It is two months past Christmas, do you know where your NES Classic is?

Damn you Nintendo, all I want is that classic gaming goodness in a neat little retro package for $59.99!! 30+ years of loyalty and this is how you do me?

If anyone finds the NES Classic online, drop me a note asap.

Comments

  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian

    I've been checking amazon.de every few days waiting for it to be in stock from a non-scalper source.

    Cliff_Forster
  • My NES Classic looks like a raspberry pi with some bluetooth SNES controllers. It's also my Kodi box. It works really well and cost me a lot less than an actual NES Classic.

    Gargmertesn
  • @ardichoke said:
    My NES Classic looks like a raspberry pi with some bluetooth SNES controllers. It's also my Kodi box. It works really well and cost me a lot less than an actual NES Classic.

    I don't really want to emulate that way. At minimum it is ethically gray. Honestly, it may be illegal and a violation of the publishers copyright. I've been looking to build my own cocktail arcade and finding an honest to God properly licensed multicade board can be tricky because of this. I know some of the arguments for it regarding age of content, some things no longer being published, or my favorite "I would not have bought it again anyway so I didn't cost them anything" (someone I actually like and respect said that to me once as an argument for piracy). To me, if I should not go out and say... download a copy of "Dark Side of the Moon" just because it's old and easy to get on the Pirate Bay, and maybe I owned a hard copy at one time or another... I will not do it with Mega Man 2 either. If Capcom, Nintendo, Konami want to re package and sell their classics over and over again, that is their right. Hell, I just spent a couple bucks to I could play Galaga inside of Steam.

  • _k_k P-Town, Texas Icrontian

    It is illegal.

  • From my understanding, it's only illegal if you don't own a legal copy of the game... but I am not a lawyer.

    Also, there are plenty of open source and/or freeware games out there for such systems which are perfectly legal to download and play.

  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited February 2017

    No, it's illegal regardless according to the DMCA. Regardless of whether or not you own a copy, using an emulator is a violation of the DMCA.

    _k
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited February 2017

    Clearly I haven't kept up on my emulation legality reading. Illegal to download, gray area on making dumps of games you already own (it hasn't been tested because no one has bothered to take it to court, but it's supposed to be legal to make backup copies of software you own which should cover games).

    Either way, it's still a fun platform to play abandonware (where abandonware here means that the company actually dropped their copyright, which does happen) games and non-copyrighted games on. And those do exist. And they are legal.

  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian

    Pfft. Emulate while you wait for it to be in stock. Life is short, and waiting on the Nintendo-blessed gray box is time spent not playing Mega Man 2. If our dystopian future is now and prosecutors want to raid houses for DMCA violations, well, we've all surely done something that could be used to justify it already.

    Cliff_Forsterardichoke
  • I just want the NES Classic. It is a cool little package priced fairly. I want Nintendo to take my DAMN MONEY ALREADY!!

    I will not pay an eBay scalper, because eBay scalpers are scum. I don't really have anything against anyone who wants to make an emulation platform out of their own hardware. It can be a fun little project. It isn't for me though. I want the official real deal and am willing to pay for it if they would just make some more already.

    CBRahnalH102Garg
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian

    Cliff has made a post which reflects also my opinion in its entirety on this issue.

    Cliff_Forster
  • ZanthianZanthian Mitey Worrier Icrontian

    It was in stock on amazon for 30 minutes today
    sign up for in stock notices on a tracker.

    Cliff_Forster
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian

    @primesuspect said:
    No, it's illegal regardless according to the DMCA. Regardless of whether or not you own a copy, using an emulator is a violation of the DMCA.

    NAL, but technically isn't it only illegal if you assume how he got the ROM? Burden of proof is not on him.

  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian

    @BlackHawk said:

    @primesuspect said:
    No, it's illegal regardless according to the DMCA. Regardless of whether or not you own a copy, using an emulator is a violation of the DMCA.

    NAL, but technically isn't it only illegal if you assume how he got the ROM? Burden of proof is not on him.

    No, in the same way that someone giving you a copy of a movie doesn't magically make it legal.

    _k
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian

    @Tushon said:

    @BlackHawk said:

    @primesuspect said:
    No, it's illegal regardless according to the DMCA. Regardless of whether or not you own a copy, using an emulator is a violation of the DMCA.

    NAL, but technically isn't it only illegal if you assume how he got the ROM? Burden of proof is not on him.

    No, in the same way that someone giving you a copy of a movie doesn't magically make it legal.

    Yeah, but in there is the assumption that someone gave him the movie.

  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian

    It's not about possession or who gave what to whom... if it's not on the original cartridge or via a license digital store (Nintendo VC, Steam, etc.) it's illegal. Emulation is illegal unless it's homebrew.

    The illegality is about circumvention of copy protection, not possession of media.

    _k
  • Except you're conveniently ignoring the backup clause, in that it's legal to make a backup of media you own. There has been no legal precedent set which excludes video games from that.

  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian

    @ardichoke said:
    Except you're conveniently ignoring the backup clause, in that it's legal to make a backup of media you own. There has been no legal precedent set which excludes video games from that.

    No. There is no 'backup clause' to the DMCA. Fair Use does not cover making backup of media you own (and if we're being nitpicky, you probably don't "own" any media, you merely are licensed to use it). This is an important distinction: The DMCA covers circumventing copy protection, not the owning of a copy. If you emulate, you are inherently circumventing copy protection, therefore it is definitely illegal (though not enforced).

    _k
  • If there is no DRM that you are circumventing, it would stand to reason that making your backup copy is also not illegal under the DMCA. It depends on how DRM is defined, NES/SNES games don't have what would be considered DRM in the modern sense, they just relied on the fact that no one had the hardware to reproduce the cartridges, at least not in a cost effective manner. At the very least it's a gray area that hasn't been tested in court yet.

    Regardless, even if you're really THAT concerned about getting in trouble for playing 30 year old games illegally, there are a bunch of fun games you can play on a RetroPie without even skirting the gray area of legality (either because you can purchase and install them legally, or because they're free to begin with). See the Ports section of the RetroPie documentation. https://retropie.org.uk/docs/

    It's still a fun project and makes a good HTPC especially if you get an IR receiver for it: https://learn.adafruit.com/using-an-ir-remote-with-a-raspberry-pi-media-center/overview

  • Cliff_ForsterCliff_Forster Icrontian
    edited February 2017

    @Linc - Thread hijack badge with GTA style graphics? :p

    Guys, I did not mean to force a debate on legality of someone's emulation hobby box. I think they are cool and all, but I still, really, really, really want the NES Classic.

    Now, sorta, kinda getting back to the thing I just complained about because I don't know what I want?? Be careful if you are a classic cartridge collector. It has become way too easy to fake an old cartridge by flashing a ROM chip and putting it inside a cartridge kit and slapping a reproduction sticker on it. Retro home gaming is picking up a bit. You see new product coming out to play old NES, SNES, Sega games. I know a couple young men that work in a shop locally where they deal in classic games, and they will tell you the reproduction carts are very sophisticated now. You have to know how to examine them, types of screws used, proper sticker wear, placement, contact wear, proper trademarks, maybe even insist on opening it up if it is valuable enough. Piracy is a huge problem in that market right now for people who want to do business honestly.

    primesuspect
  • Cliff_ForsterCliff_Forster Icrontian
    edited April 2017

    My brother found one for me finally. I paid him the $60 for it, and now I feel somewhat guilty because I'm finding out nuts are paying $350 for it on ebay because Nintendo just decided to up and discontinue the thing. I will say, it's a little piece of HDMI on HD magic. Old games don't always scale so well to higher resolutions. The emulation engineering is flawless. It's like you remember it but somehow better if that makes sense?

    Anyhow, I don't want to sell it but I did not want my Brother to miss a payday either. It's crazy how fanatical people get, I saw it as a very square deal for $60, but $350 you must be some kinda crazy gotta catch em all console collector or something?

    BuddyJ
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