A question for retro gamers / collectors

[gtg93]

Hi all,

 

I'm sure we have a few others of you on the forum, but I myself have an interest in "retro" games... My favourites being around the Megadrive / PS1 sort of era. I personally like to think of them as not being retro, but I guess they're seen that way now.

 

Anyway, I've recently started a bit of a collection and have been looking at some reproduction games. Namely for consoles such as the NES, SNES, Megadrive, Gameboy etc...The ones that take cartridges. And basically wondered what everyone's opinions are on reproduction cartridges for Megadrive / SNES etc?

 

Been thinking about making some myself - not of general release games - but of games that never made it to release, homebrew games (surprisingly there are a good amount of these online) or modded ROMs. Anything I make I will also be marking as reproduction in some way, so should I ever let it go to someone, it can't be sold as a genuine article.

 

On the same matter, what is the legality of that ^ If the games were never released or are modded / homebrew in some way, is it technically legal?

Edited January 7, 2016 by gtg93

[pcstru]

On the same matter, what is the legality of that ^ If the games were never released or are modded / homebrew in some way, is it technically legal?

Games/code are protected by copyright. In the UK copyright is an automatic right that is granted to the creator of a work at the time the work is created. So, unless you have the permission of the creator of the work, or the work was offered with a licence that allows such use, then it is almost certainly not 'legal'.

[korifugi]

It's on a case-by-case basis.

 

IF the source code has been released to the public under a free license (such as Phantasy Star Online), or the owner of the copyright grants permission - then it's fine.

 

However - even if a game is not released, the creators still hold the copyright.

 

Enforcing it'd be difficult - much in the same way as recording your favourite songs off the radio when you were a kid was technically illegal, but it's illegal (or at least in breach of copyright) all the same.

[gtg93]

Thanks guys,

 

So in regards to homebrew games that people may have published online for free, technically I should have no legal problem with ripping apart an original megadrive game for example and replacing the eeprom microchip with one I've reprogrammed, as long as the creator has licensed it for this type of use?

 

Not quite the same playing on the variations of games available online on the PC, especially when I have a perfectly good collection of consoles to play them on

 

Anyone done anything similar? Had any experience with this? Read a fair bit of info online regarding it - seems simple enough

[pcstru]

Thanks guys,

 

So in regards to homebrew games that people may have published online for free, technically I should have no legal problem with ripping apart an original megadrive game for example and replacing the eeprom microchip with one I've reprogrammed, as long as the creator has licensed it for this type of use?

Err, only if they were specifically published with a licence that allows you to do that. Basically unless you have something that says you can use the work in that way, then you do not have the rights to do that. As a rights holder I can do what I like with my works but just because I publish it on-line for 'free' doesn't mean someone else can pick it up and start redistributing it on their site or media for 'free'.