As someone who works with Michael and was aware of his medical situation before he decided to sell his collection, I can completely vouch for his reason for selling. It's unfortunate that it would happen so soon after receiving recognition from Guinness, but "life happens" as they say. Such is the case here.
This forum has gotten kind of toxic.
I guess it's time to blow it all up and start over.Originally Posted by TheRedEye
I'd argue that DP was always toxic, but there was always enough posters that such topics did not remain at the top for days at a time. I mean, remember the Bio Force Ape prank? There was a reason that prank happened, and why it worked so well.
The fact is, the thing that brought together the DP community (compiling a massive database of games) is by and large complete, and few care about doing such a task anymore. Classic gaming is all about the money and Poke-carts (gotta get them all), so it is not hard to grasp why there is such cynicism.
Why do I care. No idea. I never was much of a collector, and I haven't really bought much gaming stuff in years. It just bothers me that this guy is claiming he has the largest video game collection, which is blatantly false.
<Evan_G> i keep my games in an inaccessable crate where i can't play them
The burden of proof is on Mr. Thommason, not me. Simple rule for a "libel" case. And since the only proof he supplied were contracts with Stargate Films (Bug Blasters and Star Strike, which by the way, Stargate doesn't have the right to profit off of hence why they were pulled from Thommason's and his British eBay buddy's sites) and Elite Systems (Complete Onside Soccer and Power Slide), he doesn't have a leg to stand on. Those two contracts have absolutely nothing to do with Battle Frenzy, Marko's Magic Football, The Smurfs or the other titles, all of which he had no right to make copies of. Oh, and sorry to say, but "repros" are counterfeits, no matter what you say.
One other thing to note, the Stargate and Elite games are listed as being officially licensed on their packaging while those terms are completely absent from all of the other titles. I wonder why?
It's quite apparent you guys are all involved in a very elaborate scheme with Mr. Thommason, as seen by Mr. Ugly Rabbit Avatar's willingness to defend everything this hack says because he does reviews for the guy and gets tons of freebies. I'm glad people are willing to point out the other shenanigans going on such as the apparent cross-promotion for this Game Gavel schmuck. Defend these tools all you want, you'll just reaffirm my stance that you are all shills for the guy, or just plain stupid.
Seriously, this board was kind of terrifying when I started out thirteen years ago.
You can at least keep this in the other thread you already started.
Also, to start claiming that you can see we're "all involved in a very elaborate scheme" is a fine way to dispose of whatever little credibility you may have had left.
"There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." --Bertrand Russel (attributed)
I would have joined a year earlier were it not for some innate bitchfit topic I saw that convinced me you guys weren't any better than the apes on /b/. Funny thing, most of the people I remember seeing in that topic haven't posted in years. I find this forum generally friendly, we just don't put up with BS. And since the internet runs on BS, it makes us seem pretty hostile.
Not if that Game Gavel schmuck (who also owns that retro gaming mag), the guy with the rabbit avatar who has written for that mag, Good Deal Games, and J2 Games/Video Game Trader are in cahoots with each other. It's quite apparent why they'd all want to rub each others' backs.
If you want to support a business that operates legitimately, support Songbird Productions. Carl Forhan actually makes sure that the games he publishes are officially licensed. And the games he has published have been recognized by the IP owners (see: Hyper Force on Visual Impact's list of games produced and the fact that every game is "licensed by...").
Buying a beta copy of an unreleased game from an ex-Sega employee does not qualify as being officially licensed, as was pointed out by a member on Sega-16.
You might be the biggest hypocrite I have ever run into on any gaming forum I have ever been involved with. You have posted on various sites asking for Pippin ISOs and even offered to provide others with copies of them. Those are unlicensed and you are stealing from the copyright holders. That is theft pure and simple. You have no credibility and nobody owes you a personal explanation as to the origin or source of items they are selling. You have no standing as you don't represent the copyright holders. You've been banned from multiple forums and for some unknown reason you have come crawling back here. It's really pretty sickening because nobody here agrees with you or cares about your fraudulent crusade. Please, just go away.
Translation:
Joe Santulli, who is never on these forums anymore, ever, doesn't care what I do here.
GameGavel is still thoroughly parked in neutral, but I'll never admit it. However, I can beg and abuse my connections and relationships to get people to post auctions there, even if it's deleterious to their outcome. I don't care because I am desperate. I didn't need to drive anyone to Thomasson's auction - he did that himself easily enough - but I will take credit for advertising it so I look smart.
I'll state one thing and immediately contradict it. I hope you ignore that obvious contradiction. Concerning the one scammer, I let the other forums do the work for me since it was so widespread.
I just started doing this, just for this auction since it is hitting the mainstream media. It would be an epic disaster for my PR if this ended up in the billions.
Although the auction didn't cross 100k as of 7:10am EST, I will still claim it did. I needed to whore the auction to media sites, because they wouldn't notice it otherwise. If it was on eBay, the auction would have been noticed almost automatically, something I can never promise to anyone. I am grateful to Michael for posting his auction at GG and I am grateful he is taking the kickback I offered to him to do so, since no one would be crazy enough to list something like this here without some persuasion.
This is all I have to show for years of running GameGavel. The NintendoAge auction forum has more profile sales. But don't tell anyone that!
I am an obnoxious twit in person as I am online. I will now try and cover for myself with obvious nonsense that does not relate to my own practices.
Look at all the nice stuff I've given away to promote GameGavel! That makes me a good person, even all those raffles are what normal people would call marketing expenditures for GG/Retro, right?
My argument doesn't really address bojay's post, so I will turn tail and not respond here anymore so I don't put my foot in my mouth.
Last edited by portnoyd; 06-07-2014 at 06:18 AM.
Has money exchanged hands with those Pippin ISOs? Nope.
Oh, and banned from multiple forums? Sega-16 is only one forum, brah.
Possession and distribution of pirated software is a crime and a breach of copyright. No money has to exchange hands. Who at Bandai or any of the developers or publishers of Pippin software gave you permission to copy or distribute their software which is under copyright?
Yeah. I don't think you quite understand how copyright works. When you have a copyright to something, others cannot distribute or own a copy without a valid license. The exchange of money has nothing to do with it.
Not all instructors are tenured and raking in big bucks. Ask any adjunct what they make.
And why was that, brah? It was because you went on a crusade against a supposed pirate after you made a thread asking for an ISO. You even used the pirate smiley thread icon.Oh, and banned from multiple forums? Sega-16 is only one forum, brah.
Last edited by Melf; 06-07-2014 at 01:00 PM.
False. The distribution right of the copyright holder in a particular copy is exhausted after the first time it is distributed. This is also known as the First Sale Doctrine. You need no permission or license to own or distribute a copyrighted work after the copyright holder distributed it the first time.
However, this refers to authorized copies of the work, which ISOs (except perhaps for personal use as back ups) are not.
Port, sometimes I forget how awesome your rare posts here these days are. Then you remind me.
Ok, I can see how what I said could be misleading. When you distribute a copyrighted work, you need to give the license with it. You cannot make a copy of something, keep your own license, and then distribute a new license without the permission of the original copyright holder. What you're talking about is physical media. When you distribute physical media, you give away the license you own when it transfers hands. For example, I can't play a physical game that I've given away to a friend because I no longer have it. It's illegal, however, if I made a digital copy of that game, and then sell the game to a friend of mine, hence creating an artificial license that is not authorized.
An ISO is a copy of some physical media in which the license is not valid. If it's a backup of physical media that you own, then it's legal, but in this case, he was asking for ISOs to download from the internet.
Forget the term license. It has nothing to do with copyright law, in the context we are talking about. It implies an overarching level of control by the copyright holder that doesn't exist.
Copyright fundamentally means you cannot create a copy of a work without authorization of the copyright owner (the widely accepted exception is back up copies of software for your own use only).
If the person is question is on a crusade over the copyright of prototypes, and was openly seeking ISOs or trading, he's not worth taking seriously on this matter in any way.
That said, the purpose of intellectual property law is to encourage innovations in the arts and sciences to flow into the public domain. The current copyright term under law is a grotesque perversion of this concept. Copying and distributing software for long depreciated hardware platforms is perfectly ethical, in my opinion, and most of those works should already by in the public domian by the original term (14 years, or 28 years on extension).
This. This by a lot. What in the heck happened to this place? I think if he did sell it on eBay this contents of this thread would STILL exist to rip the auction to shreds.
So Thomassen is selling his stuff on GG as it will take less out of his pocket in the end. Big deal. Yeah he could part it out but c'mon-11K of games and such- that's gonna take a LOT of time. Time is valuable and can be in less supply than money. So take the hit in the wallet but have time to take care of other things.
As for SoCalMike and GG- why not use this as advertisement? Heck even on eBay the media finds out about these types of sales. Why can't the underdog take advantage? I'm sure live auctions of old estates will tout about antiques or other special rarities or histories to attract buyers. Why can't GG? For both seller and auction house, it's a win-win.
I've never talked Thomaasen (sorry if I'm slaughtering the name-on my iPhone and Tapatalk sucks) but I did interview SoCalMike and he seemed to be a straight shooter on and off the record. I enjoyed the days of the Chuckwagon and while I haven't used the GameGavel service all that much, it's good to have options beyond eBay.
Last i saw the auction was up to $98K. Not too shabby for not being on eBay.
Shifting gears, is this what DP is turning into? A bunch of crotchety gamers spouting negative garbage from their porches? I know the hey days had their share of nasty but c'mon.
Trouble is, this sort of behavior is pretty common in any niche online community. Its hard to avoid without a strong proactive hand to discourage it.
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