Watch out Nintendo Pirates!

[AtariAger]

I just heard this on the news tonight...here's a link...

 

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7493443/

[Clint Thompson]

Figures.... at least they got busted.... it sucks getting fake stuff and not knowing if it's legit or not...

[Artlover]

crackdown on the theft of popular games such as "Donkey Kong," "Mario Brothers," "Duck Hunt," "Baseball"

Read: NES games they don't produce or sell anymore.

 

The Japanese game maker told the FBI that individuals and companies copy the video games and sell the pirated versions throughout the world, costing the company millions of dollars in lost revenue annually, according to the complaint.

How exactly can you have lost revenue regarding stuff you don't produce or sell anymore? It's like saying selling reproduction Model T car's cost Ford revenue.

 

If they are worried about lost revenue, then they should stop ignoring the retro market and start producing/selling the products people want to buy.

[Jasoco]

Yeah, that makes no sense. How exactly would Nintendo lost money on games they don't even sell now? They actually give most of them away on other discs!

[Chickybaby]

I wonder how many kids of FBI members now have cloned NES hardware?

 

I was wondering the same thing - but I am guessing that they are relating it to games for current systems and using the trademarks of the charecters?

 

I guess those mall kisoks that were still selling the systems around here are finally going to disappear. Last I saw they were at the "reduced" price of 39.99. I was waiting till they hit less then $20 just to get one for the heck of it myself. Just like I'll wait till the Flashback is under 20$ to get one just to "add to the collection".

[ussexplorer]

Well, you forget the whole entire point. They don't wany anything of the game sold. They want to control all of that 100%. Nintendo is wants to distroy old games. You also have to remeber they just released mario for the gameboy advanced. Plus I think they did donkey kong too. You have to understand. They want you to purhcase the new games and new hardware. Even if the games are changed. Sortof like VHS to DVD and now the new HDVD or blue ray or whatever. AKA same movies with some new stuff added in.

 

later,

 

ussexplorer

[MegaManFan]

If they ever came near or tried to detroy ANY part of my classic NES collection they'd get a very large baseball bat up their behind. And personally, I consider every single one that I own total justification for having a "backup" emulation ROM. I'm close enough to a complete collection that there's not many I've played I +don't+ have.

[Atarinvader]

It was obvious Nintendo would have a crackdown on those Famiclone consoles sooner or later. It looks as if Ninty were fearing lost sells on the NES back catalogue they've been dragging up a lot recently (NES classics on GBA, WarioWare games etc).

 

Fair play I say. I wouldn't want people making money off of the stuff I created, and worked hard for. At the end of the day it's Nintendo's money that's gone in to creating these games, who has the right to come along and take it?

[figgler]

crackdown on the theft of popular games such as "Donkey Kong," "Mario Brothers," "Duck Hunt," "Baseball"

Read: NES games they don't produce or sell anymore.

 

All 4 of these have been re-released at least partially in the past 18 months. In the case of Mario Bros and DK, they've been released in 2 or 3 different formats.

And even if they weren't, what gives pirates the right to market them in lieu?

 

Plus there is the bigger franchise picture here. Mario and DK are still HUGE gaming icons and worth millions every year. It's all about branding guys. I can't beleive anyone is disputing Nintendo's right to keep what is theirs

[JB]

Plus there is the bigger franchise picture here.  Mario and DK are still HUGE gaming icons and worth millions every year.  It's all about branding guys.  I can't beleive anyone is disputing Nintendo's right to keep what is theirs 

836883[/snapback]

That's the main issue. Nintendo's official statement regarding policy insists that piracy of Zelda 1 and Super Mario Brothers hurts sales of Wind Waker and Super Mario Sunshine.

 

...

 

Amazing. Nintendo's corrected some of the minsinformation in their legal page.

They no longer claim that the backup exemption only applies to PC software. Now says (quite correctly) that downloading an illegaly distributed copy of a game you legally own is not legal even though you ARE entitled to a backup under US copyright law.

[Zonie]

I wonder if the "yobo" NES consoles are included in this. Anyone seen the new one that has a regular 72-pin socket and NES style controller ports? I saw one yesterday. Kinda cool.

[sku_u]

I don't feel the least bit sorry for these people. They were pirating protected software on a very large scale for profit. If we were talking about a hobbyist making a copy for a friend, then I'd be angry.

[JB]

I wonder if the "yobo" NES consoles are included in this.  Anyone seen the new one that has a regular 72-pin socket and NES style controller ports?  I saw one yesterday.  Kinda cool.

836954[/snapback]

I doubt they can make anything stick. That one doesn't include any games, and the hardware patents are LONG since expired.

[SteveW]

I wonder if the "yobo" NES consoles are included in this.  Anyone seen the new one that has a regular 72-pin socket and NES style controller ports?  I saw one yesterday.  Kinda cool.

836954[/snapback]

 

Those Yobo NES consoles would only be illegal if they had built-in games. The hardware isn't copyrighted by Nintendo, since it uses off-the-shelf parts, but the games included with those Super Joy III consoles are. Nintendo might still go after them, though, just to stop people from playing their old games on the Yobo. Nintendo would much rather get people to buy their NES Classics series for the Gameboy Advance.

[Artlover]

All 4 of these have been re-released at least partially in the past 18 months.  In the case of Mario Bros and DK, they've been released in 2 or 3 different formats. 

And even if they weren't, what gives pirates the right to market them in lieu?

#1: An over whelming majority of the old games have NOT be re-released and NEVER will be.

 

#2: The released games are not the same. Don't play the same, generaly tweaked somehow somewhere. Ports and remakes DO NOT PLAY/FEEL the same as the originals. They might be good, they might close, hell, they might be better, but they are NOT the SAME.

 

I can't beleive anyone is disputing Nintendo's right to keep what is theirs 

NO ONE is disputing that. The problem is this is not exactly what Nintendo is doing. They are trying to prevent everyone in the known universe from being able to buy or play what is their's. They don't want people buying or playing NES and screw the people who want to buy/play NES and the millions of dollars they would be dumping into the company to do so. I'm not supporting the pirates persay, I'm supporting the idea of the avaialibility of the classic hardware & games.

 

It wouldn't kill them to release their own xx-in-one tv joypad thing. Not going to hurt the sales of their other products, will give the retro people a legal option, and make them some money. Why do they have a problem with this? There IS a reason everyone else is, and doing so semi-successfully.

 

Hell, what about a Nintendo Greatest Hits disc? Again, everyone ELSE has done these. Namco, Midway, Atari, Activision, Intellivision, etc..

 

They simply want nothing to do with the classic stuff and refuse to want to allow their customers to have anything to do with it either. They selectively pick & choose only a handfull of the key characters like Mario, Zelda & Donkey Kong to managle into crappy ports/re-rereleases because of the marketabilty of those icons.

 

People WANT this stuff, and are willing to PAY for it. It's not about piracy in the sense of getting something for nothing. It's not the customer's fault that the legal owners refuse to want to take their money and sell them the products they want to buy. Nintendo simply refuses to want to accept that a huge retro market exists and want to deny everyone the opportunity to enjoy that scene.

 

They need to stop being whiny morons and start selling the products people want to buy. Maybe if they focused on that, they wouldn't be #3.

[JB]

All 4 of these have been re-released at least partially in the past 18 months.  In the case of Mario Bros and DK, they've been released in 2 or 3 different formats. 

And even if they weren't, what gives pirates the right to market them in lieu?

#1: An over whelming majority of the old games have NOT be re-released and NEVER will be.

 

#2: The released games are not the same. Don't play the same, generaly tweaked somehow somewhere. Ports and remakes DO NOT PLAY/FEEL the same as the originals. They might be good, they might close, hell, they might be better, but they are NOT the SAME.

The NES Classics carts are actually emulations.

The only diffrence is the aspect ratio is FUBAR.

...

And that they scale the background, but not sprites.

[Flack]

I couldn't get rid of my Duck Hunt cart for a buck. How much profit can there be in counterfeiting these? Maybe in their spare time these criminals set up a money press to make fake pennies as well.

[figgler]

It wouldn't kill them to release their own xx-in-one tv joypad thing. Not going to hurt the sales of their other products, will give the retro people a legal option, and make them some money. Why do they have a problem with this? There IS a reason everyone else is, and doing so semi-successfully.

 

Hell, what about a Nintendo Greatest Hits disc? Again, everyone ELSE has done these. Namco, Midway, Atari, Activision, Intellivision, etc..

 

It's all about good business sense, you know - supply and demand. I'll bet you a doughnut that Nintendo has made significantly more $ releasing the NES and Famicom Classics one by one than Atari did, giving away 85 games for $20 bucks. If you bought Atari Anthology, do you ever need to buy another Atari colleciton again? Probably not.

Nintendo's got the best library of classics in the biz IMO, and they are releasing or not releasing it to maximise their potential.

 

They simply want nothing to do with the classic stuff and refuse to want to allow their customers to have anything to do with it either. They selectively pick & choose only a handfull of the key characters like Mario, Zelda & Donkey Kong to managle into crappy ports/re-rereleases because of the marketabilty of those icons.

 

 

To say they want nothing to do with classics just isn't right. Nintendo knows its roots and supports them well enough. You can find homages, tips, collecting resources and repair info for all the classic systems on the website, in Nintendo Power etc. It just makes more sense to not market ancient platforms and not give everything away at once. What do you expect them to do, start reissuing NES carts?

[joeybastard]

It really only comes down to one thing regardless of how you feel about Nintendo's policies reagrding this.

 

They own the rights to that stuff to do with as they see fit. Anyone else using it without permission is stealing. No argument can overcome that legally.

[Gabriel]

It's all about good business sense, you know - supply and demand.  I'll bet you a doughnut that Nintendo has made significantly more $ releasing the NES and Famicom Classics one by one than Atari did, giving away 85 games for $20 bucks. 

 

I dunno. From what I've seen, the NES classic series has completely flopped here in the US. They sell, but only once they've made it to bargain bins.

 

And, as I seem to recall, wasn't there a second series planned which was scrapped precisely because the first series carts simply did not move here in the US?

[figgler]

A few titles didn't do so well (i.e. Bomberman, Xevious) but by and large they sold well enough. Can't find a Mario, Zelda or DK around here anywhere.

In fact I'd go as far as to say that Super Mario Bros and Zelda in the Classic NES series sold more copies than Atari or Activision Anthology for PS2. No figures to back that up, but I'll bet I'm right. Again good business sense on Nintendo's part.

 

The second series was in fact released, containing Castlevania, Dr Mario etc. You should expect a thrid series as well, but not right away. Supply and demand as I mentioned.

[ClassicBoy]

I couldn't get rid of my Duck Hunt cart for a buck. How much profit can there be in counterfeiting these? Maybe in their spare time these criminals set up a money press to make fake pennies as well.

837612[/snapback]

 

Hilarious!

 

Thanks for my first good laugh of the day!!

[JB]

It wouldn't kill them to release their own xx-in-one tv joypad thing. Not going to hurt the sales of their other products, will give the retro people a legal option, and make them some money. Why do they have a problem with this? There IS a reason everyone else is, and doing so semi-successfully.

 

Hell, what about a Nintendo Greatest Hits disc? Again, everyone ELSE has done these. Namco, Midway, Atari, Activision, Intellivision, etc..

 

It's all about good business sense, you know - supply and demand. I'll bet you a doughnut that Nintendo has made significantly more $ releasing the NES and Famicom Classics one by one than Atari did, giving away 85 games for $20 bucks. If you bought Atari Anthology, do you ever need to buy another Atari colleciton again? Probably not.

And it's only what, the 4th bundle they've done? I own 3 of them to date, the most recent being the PC-based 80 games one.

And if I see a package that adds more non-VCS games, I'll pr'ly get it. I can do without more odd-ball 2600 titles. Heck, I can do without Basic Programming, Miniature Golf, and 2600 Star Raiders, among other things. It really felt like they were just throwing every random title they had onto the 80 games package.

[rasty]

Nintendo has a good record of fighting pirates... well, maybe they were right in the early 80s with the following annonuncement, but it sounds fun they're still protecting the same games!

(sorry about the image quality, I don't have a scanner at home)

 

Regards!

Rasty.-

[chrisbid]

Nintendo does need to get off its ass with their classic titles. its a crime against the gaming community that the arcade version of donkey kong has never seen the light of day beyond its initial release. instead weve been fed the chopped up NES version, repacked over and over again.

 

if these companies wanted to protect themselves, they could just make these pirate carts that contain games only made by third parties. i have a super joy III, mainly for the japan-only titles that are on it