Home Gaming Piracy: The dark side of the rise in retro gaming

Piracy: The dark side of the rise in retro gaming

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While the modern indie gaming scene has always shown an interest in pixellated, retro visual, there’s been a stark rise in nostalgia-driven gaming. Everything old is new again.

For as long as modern gaming systems have existed, there have been collections of older games, repackaged and resold. We have things like Namco Museum, the SEGA Mega Drive Collection and Nintendo’s Virtual console selling us games we bought decades ago. Rare Replay tapped into that expertly, relying on the sort of nostalgia that invokes those fuzzy, warm familiar feelings that would only otherwise come from peeing in one’s pants.

Mini

There have been many bespoke systems to help people dip their toes into the classics of yesteryear. It was probably the Nintendo Classic Mini – Nintendo’s diminutive NES – that catapulted the idea of set-top retro consoles into the public consciousness. It wasn’t the first, of course, and companies like ATGames have tried to get us to buy Mega Drive/Genesis and Atari games for years – but the relative rights holders have granted them licence.

There’s nothing wrong with nostalgia, of course, and there’s a decent case to be made about games that – by virtue of their technology – favoured pure gameplay over graphics.

pvp

However, there’s a dark side to the recent resurgence of retro gaming, and of course, it has to do with capitalism. Nintendo’s NES Classic Mini and the excitement over its yet unreleased SNES version – along with recent games like Crash Bandicoot’s N. Sane Trilogy have proven that tapping into nostalgia properly can be lucrative. Naturally, people will use that to profiteer.

500inone

And no, I’m not even talking about the sorts of people who scalp NES minis. There are whole companies manufacturing and selling machines that play on people’s nostalgia by selling consoles, arcade machines and other bespoke devices stuffed with hundreds if not thousands of illegal games. There are clones of the NES and Famicom minis, loaded with hundreds of illicit ROMS being sold that profit off decades of hard work from developers and publishers who see nothing of it in return.

It’s a little different from the murky, ethically grey world of emulation, where an entire library of systems and games can be downloaded and played. While the ROMS themselves are illegal, the emulators aren’t – and I have no real moral objections to people emulating games for their own enjoyment.

NESclone

Selling them though? That goes beyond grey, straight to being exploitative and unequivocally illegal. Of course, our local gaming industry is nearly built on the back of piracy, with many a “Golden China” the introduction to games for many of us. But these are different times and we’re no longer under the thumb of apartheid-era sanctions. There are local distributors for these things.

That systems like this, loaded with ROMS are sold in national retailers within South Africa is upsetting – especially given that there is a precedent for games to be given the same protection as cinematograph films. Copyright law and the enforcement of it places much of the burden – and the associated costs – on the plaintiff, so it’s hardly surprising that little is done about it. Many turn a blind eye to retro piracy, though it truth it’s no different to a retailer selling a media player stuffed with illicit rips of movies from the 80s and 90s – only there’d be huge legal ramifications if anybody did that.

As consumers who abhor piracy and the people profiting from it what can we do? Honestly, very little – though reporting any incidents you may see to local piracy watchdogs SAFACT is probably good start.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Critical Hit as an organisation.

Last Updated: August 17, 2017

53 Comments

  1. Umar

    August 17, 2017 at 12:35

    Yeah. I’ve been seeing this local company advertising and selling gaming machines loaded with roms. I’m in the same boat as I don’t mind people emulating old games for their own enjoyment, but selling it is where I kind of draw the line.

    Reply

    • Guild

      August 17, 2017 at 12:42

      I know which company you talking about. They always come up in my social feeds

      Reply

      • Umar

        August 17, 2017 at 12:46

        Yup. Always see them advertising on facebook.

        Reply

        • Guild

          August 17, 2017 at 12:48

          There advertising is so crap. Watched some of their vids. Soo bad

          Reply

          • Admiral Chief

            August 17, 2017 at 13:27

            You get the one “their” correct but not the other?

            😛

    • Gavin Mannion

      August 17, 2017 at 12:44

      Especially when these guys go an build a mini empire out of gaming. It’s ludicrous and they should be shut down

      Reply

      • Umar

        August 17, 2017 at 12:47

        “build a mini empire out of gaming” I see what you did there lol I’m pretty shocked it’s been going on for this long. There’s usually the odd seller on gumtree doing this, but this is the first time I’ve seen a big-ish company publicly trade like this.

        Reply

      • Guild

        August 17, 2017 at 12:48

        How has it not been brought up and acted on by the SAPS or SAFACT? oh wait….it’s SA.

        Reply

    • Graeme Selvan

      August 17, 2017 at 13:09

      I think we speaking about the same company. https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=empire%20gaming Empire Gaming are making a killing out of this and they are not even shy about being openly pirating stuff. I asked them if their products were legit on their Facebook, they promptly blocked me from making any further comments on their page.

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief

        August 17, 2017 at 13:23

        Thanks for the link, lemme go spam them!

        Reply

        • Graeme Selvan

          August 17, 2017 at 13:36

          They will just block you like they blocked me. I asked if their equipment and games were legal. Instead of answering me they blocked me from making further comments lol

          Reply

          • Admiral Chief

            August 17, 2017 at 14:02

            Actually, they responded to my review, now [cracks knuckles], time for the reply!

          • Graeme Selvan

            August 17, 2017 at 14:06

            OH screenshot it!!!!!

          • Admiral Chief

            August 17, 2017 at 14:20

            “If using emulators and ROMs for personal enjoyment, sure, fine. But you guys are marketing and selling these devices for a profit. I’m talking about the “X Game 600”, the “Vintage Family Computer” / “Golden China” , the “Empire Prince Hand Held”, the “Empire handheld”, the “Game Prince handheld”…
            Need I go on?
            If you say you are “fully licensed”, what exactly does this mean and where did you obtain this license? Can you provide this info for the public domain if all is above board?
            I hope you can provide some clarity on this? And if you decide to delete this comment/review, it will just prove my point.”

          • Graeme Selvan

            August 17, 2017 at 14:23

            And so the proof wont come but let’s see maybe by some miracle they are legit and I will look stupid lol

          • Admiral Chief

            August 17, 2017 at 14:23

            THEN I WILL LOOK STUPID WITH YOU!
            Always more fun when not alone!

          • Graeme Selvan

            August 17, 2017 at 14:27

            We ride together, we die together… BAD BOYS FOR LIFE!

          • Admiral Chief

            August 17, 2017 at 14:40

            LOL they want my contact details or me to come visit them in Sandton, HOW ABOUT NO

          • Graeme Selvan

            August 17, 2017 at 14:48

            LOLZ

          • Admiral Chief

            August 17, 2017 at 14:54

            They deleted my comment!

          • Graeme Selvan

            August 17, 2017 at 16:58

            They banned me and I was far less in their face ??? talk about being dodge

          • Admiral Chief

            August 18, 2017 at 07:51

            TIME TO SHAME THEM!

          • RinceThis

            August 17, 2017 at 14:24

            Can’t see your comment!

          • Admiral Chief

            August 17, 2017 at 14:40

            Damn, already deleted?

            I wrote review!

          • RinceThis

            August 17, 2017 at 15:15

            the bastards!

          • RK1985

            August 24, 2017 at 12:34

            It means their boss has atleast a code EC and PDrP so he can drive the truck to the dock they pick their merch up from the filthy Chinese.

        • RinceThis

          August 17, 2017 at 14:32

          good man, just did the same!

          Reply

          • Admiral Chief

            August 17, 2017 at 14:48

            I see someone upvoted my review, YUSSSSSSS

          • RinceThis

            August 17, 2017 at 15:16

            Always!

      • RK1985

        August 24, 2017 at 12:31

        That is the one yes. Probably has connections to those filthy Chinese.

        Reply

  2. Magoo

    August 17, 2017 at 12:36

    Wait a minute… this wasn’t on Engadget. >.>

    Reply

  3. Gavin Mannion

    August 17, 2017 at 12:42

    I’m part of a Whatsapp group with a bunch of morons and they were discussing piracy today.

    Lead Moron in charge decided that using a VPN to get around region blocked content while still paying for the content was the same as piracy and I vehemently disagree.

    I’m 100% happy to pay HBO to watch Game of Thrones but since DSTV has the rights in SA I’m not allowed to do that without using the VPN.

    So I pay for a VPN and then pay HBO the same money they charge everyone else to watch the same show, the only losers here are DSTV. Region locking is a stupid anti-competitive law that would never be allowed if it started now.

    Reply

    • Guild

      August 17, 2017 at 12:46

      Whose Lead moron? I thought I was but I agree with you. So whose lead then? 😛

      And yes, region blocking is stupid. I’ll post same question here that was in the Whatsapp group, I unlocked the region locking on my Bluray player so I can watch the region 4 movies I bought from Animeworx. Is that piracy? Not in my eyes.
      Same as having VPN services to watch Hulu. I pay for the services to both Getflix and Hulu. I’m not interested in DSTV bloody expensive packages of repeated crap. Not piracy in my eyes.

      Reply

      • Ottokie

        August 17, 2017 at 13:09

        I do agree with you on this one. I now have to watch bad quality Game of Thrones episodes on DSTV Now. But I would have been very happy to pay HBO so I can stream the series. But now because of my residency in SA I am not allowed to use the service. They still get payed the money they want.

        Reply

      • RinceThis

        August 17, 2017 at 14:16

        You are a Mormon!

        Reply

        • Guild

          August 17, 2017 at 14:26

          You take that back.

          Reply

    • Magius

      August 17, 2017 at 13:19

      Agreed not nearly the same as piracy, but can see why Multichoice probably complains to HBO. Simply put they paid millions of dollars to HBO to obtain the broadcast rights and the biggest avenue for them to recoup that cost and make a profit is via their subscriptions. The other way is via advertising, but of people aren’t watching your channel advertisers aren’t going to pay your required rates. If HBO doesn’t crack down on VPNs etc Multichoice loses out. Now the questions around value for money regarding the cost of DSTV vs the utility you get from what you watch is a whole other argument.

      Reply

    • Admiral Chief

      August 17, 2017 at 13:22

      Multichoice are just “authorized” and self-righteous asshat pirates

      Reply

  4. Ottokie

    August 17, 2017 at 13:02

    I love collecting retro consoles and games. I have however never felt the need to buy those 200 in 1 cartridges or anything like a Golden China. You only feel that warm fuzzy feeling when you know you are holding a legitimate copy of a game from years and years back.

    Reply

  5. Admiral Chief

    August 17, 2017 at 13:21

    Just HOW are these things being imported and approved for importing? Trying to clamp down on this piracy in this damn country will only create additional spaces for opportunistic fucktards to milk the system for their own personal gain

    Reply

    • Gerrie Bossert

      August 17, 2017 at 19:36

      Hi; a retailer who buys from them and sells the product?

      can the publisher hold them both accountable?

      Reply

      • Geoffrey Tim

        August 18, 2017 at 07:42

        I honestly doubt there will be any repurcussions for anyone to be honest.

        Reply

      • Admiral Chief

        August 18, 2017 at 07:50

        I hope so

        Reply

  6. RinceThis

    August 17, 2017 at 14:18

    How this happens, yet it takes me 5 weeks to get a t-shirt cleared from the US, I don’t know. Oh yes. Africa is the fuckbuddie of China. That’s how.

    Reply

    • Skyblue

      August 18, 2017 at 10:04

      I’ll see your 5 weeks and raise you:

      Destination Country – Tracking Consuming: 711 ms
      2017-08-05 19:34 JIMC A AIR LETTERS, Send item to customs
      2017-08-05 07:34 JHB INT MAIL CENTRE (HUB), To Customs
      2017-07-27 17:06 JIMC A AIR LETTERS, Receive item at office of exchange
      2017-07-27 05:06 JHB INT MAIL CENTRE (HUB), Incomming International
      Origin Country – Tracking Consuming: 319 ms
      2017-07-27 19:06 The item has been processed in the country of destination
      2017-07-07 08:03 The item has arrived in the country of destination
      2017-06-29 05:03 The item is on transport to the country of destination
      2017-06-28 17:03 The item is processed at the PostNL sorting center
      2017-06-28 17:03 The item is at the PostNL sorting center
      2017-06-27 14:56 The item is at the handover point from freight carrier to PostNL
      2017-06-23 11:13 The item has left the originating country
      2017-06-22 00:36 The item is ready for shipment
      2017-06-21 21:42 The item is lodged to airport warehouse in originating country
      2017-06-21 07:10 The item is pre-advised

      Reply

  7. Rick

    August 17, 2017 at 16:40

    Shhhhh, your’e going to ruin it for the rest of us.

    Reply

  8. Gluten-free Cheese Puffs

    August 18, 2017 at 12:56

    Being a pirate is alright with me!

    Reply

  9. Caveshen Rajman

    August 19, 2017 at 22:14

    Imagine being this upset over a child’s play thing.

    Reply

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