128Kgames Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 (edited) How? By alerting the companies to illegal activity? Won't they (Namco, etc...) support Collectorvision and Team Pixelboy who as far as I understand are the licensed developers of these games for the CV or am I missing something? Yes, you are missing something. These are not "licensed" games, they are homebrew games that normally go under the radar of said companies. Not all, but some, so notifying them would not be a good idea. Games that were independently created, not sharing content, themes or characters from someone else's property, that's a completely different story. Edited March 1, 2016 by TMOSteel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+evg2000 Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 so are the boxes he shows included? doesn't say they aren't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7800fan Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 Probably not since he was never honest about everything. He never mentioned his junkbox didn't have correct sound, didn't mention he had permission or anything to sell certain games on EPROM, and all. I wouldn't be surprised if whoever bought his overpriced modded intellivision ends up with a box of parts and Ikea-style assembly instruction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draugr Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 Yes, you are missing something. These are not "licensed" games, they are homebrew games that normally go under the radar of said companies. Not all, but some, so notifying them would not be a good idea. Games that were independently created, not sharing content, themes or characters from someone else's property, that's a completely different story. I actually thought these games on the CV like other systems (Ex: Atari 2600, 7800, etc...) were legally licensed. I mean I'm surprised this hasn't come to a stop years ago if the new homebrew releases built on popular arcade games, etc weren't licensed as I'm sure these companies must have some clue as to what is going on. I always figured that is why these games sell for full game prices (aka $50-$60, etc...). I thought the licensing was what probably cost the most and thus caused the prices to be what they typically are. Anyhow, for now I'm going to look for OPCODE's SGM, no need for the speech chip on this other SGM module if there are no games supporting it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPR Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 Why not notify the official IP holders such as Namco, etc... Nooooo! No. No. No. No. No! That would be bad a bad idea. REALLY BAD!!! Part of the beauty of the homebrew scene is that it flies under the radar since most big companies aren't going to care about a small group of people or homebrewer that publishes even a couple of hundred copies of a licensed IP on a system that most people under the age of 25 haven't even heard of. The moment you go alerting them to something, and put the idea in their head that maybe they SHOULD care, that's dangerous. Like really, really, REALLY dangerous. There is a fine line that a lot of the homebrews walk when it comes to intellectual property, and I'm going to assume that most of the companies probably DO know about some of the games that are released, they just choose to ignore because they know it will cost them more money to have a lawyer draft a cease and desist letter than they would make off any royalties of said games if they were officially licensed. And none of them compete or impact the sales of any current products they have on the market. But you wouldn't want to take that risk. Hope that makes sense! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumbai Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 There is a fine line that a lot of the homebrews walk when it comes to intellectual property... It's not really that fine a line. Let's be honest. It's the whole reason these listings are insulated from quick and decisive takedowns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPR Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 It's not really that fine a line. Let's be honest. It's the whole reason these listings are insulated from quick and decisive takedowns. I was more talking about the fine line that the original homebrewers walk putting out CV versions of licensed games. The stuff Juice is doing is just being a flat-out horrible person to spite the rest of the community for a self inflicted and much deserved outcasting. Really, you are right about what he's doing not being a fine line, and I doubt that the couple of ROMs that Juice sells is going to impact anyone in the grand scheme of things, but it would just be nice to see the guy get what he deserves for being a jerk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coleconut Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 (edited) I always figured that is why these games sell for full game prices (aka $50-$60, etc...). Its called economies of scale. Giving a programmer a small honorarium to port a game from MSX etc, costs of printing small runs of boxes and labels and manuals, cost of carts and PCBs etc - there is not huge profits to be made by selling 50 copies of a homebrew @ $50 bucks. More a labour of love really. Edited March 1, 2016 by coleconut 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPR Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 So I just received the following email from Fred: And it included a link to a RAR file with a bunch of ROMs: I'm not even sure what to say about this as I'm just so blown away by just how horrible of a human he is. Talk about someone's "true colors" coming out... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikrananka Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 So I just received the following email from Fred: Must be in response to the fact that the games he was trying to sell on eBay have all been taken down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VectorGamer Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 Its called economies of scale. Giving a programmer a small honorarium to port a game from MSX etc, costs of printing small runs of boxes and labels and manuals, cost of carts and PCBs etc - there is not huge profits to be made by selling 50 copies of a homebrew @ $50 bucks. More a labour of love really. I don't know in this day and age of SD multicarts and emulation why the homebrew publishers aren't giving us the option to buy the ROM with PDF manual only. Let's not make the printers and USPS rich by making these cart only releases. I started a thread on this topic here. The publishers have a chance of making even more money by offering the ROM only option. They could release the ROM for sale first and sell the CIB version a couple of months later. In that time they could get additional play testing on the ROM before committing it to cartridge. And they may get people who buy the ROM AND buy the CIB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VectorGamer Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 And it included a link to a RAR file with a bunch of ROMs: Screen Shot 2016-03-01 at 09.34.56.png A lot of those have already been released for free. Helifire and Elevator Action are ones that I'm not aware of being released unless Collectorvision just made them available over the last couple of months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chart45 Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 So I just received the following email from Fred: Screen Shot 2016-03-01 at 09.35.37.png And it included a link to a RAR file with a bunch of ROMs: Screen Shot 2016-03-01 at 09.34.56.png I'm not even sure what to say about this as I'm just so blown away by just how horrible of a human he is. Talk about someone's "true colors" coming out... i receive the same link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
128Kgames Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 So I just received the following email from Fred: Screen Shot 2016-03-01 at 09.35.37.png And it included a link to a RAR file with a bunch of ROMs: Screen Shot 2016-03-01 at 09.34.56.png I'm not even sure what to say about this as I'm just so blown away by just how horrible of a human he is. Talk about someone's "true colors" coming out... I would have replied with "Fred, we know where you live, don't do anything stupid..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPR Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 A lot of those have already been released for free. Yeah, I mean, my feeling on it, other than his attempt to make money selling off the individual ROMs on eBay which was a dick move, is that there isn't much damage someone can do by distributing a link full of ROMs that have already been released publicly, it was more the threatening attitude and the whole layer of "assholeness" behind it all. If anything, I just posted it so people could see what kind of a person this dude really is. The ROMs that haven't been released, that's another story and most certainly is NOT COOL! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumbai Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 (edited) I don't know [...] why the homebrew publishers aren't giving us the option to buy the ROM with PDF manual only. Let's not make the printers and USPS rich by making these cart only releases. The second half of the above is not only a tangential concern, but specious reasoning. The publishers have a chance of making even more money by offering the ROM only option. They could release the ROM for sale first and sell the CIB version a couple of months later. [...] And they may get people who buy the ROM AND buy the CIB. The underlying assumption here is not only that cost of production will be significantly lowered (though dubious given the dual release scheme proffered above) but also that the consumer price would be steeply discounted for the ROM/PDF release, which it likely would have to be in order to not only entice buyers but discourage redistribution without payment. But this is all drifting rather far afield from the original point of the thread. Edited March 1, 2016 by mumbai 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slab0meat Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 I would have replied with "Fred, we know where you live, don't do anything stupid..." Let's not go down that road again.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumbai Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 Must be in response to the fact that the games he was trying to sell on eBay have all been taken down. Not quite: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fireman-Game-Opcode-Coleco-ColecoVision-ADAM-Computer-/182040365565 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rey Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 So now he's shoving them in a blank coleco cartridge shell to make it pass as it's just "missing the label". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPR Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 Not quite: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fireman-Game-Opcode-Coleco-ColecoVision-ADAM-Computer-/182040365565 Reported. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iesposta Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 Probably not since he was never honest about everything. He never mentioned his junkbox didn't have correct sound, didn't mention he had permission or anything to sell certain games on EPROM, and all. I wouldn't be surprised if whoever bought his overpriced modded intellivision ends up with a box of parts and Ikea-style assembly instructions. No way. No instructions. I asked many times to buy the Intellivision RGB mod because I can install it myself. He would ONLY sell it if I sent my console and HE installed it. I'm so glad now that he never got my money! He was turning away potential customers months and months ago! Here's more bad business (or bad luck): I saw one of his RGB & composite modded Intellivision II sell on eBay for around $150. Then he sells the Kit/Install Service for around $150?! Now he listed another Intellivision RGB and composite at $250!!! (He probably had someone buy $150 back for him, and it's the same one?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chart45 Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 who receive this email with the link in it only one who buy from him or he sent to every AA user Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VectorGamer Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 I received an email from Fred a few minutes ago that had a link to a different RAR file than was previously posted Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPR Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 Just got another email from him... Which contained a link with these ROMs: Not sure what he means "these are all the newest SGM games some not even released." Does he realize that NONE of these are new and ALL of them have been released??? What a complete tool.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+eebuckeye Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 How does he get all the roms? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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