I figured this deserved its own forum. I'm not playing mod (sorry, guys) but it's a good subject.
Originally posted by Teppan-YakiSorta on-topic: I'm curious why no one has stopped mall kiosks that have been selling those NES emulators. It's one thing to download... but to sell at $50 a pop at the mall... come on.
That's a good question...and while I have to laugh at their efforts, what would it gain? Outside of saving someone the humiliation of buying one of them, that is.
At the West Edmonton Mall, a woman was hawking them saying "You'll never have to buy another game again! Ten thousand games in one!"...this was cased in a terrible, cheap plastic N64 controller, and had some old games on it.
The problem: They had Aye Yar Kung Fu on there, but listed as KING OF FIGHTERS. There was another old fighter in an alley (with the flower pots, I can't recall the name) listed as Tekken. And so on and so forth.
And the repetititon was of the Game Genie variety...one would be called Fly Mario, where it was a version of SMB1, but would have a code in place that would see him fly when the jump button is continually pressed.
I wanted to bring it to Nintend's attention, but how seriously would they persue this?
The woman tried to win my business by knocking the price down to, and she quotes, "a very affordable and incredible seventy bucks, where you'll never have to buy another game ever again!"
She failed miserably, as I headed to the computer store to pick up RED ALERT 2 and YURI'S REVENGE. :-) I've graduated from NES games.
Anyone want to comment?
(edited by SOK on 19.10.04 2356) Wouldn't it be funny if there was an italian chef named Al Dante?
I'm not sure that Nintendo cares. I know they have their trademarks and all, but you can't buy NES games right now.
At a recent conference, my friend, who is a GameStop manager, mentioned both the emulator stuff for sale and the fact that a re-released NES would sell well in his store to a Nintendo rep, and he said that Nintendo pretty much didn't care.
The kiosk at the King of Prussia Mall sells a very professional looking model of the emulator for fairly cheap (don't remember how much). We played it, and the emulation is very solid (unlike the recent Atari and Colecovision emulators). If I had no access to the games, I'd consider buying it.
I'm not sure why Nintendo doesn't care, considering that the classic NES GBA sold pretty well, as did the old classic NES games for the GBA.
Of course, litigation against whoever makes the emulators would involve bringing in a whole bunch of companies, some of which don't exist anymore. Nintendo, Tengen, Activision, Acclaim, LJN, Taito, etc... Would everybody be interesting in doing this? It would probably be cheaper to ignore it.
Go to Asia, these knockoffs are everywhere, and for virtually every platform! I used to know of some websites that catalouged these systems and games. Thing is, they don't work all that well(duh!)
They also have straightup pirated versions of new computer games, apps and operating systems. They are in legitimate stores in malls(at least in thailand). I'd love to see what kinda stuff they have in China!
I use to work at a mall where a kiosk like the one you mentioned opened. Needless to say being the manager of a video game store in the mall at the time I was none to happy and neither was my company. It was a X-mas thing and pretty much just there for holidays. I was instructed to talk to the manager of the mall and inform of various copyright and issues. The manager was VERY happy to go over things with me and the contract between the mall and business owner listed products as "classic video games", no mention of any specific type or titles. The manger and sales department of the mall knew nothing about video games so they allowed the kiosk to open. After informinf him of the legal issues that might arise we both took a stroll over to let him "see for himself". Once we got back to the office, I was dismissed and within an hour the kiosk was closed for obvious reasons. Nintendo alone could sue the mall, and the business owner. The mall manager called Nintendo and actually admitted what happened and sold out the guy who made the contract with the mall.
Originally posted by thefrasermanYeah, I saw that display at Edmonton Mall, it was by the skating rink, right?
The guy there claimed that it had 'every NES game out there!'
I flipped through the list, and I didn't see mega man, TMNT, or even Kirby! It reminded me of those 100-in-one games times fifty.
I laughed and walked away when he was hustling another potential customer.
Funny as hell.
Ummm...it was between the old theatres (the ones that closed, by Galaxyland) and the Bay, if i remember correctly.
And for some more hilarity:
Anyone in Scarborough, Ontario..head to Parkway Mall! If the kiosk is still there, there's a gent selling the same item, but with an additional thing: something that resembles the bastard child of DDR and the NES -- yes, it's eight bit Dance Dance! Seriously! According to the packaging, it's officially licensed by Sony...but I dunno. No signs of the name anywhere in the official "SONY" type.
(edited by SOK on 20.10.04 1735) Wouldn't it be funny if there was an italian chef named Al Dante?
These are traps for adults who know the titles of games their kids want, but not exactly what it is they want or what the game is supposed to be. Add in the 'you'll never have to buy games again' line, and Soccer Mom and Soccer Dad are snagged, hook, line, and sinker.
I've also noticed that they're usually placed in malls about 100 feet from electronics stores in either direction. I guess if the unwitting yet loving parent shopping for the holidays never gets the chance to ask the clerk at EB Games, who will sell you the newest most expensive game that junior wants, oh well.
Also, the reason I doubt litigation will ever be brought up is because they're pirating old, outdated games. It isn't as though they're pitching something designed to compete in the modern world of gaming. If it were pirated copies of games for today's systems, it'd probably be different.
Originally posted by LexusAlso, the reason I doubt litigation will ever be brought up is because they're pirating old, outdated games. It isn't as though they're pitching something designed to compete in the modern world of gaming. If it were pirated copies of games for today's systems, it'd probably be different.
Except that Nintendo in particular SCREAMS about piracy of even old, outdated games, because they have a tendency to reuse old properties. When Nintendo is rereleasing old first-party NES games on GBA in a scattershot fashion, it's hard to argue that the NES games are abandonware.
Throw in third-party games, and multiple software companies have reason for complaint. Even if many of them don't care, trust me, Nintendo does.
The problems with pursuing and prosecuting these copyright infringements are:
* Finding infringements in the first place. Web sites are generally pretty easy to find, hence Nintendo's had a long history of playing Whac-a-Mole with ROM sites (one gets taken down, three pop up somewhere else.) But one guy at a computer can find such sites from his desktop; it takes a lot more legwork to go from mall to mall, flea market to flea market, actively searching out people selling knockoff hardware.
* Hassles of actual prosecution. Nintendo and other companies know that busting the vendor is generally a waste of time and effort; he has little money to seize, and when you balance that against the court costs involved, it's inefficient. Finding the actual manufacturers and suppliers (many of whom are overseas) involves a lot more legal legwork. Enforcing American copyright law against some backwater Taiwan knockoff factory can be difficult, gaining meaningful compensation even more so, and again, knock one down and another springs up to take its place.
* The PR involved in prosecuting offenders is not always positive when it comes to old stuff. If it's Half-Life 2 or GTA: San Andreas, something new and viable, there's usually a lot more sympathy for the controlling companies; if it's a bunch of fifteen-year-old ROM images, a lot of people rationalize it away as "Who's that really hurting?" Large chunks of the gaming community screech like howler monkeys whenever copyright enforcement comes up, and game companies don't really want to go out of their way to alienate those potential customers without tangible need and benefit.
If someone brings a blatant violation to Nintendo's attention, they'll respond. Otherwise, they don't have the resources.
“Back in 2000 a Republican friend warned me that if I voted for Al Gore and he won, the stock market would tank, we'd lose millions of jobs, and our military would be totally overstretched. You know what? I did vote for Gore, he did win, and I'll be damned if all those things didn't come true!" -- James Carville
WW/VC Europe (Friday, July 4) * My Pokémon Ranch -- WiiWare -- 1000 Wii Points * Pop -- WiiWare -- 700 Wii Points WW/VC North America (Monday, July 7) * SPOGS Racing (WW, 1-2 players, 1,000 Wii Points)