# Piracy is too mainstream



## Sinkhead (Mar 17, 2008)

Although I cite GBAtemp a lot in this article, these are my own views. Not GBAtemp's. Not the GBAtemp staff's.

Foreword
I know that I am part of the problem I am about to describe.

The slot-2 years
To start, think back to the second half of 2006. Slot-2 flashcarts were still the only good method of pirating on the DS. To play a game you needed 3 pieces of equipment: A memory card, a slot-2 flashcart, and a PassMe or NoPass.

Then, on August 10th 2006 at 04:44 PM GMT, GBAtemp announced the first major slot-1 flashcart, the DS-X. It seemed like a perfect solution (GBAtemp gave it 9/10 in their review, the score has since been altered). Many people didn't see the point in upgrading at that point in time, mainly because of the price, but it truly looked like DS-X was a revolution in DS piracy. In the first few months after it's release there were plenty of updates fixing both ROM and homebrew compatibility, as well as adding functionality. The skinning engine is the most complex I have seen in a flashcart, everything is customizable, and the LEDs are just cool. The built in media player has potential and although it was fairly slow at first it seems to have improved, so all in all the DS-X was a really good cart for it's era.

Shame it didn't last.

Firmware update  1.1.2 (third release) was the last one to ever see the light of day. And in the massive gaps between firmware releases for the DS-X, DS piracy continued as normal. Well, that is until...

The release of the R4
The release of the R4DS wasn't hyped. It wasn't anticipated, in fact, it came out of the blue, practically from nowhere. Then, once the GBAtemp review was released, things started to happen. Within months it was 'the' DS flashcart, it had 100% compatibility, clean ROM support, skinning support, regular firmware updates, and a huge community. Real shops started to sell the R4 and the market created sheerly through word of mouth started to overwhelm the supply. For months the R4 was out of stock everywhere. N00bs started to create threads on Nintendo's own official forums. This, I believe, is where it went too far. My aunt has heard of flashcarts, she asked me if I knew anything about a P4 for the DS, something to play free games on. I, of course, told her all I knew, so I am really a dirty hypocrite. Estimates for the percentage of people who know about DS flashcarts vary, but I believe at least 50% of DS owners would know what a flashcart is. This is too much for me...

Reasons for Piracy
So why do people pirate? It sounds obvious, but there are many reasons. Of course, the obvious one is to save money. Some people pirate games because they are sick and tired of Nintendo's policy of shafting Europe and Australia, we hate the fact that games cost twice as much here as in the USA and are released months or years after. People who would have bought the game find out that it is already released in another region and instead of importing it at an exorbitant cost they simply download and play it. Some people do it simply out of convenience, even if they have the money to buy the games they won't because they don't need to go to the shop to pirate a game. Using Usenet, I can have the newest release playing on my DS within 2 minutes of me finding it in the search results. If I actually buy it, I have to get ready to go out, get the bus into town, wait in the queue in Gamestation, hand over my hard-earned cash then wait for the bus back again. Which would you choose?

Now, Nintendo and other game companies try to combat this problem by making piracy harder, but that's not the thing they should be focussing on.  They should focus on the root of the problem, the fact that games, in most parts of the world, are too hard to buy. They should be trying to make it easier to buy games, more accessible, more fun.

What Nintendo could do
These are just some quick ideas of how Nintendo can actually compete with piracy.
Make games approximately the same price around the world, it's only fair, right?
Release games at the same time around the world.
Make games easier to purchase, an official flashcart maybe? I know there's already been one released but I haven't heard anything about it. I would say it's too little, too late.
Support homebrew from the beginning, officially.
Now, I understand that my arguments are probably flawed, incomplete or broken and that my solutions may be worse, and it doesn't help that I assist people pirating games every day, I just want to express my annoyance at how mainstream piracy has become today.

Thoughts?

(and thanks for reading  
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





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(and please don't be mad, WildToushi   
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 )


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## JPH (Mar 17, 2008)

That is true. Piracy is becoming easier and more people are doing it (for the DS, at least).

I don't think there is much you can't do to prevent piracy from being so easy and mainstream. If there was a solution, Nintendo would have thought of it by now!

You make WildToushi proud! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




Nice article 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




BTW, wasn't the DS Linker announced before the DS-Xtreme?


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## gimlianon (Mar 17, 2008)

I completely agree with you. I remember the days when I could amaze and astound my friends with talk of getting games for free. They'd all be like, "Wow, you are teh computar genius!!!" I liked the feeling of superiority honestly. But nowadays, everyone and their dog knows about flashcarts and piracy and whatnot. But it wasn't just the free games that drew me. It was the homebrew, development and technological stuffs that also made me interested.I know it sounds kinda greedy, but I liked the scenes (DS and others) back when they were more exclusive. The communities seemed more tightly knit. They were the good ol' days.


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## Sinkhead (Mar 17, 2008)

JPH said:
			
		

> That is true. Piracy is becoming easier and more people are doing it (for the DS, at least).
> 
> I don't think there is much you can't do to prevent piracy from being so easy and mainstream. If there was a solution, Nintendo would have thought of it by now!
> 
> ...


I agree totally, it's bad for everyone when piracy is nearly mainstream, including the pirates.


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## xcalibur (Mar 17, 2008)

I think that even if Nintendo tried anything possible, there would still be a massive pirating community and I do believe that Nintendo's efforts are well spent in trying to make piracy harder.
Becuase face it, not all of us can go out and buy a game that you really want.
Some of us can only afford 2 or 3 games at most a month (even if they make it cheaper). Even I used to be stuck on a budget of 40 quid a month for games. Would you rather spend it on a handheld game, as great as it may be, or buy yourself a fully developed nextgen console game with more than hours of content?

The main problem I think you're talking about is the popularity of NDS flash cards. When your aunt knows about something like that you know its exploded but there's nothing we can do about it now...


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## pasc (Mar 17, 2008)

I totally agree.., hearing noobs screaming around that they are too dumb / lazy to figure stuff out themselves makes me sick.

Nice one Sinkhead, I sugg3st sticking it.

BTW: why is this weird message tree there and not the old style ? I hate it to have to click to be able fo read one message.


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## Vater Unser (Mar 17, 2008)

Notice how many people here actually buy _great_ games (like Zelda, Mario Galaxy, SSBB) ?
Problem solved.


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## Extreme Coder (Mar 17, 2008)

Nice article sinkhead, it was enjoyable to read 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




Heh, you guys should come to Egypt one day, piracy here is a NECESSITY to be able to play games. In all of Cairo, the capital of Egypt, there are less than 10 shops that carry a Nintendo DS/Lite, all of them overpricing it like hell( I bought mine for $250 ), and with no/1 game available (usually SM64DS, selling for $90).
I hope you aren't expecting me to import every single game I want :/ Now, if Nintendo actually fixes its situation in the Middle East and Egypt, where I can buy a DS/DS2 for its price like anywhere else in the world (ok, maybe a _little_ bit more 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 ), and its games are available for the price between $20-40 then I would drop piracy.
But since that isn't going to happen, I will just keep pirating as long as I have to :/


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## xalphax (Mar 17, 2008)

piracy has been a problem since gutenberg invented the mechanical printing, and most likely long before.

there is no way to stop it completely, but one can take right and wrong measures against it.

right: go down with the price, release more demos, deliver quality.

wrong: go up with price (to invest in "copyprotection" which doesnt protect) and sue your fans and customers like there is no tommorrow.

just a few thoughts....


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## Renegade_R (Mar 17, 2008)

sinkhead, you are on the exact same wavelength as myself.  The worst part of piracy being mainstream is that since Nintendo knows this is a major problem, the next itteration of their handheld will not only be impossible (or very complex) to pirate, it will be much more expensive hence being counter productive to what you have been saying.  I feel really bad that piracy has become so mainstream that this little 'hobby' of ours has moved all the way to the n00bs and even official Nintendo eyes.

I can't really blame the R4 though...this was never their intent...it just happened to be their lucky day.


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## TaMs (Mar 17, 2008)

QUOTE said:
			
		

> What Nintendo could do
> These are just some quick ideas of how Nintendo can actually compete with piracy.
> 
> * Make games approximately the same price around the world, it's only fair, right?
> ...



The price differences comes with taxes. Usa don't have some random taxes or they are lighter than in EU.
And about the homebrew. If you enable homebrew you kind of allow one way for pirates/hackers whatever to takeover your console. Like with psp it started with harmless hello world.

Anyway good article. And i'd personally like to have the same release date for games all around the world.


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## diablow2000 (Mar 17, 2008)

Nintendo should make their own flashcard, or release a new DS with integrated memory, and release games through internet. Games would be cheaper to publish (no need for expensive cartridges), and more people would choose to buy official games, rather than download pirated copies, especially when you could get the game right after release - no need for waiting, while it comes to your region, or your local rom site.


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## Sinkhead (Mar 17, 2008)

I thought about the homebrew thing in depth before I wrote it. I figured that most consoles so far have been hacked _at first_ to play homebrew. If homebrew support is native, there will be less people wanting to hack the system.
I know there are problems with this argument, but that was my basic thought.


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## budrow66 (Mar 17, 2008)

I agree Sinkhead. There is another view on this.
I personally know 6 DSL owners that would not have even bought the DSL
if they had not heard of and planned on buying a flashcart at the time of purchase.
So if I had a product someone could hack my software but still had to have my
hardware to do it, I would keep my mouth shut as much as I could so the whole world didnt 
find out and put out newer prettier hardware as to appeal to more folks. Like Crimmson and Cobalt.
Odd maybe but makes sense to me.


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## tjas (Mar 17, 2008)

The son of my neighbor even has an R4!! but he did not update it and a lot of games failed to work 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 So I hope that we have to do one big update on the flashcards, and the noobs that don't know that think its broken


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## GH0ST (Mar 17, 2008)

When piracy becomes mainstream ... this is not piracy anymore ... but i share your view.

Remember me the concept of TAZ  (Temporary Autonomous Zone)

I really hope Gbatemp is more a PAZ despite the name ;-)


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## SimpleSimon08 (Mar 17, 2008)

Great post Sinkhead, I think for me the issue is cost versus quality, how many of us have downloaded a game tried and thought "Christ! I'm glad I didn't part with my hard earned cash for this trash" and then immediately deleted it?  IMO games are too expensive per se and publishers can be greedy, how about some multi-region budget games like the Japanese Simply series.

Interesting idea to have an official flashcard and I guess then we could purchase and download games which could be subject to DRM much like Apple have done with iPod games, which are again overpriced trash.


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## heat6jones (Mar 17, 2008)

Last generation, for the first time, I purchased all three consoles, and the main reason was because of piracy. Usually I was only able to buy one console, because the games are so expensive, so i lacked the resources to buy all the systems. Now I can spend the money I save on buying games on buying other systems.  So, piracy results in me investing less (nothing) in the third party companies who make games. 

But overall, I am putting about the same money back into the economy. I buy more consoles, more hardware for consoles, i buy media top put my games on, and paying for high speed internet is quite costly.

If I had the money to buy all the games I wanted, I would. Usually when I get giftcards I'll use them to buy a game or wiipoints. And when I renew my Nintendo Power subscription, I'll always look for a package renew with a game with it.

But unless you're pulling in about 40,000 US dollars or more a year, it's just not really possible to pay for these games as much as we play them. And then some of you are all little children who probably shouldn't be on the internet anyway, but obviously you guys can't buy many games with your parents money.


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## leetdude_007 (Mar 17, 2008)

I'm guessing nintendo is going to move to the playing field of online distribution with a variety of anti-piracy tools in their next handheld. I hope they support the homebrew scene while they're at it.


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## iNFiNiTY (Mar 17, 2008)

i was going to write a response about how its funny someone who joined in 22-November 06 is annoyed by how piracy is too mainstream, but i see you said at the top you are part of the problem heh.

its not just the ease of the method which has made it popular its the increasing knowledge of the internet by regular people where the information/hardware/software to pirate is available, every generation of consoles has bought increased piracy


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## legendofphil (Mar 17, 2008)

When piracy is prevalent on a system it tends to be blown out of proportion by the media, I highly doubt the projected losses are actually what is lost but we live in a world where people demand cheap goods and don't care about the authenticity or quality.

Floppy disc systems (amiga, PC, etc), CD (PS1, Saturn, etc), DVD (PS2, Xbox, etc) had/have high levels of piracy.

Just look at open air markets/car boot sales to see the levels, in my area of the country over 100,000 discs have been seized since December and it hasn't really slowed but the sale of copied games, music and movies.

For me the first mass market piracy was with the PS1 though I was aware of PC piracy at the time.


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## Hadrian (Mar 17, 2008)

I thought it was always mainstream, didn't know anyone (who owned the machines) who didn't have a pirated PC/C64/ZX81/Amiga game in the late 80's early 90's.

I guess the PSX was the main cause of making it more "mainstream" on consoles, so its been that way for over 10 years and only because its cheaper to copy CD's.  Had the N64 has a CD-ROM (or Nintendo went with Sony for the SNES and then later lost all their characters to Sony) then perhaps that would've been the big console of the mid to late 90's.


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## wiki (Mar 17, 2008)

GH0ST said:
			
		

> When piracy becomes mainstream ... this is not piracy anymore ...


That makes perfect sense.

/sarcasm


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## CockroachMan (Mar 17, 2008)

Well.. true, the R4 made flashcards a lot more popular than they were before.. I bought my M3 Simply when it came out on January 2007, I had to import one cause I couldn't find any over here.. today, you can easily find a R4 card over here.. all my friends that have a DS have one.. 

Now.. about the ways to stop it..


			
				QUOTE said:
			
		

> * Make games approximately the same price around the world, it's only fair, right?
> It's not up to Nintendo to do that, different countries have different taxes over games, the prices over here are absurd, mostly because of the taxes.. you also have to consider the state of the economy in that country, importation costs (not all countries can produce games), etc.. so, it's not really possible to do that..
> 
> 
> ...


Ok, that's something that Nintendo COULD do.. but we all know that most flashcard owners buy flashcards for the free games, not for the homebrew.. hell.. with this popularization of the R4, most flashcards owners don't even know about homebrew! So, this would not really help decrease piracy :/


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## tjas (Mar 17, 2008)

Looking at the sale rates at the moment... No problemo!


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## CockroachMan (Mar 17, 2008)

Hadrian said:
			
		

> I thought it was always mainstream, didn't know anyone (who owned the machines) who didn't have a pirated PC/C64/ZX81/Amiga game in the late 80's early 90's.
> 
> I guess the PSX was the main cause of making it more "mainstream" on consoles, so its been that way for over 10 years and only because its cheaper to copy CD's.  Had the N64 has a CD-ROM (or Nintendo went with Sony for the SNES and then later lost all their characters to Sony) then perhaps that would've been the big console of the mid to late 90's.




NES, Genesis and SNES piracy was already common over here.. I had a lot of NES and Genesis games.. none of them were originals.. by that time, I was too young to understand what was the difference there


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## Vater Unser (Mar 17, 2008)

Nope, an official flashcard would not be a good idea...
Nintendo would most likely not significantly lower the prices of online-distributed games (see Virtual Console), even though the publishing costs would be exponentially lower, so we'd end up paying more for less...
To be more precise, Nintendo could offer the games online for about _half_ the price as regular retail games and still make about the same profit (if not even a bigger one)...Now, who believes they'd actually sell the games for half the price? They simply won't. We'd be the ones getting screwed by not getting a physical copy of the games, and paying even higher prices when compared to the production/publishing costs...

And would it actually stop piracy? Hell no!
Most pirates who still buy Nintendo games occasionally do so because they want a physical copy shining brightly in their vitrine...
Let's be honest...the main reason most of us pirate is because we can only afford few games and still want to play all of them, and we simply don't want to pay up to 60€ ($90) or even £50 (= one fucking hundred US dollars) for crap...
The only way to _stop_ piracy is to offer the games for _free_, which is of course not an option (and not a good idea even from a gamer's point of view)
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




I believe piracy is also a reason why Nintendo is making so many games targeted at older audiences lately - older people have plenty of money to buy the whole Touch Generations collection, they don't question if they're actually getting a good value for their money and don't know how to pirate in the first place...Thus, big bucks go to Nintendo from cheap productions like Wii Fit (does anyone really believe the development costs of Wii Fit can even be compared to those of a fully-fledged next generation game?)

If you ask me, the only way to reduce piracy to a reasonable level is to stop screwing gamers, and of course, come up with a more secure copy protection (which will again be broken eventually if gamers feel like they're getting screwed)


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## Jaejae (Mar 17, 2008)

I get pissed off when people take the moral highground on piracy, just because there is a new cheap cart coming out, piracy isn't some exclusive club, you have no more right to pirate than anyone else, if piracy becomes more mainstream, so be it.
If you are one of the people complaining, why don't you go and buy all your games? 99% of us don't, leaving us with no reason to complain.


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## Psyfira (Mar 17, 2008)

When the R4 made the Electronics bestseller list on Amazon. Yep I think that's when it all went wrong, I even had a colleage ask what one was the other day when it flashed up out of the blue on Amazon's "search failed, buy a completely unrelated bestselling item instead" screen. Scary stuff.





			
				CockroachMan said:
			
		

> QUOTE said:
> 
> 
> 
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You're right, there will still be a price difference and it'd be fine if those were the only factors pushing up the price. But even taking taxes and import duties into consideration they still charge a lot more on top of that on the shelves than they should


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## cory1492 (Mar 17, 2008)

Jaejae said:
			
		

> I get pissed off when people take the moral highground on piracy, just because there is a new cheap cart coming out, piracy isn't some exclusive club, you have no more right to pirate than anyone else, if piracy becomes more mainstream, so be it.
> If you are one of the people complaining, why don't you go and buy all your games? 99% of us don't, leaving us with no reason to complain.


Ah, but I do so long for the days where "wats a... hex editor?" was _never_ a question posed by a flash cart owner


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## NeSchn (Mar 17, 2008)

sinkhead said:
			
		

> Piracy is becoming too mainstream


Agreed 100%.


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## Dunny (Mar 17, 2008)

_long post, sorry_

Nice post, and you've obviously hit the nail pretty much on the head - even if you are 20 years too late.

The R4, yes, has made piracy easy to such an extent that anyone (including his dog) can do it. I myself have an R4 and 2gb cart, stuffed to the gills with commercial content. 

But it's not a revolution in bringing piracy to the masses. Go back... what, 20-25 years? Sinclair Spectrums and Commodore 64s and other 8bits all used cassette tapes for their storage. Games written in BASIC at the time were easy to copy; you just hit BREAK and SAVE the contents of RAM out to your own tape. Games had more and better protection systems in there to stop you doing it, but then the twin-cassette deck (affectionately called the "wog box" round our way) hit the high street, and suddenly _everyone_ had C-90s stuffed with commercial games. Kids swapped them in the playground, scruffy fat blokes sold them at car-boot sales. And yes, everyone in the magazines of the time (as there was no internet, you see) was complaining about the "explosion" in piracy, and how it would all end in tears. 

It never did, and there's no reason to suspect that this will either.

The 16bit computers came along, and we were back to square one - only the elite could break the protection on the new games.Then came along twin-disk copiers, X-Copy pro software etc, and again it was an explosion of piracy and - oh, my god - more dialogue in the popular press about how it would all end in tears.

Then the consoles came along. They enjoyed relatively small amounts of piracy compared to previous systems, as most of them had cartridges which, being physical, were difficult for the home user to copy. Nintendo released the N64 after the success of the NES and SNES, and again, piracy was quite small compared to the storms raging around the Amiga and PC.

CD/DVD copiers came along, safedisc, securom, starforce and others tried to defeat them on PCs, but the internet had arrived in full force and cracks/hacks/downloads reigned supreme. Oh my, but there is still a lot of concern that it will all end in tears. 

Throughout all this, Nintendo has managed, through the use of cartridges to deliver content, to avoid a lot of the piracy. But now that's all ended, and what the other games producers and hardware manufacturers have suffered throughout the 80s and 90s, Nintendo has brought to it's door - and has to deal with it. And deal with it they shall, but the pirates will always be one step ahead. It's the nature of the game, so to speak. 

You can't stop piracy - as long as you're charging for your content, people will find a way to get it for free. It doesn't matter how little you charge, people will not want to pay. Whether or not they can (I probably could, but I'm not going to) is immaterial.

D.


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## NeSchn (Mar 17, 2008)

Great post, The only thing I pirate is DS, because they are easy to get a hold of, and easy to use. Plus it saves me money (I'm only 15) and gives me bragging rights to my friends (W00t!). Now with all these flashcard noobs it makes me want to snap my cards and half and start buying games again. Damn noobs.


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## elfsander (Mar 17, 2008)

NeSchn said:
			
		

> sinkhead said:
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Everyone says that piracy is wrong and that pirates are evil. I think it's evil to ask insane prices for games that aren't worth playing for more than 2 hours.


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## Extreme Coder (Mar 17, 2008)

If it brings nothing new to the table, and the market is already saturated with cheap cards, then IMO it's not a good idea :/


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## Agjsdfd (Mar 17, 2008)

elfsander said:
			
		

> NeSchn said:
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Thats the whole point.
Some ppl play every shit(pirates everything), and some people just wanna try it out before buying.
From all these years, I cannot say I have liked more than 20 NDS/GBA Games.
I own the ones I really liked, such as Pokemon(every single version).
I even have original japanese and german versions of Pokemon Games as collection.
I also own all GBA Zelda games + FFs.

I do avoid any kind of cheating or piracy on the games I like to play.
Anywayz yah:
You do not have to buy flashcarts, if you dont condone piracy.
But anywayz.. as said only for testing purposes or Homebrews.


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## DarkUli (Mar 17, 2008)

elfsander said:
			
		

> Everyone says that piracy is wrong and that pirates are evil. I think it's evil to ask insane prices for games that aren't worth playing for more than 2 hours.



This man speaks the truth.  
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




I'd buy my games as well if I was a bit better financially (If the whole goddamn country was better financially) and if most of them were actually good.


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## scubersteve (Mar 17, 2008)

Reading this article made me think about Pacific Mall.
It's a mildly-famous asian mall in markham (a little east of Toronto).
They sell everything related to flashcarts for tons of profit.
DSTT = $60
Because of this mall, Toronto is very piratey (they sell other pirated things, among flashcarts).
Fortunately, the vendors are constantly being raided by the cops, and some people are in millions of dollars of debt.
That's what you get for making pirating mainstream.


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## peppers (Mar 17, 2008)

I do not use the devices for piracy but the more people who do the more likley Nintendo or outhers will jam a potato in my flash pipe. For this reason I would be happyer if these devices needed complex soldering ability.


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## xJonny (Mar 17, 2008)

It's already easy enough for any Tom, Dick or Harry to play pirated games on a flashcart (*ahem* R4 *cough* *splutter*) so, I don't think it's helping too many people who are into this scene as it were.


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## cheesyPOOF5 (Mar 17, 2008)

*sigh*
Piracy is SUPPOSED to be a little harder, a little more inconvenient. DS piracy has gotten way too popular >_>


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## juggernaut911 (Mar 17, 2008)

EDIT: sorry, wrong thread!! plz delete this!


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## GH0ST (Mar 18, 2008)

"If creativity is a field, copyright is the fence." John Oswald


"The question of copyright promises to be the Vietnam of the Net". Mitch Kapor


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## cruddybuddy (Mar 18, 2008)

Amazing, I was just thinking about this today. Basically, if everyone was a pirate, then EVERY software company would go out of business and all we would have left is homebrew. I find it amazing when people tell all their friend about the R4 or WiiKey or whatever. If you have a good thing going, just keep it to yourself. This life raft can hold only so many people. If we keep helping people on board, we're all sunk.


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## Unchi-san (Mar 18, 2008)

cruddybuddy said:
			
		

> Amazing, I was just thinking about this today. Basically, if everyone was a pirate, then EVERY software company would go out of business and all we would have left is homebrew. I find it amazing when people tell all their friend about the R4 or WiiKey or whatever. If you have a good thing going, just keep it to yourself. This life raft can hold only so many people. If we keep helping people on board, we're all sunk.



damn now I know why your user name is "cruddybuddy" lol


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## Renegade_R (Mar 18, 2008)

cruddybuddy said:
			
		

> Amazing, I was just thinking about this today. Basically, if everyone was a pirate, then EVERY software company would go out of business and all we would have left is homebrew. I find it amazing when people tell all their friend about the R4 or WiiKey or whatever. If you have a good thing going, just keep it to yourself. This life raft can hold only so many people. If we keep helping people on board, we're all sunk.


We're sunk already.  Just wait and see what happens with Nintendo's next handheld system.  Its gonna be a REAL bitch to pirate.


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## cruddybuddy (Mar 18, 2008)

Renegade_R said:
			
		

> cruddybuddy said:
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Well good, I hope it is. Then we can weed out the casual pirates so those of us willing to brave the storm can sail on.


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## Armadillo (Mar 18, 2008)

I don't see next nintendo system being hard to pirate. I reckon the days of just getting a flash card and you are ready to go being gone , but hard to pirate , I just don't see. All they can really do is add more security , at most I see a new handheld from them needing a mod chip like most of the home consoles do , which is hardly the end of world. Just a little bit more effort.


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## TrolleyDave (Mar 18, 2008)

Renegade_R said:
			
		

> cruddybuddy said:
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Any cartridge based system will be easy to pirate, Nintendo have been suffering from piracy/backup units since the NES.  There was a unit called the Turbo Venus or something similar that was like a WildCard for the NES, I think it was even made by Bung, that sat in the cartridge port and you hooked up a 3.5" floppy to it.  Piracy is big money so there's always a company out there looking to create the next chip or flashcart.

Anti-piracy measures don't usually stop people either, there's been some damned good ones out there but there's always a cracker out their wanting to prove their smarter than the copy protection people.  Hell, Microsoft spent an absolute fortune on XBox360 security and it was cracked pretty damned fast.


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## Dirtie (Mar 18, 2008)

Jaejae said:
			
		

> I get pissed off when people take the moral highground on piracy, just because there is a new cheap cart coming out, piracy isn't some exclusive club, you have no more right to pirate than anyone else, if piracy becomes more mainstream, so be it.
> If you are one of the people complaining, why don't you go and buy all your games? 99% of us don't, leaving us with no reason to complain.


The thing is, piracy in the past took investment, effort and understanding (often quite significant amounts) to be able to achieve the ability to play games for free. Nowadays anyone with any semblance of a brain has instant access to it for a cheap price.

However, this in itself is the natural progression, which I accept as being inevitable (if only not to be hypocritical) - the unfortunate side-effect (more likely the problem) being the fact that it tends to attract a generation of clueless people that do not realize that having the ability to pirate is a privilege, that nothing is deserved, that it doesn't matter if the game is crappy, and that circumstances do not give you any more right than anyone else (ie. none). Technical discussion has also gradually declined unless you happen to be looking in the right places.

From Nintendo's standpoint: the exact same thing happened when mp3s became freely and easily available (Napster was the turning point then, just as the R4 is here). The record companies failed to capitalize on new technologies and adopt new pricing/distribution methods, having the effect of increasing the amount of mp3 piracy - the one thing they were trying to stop. Read more about it here (excellent article).
Nintendo needs to recognize that the same pattern is occurring here, and jump in as soon as possible by going with the flow, not against it.


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## Dirtie (Mar 18, 2008)

cory1492 said:
			
		

> Ah, but I do so long for the days where "wats a... hex editor?" was _never_ a question posed by a flash cart owner


^This 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




Edit: Sorry, merge these posts if you want.


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## JKR Firefox (Mar 18, 2008)

Dirtie said:
			
		

> Jaejae said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Oh god Dirtie, I miss Oink so much 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




That article is spot on when it comes to this and it's all up to Nintendo now on how this all plays out.  Hopefully they won't start launching lawsuits left and right like the RIAA.


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## GH0ST (Mar 18, 2008)

the times they are changing ... but they are cycling also...


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## stivsama (Mar 18, 2008)

I tried to warn tempers even when it was still the gba scene, to be discrete and subtle about roms so as not to attract too much attention.

The one time I suggested this, I was promptly shut down because "I don't know what I was talking about." What a n00b.


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## OSW (Mar 18, 2008)

cruddybuddy said:
			
		

> Well good, I hope it is. Then we can weed out the casual pirates so those of us willing to brave the storm can sail on.


good call, good call.


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## SkH (Mar 18, 2008)

Yeah... too mainstream... everybody uses flashcards. And about the Posting in the Official Nintendo forums... sigh... just look at that how dumb the topic poster is... I'm go mad when I see one like this: http://techforums.nintendo.com/nins/board/...;thread.id=1076


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## Sinkhead (Mar 18, 2008)

SkH said:
			
		

> Yeah... too mainstream... everybody uses flashcards. And about the Posting in the Official Nintendo forums... sigh... just look at that how dumb the topic poster is... I'm go mad when I see one like this: http://techforums.nintendo.com/nins/board/...;thread.id=1076


It almost sounds like he doesn't know any different. I actually think the poor thing doesn't realize that a flashcart isn't the norm.

I don't even know what to say.


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## MarcoZ (Mar 18, 2008)

Woah. Piracy is *always* been mainstream. Since the PS1 days. 
Italian here: my PS1 had a modchip inside it, not that it was wanted, they just stuck that thing inside. They told me nothing. And it was a rather big store! Then, when the laser failed on me (2 fucking times, damn PS1) the second time they left a copied game inside the drive. Like it was a gift or something, lol.
EDIT: No wait, rewind to 1982. Commodore 64 is "TEH SHIT" in italy, and original games DO NOT EVEN EXIST. Yes, i'm not exagerating or something. Everything that you can find on tape and\or in floppy is pirated. Some of them even have a totally unofficial italian translation + trainers, etc.
I personally had NO original program, except for C64 Desk or something like that and a game, both on tape.


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## SkankyYankee (Mar 18, 2008)

I think its just a case of change and adapt. Remember when the N64 game shark was out? i remember buying 4 of them because Nintendo kept putting blocks on the cheats. Nintendo needs a way to legitimately support the homebrew community or else is its the same old song. Its all digital, so no matter what they come up with, theres going to be a chip or a bypass of some sort. and eventually the game media gets circumvented too.


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## jalaneme (Mar 18, 2008)

DarkUli said:
			
		

> I'd buy my games as well if I was a bit better financially (If the whole goddamn country was better financially) and if most of them were actually good.



same here, i don't currently work so i can't afford it, i do buy games that i highly enjoy though.


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## azotyp (Mar 18, 2008)

I cannot affort games either but if I had lot of money and maybe own room in the house 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





 I'd rather would buy x box 360  and original games for it . Portable console is for me a way to play on only place that I have in my room (my sofa 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 ).


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## cutterjohn (Mar 18, 2008)

Nice article.

Official homebrew:  I was sorting of hoping that with DSVision that Nintendo WOULD officially support homebrew development, and possibly go so far as to have competitions much like the various unofficial ones held by various sites.  It'd also be nice if they offered to SELL some of the better homebrew and/or supported a shareware type of thing.  We'd likely see ALOT more games.  And alot of good games, but probably also more shovelware as the barrier to official entry was further lowered, and more puzzle/casual games for the same reason.

Hopefully they might still do this for the DS and DSVision, along with releasing a new handheld some years from now hopefuly with MUCH more CPU power and such support from the start.


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## xJonny (Mar 18, 2008)

Good article, I totally agree with you - anyone can pirate DS games with little knowledge of computers.


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## Vater Unser (Mar 20, 2008)

It has once again been proved that piracy is a good thing


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## Cermage (Mar 20, 2008)

so true. here in aus, DSL's go on sale for 200, usually they are 220. PSP is 280. Games for PSP are usually around 60-80. games for nds are usually 40-80. apparently Australia has one of the largest Pirating scenes in the world, they should look at how pricey everything else is first. The only way most people in aus can game and live their own lives is through piracy.

proof of this is GTA4 coming out in Aus, its 120, the collectors edition is 150. =="


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## m3rox (Mar 20, 2008)

I think piracy has become too commercial, and way too easy.


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## Duke_Jay (Mar 20, 2008)

Why do some people always act like piracy should be to an "exclusive" group of people. (always including theirself in that group)


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## Bob Evil (Mar 20, 2008)

Cheaper anything ... DVDs, CDs, games, whatever ... equals less piracy.

Also, piracy is not a rampants as some people might lead you to believe.

An independent study showed that only 21% of gamers play pirate games, and only a tiny fraction of that 21% didn't buy some originals ... most pirates own some originals ... it really is the minority that give nothing back to the creators, in some way.

So, whilst it is easier and more commerical now, than it has ever been, it is still a minority that pirate.


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## TLSpartan (Mar 20, 2008)

thebobevil said:
			
		

> Cheaper anything ... DVDs, CDs, games, whatever ... equals less piracy.
> 
> Also, piracy is not a rampants as some people might lead you to believe.
> 
> ...



21% is alot of money that could have been made(I thought it was much lower)


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## ItsMetaKnight (Mar 20, 2008)

wtf at 21%. i was thinking it would be like 5%


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## rest0re (Mar 20, 2008)

just for sinkhead: well if you think piracy is too public, who is to blame ? sites like gbatemp.net ofcourse.
lol.


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## Sinkhead (Mar 20, 2008)

rest0re said:
			
		

> just for sinkhead: well if you think piracy is too public, who is to blame ? sites like gbatemp.net ofcourse.
> lol.


Please read the 'foreword' section of my article


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## Blauhasenpopo (Mar 20, 2008)

Hello There....

I'm 33 and i get my first PC as i was ten or twelve.....if i look back in time...i hadn't have any Originals at this time....my father brought me a copy of Doom(First Game),Wolfenstein 3D and other Games(like all the SIERRA Stuff and Lucasfilm Games)....all my Friends had Copies of there Amiga 500 games.....ATARI ST's,Schneider CPC'sand earlier in Time i get my first Music Tapes from Radio Broadcasting Stations(Copying the Braodcasting to my Music Cassette by hitting the REC-Tab on my Cassette player....Easy? Wasn't it?)

As i think and say, Piracy made the Scene(Videogame and Pc Games) gone and grown bigger....in the end of the 80's there were not really much Locations were you could have bought some Original games for your Hardware...so the Community takes copies of Games to have fun.... 

So in these Years(Times)...many more people are playing Games than in the earlier 80's...so the piracy is grown with it's Community....and many of the people who came in the Community in the last two or four years(i only mean the Console-Community) don't have the knowledge and intensity in this Game Stuff and Quality of Games,they look at the Front Cover,they look at the Back-Cover and then by the Game,they didn't have read the Test in a Videogame Magazine,they didn't know about the Publisher,they didn't know about the Artists behind the scenes,they know (most) nothing especially the Cover and the Text on it......

So these People give the money to Nintendo,Sony and Microsoft....and these are the People the industry would like to have not the Cracks and the Pirates,because they buy a game and have bought S*** and they like it because they didn't know how Good a Game can be...

Piracy was and is a content of the Scene.....think about the Brains behind the big Game Development Industry....They released there first Games on Copies and spread it out in the world....as i wrote before: In the 80's my whole Games were Copies!

I lost the fun in games at 14 or 15(girls and drinking!) until the XBOX came out...(until this Time there were no Originals in my Home),now I own over 100 Original Games for the XBOX,over 30 for PS2,over 10 for Gamecube,over 10 for DS and at last 5 for Gameboy Micro(GBA-Games) and i own a lot of Rom*....and i have hacked my XBOX and my Gameboy Micro and my DS....i take a look at the Games and i buy the best of them as an Original.....and as i think the most people at this site do it like me....

When i bought my XBOX i ordered two Videogame-Magazines and read them monthly,because i wantedto know what i bought and what i buy in the future...this is how i act.


Sure,it's no legal what we're doing,but we are the people who have made the Microsoft's and Sony's and Nintendo's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


DER STEN


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## Bob Evil (Mar 20, 2008)

ItsMetaKnight said:
			
		

> wtf at 21%. i was thinking it would be like 5%



Yeah, but out of those 21%, only about 5% play nothing but priate copies ... the rest actually buy some games.


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## Psyfira (Mar 20, 2008)

Dirtie said:
			
		

> From Nintendo's standpoint: the exact same thing happened when mp3s became freely and easily available (Napster was the turning point then, just as the R4 is here). The record companies failed to capitalize on new technologies and adopt new pricing/distribution methods, having the effect of increasing the amount of mp3 piracy - the one thing they were trying to stop. Read more about it here (excellent article).
> Nintendo needs to recognize that the same pattern is occurring here, and jump in as soon as possible by going with the flow, not against it.


Where's that applause emoticon when you need it? 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 I think you've hit it right on the head there. By switching to online distribution the price of singles dropped drastically in the UK (£3.99 down to 70p), which was more than enough to tempt the user base back into paying for content despite the fact they can still obtain it for free. And everyone loves instant access from your own home


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## Dylan (Mar 20, 2008)

nintendo have spies everywhere stop giving them ideas lol


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## arctic_flame (Mar 20, 2008)

Psyfira said:
			
		

> ...And everyone loves instant access from your own home



That's a big deal. I buy games from steam and have 2 VC games because of the instant delivery.


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## keeganator (Mar 20, 2008)

Hello, I also agree that too many people know how to pirate games.
I have been pirating games since I was 10. (almost 15 now so thats about 5 years)
Back then I was just getting GBA/SNES games and playing them on emulators and downloading PS1 games and burning them.
Then I found a thing on eBay called a "Flash Advance Linker" that would let me play these games on my real GBA, I didn't know much about flashcarts then, so I bought it.
It never came so I had to get my money back.

Then when I was about 12 and a half, I found out about a flashcart called "SuperCard". I bought one of these off bamboogaming.com for about $90 including the SuperKey.

That was when it was hard to find flashcarts, Now I can go to my local market on Sundays to pick up a nice $30 R4.

I still pirate games, I didn't get my Wii until a modchip was out for it, because the games are too expensive.


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## VatoLoco (Mar 20, 2008)

ive got me and my fam to supply games for(4 people)...theres no way im shelling out 30$ times 4 over and over again. especially when there is so much crap shovelware out there


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## Saylient_Dreams (Mar 20, 2008)

Whole reason I first bought a flash cart at first was just to demo out games, that was probably what a lot of people thought of at first, but end up not following through. I didn't follow through on that much. If there's a game I really want, I'll try it first, then buy it. Before I had a cart, it was a pain in the ass buying a game you heard good things about then finding out that you yourself hated that game and how it played even if others praised it. Right now I'm planning on Sega Superstars Tennis (I like the game and nostalgia from it). Right now with all the roms I have dled, I would have only kept a handful, and that handful I actually went out and bought it. 
Yeah I think since the R4 came out piracy is a huge thing now. I know a buncha people who went out and bought R4s, a lot of people that don't even know how to use the internet enough to figure out how to use the thing, they just bought it because they saw someone else with it. I think the problem with piracy being so big is its in the media light now. I think I've seen a couple blog's mentioning the R4 then a buncha R4 fanboys commenting on that same blog, and the number of comments would exceed many other articles on the blogs. Heck I've even seen it advertised on ign.com. If this gets any bigger in the media, companies might actually start listening more towards piracy and start making it harder to pirate.
Right now it's so easy, but Nintendo might actually do something with their next generation, maybe even going as far as doing what Microsoft does, activation. Imagine having to activate every game you buy. Lots of little game companies do these now don't they? I'm sure someone could circumvent future security measures, but it'll just get tougher and tougher, and companies who lose too much would just go out of business, then there would be nothing to really pirate anymore, thus everyone in the end would lose. 
Back to my first statement, where a lot of people (before probably) bought a cart to demo a game and see how it plays to go out and buy it. Maybe if Nintendo offered a damn demo for every game, then maybe that would help. I know if I were able to demo games for free before hand, I probably would have never have bought this flash cart, because I would never had really thought about it. Also maybe since it looks like a lot of games will just be downloaded in the future, instead of a fee per user, just make the game able to be installed like 4 times per game, like when you buy Office you can install it on 3 computers in your house.
Just my opinion on the topic.


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## Supah Eirian (Mar 21, 2008)

SkH said:
			
		

> Yeah... too mainstream... everybody uses flashcards. And about the Posting in the Official Nintendo forums... sigh... just look at that how dumb the topic poster is... I'm go mad when I see one like this: http://techforums.nintendo.com/nins/board/...;thread.id=1076



That's effin hillarious.

Yes I am a noob.  Yes I own an R4.  But at least I don't go to Nintendo.com to learn how to use it.  That's like telling the police the PIN isn't working for the ATM card you just stole...

I don't know why everyone is so anti-noobs.  I want to learn and am willing to put in some work, forgive me for asking a few questions, but we all started sometime, right?


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## DarkUli (Mar 21, 2008)

ikenoi said:
			
		

> SkH said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Yes we did, *newbie*.
Noob's the term for idiots.

If you have questions, don't ask them, use the search function


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## DarkSoulFlame (Mar 21, 2008)

That nintendo thing is messed up. Who in their right mind would do such a thing?


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## cupajoe (Mar 22, 2008)

thaigrocer said:
			
		

> I'm guessing nintendo is going to move to the playing field of online distribution with a variety of anti-piracy tools in their next handheld. I hope they support the homebrew scene while they're at it.


Eventually most consoles will move to digital distribution. It really is the best solution to all of the problems stated in this thread. It quiets the gripes of expenses, release timing, game amounts, and cartridge costs. We have seen the music industry move to digital distribution... Now it's time for video games to do the same.


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## Bob Evil (Mar 22, 2008)

Even with digital distribution, there will be localization issues ... look at Live Marketplace, the PlayStation Store, the Wii Shopping Channel & iTunes ... they could all carry all titles, in all regions, at once ... but they don't.

Some regions get exclusive content, some regions get content, but not until much, much later on ... and then there are the price discrepancies ... iTunes is cheaper in the US, for example ... as is the PlayStation Store


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## Defiance (Mar 28, 2008)

I kinda hope Nintendo's next handheld will have improved security so you would have to solder a modchip on it, I hope they do not use cartridges anymore...  There would be too many pirates.

Hopefully I will learn how to solder then, the internet can only take me so far..


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## mikagami (Mar 29, 2008)

Yes, it's such a shame!  I wish piracy was a "special club" where only the "cool kids" could pirate!


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## Bruinbaard (Mar 29, 2008)

This stuff reminds me of the days that every single PS/PS2 was modded.
Everyone I knew who had a PS/PS2 modded it and started burning dvd's.
Also just small children and stuff whch heard it from their dad or uncle or something.


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## arctic_flame (Mar 29, 2008)

Nin10doFan said:
			
		

> I kinda hope Nintendo's next handheld will have improved security so you would have to solder a modchip on it



Didn't stop the Wii. All of the Wiikey update whiners don't even know where it's attached to, they got it installed buy someone else.


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## Bob Evil (Mar 29, 2008)

Piracy will never be stopped, only delayed.


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## misanthrope (Mar 29, 2008)

The sky is not falling, no matter what video game companies lead you to think, they are doing more money than ever before, all gaming platforms are increasing in their overall sales each year and the industry its growing more than ever. Even the PC, the most widely pirate gaming platform by far for literally decades its still growing and becoming a bigger business each year.

The "increase" in piracy its only there cause of the increase of overall popularity in the gaming industry and thats about it, you wont find any serious and fair market study that will tell you otherwise. If Nintendo and other gaming companies really want to encourage gaming purchases they can start by being fair on their releases and stop their chauvinistic policies of "Japan gets everything, Europe gets whatever garbage we decide 10 months later". Of course they would never face up to that fact and will try to blame it on piracy or the "differences" in the markets and what not.

Second they already have good models in place if they want to encourage sales while being accessible and less expensive: Episodic downloadable content its a reality for 2 of the 3 mayor consoles and even Nintendo could do it for the DS with an official flash memory card for the DS. In game advertising and downloadable episodes are fine and the security is often good enough that the rewards of trying to get around it are not worth it when you can just pay $5 and be done with it for example. 

People always assume being cheap is the only reason to pirate games, but this is a mistake: people who pirate games have been proved time and time again to buy even more original games than people who never pirate anything. Its just convenience, I won't sit around waiting for Nintendo to localize the games I wanna play if some guys on the net can patch the rom and release it, its a simple as that sometimes.


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## santorix10 (Mar 29, 2008)

I'd have to agree, it's getting a bit out of hand. People just don't want to figure out stuff on their own. They just go on forums, and bump their way to an answer. I do feel responsible for getting some more clueless people into piracy, but at least they figured out what to do on their own. (Though if you were to ask them if they trimmed their ROMs, they would have no clue.) I'd have to estimate that in my Middle/High School there had to have been less than five people who actually had the hardware to pirate on a handheld, and less than twenty that could pirate on an actual console. But, in Senior year, I bought an M3 perfect SD, and thus, everybody bought R4s and it just got nuts. (Though, I was mad coolerer because I had a l33t Slot-2 card. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 ) I popped around a few forums in the good ole 2k3, but I never got into the whole scene. I really wish I did, though.


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## tinymonkeyt (Mar 31, 2008)

:\
nintendos gonna figure out a way to catch us and prevent us from playing the game eventually..


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## WildToushi (Feb 6, 2010)

I am terribly sorry to necro this thread, but a friend of mine recently brought this post to my attention and how it mentioned me.  At first, I was stunned that anyone on GBAtemp saw that old R4 vid I did, but after my initial reaction, I felt I owed you all a major apology.

I want to apologize for any potential flack or the like GBAtemp may have gotten for my bullshit way back then, and I also wish to apologize for putting a negative light on GBAtemp.

Hell, let's all have a laugh now... I have my entire DS collection on an M3, even after I bitched about the R4.  I'm such a hypocrite, huh?

Once again, sorry to necro, but I felt an apology wouldn't be as fitting if I didn't post it in a thread that mentioned my bullshit.  Sorry, guys.


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## Hop2089 (Feb 7, 2010)

I do agree that the cost of games are too high in Japan and Europe not so much in North America.

The average cost of DS and PSP games have skyrocketed in Japan

2006-2008

PSP: 5040 yen
DS: 4890 yen

2009

PSP: 5490-5890 yen
DS: 5490 yen (5890 for high end games from big franchises and Idolmaster went even further at 6220 yen)


2010

PSP: 6490 yen (yes nearly $70 US for a PSP game and this is becoming more commonplace now)
DS: 5890 yen for most games and 6490 for games with heavy advertising and high end franchises such as Idolmaster.


In Europe depending on the country you'll be shelling $50-$70 for games

My suggestion on Japanese games is if there will be a digital download option wait for because there's a limit on how much they can cost (5000 yen).  Also, get the Asia version if you want the UMD or it's UMD only since it's the Japanese version with different packaging and the cost is reduced by $10 US.

I can see why piracy is so bad in Japan, they keep jacking up the price every year or two, heck I remember PS1 games from Japan costing 3240 yen and with a bit of 2000's inflation games should be between 3990-4500 yen max.  This price range would affordable for most Japanese.


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## Uncle FEFL (Feb 11, 2010)

Driving to my local gamestore isn't a problem (ten minutes away, luckily). Money is my problem. My mom works two jobs and supports six people the best she can. I have no games to play. The only reason why I was able to buy ST is because my little bro had a $20 gift card to Walmart, and she put $10 in. I put in $4. That's why I need a job. I can't just want it, lol. For me, and others like me, it's a necessity. There's no other way to buy games unless I get a job. Or we wait for our tax refund. But that's about it. It also doesn't help when I get my DSLite stolen along with six plus games (I can't remember, it was a couple years ago. Though, my DSLite was stolen last year).


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## updowners (Feb 11, 2010)

.


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## Magoo222 (Feb 11, 2010)

Uncle FEFL said:
			
		

> Driving to my local gamestore isn't a problem (ten minutes away, luckily). Money is my problem. My mom works two jobs and supports six people the best she can. I have no games to play. The only reason why I was able to buy ST is because my little bro had a $20 gift card to Walmart, and she put $10 in. I put in $4. That's why I need a job. I can't just want it, lol. For me, and others like me, it's a necessity. There's no other way to buy games unless I get a job. Or we wait for our tax refund. But that's about it. It also doesn't help when I get my DSLite stolen along with six plus games (I can't remember, it was a couple years ago. Though, my DSLite was stolen last year).


I know where you're coming from, I wanted to buy a Veyron but couldn't afford so I stole one.  Actually, I'm lying.  (And before anyone considers it, we've all seen the *hilarious* picture showing that piracy is copyright infringement and not theft, so don't worry about dragging that one out again)

The biggest problem with piracy is how accepted is has become, it's the elephant in the room (or on the internet).  Everyone complains about it, but how many people are willing to do something about it?  How many people on this site would willingly stop pirating games for 6 months?  

Throughout the whole thread people complain that the price of games has gotten too high, so they're forced to pirate.  No you're not.  If you can't afford games, you don't get games.  It's that simple.  Gaming isn't a right, it's a luxury.

If you're too young to get a job and can't afford games - No Games
If you have a family to support and can't afford games - No Games
If you're a student and can't afford games - No Games
If you live in a country shafted by the industry and can't afford games - No Games
If you're a chronic alcoholic and can't afford games - No Games

Are you starting to see a pattern here?

Or to put the argument a different way, why should single, hard-working males and females support the entire industry whilst the leeches try their hardest to bleed it dry?


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## Deleted-119707 (Feb 11, 2010)

sdfsdfsdfsdf


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## emigre (Feb 11, 2010)

nicky041192 said:
			
		

> great post, i respect everyones views.
> 
> i was thinking, is lending out your favourite cds so they can listen to it and put it on their music player count as piracy? since they didnt buy it. they just borrowed it and put it on their music player.
> its the same as lending out your favourite dvds.



I think the situation you described is copyright infringement. Still illegal but I wouldn't say it's unethical considering the music was purchased.

I can't really say if piracy is too mainstream from my personal experience. Most people I've spoken to about piracy don't arn't that informed about how  to pirate. I mean they can pirate music but only by torrent sites; they don't know much about direct downloads. Whilst regarding video games, I've only met one person who knew about flashcarts whilst others were naive. However on the wider scope, piracy is more accessable I remember my english lit eacher who was in his mid 50s telling us how he got a documentary off limewire once. Also looks at the price of flashcarts for example, the old GBA carts would cost a good few dabloons now you can get a pretty good cart for less than $25.

I'll be honest I pirate becasue I can. Wheter it be films, music or games. I could try to legitamise it by saying I'm a poor student (which I am). I was fortunate to find out about how to pirate and have the means to pirate so I do it. Saying that I wouldn't say I'm serial pirate, I don't have 1TB of pirated goodies. But I also buy films, music and games. I spent £40 on a Joy Division box set and pre-ordered Star Ocean for the PS3 so I still contribute to the industry. Particulary if I know an artist or a company are independent, for example I downloaded music by an artist on an independent label. I enjoyed it, so I bought it. If I hadn't pirated it then the artist and record label would have never got my money. Admittidly not everyone share my ethos. But at least I'm honest, I'm no fucking angel.

However I do think the big companies need to be moreopen minded in thier futures. The CD is going to die and though legal MP3 downloads are doing well,; illegal downloads are still dominating. One solution is to give the music away for free on the net and have artists and thier companies make money via touring and merchandise. My favourite band, the Manic Street Preachers have made fuck all with their last three albums despite being a moderatly successful band. Instead they've made their money by touring here and there.


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## Shakraka (Feb 12, 2010)

.


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## Alato (Feb 12, 2010)

Bleh, I agree.

I remember when I first was reading about different flash carts. It wasn't the easiest bit of information to find, but I was researching after seeing links, leading to links.
Then I remember deciding whether to buy the new M3 Simply or the M3 Perfect. It was 50$ versus 100$, and then I ended up going for the cheaper one(turned out being a much better choice for me in the end).
And of course every kid with a gameboy or the sort dreams up some game that you could just play almost any game on, like you could just select from a list. And there I had it. As well as movies and music on DS, plus the great homebrew scene I found myself in.
Since I got my first flash card, they've grown very much in popularity, and so many people have heard of the R4 now. And it's kinda sad, because it takes away charm from so much. The majority who have heard of the 'R4' probably know nothing about homebrew, and simply want free games with hardly knowing how to operate a computer.

I'm by no means wealthy at all since it's hard to find a job before 16(now I can though)- so I decided to sell a couple flash cards. I've always been hesitant in selling though, for the sake that the popularity of them will grow that much more- Seems although it has regardless of me selling much.

It's certainly a hypocritical thing to say on my part, but it's sad. I wish it was as unpopular and uncommon to find out about as it used to be. Because then the people who actually do find out about these cards are the ones who would appreciate them so much more.

-And didn't realize how old this thread was.


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## agentgamma (Feb 14, 2010)

Alato said:
			
		

> Since I got my first flash card, they've grown very much in popularity, and so many people have heard of the R4 now. And it's kinda sad, because it takes away charm from so much. The majority who have heard of the 'R4' probably know nothing about homebrew, and simply want free games with hardly knowing how to operate a computer.


I agree with this completely. I got an R4 back before it was mainstream and part of the fun was being in the minority.
Now being in the minority is _not_ having a flashcart, since everyone has their _R4i Gold Hyper Edition_ now, or some other fake that they probably paid some ridiculous amount for.


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## Tonitonichopchop (Feb 14, 2010)

In Israel (Where I live) it costs 300 sheckels to buy a ds game, which is roughly $65-$70. I lived in the US where they're only $35 at the most so I don't plan on buying games here anytime soon. It's cheaper to import, or even cheaper so to pirate.


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