Cartridge Reproduction

[___]

Hi there guys. I have been gone from gp32x for a while now and thought I'd check in to see how everything is going.

I recently bought a Vectrex (which is awesome!!!) and stumbled upon a couple of good homebrew games that I would really love to have but noticed that they are not being sold anymore. While being slightly intoxicated I thought about reproducing carts myself (what we in Germany call having a "Schnapsidee"...). I know that there are a couple of people doing this, reproducing labels and even boxes for games that are rare, hacked (translations) or simply not available anymore.

Now I am wondering, would anybody be interested in starting an online shop and taking part in assembling cartridges, burning roms and making labels as a joint effort to provide people with requested repros and homebrew titles on original hardware?

Also, what are the catches regarding the law? There is a shop that sells reproductions of SNES games, like fan translations of rare japanese RPGs and I was always under the impression that this is serious copyright infringement. If anyone would care to explain, it'd be much appreciated.


Anyway, my idea is this: An online shop where repros are being sold, plus custom made flashcarts, custom eproms, labels etc, maybe refurbished peripherals/homebrew peripherals. This all would be based mainly on demand, meaning, someone could request a certain item which would then be sourced/made for them. There have to be a couple of people around the world with experience in reproducing carts, also a few who have printed custom labels and have access to machinery needed for this. Connecting all these people with each other and running a small resale business would bring happiness to hundreds, if not thousands of retro gaming enthusiasts and would even make a little bit of cash for the people involved. Is this an idiotic idea that I had because I was drunk or is this the coolest thing you have ever heard and you now want to send me boxes of vodka to keep me going?

 

[Gruntfuggly]

Which games were you after?

I'm pretty sure repro-ing Vectrex carts would be no problem - people have been making the multi-carts for years.

Not sure about other platforms, but I think it's a good idea. A lot of work though, and I think you potential market is fairly small....

 

[Jourdy288]

Sorry, no vodka, will bourbon do?
Anyhow, I think that's a brilliant idea, though, toss in modchips, cart copiers, etc., and you have a potentially brilliant venture!
Worth a shot
With regard to translations, I researched ROM hacking. Turns out that you have to have the original cart in whichever language, then you copy it to your computer and apply an IPS patch. That's how it's supposed to work.

 

[D.C.]

It's definitely a cool idea. A couple of suggestions:
Look into the relevant laws concerning selling reproductions. Also correspond with people who have already set up a similar shop, as the practice might be different from what the laws dictate.
Common sense makes me believe that selling reproductions is probably illegal (i.e. gray area), but because these businesses pander to a niche, the companies that own the rights tolerate it. It would be a shame if after doing all the work to set up an online shop, you'd get a cease and desist order.

Good luck

 

[dnlgreenwood]

This sounds absolutely brilliant! I'd love to play mother 1 and mother 2 translations on the real console! of course I could also shell out 50$ for an NES or SNES flashcart...

 

[___]

Okay, so I gather there would be potential customers. Is there anyone who has done this before? And do these people have an interest in starting a small business endeavor?

@gruntfugly: vectoroids, nebular command and that gravitar clone are the ones I am looking.

@com64: yes or play them on your xbox or the pandora or the gp2x etc. But that wouldn't be like knowing you have the "original" cart that runs on original hardware, unlike your friends who have only ever heard of the cool games through you right? ;-)

 

[sold]

In regards to cartridge reproduction, technically if it isn't an official product, it is a counterfeit and hence the reproducers are committing a crime. But no one seems to care. Except Nintendo. Nintendo care. Their stance on the matter is available here And I think we all know why they care. The nostalgia market. They wanna sell people their old favorites again via WiiWare and DSIWare (and whatever their next digital distribution channel will be) over and over again. The nostalgia market is huge and they wanna milk it. And they're gonna milk it even harder by buying up and selling all their old competitors popular games too. Because in the end, Nintendo won.

I think going into business as a cartridge reproducer is a good idea. But if I was gonna get into it, I would sell kits for people to copy their own roms onto flash storage based cartridges and perhaps provide the extra service of reproducing packaging and labels so people could order what they wanted to copy and do it themselves. You could do individual cartridges for single games, and cartridges that could hold many games on an SD card. This would probably still be shady business, but at least it isn't theft of intellectual property. Well, not directly anyway.

 

[Tom`]

I think it's a great idea, but I think you'll have to be very careful if you don't want Nintendo's lawyers to eat you.

It would be best if you could get new carts made, since otherwise you'll have to destroy existing carts, something I don't like the idea of. I don't know how difficult/expensive it would be, but they can't be that complicated by today's standards...right? : |