I don't download roms of games - whether I have them or not. I compare it to me going to work every day, doing my job, and then my boss saying "hey, that was great... sorry I won't be paying you today - some other dude came in and collected your cash for the work you did" Sounds silly, but not worth it.

Regardless of the roms. With the R4 DS you can play the several thousand FREE games (homebrew / homemade games) available online. If nothing else, you'll save on games anyway - because you're playing free, user / homebrew scene created games... And this way, you're not stealing from anyone either!

gamer9

CruiseElroy

Scazza

However, aside from the scant few games I kept and played a lot but never bought, simply because I could never find them at the time (Rez and NHL 2K2 are the only two I can think of right now), I didn't really burn many 'cause a) I'd really just buy the game instead of wasting all that time and effort in finding it, d/l-ing it, burning it, yada yada, and b) is wasn't exactly that easy to find most of the titles you really wanted (or I really wanted anyways). Even if you could, sometimes they didn't fit on a CD-R, blah blah blah. That's all quite different now with R4. The roms are apparently not at all difficult to find (just about any title you'd want, from what I see/hear), and its not exactly a cumbersome task once downloaded. Drag and drop. As somewhat of a 'reformed pirater" from the DC days, whatever that means, that's just too tempting to me, that "all you can eat" mentality is just a few clicks away. A slippery slope indeed.

Say I downloaded Duck Amuck to see if I though it was worth buying (which it is if you're a huge fan of old WB toons like me). Well, its a pretty short 'game' (interactive cartoon best describes it), so in the course of checking it out I'd likely finish it, maybe twice. So I think I like it, and its cheap, so I'll buy it, I go to EB and am going to buy it, but see they have a used copy of Game X for System X for either the same amount, or not much more than Duck Amuck, and I start to see that as a better deal since I've already seen most of what DA had to offer. And its at a good price, being used, so I decide to buy that instead. See who made no money there? Game publishers/developers.

I don't know what leads one to think that since these companies have made a lot of money that they shouldn't be allowed to make any more or something, like they need to be punished, and that they are actually being some kind of anti-hero who's sticking it to the man by being a pirate. Whatever. I see it like this, if the companies stop making money, they stop making games, and who the fuck wins then? Sure, I'd love to think that people would just use their R4's (or whatever) just for homebrew (some of which looks really cool), or to 'rent' titles and buy them later, but in reality that's not why 98.5% of people who buy these devices likely do buy them. They buy them so they don't have to actually buy anymore games. Period. In exactly what way is that good for the industry they claim to enjoy at all?

/ranting

CruiseElroy

Your metaphor sucks pretty badly. Flashcarts, when used for piracy, are not at all comparable to a "bottomless" deal. It means you pay once for something you should be paying for every time to support developers, and you choose not to.

Don't consider me getting preachy, I don't think I bought a GBA game for years after the system was released because I bought a flashcart, but there's a difference between not caring about being a pirate and considering your own piracy to be the best solution.

You're a pirate. Get over yourself, you have no moral high ground in this. Stick to what you've chosen to do with your hardware and do it quietly.

Dewgy

I have just over 40 DS games, which is much more than your average person. Of late I have been unable to afford to spend time with the DS. The value for money isn't the problem, DS has some great games, and are cheaper then all systems. But I own many systems and buy games weekly and don't need my DS as often (no time traveling any more and when im at home I am not a big handheld fan. So I bought an R4. I use it for import games, and the occasional game I wanna try but would never buy, but I also now use it as a tool of "try-before-you-buy" to make 100% sure its worth the time and cash to buy the game. This has actually backfired and I have recently bought some DS games I didn't think I would buy (Ninja Gaiden today, Advance Wars and a few more).

So am I evil? I have put enough money into nintendos hands that I don't feel guilty in all honestly. I also DO NOT pirate any other system.

If anything, the R4 has turned my DS from an occasional system, to one that I play for a good 30mins - 1hr EVERY NIGHT before I hit the hay. I also chill on the couch, or even RIGHT NOW at the comp its running.

So although its not true for all "pirates" I don't think my R4 use can be viewed in too much of a negative way.

If this makes you view more with hate, or if i get blacklisted by a few people (or kotaku... *oh shit*!), then sorry, but thats just how it is. Plus, in all honesty, its legal in my country.

/confession

Scazza

xRiOT

Senen

That is all.

slash000

Bunn

"Plenty of old games that SHOULD be free at this point."

I'm sorry, that's not up for you to decide. It's up to the owner.

It doesn't matter that they've made a lot of money. There's no arbitrary limit, much to your dismay.

This isn't just about Nintendo either...

1080Peter

Come on now, anyone who had a Dreamcast knows how this goes. GD-ROM my ass! Find the ISO, burn, insert disc, yay!

As far as Ninty is concerned, they should really start to focus on getting some digital distribution for the handhelds, like a DS/GB/GBA Wii Channel. That will be there only way to save face during this "crisis". I mean, who doesnt have an emulator or two? And who doesnt have a rom of SMB?? Yeah, I thought so. EVERYONE DOES. Nintendo is still making money off that game. Check your Wii Shopping Channel. Plenty of old games that SHOULD be free at this point.

And if anyone gets preachy about this, youre a bitch. If I put two pieces of pizza on the table and labeled one 30 dollars for one and another for 50 dollars with unlimited slices thereafter, which one is the better deal? Get over yourselves.

Worry about yourselves. Nintendo will be fine. They made a ton of money. This is not the first piracy battle they have fought either, you just know about this one.

NMC ONE WAY

JohnnyLA

I know I probably paid WAY too much for it but I got a CycloDS Evolution which does pretty much the same thing or better than the R4. A little pricy especially with the shipping from Germany because I was impatient for the regualr mail (almost $80..heh)

But you know what the funny thing is? The ONLY reason I got the cart is so that I can install the great homebrew "Colors".

[www.collectingsmiles.com]

Having a small wacom-like tablet in my pocket? Definitely worth the price and I would rather jump in now while I can before the corporation start strong-arming everyone...

..which looks to be the case.

JohnnyLA

mikevanpwn

wild_world_girl

roflwaffles

Haha elimintate piracy in a matter of days? are you even aware what you are talking about.

idrisz

Homebrew is actually all I use my R4 for. Of course I realize that I'm probably in the minority there, but there are certainly those of us who use it legally. Because of that, Nintendo trying to completely ban them seems pretty unfair.

Now if only there was a way to find out actual accurate usage / piracy numbers...

Defiant00

ISChris

LarryFabulous

I love homebrew and use an R4 for it as much as the next guy, but we all know most people buy this stuff for pirating. The people who want this will know how to acquire it and go to the lengths required to do so anyhow.

(I realize some people use it to demo games as well. Just switch "homebrew" above with "demoing games.")

... and I do proudly own an R4. For the homebrew and keeping my game cards all in one location.

So basically, no tears are shed because people can always get this device and others like it online, like I did.

1080Peter

I mean the solution many times can be drastic but effective if you really want to eradicate piracy. So, are you sure you want to eliminate the R4 Nintendo?

Bidule

There's a visual novel reader that I have yet to try out. I think it'd be a fun diversion to see how hard it is to port OnScripter games to the DS.

I also spend a large amount of time with Moonshell and ComicBookDS. And Doom. Can't tell you how many times I've played through Doom on my DS.

Rubiximus

The funniest chapter to me was when they nuked Bung in court, and mysteriously a little while later, all of their old products started being sold by "Mr Flash!"

I need one of these things myself - Otherwise I'd have to cram my pockets full of those official three-card hard cases until nothing else would fit - and yes, I've bought enough cards to do that. And they're always falling out of the official case because there's nothing to hold them in when it's open and you're grabbing another one. I think they want to ban the "pirate" cards, then make all the games the size of microSD cards and make a case that flings them when you open it so you have to replace lost games every week or so. :p

Also like I implied yesterday, R4 is the only way I can play Phoenix Wright 1 since I spent a month or two looking locally for new or used copies, and even tried to buy it online, but no one had it. I might have ignored the series entirely or just played GBA ROMs of the Japanese games if I couldn't download the first English DS game. Now I've bought the others that were actually available. (Can you steal what isn't for sale? Here in Canada that's been up for debate a few times regarding USA satellite TV signals...)

But I can't really say "just give up, Nintendo!" because that doesn't make sense either to them. But... they don't realize all of what they're quashing here.

fuchikoma

I know at my local stores FF3 went down in price, but not by much, from $40 to $30 (which I snagged when it did). Though the new one is out for $40, but I have no money in my DS funds since FFXII:RW came out.

I think people who buy R4 *solely* to pirate games is because of the price:gameplay quality ratio OR some might want to do the "Rent and Buy" approach and save the rental fee to check out a game if its worth buying or not. To some degree, the latter approach could have some merit with the sheer volume of DS titles no matter how (un)ethical you deem it.

All and all, I think Nintendo should help lobby lower prices or even allow a Wii/DS communication and do digital downloads a la PSP/PS3, but that would mean Nintendo creating a legit (Nintendo branded, of course) flash cart. Nintendo prints money, so I dunno if they'll care much.

urbanbuddha

futurebiblehero

Nintendo on the other hand just won't lower prices and it even affects some 3rd party devs like square. FF 3 [ds] and FF: CC [gamecube] never dropped in price. The final fantasy games on the playstation however always end up as greatest hits avaliable for $20-30.

I'm not really a sony fanboy. I usually hated them in the past but the new nintendo is pissing me off. I've hated them since about half way through the life of the gamecube when I finally realised what cheap bastards they were. Microsoft may micro transaction people to death but Nintendo takes it all up front.

Iron_Dragon_2.0

I guess I'll have to buy another DS and another R4. Sucks....

Import98

I own a M3 Real for homebrew, imports and the occasional domestic release. If it is a domestic release, I at least buy the game, but at least it stays sealed.

Though, I have to point out I don't like it when new DS games are priced almost the same as some new Wii games. Especially for "Yet another brain training game" or multiple iterations of games, I'm looking at you Capcom. However the same can be said about the pricing for some PSP games as well.

urbanbuddha

So yeah, part of the problem is that some retailers know the market will continue to bear the original price in the case of some games long beyond the normal period, and that often applies to Nintendo's 1st Party Stuff.

Still, I have no doubts that Nintendo has their share of pricing issues that are their own fault, I've seen enough examples over the many years I've been giving them money ;)

DaiMacculate

I'd say nearly 80% of DS games exist just to abuse the fact that they can get $30 for $5 or less worth of development. I own 26 legit DS games and honestly if I want to screw around with a bad ds game not worth buying on my R4 I will.

Iron_Dragon_2.0

Roto13

If you want an open handheld platform... wasn't the Gizmondo something along those lines?

Sabre_Justice: Okay, no more long name.

Sailorcancer

I think that the main gain from this action is not that they are stopping the ability to pirate games, as other people pointed out that there are other devices similar if not better in the market and you can find them all on the internet, but that by making them even a little harder to get and stopping the public advertisement there is the chance that possible buyers won't find out that such devices exist and are less likely to get them.

Personally I only found out about R4 after that article that said that 90% of people had one, and my guess is that many people that would buy somethink like this in a heartbeat don't know about it and are getting their games the legal way thanks to it.

Arguing that Nintendo is evil because by opposing R4's their are not helping homebrew is just absurd. The whole argument that DS users and Nintendo always use to say that the system is the best gaming device ever is that it focuses on being a gaming device instead of trying to be 10 devices in one. People are using the DS for things it was not intended for, mostly illegal, and Nintendo is doing what any other company would do in its place.

Masterpain22

This is just another dick move by nintendo. Flash carts are legal. There's a ton of homebrew floating around including MoonShell (Music/VIdeo), DSLinux (Command line OS on the go which can run a ton of stuff), and DSOrganize (IRC Client / File browser / Web browser).

Iron_Dragon_2.0

tehFluffz

The Playstation and Playstation 2 didn't exactly have a thriving homebrew scene if I remember correctly. Those generation consoles simply couldn't do anything much beyond playing games (and emulating some old systems).

Why are you comparing a handheld to a home console anyway? It would be more appropriate to compare the Wii to the PS and PS2, and more prolly to compare the DS to...well, there's really nothing else comparable. Even the PSP needs custom firmware to run homebrew, but naturally it has more potential.

Byakko

And it would be far more lucrative if they spent the time and money they use to harass people into stop selling things (that aren't even illegal) to promote homebrew games, start some sort of competition with prizes for independent developers, and try stuff like XBLA... or what Apple is doing with iPhone.

DS users would also welcome that. Even though Nintendo makes no effort in supporting a homebrew community, I've seen awesome stuff like a complete homebrew RPG made for DS (and it looked much better than most DS RPGs, I must add), ports of flash games and a Scumm engine port.

It would be a dust remover for my DS... because quite frankly, I'm kinda tired of the Nintendo usual suspects.

But hay, more money? No thanks! There are already... tons of memory card loaders around there, and people who wants it will find a way to get it no matter how many stores they harass into stop selling them.

It seems it'll take some time for Nintendo to get what made Playstation and Playstation 2 to sell truckloads.

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

I have a Max Media Dock that I bought for $15 last year and for the most part, it works fine for me. I only have trouble getting a couple things to run, like a SNES emulator.

OneManFreakShow

Rokku-Ri

As long as they aren't as stupid about it like the music industry in the States and Europe anyroad.

Kenofthedead

have fun spending all your hard earned money from the wii/ds in this piracy fight, nintendo. good luck!

diablofreak

However, hypothetically speaking, if I did have an R4, I would probably think it was totally awesome, and totally worth the $49.99 USD plus tax that it hypothetically costs, somewhere.

Hypothetically, of course.

Atheist Jew

dexterr

Still, I actually didn't know those flash carts sell in Japan. It's not that I don't think they not tech-savvy enough to know the advantages of it, I just didn't think it was in their culture =/

Byakko

One Way Mule