"Copying Video Games is a serious crime!"

[G4MZ0v3R]

A friend of mine recently acquired a snes and supermario allstars. Odd thing is though when he tries to play it for any amount of time this message comes up and wont let him continue. "Copying Video Games is a serious crime!" Most other games work and from what ive been able to search on the web there seems to be this problem for emulators with some games, but I havent been able to find a case in which its a console with cart. Any idea on what it could be? :/

[Kitsune Sniper]

A dirty connector, maybe? It could also be that (though highly unlikely) the cart is bootlegged.

[Raedon]

if you play some SNES games threw a game genie like device it will fail.

[Ed Oscuro]

Copying video games is bad, and the violator subject to severe penalties!

[johno590]

Does the cart or system look any different than normal?

I've never heard of such a thing, nor as it ever happened to me. I would think it must be a bootleg cart or something like that...

[G4MZ0v3R]

Cart looks normal. Labels fine. No wear around the bits. Im flabbergasted. (Always wanted to use that word)

[G4MZ0v3R]

Also he's not using any 3rd party stuff with it. Just plain jane system. Thats the wierd part. *shrugs* :/

[Mangar]

Super Mario Allstars was one of the very few SNES games with copy protection, albeit not a very strong one. If you had a console copier, (UFO, Wildcard, etc...) made a backup, and attempted to run the game - You would get that message.

The protection was quite easily cracked however, and during the time you could either download the cracked version or a small patch to apply to yours.

How this information helps you however, i have no idea - Since you are using an original catridge. But thats where the message originates from.

[Dobie]

Could be that the cart is damaged somehow too. A short in the circuitry, bad ROM chip, whatever. Even if the outside looks fine, it doesn't mean the data didn't get corrupted somehow, thus giving you that message. Interesting occurance though. Fortunately its with a fairly common game, so it should be replacable.

[nik]

Collectors item!

ebay $!

rare!

[Ed Oscuro]

Could be that the cart is damaged somehow too. A short in the circuitry, bad ROM chip, whatever.

Yep, that is theoretically possible, but in practice I don't think it happens.

I actually have this same problem with my DKC 3 cart - it refuses to play on my SNES Model 2s, but it'll show a screen with the Game Genie that's somewhat like this.

I'm certain dirty contacts are the culprit, but I've never gotten around to cleaning them.

[Kamino]

STEALING'S BAD

[hezeuschrist]

Stealing games is almost as bad as shoplifting.

[Kamino]

Stealing games is almost as bad as shoplifting.

and in your own words....

Shoplifting is for fags

therefore, copying games is for fags.

[mills]

Tetris attack also does this periodically.
Also there is a line of text in super metroid that says "this game pak was not designed for play on your SNES!"

[rbudrick]

Try the cart in another system. Is it a model 1 SNES?

I wonder...if the previous owner used a GG or similar device, does it record this to the save file and make the game unplayable until the save is somehow erased?

But anyway, try cleaning the cart and system.

-Rob

[MachineGex]

Mangar is right. I use to see this every once in awhile(8-9 years ago) when SNES was still popular. Nintendo use to replace the cart with a working one if you called them and sent in the damaged cart. I doubt they still do but you never know unless you try. We had a few people who owned the backup SNES machine(saved on 3 1/2" discs) and they bought carts, copied them all the time. I think
DK was another one that shouldn't be copied.

[Hammy]

to erase the games backup ram, turn your machine on and off like crazy for about 30 seconds.

[Jasoco]

I've used All-Stars with a Game Genie THOUSANDS of times and I never got a message. So I doubt it's the Genie's fault. I don't think it saves the fact you're using a Genie to the cart. It doesn't know it's running through a Genie for one thing.

I don't see what could be causing the game to think it's being copied. If it is indeed a real game and a real system, maybe the game is broken or something. A circuit could be dead causing it to think it's being copied.

[exit]

My friends DK3 does that sometimes, usually it has something to do with the cart being dirty,