That Tobias f--k went after Xak III and SO II as pressed CD-ROM releases!

[NightWolve]

I sent him this email to both of these addresses:
inquiries@pceworks.net
info@pceworks.net

Hey a$$holes,

I go by the alias NightWolve - do you know who I am ? I led the translation project for Xak III, Ys IV and even helped Tru get the SO II project off the ground as well.

I bet you didn't know you should've contacted me (or Tru), morally/ethically, right ??

I bet you don't understand that public distribution of fan translation software for non-profit/fan-purposes is not just to avoid problems, but that is how you can ethically get free work hours from all parties involved in the project, from the programmer, me, to the translator, Paul England. You see, if I make it a business by commercializing/selling the work, I gotta talk business with everyone in the project, otherwise it's not fair to them that I take 100% of the earnings per commercial sale if I do what you're doing!!!!

Why then, a$$hole, do you think you should get to pocket 100% of the earnings for Xak III when I sacrificed thousands of work hours to make that game in English, when I damaged my career as a Software Engineer, losing $100,000+ in wages when I should've been working a real job, but was instead working on fan translation projects like Xak III ?? I did ALL that work for free, so a butthole like you could come along in the end, claim it, package it up in a pretty plastic, and pocket all the earnings $$$$

Tell me, you cheating f--k, WHY That the patches are freely distributed under non-profit terms is precisely to avoid the situation of unfairness when one guy makes and pockets 100% of the earnings, while others who actually worked on the project, don't!

That makes you a f--king cheat, do you understand that ?

Burn in hell you sorry, cheating m0therf--cker!

We know you already did this to Bonknuts and his Megaman hackulation. You pocketed 100% of the earnings for that, you spent not a single work hour developing it, and you never contacted him for permission, let alone to negotiate a royalty split agreement because, in principle, you think you should get to pocket 100% of the earnings, the sorry f--k that you are!!

A$$hole! F--k you, prick!!!!

I don't care if that makes me look bad or whatever, but that's what I feel about it!

[Desh]

I sent him this email to both of these addresses:
inquiries@pceworks.net
info@pceworks.net

Hey a$$holes,

I go by the alias NightWolve - do you know who I am ? I led the translation project for Xak III, Ys IV and even helped Tru get the SO II project off the ground as well.

I bet you didn't know you should've contacted me (or Tru), morally/ethically, right ??

I bet you don't understand that public distribution of fan translation software for non-profit/fan-purposes is not just to avoid problems, but that is how you can ethically get free work hours from all parties involved in the project, from the programmer, me, to the translator, Paul England. You see, if I make it a business by commercializing/selling the work, I gotta talk business with everyone in the project, otherwise it's not fair to them that I take 100% of the earnings per commercial sale if I do what you're doing!!!!

Why then, a$$hole, do you think you should get to pocket 100% of the earnings for Xak III when I sacrificed thousands of work hours to make that game in English, when I damaged my career as a Software Engineer, losing $100,000+ in wages when I should've been working a real job, but was instead working on fan translation projects like Xak III ?? I did ALL that work for free, so a butthole like you could come along in the end, claim it, package it up in a pretty plastic, and pocket all the earnings $$$$

Tell me, you cheating f--k, WHY That the patches are freely distributed under non-profit terms is precisely to avoid the situation of unfairness when one guy makes and pockets 100% of the earnings, while others who actually worked on the project, don't!

That makes you a f--king cheat, do you understand that ?

Burn in hell you sorry, cheating m0therf--cker!

We know you already did this to Bonknuts and his Megaman hackulation. You pocketed 100% of the earnings for that, you spent not a single work hour developing it, and you never contacted him for permission, let alone to negotiate a royalty split agreement because, in principle, you think you should get to pocket 100% of the earnings, the sorry f--k that you are!!

A$$hole! F--k you, prick!!!!

I don't care if that makes me look bad or whatever, but that's what I feel about it!

Meh... I actually think you toned it down more than I would have if I were in your shoes.  I wonder if you'll ever get a response.

[Necromancer]

I sent him this email...

You should've told him how you really feel.  Don't sugar coat it like that. 

[Bernie]

Only way to avoid this, is to just do it ourselves. Just a matter of time before Ys IV and Dracula X get this done. Don't think for one moment its not on the back burner.  I know the argument, I know it well.  But lets face it, it WILL get done.  Question is whether it will be done for profit, or done by us at cost.At least if we do it, some funds can go back to the folks that worked on it.  Thats just my opinion. 

[ProfessorProfessorson]

Only way to avoid this, is to just do it ourselves. Just a matter of time before Ys IV and Dracula X get this done. Don't think for one moment its not on the back burner.  I know the argument, I know it well.  But lets face it, it WILL get done.  Question is whether it will be done for profit, or done by us at cost.At least if we do it, some funds can go back to the folks that worked on it.  Thats just my opinion. 

The only way to avoid this is to stop giving the cunt more money. Any of you that bought that Rockman, Space Fantasy Zone, or PCE Memories shit basically made it possible for him to continue this nonsense and f*ck more people over, so that is on you, whether you like it or not. The guy was already busted for being a lying scamming fraud over the Sapphire incident. People here still chose to do business with him anyway knowing the additional harm he would eventually cause to the scene, or feigning ignorance of it. Some of you still are doing business with him now as I post this. This isn't his IP to sell, nor are you entitled to it just because you think you have to have it in some pressed form.

I like some of you guys a lot, but lets be honest here, some of you bought shit from him knowing it wasn't right. I don't need to name names, you know who you f*cking are. You got what you wanted because it suited your "oooh pressed disc box sets, gimmie gimmie me me me I have to have this game on my collection shelf too" mentality. f*ck all to everyone else it may have affected or will eventually affect.

The only recourse now is to heavily put the word out, including contacting people who have been promoting his warez, like the Happy Console Gamer guy on youtube, and inform them of the situation to try to get them to stop promoting his shit. That and turn him over to the IP owners so they can take legal action if they want to do so.

Outside of that, nothing else can be done. In all honesty, half the time this place creates its own problems and 9 years later the shit has gotten old and I'm glad i dont care to f*ck with any of it anymore. Seeing a thread like this doesn't surprise me in the least. It was obviously going to happen the moment a bunch of you kliked that order button for the Memories box sets and spread the word around that he was selling them.

[poponon]

From a n00bs perspective - This does really suck, but I agree it is unavoidable - someone will eventually do it for all fan translated projects.  Personally I would never buy a reproduction game copy, and barely "collect" myself - I just play games. I think if you guys don't want to see this happen in the future, you need to include plans to sell/distribute reproductions as part of the entire project. If ethics is an issue, like Bernie said, sell them at cost (maybe include development in the cost).

[SephirothTNH]

I sent him this email...

You should've told him how you really feel.  Don't sugar coat it like that. 

Agreed.  Message seems pretty tame all things considered.  I'm really sorry this has happened to you.

[WoodyXP]

I hope Tobias gets herpes.

[ClodBuster]

That really sucks, I feel for you.
For projects still in the making or future projects, is there a way to cover the patches with some sort of license that forbids commercial use?

[VenomMacbeth]

I've gotten wiser about repros recently, and after making my own Metal Warriors cart, I can honestly say that DIY is the way to go.  That way, nobody gets screwed but yourself...but not as screwed as you'd be buying an original copy & paying out the earholes for it.

Come to think of it, I might repro a couple more SNES games & raffle one off here.  Any suggestions for games?  Drac X, right?

[SamIAm]

Just a thought, but on your Emerald Dragon translation, I would make sure to include a new title screen with something like "This is a fan translation provided for free.  If you purchased this then you ripped off by cretinous scum" or something

Seriously, I think this should be done. Something like, don't buy or sell this translation out of respect for the people who made it. It could appear before the title screen, for a couple of seconds, like an FBI warning in movies.

[quoth09]

I haven't posted here in a long time, and it's mainly due to the mentality that most of you people have over here, including the mentality that what this worthless f*ck is doing, is ok in any regard. It's not. A lot of stuff you people do over here is NOT ok with me, or others, and no one speaks up. I barely visit any gaming forum for anything anymore because I want damn near nothing to do with half the things going on in the gaming community as a whole, especially another forum that I won't bother speaking the name of here. Your behavior makes me want to sell all my games, but that's just a side note to what is going on here. Everyone always talks about preservation and collecting, but in reality all most of you care about is money and your ego, Tobias included. I think the whole Sapphire stunt and the letter should have been a clue about that a long time ago and he should have been shunned after, but most of you through it was great. -barf-

Funny how all of you are bitching now that he put out translated discs without permission, but you had no qualms about him ripping off Toei with Godzilla (including the music stolen/pirated), or any of the other games that he re-issued under his crappy label.

You didn't care because it wasn't something you worked at, wasn't something you owned the IP to or copyright, and was nothing more to you people than games that you could now 'get cheaper'. I'm not focusing on the translator that did whatever he did (that really sucks that this happened to him), I'm talking about all of you. None of you did anything to report him to whomever owns Bonk (Konami?), Dungeon Explorer II (Atlus), or any of the other games, which all have still valid copyrights, and now he's gone off and done it to something that some of you had a hand in.
You claim you care about the games and the system, but really, you don't. Even worse are the passive 'I just play games' people.
It's equivalent to someone saying, 'oh I just don't like people', all the while stabbing people in the face with a large knife, and no one calls the cops.

With that being said, what's done is done. No company is going to give a shit about a measly 100 or even 200 something copies of an almost 30 year old game that they have no plans to do anything with ever. That's why he won't get busted and why nothing will happen to him, short of a petty cease and desist on one or two titles at most, if even. It's the same reason why Nintendo hasn't taken any action against anything going on with all the repros on the NES/FC or SNES/SFC, or Sega on the Genesis/Megadrive. Cost of legal action versus lost profits.

This is what happens when you don't get rid of a growing weed in a lawn.
I'm sure all of you will be looking forward to PCE Works future releases, and he will likely do Ys IV since you mentioned it now as well. Will you contact Nihon Falcom when that happens? Nah, probably not.



Also, all you people saying, he should put a new title or maybe put something:

before the title screen, for a couple of seconds, like an FBI warning in movies.

Learn the difference between translations and coding, and come back to that thought.

Back to your normal conversations amongst yourselves, about 'wow that sucks dude, I have ideas and things, and hey I got this but you don't'.

[ProfessorProfessorson]

He doesn't even know wtf that is. I'm fairly positive he is referring to the worthless f*cking Neo forums. You know, the one that's basking in the $30,000 Aero Fighters 3 scam and whatever other garbage they have going on on any given Thursday.

[SkyeWelse]

Wow, this really sucks that someone is making presses of all of these translations and hacks without any consent to your team, Nightwolve.

I agree with the other comments that were suggested before such as setting up an operation to press these discs yourself or from a few groups willing to do it in the community that would be sold under a store/community label and to include a disclaimer for the patches that are released going forward that state that if you paid any money for this game, you have been cheated out of your money by a repro-seller.

What I meant by community label, I guess I should explain more on. As I am really into the MSX Computer hobby, as a community of MSXers there are really only a handful of trusted online shops that produce new MSX games. They will write the roms to cartridges, and produce nice looking boxes and manuals. The biggest online shops are the MSX Cartridge Shop, Matra/Bitwise, and Repro Factory MSX Shop and one called Sunrise, which is now defunct after probably roughly 15 years of activity. Everyone in the community knows and trusts these operations as the folks that run these places are known members of the community and reproduce these with permission from the original authors.

But even the MSX community will still see repros on eBay or the Dutch auction site called Marketplaats.nl. Stuff like Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake will be sold as a Repro and the community does everything they can to report it in a thread and contact the site that is allowing them to sell this.

Now that this is happening in your community more frequently, I personally feel that perhaps it's time you all had a system similar to what the MSX guys are doing, a club where everyone knows your name and knows when something pops up that is not legitimate. I guess the main difference is that the MSX guys are not selling patched software and new software or ports to the system, but I'm sure a similar concept could be done.

Another angle that would make it pretty legal... I think.. would be to simply sell the discs, artwork and case along with a patch that is not the one floating out on the internet, but rather a complete one that perhaps replaces that disclaimer with one that states a different disclaimer such as your release group or pressing label group and logo.

Hmm, I guess an example for Xak III would be something like this. This Repro guy Tobias currently has an unfinished patch that could be made finished with the inclusion of some script adjustments, voice acting for the cutscenes and ending of the game, and distributed in two versions:

Version 1, for free use and distributed over the internet with a big fat disclaimer that says all the stuff you want about this not being something that should be reproduced and sold for money and if you bought it, you are a sucker.

And, Version 2, which is nothing more than a nice disc press, artwork and case without the game burned on the disc and sold through a community label and site with instructions for how to patch the game and an official non-internet version of the patch included along with it either on a separate disc, or emailed directly from your community label/website contact through an invoice number that removes the free internet disclaimer in lieu of "Nightwolve Productions" and a logo. The user who then bought this can follow these instructions and write the rom to the disc themselves. The invoice thing might be important for collecting their contact info and name so that you have a record of their purchase order with you and if say their disc messes up or doesn't write correctly, perhaps an arrangement can be made to have a new disc mailed out with or without the game pre-patched and installed.

I'm know I'm kind of rambling here, but I think if your community worked together on this, these could lead to some definite methods of fighting back against these Repro guys who are using stuff without your consent and permission.

-Thomas

[bob]

I haven't posted here in a long time, and it's mainly due to the mentality that most of you people have over here, including the mentality that what this worthless f*ck is doing, is ok in any regard. It's not. A lot of stuff you people do over here is NOT ok with me, or others, and no one speaks up. I barely visit any gaming forum for anything anymore because I want damn near nothing to do with half the things going on in the gaming community as a whole, especially another forum that I won't bother speaking the name of here. Your behavior makes me want to sell all my games, but that's just a side note to what is going on here. Everyone always talks about preservation and collecting, but in reality all most of you care about is money and your ego, Tobias included. I think the whole Sapphire stunt and the letter should have been a clue about that a long time ago and he should have been shunned after, but most of you through it was great. -barf-

Funny how all of you are bitching now that he put out translated discs without permission, but you had no qualms about him ripping off Toei with Godzilla (including the music stolen/pirated), or any of the other games that he re-issued under his crappy label.

You didn't care because it wasn't something you worked at, wasn't something you owned the IP to or copyright, and was nothing more to you people than games that you could now 'get cheaper'. I'm not focusing on the translator that did whatever he did (that really sucks that this happened to him), I'm talking about all of you. None of you did anything to report him to whomever owns Bonk (Konami?), Dungeon Explorer II (Atlus), or any of the other games, which all have still valid copyrights, and now he's gone off and done it to something that some of you had a hand in.
You claim you care about the games and the system, but really, you don't. Even worse are the passive 'I just play games' people.
It's equivalent to someone saying, 'oh I just don't like people', all the while stabbing people in the face with a large knife, and no one calls the cops.

With that being said, what's done is done. No company is going to give a shit about a measly 100 or even 200 something copies of an almost 30 year old game that they have no plans to do anything with ever. That's why he won't get busted and why nothing will happen to him, short of a petty cease and desist on one or two titles at most, if even. It's the same reason why Nintendo hasn't taken any action against anything going on with all the repros on the NES/FC or SNES/SFC, or Sega on the Genesis/Megadrive. Cost of legal action versus lost profits.

This is what happens when you don't get rid of a growing weed in a lawn.
I'm sure all of you will be looking forward to PCE Works future releases, and he will likely do Ys IV since you mentioned it now as well. Will you contact Nihon Falcom when that happens? Nah, probably not.



Also, all you people saying, he should put a new title or maybe put something:

before the title screen, for a couple of seconds, like an FBI warning in movies.

Learn the difference between translations and coding, and come back to that thought.

Back to your normal conversations amongst yourselves, about 'wow that sucks dude, I have ideas and things, and hey I got this but you don't'.

LOL!  That was rich.