Dammit, Vanilla Coke sucks. Bring back my Crystal Pepsi!
Ahem.
Anyway, I have to admit that I don't actually own Dracula X - I have a CD-R copy of it. Yes, perhaps it's hypocritical to pirate a game yet don't have it for download. That's not my choice - it's kind of a mandate from The Man, as it were. It's simply because I don't have $100+ to blow on a single game (granted, I did pay $80 solely to play Star Control 2 for the 3DO, but I got the system and 10 other worthless games as well, so that wasn't too bad.) Unfortunately, this is what happens when games become "collectable" - games are going to fetch high prices. This is what always annoyed me about comic books - I just want to read them, not worry about paying high prices because it's old or in demand or a "limited edition" or whatever.
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I thought I'd make a couple of comments about your last column. A couple of years ago, I did some research into copyright law. A group I was working with at the time was creating a PC remake of the first Final Fantasy. We wanted to know what sort of laws we'd be running into and just exactly how illegal what we were doing was. Suffice to say, it was mostly covered under the "derivative work" clause (pretty damn illegal, but not the worst). While studying this, I also read some stuff that covered archival software copies.
Basically, and this is my interpretation of the legal mumbo-jumbo, any software
a consumer buys (this would/should cover all console games) can be legally
copied for archival purposes so long as: 99.9% of all ROM users could be prosecuted, since by downloading the ROM they break rules C, D, and E, and by distributing they break rule F. They also break rule A if they don't own the original. And by emulating the ROM, they actually break a rule way over in the "derivative works" section about using the software in a different medium than the original. As for Nintendo being an evil, heartless, soulless corporation, while I agree that the big N is retaining a bit, it is often overlooked that if a company _knows_ its copyrights are being subverted and does nothing about it, then they actually lose the right to enforce the copyright at all (though I think this is one of those things that can only be declared in a court of law). All that aside, I'd like to say that I love emulation, and absolutely hate to see good emulation projects shut down. Now if you'll excuse me, I want to burn a better copy of Rhondo of Blood. ---Evil Peer
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Interesting stuff. I love copyright law.
I wouldn't say ROMs would classify under "derivative works" though, since ROMs are the exact same code just running on a different platform. I know this is one of the same arguments Sony tried to use to shoot down Bleem!
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It seems that the general consensus is that it's OK to emulate games that
you can't find anymore... so here's my story. My Castlevania: Symphony of the Night CD (Original Release, not Greatest Hits) got scratched back when I was renting a room over at my friends house. The game itself played OK except a little slowdown here and there and some skipping in the FMV sequences... just enough to annoy me into looking for a replacement. So, I head out to the local Best Buy. I found Castlevania: Chronicles easily enough, but no Symphony of the Night. OK, tried Babbages in the mall next to Best Buy... no dice there either. I got the same results for Funcoland: they didn't even have it used. In fact, I couldn't even find it anywhere in the town I live in! Searching online, I find that Gamestop's website has it listed as $37.99... *USED*. $17 more than the Greatest Hits release cost brand new! I figured that it really isn't worth the price and gave up my search. However, since it's no longer in retail channels, by the reckoning of what I saw in your last column, it's now perfectly OK to emulate it. P.S. Did I mention that I really detest online auctions like eBay? If you wonder why, the names "EverAnime" and "Son-May" just might have something to do with it.
Ross Bemrose
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I've got a similar story. One day, I was about to show one of my friends the glory of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (the only CV game he was familiar with was Simon's Quest.) I grabbed the game from my shelf, and opened the case - the CD was gone. I looked everywhere, and couldn't find it. I'd see it at a few stores in the area, but they were all ranging from $30-$40, used. Online prices were insane - some Yahoo actions set the minimum bid at $70. Sheesh.
Eventually I happened upon a used copy at a video store for $15, and snagged that right up. God bless the Hollywood Video in Brick, NJ.
Similarly, video stores rule for old games, because they usually just tag em all at $10-$15. I've gotten Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy 3, Earthbound and Yoshi's Island for $10 each in the past...and I picked up Maximo for the PS2 at my local Blockbuster this past week for $8. Insane, yes.
And EverAnime and SonMay auctions suck. I hate trying to look for real CDs on eBay and just come across loads of bootlegs. GEH.
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~Once again very good topic. I should have replied to the previous topic
about emulation, but it would be a complete outsiders opinion. The
closest I come to defying any sort of video game norm is playing GBA
games with the GBA-Tv adapter. I have to say that shelling out the $80
for this device has made me extremely happy, for not only do I get to
see and hear Circle of the Moon in all it's graphical glory, (there are
actual scrolling and interesting backgrounds there!) but I get to drool
over the upcoming Harmony of Dissonance being played on my Tv. On a
tangent does anyone else notice how newer Castlevania's have become 3
word titles since Symphony went greatest hit? ~Anyways Nintendo does not lose any money with my owning this and they have no right to complain. I still own a GBA although it's now "changed", and I will still support new games like HoD, Phantasy Star Collection, Magical Vacation, Metroid 4, Mega Man Zero and whatever Square decides to bring to the table now that the Nintendo bond has been re-established. I never saw the appeal of playing portable games "on the go", but in general these titles aren't readily available anywhere else. Except at my job, I work at Funcoland,... whch is a decent lead-in to this week's topic. ~Just yesterday I checked on our computer for the price of Dragon Ball GT,... $129.99! If you think I'm joking head to Gamestop.com and see for yourself. See I'm no fan of fighting games, but I do know that this game is definately not worth even one quarter of that amount, no matter how rare it is. And I'm not just referring to it's replay or entertainment value. Other titles like the not-quite-so-rare Mega Man X3 go for $49.99, along with Super Gameboy (remember that thing?) enhanced Mega Man 5 for Gameboy for the same amount. Up until the release of Final Fantasy Chronicles Chrono Trigger on the SNES was $69.99. How our corperate office comes up with these amounts is beyond my understanding,... or perhaps beyond my will to understand, but Funcoland or it's Barnes and Noble ownership is not alone in this atrocity. ~Ebay seems like a great place to find long lost game relics,... but I knew that there was something wrong when Playstation 2 launched with a major shortage of systems, and people were selling them on Ebay for over $2,000!!! The system didn't have a decent rpg or adventure game to save it's life, the Dvd drives were known to be faulty, (and still are to some extent). So out of curiosity I decided to see what Castlevania lore they had,... Dracula X for Saturn I've seen for as low as $15, very nice. Rondo rarely goes for much less than $80, (almost understandable because it is very rare nowadays and it IS considered one of the greatest Castlevania's ever) I actually found a Haunted Castle arcade board for $120,... with an option to buy now for $400, (again acceptable arcade machines are not cheap, and from what I'm told are quite the shock hazard... would you risk your life for a dose of Castlevania?). ~But the kicker is that someone actually thinks that they will get away with Akumajo Dracula X6800 sharp for $199, wtf?! I bought this game brand new for Playstation for less than 20% of that price for what seems like a few months ago! And also for that price I can now buy a Gamecube, PS2 or Xbox system. So even if I was interested and did have a means of playing the sharp version, (which I seriously doubt is in mint condition as it presumes to be) my question is why would or should anyone have to pay so much? I can't imagine anyone who isn't rich picking this one up for the collectable appeal. ~Gaming is supposed to be fun, not costly and demeaning. And I don't think that gaming has become that big of a commodity where people can charge over $100 for a single sub-par game from a home system, it's robbery and nothing less. It's bad enough that the gaming industry is so misunderstood and oppressed by factions affiliated with Sen. Lieberman, but as items become more rare and reissues of classics are often viewed as a console's weakness rather than an appease to true game players... we'll have to contend with the leeches (who more than likely do not play games out of a superiority complex) charging us up the wazoo for sub-par games just because they're only crime was to become a rarity. ~Just a rant I wrote one night, I'm not even sure if I made a point lol. D
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I hate Funcoland. A lot. My local Babbages used to rule when it came to used games - I picked up Phantasy Star III and IV, Mega Man X, Mega Man X2 and Mega Man 7 for $10 each. Heck, I even saw Ogre Battle once there for the same price. Ever since Funcoland bought them (and Software Etc.) we have to deal with these sometimes arbitrarily set prices.
As a fighting game fan - Dragon Ball GT Final Bout is one of the worst on the Playstation. I didn't know anything about Dragon Ball when I first played it, but it was just an utter atrocity. The fact that anyone would pay more than a few dollars for this pile of crap is astounding.
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Hey Kurt! Way to promote Homestar Runner in the ending of your latest
column. What a great page. Anyway, I agree that it is slightly ridiculous to pay large amounts of money for games on defunct systems. Don't the publishers realize that this is what's going to drive people to emulation? It seems to make sense that if you want people to flock to buy your product, you have to make it at a reasonable cost and quality and not release crap that no one will buy. I happened to buy both Final Fantasy Chronicles and the Anthology, even though I already have FF2/3 on SNES. Those compilations were reasonable priced --- 40 bucks for two games in one set! --- and at least for Chronicles, the games were improved upon. As for paying lots of money for games, I don't really have a choice because I can't emulate, seeing that my computer is very old. I happen to be really lucky that I live within walking distance of a Funcoland, however, so that's where I've gotten some good deals on used SNES and PSX games. I've never had to pay anything too outlandish at that store and if they don't have something I'm looking for, I can always go back another time and check later. Now, I never got into eBay for buying things until a friend of mine got me hooked on the MegaMan X series. It was no problem finding the first cartridge at the above store, but they didn't have the other two. And the folks there suggested eBay to look around. I did so and eventually, after a long time trying again and again to score, I finally won my two other SNES X games. I admit being a bit miffed to paying more for a game that in its prime, was a lot less in the store. But what else was I supposed to do? Emulation would be my only choice. If the good folks at Capcom had had a way for me to find these games easier at a reasonable price, I would have gladly purchased from them. And it's not like my hard searching gave them money, either. Although on the flip side of the eBay thing, sometimes you CAN score deals for games that are cheaper than the original price when it first came out. That's how I got my copy of Paladin's Quest. Of course, right after I got the game, Funcoland WOULD then have it for even cheaper...oh well. I really think that companies who want to maintain a loyal fanbase of people wanting to purchase classic games need to tap into this. I'm sure they'd make some good money. I mean, if you look at the classicgaming homepage, they have that story about the recent con with bunches of people buying up all sorts of goodies. So the market is there to tap if someone is creative enough. Score one for the people at Atari who seem to know what they're doing in this field. So I guess that if you can find a way to price older videogames where you're not gouging someone's wallet, methinks more people would do that than emulate. Hey, I also read that Nintendo site in your last column. Are those people completely out of touch with reality or what? "Having our own emulator would be promoting piracy and that's just wrong and there's nothing more to say on the subject." It's almost like they're adding, "So there. Nyaaah!" Oh and would the U.S. copyright of 75 years exist for something made only in Japan? Kurt, I hope you go far in the computer industry, 'cause maybe you can change some of the publishing attitudes out there. --- Setzer
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I have a love/hate relationship with eBay. On one hand, it's a great place to find games I wouldn't have found otherwise. On the other hand, it's a real price gouger.
The way it works in the beginning - take a game like Dracula X. People auction it off and see that it fetches high prices. Other sellers set their minimum bid or reserve at approximately that level. Bidders then believe that the game is actually worth that much, and pay it (or more, if there's a fierce bidding competition.) Thus, the cycle begins over and over, and I'm not sure if it's possible to break out of. One would guess that eventually, games would fall out of demand, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
Dracula X is not a rare game. It's certainly in demand, but at almost any given instance, there at least one copy of it on eBay. You don't need to pay these high prices. It might take awhile, but maybe after these sellers get sick of not reaching their $150 reserves, they'll lower the prices until they reach a sane amount of money. Of course, the high price may be partly due to the fact that it is very expensive in Japan too - reports from Akihabara point it around the 8800 yen (or $75) mark. On a random side note, the Japanese version of Castlevania Bloodlines is even more expensive, despite the fact that you could pick up a new copy here in America a few years ago for around $10.
This is another case where I really like Square. Someone, somewhere saw that Final Fantasy Tactics and Xenogears were fetcing absurd prices on eBay. In order to not only meet that demand but also make some extra cash, they re-released both of them (with FF Tactics as a Greatest Hits title - even cheaper than normal.) Granted, this is a bit more difficult to do on a dead platform like the SNES or Genesis. But porting over these games onto a next-gen system is not going to be very difficult.
Konami seems to be at least looking into these options, with their recent "Arcade Advanced" or whatever for the GBA, and their announcement for the "classics" pack for the computer. But this goes back to the last column - they'd better put something interesting in that package if they want us to buy it and not turn to emulation.
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Good morning Kurt! Hey, just wanted to clear up a misstatement first as far as my e-mail from last week. I had stated that there were batteries within the carts that could do what a normal battery could do. I knew that I was wrong, but didn't actually catch myself until after I had sent it. Not wanting to look too much like an ass, I figured I would go back real quick (feel free to leave this part in or cut it out, you are the almighty Boss man here). There aren't batteries in all carts, just those that keep save knowledge (re: Final Fantasy II and III). After roughly 10 years, they start to lose their power and are not able to save anymore or will transmit the data in such a terrible condition that it isn't even worth it. Thus the reason why everyone is dumping their older carts that NEED the save technology because they are afraid of the damage time has done. Of course I am sure YOU already know this, but this is for those casual gamers or those far too young to remember the glory of an SNES. Wow, can I tie in topics or what?! Collectable carts and hard-to-get games! Pox on those smart enough to buy the copies when they came out so they can make a profit off of them! No, wait... sorry, that is just me being bitter again. I agree that the prices of rare Castlevania games are a tad bit rough on the old pocket book, but then we have to thank our stars that our series isn't a sell-out.... er, I mean, um... a fine, profitable game series that wins over millions and millions of gamers each installment that comes out (that's right, I am talking to YOU, Paper Mario fanboy!). Granted, paying $40 for a copy of Symphony that doesn't have an annoying green stripe on it that says "Greatest Hits" on it is a tad much; it is the same game, different packaging. I think the thing that burns me is that the very poor and very edited Drac X for the SNES is so terrible that selling it for $50 (cart only, no guarantee that it will work) should be a crime. Don't get me wrong, I have the Drac X for SNES, actually had TWO of them (one in a box, one cart only until I found a chump... er, investor that wanted to purchase one), but would I have plunked it down if I weren't such a raging fanboy of the series? No.
But there is a greater crime here, and it ties in with our last
discussion. It is Konami (or insert your other favorite gaming company
here... Square, Atlus/Enix/Quest, Rareware, 989 Studios... wait... how
did THAT get in here?!) telling their loyal fans, the ones that would
trip over themselves to buy Castlevania Chronicles because it was a
revamped version of an out-of-date game that no one had seen stateside,
to sit on it and take a spin. Do they even realize how much they could
get if they took the Turbo-grafix Drac X or even the Sega version of
Symphony and released it for PS2/GC/XBox? "Yeah
However, what they lose is the demand. They dangle that carrot out
there, saying "Sure, we are thinking of making a Next-Gen console game
containing the first four Castlevanias and a few extras involving Drac
and a snow bunny...." Well, they didn't say the last part, but they
should! Where was I? Oh yeah, they say that and then they can dump out
Castlevania 64, Castlevania Legacy of Darkness; and snatch away great
titles like Castlevania Resurrection. Corporate play things we are, sad
to say. Such are the lives of us fans. Thank goodness this never
happens to the movies! *wink, wink*
And that is all I have to say this week, looking forward to next
time!
-Matt "But they told me it had snow bunnies! I want Snow bunnies!"
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I'm still amazed the battery in my Zelda cartridge works, but it'll probably be dead in a few years.
We also have to understand that Konami is a Japanese company, and they care about what the Japanese customers want. As much as we all (and probably some people over in the Land of the Rising Sun) want a revamped Dracula X, the X68000 game is far more difficult to find, thus that choice to make it available. Maybe the Japanese executives are blind to what Americans are asking for. Maybe they don't care. Who knows.
In the PC game industry, you see old games released in compilation packs ALL the time. Last time I was in Software Etc., I found a whole shelf of Lucasarts games for $10 each, going as far back as the original Dark Forces. Electronic Arts puts out budget packs with like 10 games every other day. Why not do this in the video game industry?
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Hi, Kurt. Personally, I've faced the issue of extraordinarily high
prices for video games many times over. Sometimes I feel that the price
is worth it. For example, I paid 180 dollars for Rondo of Blood. My
friends joke about it sometimes but they understand my mentality. On the
other hand, Dragonball: Final Bout, as it's called in Japan, costs about
40 dollars on E-bay. The American version, Dragonball GT: Final Bout,
costs around 200, sometimes more. Why is this? I have cd-r copies of
both versions and they're no different other than the intro music and the
language. They're basically the same game and not a relatively good
one. All the Dragonball games stink. The best one is Dragonball Z:
Hyper Dimension on the snes and even that is only half way tollerable.
Bandai makes great action figures but can't make a game for anything.
But that's beside the point. The reason the American version costs astronomically more than the Japanese version is because of its limited release in the USA. Therefore, rarity takes precidence over quality when it comes to the prices of games. Rondo of Blood features both rarity and quality so the price is acceptable for a fan. For me, rarity alone is hardly a reason to pay so much for a game. Unless I get lucky and find a scarce game for a very low price, I will never buy a game just because it's rare. Many collectors will disagree but I don't buy things to just stare at them and store away. I want to use them for what they're meant to be used for. I remove my action figures from their original packaging, I read my comic books, and I play my video games. It depends on the person, I guess. Two-hundred for Final Bout might seem reasonable to someone if they are a collector or love Dragonball so much. My friend, an avid Dragonball lover for example, got lucky and found a copy of Final Bout (USA) in a bargain bin at Blockbuster for 10 bucks. I keep telling him to sell it on e-bay with a reserve of 250 dollars. It'll sell and he can keep a copy. But he loves having the original. I figure that price is always an issue with games because, let's face it, we're not all able to make good choices. I've spent 40 bucks on a few stinkers over the years. Video gaming isn't cheap and never has been. So unless money isn't an issue, gamers have to make sensible judgements. Some people use magazines for instance. I read Game Informer Magazine to help me in my decisions. Most of the time I know exactly which games I definately want but for the ones that I will either buy on a whim or am not to sure about, I try to remember what Game Informer said about the game. So to conclude about the super high prices for games: read up on the game beforehand. At least then you can make a fully educated decision. Tony T. Tiger.
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For the most part, the games that seem to go for the highest prices are the "cult" games - they're usually very good, but didn't sell well because either the general public wasn't interested it (look at any Ogre Battle game - I think they're produced in low quantities just because Atlus doesn't think it'd do that great), or the system it came out on was dying at the time (Panzer Dragoon Saga and Shining Force 3 for the Saturn, Snatcher for the Sega CD.) Similarly, Mega Man X is usually pretty cheap, but its sequels - released when the SNES was losing momentum - fetch more because they probably didn't sell as well. This is most definitely what happened with Symphony of the Night - it probably only sold OK when it came out, but when the word of mouth spread over the hours about how much it owned, people began to track down copies of it. Then it became hard to find and people who wanted to sell it realized it was in demand, so the prices got higher and higher...
With Dragon Ball GT, it was released in small quantities for some reason, even though most people weren't familiar with the license. When Dragon Ball Z became popular, suddenly, everyone started fighting over it, quality be damned. I know someone who actually the stole the game from my local video store, paid the fine and sold it at an insane profit.
I think the highest price I ever paid for a single video game was about $65 - either for Sexy Parodius on the Playstation (which was worth every penny) or Goemon 3 for the Super Famicom (which wasn't.) But that about wraps it up for complaining about high priced games.
So, in being unable to think about much else, let's just talk about the upcoming White Night Concerto. It's due out shortly in Japan, and has apparently been pushed back to either August or September in America (according to Konami at the E3 anyway.) Do you think it'll be as good as Symphony of the Night? Is the new Spell Fusion system all you expect? Just write in about anything.
-Kurt, who feels that Homsar is his favorite Homestar Runner character.