WHY pirates?

[133MHz]

why everybody on this forum is so addicted  with famicom pirate games?

I'm not.

But you can't deny that one of the biggest aspects of Famicom collecting revolves around pirates - they're interesting, varied and sometimes downright bizarre. They have something special that makes them desirable, unlike pirates for other systems which are just plain boring, i.e. nobody values burned PlayStation games, but something like Somari is quite strange and unique.

[nensondubois]

I like original games but I'm only after the SMW carts and Somari.

[Nightstar699]

For me, I was just always fascinated that pirates still make their own original games. I got into famicom when I was 11. I only had a few games, Rockman 5, PAc Land, and Super Chinese. But I was just amazed by the pirate original, and hack games I saw online. So the hunt was on!! It appeared I could not find em anywhere... I looked for them on eBay obbsessively!! I found nothing, not a single pirated cartridge. I almost gave up on eBay, until eventually I found the 2 greatest pirate carts ever, Felix the Cat, and Captain America!! They were different auctions, but the same seller. The starting bid was 0.99 cents. I put on a bid, and was psyched out my mind. I was just so excited I was getting these 2 awesome pirates. And I was the only bid, so I thought it was safe.... this is when I found out about the horrors of sniping.  I was so devastated, I pretty much gave up on Famicom. The pirate games just seemed to hard to find. So I barely even touched my fami, my only games still the 3 I listed above. I played other games, like SNES and Genesis. Eventually, in 8th grade I went on a school trip to mexico. It was a fun trip, and after doing some boring educational stuff, we went to a flea market type place. It was cool, but every thing seemed to by hand made jewelry and stuff.. until eventually I saw a guy at a stand selling GBA games. I looked at the whole stand, and there it was.......... stacks of pirate Famicom cartridges!!! My jaw dropped. I had no pesos left, so I borrowed some from a friend. I looked through every game there, and eventually I knew the one for me... 4 in 1 with Pika, Harry Potter, Star Force, and Bomberman!! It was just so awesome. So I brought this game home and played it to death. This pretty much rebooted my love of Famicom. I got lucky, and found some more on eBay, and even better, a friend who I met in Mexico occasionally picks some up for me. Eventually I found myself at FamicomWorld, which is a great source for awesome games. The Famicom has been my favorite system ever since 

In short, I LOVE official Famicom games. Especially boxed! But I am just so fascinated at pirate games, how they cheaply edit games, how they have such shitty label art, and even create new gamers. I don't necessarily prefer them to official games, but they are certainly an important part of Famicom gaming.

[lingolingo]

lets change the title of this web and call it PIRATE WORLD 

[L___E___T]

Like Manuel, I prefer boxed / CIB games than pirates, I don't like the stupid labels, poor translation and crappy names that they give games.

Though, I do still buy them as it can be nice to have an English version of shatterhand for example as a Famicom cartridge.

I also adore the way that they are able to pick apart the Famicom machine code and reprogram in not just graphics, but music, level structure and even new gameplay mechanics with apparent ease.  Chinese people in my experience are so humbly talented with things they seem to see little importance in, but that makes it all the more impressive to me.

I always prefer to have a CIB version of a game than a pirate cart as to me part of the game is the box and manual and things, a bit like part of modern games is the online experience you get with them.

As i'm very interested in NES / Famicom program, these pirates offer a valuable insight into what can and can't be done potentially.  I'd love to be able to hack games to that extent.

Though, above all else I definitely prefer official CIB games to pirates and always will, they just bring something new to the table.

[satoshi_matrix]

WHY pirates? Because we get GOLD like this:

[Epic_Lotus]

So I'm hoping some of the more long-term fellas around here can clear something up for me.  It seems that, especially in the buying and selling forum, that FW has a pretty big communal interest in pirate games.  Any particular reason?  I guess I'm just curious why there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of interest in the regular FC/FDS stuff, or is it just that most of the long-term members have already tread most of the the subjects worth discussing, and pirates are just what's left?

Just being a nosey-nancy .

[mobiusclimber]

I think it's just that pirates are pretty interesting. And they tend to be Famicom games (correct me if I'm wrong, but I certainly see Famicom pirates way more often than Mega Drive or ... anything else besides maybe Game Boy/Color/Advance games). Also when you collect Fami stuff, there's lots of places to get regular releases, but not as many places to get pirates. Ebay cancels listings, for instance.

[MS-DOS4]

Before I joined the forum, I was all for collecting NES titles. I didn't even know pirates existed. When I saw a picture of the Scorpion 8 famiclone I decided to get deeper into it. I already knew what the famicom was so I was wondering why there was some weird looking black one with a different name. I took a look at my SuperJoy III and found out that it was also a famiclone. Screwed around and found FW and looked at pirate games on youtube. Got super interested in it and bought my first cartridge on ebay. A mario 4 in 1. http://www.famicomworld.com/forum/index.php?topic=3687.msg59074#msg59074

I decided then it would be much much more interesting to collect pirates rather than official NES games. Obviously, 98% of people collect official games. Everybody has a NES collection, so I thought I would try something different and collect pirated only. You don't get these kinds of things in the US so I feel like it's a very unique thing to collect. I'm sure if I lived in a country where you can find these things a dime a dozen, I wouldn't feel that interested in them. It's just an exotic fun thing for me to collect, since there's no quality control so you never know what you'll find. I was super surprised when I first saw Toy Story on the famicom.

[Jedi Master Baiter]

I think it's just a few people on here who continually make topics about wanting to buy Super Mario World or Donkey Kong Country 4 that make it seem like everyone here is more interested in pirates.

Honestly, I'm just interested in the good titles out there.  Like Spartan X 2 & the Ganbare Goemon series.  And that includes a couple pirates, like Aladdin & Donkey Kong Country 4.

[Epic_Lotus]

Heh, thread merge!  But my thread title was soooo much better .

I actually did a search on this before I posted the thread.  I guess my search skills kinda fail, lol.  Good to see some varying answers, though!  I do own a couple of pirate games, but they're all Rockman hacks/pirates.  I like collecting them for that one series, but beyond that I haven't found much personal interest.

So yeah, if anyone has any Rockman pirates or multicarts they wanna pass my way, lemme know . 

[mobiusclimber]

The whole reason I collect Famicom and FDS games is to play games I haven't played (or play them the way they were meant to be played, in the case of Castlevania or Zelda FDS). So that's also why I collect pirates. Most of them don't appeal to me, but the weird and unusual stuff is just fun to own, talk about, and marvel at.

I don't think I've gotten a single Rockman pirate yet, even just the game on a multi or something.

[Strider_Hiryu]

I don't think I've gotten a single Rockman pirate yet, even just the game on a multi or something.

I´m not collecting pirates but...this is sweet!
http://cgi.ebay.com/Megaman-Rockman-1-6-Combo-NES-Famicom-Super-Rare-/260653466190?pt=US_Vintage_Video_Games

[Medisinyl]

I don't think I've gotten a single Rockman pirate yet, even just the game on a multi or something.

I´m not collecting pirates but...this is sweet!
http://cgi.ebay.com/Megaman-Rockman-1-6-Combo-NES-Famicom-Super-Rare-/260653466190?pt=US_Vintage_Video_Games

Yes, that's awesome.  If I had that cart, I'd probably ask a similar price.  Unfortunately, my money has to go elsewhere for the time being 

[manuel]

It would be really nice to have Rockman 1-6 on one cart. But for 50$ I could probably get all 6 original carts if I look around a bit.