Are reproductions of fan translated games or hacks with boxes and manuals not a popular thing anymore?

[Bighab | 58]

I remember back in the day on NA there were several users that would make reproductions of fan translated games or hacks. They went out of their way to make nice boxes and manuals for them, sometimes maps too. User Galvatryne made some great stuff along with a former Timewalk employee ,Thamiel was his name I believe. I don't see anyone doing these anymore.  Did all the cheap Chinese reproductions kill people's interest in them?  With emulation easier than ever before there's no reason to really make these I guess. My friend @Tabonga and I loved the time/craftsmanship put into them and appreciated it.  It appears most Timewalk stuff still holds it's value. I still have a box of about 10 snes sports games that were, at the time, being saved to use/trade in as donor carts. Is that even a thing anymore or has the use of new Chinese made boards/shells made donor carts no longer needed?

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

I think you may have hit the nail on the head with the Chinese repros.  As someone who makes repros, I'll say my costs on many games are actually higher than the retail price on the carts coming out of China.  Basically if I want to try and compete, I have to sell for less than the cost of materials.  And since there's no way anyone in their right mind is gonna do that, and many people would just buy the cheap version instead of something of better quality, it pretty much killed the desire to actually release games like that.  I can't speak for everyone of course, but it's very hard to compete if you're not making and selling on a large enough scale to get bulk pricing on the materials. 

[Tabonga | 2,337]

Maybe younger enthusiasts just don't want to spend the time (assuming they have the skills) on what essentially is a labor of love and probably even under the best of circumstances only provides marginal profits.  And I suspect that many now older people who have done this have moved on to different things in their lives.  

I certainly miss the Timewalk stuff and am really glad I picked up the ones I did when they were still operational.

[Bighab | 58]

39 minutes ago, the_wizard_666 said:

I think you may have hit the nail on the head with the Chinese repros.  As someone who makes repros, I'll say my costs on many games are actually higher than the retail price on the carts coming out of China.  Basically if I want to try and compete, I have to sell for less than the cost of materials.  And since there's no way anyone in their right mind is gonna do that, and many people would just buy the cheap version instead of something of better quality, it pretty much killed the desire to actually release games like that.  I can't speak for everyone of course, but it's very hard to compete if you're not making and selling on a large enough scale to get bulk pricing on the materials. 

 

Yea for cart only stuff it makes sense to go the Chinese route.  I'm talking about the stuff where guys made nice boxes and manuals which we don't see out of China and just and handful on Etsy

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

3 minutes ago, Bighab said:

 

Yea for cart only stuff it makes sense to go the Chinese route.  I'm talking about the stuff where guys made nice boxes and manuals which we don't see out of China and just and handful on Etsy

The problem is the CIB stuff isn't cheap, and it's a lot of work.  Quality costs money, and sadly it's rarely cost effective to do repros like that anymore.  And now that the repro market itself is oversaturated, it's just not something that's worth the investment to do anymore.

[Tanooki | 4,952]

Oh it's China, at least largely so that.  There are also the cases that some people will just do stuff on demand because now you can buy those same boards shells and 1:1 quality stickers(or at least a high quality custom one too) for very little along with a chip writer and you're set.  They've over saturated the market with amazing copies of stuff, original or original but translated to enjoy.

With aliexpress recently taking paypal I've started to use their services to get what you're talking about and been looking at other stuff largely out of curiosity.  I've got Genesis(MD) copies of horribly expensive titles like BattleMania 2, Panorama Cotton, and Mega Man Wily Wars coming in a bundle from one seller that look correct for $20 shipped.  I also knowing I'm not utterly reckless and stupid with money did some poking around for Aerofighters SNES on there too, a lot had some pretty close and some not even close copies of the cart, but one solitary seller has a 1:1 copy of it down to the fine details of that sticker and it was just over $12 shipped...vs $1500...tough call right?   This was after doing a test on 2 other previous single pack orders one of a Famicom multi and one of Genesis to pop in my nomad.

In previous years I could have got those Gen games translated in the NA period had someone done them, it would have been in the $50+ range depending on the extras involved.  Those very games up on ali you can pay more, and it's still less than that range and get them at the least with a cloned Sega case and art, some even do manuals too.

So it's like, unless you're nuts, very deep pocketed, and just have to have a true complete set, that's really the way to go avoiding sharks and going broke.  And because those production qualities are so high yet so cheap, it makes it too hard to compete with such cheap suppliers making stuff like Timewalk and others did a decade ago.

[CMR | 522]

I think quality flash carts have also put a dent in repros also.  One of the first reproductions I ever had done was a translated Final Fantasy III, and that was about the only way to play it on the original NES.  Now chinese multicarts sell for less, and I was even providing the donor in that case.   These days you can get a bootleg everdrive for just over $60 as well.  That kind of takes the wind out of the sails of expensive reproductions when the only other thing they have to offer is some fancy packaging.

[Dr. Morbis | 2,091]

There wouldn't be a hundred million copies of every fan translated game imaginable on eBay right now if they didn't sell, so yeah, they're still popular.  Obviously, the Chinese have cornered the entire market due to their willingness to make and sell their products on the super cheap, but the only thing you're really missing these days is a nice box and manual.

Seriously, every cart imaginable is out there just waiting to be BIN'd, and for any title you can't find: learn how to burn ROMs and make you're own carts - that's what I did - now whenever a new translation I'm waiting for shows up in English on romhacking.net, I just spend an hour or so on my workbench and before long I'm playing the game on my NES or Famicom....

EDIT: Of course, I understand that emulating is way easier to do, for those who are into that sort of thing...

Edited April 24, 2022 by Dr. Morbis

[phart010 | 1,708]

Nowadays $20 shipped is considered super cheap? I tried buying a fake/repro on banggood years back just to see what it was all about. It was SNES Earthbound and it was about $4 shipped from China. Honestly was terribly disappointed with the quality, but can’t really complain for $4

[Tanooki | 4,952]

@phart010 nah that's high.  The stuff I've picked up the little there is has been in the $7 shipped average in price on a single 16bit game cart, paid the few extra over that for aerofighters since it externally is accurate.  Multicarts though are about twice that price.  They fall into the middle ground of the single game and then the china clone cheapo copy of an everdrive.

[LeatherRebel5150 | 1,056]

I made and sold carts like this on NA for a few years. It already been laid out that China out priced us. I still have a bunch of leftover stuff to use up one day I can use for trades. The big benefit to me was, I enjoyed doing it so much that I turned it into my career in a way. Im a PCB designer now. So I’ll always have a special one place in my heart for handmade repros.

[Tanooki | 4,952]

2 hours ago, LeatherRebel5150 said:

I made and sold carts like this on NA for a few years. It already been laid out that China out priced us. I still have a bunch of leftover stuff to use up one day I can use for trades. The big benefit to me was, I enjoyed doing it so much that I turned it into my career in a way. Im a PCB designer now. So I’ll always have a special one place in my heart for handmade repros.

Piqued my interest, what have you got?  Or should I say, could you patch into english and produce?

[LeatherRebel5150 | 1,056]

1 hour ago, Tanooki said:

Piqued my interest, what have you got?  Or should I say, could you patch into english and produce?

I cant remember what I specifically have any more. Its all buried in storage. One day Ill get motivated to finish whatever is left and trade them away

[fcgamer | 4,753]

Old games are more popular than ever. As with everything, markets go as follows:

1. Guy A does something and between him and the customers, a reasonable market value is set

2. Guy B, C, D, etc jump on the bandwagon for a quick buck, and basically copy Guy A's product. Along the way, prices start to drop.

3. China jumps in and no one can compete, so everyone else stops.

I know that there's still a HUGE demand for this type of stuff. The thing is that one needs to be ahead of the pack, not behind. Gotta market your product in a unique way by now, as the old methods aren't working anymore. 

[Bighab | 58]

I get it China has saturated the market on cheap cart only copies.  I still think there would be high demand for someone who was able to make a nice box and manual set. UncleTusk was a great box maker a few years ago. I remember working with him to make the AD&D Dragons of Flame box for the Nes

[Sumez | 2,994]

The less support for bootleg productions the better, as far as I'm concerned

[DefaultGen | 5,432]

I would guess there's a lot of factors. Fewer people think a repro has any collectible value. Prices are rising so people need to target their collection funds more strategically on things that matter. (Unlikely) More people respect translators work by not letting bootleggers profit off it. (Likely) Who cares about playing games, put them on a shelf babyyyy.

[Tanooki | 4,952]

8 hours ago, LeatherRebel5150 said:

I cant remember what I specifically have any more. Its all buried in storage. One day Ill get motivated to finish whatever is left and trade them away

Well if you ever get just a little less lazy where motivation kicks in I'd be curious.

 

 

I thought Tusk was still at it.  He had a nice little thing going where he'd make boxes and (key thing) manuals usually for prototypes, bootlegs, english translated Japanese stuff like with Virtual Boy and all that.  His stuff when I was going nuts on VB back in 2019 would come in and out of stock damn near instantly.

That's one thing the ali peddlers largely still won't touch, maybe the engrish is too complicated! (HAH) but they do really fantastic cardboard boxes, plastic sega snap cases(or their cardboard) with the slip art for the plastic cases and it's still super cheap like $20 or less for the game+box/case shipped.  The thing they don't bother with are booklets, really not sure why there's got to be a huge market for those types of goods.