cm30
New Member
Just working on articles and Mario fan games...
Posts: 49
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Post by cm30 on Nov 14, 2016 20:35:57 GMT -5
You know, the remakes of rare or cancelled games that some small shops seem to be releasing on cartridges now? Or the ones where NES and SNES ROM hacks are turned into physical game carts for their respective systems and sold in a fancy box?
Because I've seen a lot of controversy here. On the one hand, Nintendo Age and a few collector forums don't seem to mind the concept, saying it's more 'convenient' to have rare games on a physical cartridge.
But then on the other hand, the ROM hacking community (like at ROM Hacking.net) seems to really hate these shops. Likely because they take hacks from sites like that and sell them without giving credit to the original author.
So what do you think? Is it ethical to sell video game repros? Or do you think it's questionable that these games and hacks are being sold without the permission of the owners?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 14, 2016 21:28:37 GMT -5
I'd say they're as ethical as the person who buys them feels they are. I don't exactly have a problem with them, since it's not like you can buy an official English-translated cart of Final Fantasy III in America. Others might disagree with it, and I can see their point.
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Post by Weasel on Nov 14, 2016 22:01:49 GMT -5
I'd feel bad about it because the money I pay for a repro isn't going to whichever people made the fan-translation or rom hack I've bought. It especially rubs me the wrong way, though, when repro makers are not honest about where their stuff comes from, since some allegedly remove all credit to the translation/hacking teams, or just conveniently forget to mention it. I saw a table full of repros at PRGE 2016 - stacks of "Pokemon Yellow" NES games, SNES game betas on "release"-style carts, Nintendo World Championships gold cartridges, and a handful of "Recca: The Raging Flame" cartridges complete with a flashy sign advertising how this game never got released outside of Japan.
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Post by elektrolurch on Nov 15, 2016 5:40:02 GMT -5
...I find repro rom hacks that are sold without any credits given to the author unethical. On the other hand, stuff like fan translations of Final Fantasy games that are not legally sold-very ethical. Square Enix et. al. are being unethical not caring about it to make it official.
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Post by Sac (a.k.a Icaras) on Nov 15, 2016 7:17:21 GMT -5
It depends.
If its a game I can legally obtain brand new in the box, on the cart, with the manual, and my money for said purchase goes to the original company...then rep carts are unethical.
On the other hand if its eitehr buying a repo cart or buying an original from a scalper on ebay...screw the scalper, where mah repo?(IMO)
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Post by GamerL on Nov 15, 2016 7:22:33 GMT -5
Considering I have no qualms with emulation I don't care about someone buying repro carts.
Though credit should be given to where credit is due if it's a translation or romhack though.
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Post by ommadawnyawn2 on Nov 15, 2016 13:04:17 GMT -5
I've seen rom hacks being sold without the creator even being aware of it which I don't think is cool, and selling a romhack without an OK from the original devs or at least the current publisher isn't cool either.
Fan translations is also a grey area. The translation is never major enough that the rest isn't as or more important, even in old JRPGs. But publishers or devs are dumb, and a little bit evil for not releasing fan translations in some cases. Would be interesting to know how many hackers/translators have been turned down when approaching the devs or publishers for a game.
Also nobody actually needs separate physical releases, that's a luxury/waste of resources imo but obviously most people don't agree.
When it comes to MD games, Sega has embraced hacking on Steam so there's less need for repros there.
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Post by llj on Nov 15, 2016 13:07:28 GMT -5
Repro carts are already legally dodgy all around, but like most here I'd prefer that repro cart makers are upfront about the fan translations they are using. If they aren't giving them money, fine--many of the translators originally did this for free anyway and knew full well their work could be used or exploited for profit. The least repro makers can do is credit the translators--if the translators want to be credited for basically what is a bootleg cart, that is (I know a few actually do not want to be credited for repro carts).
If they just said, "look, we bought the cartridge materials and pressed a few hundred copies of these with our own money, so we wanted to make some money back and a bit of profit," then I could on some level at least respect them being upfront about what they were doing.
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Post by alphex on Nov 15, 2016 15:44:47 GMT -5
Repro carts are already legally dodgy all around They're not "dodgy", they're as illegal as it gets. The people selling these carts own 0% of the copyright for the material they are selling. As far as the ethical component is concerned, I agree, making money off of hackers' work is by far the shittier move, even if that stuff isn't actually copyrighted / somewhat illegal, too.
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Post by The Great Klaid on Nov 15, 2016 23:46:34 GMT -5
I'm not a big ethics man. So I pay very little for them. I crunched the numbers on the one I guy I use. And back when I did, he couldn't have been *making* money. And I stopped buying them after I discovered Flash Carts.
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Post by Allie on Nov 17, 2016 21:56:36 GMT -5
I dislike when a legitimate game has to be destroyed in order to use the cart shell.
I'm not a fan of repros in general, but a friend of mine, knowing that I don't like repros, bought a repro of MUSHA and sent it to me just to annoy me...
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 17, 2016 22:13:41 GMT -5
That's a really weird and rude thing for someone to do.
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Post by Allie on Nov 17, 2016 22:23:11 GMT -5
That's a really weird and rude thing for someone to do. The only reason I wasn't angry about it is because he gave it the context of a long-running private joke between him and I.
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Post by surnshurn on Nov 18, 2016 6:30:34 GMT -5
i think it's not a problem until it's a problem.
by that: i mean that if the copyright holders or developers don't object to this kind of (small-scale) programming and sale of carts, then you really shouldn't feel too bad about doing it. i know there's a problem with pirated versions of current games that i know companies aren't too keen on.
it reminds me of the older japanese gaming market, where companies would use bits and pieces from other games, including unlicensed cameos, and i never really heard about it being a problem at any point. it seemed like more of a "hey, i'm glad you like our stuff" kind of attitude as opposed to "how dare you, where's my money?" kind of attitude. differences between japanese and american cultures on certain things (censorship, copyrighting, etc) was really interesting to me. especially when the NES really took off here in the states and i'd read about japanese developers being confused and a little frustrated by what they can and can't show/do on titles released in the US.
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Post by Allie on Nov 18, 2016 13:58:22 GMT -5
i think it's not a problem until it's a problem. by that: i mean that if the copyright holders or developers don't object to this kind of (small-scale) programming and sale of carts, then you really shouldn't feel too bad about doing it. i know there's a problem with pirated versions of current games that i know companies aren't too keen on. it reminds me of the older japanese gaming market, where companies would use bits and pieces from other games, including unlicensed cameos, and i never really heard about it being a problem at any point. it seemed like more of a "hey, i'm glad you like our stuff" kind of attitude as opposed to "how dare you, where's my money?" kind of attitude. differences between japanese and american cultures on certain things (censorship, copyrighting, etc) was really interesting to me. especially when the NES really took off here in the states and i'd read about japanese developers being confused and a little frustrated by what they can and can't show/do on titles released in the US. Sometimes it's more than just "Where's my money?". If a company doesn't actively protect their copyrights in the US, they can lose the rights to them.
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