Paradox Interactive Models Positive Behavior Regarding Fangames
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 04/24/22 at 04:43 PM CT
Fangames have been around since the adolescence of the Internet, circulating within the same gaming communities that tended to pass-around ROM-hacks that spice-up (or ruin) old favorites and Fanslations of unlocalized gems (or turds) out of Japan. Unsurprisngly, most fangames are based on Nintendo IP, thanks to that company’s presence at the very heart of gaming culture in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Also unsurprisingly, Nintendo being the litigious and authoritarian business that they are, loves to bludgeon the communities of their most adoring fans with lawsuits and copyright takedowns at every opportunity – especially when a fangame is involved that manages to deliver a better, truer experience than Nintendo’s own studios.
Nintendo, however, isn’t alone in owning IP that receives fangame support… they’re just alone in their knee-jerk, draconian reaction to such heart-felt out-pourings of adulation. Indeed, this week, Paradox Interactive, a B-tier Eurojank publisher that …
Why <i>Can’t</i> Official Emulation Compete? Copyright, of Course!
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 04/17/22 at 03:47 PM CT
Last week I raked Nintendo (and to a lesser extent Sony) over the coals with the help of a YouTuber. But we never really got to the root of “why” corporations like Nintendo and Sony – who have been so foundational to the history of videogaming on the whole – refuse to engage with Games Preservation, backward compatibility, and official emulation support in any meaningful way.
Even as I slap Nintendo across the face with one hand, I have to wipe away their tears with the other, since they actually have done quite a bit for backwards compatibility compared to other Big Gaming industrial players: They made the Game Boy Advance compatible with original/color Game Boy cartridges, and further put in the extra effort in creating the DS with an entirely different cartridge slot at the bottom so it could continue that legacy of backwards compatibility. They’re also the company that created both the Super Game Boy cartridge shim for the SNES AND the Game Boy Player expansion slot …
Nintendo Proves that Official Emulation Just Can’t (Won’t) Compete
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 04/10/22 at 03:31 PM CT
Last year, at about this time, the big gaming bugaboo was the fact that Sony was planning to shut-down access to their digital PlayStation Store for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, and PlayStation Portable. This news, combined with the fact that an known bug in Sony’s firmware could invalidated digital purchases until the user reconnected their device to the PlayStation Store, saw a massive grassroots backlash which effectively “forced” (insofar as regular persons can force Corporate Persons to do anything) Sony to keep 2/3 of their slated-for-closure stores up and running, AND to patch the ownership issue.
Well, this year, Nintendo decided to do almost the exact same thing! While Wii and DSi owners haven’t been able to make purchases from those consoles’ digital stores in quite some time, recently, the stores were unceremoniously shut-down with no notice. Well, technically, there was some notice: Specifically, a Nintendo announcement that the WiiU and 3DS eShops …
E3 Cancelled Again, 2023 to Feature “Revitalized” Show
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 04/03/22 at 01:43 PM CT
Due to the lingering effects of the still-ongoing (thanks, anti-vax retards) COVID-19 pandemic, E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, which has long been the Entertainment Software Association’s biggest and most publicly-visible trade show, has been cancelled again in 2022. Back in early 2020, when the outbreak was just getting started and nobody knew how COVID was spread, let alone had access to testing, vaccines, and therapeutics, the ESA rightfully cancelled a large semi-public trade show, where swarms of gaming bodies would mash-together, swapping sweat and various flavors of BO. In 2021, with the pandemic still raging and vaccination rates still low due to logistical issues (and the afore-mentioned anti-vax retards – guess what, vaccines don’t cause retardation, since the people who refuse to get them already have it), the ESA transitioned E3 to an all-digital format, which, I personally, found to be the best E3 in many years (Sony quitting also helped filter out a lot of …
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