Hacking It's all getting too easy...

[4saken]

I'm sure there is some kind of law that prohibits the sale of stuff like this. I don't know too much about law, but you could get caught up with Nintendo if you take the wrong move

 

[suppachipmunk]

That's what I am scared of...

I heard Nintendo has recently went after some internet companies for selling the Wiikey and other such Wii mods. I am surprised that they havent come after people selling chips for the Gamecube and flashcarts for the DS.

 

[adgloride]

I don't think it is fair to say that. Because we are all pirating games, it makes honest people pay more for games. Also, I don't think they are making "massive profits". It is terrible, you can't just say other people buying games will cover for the people pirating games. Especially at this point. Before I could have said, I was the only one with a flash cart in school, the rest will probably cover for me. But when so many people in this thread claim to know tons of people with flash carts, it becomes a major problem.

Piracy or no Piracy nintendo would charge the same for the games. Just look back at the Nes, Snes, Megadrive/Genesis etc... They wanted a fortune for the cartridges and at the time they couldn't be copied. The gaming companies have been using the piracy argument since the days of the Commodore 64 to keep the prices high. The best example is the Gamecube, the games couldn't be copied on that for ages, but the games were the same price as the Xbox and PS2 for a watered down game because of the small discs.

 

[111111111]

Piracy or no Piracy nintendo would charge the same for the games. Just look back at the Nes, Snes, Megadrive/Genesis etc... They wanted a fortune for the cartridges and at the time they couldn't be copied.

Snes/megadrive games could be copied quite early on.

The snes especially had loads of copyboxes for it.

 

[jalaneme]

It looks like more people pirate. But people do not know where to get the DS roms from or download anything illegal off the internet. Someone must be buying the games or the games companies would stop making them. The massive profits they make by overpricing the games, is enough to easily cover the pirate factor.

DS games are overpriced enough already, they are priced the same as a console game FFS.

 

[Sil3n7]

Its odd that alot of your guy's friends and people at school use flash carts. Me and my 11 year old brother are the only ones out of our whole school who use flashcarts.

 

[Mewgia]

Even at this point, there is nobody I know with a flashcart. One of my friends is getting one soon, but I'll try to make sure that he keeps quite about it. that way, nobody else knows...

And I am never going to give one to my sister and brother, they'd blab about it to their friends my parents and then I'd be bombarded with questions about it.


Would you consider that selfishness?

I was pretty tight about it too; all the people who got R4s only because they were jealous make me sad

I dunno, it might be selfishness. I just don't want noobs who have no idea what they're talking about getting into the piracy scene.

 

[outphase]

It looks like more people pirate. But people do not know where to get the DS roms from or download anything illegal off the internet. Someone must be buying the games or the games companies would stop making them. The massive profits they make by overpricing the games, is enough to easily cover the pirate factor.


DS games are overpriced enough already, they are priced the same as a console game FFS.

I don't know about you, but in the US $30 != $50

 

[Mars]

Its odd that alot of your guy's friends and people at school use flash carts. Me and my 11 year old brother are the only ones out of our whole school who use flashcarts.

Same here. I'm the only person who has an R4 in my school or even knows about it.

EDIT: Typos

 

[4saken]

I don't know about you, but in the US $30 != $50

30 USD is like 37 AUD. Our dollar has been appreciating (possibly yours going down >_>)

 

[Harsky]

Piracy got easier as internet got faster in my opinion.

I always wanted to try out PSX games and in the days of dial up, it would go like,

Find someone to chip
Pay for copied games
Play
Find any problems with the game you're trying to run, you're up a creek without a paddle.

I got my hands on one of the old fashioned SNES copier devices and even with the help of someone on GBAtemp, I still had problems trying to get it to run. Imagine if I paid for it in the 90's. I'd be screwed.

Anyways, it's a shame that the old GBA flashcarts are still horribly expensive compared to the SD card solutions.

 

[jalaneme]

It looks like more people pirate. But people do not know where to get the DS roms from or download anything illegal off the internet. Someone must be buying the games or the games companies would stop making them. The massive profits they make by overpricing the games, is enough to easily cover the pirate factor.


DS games are overpriced enough already, they are priced the same as a console game FFS.

I don't know about you, but in the US $30 != $50

nope, when i convert the british pounds ammount into US dollars it's $60, we pay twice as much as you do for DS games.

 

[jalaneme]

Anyways, it's a shame that the old GBA flashcarts are still horribly expensive compared to the SD card solutions.

yeah tell me about it, the EZflash III still goes for about $100

http://www.modchipman.com/gba-ezflash-iii-...gbit-p-644.html

no scratch that, make that $200

 

[adgloride]

Every console I own is modded. Xbox (3 of them), xbox 360, ps2, gamecube, DS, PSP the list goes on. I do buy originals but the reasons I pirate the games are to see what the games like (So I'm not spending money on shit), So I can get the game at the same time as the USA (Not waiting 6 months for a DS or Wii game to be released in the UK), homebrew purposes so I can play old games using emulators. The reason I have 3 xboxs is for XBMC so I can watch movies on my TV in most rooms of my house.

 

[Veho]

Is it getting too easy? Imagine a world without GBATEMP. First, n00bz would agonize for months over what card to get. Then they wouldn't know what memory card to use. Then they would have outdated software. Then, imagine all the "Pokemon won't save", "download play won't download nor play", "how I mine for fish" questions that would go unanswered if it weren't for GBATEMP, and all the little pirate wannabes sitting at home unable to run their games, still trying to run GBA games off an M3 Simply.

Then, of course, there would be the "advice from friends", and all the people who try to use advice they heard somewhere, without realizing the "friend" has a completely different flashcard, and that his "tips 'n' tricks" don't actually work on their particular card. Not to mention that "patching" alone, and especially "game-specific patching" is rocket science to many.

And, of course, the age-old question: "whar R teh romz lol"
Finding them isn't such a problem for hardened pirates like us (arrrr!), but it can stop a n00b dead in his tracks for months.

Easy? Not really, no.


On the other hand, downloading movies is easy. Do you see less movies being made because people are downloading too much? No.

Pirating PC games is much, much easier than pirating DS games, but do you see less games being made? No. Because for every downloader (it is not the piracy you read about in papers) out there there is a hundred people who actually buy the thing.


It's not too easy. It's just about the right amount to keep them on their toes.

 

[xalphax]

i recommended getting an R4 to a friend, i showed him the deal with the 1gb microsd and showed him awesome homebrew like moonshell and comicbookds
and so on

but he still does not want one

i think its just that some people are not even remotely interested in homebrew or pirating games

btw: out of the many people i met with a nintendo ds, in my home town or on vacation (camping) i am THE ONLY ONE WITH A FLASHCARD, the most people dont even know that its possible to pirate games on the nintendo ds, let alone know what a flashcard is (same goes for custom firmware/ iso loader on the psp)

 

[FAST6191]

I have not replied so far but it is an issue I have though about once or twice.

@veho you mention films, I appreciate you are going for effect but I question the validity of the example, I know people who just about managed to work a torrent or worse bearshare (they have since been shown the error of their ways and usenet providers a few more subscribers) yet did not know how to get films (they used popular torrent indexes as well so go figure). Even worse should they get such a film it will then be the film did not work, what do I do? (at which point, codecs, splitters, the continuing popularity of daytime TV and the like would be explained).

@PharaohsVizier IRC is apparently too hard to use, /join #rarara is far harder than right clicking ones contact and typing sheosidhskhgfddj sadfisahdisuahbnifoc*

Back to the matter at hand I sense the issue is two fold, most of the people I have seen reply so far have been at this for a year or two at least (I doubt anyone who has replied so far would have trouble explaining what a passme is) and compared to the situation those couple of years ago (GST/neoflash, ndspatcher and the light of "loadme") today is somewhat simpler. The other is said people wishing to get into the game and causing some friction by lack of a search or two (not pointing fingers whatsoever but I only visit two forums on a day to day basis and I think I explained how to back up/convert/restore DS saves about 25 times in the last few weeks at least).
I think Harsky hit the nail on the head with the internet speed thing as well (ISDN lines were godlike when I was "coming up", almost makes me fell sorry for rental places) and the price thing also factors in (my 256 EZ2 was about 3 times a GBA cart when I got it, now a generic DS capable cart is barely more than a retail game, PS1 chips/carts were not bad pricewise but I guess that is different).

*I say good fellow did you perchance see Candy last night?, she sure likes to partake of the old alcohol. It would also transpire I should be without clothes at this point in time.

 

[Veho]

@veho you mention films, I appreciate you are going for effect but I question the validity of the example, I know people who just about managed to work a torrent or worse bearshare (they have since been shown the error of their ways and usenet providers a few more subscribers) yet did not know how to get films (they used popular torrent indexes as well so go figure). Even worse should they get such a film it will then be the film did not work, what do I do? (at which point, codecs, splitters, the continuing popularity of daytime TV and the like would be explained).

Still, you can't say downloading films is complicated. All you need is a codec pack, Media Player Classic, and a torrent client. People who have difficulties with Wordpad can download and watch movies. The "through the wall" approach works best here: if the film you downloaded doesn't work, you download another version. Sure, you can point out the problems or difficulties with any example, if we were to nitpick; you could point out the difficulties of playing legal games on a PC, with all the drivers, patches, DirectX, operating systems, unsupported hardware, etc. etc., there are lots of people who have difficulties running legal games. Yet we call that the "simplest solution", because you don't have to deal with downloading, cracks, patches, key generators, etc. etc.

Downloading and playing movies is easy, very easy. Especially easy when compared to playing DS ROMs, since you don't have to buy any extra hardware. And it's definitely more widespread than flashcards.


Back on topic.
What does "too easy" mean? Does it mean that we, the "pirates", aren't the elite any more? That using flashcards isn't limited to the select few? That you don't have to code your own support for every ROM and every card you want to use? That flashcards aren't called "developer kits" any more? That we are not l33t any more? That we aren't "cool" for it, because everyone can do it nowadays? What do you mean by "too easy"? Do you feel that piracy was ever justified just because you had to work for it? And that somehow what the script kiddies are doing is wrong because they can run a ROM without any hassle whatsoever? "In three easy steps"? Or is it something else? Is it that it really is more simple than it should be, to just find a ROM, and run it?

And now we're back to "piracy and guilt". Are too many people using flashcards (because it's too easy)? Is it affecting the industry? Well, it's not. I stand by it. Downloading music is easy, downloading films is easy, pirating PC games is easy, much easier than running ROMs with a flashcard, but movies, music, games are still being made and sold. Because it's not as easy as it could be. People are easily sidetracked by even the smallest hurdle, even the least bit of effort needed will still be too much for most. Having to find, download, patch, transfer and run ROMs is more than difficult enough for a vast majority; the only way you'd have it be "too easy" for them would be to hand out pirate copies of games in the streets - anything else would be too much work for them. It's not too easy. It's just fine.

 

[SPiko]

I'd just like to point out that not all noobs are dumb. I've been a pirate for pretty much as long as digital media has existed. I know to search, read, and read again before asking questions. My flash cart isn't even here yet and I'm confident there isn't anything about DS piracy and homebrew that I can't handle.

And remember kids...

 

[amptor]

yeah.. the good old days of bbses..where you had to be some smug nerdy loser with big bucks to troll the telephone lines for warez and be a courier on some shitbaud modem 14.4kbps or dual 16.8k's. ahhh yeah i miss bbses LOL

then on to the internet.. a lot of systems out there to store stuff, but ratio sites and nonsense, up to the mp3 scene with ratio mp3 sites..what a bunch of nonsense. i'm glad that's all over with too.

now we have torrents and trolling for warez doesn't take even 1/10th as long as it used to. this is how things should be done. now u don't have irc channels filled with people having to dig around and be kicked/banned/called lamer/etc. things are the best right now and will only continue to get better. more bandwidth is being added at major companies in order to compete with one another and prices come down on dsl lines making things affordable for the masses.

bbses never ever had this much good to offer. I never need to look back.