Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Piracy and the Nintendo DS

Posted by Soulskill on from the portable-but-not-too-portable dept.

Graffitiwriter writes "With the average DS game weighing in at about 30-60MB (well within the reach of anyone with a half-decent broadband connection) gamers now have an alarmingly easy route to free games — a fact that Nintendo is all too aware of. Pocket Gamer takes a look at how piracy affects the Nintendo DS console, along with the reasons so many gamers turn to piracy to play their games — including the slew of inferior games, availability of flash carts and industry greed."

11 of 261 comments (clear)

  1. well it is expected... by powerspike · · Score: 5, Informative

    People are going to pirate your software, no matter how hard you try to protect it, there was even devices for the original gameboy.

    People are going to copy software, and find an excuse for it, they always have, and always will.
    company X is bad, Company x charge to much...

    1. Re:well it is expected... by __aatgod8309 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Well, the card developers have already come up with a working flashcard for the DSi, so Nintendo has lost that battle. http://www.dsfanboy.com/2008/12/02/acekard-produces-first-dsi-flash-cart/

    2. Re:well it is expected... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Nooo...

      It's because Chinese/Hong Kong sellers tend to sell NDS with 60+ GBA games on the flash carts which in turn undermines the entire South east asia market as well as Australia and Europe.

      The sooner Nintendo phases out the regular DS/DS Lite, the sooner they can regularly lockout flash carts with firmware updates.

  2. R4 cards by ilovegeorgebush · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's called an R4 card, though there are others too.

    --
    ilovegeorgebush
    1. Re:R4 cards by rsmith-mac · · Score: 2, Informative

      It's worth noting that the original R4 is no longer sold, and the company that made it is long gone. The R4's sold now are all poor knock-offs with no support. If you're a pirate they won't work with future games, and if you're a homebrewer the compatibility is absolutely terrible thanks in part to shoddy DLDI patching. There are other, better flash carts (AceKart, CycloDS, M3, etc) that can meet your needs, whichever side of the spectrum you may go.

  3. Re:its not the same by KDR_11k · · Score: 3, Informative

    You actually use all 50 carts? I've got enough room for 12 in my bag and rarely ever use more than 1-2 of them.

    --
    Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
  4. Re:Learn and evolve by erwanl · · Score: 3, Informative

    You should give your idea to Nintendo, I'm sure they will love it. Unless they already had the same idea...

  5. Re:Free mod points! by rm999 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Nothing wrong with that.

    A flash cart, short for flash cartridge, is a device you place in your DS. The flash cart contains a flash card, which stores the games/data. This is (was?) the most popular flash cartridge when I got my DS: http://r4ds.cn/

  6. Escapist just covered this topic--and better by muel · · Score: 2, Informative

    The Slot-1 Secret -- this piece from early December '08 looks not only into rampant DS game piracy but how Nintendo rendered this piracy moot by shifting toward new audiences. The latter point is far more interesting, as the R4 topic is otherwise old hat.

  7. Re:Missed one by VShael · · Score: 2, Informative

    Though I've always wondered how even the most pro-piracy people could claim 'slew of inferior games' is a justification to pirate...if it sucks, wouldn't you /not/ want to waste time playing it?

    Come on, you're just deliberately misunderstanding the situation there.

    A slew of inferior games on the market, implies a few good ones at least. And if the only way to tell is to play, then you're going to statistically spend a fortune on duds, before you get a gem.

    Why can't the people who buy games just read review magazines? Try it some time. I remember seeing positive reviews for some truly shitty games. And when some clueless well-meaning relative buys a game as a present, are they first supposed to have checked out what's hot and not online?

  8. "Rated E" is meaningless in Europe by tepples · · Score: 2, Informative

    Nintendo has produced seven generations or so of handheld game consoles. Not a single one supported region codes until the DSi. It stands to reason that if Nintendo wasn't trying to lock out pirates with new protection technology, there's a good chance the region codes never would have made it into this system.

    DSi is also the first Nintendo handheld to enforce parental controls based on a rating system, and each region has a different rating system. For instance, ESRB ratings are meaningless in the European market, which largely uses PEGI.