Are we all just a bunch of PIRATES? (Emulation VS Piracy)
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- Опубликовано: 11 сен 2024
- VID I MENTIONED AT THE END: • Nintendo makes a move ...
I love playing these old retro games, but recently someone said something that made me sad. They said that I’m nothing more than a dirty dastardly despicable pirate, for playing these games that I don’t own. Is that true? Am I a terrible person for playing Spy vs Spy on the Gameboy Colour? Am I really nothing more than a filthy PIRATE? Well, maybe, but maybe not. But maybe… Let’s find out!
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#emulation #retrogames #retrohandheld
Pirates are the reason why we even have certain retro video games even available at this point. Piracy is a necessity for long-term game preservation since the corpos aren't doing jack.
Exactly!!
Some modern games, as well. When a remake/remaster comes out, the original is often removed from stores. Well, what if my PC cannot run the new version? Or I really liked something about the old one? Off to the torrents it is then.
Pirate by necessity👍😉
@@user-ty1it5gz4v How many late 1980s and early 1990s games had code wheels or manual copy protection? If it weren't for crackers that pirated those games back in the day, it would be mighty difficult to play some of them today. Same thing goes with CD-ROM checks. How many PCs have CD-ROMs any more? Especially people who use things like NUCs.
Es none of the producers of games wanted anythung to do with preservation until they saw how popular retro gaming was. For decades emulators were unmolested by nintendo/sega/atari lawyers. like the original xbox running xbmc(kodi) long before streaming services. Its was a decade ahead. And even still today, there were features you still cant get now.
Piracy, I remember when we used to call it abandonware.
Emulation isn't piracy downloading roms is, but we've all owned every nes,snes, ps1,2,3, gb,gbc,gba,ds,3ds game. Right 😏
Basically, also many of these never came out in certain regions of the World. According to these Dumbass's ROM Hacking is also piracy.
How's your back today?
If nintendo or sony introduced a cloud based service that wasn't awful and allowed access to their old libraries in an accessible, authentic form, and was reasonably priced, I would pay for it. Just like I pay for Game Pass. But they don't. 100% abandonware
@@anothorestesthe issue is Nintendo doesn't own the rights to all those games. And the rights might have been peace mealed out so it's hard to get legal means to sell it or rent it.
99% use emulations is to use pirate games. Only 1% pure heart used emulations in a good way
You forgot Number 5 and 6
5) Preserving a game so it can be experienced by a new audience.
6) Translating games for different regions of the world.
Like Mother 3
5 assumes no one has the rights to a game and has no way to reproduce it legally.
@@Micchi- Mother 3 is different from other japan exclusives. Mother 3 HAS an audience here that's been waiting for it, knows about it, and some have even played it through said means. Mother 3 isn't obscure. There's a line of people WAITING for its American release still.
It is a crime that game hasn't been released when Nintendo knows it will reach the same audience who loves the other Mother games. They just won't. It's probably easy too.
99% use emulations is to use pirate games. Only 1% pure heart used emulations in a good way
@@Hazemann What would be good hearted emulation to you? You basically said about every retro emulator is immoral.
1) If the game isn't available for purchase from the publisher, there's no victim.
2) Publishers see piracy and used copies in the same light: Either way they aren't getting paid.
Remember "Do not resale?" Yeah, everyone laughed at that lol
I have games I physically own but can't use because of dead hardware. I played a copy of Syphon Filter I found using a pi and an old peripheral disc drive. It worked. Full disclosure Syphon Filter is available for sale on the PS store but there is no xbox style backwards compatiblity where you insert the the disc to verify it, then the game is downloaded.
As a game developer, Piracy was the reason I got into developing games.. I would never have had the exposure to a vast array of game mechanics had I not copied hundreds of game floppy disks for my Commodore 64 as a kid. We had no money to buy originals. Now I develop games I give back, and yes they are pirated sometimes but I don't mind. Im not short of a dollar and the people who pirate the game are still PLAYING my game! Thats a thrill for a true game developer. Game development is art, does an artist care if the person who is enjoying looking at your painting didn't pay for that privilege? Should only the lucky people with access to money be able to enjoy your work? I say no.
I wanted to give this more likes
Wise comment.
The marketplace is too broken to feel bad about being a pirate
Also the copyright system.
I like this guy
Most are pirates, yes, but they do they do it without causing harm? Also yes.
Point well made!
Here are even instances of pirates saving data noone else had.
There’s no other way to play most of my favorite classic games
Emulation is not piracy. My 10,000 roms collection is.
❤
friendlyjunco...only around 10000 ROMs? you're not obsessed enough...you need 50000 plus...like me...but it takes years and years and....
@@markianclark9645 I haven't played all of them yet
Technically, yes for ROMs, but from my view if there is no legal method to purchase it is a unfortunate but necessary method to preserve these old games.
I used to work for an archive and emulation for preservation is a valid archival strategy.
Just because there's no legal way to purchase it doesn't mean you have a right to own it.
@@TheMysteryDriver Would you prefer that these old abandoned games disappear into the ether?
@@OutlawMantis but they don't. Other people have them. Just not you.
@@TheMysteryDriver Not always. Sometimes there are scenarios where media is very rare and considered lost. I've been in such a scenario before. If I hadn't been persistent, that media would likely still be lost. Nobody needs special permission to archive media in their private collection. In fact, it's better that they do. The great sanctuary that is the Internet Archive may not be around forever. The corporations may one day gain the legal strength to shut down libraries, and when that happens, peer-to-peer distribution will be our last remaining option for preservation.
I’m usually not keen on the idea of spending hundreds of dollars to play McDonald’s Treasure Land Adventure, and the game isn’t even on sale to support the devs.
This sums up the morally ok side of piracy pretty well.
I am sure if we asked Grimace he would throw it or a SNES style sequel online for free.
@@kayealexv.g.Hopefully next birthday.
the video is not up yet but the answer is YES, we're all pirates. let's be real. we all downloaded ROMS instead of "legally" extracting it digitally or whatever the process is.
The only way to not be a pirate is to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on retro games to line the pockets of resellers on eBay....so....I say AVAST YE MATEY!!!!
And even then you're not exactly in the clear, as companies perceive second-hand sales as "legal piracy", since they didn't get a dime from that particular sale, basically damned if you do, damned if you don't... in other words... Aargh! it's good to be a pirate! ^^
I'd rather be a pirate then... harrrl... 🏴☠️🛶☠️
Arrrrrrr matey 🏴☠️
What if i bought them at one point? Beyond the beyond on ps1 is not really worth re-buying and my copy of crash bandicoot 2 is unplayable.
Piracy is not only ethical, but necessary.
Not when it gets drm added onto the switch because people emulate switch games.
@@debeb5148 Theres certainly a difference between pirating games that are on a currently active platform compared to a a game from a console that hasn't been produced for 25 years.
@@SageNoodleVT but there definitely are unethical instances of emulation like that. Don't get me wrong, I support emulation, and the hardware being obsoleted is a big reason why.
@@SageNoodleVT Like emulating a GameCube game. That's victimless. A switch game, nope.
@@debeb5148 agreed. And Nintendo are honestly the worse when they’ll actively go after rom sites then not give customers a legit way to play old games like that.
its not piracy. its preservation.
Emulation is really fun. I don’t mind being a pirate if it isn’t hurting anyone. If a game is available to buy on a platform I still own, I’ll buy a copy. I don’t pirate modern games because I can just buy them
That's the way to do it ☝️
@@TechDweeb exactly...that's how i justify my actions too...i wouldn't download copies of modern games for free...it will be available on a pay to play platform...i'm a retro gamer...i get my ROMs preloaded on TF cards from cheap Chinese handhelds...the software uploaders in Asia often use ROMs in Japanese (mixed with USA/EU) so as not to attract too much unwanted attention...like from Nintendo and Sega...often changing the titles so you have to start the game to actually see what it is...i don't surf the darker parts of the web for ROM packs...i have grabbed a few bundles years ago from sites that have been closed down...or removed links...and i wouldn't reshare them to those who ask...you find your own or you go without...same with many things in life...anyone asks me if i'm a pirate...i own all 52000 plus games it's just a coincidence all the same games came on TF cards in cheap devices from China...
Actually what is meant to be piracy in retrogaming made a cultural and historical miracle: the making of archives and games, available for emulation. Sometimes games are not available otherwise, and they would have been lost forever. Emulation (and even piracy) makes them still alive. You know what? My dream is to download roms from a sort of web-museum of games, paying for each of them.
I can get behind that.
Save states make a lot of these old games way more playable. I also like Romhacks and translations. Homebrews are fun too, you can usually buy the ROM.
It's a victimless crime and I will die on that hill. Yo ho yo ho a pirate's life for me!
One side of the coin is when the company closes the store and burns all the copies (recent estore shut downs for wii, ds, etc) without piracy those parts of our history would be lost forever.
You could argue things are MEANT to be lost in history. That makes treasures.
When we talk about piracy, the majority of time we’re not talking about games where the publishers have died off. We’re talking about Pokémon games, legacy titles, etc. games where the publisher is alive but not selling their games. Maybe they are trying to play the supply/demand ratio, maybe they want rarity for their games. That does not give someone the right to pirate a game just because it’s not available.
Problem with the soup analogy is that in the soup scenario, it is just the smell, while in the game scenario, you are literally partaking the soup.
I think in the soup scenario, pirating games you CAN buy would be stealing the soup (crime with a victim), but pirating games you CAN'T buy would be stealing the smell (victimless crime).
Doesn't work. You posses various retro game systems with over 100K games, so for your argument to have any merit, you'd have to find out for each and every game you enjoy, whether it's available for sale, and if so, immediately turn off the system and BUY the game.
@@TechDweebYou don't just "smell" all those games though, do you?? I know I don't! 😅
I bought Megaman battle network and then re sold it back to gamestop because Nintendo is homogeneous . BTW what is that TV emulator
On the one hand piracy isn't completely ethical, but on the other hand these games are too good not to be preserved and played, and it shows companies that people are still interested in older games. Many official rereleases of older games whether it'd be emulation or a port, probably wouldn't exist if emulation didn't make sure that there were still a lot of people who care about older games, who didn't have the opportunity to have those games in particular. Especially arcade games, without unofficial emulation those would absolutely be lost to time.
great discussion topic and I think you summed it up pretty much perfectly. this is the kind of thing that will be endlessly debated regardless, but I enjoy hearing fresh and honest takes on the matter. I used to be 100% leaning into the anti-piracy, only play games on original hardware in their original format, type of collector/gamer...but over the last nearly 2 decades still found myself evolving with my own personal viewpoints on emulation and video game preservation - and as a result have gone way further into the "hobby" of emulation than I ever thought I would. But I still purchase legally and play the majority of the games that I experience "the old fashioned way". I might be going out on a limb by saying this, but it's my belief that a majority of people who get into emulation as much as you do and the people in this comments section do, likely purchase more games and support more developers on an annual basis than the people who don't..I have no way to prove it, but that's what my gut says. And sure, there's going to be that subset of folks who are only doing it so they don't have to spend any money at all on games the second they have the library they need by either downloading or buying from rogue Chinese companies...but I do not believe that to be the majority of us. I started emulating NES games that I owned as a child (and still owned at the time when I went off to college) on my PC two decades ago and while my interest in the space has ebbed and flowed throughout that time due to "technical knowledge gaps" and time - it's never been easier to learn for someone brand new to it today and get up and running. The barrier of entry no longer seems to be so high, so I could defenitely see more people getting into it now for the wrong reasons than in the past. Whatever your personal opinions on the subject (and all opinions are def valid), I think most importantly is to be respectful of others and how they chose to experience games - especially the ones that can no longer be purchased in any marketplace besides the physical media reseller market, which is riddled with it's own issues and challenges for the every day ordinary gamer if they would like to experience certain titles. Thanks for the video TechDweeb - and emulate responsibly and respectfully everyone!
Well said. Yeah I'm with ya. I think people who buy retro handhelds and take the time to play retro games are likely spending a significant amount of money on new games for consoles and PC.
This whole topic is pretty silly at this point. Oh, I owned some NES games a long time ago so I can "morally" emulate them now and so everything is just peachy keen. And I suppose you never play any old NES games you NEVER owned, right?
@@thomasglebe1273 did I say that? no, I said that's how I first discovered/learned about emulation 2 decades ago. Are you telling me that every NES game ever sold currently has a way to purchase it from a store as a brand new physical copy (developers do not see any money from aftermarket used video game sales) or on a legitimate digital storefront for either PC, MAC, or the 3 current popular game consoles? No, you can't say that either. Not that I have to answer your question either because clearly you aren't being respectful in your comment, but I will freely admit to playing NES games that I've never owned, because there is currently no way to purchase it at a retail price from one of the above methods mentioned, without going into insane aftermarket prices which do not support the original creators of the game in any way - as TechDweeb basically just did in this video. Do what works for you though - thats fine with me if you disagree
this story is known a bit different in my country.
when the soupman saw what happens he demanded to be paid 10 silvers, half of what the soup itself costed. the poor man said he does not have any money and cannot pay, so the soupman said then you will pay with pain, i will hit you with a stick for every silver you can't pay, so 10 hits.
the poor man said, "ok, but as i'm stealing the smell of your soup, you will hit my shadow with your stick."
it's basically the same meaning. but i feel it's a bit better represented what is happening. the poor man does not hurt the soupman with his actions. and then the soupman hitting the shadow cannot hurt the poor man. it's kind of equal exchange in a more direct manner.
While I do agree with this video, I do wonder about our reliance on digital download platforms. While I own over 500 steam games, I often wonder what happens when steam decide they are turning off their servers I have no way of getting these games other than pirate sources. It does seem strange that I’m paying all this money for digital games and physically own nothing. Emulation on the other hand is a great way of preserving the classics for future generations.
Steam shutting down their service is a doomsday scenario. That would be a momentous event the likes of which the gaming world has never seen. I wonder how/if that would ever happen.
@@TechDweebanother better cheaper platform/store comes along.
In the unlikely, catastrophic event of Steam shutting down in our lifetimes, well... There's always piracy. I wouldn't lose any sleep at all downloading and playing cracked versions of those games I paid for.
Realistically though, Steam isn't going anywhere. It's huge and extremely valuable. More likely, (but still unlikely) is that it gets bought out by a bigger company and lives on under new management. I have more faith in being able to play my Steam library in the years to come than any console. Nintendo alone has opened and shut down the stores of four digital distribution platforms in the same amount of time as I've been on Steam.
I can dig up some floppy disk I bought 30 years ago from storage, plug it into a cheap, USB floppy drive, and play that game on a modern system right now. On the flip side, I've purchased the original NES Legend of Zelda at least three separate times, and Nintendo STILL wants me to pay a subscription service to play it on my Switch today. Meanwhile, I bought Half Life 2 for Steam in 2004. I can still play it today on modern hardware, or my Steam Deck, and I expect 20 years from now I'll still be able to play it. Another game I bought around the same time, Zelda: Wind Waker, is unavailable to purchase. I can't play my Gamecube copy or my Wii U copy of the HD remaster on the Switch. I have to either hang on to the old systems, which won't last forever, or emulate them on PC.
I like being a pirate…. But for real emulation is truly amazing. I’ve had a Miyoo mini plus since July 3rd still stock and I love it.
I got an RG35XX in January and I power it on to play AT LEAST once a day. I carry it with me everywhere I go.
I'm a porch pirate!
@@robhulsonsame here lol! It goes everywhere I go! Work out to the lake you name it. Sitting down by the water on a porch swing in the afternoon playing some retro games is awesome!
I'm loving both my miyoo mini plus, and rg405m. Emulation is a great thing. If only these companies would realize just how much we like these types of things. Imagine an official Nintendo emulator handheld and how great that could be.
@9:20 what’s the game being played?
I loved the Minecraft cutscene! And Bit Rot is my new band name.
Awesome name for a band. I'm picturing chiptune death metal.
Of all the arguments for, against, or mild salsa towards pirating games, this is by far the most relatable one (for my collecting and playing lifestyle) I've seen.
It is well said, valid and ensured that devs getting paid is not only an important message to include, but also a critical gap between piracy and just outright stealing.
Oh, I for sure am! Do what you want to 'cause a pirate is free. You ARE a Pirate!🏴☠
I really like how you touched on victimless crimes. They are being treated more like actual crimes now though - in some cases. I just found this channel and i subbed.
Welcome! I think most of the people getting in trouble with emulation are the ones profiting off it - those who are selling emulation aids or modding systems or running rom websites with ad revenue. And in that case I'm on the side of the corps I think. If it's a hobby we're all taking part in for free, then there's no harm done, but when pirates are profiting off others' work that's when it becomes a problem.
I enjoy your videos but think your reasoning in this particular video is completely off the map. You've reviewed several retro boxes and hard drives containing well above 100K games. Your soup analogy is circular reasoning, and your take on an old Atari game Bezerk and not being able to "compensate" the deceased developer, is invalid. Because following your logic, if you want to play Bezerk and other such games, and don't actually own the game, then you need to find out who the developer's surviving family and friends and send them a few bucks. Now, DO THAT for each and every one of each "pirated" video game you've played. It's ridiculous. But this is the "logic" that the fat cat corporations demand of you. And while you and most of the rest of us LOVE retro games, the corporations only care about profit. They could care less about what you enjoy. Finally, dissing folks for making money off of retro games, means you should NOT accept ANY ad revenue your channel brings in, because to simply MAKE your videos, you've had to buy and more or less promote your own "piracy," right? I don't let cold, unfeeling corporations dictate to me what is or is not "stealing," and neither should you. You give these companies an inch and they'll do everything possible to destroy retro gaming as we now know it. I know you tried very hard to rationalize your conclusions but I don't think you did a very good job of it in this video. Still love your stuff. 👍
@@thomasglebe1273 I would like to interject some things that's are being overlooked.
It's far deeper than the "corporations want their money" it's the heartless and soulless policies being made and enforced by unelected beaucrats - them and corporate leaders making deals in closed doors. That's Corporatism,that's what America has been doing for very long, not Capitalism.
My brother had Berserk! on an Atari. I used to play it a lot as a kid. Fun game.
That's soup story was hilarious😂
What a lovely piece of hodja nasreddin to minecraft adaptation you have there XD
About point #4 - it doesn't necessarily follow that we should buy the game if it is possible to do so.
Most retro games are not being sold by the publishers any more, they are being sold by scalpers.
If I buy a copy of a game from some guy who bought it from a yard sale and put it on ebay at a 1000% markup, none of that money goes to the developers. It goes to the scalpers, who have ruined vintage game collecting for the rest of us.
The only person who loses out if I download the rom instead is the scalper, and he deserves it.
I was worried that kerfuffle was gonna get out of hand 😮😂
I just want to have to pay for something once and be able to use it forever, that is, how long I desire to do so. I don't appreciate having to pay subscription fees, so I got rid of my PlayStation 4. When I watch films, listen to music, read books, watch TV shows, or play games, it's generally decades after they were popular, with exceptions to film and TV (I do have a household subscription service for these). Above all else though, I just want to be able to hold on to that nostalgia; something constant in my life when the world is changing day by day. I don't want to have to buy the same game every time it comes out for another generation. Buying consoles or computers or physical media can get expensive and be wasteful at some point. It's always best to have a physical copy, but you need to be prudent about this, and I think that's where emulation comes into play, no pun intended.
If buying isn't owning then piracy isn't stealing.
08:11 - Now that's a simple, yet genuinely profound statement. IDK about others, but I occasionally miss the forest for the trees & simply skip right past the good stuff.
Thanks, buddy. New sub, BTW - glad I found you.
I'm glad someone mentioned that part. I should have emphasized it more because it's the most powerful tool we have as customers to shape the world we live in.
Welcome to the dweeby side 🤓
Victimless crimes include when you're going 26mph in a 25mph zone.
Arrrrrrg - using my peg-leg and my other good leg, I hobbled over to my parrot named Tekno while looking at him through my non-patched eye; he told me that he loves retro-gaming!!! 🏴☠️
I have 4tb of pirate booty!
Emulation is not piracy
How we obtain 99% of our roms is piracy
When 90% of those titles aren't legally sold anywhere, nobody should lose sleep over it
Surely it can't be as simple as that!?!
When your only option to reasonably obtain a game is to buy a physical copy second hand from an unofficial source, there is no grey area, it is flat out morally and rationally correct to not spend a cent and just take a digital copy for free instead. If it's not an official vendor OR you are the not the first user of the disc/cart (used copies from GameStop for example), your payment is doing absolutely nothing to help further game development in any capacity, and the fact that you no longer have that budget, and it instead went to pay the bills of some unrelated corporation or scalper/hoarder/profiteer, inherently means those funds have been removed from the spending pool of the modern games market.
You can make arguments for or against the concept with modern games that are still available, but with old ones it is genuinely completely inarguable, the ONLY ethical thing to do is to very specifically NOT buy used media or even sealed copies from 2nd-hand sources if they're no longer in production. The two things that can go wrong with those old titles, one like I said being buying used/2nd-hand/scalped/etc, but other is profiting off of the digital copies (such as pre-made upcharged drives, or bootlegs back in the day, or console cracks with DRM and required fees) for the very same reason that it removes funds from the spending pool for modern games.
Well said!
So I do have an old game, and console collection, I own some of my favorite games, I don’t though own them all. Will I ever own of hard copy of Earthbound… no, did I buy it on the Wii shop… yes, did I buy a mini snes with it on there too… yes. Does that justify a rom file on every emulation console I own… I don’t know. I also pay for the maximum service my switch has for all those virtual consoles on my switch, so I can play those games. Do I always play them on the switch, no sometimes I want my little game boy like miyoo to play them on. These guys give me a way to buy these games and I’m gonna buy it everytime. Just one real quick note, I bought a lot of games on the virtual console for the Wii, games I never had a chance to play, games never released in the US, that was so awesome I loved the Wii shop. My Wii died, it was like all those purchases are completely gone and wasted, I’m never gonna own a turbo 16 in my lifetime, so I bought tons of games for it. All gone…
Arrrrrr, I be a pirate and I'm here to play all thee retro games I can get my grubby hands on. Arrrr!!
Based on the studies I've read, even the "bad" case is good for the soup man. Soaking in that free soup smell and enjoying your smelly bread has some pretty important side effects:
- Serves as free advertising for the soup man.
- Increases the amount of soup the bread-holder buys, and their friends too.
- Increases the soup man's profits and fame.
Most software companies know this, and consciously choose not to prosecute "piracy" except in rare cases. Because it's beneficial for them.
Additionally, there's a very strong case to be made that software copyrights should be much, much shorter... like 20 or maybe even just 10 years. Patents and copyrights are only supposed to grant the creator special privileges for long enough to be fairly compensated for their work, after which it's meant to become public domain. And software typically reaches end of life in just 5 years, sometimes maybe 10. Anything older than that really should be public domain.
We are archiving games that could potential be gone forever
but no one is selling those games anymore if it wasn't for piracy and emulation alot of those game would be dead if anything its actually profitable for the gamedevs as if someone played old gba final fantasy thanks to piracy now he might play the newer ones..
Ay Ay Captain!!!🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️
You're the best, Tech Dweeb!
I resonate with your argument and I really liked the "parable" you told halfway through ;)
De Panta does as he pleases, tech man
wow! u should do more of those stories in the future :)
also this is the best video on retro piracy or what ever its called I've watched lol
That episode was just WOW!
If gaming companies offered retro collects for a very fair price then there would be no need for piracy. They do not. We are not pirates. We are preservationists.
It’s intriguing to note that the perspective you’ve highlighted is primarily rooted in the American legal framework. In contrast, Switzerland adopts a distinctive approach to copyright law, allowing individuals to freely download copyrighted music and movies for personal use without legal ramifications. This approach hinges on the concept that as long as the content is intended for personal enjoyment rather than distribution or profit, it does not infringe upon the rights of copyright holders.
Diverging from the stance taken by many other nations, where unauthorized downloading of copyrighted content is deemed a breach of copyright law, Switzerland’s approach has a distinct twist. Nonetheless, it’s important to emphasize that sharing or distributing copyrighted content without explicit permission remains illegal within the Swiss context.
The intricacies of this approach were brought to the forefront by certain stakeholders within the music industry who pushed for a revision of Switzerland’s copyright law. Consequently, the Swiss government quoted a comprehensive study that yielded intriguing insights. The study revealed that those who engaged most in what is commonly termed as “illegal downloading” were also the most substantial purchasers of content from these very stakeholders. Surprisingly, penalizing this group would inadvertently affect the individuals who contribute the most financially towards music and movies. Interestingly, the second significant group of “downloaders” consisted of individuals who lacked the financial means to afford the content, and thus their inability to buy it persisted.
In essence, residents of Switzerland enjoy a legal environment that permits the downloading of ROMs for personal use. If such a disposition were adopted globally, or at the very least in the United States, it could potentially exert pressure on the industry to develop platforms that are more enticing and user-friendly than downloading ROMs from shady, ad-filled website.
It’s imperative to recognize that the majority of piracy arises from issues of convenience rather than an innate inclination towards piracy itself. The Swiss study vividly underscores this point, showcasing that the motivations behind piracy are often far more complex than they may initially appear.
PS: I can’t count how many times I have bought a copy of Super Mario 3 because Nintendo wants me to buy it on every new system they release… :(
loved the write-up, i learned a lot.
and the conclusion of the Swiss study kinda makes sense overall. i do question tho exactly what the implications of this lack of copyright would be for smaller artists... if their works released purely for personal consumption are freely available for download and all. i suppose it might not make a difference since the works are likely cheap anyway - and therefore an ordinary person might rather opt to just obtain it legally
@@Retrofire-47
I completely understand the concern about the potential impact on small artists. It’s important to clarify that the approach in Switzerland doesn’t amount to a complete disregard for copyright; rather, it constitutes an exception that stipulates, “Copying or downloading media is permissible as long as it remains within a limited scope, such as sharing within friends and family circles.”
Interestingly, the genesis of this legal exception lies in a specific historical context. The law was initially introduced as a response to certain publishing companies’ intentions to target individuals recording songs from the radio. The intention behind this provision is not to enable public distribution of copyrighted material; rather, it upholds the principle that personal usage within a close-knit context is acceptable.
Therefore, the our approach does strike a balance between personal use and copyright considerations, aiming to prevent any unintended harm to small artists while addressing the nuances of media consumption within private circles.
Innnnnnteresting! I had no idea the law was so different there but it makes perfect sense that everyone benefits.
Echoing the concerns about online storefronts, but across all platforms. Without physical media or some form of open data access to what we purchase there, how will anything current gen be preserved or playable in the future? Looking at Wii, 3DS, MS marketplace to a lesser extent. Stuff trapped on old hardware that can’t be redownloaded or preserved otherwise. Or, licensing issues, Sonic 3 on steam pulled before Sonic Mania/Origins. Music issues (Jet Set Radio Future, Crazy Taxi), recently the egregious HBO Max “content writeoff”… Actions like these will breed new generations of pirates out of both necessity and from getting burned by stuff like this.
Yup. Sometimes it seems these companies are trying to make us pirate their stuff with their restrictions and license bullcrap.
Johnny Depp is a pirate with ✂️ ✋🏻🤚🏻
Good POINT
Never has been. I ripped all my Wii disks / Vita cartridges because I know that physical media has an expiration date. Digital media can be preserved by copying, and I have no intention of sharing my library. Also, DRM must die.
I see it as this: if you pirate a game that you would buy otherwise, that would be stealing. If you pirate a game that you would not buy otherwise, it's not stealing bacause no one was harmed.
99% use emulations is to use pirate games. Only 1% pure heart used emulations in a good way
Overall, this video is well put together, Dweeb. I'll support the developers when I can but what I wont stand for is the insane price of retro games on the resale market. I refuse to pay $150 for a boxed DS pokemon game on ebay. Even my local resale game store is guilty of this nowadays. Covid scalpers were to blame for this. If the money isn't going to the developer, I will continue to emulate certain titles. Secondly, some of my favorite games are Japanese only titles (stuff like Rondo of Blood and the older Atelier games), so I need to rely on fansubs in order to play them.
Really, really liked the story in the intro of this video
Yeah that was a fun one 🤓
Btw... did YOU create the Minecraft scenes that comprised the story of Soupman?
1. What if I had the game when I was young like dynasty of the emperor for the nes and now their not available anymore? Is the theft of my memories any less valuable then emulating?
2. If someone can allow me to borrow their game cartridge is it not ok for them to loan me their Rom? Considering its the same thing?
3. Most of us who do emulation are just wanting to relive are childhood memories with games we growup playing and emulation is the only way because the companies who created these games are no longer in business. So what are we supposed to do to show are nephews what we played and have that same thing feeling are dads had when we playing those games with them?
Thank God for emulation.
If we really have to be that strict on not being a pirate, we'd still have to pay pattern royalty to those who invent the lightbulb
I really enjoy your channel, and I love how you use it. I agree wholeheartedly. Pay for the games you can pay for (at least once) so we get to have more. Don’t worry about the rest.
Also, iTunes/youtube basically killed music piracy. Pretty clear proof of Gaben's comment
Exactly.
The Minecraft storytime earned this video a like. I wish I could do more. That was top tier.
Fun segment to make too! I recruited my younger cousins to be my 'actors'. They feel so famous RN.
Video game pirates keep some games alive when companies kill them! They are doing humanity a service.
I think so about it. If the company gives me the possibility to physically buy both the console and the game, then I agree that it is mandatory to pay the rights to the developers, but if that console and that game are no longer on sale for many years and therefore I can't physically buy them, why should I continue to pay the rights to the developers? It doesn't seem fair to me to pay for something that is essentially dead, which no longer exists in its original version. It is true that that game it exists as a rom but it is not the original game, it is simply an extracted file. I am not playing with the original console and with the original game, but to do so I use completely different technologies that give very different sensations from the original. Frankly, I don't understand why in this case it is considered piracy. The case of CDs is different, because if I want to buy a CD of a deceased artist I have the possibility to buy it in its original version and in this case it is mandatory to pay the royalties to the record company and to the descendants of the artist, simply because I have the opportunity to have the original CD.
One reason I emulate is to play games I Have owned but lost, and that is important to me because I lost a lot of old systems and games to a storage unit issue in the past. I had paid for the right to play those games and my continuing to play them softens the blow of losing the original hardware/software.
Rule 05: We want to own the games and now we just rent the games for full price but it can disappperar any minute from the shop.
I only play games ive already owned for the nostalgia factor.
This is such a creative interpretation and so fun. Favorite channel!
🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖 Interesting subject... Btw, I like how you edit video but not sure why so often you show your hands moving... However I'm not expert here as I'm still learning a lot and improving my skills in this area... So just a small remark... perhaps justified, perhaps not...
Either myself, or my parents(as a kid) bought and paid for the hard copies of these games/consoles which I no longer have copies of. The devs got their money, then stopped supporting it, or the product no longer works. Blinking red lights, anyone? Was it piracy to loan your console and a few games to a friend who didn't own them?
Also, the "sound of my coins" is a great analogy. So-called pirates are allowing future generations to enjoy the hard work of previous generations(without the "pirates" profitting), which they might never have had the opportunity to do otherwise. If the devs were truly passionate about that, they should be happy people are still finding ways to enjoy it. But I don't think devs are the problem, rather the money hungry corporations. Here's looking at you, Nintendo.
Yes, yes we are. We just can't admit it.
It should also be mentioned that a big way to buy MANY (most?) retro games is via re sellers. Paying some hoarder a markup because they held onto a fake for 20 years physically doesn’t help the developers.
LMFAO, I love the scenario you used. Buying fakes and bootlegs from people isn't illegal, so why is rom sharing?
Let’s not forget the OG pirate who founded America. Basically worlds came to be because of pirates.
I don't live in a particularly wealthy country, so I use to play old games and never had before a contemporary system. Nowadays we have a Nintendo Switch lite at home (locked and just running owned games), and I still play games on a Switch emulator in my phone, but not the Big N games, in fact indie games I already own on Steam but don't had a chance to play portable without spend A LOT of money in a Steam Deck or ROG Ally. Last month I received my long waited Loki Zero, and suddenly all my interest in Switch emulation faded out. My conscious is clean, I realised all I want is playing games the way I'd like, and don't re-buy them in all existing platforms to achieve that.
I hate how i buy a game on one platform, then have to buy it again if i want to play it on a different platform. Skyrim is the most expensive game i own!
I have thousands of games on my Steam account. I would buy the retro games if I could, but i can't and that's the problem.
Sorry, I'm a pirate. The soup has been completely sold I just dip my roll of bread into the empty pot to soak up residual soup that's stuck on the side
🍞
🥣
I have no problem paying if I can find it, for example my mother is an avid gamer she was shown a video of super mario sunshine by my sisters kid, it was very briefly available for the switch but not anymore, not even for digital download. She hadn't ever played it so I decided to find it she has a wii so all I need is the game. Well because of speculation a second hand copy of a decades old game costs a fortune, so an old nuc and an online guide later and we're flying the jolly roger.
Hmmm, interesting. Ever since I got my RG Nano (checked your vids for that btw, thanks I love it!) I've been studying emulation and roms like crazy. While piracy has helped me time and time again, it turns out that extracting the roms from your own games is actually pretty darn fun and accesible nowadays
I've (succesfully) meddled with extracting my gba roms and saves with an R4 in my old ds lite, backed my Megadrive games from the steam collection (they are just there, lying in the files lol) and extracted the SamSho Neogeo collection games from that epic games free giveaway from some time ago. Now I'm even thinking about dumping my old 3ds and wii games, simply for preserving my childhood, and kind of as a failsafe. Also it turns out you can actually get the roms from the Smash bros brawl gametest section? Gotta check that out, if true I've gotta enjoy the freebies lol
If you can help the developers, pirating is an ass move indeed, but its not like nintendo is gonna fine you up for downloading gyromite from the internet
In any case, we've gotta support the companies that are doing the effort. I see you Capcom, you are so real for all of those collections
Nobody has to rationalize playing retro games in 2023. It's absurd. That cat was let out of that bag a long time ago.
It makes me think of the difference between grave robber vs archeologist or their vs treasure hunter. Depends on your perspective.
I will download retro games online and I will enjoy them and sleep so good at night .... Greedy corporates charging so much for games is the reason this happens
Man, so well put. I love your channel.
This video is put together very well. The problem we have with this is that we have people who think the world owes them everything, maybe they got participation trophies when they came in 14th place, and they have no issue with downloading new games like Tears of the Kingdom. That's just wrong and a jerk move.
Another thing about playing your backups is that you had to have made the backup yourself with some equipment. There's a really small number of people that actually own these kind of devices. Also, in my Nintendo game manuals there is this little blurb that says, "Backups are not necessary and are prohibited." but I doubt many people ever read that because they don't own actual games anyway. Filthy pirates.
Most of our pc games are in digital form. If steam for example goes down say goodbye to our games that we have paid for (unless you have downloaded them in hard drives)
If I want to buy a Nintendo 3DS or Wii U game is very difficult because of the closure of the Nintendo eshops
So emulation & roms is the only way for the preservation of old games
Personally, if it's available I would pay with my money, but if it's not, then that's another story... Whether that's piracy, technically, yes. But thts the problem with our copyright law.
In my opinion no one's profiting off most of the games you can emulate, so who cares
if it's remastered or re-released the version you can emulate is probably isn't as good
Im gonna need a lot of rum for the 1000 games on my phone.
In the US there is a limit on copyright until it becomes open domain. At some point this should be the case for old video games. These publishing companies that are re-releasing games are doing so in such a way they are putting out ports of games with low effort than what modern emulation can do with some effort. Should regurgitating these low effort emulated ports be rewarded? I don't think so. Because the individuals that originally created these games, are they being rewarded? I doubt it. At a certain point its only the corporations and not the individuals that are benefiting. Piracy for any new games is unethical, but for old games or effectively abandonware I dont believe that is the case. Especially since the third-party market for retro games is not making the developers money. Only the people that happen to own the physical format games are making a lot of money because they happen to own a scarce item. If you dont want to pay the high price to some third party seller or a half-assed emulated re-port of a game, emulation and "piracy" I say are ethically fine and the likelyhood of consequences of having them without distributing them is essentially non-existent.
Yeah I'm with ya. If the original creators of the game aren't being supported by the purchase then I have no guilt emulating it.
Thanks to Ubisoft's cost cutting measures, my Xbox 360 copy of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (a game about pirates, ironically enough) got disc rot within half a year of release. I bought the game. The company who sold me the game sold it to me on a faulty disc. I still have a right to play the game I paid for even if the license medium given to me just... dies.
Launchers are another good excuse to pirate it and there poor excuse of dem protection that forces us to play online
I tried reading all the comments as I found them all very, very interesting. There is one argument that has not been mentioned...
Have you even considered that it is the emulation "movement" that has "arm twisted" big companies to create Remastered versions and Remakes of old classics that otherwise would require an emulator to be played?
I am very happy that someone aged 19-20 can actually PURCHASE Red Dead Redemption 1. Obviously such a person does not have an old PS3 lying around and a copy of Red Dead Undead Nightmare and would otherwise have to result to downloading an ISO of a game they don't own.
Edit: Purchase RDR1 for the PS4 or Switch
That's a very good point. It's like, "Hmmm... Resident Evil 2 is the most downloaded PS1 rom... MAYBE people would BUY it if we, I dunno... sold it?"
Wacky but great video! Loved story time but I spilt my juice g2g! Late for school!
Sippy cup for you next time
I mainly got into emulation through the 2D Castlevania games. I emulate the DS games because they are unreasonably expensive. I am talking like 3k or more and that's crazy. I did manage to find Portrait of Ruin for $50 so I bought that. The Castlevania collection had the GBA games so they can be bought again.
Symphony of the Night I have bought multiple times, for PS4, PSP through Dracula X Chronicles, on Xbox, Phone etc so that one I don't consider wrong per se since I have paid for it multiple times. I only emulate that one to get the best version of the game. Like with Harmony of Dissonance. I have and can buy the game through the Castlevania collection but that game is bloody awful compared to a ROM recolor hack which I can only play via emulation. So from that standpoint there's also artistic value at play.
There's also those roms that include or restore cut content and game versions lost to time.😊
4:10 this was a citation from a nasreddin hodja clause
The reason I emulate games, especially the ones I owned when i was a kid is to get a sense of nostalgia, to feel like a kid again. And I would be happy to pay for those games if my money would go to the developers/companies that created or helped to create these games. But with people charging insane amounts of money for a cartridge that wont even work/hold a save file without me having to put my time and money into it, its me who is the victim. So call me a pirate if you will, but when the time comes and retro games are available for me to play without hassel and support is reestablished by those companies I will take off this hat and pay real money.
Agreed with all points. Well made video.