Retail Super Mario Bros. Title Screen Variations

[fcgamer | 4,753]

53 minutes ago, Ankos said:

I just ran into something pretty neat and honestly is way closer to this than I ever thought I'd see. Have a look at what Frank Cifaldi found a few years ago. It is a plug and play released by a reputable Japanese game company, Bandai, which has original games with traits that suggest they were made by a Taiwanese developer (possibly Sachen or people who worked for them since it uses their sound driver). Not exactly Konami, but it is still cool to see

I think a lot of those devs and companies worked / shared with each other a lot more than what we would imagine.

[Ankos | 463]

6 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

I think a lot of those devs and companies worked / shared with each other a lot more than what we would imagine.

Definitely. You know that semiconductor company Syntek that has hidden credits in some Gowin games? I saw a SY-700 famiclone board with a Syntek chip, and I'm pretty sure Songtly were the ones behind the SY-700

[Tyree_Cooper | 772]

i worked with asder (ex-ntdec) from 2010 to 2015, they were still making "educational" monochrome laptops back then. they seem to have closed down. website ain't working anymore.

at the time, i asked them about their famicom/ntdec times, but they didn't seem to remember. unless they did but didn't want to talk about it.

[fcgamer | 4,753]

2 hours ago, Tyree_Cooper said:

i worked with asder (ex-ntdec) from 2010 to 2015, they were still making "educational" monochrome laptops back then. they seem to have closed down. website ain't working anymore.

at the time, i asked them about their famicom/ntdec times, but they didn't seem to remember. unless they did but didn't want to talk about it.

Wait...but if you worked at asder...and asder is not a legitimate company. And you're a westerner... cannot compute, maybe I need advice from the wonder team.

[Tyree_Cooper | 772]

Nooo, I worked *with* them in my previous company, as customer. They made those educational laptops and we would customise the hardware and software for our own needs, so we had to work closely with them.

All those XX in 1 you still see being sold in western countries at big retailers, usually come from HK/TW/CH companies, they usually have assets from wayyy back, still making money out of that, crazy. Lots of ehr illegal stuff in there (stolen assets), but somehow it's tolerated by the owners (Nintendo, Sega, Sony etc).

sorry this is sort of unrelated to the original topic, but yeah,

I also worked with Jungletac if you know them, similar business, even more shameless haha

[phart010 | 1,708]

4 hours ago, Tyree_Cooper said:

All those XX in 1 you still see being sold in western countries at big retailers, usually come from HK/TW/CH companies, they usually have assets from wayyy back, still making money out of that, crazy. Lots of ehr illegal stuff in there (stolen assets), but somehow it's tolerated by the owners (Nintendo, Sega, Sony etc).

 

Is it that they tolerate it.. or do they not have the resources to track down who to contact to let them know they are in violation especially since another business can easily pop up with same/similar product. Killing illegal games is like slaying a Hydra.

Something interesting I found while reading up on the World Intellectual Property Organization. Taiwan is not listed as a member nation. It could be that China is pulling its political shenanigans trying to disallow them from being recognized. If this is they case, then Taiwan can be a free haven for IP theft and nobody can do anything about.

Taiwan can always say we’ll crack down on IP as soon as you ask us to become a member to the agreement. WIPO can’t ask them to stop it because as far as they’re concerned, they are already included under China.

[fcgamer | 4,753]

14 minutes ago, phart010 said:

Is it that they tolerate it.. or do they not have the resources to track down who to contact to let them know they are in violation especially since another business can easily pop up with same/similar product. Killing illegal games is like slaying a Hydra.

Something interesting I found while reading up on the World Intellectual Property Organization. Taiwan is not listed as a member nation. It could be that China is pulling its political shenanigans trying to disallow them from being recognized. If this is they case, then Taiwan can be a free haven for IP theft and nobody can do anything about.

Taiwan can always say we’ll crack down on IP as soon as you ask us to become a member to the agreement. WIPO can’t ask them to stop it because as far as they’re concerned, they are already included under China.

In a lot of these situations (take the WHO shenanigans with the covid situation), Taiwan wants to take part, but naughty China stands in the way.

Oh, also as a fun fact for those who are wondering: nearly everyone buys authentic electronic gaming products in Taiwan now, as opposed to bootlegs.

The piracy situation was one of those situations that had a happy ending, but that's why we had situations like Konami pcbs inside bootleg shells, and stuff like that. As you mentioned earlier, it was about building brand recognition in areas where the people wouldn't have been customers mostly anyways. Yeah there were official games sold here in 1985, but it was to the ueber rich.

Nowadays though, a lot of the locals prefer to buy Japanese version games to the old bootleg ones since they can afford them, though there are equally as many who prefer buying and collecting what they grew up with.