Gamecube Roms

[SE7EN]

The entire GameCube (USA) Romset is already available from a different website. Got a tweet from them last month. This is bad news, as the GC is still quite new.

we should work out arrangements with other sites that have stuff that we either do not/cannot have yet. just the permission to link to their download page, even if it required a log in to that site too. Beneficial to all parties IMO, saving us bandwidth for larger roms we do not currently have room for, while keeping this site as a one stop shop - just because it isn't hosted here doesn't mean you can't find it here. it would help our users not have to use GoogleFu for items we do not have, etc. Something to consider at least.

[Hot Trout]

Personally I wish no site would upload roms any younger than 10 years. Unfortunatly though other sites with far less systems and roms still claim to be the biggest (very cold roms for example) and they also upload systems like Nintendo DS , Gamecube etc.

We have to compete with these sites but if I could I would stop everyone from uploading anything newer than 10.

[SE7EN]

Unfortunatly though other sites with far less systems and roms still claim to be the biggest (very cold roms for example) and they also upload systems like Nintendo DS , Gamecube etc.

at least a few of them host on file sharing sites, like DepositFiles, instead of using their own bandwidth for larger files. Some even have forums specifically for user uploads (to a 3rd party file-sharing site) of newer system roms.

[Kherr]

My big issue with this is the small and simple fact that if we start uploading anything new-ish, we start treading into territory that nintendo is very adamant about squashing - and we start affecting their sales. Why buy that Wii game when you can download the .iso here, and then play it on dolphin? That cuts sales for both nintendo and the producers of the game (if 3rd party)... It's only a matter of time before there's an emulator that can play Wii-U games, and while Nintendo won't go out of business and it won't really affect them all that much - they will be losing a substantial amount of revenue and quite possibly may end certain newer game series because of poor sales. Hell, it might even end the Wii-U prematurely...

Akklaim, Midway Games, Infogrames, 3D Realms, Eidos Interactive, THQ, Data East, and GT Interactive - while not all of them were "awesome" or "great" game developers/producers - they all had at least ONE great game that was amazing and a ton of fun. While I don't know what caused all of them to shut their doors, I do know that maybe had ROMs and piracy of their recent to current games not existed, they may still be around today. I know I miss ALL of them because they all had an influence in my gaming career. I especially miss Akklaim. They had AMAZING games that were always a ton of fun...

"On September 1, 2004, Acclaim filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of New York, which would virtually annihilate their company in liquidating all possible assets to pay off their debt which reportedly tops USD$100 million." - Wikipedia.org

Maybe had emulators not been around during the end of the NES hayday and the midway area of the SNES hayday (NESticle v0.2 on April 3, 1997 and ZSNES 0.150 on October 14, 1997 (not the earliest emulators, but still very early in the SNES lifespan where Akklaim really shined)) Akklaim might still be around today...

But that's just me. I don't know if any of these companies have any real downfall due to piracy, but it's just a thought. I think that's why HT likes to stay so behind on releases. That, and HT REALLY doesn't like linking to outside sites as we really truly are the largest (regardless of what the other sites claim) emulation site on the web. And we're 100% independent from anyone else.

[SE7EN]

Yeah, it is a pretty bad spot to be in. you can not want to make new-ish games available due to the fact that some companies still make a profit from them.... but then you also have to consider that these companies also profit off of games several generations old, like with the Wii Virtual Console. Are we to take down our N64 collection because Nintendo can still feasibly profit off of them? Are we to fault ourselves that some game companies go out of business? Companies still make profit off of good games, piracy or not. I would like to just estimate that if a game was not available for piracy, then a good 80%+ of the people that did pirate it just would not own it. I truly don't believe it is a matter of people would buy it IF they couldn't get it for free, but more whether they would buy it at all. As far as emulators goes, Dolphin for Wii was the first emulator to be able to run commercial games at full speed for a current generation console. I don't think SNES game sales was really hurt by ZNES' existance. The only reason Dolphin was able to do so with the Dolphin was since it was, in a roundabout way, 2 GameCubes together for a Wii. The Wii U will not be so easily emulated. Then there is the other position, are the ones who upload files wrong?, as you can be rest assured that even if we don't host a file, it is not hard to find it elsewhere, which someone who wants it will. A very tough spot for HT to be in indeed. damned if he does, damned if he don't.

[Hot Trout]

The bottom line is that we all loves games, we all love gaming and therefore it stands to sense that none of us would want to hurt the gaming companies involved. It is sensible that providing roms of the NES is very unlikely yo hurt anyones profit. In fact it might even introduce younger generations to some old titles and companies and through time bring more customers to future titles that are similar.

I am certain that a company like Nintendo would not frown on NES roms but that they would frown on DS roms.

I want all the companies involved to make all the profit they are entitled to, I also want to preserve as many systems and roms as possible so that my kids and future generations can experience these systems in the way that we did. As more and more years pass, less and less of the physical systems are left working and eventually at some point there are no usable NES systems around. What do we do then ... emulate.

[Kherr]

...you also have to consider that these companies also profit off of games several generations old, like with the Wii Virtual Console. Are we to take down our N64 collection because Nintendo can still feasibly profit off of them? Are we to fault ourselves that some game companies go out of business?...

Just because these companies are making a small profit - negligible at that - from the Virtual Consoles of older games doesn't mean that they're making the kind of money that they did when those games were the CURRENT games on the market. They're not current anymore, and to be honest the majority of the profit Nintendo sees from those games aren't from the new kids on the block that just got into gaming, it's from the older more retro style of people that remember them from their past and wanted to play them again - and at that the people buying on Virtual Console (from what I've encountered) are people that don't even know emulators exist, let alone how easy it is to set up an Emulator for any console dating prior to the PS2.

So as far as I see it, no, we should not pull any of our libraries just because they're available in the Virtual Console, which as far as I'm concerned is a joke since it's literally Emulators and ROM files that make the Virtual Consoles work - albeit proprietary ones - all while Nintendo is 100% against ROMs and Emulators. Hypocrites.

Personally, I believe that if any of these original gaming companies were to re-release their original consoles back to the public (NES through PS2), it would make the need for emulation or preservation of their older games negligible. I'd be 100% behind a re-release of the NES, SNES, and Genesis. SO much behind them.

[SE7EN]

as nice as it would be, I don't see that happening anytime. it is probably MUCH more profitable to release discs containing a pack of retro games, sell older games on virtual consoles, and releasing 'HD' remakes of older games than to have small-scale remanufacturing of original systems and games.

[TERMlNATOR]

All i can say is, if you carry on preserving these games after they become old and stick to the rules.. this site will be worth alot i'm pretty sure big corps would like full control of this site one day, the mods could become rich

[Hot Trout]

All i can say is, if you carry on preserving these games after they become old and stick to the rules.. this site will be worth alot i'm pretty sure big corps would like full control of this site one day, the mods could become rich

We are hardcore and will never sell.