Doesn't look horrible as far as the concept goes. I can see the appeal for a particular audience. Personally I am very much interested in new and single-player focused content. This seems very much "couch-coop" focused with a heavy retro vibe. I don't mind retro content from time to time, but that base is already as covered as it can be, so .... "couch-coop" is nice, but even there I already got a ton of games, I rarely use never mind finish.
Guess it will be decent success, if they market it properly at their core audience and keep them happy with new quality content going forward. It's not going to be easy battle, esp. with much of what they are doing here is actually pretty easily aped by other consoles or even smartphones once a huge demand becomes apparent.
@Kalmaro I haven't read all your comments, so ... I woulnd't have picked up on that. Speaking of which though, I do think that there is positive element to roms, and that is conservation and availability.
Without roms many games would have never have experienced - by now - by a whole generation of gamers. The games are either not available anymore at all, or only at pretty insane prices, not to mention that you'd have to get the hardware, and in many cases have a TV to hook it up to (yeah, I know people who don't own no TV anymore at all just those damn smartdevices and laptops ...).
I mean graffiti/ street art is illegal in most cities as well, but I wouldn't dream of going so far as to say, that I never saw a good piece of street art or that there is NOTHING positive about it.
That would just be silly - legality issues or not. Some pretty cool pieces of art came out of it, in a way that would not have materialized without street art at all, because it only really works in that specific framework
For the most part, the fact of the matter is roms are indeed a victimless crime as far as "retro" roms are concerend (not talking about the 3DS here or anything like that).
Most devs either don't care about the material anymore at all, or they cannot be bothered to monetize the material themselves. It's not an excuse for an illegal act obviously, but it is a reasonable explantion of what makes it so damn popular.
Just look at the Switch ... no VC what so ever. Is it illegal to then run roms on your 'normal' tablet? Sure, but frankly, Nintendo doesn't care beyond putting a legal disclaimer about it on their page, and keep a couple of attornies busy for appearances.
The music industry tried to kill mp3s for years, before they finally realized that it wasn't just about "free" music, it was about convenience. Nintendo (pars pro toto) has yet to realize that people want easy (and yeah also cheap, up to a point) access to classic games - when ever, where ever. A flatrate on the Switch (given a big enough library) could provide that, but alas, we're still waiting on anything of the kind to rear it's head on the system.
I dunno ... there is such a thing as legitimacy as well, and I think most of what's done with retro roms is pretty darn legitimate given the circumstances. Copyright laws should protect artists/ creators, they should not strangle a piece of art in terms of making and keeping it available to people who want to admire it. Just my two cents though ....
@Kalmaro To report on something is not the same thing as to promote something.
Newspapers reporting about "Elysium" are not promoting pedophilia.
I know this is obvious and silly but ... apparently it's not quite that obvious and silly. To be fair though, this article is certainly pushing it as far as 'reporting' goes. It's still not a guide, or any kind of promotion or advertisement as far as I can tell.
I'm no lawyer, but even I know that emulators itself are indeed not illegal as long as they do not use proprietary code, owned by someone else - nothing about this is technial, it just is the way is.
Whether or not a rom is legal depends - to my knowledge - on your national laws. I think in some countries private copies can be legal under certain conditions, like you yourself making a private copy of a game you legally own for your own personal non-commercial use - possibly under further conditions like the non-circumvention of any potential protection mechanisms.
TL;DR: This is not a promotion and yes, "technically" there could be a legal Nintendo rom - admittedly, I'm not well versed enough in the national copyright laws of the almost 200 countries, we've got, so it's hard to make a definitive statement, but it still bears keeping in mind.
Comments 3
Re: Intellivision's Amico Is Shaping Up To Be The Most 'Nintendo' Non-Nintendo System Ever
Doesn't look horrible as far as the concept goes. I can see the appeal for a particular audience. Personally I am very much interested in new and single-player focused content. This seems very much "couch-coop" focused with a heavy retro vibe.
I don't mind retro content from time to time, but that base is already as covered as it can be, so .... "couch-coop" is nice, but even there I already got a ton of games, I rarely use never mind finish.
Guess it will be decent success, if they market it properly at their core audience and keep them happy with new quality content going forward. It's not going to be easy battle, esp. with much of what they are doing here is actually pretty easily aped by other consoles or even smartphones once a huge demand becomes apparent.
Re: Flash Carts Could Be Slowly Killing Your Retro Consoles
@Kalmaro I haven't read all your comments, so ... I woulnd't have picked up on that. Speaking of which though, I do think that there is positive element to roms, and that is conservation and availability.
Without roms many games would have never have experienced - by now - by a whole generation of gamers.
The games are either not available anymore at all, or only at pretty insane prices, not to mention that you'd have to get the hardware, and in many cases have a TV to hook it up to (yeah, I know people who don't own no TV anymore at all just those damn smartdevices and laptops ...).
I mean graffiti/ street art is illegal in most cities as well, but I wouldn't dream of going so far as to say, that I never saw a good piece of street art or that there is NOTHING positive about it.
That would just be silly - legality issues or not. Some pretty cool pieces of art came out of it, in a way that would not have materialized without street art at all, because it only really works in that specific framework
For the most part, the fact of the matter is roms are indeed a victimless crime as far as "retro" roms are concerend (not talking about the 3DS here or anything like that).
Most devs either don't care about the material anymore at all, or they cannot be bothered to monetize the material themselves. It's not an excuse for an illegal act obviously, but it is a reasonable explantion of what makes it so damn popular.
Just look at the Switch ... no VC what so ever. Is it illegal to then run roms on your 'normal' tablet? Sure, but frankly, Nintendo doesn't care beyond putting a legal disclaimer about it on their page, and keep a couple of attornies busy for appearances.
The music industry tried to kill mp3s for years, before they finally realized that it wasn't just about "free" music, it was about convenience. Nintendo (pars pro toto) has yet to realize that people want easy (and yeah also cheap, up to a point) access to classic games - when ever, where ever. A flatrate on the Switch (given a big enough library) could provide that, but alas, we're still waiting on anything of the kind to rear it's head on the system.
I dunno ... there is such a thing as legitimacy as well, and I think most of what's done with retro roms is pretty darn legitimate given the circumstances. Copyright laws should protect artists/ creators, they should not strangle a piece of art in terms of making and keeping it available to people who want to admire it. Just my two cents though ....
Re: Flash Carts Could Be Slowly Killing Your Retro Consoles
@Kalmaro To report on something is not the same thing as to promote something.
Newspapers reporting about "Elysium" are not promoting pedophilia.
I know this is obvious and silly but ... apparently it's not quite that obvious and silly. To be fair though, this article is certainly pushing it as far as 'reporting' goes. It's still not a guide, or any kind of promotion or advertisement as far as I can tell.
I'm no lawyer, but even I know that emulators itself are indeed not illegal as long as they do not use proprietary code, owned by someone else - nothing about this is technial, it just is the way is.
Whether or not a rom is legal depends - to my knowledge - on your national laws. I think in some countries private copies can be legal under certain conditions, like you yourself making a private copy of a game you legally own for your own personal non-commercial use - possibly under further conditions like the non-circumvention of any potential protection mechanisms.
TL;DR: This is not a promotion and yes, "technically" there could be a legal Nintendo rom - admittedly, I'm not well versed enough in the national copyright laws of the almost 200 countries, we've got, so it's hard to make a definitive statement, but it still bears keeping in mind.