What's up with all the Pirates/Bootlegs?

[The Chief]

Hey guys, I'm new here and was wondering why there is so much talk and sales of pirate/bootleg games?  In most gaming/collecting circles they are frowned on, but here it seems some people collect them exclusively.  So what's the deal?

[MS-DOS4]

Nintendo's Famicom is the #1 most pirated system so it's kinda a hard blemish to just pass up. Most pirates are just boring multicarts, but there are a lot of jewels out there to collect. Colorful cartridges with hilariously bad label art, custom pirate games that you'd never find elsewhere, etc. Another thing that sparks peoples interest, is that a lot of these carts can be rare. Since there are so many different pirate companies in so many different countries, you can sometimes get some neat stuff that nobody else would ever have!

My personal favorites are pirate ports from much more powerful consoles.

Here's a few 16-bit games butchered to run on 8 bit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDX6cBz8cl4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLm_cnb-Lu0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Anz5ZqlSBJ8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb7a-DBSSB4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSJXfGQgMRQ

Those are the ones I like to collect the best.

[NintendoKing]

I would have to agree with MS-Dos4, also sometimes finding a pirated copy of a game can be a million times easier then finding an official one.
For example, a original copy of Recca can be like $100, you can get a pirated copy for like $25-35.

Besides, occasionally a really cool sprite hack will exist of a certain game and you just have to get it or a porting of a game from another console that now exists on Famicom because of piraters.

[133MHz]

This question seems to pop up from time to time, and MS-DOS4 pretty much summed it all up. Famicom pirates are so common, yet some of them are so rare and outright bizarre that it's one of the most interesting bits of the Famicom collecting experience.

Bootleg games for other systems are so dull and boring with very few exceptions, which is not the case for Famicom, so I can see why people wonder why are we so obsessed with pirated games.

[NintendoKing]

  I forgot to mention that like 4/5ths of my Famicom collection is pirated.
Kind of sad to think about actually.

[MS-DOS4]

Speaking of pirates, I just bought one about 10 seconds ago. Jee pirates sure are great.

[Jedi Master Baiter]

In some places, pirated Famicoms & their games are relied upon.

[NintendoKing]

In some places, pirated Famicoms & their games are relied upon.

Exactly, I basically take what I can get.
Like I just bought "New Ghost Busters 2" from MWK for $15 but its pirated.
Also I am still waiting for it to arrive in the mail...

[MS-DOS4]

In some places, pirated Famicoms & their games are relied upon.

Exactly, I basically take what I can get.
Like I just bought "New Ghost Busters 2" from MWK for $15 but its pirated.
Also I am still waiting for it to arrive in the mail...

I am still waiting for my MWK order too. It's been 11 days so it should be arriving shortly!

[NintendoKing]

In some places, pirated Famicoms & their games are relied upon.

Exactly, I basically take what I can get.
Like I just bought "New Ghost Busters 2" from MWK for $15 but its pirated.
Also I am still waiting for it to arrive in the mail...

I am still waiting for my MWK order too. It's been 11 days so it should be arriving shortly!

Really? 11 days for me also, we must have paid the same day or something. Lol.

[The Chief]

Thanks for all the replies guys.  I will say that there sure are a ton of pirate carts floating around.  I had to do some research on how to spot them since they're so common on ebay and I'm only looking to pickup originals.

[The Chief]

I meant only original Japanese release games.

[NintendoKing]

I meant only original Japanese release games.

Thats a bit saddening, because some famicom games will run you a bit to high, when you could pay substantially less for a pirate. Like every single game has a pirate equal.

[MS-DOS4]

I meant only original Japanese release games.

Thats a bit saddening, because some famicom games will run you a bit to high, when you could pay substantially less for a pirate. Like every single game has a pirate equal.

Really, I bought a famicom pirate that was 30 when I could have bought the same one for 13 on a real cartridge. 

[JC]

Which game?