The IsoZone is the newest site to stop offering ROMS.
The IsoZone is the newest site to stop offering ROMS.
Proud owner of a Neo 25 Neo Geo Candy Cab!
Just curious, what's your stance on games that were Japanese release only. So the only way to play it in English is to have the rom patched in English. Does that change the argument on copyright since it just isn't available in English period?
Well, if you have reservations about playing roms and you dont speak Japanese, then I guess you will never play a large number of awesome games.
For example Sweet Home for Nes/Famicom is one of the greatest games released on the Famicom but not the Nintendo NES. Only way to play it in English is by using ROMs.
You could use an online guide and play a Japanese cart.. but I tried this with other games and its not fun. Doing this just ruins the experience.
Or you could grow a pair and download the friggin rom...
but...but... they're keeping these games alive by selling me a bootleg when the big ol' mean IP holder just sits on the rights and won't manufacture any more carts. And plus I don't have to endure fair market microagressions from resellers. And having ten zillion bootleg carts means more carts in the wild which preserves the games even longer!
Hehe, and when that argument comes up there's one answer - buy yourself a flashcart and play all you want. Flashcart $$$ goes to people who spend the time and resources to engineer and manufacture a legal (all on its own) product that ultimately falls upon the end user to how they wish utilize them. It's also how most fan translators would prefer their projects be played if on actual hardware.
The ISO Zone has been shutting down for months. Retro Zone is the new site.
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We have Lupin III now because someone decided to just steal someone else's property and expand upon it. Just imagine how many advancements would have been possible by now if everyone had access to everyone else's research and technology, everyone just constantly expanding upon what already exists and is known. Like cancer would have been cured by now.
I'm not saying there shouldn't be any copyright, it's just something interesting to think about as a hypothetical.
Also, there have been several sequels or adaptations made to books or films that are already in the public domain. The world didn't collapse because of them existing.
In the very next sentence I comment on how patents are different, I even use drug research as an example. But even still, when a patent expires other companies can't use their trademarked name. Imagine the confusion that would cause already confused consumers? That's why generic drugs use the chemical name.
Or imagine if people made and sold inferior quality counterfeit games and devices and tried to pass them off as the real thing. Oh wait... now imagine if that was completely legal.
"Game programmers are generally lazy individuals. That's right. It's true. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Since the dawn of computer games, game programmers have looked for shortcuts to coolness." Kurt Arnlund - Game programmer for Activision, Accolade...
InsaneDavid (08-17-2018)
The Paunch Stevenson Show free Internet podcast - www.paunchstevenson.com - DP FEEDBACK
That's a bummer about the ISOZone, since that was my go-to place for PS1 ROMs that work with my emulator. Mostly. I did manage to get a link to their new spin-off site before the ISOZone stopped even doing that.
There will always be emulation, and there will always be sites catering to that crowd. I'm not worried about that kind of thing going away, it's just that Nintendo was worried about people not paying $5 for 30 year old games when they could download them for free. I expect sites to stop handling Nintendo stuff from here on out. That doesn't bother me at all, I've never been a Nintendo fan to begin with.
I was commenting on all intellectual property in general, but jumped around a bit. Yeah, I wouldn't mind if important stuff like patents were made available so other companies/people could already start working on advancements right away instead of being delayed for decades first. The more people working on ideas at once the better.
As for films in the public domain, people can choose to avoid the cheap copies and opt for better releases, like buying a DVD made from a proper fully restored transfer rather than a dollar store DVD copied from a VHS tape. People can still choose to support the original creators if they wanted to, rather than automatically being forced to. It's the same deal with buying/using pirated copies of games over legit produced copies, I still want the legit versions even if cheaper alternatives exist, or to support the developers in some cases. Just because it would be available otherwise(even if legally through public domain means) I would still make other choices. Similar to avoiding 3rd party hardware over 1st party, even when 3rd party is legal and widely available(or the flipside when 3rd party actually makes things better quality than the 1st party). The main benefit of making everything public domain would be to protect works that are basically abandoned by their creators, like getting a good release of the original version of Star Wars. Imagine if that could be factory pressed and sold without any legal problems, giving people what they've wanted for the last 20 years. Or releasing and selling fan translations for games that wouldn't be translated otherwise.
For using characters created by other people, it's basically making fanfiction legal. It's like anyone being able to publish their own Dracula story, or film adaptation. It hasn't really made things overly confusing, I don't see serious problems coming out if modern characters were being used the same way. People can tell the difference with what's official and what's not, like recognizing Disney's The Little Mermaid and not confusing it with any of the other animated The Little Mermaid films. Or being able to make sequels to other peoples work. It would be nice to see Ron Gilbert make his Monkey Island 3, it's just the rights issue getting in the way even though he created the series in the first place.
I would draw the line at being able to copy another company's name and make near identical looking copies, at the very least everything should be identified with whoever made it so they can be differentiated. Just like with buying tools, if you want a wrench set you can buy one from Snap On or Craftsman, they're the same item but still different. Buying a game in the public domain could be similar to buying any classic book in the public domain, you just get to choose which edition you want from which publisher. Of course people will value certain versions or editions over others, I just want copies to be easy to differentiate.
Well what a shitshow is going down concerning The ISO Zone and RetroZone -
https://www.reddit.com/r/Roms/commen...one_retrozone/
JaMbo sure sounds like a dick.
Well hell, there goes the only reliable place I knew of for PS1 games that'll work on my emulator. Hopefully something can be made of this crapheap. It's always about some idiot who loses his mind and throws a tantrum, screwing up everybody's hobby.