9 replies to this topic

[theloon]

I'm starting to see full version Battle Kid NES ROMz on the Internet. So far I've emailed Sivak Games about a forum and a certain russian ROM distribution website.

Battle Kid is a great indie game. If you see a forum or website (usually breaking their own terms of service) with a pirated link tell these guys about it: http://sivak.nintendoage.com/BK.html

I don't even understand. I mean, Sivak Games even released a demo ROM for free. Why rip the ROM and spread the full version around? Not like you're stealing from a multi-million dollar company where piracy is free advertising..

[Mord]

theloon, on Sat Mar 5, 2011 10:42 AM, said:

I don't even understand. I mean, Sivak Games even released a demo ROM for free. Why rip the ROM and spread the full version around? Not like you're stealing from a multi-million dollar company where piracy is free advertising..

Not to condone it or anything, but "piracy" is always free advertising. Consider how I never even knew a game like this, or it's demo, even existed prior to this.

I assume their demo is at the link you reference?

[bomberpunk]

i wish i had the ROM even though i own the actual cartridge. i love the green shell, but more importantly the game is BAD ASS.

[raindog]

A few seconds of Googling reveals that it's out there on Usenet and torrents as well, so it's in the wind. If it hasn't already been, it'll be added to one of the lists of known NES ROMs, and will be a part of every NES collection torrent and "NES flood" on Usenet from now till the end of time. Reporting one site at a time is like trying to put out a forest fire with a dixie cup. If the legal teams for several multi-billion-dollar industries (and Harlan Ellison) can't keep things out of circulation, you may not have much luck doing it vigilante style either.

I'd never heard of the game till now either, but NES stuff interests me less than Atari/Vectrex stuff so I'm not surprised to have missed it.

[Mord]

Mord, on Sat Mar 5, 2011 7:23 PM, said:

I assume their demo is at the link you reference?

And to answer my own question, yes it is. There are things I didn't particularly like about it, but I have no way of knowing if that's just limitations put into the demo or actually how the game is suppose to go. Either way, I was impressed by it all the same.

There are also mp3s of various tracks on the site as well for any who want to take a listen.

[theloon]

Well, now that I think of it, Sivak Games didn't have a very strong stance on piracy. I think the developers main concern is that his publishing deal with Retrousb forbids him to share full version of his game. Plus, they never replied back about the pirate ROMz websites. Must not be a big concern.

Still, thought it would be nice if people respected homebrew developers and helped protect their rights.

Edited by theloon, Tue Mar 8, 2011 11:10 AM.

[raindog]

theloon, on Tue Mar 8, 2011 11:10 AM, said:

Still, thought it would be nice if people respected homebrew developers and helped protect their rights.

Well, it'd be nice if people didn't cut you off in traffic or talk in movie theaters too, but it'd be about as effective to lament those practices here as it is to lament piracy of homebrew software. It seems unlikely that any significant portion of the ROM-distributing communities out there is here on Atariage, especially when it comes to things that aren't Atari-related. For the most part, you're preaching to the choir; few communities hold homebrew authors in as near-universal high regard as we do.

Nonetheless, trying to prevent piracy -- especially on a shoestring budget -- is spitting into the wind. The best you can do is to put a personal appeal out there directed at the people who are buying your game, get them to feel like they're on your side and don't want to hurt you. 2D Boy accomplished this masterfully. I'd defend those guys till the end of time, and so would many other gamers. I've literally bought World of Goo three times. But it's still all over the usual places you'd find pirated software. All it takes is one copy to get posted to Usenet or a torrent or file upload site, and whether you've convinced one person or a thousand to not share, it's all for naught. If you use some kind of watermarking, you get that threshold up to two copies.

Bill Gates has tried it both ways -- from a letter trying to guilt people into not sharing his software in 1976 to millions spent on enormous, byzantine anti-piracy measures in the last decade -- and he's done about as well at preventing piracy as your friend has. He got rich anyway.

[Crazy Climber]

Most people that PLAY roms were not going to buy it anyway, if anything it's free advertising, they will eventually get a sale or two out of it. Now, if they start selling it on a cartridge thats bullshit

[Bill_Loguidice]

theloon, on Sat Mar 5, 2011 10:42 AM, said:

I don't even understand. I mean, Sivak Games even released a demo ROM for free. Why rip the ROM and spread the full version around? Not like you're stealing from a multi-million dollar company where piracy is free advertising..

Not to make this a post on piracy, but it's irrelevant who the source is or how cheap something is, unless it's free, it will be pirated. It's a sad, sad fact of life and it affects ANYONE who creates desirable content.

[theloon]

Bill_Loguidice, on Tue Mar 8, 2011 2:22 PM, said:

theloon, on Sat Mar 5, 2011 10:42 AM, said:

I don't even understand. I mean, Sivak Games even released a demo ROM for free. Why rip the ROM and spread the full version around? Not like you're stealing from a multi-million dollar company where piracy is free advertising..

Not to make this a post on piracy, but it's irrelevant who the source is or how cheap something is, unless it's free, it will be pirated. It's a sad, sad fact of life and it affects ANYONE who creates desirable content.

I totally agree. And, as raindog mentions, people will "talk in movie theaters" as a fact of life. It's what you do about it - and how the community supports you. In this case Sivak Games *seems* not to care. Also, I've seen alot of apathy in this homebrew topic that would preclude any support if he did care. It's been eye opening for sure.

My games continue to be free including source. Might be the best option for everyone given the varying opinions.