Keep Calm And Discuss Retro Generally!

murphyebass

Anything I should look out for while buying a dreamcast. Really fancy getting one.
Loads of great games on it and never owned one when it was released.
Also what price is reasonable for one these days? Cheers.

megaten

murphyebass wrote: »

Anything I should look out for while buying a dreamcast. Really fancy getting one.
Loads of great games on it and never owned one when it was released.
Also what price is reasonable for one these days? Cheers.

I wouldn't pay a huge amount. I got mine for 20 euro.

Atavan-Halen

murphyebass wrote: »

Anything I should look out for while buying a dreamcast. Really fancy getting one.
Loads of great games on it and never owned one when it was released.
Also what price is reasonable for one these days? Cheers.

Nothing really, they're a fairly reliable system. I'd pay up to €35 for a system on its own with cables and controllers and a bit more if it comes with games. Also get yourself a VGA cable for it.

Edit: something like this http://bit.ly/XWaiyd

Retr0gamer

I got one with a load of games for free recently. They aren't expensive. One thing to watch for is not to buy a late model dreamcast since later models won't read copied games. Not that I condone the use of copied games.

krudler

murphyebass wrote: »

Anything I should look out for while buying a dreamcast. Really fancy getting one.
Loads of great games on it and never owned one when it was released.
Also what price is reasonable for one these days? Cheers.

Kinda sorry I sold my dreamcast, such an underrated console, great 2D fighters on it too, Capcom Vs SNK and Marvel Vs Capcom 2 were great.

remember the memory unit? was like a little tamagotchi or something, and it showed your health meter if you were playing Resident Evil, cool little touch

Andrew76

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I got one with a load of games for free recently. They aren't expensive. One thing to watch for is not to buy a late model dreamcast since later models won't read copied games. Not that I condone the use of copied games.

None of us do. But at the same time we're keeping Verbatim/TDK in business.

o1s1n

How else are we meant to keep our precious originals safe?

Retr0gamer

I prefer to call it 'pre-emptive backing-up' for when I do win the lotto and can then afford all these games.

Atavan-Halen

I like to think of them as extended demos.

Myrddin

If the game can no longer be bought retail, & only on the 2nd hand market where the game maker sees no money from a sale...should it even be called piracy?

o1s1n

If an old game is available to download via the likes of GOG/Steam/XBL and you are buying the originals on the second hand market instead, is that not piracy too?

You are in affect stealing a sale from them.

Myrddin

o1s1n wrote: »

If an old game is available to download via the likes of GOG/Steam/XBL and you are buying the originals on the second hand market instead, is that not piracy too?

You are in affect stealing a sale from them.

I'll make it even more ridiculous - What if you have a Snes & you want to buy a game for it, & you buy the game on the second hand market. This game is available on the Wii's eShop but you don't have a Wii. Has the ass also known as the law, just made what you did wrong somehow? Have you broke the law because you bought an original game for an original system & didn't own a console that emulates it?

megaten

o1s1n wrote: »

If an old game is available to download via the likes of GOG/Steam/XBL and you are buying the originals on the second hand market instead, is that not piracy too?

You are in affect stealing a sale from them.

No your not because the copy you bought second hand has already been paid for. Also for many old games on GoG the developer who made them is long gone so it's not like the money is going back to the creators anyways. You just have to use your own judgement on these type of things I think

Myrddin

megaten wrote: »

No your not because the copy you bought second hand has already been paid for.

I don't think it works like that. I bought Zelda 3 on launch back in the day, so given the developer has been paid for it, can I now download it free for the Wii's VC? Nope I can't, despite the fact that I've bought & paid for the game

krudler

emulation will always be a grey area, the majority of games I have emulated I owned at one point or another. Am I going to feel guilty for emulating a copy of Super Mario World? I game I bought twice already? nope. Its not like nintendo are losing revenue on a game thats over 20 years old and no longer available to buy in its original format bar second hand.

o1s1n

megaten wrote: »

No your not because the copy you bought second hand has already been paid for. Also for many old games on GoG the developer who made them is long gone so it's not like the money is going back to the creators anyways. You just have to use your own judgement on these type of things I think

I have no moral dilemma with any of this by the way, I'm just speaking purely in hypotheticals as it's pretty interesting

So person A buys a Snes game back in the day. Nintendo get paid.
Person A then sells the snes game years later on the second hand market - it's the same paid for cart cart, but it's another person using it. Nintendo get nothing - also by doing so, if they do have this game available on a virtual store, you're taking a sale from them.

Person B buys a Snes game back in the day. Nintendo get paid.
Years later, they then dump a ROM of this paid for game onto the internet. Nintendo get nothing.

The only difference really between the two above scenarios is in one case, a physical object is passed from one person to the other. Whereas in the second, the object is duplicated and passed in digital form.

In both scenarios, Nintendo get nothing.

They both have different legal implications, but from a 'moral' standpoint, anyone who buys second hand games, be they modern or classic, is in no position to lecture anyone about being 'a dirty pirate'.

krudler

o1s1n wrote: »

They both have different legal implications, but from a 'moral' standpoint, anyone who buys second hand games, be they modern or classic, is in no position to lecture anyone about being 'a dirty pirate'.

^ That, if you walk into gamestop and buy, I dunno, some FIFA game, second hand. You've not paid the developer of the game a penny, only gamestop. I'm not advocating piracy for current games, I buy everything new or on sale so at least the money goes to the company who makes the game, emulation is concerning games from a decade or more ago.

Retr0gamer

I will usually buy a digital copy of a game I've pirated to support the original developers. However if you are Nintendo and are going to only offer 50Hz versions of your games you can **** right off. Virtual console is a rip off as well considering what you can get in cheap old game compliations like the recent Sega one and it's M3 emulation. Only time I'll buy Virtual console games are the Gameboy ones which are good value and the TG16 stuff since a lot of it is rare and it's all 60Hz. I got a few of the Hanabi games as well.

Augmerson

Retr0gamer

krudler wrote: »

^ That, if you walk into gamestop and buy, I dunno, some FIFA game, second hand. You've not paid the developer of the game a penny, only gamestop. I'm not advocating piracy for current games, I buy everything new or on sale so at least the money goes to the company who makes the game, emulation is concerning games from a decade or more ago.

That's how copyright law works. You buy a copy of a copyrighted material the copyright holder then has no legal right to make any money if that copy is then resold. Videogame companies can't have their cake and eat it. It's a very important law and one that was put in place to ensure the distribution of thoughts and arts throughout humanity, not so that big corporations can line their pockets some more. Make no mistake that it's the publishers that are making all the noise about this, most developers aren't and they get screwed over by publishers anyway. Publishers are blind to see that a lot of second hand sales are used to fund more videogame purchases. They are just greedy and can't see the bigger picture.

Every other entertainment and commercial medium has had to deal with this law, videogame publishers should as well.

Using draconian measures to stop pirates that punish paying customers is bad enough but stopping people from doing something that they are entitled to by law is underhanded and totally against the law. Online passes are fine since you are paying for the use of online servers that need to be maintained but stopping people from selling on the single player portion of the game is quite frankly criminal.

krudler

Oh I get the copyright thing, I more meant in relation to people who get on their high horse about piracy then never buy new games,only pre-owned either way the money isn't going where it should be.

Yeah a lot of emulation is morally dubious and you can justify it anyway you want, but like lets take Resident Evil 2, I owned it on its original release on ps1, I bought it on the gamecube when it was re-released, I have it on psn cos I had some money on my psn+ account to spare and I have a rom of it on my tablet. I think its safe to say Capcom have got their money out of me for it at this stage. So yeah I can justify downloading it.

The other side is this, would developers really mind that someone is playing a game they worked on years after the fact? I have rakes of 80's classics on emulators that I still play regularly, I haven't abandoned those games in the name of Generic FPS Shooter 15: Moar 'Splosions. Now back to Donkey Kong :pac:

Retr0gamer

Publishers really should look into bringing their back catalogues out digitally. Even if it doesn't sell well it might gain a cult following and the game will be available for a very long time, if not indefinitely so you'll still be making money from sales.

murphyebass

Wow i opened some can of worms there about copying games.

Anyway I'll keep an eye out for one on adverts then see if I can get one at a decent price with a few games.

Was on YouTube earlier, the Sega rally game for dreamcast looks class.

I remember being hooked on the Saturn version a mate had at his house. And on the arcades for that matter.

Retr0gamer

It looks good but it's not a patch on the original.

Augmerson

Guise. Say I have a game but no original cover or box for it. Is there a website that you can visit and has original inlay cards, sleeves, things like that? Was thinking maybe I could print something off to put on it.

Retr0gamer

vgmuseum might have something.

o1s1n

Try here -

http://www.thecoverproject.net/

And here

http://www.cdcovers.cc/view/159757/front/gamesxcopy

krudler

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Publishers really should look into bringing their back catalogues out digitally. Even if it doesn't sell well it might gain a cult following and the game will be available for a very long time, if not indefinitely so you'll still be making money from sales.

Or a digital version of something akin to the Megadrive Collection that came out a while back, budget price for old games in a collection, say a tenner for all the King of Fighters games or every arcade version of Street Fighter with extras or something.

Steve X2

I've a good chunk of covers and inlays over on http://www.arcadeartwork.org/
Some high resolution stuff and some not so high.

o1s1n

I printed out a few from your site now that I think about it, came out really well.