Do you care if retro shops sell reproductions?

[calgon]

I was in my local retro game shop at lunch and was surprised at the vast quantities of repro carts they had. I'm talking around 30 SNES, 20 genesis, 15 or so for NES. Now to be fair they weren't mixed in with the standard retail games but were given real estate in a case where' their formerly expensive retail carts went.

maybe it's an ethics thing, but seeing a repro of earthbound for 60 when you can get the same thing with a better label for 20 on alixpress is a little derpy.

Also the labels were terrible

[FieryReign]

Been going on and will continue to go on. What can you do about it? Snitch to who? Best thing you can do is call them out, but who or what is that helping? No different than the 90s with cassette blers on the corner of the block. Or your local Jamaican dude who you buy them shitty dvdrs from.

[Emperor Megas]

So long as it's retro stuff, clearly labeled, and not being passed off as the genuine article, I really wouldn't care. No one's making money off the real thing anymore so my only concern is uninformed buyers who may not know the difference; especially when it's something purchased as a gift.

My wife for example buys game stuff for me a lot but probably wouldn't know the difference between a real and repro game at a glance.

[PreZZ]

All retro stores in my area are loaded with jcretail repros, hacks and translations and are same price as online (mostly 40$ canadian) the clerks will tell you they are repros im fine with it, even if illegal

[homerhomer]

I don't care if a shop has a repros but they lack that WOW factor for me. I guess I'm fine with it, as long as they're labeled or at least mentioned but .... it does seem a little slimy.

I can't help but thing if we're talking about music or comics instead of video games and how that would seem. Like a burned cd of a beatles album or copy of a spiderman comic. Or instead of a game hack a "club mix" of a album. Looking at it this way make me think that it's all crap.

Although I might be a repro of M.U.S.H.A, LOL.

What shops need to start doing is carrying NEW games from homebrew companies.

[Az]

It always shocks me when legitimate businesses carry these things. Why not go ahead and throw some Dreamcast or Playstation CD-Rs on the shelf while you're at it?

[Niku-Sama]

I don't see why it would be any different than kit cars.
cars sold for the user to assemble that were reproductions of other cars

I cant think of any one who has been charged with "illegally" reproducing a car, why would this be any different?

[Steve W]

It always shocks me when legitimate businesses carry these things. Why not go ahead and throw some Dreamcast or Playstation CD-Rs on the shelf while you're at it?
I've come across a few game stores where the title I want turns out to be a CD-R disc with a poorly printed out label. The employees either don't know any better or they don't care. It's when you know they're selling a repro as the original that it makes you not want to go there anymore. A Play N' Trade store locally used to have Halloween for the Atari 2600, but the cart shell was an Atari style rather than the notched "easy grip" type the original had. I couldn't read the employee too well, I don't know if he was aware but trying to deceive or he genuinely thought it was the real thing. Apparently somebody bought it (for over $100 if memory serves) since it was gone on the next visit to the store. And the visit after that, the store was out of business like all Play N' Trade stores eventually end up like.

[celerystalker]

I have mixed feelings. On one hand, I have a few repro carts for english translations of games I have in japanese, like Mother and Rent-a-Hero. I know flash carts probably make more sense, especially since I have the Japanese versions, but I haven't opened that can of worms yet.

That said, I don't care to find them at retail unless it were to be games that didn't come out in the US, mainly just to avoid confusion. Sometimes we forget that the bread and butter customers in retail aren't all hardcore and can't spot fakes easily. My sister in law just bought an NES for her son, and she'd be completely clueless as to what she is looking at, so there is a call for knowledgeable, ethical employees to take care of their customers in this sort of situation. Done irresponsibly, I'm against it.

[otaku]

i have bought repros for stuff that was otherwise very difficult to find usually imports as long as they are of good quality and labeled as such i don't see that much of a problem until the games are made available in a similar format and or licensed stateside

[bb_hood]

I dont really actively collect video games much anymore, but I just dont get why collectors would spend money on repros over other genuine games. I kinda think its sad that repros have become so widely accepted amongst collectors. To me the whole point of collecting games is collecting original copies of classic games. I also feel that the people who make these and sell them are just taking advantage of the whole 'retro game' explosion. I dont know, to each his own I guess but there are alot of sleeper rare games out there that still sell for like 20-30$. Much more fun collecting original games.

[calgon]

For the record, I'm okay with shops selling repros if they are labeled as such. What is kind of a bummer is seeing the clearly alixpress copy of Musha with a terrible label on sale for 50.

It is what it is I guess.

[Porksta]

When I first heard this, I was thinking it was fan made stuff - like FF VII on SNES or something. However, after looking at some of these carts, how are they any different from counterfeits? Is there any way to tell them apart, short of opening the cart? I would hate to spend money on an expensive game just to find out its a fake.

[SparTonberry]

"Reproduction" is just a feel-good name for counterfeit.
Like at first they were just burning fan-translations/ROM hacks and unreleased games, stuff that was never legally available.
Then they moved on to "too expensive" games.

Even when I started seeing people "reproing" cheap Japanese-only games like Goonies 1, for people who want to spend more money than just getting a converter. "But I need it in an NES case." Still a bootleg though.
But one that baffled me was Stadium Events repros. Seriously who the **** wants a Stadium Events repro? If you REALLY want to play the game (I'd imagine few if anyone that owns the game actually plays it) and not spend 2k monies, get World Class Track Meet for like $3. At least that's more authentic than owning a lie.

[bb_hood]

"Reproduction" is just a feel-good name for counterfeit.
Like at first they were just burning fan-translations/ROM hacks and unreleased games, stuff that was never legally available.
Then they moved on to "too expensive" games.

Even when I started seeing people "reproing" cheap Japanese-only games like Goonies 1, for people who want to spend more money than just getting a converter. "But I need it in an NES case." Still a bootleg though.
But one that baffled me was Stadium Events repros. Seriously who the **** wants a Stadium Events repro? If you REALLY want to play the game (I'd imagine few if anyone that owns the game actually plays it) and not spend 2k monies, get World Class Track Meet for like $3. At least that's more authentic than owning a lie.

I think 'reproduction' is a fair term when people buy these to play. I think 'counterfeit' is more applicable when they are sold under the guise of being genuine games. Either way there are cheaper ways to play these games and in my opinion repros have no monetary worth.

And yeah that baffles me as well, why anyone would want a Stadium Events reproduciton. Might as well just write 'stadium events' on a rock and put it on your shelf, same thing really.

[Terminusvitae]

It's never bothered me, really. Indeed, even as highly-priced as some stores place their reproductions, I'm kind of glad they're available outside the Internet, illegal or not. I've had a few repros in past years, and it never concerned me that I wasn't playing the "genuine article" because I always collected primarily for playing the games.

[kupomogli]

I'm in the same boat as others calling it counterfeit merchnadise. Whether these games are being sold or not, this isn't emulation, this is someone making money on another's work. So whether it's a Final Fantasy 3 for NES, Final Fantasy 7 demake for NES, or Earthbound for SNES, it's a pretty scummy thing to do any way you look at it. With real games like Earthbound, it gets to the point that some are so well done you can't very well tell the difference from a repro to the real thing, and then you've got people who've screwed another out of $300.

Now if you happened to be the developer of the Final Fantasy 7 demake(doubtful if you're selling an English copy) or any of the fan made games, then you've got an argument, but 99.9% of the people selling these repros are using work taken from another. Even if you were the one who did the fan translation it'd be something I'd frown upon because you still wouldn't have developed the rest of the game. But even so, most people making money off these are people who had no part in anything. So yeah, I'm against it pretty much anyway you look at it.

[Gameguy]

I wouldn't mind if they were games not officially available for sale anywhere, these would be bootlegs. If they were copies of existing games that are otherwise available, I would avoid as they're pirated counterfeits.

Most game stores I've seen selling these are pricing them for way too much, but seeing things not commonly available in retail stores makes these shops a bit more appealing to visit.

[PreZZ]

If you want a cool looking cartridge of megaman and bass for 80$, its your money do what you want. It just makes more sense to me to get everdrives. I would like to get a starfox 2 repro because i want to play it on my snes and needs the fx chip.

[CastlevaniaDude]

If they're of good quality and CLEARLY marked ON THE LABEL as repros, and it's a game that's tough to find an original copy of, I'm fine with it. If they're passing them off as the real deal and/or it's a game that's not too difficult to come by, then it's a scumbag move.

Another issue I have is something like Mother 3. When Tomato's team translated it, they clearly did so for the fans, not for profit. People stealing their hard work and selling repros at heavy markup pisses me off.

[Kwyjibo]

As others have said, as long as the label says it and they are honest about it, I don't see a problem.

Now if they have a repro cart that they are trying to pass off as legit and are unwilling to remove it, I'm calling the cops. But I don't visit these stores hardly ever so I think they are safe if they are so unscrupulous.