#duckyfruitbat
Text
YoHoHo, It's a New Era of Pirating
I'm sure a lot of us have been ruminating on this lately, but first I want to draw some parallels.
Picture it, the year is 2005 and you are watching a movie you picked out with your grandma at blockbuster during your weekend visit to give your parents a god damned break from your bullshit. Relatable so far yes? You pop that disk in and sit down as grandma makes the popcorn and an odd little PSA comes up between the previews. It's the infamous pirating PSA that compares downloading films to car jacking. So what do you do? You download copious amounts of pirated music onto the computer under your fathers supervision of course, still pretty relatable right?
You have entered the world of media piracy my friend, an old tradition with a rich culture and history. The early 2000's were some wild times, piracy was at its peak, the internet was a lawless land, and the 2008 housing bubble was just around the corner, truly a glorious time.
Now needless to say, publishing companies hated piracy and were desperately trying to curb it but only through legislation through a government that didn't really care. It was already hard enough to catch one pirate so why waste resources to crack down on it. There was an attempted crackdown by the publishers but that completely failed, one infamous case was a grandma who didn't even have a computer.
This age of piracy was only stopped when Itunes and Netflix made their way online. That was only because everything was on these two websites and later also Hulu. The only people who continued to pirate were kids who didn't have money and anime fans. There were two specialized websites just for them.
Everything was going smoothly, until we get to today, now every studio has at least one streaming service and even then there is no guarantee that their own shows would even be up and they're all owned by the same five corporations. Discovery got in trouble not too long ago for deleting their own shows from their own streaming service. Disney still has a backlog to upload onto Disney+, and there are many exclusives between each site. It's very similar to what cable and satellite television was, gotta pay over a hundred dollars and you don't even watch half the channels. These streaming services are getting too specialized, sure it makes business sense especially when you already have a large library or you're just Disney, but when there are obscure TV channels trying to get their own service, you know something's wrong.
Somehow the music industry didn't go the same path, yes Spotify has its problems, especially for musicians, but it is far better than purchasing entire albums or the old piracy methods that always put your computer at risk.
The obvious consequence of all this is that piracy is once again going up once again. Why? Because it is far easier to pirate than it is to figure out which steaming service that Disney owned show you want to watch is on. The only reason Itunes and Netflix originally won was because it was more convenient to actually pay for the things you wanted to see and not have to worry about malware. That's a lesson that these corporations could benefit from again, but they are if anything stubborn.
Now because of the stubbornness of these corporations I will have a lot to talk about, specifically with all sorts of pirating methods, and some fun stories. I already talked about Tengen and their massive swinging balls of steel as they walked into the patent office to steal from Nintendo, but there is so much more. So plenty of legally dubious fun to be had!
31 notes
·
View notes
Text
Lost, Found, and Rebuilt (The Thief and the Cobbler)
Back in high school I found myself on the lost media side of the internet. It's no secret that there is a lot of lost media out there, some was released then forgotten, others were abandoned. Then there are some examples that were technically released, but are more just a version of the original. This was the first example of lost media I've ever come across, the Thief and the Cobbler.
This is an interesting story. Back in 1964 Richard Williams began work on a film that he planned to be his magnum opus based on a book series from a friend. Seeing the animation in even just the version that was released shows great attention to detail, beautiful animation, and amazing designs. The film was intended to take full advantage of animation. Even the movement of characters is a marvel to look at. You can take nearly any frame and put it up in the louver, it is just a joy to look at.
Here's where the fun part begins, the version of the film that was released to the public came out in 1993, 29 years after production began. What the heck happened? Well a lot of things, time management, lack of funds, complete rewrites, and the original author of the books pulling out due to a fallout. The timeline is also littered with big budget animation films he worked on, like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, smaller movies like Raggedy Anne, and TV ads to pay the bills. Keep in mind that this was largely done by Williams and a team he hired without any studio supervision. Turns out there are some benefits to having a contract, like money.
Eventually Williams did find a publisher in Warner Brothers to fund his project, but he continued to miss deadlines and was booted off of the project. It was then decided to just get the movie out the door to put something out there. The version that the public saw was full of pop culture references, unnecessary narration, musical numbers despite the film not being a musical, and odd gags.
Williams defeated gave up on his masterpiece, but that was not the end of the story. In 2006 the greatest fan project began called the Recobbled Cut. This is a project with the aim to bring back the film in Williams original vision. With connections in the animation industry, this community managed to gather art, clips from DVD's, film, and scripts from studios and people who worked on it. One story says that there was film found in a trash can of all places.
Since 2006 this project has been steadily rebuilding The Thief and the Cobbler from the ground up. Completing scenes that never saw the light of day, restoring old film, and making the colors more vibrant, all of which breathing in new life in this film. The restoration project is currently on its fourth version, available on this YouTube channel, which also has some more works from Richard Williams.
Richard Williams did not talk about the Recobbled Cut, but some people say it had his approval. Williams passed away in 2019 never seeing the film completed, but this film has possibly become one of the greatest things on the internet, despite still being a work in progress.
Quick note:
I got the details for this post from this article, which incidentally directed me to the current version of the Recobbled Cut.
8 notes
·
View notes
Text
I Play Spongebob Games for Content!
Last week I decided to dust off my PS2 and play some games, I then had the idea to tie it into this blog somehow. My eyes drifted to the bottom of my shelf and there were four Spongebob games I still had from my childhood. No reader I am not a masochist, I'm just a slut for pain. Let's not waste time and get right into it in the order I would've played them in growing up!
Revenge of the Flying Dutchman
This is the first one I ever had and also my introduction to the concept of saving a game. This one follows the story of Gary disturbing the Flying Dutchman's slumber and now Spongebob must find a way to put him back to rest. All the while the Dutchman starts taking his friends to be part of his new crew. I'm gonna say it here, this is the worst game out of the bunch. The controls are just floaty, and the jumping mechanic feels time consuming. The combat is awful, but I think the developers were aware of that so enemies often wait for you to approach, except for the stray snails they charge at you with full force. The character models are really rough around the edges, the worst one is Plankton of all characters.
This game is also doing something to my poor PS2. There are two loading screens back to back and I can hear my PS2 struggling and sweating just to load the inside of the Krusty Krab. It really should not be struggling with a game like this.
The weirdest thing out of this is that the eyes on the characters are individually animated. I don't mean the eyebrows, that would be normal and an easy way to make characters expressive. I mean that the pupils and iris's are individually animated. This only really works with the hypnotizing scenes as the characters are being kidnapped. It gives them a wibbly woobly effect, the effect works nowhere else. All the characters have a lazy eye and sometimes one eye just doesn't move in cut scenes. The game also has a few sound issues with the end cut scene having moments of silence.
Something really surprising is that I have not encountered a single glitch in this one. Props to the dev team for making it actually stable, Lord knows management didn't give a damn.
Battle For Bikini Bottom
Now here's an obvious edition to the list. This was the second Spongebob game I had and it was of course my favorite. It's one of those few licensed games that are remembered fondly and has a dedicated fanbase to this day. So much so that in 2020, the year of misery and hellfire, it got a remake for the modern generation. I played the Switch version for this cry for help that I'm calling a review, and it is what I remember.
BFBB is a standard collect-a-thon wearing Spongebob's skin, that is also fairly show accurate. Most of the voice cast is of course here, except for Clancy Brown, for what ever reason he wasn't in the original and he's still not here. At the same time it would be weird hearing the real Mr. Krabs in this game. There are plenty of good jokes here that have been immortalized into meme culture like Mrs. Puff smuggling stolen art works.
The levels are pretty fun, with plenty of missions and collectables in each to keep you busy. My personal favorite being the dream level that caps off with a joke from Patrick. The worst level though is the Kelp Forest, and it is painful. The stone tikis, and the caves are tedious, and I swear there is no way to beat Mermaid-man's sliding time without breaking the game in some way. I broke the game just trying to do a normal slide down. Honestly I think that this level could've been replaced by something else, maybe the boating school because that school has more appearances than the Kelp Forest.
Aside from my complaints the game still holds up pretty well, with the exception of the performance. I don't know if it's just the Switch version or just an issue with my copy, but as I was playing through it, I saw more and more glitches. At one point I was launched up into the void beyond the sky box, for no apparent reason from what I can tell. I mean I'd still play it again, this type of game tends to be my bread and jam.
Spongebob Squarepants Movie Game
This one was of course put out at the same time the first movie was making its rounds. It is what you'd expect from a movie tie in game, but only in the cut scenes. The cut scenes look and sound like a conglomerate of early drafts, concept art, and unused voice lines from the actual movie. The in game cutscenes are perfectly fine, so I was wondering why they didn't just use that the whole time. Then I remembered that this was probably made on a massive time crunch to make the movie release date. The game itself was made by Heavy Iron who also did Battle for Bikini Bottom, so they share a lot of assets with movie themed additions. Playing through both this and BFBB, it's clear that the enemies were just re-skins of the robots. Even the enemy introductions use the same formula.
Gameplay wise it is just like BFBB minus Sandy, with all the same attacks returning as well. The levels are fun enough, I remember spending a lot of time in Goofy Goobers, just listening to the silly music. The trench levels always peaked my interest, except for the bits where you go into so sort of angler fish, that was a little weird. In the end if you just want more BFBB, this is the game for you if you can look past the cutscenes.
Creature From The Krusty Krab
This was the standout surprise out of the bunch, this game suffers from not enough time and resources, but the creativity behind it is admirable. It's based on the dream episode where Spongebob is bouncing around everyone's dreams. It is a standard level progression system but a handful of these levels have unique art styles that are pleasant on the eyes and pretty creative. The first level is Spongebab having a Twisted Metal racing dream where everyone is drawn with intense expressions while Bikini Bottom is a diesel punk design. The second level is Patrick dreaming about being his self insert character for a super hero comic book, and the town looks like it was drawn in a comic book. Planktons dreams starts out as a pretty standard side scroller before becoming a monster movie, and from then on it is just the monster movie. Spongebob's sections have the most variety, starting as the race level, then he gets eaten by an alaskan bull worm and his next level is in there. What is with these games and having levels inside creatures, is someone into vore? Patrick ends up flying on a rocket in space and
Back to the monster movie bit, this is where the budget really went, it's on the box, it was in the marketing, it is a third of the game. It really worked backwards from the idea of giant kaiju Plankton. Starts with rampaging as Plankton, then Spongebob is flying around trying to find some way to stop him, then Patrick teams up with Mermaid Man to finally take him down. Each one has its issues but also I had a good time with it. Here's something interesting about this game, it has three endings, one for each character. They only unlock if you collect all the little goops for Patrick and Plankton, so a good reward if you like exploring levels.
Playing through this game, it had a lot of potential. No really, if it had more time and resources it could've been a pretty great game. There's mostly a lack of polish, there were a couple of minor bugs when an attack didn't hit when it should have. There were a couple of animation issues, the mayor character glides across the screen, some characters have their feet merging with the floor, and others are really stiff. One thing that was I found annoying was the characters talking a lot during gameplay, all the above have that but this one should have dialed it back a bit. Beyond those issues, this game could have been great, maybe on the same level as BFBB.
Conclusion (It's Passed My Bedtime)
So what did we learn from all this? That my opinion on BFBB was basic and expected? That I may be a masochist? Well yes, but I have found a couple surprises here, like with Creature from the Krusty Krab, I had no expectations going into that one. I had the least expectations for ROFD but it somehow didn't cause a fire despite its efforts, and the movie tie in was just a spin off of BFBB. This is making me reconsider the pile of licensed games festering in the corner, I may have to dig through it to see if I find any hidden gems.
5 notes
·
View notes
Text
So Ubisoft Says we Need to Get Comfortable with "Not Owning" Our Games
Well that's a hell of a statement if I've heard one. The very statement alone is not just an invitation to piracy, but a giant neon sign with pyrotechnics and a symphony orchestra playing a fanfare as Blackbeard's ship pulls into port.
This article by Kotaku has all the details and even points out major issues with the very idea including game preservation, and the longevity of these subscription services. The Ubisoft director of subscriptions Phillippe Tremblay was the man who spoke those words, he compared it to how we're comfortable with not owning our DVD or CD collection. Here's the problem though, we all still own a CD and DVD collection, enough of us still buy these things to justify a DVD, CD, and a vinyl record section in all the big box retailers. No one has accepted the idea of not owning their collection, they only accepted the streaming services as a replacement for rental stores.
Circling back to the older games, there's the problem if the games are even going to be preserved in ten years. That's a problem that Nintendo had with the virtual console, that's a problem Nintendo still has with all of its retro games. The games that aren't available can only be played either on the original system or through piracy. Game services are also littered with exclusives that can be deleted at any given time. Something that video streaming is struggling with right now, if something gets deleted from a streaming service, and it was only on streaming, that's it you can only pirate it.
In the same interview Tremblay talked about gamers not owning their games he also floated the idea that services will remain. That is something that is not true, only a few services have bested the test of time. Keep in mind that Blockbuster also had a service that could be compared to Netflix. If these services go down, I can't trust that any of the games would have a backup. For example remember all the live services that started popping up a few years ago? Remember how they started dropping like flies? This is the eventual outcome of an all digital future.
So will this idea survive the next decade, this is actually a resurgence of the idea, someone said something similar with the idea of buying a game is actually just purchasing a licensing agreement. This resurgence is already getting massive backlash, the points I've made have already been made by people bigger, better, and hotter than me. As I've also subtly alluded to, this will cause a massive surge in piracy with just the statement alone. Given the lack of preservation that these services already have, I imagine that piracy was already pretty rampant and it has only been emboldened further.
Welp, thems are my thoughts! As always piracy is a crime, I don't endorse it, and pineapples do belong on pizza!
6 notes
·
View notes
Text
WB is Desperate to Kill Coyote V Acme
Stop me if this sounds familiar. Warner brothers has an unreleased movie that they want to throw away despite it being practically finished- ok I didn't actually mean stop me, let me do my thing.
In recent years ever since the Discovery merger, Warner Bros. has had a habit of deleting or canceling projects for at times no good reasons. A number of shows have been removed from the streaming services, and movies that were either done or nearly done were cancelled. One of these movies was Coyote V Acme, a movie about Wile E Coyote (carnivorous slobbius) suing ACME for their faulty products. Test screenings were going great and there were a lot of big names behind the film. There's a lot of hype behind this film, no doubt that if they actually released it opening weekend would be nothing to sneeze at.
Now two months ago at time of writing Warner Bros. already said that they would shop the film around for someone else to release it. Well big companies were breaking down the doors to get their hands on it. Netflix, Amazon, and Paramount have all made offers far higher than what WB would get if they wrote it off for taxes, but it looks like WB is not interested at all. Now it looks like that the movie will not only be shelved, but there are talks of it being flat out erased and lost to time.
What, why?! To answer that question, it is unknown at time of writing, it is speculated that there is something to benefit from with the write off, despite the afore mentioned companies already offering more than the write off. With all said there are talks of giving this movie the Sandy Cheeks treatment and swiping it out from under the executives noses and letting it loose onto the internet so that all the hard work it took to make it won't be wasted. That's another thing about this, directors, actors, writers, and anyone who works on films are now looking at WB wondering if they should even think about working for them. There is no guarantee that their work will even see the light of day.
This is exactly why piracy exists, not just as a discount, but because these companies just don't care about their own films, shows, music, and games. There are decades worth of works that were destroyed because of a business decision, and now we have the greatest tool for preserving it all. All it takes is someone stepping out of line and it is made permanently available.
6 notes
·
View notes
Text
One Game That Can't be Bought
I've been going on about piracy for a bit and hinting that there are games out there that can't be officially bought, so why not drop an example that I'm sure most people have heard of.
In 2014 Konami released a game called P.T. (playable teaser). It was a horror puzzler released for the PS4 that gained so much love and attention and when the first person to finish it on stream got to the end, it was revealed to be a teaser for a game called Silent Hills. It was a glorious moment for Silent Hill fans, the teaser itself was making its way into the gaming hall of fame, because it could easily stand on its own.
Then the higher ups in Konami absolutely lost their minds and proceeded to throw their entire legacy into a volcano in favor of pachinko machines. Directors behind games like Silent Hill, and Castlevania, were either fired or left. The IP's were used on pachinko machines and announced in incredibly tone deaf ads. To top it off, SIlent Hills was canceled and PT was removed from the playstation store. The only way to get PT legitimately is by either already having it downloaded, or buying a PS4 with it already downloaded, the ladder will go for a pretty penny.
So anyone interested in playing PT will have to pirate it. There is no where else to go for it unless you want to take out a mortgage. Konami has become a laughing stock, no one takes the company seriously anymore, or at least when it comes to video games. They seem to be doing fine in casinos.
As always, piracy is a crime, I don't endorse it, stay in school, and don't do drugs!
5 notes
·
View notes
Text
So The Escaptist Youtube is Dead
I know what you're thinking, "Wow this twink is late to this party-JESUS CHRIST GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" To that I say, calm down, you're giving me a migraine. Also yes, this is an old story now. I still want to share my thoughts on it though.
For those of you who don't know, the Escapist magazine had a fairly popular YouTube channel centered around game criticism, development, and commentary with the one and only Benjamin Yahtzee Croshaw hosting the most popular show on the channel, Zero Punctuation. A series that has been going since 2007 and is the source of the PC gaming master race meme. In recent years the Escaptist brought on the editor Nick Calandra to lead the video department. He managed to lead a golden age for the Escapist YouTube channel, there hasn't been this much variety since before Yahtzee became the only creator on the channel.
It all came crashing down on November 6, 2023, when the Escapist decided to fire Calandra and a good portion of the video team. This was the biggest mistake the magazine has ever made, because apparently everyone, and I do mean everyone involved in video making absolutely loved Calandra and they all quit on mass. This was such a disaster for the escapist that the YouTube channel was dead for two weeks until the remainder of the video backlog was all uploaded at once. Meanwhile everyone started up a new channel called Second Wind with all the shows that were on the Escaptist with the exception of Zero Punctuation. When Yahtzee originally joined the Escapists in 2007, he sold the rights to his original show called Fullyramblomatic. The Zero Punctuation name was fully on the Escapist, and also the designs of Yahtzees avatar and the little jelly bean imps. For the first week Yahtzee had to figure out a new name and design where upon he landed on a legally distinct version called Fully Ramblomatic with a space, and now the imps are replaced with dogs, because dogs are great, and Yahtzee's fedora is black and he now has a suit and glasses. Clearly they're taking the piss on the Escapists for the whole situation. All the other shows also kept the art style of Zero Punctuation, most keeping the names too.
This isn't the first time this happened either, they dropped the ball on Extra Credits when they didn't pay them, and screwed over Stephanie Sterling with not publishing their reviews. Those two are what eventually lead to Yahtzee's takeover of the channel. Now the channel is sitting there dead, hasn't been updated since the last Zero Punctuation compilation was published. Now the Escapist YouTube channel may never recover, they still own Zero Punctuation, but what are they even going to do with it aside from just sit on it like a jewel in their dragon's hoard. The rest of the magazine is doing fine, so they may just pivot purely to that for the next few years. Second Wind is currently thriving on the audience that jumped ship while also being fully independent, which means more swearing.
In the meantime, join me as we sing a little tune that I feel is very appropriate for this.
Let's all laugh at an industry that never learns anything teeheehee!
5 notes
·
View notes
Text
Ubisoft and Nintendo are Encouraging Piracy
On April 1, 2024 the Crew, an online only racing game, has been delisted by Ubisoft as support has ended. There are even some reports that the game has been removed from users libraries. On the same day the Nintendo 3DS and WiiU Eshops went down along with online support for all the games on those platforms.
This means that for The Crew and any exclusive in the Nintendo Eshops, there is no way to officially buy or play them beyond saving the copies already out there. As for The Crew, the only options are to either not bother or pirate, not that I endorse the ladder.
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
When Coleco Just Built Their Own Atari
Oh god this is the second time I wrote about something like this FROM THE SAME DECADE! Oh hello reader, I didn't smell you there! So here's a familiar story, it's the 1980's and a video game company doesn't like how one company is sitting high and pretty. This time, instead of Nintendo and Tengen, it's Coleco and Atari!
Picture it, it's 1982 and Coleco is struggling with their console the ColecoVision against the Atari 2600. So what are you to do? Make your own adapter that allows your customers to play your competitors games on your system of course. It's the obvious answer.
Thar she is, the ColecoVision Expansion Module 1. It was essentially just an Atari that relied on the Coleco for power and video output. There was an issue with the more out there cartridges needing an adapter, but beyond that anything goes.
Coleco was of course sued for this, but they did settle out of court with Coleco paying royalties for the expansion module, and for their own stand alone Atari clone.
The strangest thing I've found is how common these things are. Looking on Ebay the expansions are more common than the ColecoVision and for some reason cheaper than the Atari 2600, while also coming with the box. So if you want a fun conversation piece have at it.
Another thing I need to note is the lack of comprehensive sources beyond the court documents. I could only find one or two paragraph posts that just told me the basics, including a newspaper article from NYT at the time. Even the Wikipedia page is light on the subject. I seem to have a memory of Atari losing their patent on the 2600 over this but I'm not finding that anywhere. If that isn't the case, I am very sorry for spreading that around.
Oh and of course I piracy is a crime and I don't condone, always keep your anti viral software up to date, and visit your grandma!
4 notes
·
View notes
Text
Sega Likes to Tempt Pirates
This one's gonna be a quickie, I don't have much to say on this.
Come with me on this trip to my local record shop! Here we have vinyl records, CD's and in the back, retro video games neatly organized by system. Now as we pass the Sega genesis shelves you notice that some of the cartridges are taller and they have a yellow tab on them. You have witnessed the end result of a challenge that Sega had to any pirate out in the world. The pirates name? Electronic Arts. At least they were unlicensed at first, Sega had to give in and make them official.
Something similar happened on the Dreamcast. The Dreamcast used CDR disks for its games, these were incredibly easy to pirate on. All you needed was the stack of blank disks from your local Radio Shack, and burn on some emulators. Given the variety of controller options on the Dreamcast, the possibilities were endless. Rinrygamegame had a video on the Dreamcast that mentioned this over ten years ago, she had a whole stack of loose CD's that came with the thing. Who knows maybe Sega just gave up after the whole EA fiasco.
With that, until next time, stay in school, don't talk to strangers, and I don't endorse piracy.
5 notes
·
View notes
Text
Bootleg Consoles
Here's something pretty common for both collectors and folks feeling nostalgic, you may look around in their living room and see an odd console sitting by their TV. It may have multiple slots with games from different consoles in them from different companies. Behold a bootleg aftermarket console has graced your presence.
Unlike most things I've been talking about here, these are legal. They don't use anything trade marked or copyrighted, like logos or the original aesthetics so Nintendo or Sega can't really sue them. Instead these bootlegs are using expired patents that the original companies don't have a desire to use anyway. Granted a lot of these consoles also use software emulation.
The most well known company behind these consoles is Retrobit. The retro Duo and Trio are both fairly common, typically with a red and black color scheme. They mainly focus on the NES, SNES, and Genesis. Hyperkin has the most diversity with their products, they include consoles that can play the three already mentioned as well as Atari and Game boy games. There aren't any for the N64 and beyond, likely the patents haven't expired yet, either that or production issues.
These consoles have plenty of benefits over the originals, otherwise you'd just be better off getting the originals. For one they are region free, back when the originals were the new hotness the main way of region locking the games was physically altering the cartridge slot to take only a specific shape of the shell. The SNES has a more boxy shape compared to the more rounded super famicom, both slots were built to take their respective cartridges snugly. The aftermarket consoles usually don't have that keyhole aspect, there are some exceptions of course, but for the most part you could play whatever on these consoles.
The main reason why people buy these consoles is because the originals are either too expensive or have compatibility issues with modern TV's. There are TV's out there that don't have AV inputs. Often times with the pricing, older consoles can cost between $50 and $100 or more depending on the seller. The three in ones at most cost $70, and usually have an HDMI output. There is always the possibility of the original consoles just not working one day due to their age. Alternatively the originals may just not be available in your area.
Overall these consoles have found their niche and intend to stay there, while being legally in the clear unlike most other things I've covered. Depending on where you are, physically or financially, they are the only way to play old games.
Oh yeah, I don't endorse piracy, yadda yadda cover my legal bases, goodnight everyone!
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
So when I pulled out my PS2 recently, I discovered that all my controllers were going through some drift, except for one. The one that not only came with my PS2 over twenty years ago, but also has something loose in it that makes it sound like a rattle! How?
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
They're at it Again.
Do y'all remember Gamer Gate? I only just learned what all happened in the last year, because at the time I only heard about it in its last days when things were so confused and muddled that I could only gleam the sexism that ran all throughout. Turns out it was a relationship drama that got way out of hand and that whole "ethics in game journalism" part was just a cover. Anita Sarkeesian was just an after thought in the whole thing, yet she has been so thoroughly lambasted by this crowd that you'd be forgiven for thinking that she was the subject. Honestly the timeline is so confusing and disconnected with itself that it is a miracle that Gamer Gate was even a thing, here's and hour long breakdown here if you're curious. If you want ALL the details, here's a six hour long epic here.
OK Ducky, why are you bringing this up, it was ten years ago, we all know how crazy these people are?
Thank you for your input voice in my head. Yes this is old news, but it has been coming up on my feed again. This time with headlines warning about Gamer Gate 2.0, like Heimdall blowing his horn to signal the start of the most pathetic Ragnarok. This time the subject is a company called Sweet Baby Inc. which is a consulting firm according to their website. Specifically consulting about how to represent minority experiences or just sensitive subjects in general. The conspiracy theory is that Sweet Baby has the power to completely change scripts to be more "woke". Yes it is stupid because game developers willingly go to them when they have questions, and they can just ignore any advice from Sweet Baby entirely. Of course it also plays into the culture war that has been boiling away in the meth lab since Gamer Gate initially happened.
Now to get to the real reason I'm bringing this back up, allow me to shove my opinion on this into your brain like a tentacle slithering down your ear canal. I don't think this will take off like the first Gamer Gate at all. Why do I say this? Over the past year alone we've been seeing the kind of people who would jump on this train making complete fools of themselves any chance they get. Remember the Star Field pronouns guy? This is just going to be more of that, and it will be largely ignored with the exception of a few public meltdowns. There's also the fact that this one would be built on even shakier ground than the first one. In order for Sweet Baby to be involved in a video game the developer needs to make contact first. In a series of interviews with The Verge, team members of Sweet Baby repeatedly say how they are just there to consult the writers, who already wrote in minority characters. That's just how a business like this works, the "woke" content would have found its way into the game to begin with. The difference being the slightly higher possibility of misrepresentation.
Needless to say, if this blows up within the next week, it's safe to say that this wave will be a laughing stock. As I'm writing this, the cracks are already forming. Maybe you saw that Matt Walsh from the Daily Wire has already given his two cents on the situation on the side of Gamer Gate. Here's the thing though, there are clips floating around of Walsh actively bashing gamers for playing video games as adults. He got some backlash from his own audience. The targets of this wave even have a support group in the victims of the first Gamer Gate. This time the defense prepared, and the offense seems far less prepared than last time.
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
Fami-Clone Consoles: Now Available at your Local Walmart!
Have you ever heard the term fami-clone? The name comes from the Nintendo Famicom and it refers mostly to plug and play systems. These systems tend to advertise an absurd number of games in one console. These consoles are loaded with mainly 8 bit games but with something altered, usually the title but also some assets switched around or even changed entirely. These games can look absurd, there is one Sonic bootleg but it replaces Sonic with Mario, with another version that's just pikachu. Other games on these systems are sometimes just the same game but the levels are separated and labeled as separate games, which is how they get the numbers so high. There are even a couple downgraded titles floating around such as Angry Birds.
A few years ago I ended up finding a bunch of these at Walmart, one of which was just a GameBoy going through its emo phase. It was of course loaded with all the usual fami-clone titles, Mario broken up, re skins of B grade NES games, and some 16 bit games.
Now it is possible to get a license from the original IP holder to resale these games, but given the trend that most of the fami-clones tend to follow, it is doubtful that the majority of these manufacturers are operating within the law. Nintendo for example is fiercely protective of their IP, they don't even let themselves port their own games. This is probably why a lot of the games are modified in some way, hardly enough to avoid any copyright law.
Hardware wise, all the fami-Clones are in the clear. The patents on these gadgets were filed in the 80's and ran out in the early 2000's. Now I haven't found anything on if Nintendo has successfully sued a fami-clone manufacturer on copyright issues. Every time I think I found a case, it was either in the 90's before the patents expired, or the link is dead. The closest thing I have found was a one paragraph article on a lawsuit Nintendo has filed over a patent violation, didn't even say which patent. So time for some speculation!
Nintendo and companies like it are very well aware of the games that are on these bootleg systems. However, these ports are actually pretty bad as far as ports go, and there is no way to mistake most of these for officially licensed ports, they don't even get the titles right. What does that mean? It means that it's just not worth it, besides, the fami-clones are already well known for their stigma of being just cheap knockoffs you find in street fairs that may or may not outlast the gold fish you dropped into the cotton candy machine. This is the only reason I can think of why these things are still around, as far as them being in stores like Wal-Mart, someone probably just absent mindedly approved of it.
To make that last point I want to point out another thing I found at Wal-Mart. I was walking past the toy aisle and I noticed this mini arcade cabinet made for the American Girl dolls. It had a try me sticker and when I turned it on I found the usual 1000+ game selection screen and a Christmas game that is well known for being in these fami-clone consoles. I can safely conclude that fami-clones persist out of apathy, on the original IP holders, on the sellers, the manufacturers, and the end buyers. Most of the fami-clone companies tend to remain in obscurity and are often forgotten.
Before I forget, piracy is illegal and I don't condone it. Gotta cover my legal bases, BUY GOLD!
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
Pirating Music and Film Without the Internet
Today pirating film and music is incredibly easy, you kids have it easy, you don't even have to deal with actual film, I say as if I didn't grow up in this era. Today all you need is an internet connection and a working finger, and I guarantee you that you all have at least one of those. Back in the old days though, we had analog technology that was surprisingly common. For example, remember how people would wait at the radio with a cassette tape ready to record music directly from the radio broadcast, that's technically piracy, and so is recording a movie onto a VHS tape, in fact that is exactly what the major studios were worried about when tapes were first coming out.
The best quality pirated films often come from copies stolen from the studio. There are stories out there of studio employees just yoinking copies out of the office. At the same time there are cinema owners who would keep copies of film that the studio would have otherwise destroyed. Granted these would only be sold to people rich enough to maintain a home theater. There was also a sense of preservation with this form of piracy. It is well known that during the silent era of film, there were so many movies that were just lost to history. This will be a reoccurring theme, a lot of the lost media that was found was only because of pirated copies saved onto a VHS tape, or a lost reel in someones attic, or sometimes even the trash.
I found this information from the link right here about a theater owner who pirated reels he got from studios, give it a read, it's an interesting story.
Gizmodo
Music wise, it is the same sense of preservation that permeates every other form of piracy. Before Edison invented audio recording, piracy was just copying sheet music, any marching band geek will know that this form is still kicking around today. Audiophiles before cassette tapes took rare and discontinued recordings and copied them.
I already touched on the cassette tapes being hated by the studios who tried to say that home taping was illegal. Some musicians even encouraged home taping by putting in blank tape along with their own copy to stick it to the man.
Here's a timeline on music piracy over the past few centuries:
Ranker
Everything changed when the computers attacked. If you had a computer with an optical drive you could easily just take any CD and rip the files in order to make endless copies. Itunes had this ability built in and it is not hard at all, it only took a couple clicks and you could go do something else as it downloaded. You may need an internet connection to initially get the software, but after that you can disconnect and go wild.
There you have it, a quick bit on piracy with film and music before the internet. As you can see, these two are the easiest for piracy, there isn't much protection and the technology has almost always been made available to the public. Game piracy is a whole different beast so I won't be covering those parts today, and it is a whole lot more fun with all the hoops to jump through. For now though, just remember that for legal reasons I don't endorse piracy and I definitely never did it myself.
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
I Think The Internet Killed Cheat Devices
Recently I came into possession of a couple old cheat devices at a couple conventions and it got me thinking. I have not seen a single new cheat device since the original DS. I still remember seeing the package on the store shelf with off brand Pokemon on the front. Until the 3DS there was a cheat device for every console, Nintendo even sued the makers of the Game Genie and lost the suit.
These cheat devices often offered the same things, unlimited lives, cash, skip levels, rare items, and of course the fun game breaking stuff like switching assets or just breaking them. It was all good fun until online gaming really picked up and then the ethics of these cheat devices were put into question. Suddenly someone could use one of these to gain an unfair advantage in a match up and could absolutely wipe an opposing team. These days you can get banned from a game for hacking, or even using a glitch to your advantage.
Oh yeah then there's the professional scene. There are of course the ones where competitors go to a physical arena that is strictly regulated, but some are remote. A quick Google search shows that there have been some incidents.
A bit of a shame that this chapter of gaming had to be closed, even cheat codes are getting more and more rare. I miss the days when you could plug these devices into your console and absolutely destroy your games code. Well at least there's one good thing about servers going offline, I could play a Halo match with my friends with all cheats on with everyone wearing only the sluttiest of maid dresses.
0 notes
Last Seen Blogs
