It's pretty par for the course with Nintendo tbh
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Eurogamer: Did Nintendo download a Mario ROM and sell it back to us?
- Thread starter allintospace
- Start date
It's pretty par for the course with Nintendo tbh
LiveFromKyoto
Member
Nintendo has many standard traits, but laziness is not among them. Nobody polishes their games more, probably only Blizzard are in the same category.
elrechazado
Banned
A lot of you aren't getting the point. The criticism isn't and.shouldnt be that they are selling us Roms. The problem is that Nintendo clearly demonstrates by this behavior that there is little to no back end investment or time required for them to offer us these games for purchase. What do they do instead? Trickle out titles and pretend they don't have the ability to serve content to people who are willing to pay for it.
thechristoph
Sir!
This gets a big fat "so?" from me. Gonna need a point explained.
Care to elaborate and provide some examples of how this is par for the course for Nintendo?
We knew this and it's irrelevant. They do some emulation on the technical side and occasionally there are barriers there but the vast majority of VC is handled by the legal department.
The Elite
BOSS
Which they originally supplied.
Couldn't or didn't? Because there's a pretty big difference between the too.
And yet, while there is some evidence this is possible, there still isnt proof. You're drawing conclusions from an incomplete set of information.
You can laugh at them for trying to combat piracy yet piracy is the thing that allows them for actually re-releasing old classics. It shows how important piracy is for archiving and preservation.
Piracy is not required for either of those things. Please do not degrade people who are actually attempting to preserve game software by equating them with pirates.
Zen_Arcade
Banned
It's not piracy if you own what you're downloading.
Though I agree with your general point about people having digital copies of these things helping archiving and preservation. The problem is when they put them out to the public and eat sales away from games that you can actively pay for. Which is where the actual piracy comes in.
FairFriend
Member
Yep, people are way to eager to look like the champions of integrity without realizing the issue at hand.
Like the hat?
Banned
There's a vast difference between couldn't and didn't. We have absolutely zero knowledge of what Nintendo has in their files.
(This comment has no bearing on Nintendo downloading the rom vs ripping their own)
(This comment has no bearing on Nintendo downloading the rom vs ripping their own)
That's my entire point though. They claim that preservation is piracy, but then use it to get preserved copies of their own games! It's hypocritical as shit.
That's quite frankly irrelevant. They are the ones that go against the sites that supply those roms to begin with! It's hypocritical as hell.
There is a end investment in getting licenses, rating and bug-testing (like looking for back-doors). The official way is always much more complex, since you have to look into many legal trip hazards each time.
It's a bit different in execution, as the cart format required some custom work as explained in the video. The idea is a little funny to me that they likely paid some third party for the work, but he just went out and downloaded a "pirated" version of the game, lol.
Auxiliary Bro
Member
To everyone in the thread asking why this matters: it's explained in the video the OP linked starting around the 2:30 mark and onwards. It's not really even finding a problem with it in an 'ethical' sense, it's more about how he finds it confusing. I like the little point of surprise that they have to get a ROM of Super Mario Bros. of all games as well.
Herp Derpington
Member
If this is true, inept would be the word to use.
peronmls
Member
Yes. So they go and complain about people pirating when it's about having the games live on. They didn't have the source and didn't want to reverse engineer the game so they download a rip which they still consider part of pirating and go and use on THIER VC (emulator) which they also consider pirating. It's total hypocritical.
According to this we wouldn't of had that mario VC if it wasn't for the communities rip.
evilromero
Member
If the video game industry has you so jaded then I recommend not turning on your TV or checking news sites tomorrow.
SmiteOfHand
Member
How they got the rom is of less significance. Whether they dumped it themselves, downloaded it from the internet, or whatever, it is their IP and as long as they did their own legwork to make sure it was not modified from its source then I don't have a problem with it.
The problem comes in they have taken a hard stance against all emulation calling it piracy. Which is a hard pill to swallow if they are benefiting from legally grey areas that is much more akin to preservation efforts in other mediums. They didn't invent the iNES file format, but they are using it and all the benefits of emulating around a known standard rather than inventing their own.
They unintentionally validated the work of the pirates they have taken a hard stance against.
I mean the rights to that game are still owned by Nintendo so it's really not a problem. It's more likely they hired a programmer to develop the port of the game and they decided to work smarter not harder, and presented his boss a completed project. But yes, let's blame the entire company.
I know they used to, at least if the site was offering ROMs of first party games like Mario and Zelda.
staticneuron
Member
This thread is amazing. I heard jokes about Nintendo fans didn't realize how true some of the jokes were. The point is either flying over heads or just being outright ignored in favor of defending Nintendo.
Well stated.
Well stated.
Pie and Beans
Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
Why I can never be arsed buying these ROMS when I'll just choose to better emulate the carts/discs I have bought previously on PC with bitchin' CRT shaders or portables that are more convenient for me.
When they go through the effort of adding stuff, I support it though (3DS 3D titles for instance). Mainly because then I know the software engineers still working a job are getting remunerated from my funds. Paying corporations for games they've fired people over decades later isn't really my way of the ninja.
When they go through the effort of adding stuff, I support it though (3DS 3D titles for instance). Mainly because then I know the software engineers still working a job are getting remunerated from my funds. Paying corporations for games they've fired people over decades later isn't really my way of the ninja.
This week hasn't been kind. Many have re-emerged from the crucible of flesh, reborn as what they need to be right now for the holy war.
Did I come off that way? I'm not saying that they should just let piracy run amok; only that piracy is not the sole reason why emulators exist, and they could do a better job of preserving their own games.
Essentially, I'm arguing that they should change their stance on emulators existing solely to hurt Nintendo's bottom line.
I'm extremely tired today. If my posts somehow sound like thinly-veiled attempts at justifying piracy, they're not.
Kinda true; but even if they didn't because of some corporate red line, that doesn't really make a whole lot of difference, does it? The pirate ROMs are still more practical for archiving purposes
CouchMaster
Member
Afaik if you own a legit copy that you paid for, you're allowed to rip it and keep that rom for backup sake. Dunno about downloading a rom though.
It's only fair!
It's interesting, Nintendo hates piracy and equates everyone to being pirates, but if the games weren't being preserved by said "Pirates", maybe Nintendo wouldn't have a way to access the games as well (Could have lost the source codes).
I think it is a bit hypocritical to shit on these people and use their services at the same time, yes.
I think it is a bit hypocritical to shit on these people and use their services at the same time, yes.
Zen_Arcade
Banned
They go against them because they're letting people who don't own their IP download them for free. I don't think they're against the idea of ROMs as a basic concept of preservation, only when it loses them money. They wouldn't shut those sites down if all they were doing is keeping these emulated games up for preservation and to help companies.
I mean, I get why you think it's a bit hypocritical, but I can't muster up any negative feelings towards what they're doing considering that they own the IP, and I agree with them that people shouldn't be downloading things they have the ability to pay for.
hemo memo
Gold Member
But they're doing something that is against their own rules and terms of srevice.
This absolutely doesn't prove that they downloaded it from the internet at all, it is completely reaching.
The file format is identical to an open source emulator file format, which just means that Nintendo's emulation team decided to use a standard file format for their ROMs. The fact that the data is identical doesn't prove anything either since of course the ROMs are going to be identical.
The file format is identical to an open source emulator file format, which just means that Nintendo's emulation team decided to use a standard file format for their ROMs. The fact that the data is identical doesn't prove anything either since of course the ROMs are going to be identical.
LordKasual
Banned
This is funny is so many ways, hahahahaha
wheewwww.....
wheewwww.....
GhostTrick
Banned
I see it. Especially considering their attitude toward their fans. But to be fair, it's not the fact that they downloaded that annoys me. It's the fact that they can't be bothered to dump their own game that they're about to sell for 5 bucks.
The fact that they're basically making you pay for a dump that an amateur illegaly downloaded is dirty IMO.
hemo memo
Gold Member
Pirates does what Nintendon't?
SJurgenson
Banned
If, at least, Nintendo decided to use an outside NES ROM file format (instead of developing their own), it makes you wonder if they took any similar shortcuts on the actual emulation software.
Has anyone tried to do an analysis of the Virtual Console emulator to see if there are any open source license violations?
Assuming Nintendo did dump their own cart internally, then why use a 'pirate' file format from 1996? Why not spend a day or two developing a format that helps encapsulate VC needs, instead of an ancient format from the days of DOS?
It makes me wonder if they use that format because they are also using someone else's emulator internally.
We've seen game companies do it time and time again -- packaging someone else's ROM dump of their game (arguable on legality/morality) and someone else's open-source emulator (totally illegal and immoral without following the license provisions) and selling the game at retail.
Has anyone tried to do an analysis of the Virtual Console emulator to see if there are any open source license violations?
Assuming Nintendo did dump their own cart internally, then why use a 'pirate' file format from 1996? Why not spend a day or two developing a format that helps encapsulate VC needs, instead of an ancient format from the days of DOS?
It makes me wonder if they use that format because they are also using someone else's emulator internally.
We've seen game companies do it time and time again -- packaging someone else's ROM dump of their game (arguable on legality/morality) and someone else's open-source emulator (totally illegal and immoral without following the license provisions) and selling the game at retail.