Making and selling near identical carts / boxes / manuals of rare games

Started by fcgamer, February 16, 2018, 06:32:30 am

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fcgamer

Yesterday I had seen the following thread started by GKill, regarding Metal Force "reissue" :

https://www.famicomworld.com/forum/index.php?topic=13965.msg179919#msg179919

He seems to be extremely proud to be selling these at virtually $100 a piece, claiming it is a noble job.  I feel the whole thing is crap though, and personally believe that FW needs to put the brakes on hard, when it comes to allowing this stuff to be sold.

Although I haven't discussed with them about the issue (it's Chinese New Year here, and I'm way too busy to spend much time on this issue at the moment), it seems some other members feel the whole project is also a bit misleading, at best, scam-inducing at worst. 

I don't want to go back to the whole repros are good / bad argument, or any of that crap - we all pretty much have our minds made up and stances chosen by now, primarily influenced by if we tend to lean more towards collector or gamer, what we actually have in our collections, etc.  But here is my final thoughts on the situation:

If someone made an marketed something like this, only of Recca, Kung-Fu, Gimmick, Battle Formula, etc on Famicom World, would it be seen as acceptable?  If so, why, if not, why not?  A game like Metal Force, though not licensed by Nintendo, is original and is not infringing IP either, so IMO should be treated the same was as the others mentioned (original MF is a three-digits game). 

I can understand why some non-collectors would want to get a repro of a game that is very rare / expensive, if they just want to enjoy the game and what not, and while it ruins the market a bit for selling originals (look at the Tiny Toons game for Sega that Barver had been trying to sell), that's just part of life that I've come to terms with.  The problem I have is when the product tries to mimic the real item, to a very close level.  That type of item can only bring harm to the hobbyist side of the table, and there is no  good reason that I can think of, where one would need to have an exact 1:1 or close to 1:1 replica of something like this.

It would be my suggestion for FW, that if reproductions (modern-made bootlegs) are being made and sold here, carts, manuals, boxes, whatever, that they need to be easily distinguishable from the real item, whether completely different artwork, additional seal or something added to it, whatever.  If such a thing as the Metal Force is not seen as a big problem, then I think I will buy a Recca, Kung Fu, Battle Formula, Lickle, etc box and manual, and start cranking out repros and selling them here.  It would be the same situation.

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fcgamer

Looks like this thread isn't needed, since the topic's being discussed elsewhere.
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