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As a bystander it already breaks my heart seeing this happen, can't imagine how I'd feel being either byuu or the collector. I truly hope that they'll eventually still pop up, but I'm afraid they won't. Trying a police report and going through some pawn shows could be an idea, may never know. Well that and keep chasing USPS of course.

Out of curiosity, but why are these horror stories almost always from the other side of the pond? Never have I heard such horror stories from over here. It's so weird.

 

[Allan Holdsworth]

It was sent by Deutsche Post, thus it's handled by the official post of the receiving country, in this case USPS.

I wonder though when you shipped them back if they would be stopped by German customs and he has to pay import taxes.

Also were the games cart only or complete-in-box?

 

[plidex]

Someone call the FBI (I'm not sure if this is a thing, not american).

The donor is on disability and income/housing assistance. There are serious implications for his family if he were to declare that he had $10,000 worth of video games to send me. I really hope I don't see anyone decide to attack him that he should "sell his games" now. Please don't go that low. This is his precious collection, and not being wealthy doesn't mean someone should be forced to give away their childhood game collection.

This is ridiculous. Being fair is not going low.

EDIT: Wait, so he didn't declare the real value of the package? And now you pretend to declare (via lawyer or whatever) that it was worth $10k? Anyone else realizes who this can attract unwanted ramifications?

 

[byuu]

I wonder though when you shipped them back if they would be stopped by German customs and he has to pay import taxes.

No, he declared them all with Zoll. I returned the last package marked "returned goods", which is exactly what they were.

Also were the games cart only or complete-in-box?

Cart only. PAL games are just really, really expensive.

This is ridiculous. Being fair is not going low.

Please read this before throwing stones.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartz_concept#Hartz_IV

Do you seriously feel that because someone has disabilities and needs assistance that they should not be entitled to have possessions that are worth money? Or perhaps that they should just not be allowed to lend out their possessions to others due to that?

You can argue on law and be correct, but can you argue on morality or common human compassion that he is in the wrong? We're not talking about some criminal mastermind evading taxes here and banking a sweet, sweet $400 a month income. We're talking about a disabled individual trying to help me out at great risk to himself by lending me his childhood game collection, presumably amassed during better times.

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

 

[DiipuSurotu]

How's this for an update? This just arrived in my mailbox today.





Machines my ass. If the label fell off, it would be right next to the box without a label. Employees at the Jersey City location just stole a box containing $10,000 worth of games. This is felony theft.

I will be contacting both the press and a lawyer.

Do it!

If you need to raise money for the legal fees, you can count on my support (and that of many others I'm sure).

 

[8bit]

We're talking about a disabled individual trying to help me out at great risk to himself by lending me his childhood game collection, presumably amassed during better times.

$50k of vintage games isn't a childhood game collection any more though, that's a pretty substantial asset.

 

[Sniffynose]

I had something similar happen with Canada Post, turns out some asshole delivery driver and his girlfriend were stealing high value insured parcels and making them never track beyond the final depot, they fucked up though because in my parcel was a very expensive camera body and both the camera shop and I filed police reports with the serial numbers and of course it traced back to them selling the shit on kijiji. Hope they enjoy the jail visit since fucking with mail is a federal offense.

Always insure for full cost because there are some real crooks working in the post offices sadly, I don't trust them for shit anymore.

 

[timmyp53]

Why do people feel so sorry for byuu. The collector is the one who is really suffering.

 

[Sniffynose]

Why do people feel so sorry for byuu. The collector is the one who is really suffering.

I feel bad for both, the collector lost something quite possibly irreplaceable, but byuu also feels guilty as hell about what happened, and it's no doubt eating at his conscience putting out someone who trusted both him and the mail system with their goods.

I hope with enough pressure on the post office the box is "magically found" and the asshole thieves think twice about screwing with the mail.

 

[Eylos]

I Think police is a good option

 

[Teriyaki Blues]

Talked to the one guy I know who does halfway important stuff for USPS and he said to get added to the Quality Assurance email chain for updates on your case, and that getting the press and lawyer(s) involved may speed things up if you can get them to understand the situation.

If they weren't stolen and the box was damaged and the games got scattered, they'd probably be rounded up as they were found and sent to the Nixie for whatever plant that letter came from. He didn't see any identifying information on the letter or envelope in your pictures though.

I will say that the season for idiots (sorry, Christmas casuals) is over and most postal workers and contract employees aren't dumb enough to steal mail, but there are always exceptions. Postal Inspectors exist for those exceptions.

Full disclosure, I used to do the Christmas casual thing every year until my anxiety got really bad, so I know some of the lingo. No friends in the higher-ups though.

 

[AbandonedTrolley]

No, he declared them all with Zoll. I returned the last package marked "returned goods", which is exactly what they were.



Cart only. PAL games are just really, really expensive.



Please read this before throwing stones.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartz_concept#Hartz_IV

Do you seriously feel that because someone has disabilities and needs assistance that they should not be entitled to have possessions that are worth money? Or perhaps that they should just not be allowed to lend out their possessions to others due to that?

You can argue on law and be correct, but can you argue on morality or common human compassion that he is in the wrong? We're not talking about some criminal mastermind evading taxes here and banking a sweet, sweet $400 a month income. We're talking about a disabled individual trying to help me out at great risk to himself by lending me his childhood game collection, presumably amassed during better times.

Yep law states that you should declare all assets, however I think asking someone to declare a dusty collection from a childhood is a bit much and I wouldn't bother declaring it myself. It's more single things like vehicles/savings etc. Can you really go around your house pricing up everything you own?

Sucks that this has happened and I hope there is some kind of good outcome from it, by chance have you posted a list of the games that were in the bundle that we could all keep a look out for?

$50k of vintage games isn't a childhood game collection any more though, that's a pretty substantial asset.

Being fair, value is subjective and just because someone on eBay is trying to scalp £100-200 for a game, doesn't mean it's going to sell or is worth that amount to anyone.

 

[etking]

I really did not read everything, but it is very important that the people within the place where the accident happened get to know what was in the package quickly, maybe with some example pictures showing how SNES games and manuals look like. Communication likely is bad, so they will not know about this story at all because nobody informed them.

It is important to directly inform the people working at the place because the games will likely be dumped into the waste bin if the local workers do not know the story behind. Nobody cares about a bunch of old games and it will be the standard process to get rid of all unknown items regularly because accidents like this happen quite often and usually there is no space to store all the goods.

 

[plidex]

Do you seriously feel that because someone has disabilities and needs assistance that they should not be entitled to have possessions that are worth money?

It's the other way around. If someone has possessions that are worth money, then they should not (and are not) entitled to assistance from the government.

You can argue on law and be correct, but can you argue on morality or common human compassion that he is in the wrong?

I think it's morally wrong to take advantage of the government so you can keep your games.

I feel compassion, I understand the collection must be important to him, but it's superfluous.

I don't want him to sell his games, I don't care, but I don't think expecting someone to act rightfully is going too low. If you hadn't said that I wouldn't had said anything.

 

[Iorv3th]

Is there a list of the games that were lost? Can start having people check craigslist, ebay etc for lot listings etc.

 

[SmiteOfHand]

It's the other way around. If someone has possessions that are worth money, then they should not (and are not) entitled to assistance from the government.

Yeah, those lazy disableds need to be forced to rid all their possessions before considering assistance. I mean can you imagine if someone got a little bit more help than strictly required? Terrible thought.

 

[plidex]

Yeah, those lazy disableds need to be forced to rid all their possessions before considering assistance.

Exactly, thank you.

From the link posted by him:

Whether or not a claimant is eligible for Arbeitslosengeld II depends on his or her savings, life insurance and the income of spouse or partner. If these assets are below a threshold level, a claimant can get money from the state. The threshold level in July 2008 was €150 for free assets (at least €3,100) and €250 for fixed retirement assets, both calculated per capita and lifetime year.[2] Additionally, every employable individual in a communal household (persons living in and depending on the resources of the claimant), can have one car worth about €7,500 and a self-used house of 130 square meters living space (more if there are other people in the common household).

I don't think having 30 - 40 thousand dollars in games complies with that.

I mean can you imagine if someone got a little bit more help than strictly required? Terrible thought.

The government has requirements for a reason, they can't give money to everyone that has a disability, they have to prioritize the people that NEED it.

Isn't it unfair that this guy is getting assistance when many other people with way way way less money aren't getting assistance because their assets' value couldn't be easily hided from the government?

If people didn't lie, the requirements could be a bit higher, and people who need it more could get the money instead. Let's see what funny thing you have to say about that.

My dad is visually impaired, but because he isn't poor, he doesn't have access to free eye surgery or straight up money. If he can pay it himself, why should the government give him money?

 

[Marty Chinn]

It's not piracy if he deletes the ROM when he returns/sells the game. All he's really after is the checksum. I don't know if the old NeoGAF piracy rule is still in effect, but... no witch hunts. If it's possible that byuu's not pirating, then that means he's not pirating. Not unless he comes right out and confesses to piracy. And trying to pressure someone to confess to piracy is (was?) frowned upon.

(And even if byuu's committing some minor infractions here and there, I don't see how it matters when the entire SNES library has been pirated to hell and back.)

By all accounts, I have not seen it mentioned anywhere that the ROM is being deleted after he's collected the checksum. I'm assuming part of the preservation is keeping an archive of the ROM since basically that's the core to preservation. This is no witch hunt. I just find it interesting he's so concerned about piracy with the distribution but not so much about piracy if he's archiving the ROMs and openly admitting to it by explicitly saying he's dumping them and then reselling the carts to recoup the cost in order to acquire more games.

He's creating a dependable, organized list from a single, trusted source that other people can use to confirm their own (or perhaps pirated) ROMs.

The checksum and data is good. I'm not disputing that. But if part of the goal is to preserve and archive the actual games, not allowing anyone access to it doesn't do much good for the sake of preservation is what I'm getting at. I don't really care about the piracy. I have a much more vested interest in game preservation. I've even attended discussions on the topic at GDC because of that interest.

 

[FrozenCell]

where will nintendo download the roms now?

 

[gblues]

Whether or not a claimant is eligible for Arbeitslosengeld II depends on his or her savings, life insurance and the income of spouse or partner. If these assets are below a threshold level, a claimant can get money from the state.

I don't think having 30 - 40 thousand dollars in games complies with that.

I've bolded the key word here. Determination is made based on savings, insurance, and actual income. Please explain how a video game collection qualifies as any of these.

I am neither German nor a lawyer, but I'm going to go out on a limb that the law doesn't require or allow compulsory asset liquidation in order to receive benefits, nor should it. That's blatant poverty shaming.

 

[SmiteOfHand]

If people didn't lie, the requirements could be a bit higher, and people who need it more could get the money instead. Let's see what funny thing you have to say about that.

Maybe try fighting for more funding and better coverage instead of accusing someone of lying and cheating the system when you have no idea what their circumstances are?

How is that for a laugh?

 

[test_account]

Really sucks to hear this! Hopefully things will work out in the end.

By the way, maybe this has been answered, but why go the route of having a guy send 500 games instead of sending the dumping tools to the guy who has all the games? Surely that would be much easier, cheaper and much more secure?

 

[crpav]

Really sucks to hear this! Hopefully things will work out in the end.

By the way, maybe this has been answered, but why go the route of having a guy send 500 games instead of sending the dumping tools to the guy who has all the games? Surely that would be much easier, cheaper and much more secure?

There is more to his project than just plugging in the cart and dumping the rom. I mean a mechanic could send his tools to your house for you to fix your car but wouldn't you rather take your car to the mechanic where he has the space, tools and him, who is trained and knows the process, to do it?

 

[test_account]

There is more to his project than just plugging in the cart and dumping the rom. I mean a mechanic could send his tools to your house for you to fix your car but wouldn't you rather take your car to the mechanic where he has the space, tools and him, who is trained and knows the process, to do it?

I see, what more is there to the project?

Well, if i had to ship my car half across the world five times, i'd rather get the tools sent to me and have someone take a look at it here.

 

[crpav]

I see, what more is there to the project?

Well, if i had to ship my car half across the world five times, i'd rather get the tools sent to me and have someone take a look at it here.

He posted the process a page back:

It's common to underestimate the work involved.

First step is to clean the carts. I turn this:

Into this:

This step takes about 2-30 minutes.

Then I open the cart, and clean the contacts to ensure a good dump the first try. This takes 3-5 minutes to clean both sides.

Then I scan the PCB and game cartridge at 600DPI. This takes about 5 minutes (my scanner's a bit slow.) Then where possible, I use a heat gun to peel off stickers from boxes, takes about 2-3 minutes. Then scan the box front and back. Each takes 5 minutes.

Then I dump the cartridge using a serial connection between my PC and the SNES. This used to take 20-30 minutes when I was doing it over the controller port with the USA set, but it now takes 5-10 minutes thanks to an expansion port device made for me by defparam.

Then I log all the serial#s on the board and cartridge into a large database by hand. This takes another 2-3 minutes.

Rinse, repeat for every game.

I have very low energy levels and become exhausted after about 2-4 hours of this a day. I've had a lot of theories but never found the definitive cause. But my current guess is that I might have very low testosterone levels. But it's something. Because damn, I am always, always tired no matter how much I sleep.

 

[test_account]

He posted the process a page back:

Thanks for the info. Scanning and cleaning the the games is a lot of work, at least when concidering all the SNES games that exist. More understandable why its being shipped then.

 

[Iceberg]

Really sucks to hear this! Hopefully things will work out in the end.

By the way, maybe this has been answered, but why go the route of having a guy send 500 games instead of sending the dumping tools to the guy who has all the games? Surely that would be much easier, cheaper and much more secure?

Your question is already answered:

https://byuu.org/emulation/preservation/lost-package/

Why didn't you send the dumping hardware to the PAL donor?
Why didn't you fly out to Germany to dump the games?

 

[Wereroku]

I've bolded the key word here. Determination is made based on savings, insurance, and actual income. Please explain how a video game collection qualifies as any of these.

I am neither German nor a lawyer, but I'm going to go out on a limb that the law doesn't require or allow compulsory asset liquidation in order to receive benefits, nor should it. That's blatant poverty shaming.

Yep people need to stop worrying about the disabled or poor possibly having fun. Also I am guessing Germany probably doesn't recognize the increased value of something like this unless you sale it. However an event like theft would also make a new valuation occur. Sadly for him to get his games back he would need to declare the actual value of the lost items.

I have very low energy levels and become exhausted after about 2-4 hours of this a day. I've had a lot of theories but never found the definitive cause. But my current guess is that I might have very low testosterone levels. But it's something. Because damn, I am always, always tired no matter how much I sleep.

A little off topic but consider recording yourself sleeping one night and see how you are resting. I went through this with a friend who was having the same lethargy and his was sleep apnea.

 

[Dictator93]

How's this for an update? This just arrived in my mailbox today.





Machines my ass. If the label fell off, it would be right next to the box without a label. Employees at the Jersey City location just stole a box containing $10,000 worth of games. This is felony theft.

I will be contacting both the press and a lawyer.

Fucking amazing.

Yes, wreck them Byuu. Wreck them.

 

[CrunchyFrog]

I have very low energy levels and become exhausted after about 2-4 hours of this a day. I've had a lot of theories but never found the definitive cause. But my current guess is that I might have very low testosterone levels. But it's something. Because damn, I am always, always tired no matter how much I sleep.

Have you ever done a sleep study? There are a number of issues that could be at play before something hormonal, and I'd argue undiagnosed sleep apnea is much more likely to be the cause of your chronic fatigue, pending said sleep study.

 

[plidex]

I've bolded the key word here. Determination is made based on savings, insurance, and actual income. Please explain how a video game collection qualifies as any of these.

I am neither German nor a lawyer, but I'm going to go out on a limb that the law doesn't require or allow compulsory asset liquidation in order to receive benefits, nor should it. That's blatant poverty shaming.

Ok, I got confused because they talked about assets, english is not my native language. Either way, byuu is the one who said that "The donor is on disability and income/housing assistance. There are serious implications for his family if he were to declare that he had $10,000 worth of video games to send me. ".

Maybe try fighting for more funding and better coverage instead of accusing someone of lying and cheating the system when you have no idea what their circumstances are?

How is that for a laugh?

Ridiculous.

Yep people need to stop worrying about the disabled or poor possibly having fun.

I hope you are being obtuse on purpose.

 

[LoveCake]

Time for GAF members to unite!

What can we do to help?

 

[pots and pans]

I hate to say it but I don't think taking legal action is going to work. If the sender claimed a value of $1,000 when purchasing insurance for the package and it was lost/stolen/etc and USPS has paid or agreed to pay for the value of the package, that's probably the best you're going to get. I don't think retroactively saying "well it was actually worth ten times what we claimed, so give us the other $9,000 please" will fly in any court. Especially now that both the sender and recipient have publicly stated that at least part of the reason for the incorrect value being claimed was to skirt government assistance laws. Courts won't care about the moral ambiguity, they will only see it as fraud.

This is just a bad situation all around. If the games were in fact stolen by a postal service employee, hopefully that individual is caught and punished appropriately. Best case scenario, the games are recovered in the process and returned to the owner. Best of luck.

 

[plidex]

I hate to say it but I don't think taking legal action is going to work. If the sender claimed a value of $1,000 when purchasing insurance for the package and it was lost/stolen/etc and USPS has paid or agreed to pay for the value of the package, that's probably the best you're going to get. I don't think retroactively saying "well it was actually worth ten times what we claimed, so give us the other $9,000 please" will fly in any court. Especially now that both the sender and recipient have publicly stated that at least part of the reason for the incorrect value being claimed was to skirt government assistance laws. Courts won't care about the moral ambiguity, they will only see it as fraud.

This is just a bad situation all around. If the games were in fact stolen by a postal service employee, hopefully that individual is caught and punished appropriately. Best case scenario, the games are recovered in the process and returned to the owner. Best of luck.

I may be wrong, but I don't think the postal service has to refund the package lost, that's why insurance exists.

So they won't get the money back, what they can do is try to get the games back, and they don't need to say how much they are worth for that. Obviously, the fact that they are worth $10k would help get more attention to the case, and it may have an impact regarding being a federal crime, but I don't know.

 

[FyreWulff]

How's this for an update? This just arrived in my mailbox today.





Machines my ass. If the label fell off, it would be right next to the box without a label. Employees at the Jersey City location just stole a box containing $10,000 worth of games. This is felony theft.

I will be contacting both the press and a lawyer.

Luckily depending on where this goes, fucking with USPS held mail has actual severe penalties and a Postal Inspector has much reach to deal with stuff.

UPS/FedEx will always pretty much shrug their shoulders and go about their day because they aren't subject to the same rules.

 

[test_account]

Your question is already answered:

https://byuu.org/emulation/preservation/lost-package/

Why didn't you send the dumping hardware to the PAL donor?
Why didn't you fly out to Germany to dump the games?

Thanks for the info. I thought maybe this was just about dumping the games, even if he has an unique tool, it could still be done, it would be a matter of trust both ways. But since the project is also about scanning and potentially cleaning the games as well, that takes a lot of time, so it makes more sense to send the games then.

 

[byuu]

$50k of vintage games isn't a childhood game collection any more though, that's a pretty substantial asset.

Yeah, but keep in mind that collection was worth about $4000 six or seven years ago. He's had it since the games first came out. Collected it with his father from what I'm told.

It's only recently that the price has skyrocketed to obscene levels. I believe it started in 2011. I remember an auction in 2013 for a complete PAL cart-only set for $17,000. Now, Mega Man X3 -alone, loose cart- will set you back $850+.

He didn't see any identifying information on the letter or envelope in your pictures though.

Thankfully, the media attention caught the eye of USPS consumer affairs, and a case has been opened as of a few hours ago. I've learned far more about the USPS than I ever wanted to know lately. But I did hear the terms Nixie, CMU, etc brought up.

It sounds like there's a whole lot of possibilities right now, unfortunately.

Yep law states that you should declare all assets, however I think asking someone to declare a dusty collection from a childhood is a bit much and I wouldn't bother declaring it myself. It's more single things like vehicles/savings etc

That's the issue. In just the past few years, a 20+ year old collection is now suddenly worth the price of a nice car. Flagging the package for 10000 Euros of insurance would raise issues.

Plus, as has been said repeatedly, you cannot prove these games are worth 10000, which would be required to get that level of insurance. If you could just buy whatever insurance you want, people would be doing things to try and scam that insurance money.

eBay listings do not work for proof of value. They go off commercial sale prices, and these games are not for sale.

I am not making this up, I had the same difficulties when I shipped his last batch of games back to him.

by chance have you posted a list of the games that were in the bundle that we could all keep a look out for?

Not yet. Could allow others to try and make claims for the titles as well. I will release them all once consumer affairs gives up.

By all accounts, I have not seen it mentioned anywhere that the ROM is being deleted after he's collected the checksum. I'm assuming part of the preservation is keeping an archive of the ROM since basically that's the core to preservation.

It's not necessary at all. Nor is it ever necessary to give any games out to anyone.

All I have to do is record the SHA256 sum of the ROM image while the cart is in my possession.

There are no known collisions for the much weaker SHA1 yet. SHA256 is substantially stronger. That means that knowing the SHA256 of an SNES game, NOBODY can make a fake version that has the same checksum right now. So if they have the original game, my database will confirm it for them. If they have one that's been modified, it'll do that too by not having a match in the DB.

What about in the future when SHA256 gets broken? Easy, all we have to do is record SHA3 sums once SHA256 starts to weaken. Anyone on the internet who has the ROMs that match SHA256 can make SHA3s. And by releasing those before SHA256 is broken confirms the SHA3s are good. So this process can be maintained indefinitely.

I am keeping this on the legal up and up. I'm not about to paint a giant target on my back for Nintendo's lawyers.

However an event like theft would also make a new valuation occur. Sadly for him to get his games back he would need to declare the actual value of the lost items.

Exactly this. It's not even just declaring for insurance (which itself has many problems), it's the issue of what happens once it is found out. He's not suddenly going to be able to work again just because he got one seventh of my yearly salary in a lump sum payment (probably reduced to 40% of that after taxation.)

Have you ever done a sleep study?

I have not. I don't think I could manage sleeping somewhere else with a bunch of probes hooked up to me. I'd be wide awake the entire night most likely. It already takes me 2-3 hours to fall asleep after laying down in my own bed.

But, it probably is a good idea.

I hate to say it but I don't think taking legal action is going to work.

You're probably right. I went to r/legaladvice and things look really bad for that angle.

Press attention is the only helpful thing at this point

 

[dallow_bg]

Yup, stolen. Pisses me off.
Sorry to hear that. I was holding out hope really.

was shipped DHL and they handed it off to USPS.

Lastly, he didn't ship it through USPS. He shipped through Deutsche Post, who bought out DHL there. DHL were the ones to hand it off to USPS..

He shipped standard mail so of course DHL (which is the standard post office in Germany) handed it to USPS.

If it was DHL Express which is their premium courier service than it would have been carefully tracked and delivered by them all the way through.

That's what should have been used.

 

[Millsington]

Even Nintendo's Virtual Console is using inferior-quality ROMs downloaded from the internet.

Whoa is this really true?? Who confirmed this and what games are affected on VC?

 

[chronic_archaic]

I hope things work out for you and the sender - I'm glad you're keeping everyone posted. It's certainly an interesting affair albeit a tragic one. Love what you're trying to do.

 

[FlyingWasabi]

Whoa is this really true?? Who confirmed this and what games are affected on VC?

I'm pretty sure Super Mario Bros. on Wii was a very well known case of them just downloading the ROM from the net and selling it on the console. Homebrewers found the ROM dump text info in the files and matched it up to the version obtainable on a certain site, IIRC.

Edit: Found the article I remember reading recently. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...o-download-a-mario-rom-and-sell-it-back-to-us

 

[Mandoric]

I'm pretty sure Super Mario Bros. on Wii was a very well known case of them just downloading the ROM from the net and selling it on the console. Homebrewers found the ROM dump text info in the files and matched it up to the version obtainable on a certain site, IIRC.

Edit: Found the article I remember reading recently. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...o-download-a-mario-rom-and-sell-it-back-to-us

I'm not sure I'd call it "inferior quality" as long as it checks out, but that kind of thing is only going to become more common - even movies like A Fistful of Dollars have alternate cuts that had to be sourced from home VHS tapes of broadcasts for their DVD release.

Projects like this are important to help verify material brought back in from the public in cases like old games where archival copies are unlikely to exist and any transfer hardware is experimental, crowdsourced, or both.

 

[Elaugaufein]

I'm not sure I'd call it "inferior quality" as long as it checks out, but that kind of thing is only going to become more common - even movies like A Fistful of Dollars have alternate cuts that had to be sourced from home VHS tapes of broadcasts for their DVD release.

Projects like this are important to help verify material brought back in from the public in cases like old games where archival copies are unlikely to exist and any transfer hardware is experimental, crowdsourced, or both.

People doing illegal stuff is directly responsible for the existince of a great deal of cultural history (eg Doctor Who to name a really well known case). Creators don't know what budget thing is going shape culture for the next 60 years and what all in extravaganza is going to bomb (though even those deserve preservation). And you can't keep everything (even if you do make the effort to sometimes a natural disaster hits your storage location).

 

[mike4001_]

Did he really just put wrapping paper around the boxes for a package sent overseas?

So all the shipping information was on thin paper and not on the cardboard box itself?

=> There is your problem

byuu should not feel guilty, this was just packaged beyond stupid from the sender.

 

[Robin64]

Whoa is this really true?? Who confirmed this and what games are affected on VC?

Even worse is Sega with Streets of Rage 2 on iOS.

What the title screen should look like:

 

[poodaddy]

As a former unit mail clerk in the Army for three years I can definitely attest to the uselessness of the USPS. I wouldn't trust them to tie my shoes, much less ship ten large in classic games without incident. Damn shame, seemed a noble cause.

 

[Marty Chinn]

It's not necessary at all. Nor is it ever necessary to give any games out to anyone.

All I have to do is record the SHA256 sum of the ROM image while the cart is in my possession.

There are no known collisions for the much weaker SHA1 yet. SHA256 is substantially stronger. That means that knowing the SHA256 of an SNES game, NOBODY can make a fake version that has the same checksum right now. So if they have the original game, my database will confirm it for them. If they have one that's been modified, it'll do that too by not having a match in the DB.

What about in the future when SHA256 gets broken? Easy, all we have to do is record SHA3 sums once SHA256 starts to weaken. Anyone on the internet who has the ROMs that match SHA256 can make SHA3s. And by releasing those before SHA256 is broken confirms the SHA3s are good. So this process can be maintained indefinitely.

I am keeping this on the legal up and up. I'm not about to paint a giant target on my back for Nintendo's lawyers.

But it is necessary to have a copy of the ROM for preservation. Simply having the checksum data isn't preservation. It's great for validation but validation is no good if there isn't a preserved copy out there stored somewhere, especially as rarer carts die. If nobody actually dumps that cart properly and stores it in a way that can be retrieved, that game could be lost forever.

I'm not discounting the other stuff you're doing, but one key thing to preservation is actually preserving the ROM itself. The thing you haven't been clear about in any of the messages I've seen is you still haven't firmly stated you are deleting the ROM after you've obtained the checksum. Are you deleting the ROM or are you preserving it in an archive you have access to even if you aren't publically making those ROMs available?

 

[Sir_Crocodile]

I'm not discounting the other stuff you're doing, but one key thing to preservation is actually preserving the ROM itself. The thing you haven't been clear about in any of the messages I've seen is you still haven't firmly stated you are deleting the ROM after you've obtained the checksum. Are you deleting the ROM or are you preserving it in an archive you have access to even if you aren't publically making those ROMs available?

Why on earth would you ask him this question?

 

[Charles Brandon]

But it is necessary to have a copy of the ROM for preservation. Simply having the checksum data isn't preservation. It's great for validation but validation is no good if there isn't a preserved copy out there stored somewhere, especially as rarer carts die. If nobody actually dumps that cart properly and stores it in a way that can be retrieved, that game could be lost forever.

I'm not discounting the other stuff you're doing, but one key thing to preservation is actually preserving the ROM itself. The thing you haven't been clear about in any of the messages I've seen is you still haven't firmly stated you are deleting the ROM after you've obtained the checksum. Are you deleting the ROM or are you preserving it in an archive you have access to even if you aren't publically making those ROMs available?

What's with the interrogation?