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Nintendo Blocking Counterfeit Game Machines
An anonymous reader writes "Nintendo won a court case Monday which "prohibits retailers from selling products that look like Nintendo's game controllers from its older Nintendo 64 game console, which can be plugged directly into televisions to play games."" These were apparently being sold nation-wide in mall kiosks. Shady.
They had them at my mall. That booth was pretty popular until it dissappeared without a trace... (they mostly hired immigrants who boasted to me about how it had "Nintendo, Sega, Atari..." It ranked a 105 on the Shade-o-meter.)
They didn't pull them just because they looked alike, they pulled them because they were running pirated copies of their games.
A friend of mine saw one last year saw no copyright acknoledgements on the box.
Well, I'm not sure if they'd be legal to buy, but it is illegal to sell, even if you only sell to people "who already have a legal copy."
If you had super powers, would you use them for good, or for awesome?
The article states that Nintendo is slapping down a company that is pirating its older inventory. You know those controllers that you plug into the A/V that let you play a few simple games? Some company decided to put Mario and Donkey Kong in theirs without paying Nintendo any money. Of course, Nintendo is going to be upset.
My 14 year old bother inlaw got one of these for a birthday a while back. It had a full version of Contra on it. The Konomi code even worked. There were also a handful of other Nintendo games I recognised. Of note was a topdown shooter that I had played alot when I was younger. Can't remember the name. Although in this bootleg version you couldn't collect powerups. They were letters if I recall.
The other thing was the port on the bottom that gave the impression that you could plug 8bit NES games into the controler. My other bother inlaw was douped into believing that it would work. The cartidges we tried fit perfectly.
Supposedly the controller came with 65000 games but there were only about 25 or so actual games. They were merely repeated over and over like the old 100-in-1 bootleg Nintendo cartridge that had serveral versions of the same games.
BASE Conflict for Quake 3
She thought it looked like a nice gift, they were charging "only" 59.99 for it. She brought it home, I said we were taking it back since they were illegal. Talk about a huge hassle to get them to take it back.
I told them that the games weren't licensed. They said sure they are. I asked why Nintendo's logo wasn't on the box. They said I don't know. I kept insisting that I wanted my money back NOW.
Eventually the guy calls his manager and talks to him on the phone for a couple of minutes. Then he wants me to talk to him. I gave the manager the same spiel, threatened to go to the police. The retail monkey got back on the phone again.
Then he loads up Super Mario Brothers, which says Copyright Nintendo on the title screen. He tries to use this as proof that they are legal. I almost came unglued. The second retail monkey comes over and I explain to him that it's even unopened/unused, and it's illegal.
Then this guy calls the manager, but it was to ask how to do a refund on the credit card machine.
Stay away...stay far away.
Urgh, the ROM argument. No, that does not make it legal. They're selling someone elses product to you, without paying or having the permission of the owners.
(and btw that argument doesn't hold true for ROM's either, no matter what some emulation site says. Theft is theft, at least admit it)
I saw one of these in a booth at a huge fair in Dallas and called information immediately to get Nintendo's legal department on the line. The nice lady gave me an email address, and when I got home, I drafted the following letter. Amazing how stupid the guy manning the booth was, by the way, as you'll see below...
To whom it may concern,
I was at the State Fair of Texas today in Dallas, and inside the fair are a variety of booths with local crafts and the like. One booth was a bit odd, however - it featured a video game system that plugs directly into a TV and features older, nostalgic games, much like the recently-popular Pac-Man joysticks and the like. This one was different, however -- it copied the N64 controller to a T, if done in a much cheaper fashion, so at first I thought it was the iQue that is currently being sold in China.
But it wasn't. This system featured over 7,000 NES ROMS in its memory: Perfectly-emulated copies of games like Super Mario Brothers, Duck Hunt, Bubble Bobble.... I didn't even bother copying the list, because basically, every single NES game ever made was included in this controller. The controller, sold with a light gun peripheral, was sold for $40 a pop at the stand. I checked the box for any seal of approval from Nintendo, but all I could find was a Chinese copyright. Though I didn't write down that information, the guy behind the counter was foolish enough to hand me an information sheet with contact information for the responsible company, which I've copied below:
Super Joy III TV Game
Performance Marketing Co.
3861 Royal Troon Dr
Round Rock, TX 78664
512-244-7776
www.epowerplayer.com
The above website address actually includes all the information I listed and then some. This "Super Joy III" is some shady stuff, and as a dedicated Nintendo fan for many years, I am appalled to see such blatant disregard for Nintendo's copyrights in a for-profit product, so I called Nintendo of America on my cell phone and got this email address from the receptionist. I hope this is the correct contact information, and furthermore, that action is taken against this company's activity.
Please feel free to contact me with any further questions.
Thank you, (name and contact info removed)
A "friend" bought me one of these for my birthday. A few minutes after I plugged it in, I noticed it was getting a little warm. I kept playing, though, and the next thing I know the thing was on fire, and molten plastic was eating into my flesh. Then the silicon chips exploded, sending a thousand razor sharp flechettes into my eyes and face. I AM WRITING THIS FROM THE HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM. I DO NOT HAVE LONG TO LIVE. PLEASE, IF YOU WANT TO SAVE SOMEONE'S LIFE, DO NOT BUY THESE ILLEGAL PIRATE GAME CONTROLLERS!!
I remember seeing these exact game systems being sold out of a courtyard kiosk just before this past Christmas at the Northridge mall here in LA. This extremely bored-looking guy with a beard was sitting on the kiosk stool playing the demo system to drum up interest. I asked him how much and he said $50.
I tried the other demo system on the side of the cart. Yes, the controller & system were 1 unit with this CHEAP looking PCB board with contacts sticking out of the back. It looked like what it probably was, a ROM chip, only instead of a plastic housing like a real console cartridge, the chip was loosely wrapped with a folded piece of notebook paper. Riiiiggght.
The system when booted up displayed list of "games" you could play on it, and it was not a short list, about 20-30 games listed on each page, and you could scroll down thru a couple pages of games, so the thing was loaded. Near the top was listed a "Teletubbies" game, which I chose so my daughter could watch me play it. The game was the NES version of Mario Brothers (not SuperMario, the original one) but with the sprites edited so instead of Luigi and Mario, you get Dipsy and Tinky-Winky! Eh-Oh...
I remember very clearly what happened next. I was so proud of my little discovery, I turned to my wife and said "It's like it's got an emulator inside and just using a bunch of NES ROMs!" And the guy manning the booth set his controller down, got off his stool, and walked off into the crowd without looking back. At first I thought maybe he took a restroom break, but we hung out at that booth for about an hour, me trying the various games, while my wife watched my daughted play on the nearby kids toys. The guy never came back and no came to replace him. After that we went to the Apple Store to play Nemo, and GameSpot, and even after that the cashier never returned. He just abandoned the cart and probably drove all the way to the state line!
Democracy. Whiskey. Sexy. Pick any two.
Dear assmonkey,
I did not throw a fit to my wife first of all. You see, my wife and I have this thing where we talk about stuff, without being angry at each other. I told her I appreciated it, and explained to her that it was a bootleg product. She was surprised and a little upset that she had been taken. I know it's hard to understand how a successful normal relationship works, since you've probably never even talked to a woman. That's alright though. You'll get there someday.
X
I feel no obligation in complying with laws that arn't in sync with my own moral code.
As far as I'm concerned trademark law & copyright law should be treated & enforced no differently than Patent law. Meaning Nintendo's only recourse should be to use the civil court system to sue the makers, sellers & end-users of products that break their copyrights or use their trademarks. Copyright law should not be the business of the criminal court & if copyright holders want to prevent end-users from buying & using products that break their copyrights, it's only recourse should be to sue each end-user individually.
So while the corporate world's lobbyists & the US govt have been using their influence to get govts arround the world put copyright provisions in their criminal law codes (a process that's been going on in one form or another since WWII), I'll make my protest by feeling no obligation to comply with copyright laws. As such if you have some hangup over your woman's game controller, I'm quite happy to take it (or maybe her) off your hands.