Gaming SSBB Story ... when piracy costs more than going to the store

[Bob Evil]

A friend of mine, who has a modded Wii, has had no luck, whatsoever, getting SSBB to run on his machine ... he went through discs after disc ... then, today, he got it ... a good working copy.


However, he is one of those 'perfectionist pirates' ... has has to make all his copied games look real ... he buys very expensive, high-quality, and to be frank, somewhat over-priced' blank discs ... he buys white (for Wii games) & green (for 360 games) DVD cases online, and prints up high-res covers, on glossy, high-quality paper.

He then has a a really good printer for printing directly onto the discs ... a seriously expensive one ... the ink costs an arm and a leg for the damn thing.

But, to give him his due, they look amazing ... seriously, unless you look at the underside of the disc itself, you'd think it was an original ... he even downloads and prints whatever manuals he can find, too ... he's an uber-perfectionst.

Anyway, I asked him how many discs he'd gone through, 'til he got a working SSBB ... and he wouldn't tell me a number, just that it was a lot ... then, he confessed to me that he'd spent £40 on discs, as well as what it cost for his snazzy case for it ... it was then I told him that I'd bought my original of SSBB, along with my FreeLoader, for less than that.

He said he knew that, and he couldn't believe how obsessed he had become with burning a working SSBB ... needless to say, he plans on reining himself in, the next time he is up against a game that is problematic.

 

[jesterscourt]

Some people shouldn't be allowed to keep their own money.

 

[godsakes]

for him piracy seems less about the getting the game cheapy and more about the technical challenge of making a perfect copy - whatever floats your boat i suppose

 

[ItsMetaKnight]

what an idiot, this guy has no life

 

[arctic_flame]

what an idiot, this guy has no life

That's really unneccesary. Thank you for that stimulating comment.

I find it more impressive that he has the hardware to do such things, even if it defeats the point.

 

[xcalibur]

for him piracy seems less about the getting the game cheapy and more about the technical challenge of making a perfect copy - whatever floats your boat i suppose

That, and getting the game earlier than other people.
He does live in the UK after all.

 

[kedest]

yeah it can be quite expensive if you want it to be perfect.
I already burned 1 failed disc for SSBB. I'm gonna try 1 more time and if it fails I'll just give up. The game is not thát interesting for me.

 

[kallekall]

yeah it can be quite expensive if you want it to be perfect.
I already burned 1 failed disc for SSBB. I'm gonna try 1 more time and if it fails I'll just give up. The game is not thát interesting for me.

My worked perfect the first time. Burned on Traxdata DVD+R DL 8x. Burned in 1x.

 

[finite]

Doh £40 + time + it isn't even the correct region and may cause long term damage to the laser.

If you do it right first time you could still afford to buy a new laser and have some change compared to buying it (when eventually available).

I got sucked into disc printing sometime back aswell, but the machines proved to be unreliable and uneconomical for occasional use and cases take up too much space imo.

 

[bubbleboy]

I print discs, but keep them in a cd-folder. With refills costing mere cents/per dvd, it's so cheap I just think 'why not'.. looks a lot better than my shitty handwriting

 

[Bob Evil]

He likes the idea that most of his friends and acquaintances think he has this great, up-to-date, games collection ... but that they have no idea that the games are all copies.

He gets a perverse satisfaction out of it ... like he feels he is getting something over on them ... quite odd, really lol

I practically had to swear a blood oath, promising not to tell anyone he knows that they aren't real.

 

[Upperleft]

i pirate JUST to save my money
or i have no other reason to go to illegal stuff =P

if your friend cares so much .. why pirating ?
an original game will cost him nothing compared to what he spend on pirated games

 

[Bob Evil]

if your friend cares so much .. why pirating ?
an original game will cost him nothing compared to what he spend on pirated games

I tell him that, sometimes.

Even with his expenses, he still usually saves some money ... just every now and again, it bites him in the ass ... still, when all is said and done, overall, ha has saved money, over the years.

 

[bosscolor]

Can you show us a picture of his collection ?

 

[Shinji]

That makes me want to get into pirating, I blame your friend for the illegal activities I am about to involve myself in

Seriously, pirating obsessions can cost alot (time AND money) if you just cant get it right. All of my PS2 "copies" are just on plain ol' Memorex DVD's and hand written but as long as I can read them, I dont need lightscribe or any fancy printing/cases.

 

[Bob Evil]

Can you show us a picture of his collection ?

haha maybe ... I'm going to his place in a couple of days ... I might just snag a couple of shots with my phone.

 

[Hit]

A friend of mine, who has a modded Wii, has had no luck, whatsoever, getting SSBB to run on his machine ... he went through discs after disc ... then, today, he got it ... a good working copy.


However, he is one of those 'perfectionist pirates' ... has has to make all his copied games look real ... he buys very expensive, high-quality, and to be frank, somewhat over-priced' blank discs ... he buys white (for Wii games) & green (for 360 games) DVD cases online, and prints up high-res covers, on glossy, high-quality paper.

He then has a a really good printer for printing directly onto the discs ... a seriously expensive one ... the ink costs an arm and a leg for the damn thing.

But, to give him his due, they look amazing ... seriously, unless you look at the underside of the disc itself, you'd think it was an original ... he even downloads and prints whatever manuals he can find, too ... he's an uber-perfectionst.

Anyway, I asked him how many discs he'd gone through, 'til he got a working SSBB ... and he wouldn't tell me a number, just that it was a lot ... then, he confessed to me that he'd spent £40 on discs, as well as what it cost for his snazzy case for it ... it was then I told him that I'd bought my original of SSBB, along with my FreeLoader, for less than that.

He said he knew that, and he couldn't believe how obsessed he had become with burning a working SSBB ... needless to say, he plans on reining himself in, the next time he is up against a game that is problematic.

I first bought a 10 Euro disc, which worked but I forgot to patch the 001 thing
Then I ordered 10 low quality disc that didn't work and now I already spend 20 euro, Now I will just wait till pal release and buy a vebatim disc again

 

[TaMs]

I used to buy cases for games and print covers etc. I had expensive laser printer thing, just lacked interest of buying high quality paper and cases. :| Also i'd need somekind of disc labeling system.
It's still actually fun to make those.


example of not so great copy, but still ok.

No idea how much it would make perfect copies like that friend of thebobevil :|

 

[jalaneme]

what a waste, a printer alone and ink costs a lot of money, he could have just brought the game, (unless he has a wiikey)

i pirate JUST to save my money
or i have no other reason to go to illegal stuff =P

if your friend cares so much .. why pirating ?
an original game will cost him nothing compared to what he spend on pirated games

well said, i would personally consider a printer for dvd cases but the ink replacement cartridges are a small fortune by themselves, plus you need the right software to resize the dvd image on your computer aswell, only thing i've ever done is hand drawn the disc label onto the disc with those ink pens, the printables are easier to draw on though.

 

[xtc]

wow this guy is hardcore.. i only buy white cases and print my wii covers at work lol.