority of people that would download a ROM of one of those games.
- mpyne 14y agoTrue, but the problem is that if ROMs were copyable with no legal issue that other companies besides Namco would be able to serve that market. That's only a problem if you feel Namco should be able to continue in the copyright for those works obviously, I'm just pointing out that a difference in intended market isn't sufficient for Namco to drop interest in copyright.
- joezydeco 14y agoThe question we're addressing here is if there is economic harm in bootlegging object code for a system that is no longer manufactured. Arcade hardware applies just as much as console hardware, even moreso since the arcade machines were produced in quantities much lower than the catridges for popular home consoles. The response being mentioned in the grandfather comment was if owning a copy of the original object code on chips satisfies the copyright concerns. If you own the original game, then you should be able to sleep soundly at night that you're not stealing from the author of the game. Namco (& Midway in the USA) stopped making these arcade machines 30 years ago. One could easily argue that that is WAY out of production and there's no possible way Namco could be harmed by bootlegging Pac-Man ROMs into a MAME cabinet and placing it into a Chuck-E-Cheese. But, lo and behold!, Namco is making arcade equipment and selling it again. There's definitely an economic impact now.
- gizmo686 14y agoDownloading ROMs has a clear slippery slope to downloading other games. If you get the games the way the comment describes then their is a built in mechanism to limit how much you can get for free, and with more recent games would leave you much more likely to purchase them.
- stonemetal 14y agoSimple really your average unemployed 12 year old sells their old games to get new ones. Take that away and the market for new games will shrink.
- aptwebapps 14y agoI don't disagree with the economics of what you're saying, but it's interesting that the console makers seem to be against second-hand games: http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2012/03/29/the-coming-war-on-used-games/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2012/03/29/the-coming...
- wreckimnaked 14y agoEvery single DRM enforcement today is a statement against the second-hand market. As apps, videos and music are bought as DRM protected files from online stores, the notion of possession of the physical means (cartidge, disk, book, etc.) is being replaced by some weird notion of half-ownership attached to a user ID.
- archenemy 14y agoIn the rare event of me buying some DRM protected content (rare ebooks, for example), I will usually do whatever is needed to strip it for my own archival purposes, and share with friends. When something is DRM-free (Humble bundles come to mind) I won't share it, but send my friends to the provider. That's just the little rebel in me.
- stonemetal 14y agoHow much would you be willing to pay for a car or a house if you knew you couldn't sell it later? I know I would be willing to pay less than I am now.
- aptwebapps 14y agoThat's what I meant about the economics of it. Of course, that's only part of the picture. It's true that resale value must figure into the new value, but it also might depress demand for new sales. Coming at it from another angle, Gamestop makes a lot of money from second-hand sales. That's money that the game and console makers don't get to make and they want it.
- base698 14y agoEspecially given that I've given the original companies thousands of dollars and I'm sure they are buried in storage somewhere.
- Garoof 14y ago"Of course if you could buy the original games directly from their authors it would be a different story, but you can't! Is there something I'm missing here?" If we decide that games lose all their value the moment the authors are no longer directly involved, then they're probably going to lose some value when the authors are directly invloved too?
- goggles99 14y agoI thought that "obsolete roms" were legal to own via a DCMA exemption. http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/general-gaming/4727-obsolete-roms-now-legal-to-own.html http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/general-gaming/4727-obso...
- mpyne 14y agoDMCA doesn't change copyright. You might be thinking of exceptions to allow you to dump your own ROM, but it would only be legal if you already had a legal copy of the game in question (unless the game is out of copyright).
- Millennium 14y agoA secondhand copy is still a copy that the company got its money for.