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

[Bernie]

[ProfessorProfessorson]

I'm going to put it bluntly. Tobias went out of his way to f*ck this community about 10 years back. He put his Sapphires out on the market and fabricated a lot of bullshit to fool people in this community. He also wreaked a small amount of havoc on import shops and unsuspecting ebay buyers who ended up with copies of his game, thinking they were legit.  He is an enemy of the Turbografx/PCE community. There is no ifs, ands, or buts about it. He isn't doing this as a favor to any of you. His only goal making scratch, profiting from your foolishness.

Supporting this guy in any sort of way, shape, or form makes you an accomplice of sorts in my eyes. It doesn't matter if he is making it clear said wares are repros now. He is still a cunt and you are financing him and his ventures in one fashion or another. He is still selling IP that isn't his. You are still buying it knowing as much. You are still advertising his shit in some form. Doesn't matter if its as a glimpse on a shelf in a youtube video, a full review, or even at the end of one in some stupid skit. You simply don't care if its right or not. All you care about is that your got your magical f*cking pressed copy box sets.

You supporting him is giving us, the ones he screwed or tried to screw over at one point or another, the finger.

[vestcoat]

As long as you're putting together a list of people who possess these sets, I have both of them as well.  If there's going to be a witch hunt, I wouldn't want to be left out while Bernie and Joe are being burned at the stake.

Witch hunt or no, supporting Foduh is retarded. Don't let your dislike for a few members' strong words turn it into a source of pride. You, Bernie, and Joe are good guys, but PCEFX members that support/own this stuff should be called out and get your heads checked.

[ProfessorProfessorson]

As long as you're putting together a list of people who possess these sets, I have both of them as well.  If there's going to be a witch hunt, I wouldn't want to be left out while Bernie and Joe are being burned at the stake.

Just stating it like it is. No need for a witch hunt, because in the end it will work itself out, and honestly its pretty obvious you guys don't give one f*cking iota about the outcome anyway. Its you guys that have to live with the ramifications now of all of this, whether you want to accept responsibility for it or not. If translators decide to stop translating PCE games for fear that Tobias will just sell their work, its you that is going to suffer in the end. Tobias will have already made his scratch and moved on to the next system to plunder and left you f*cking behind to wallow in the filth of it all.

EDIT: Oh yeah, reminds me, didn't Fudoh try to do a large sale of bootleg SFC Nightmare Busters at one point, before he got his shit shut down by the current IP owners?

[Bernie]

Well, thats where you have me wrong.  I do take issue with his recent stealing of translations, so yes I guess I do have to share in part of the blame of enabling.  I don't know why he did what he did, I don't know why he lied about Sapphire boots back then. I wasn't even here then.  If I could do it over again, I wouldn't buy em...but I did.  Some of you guys are friends of mine, and maybe I take things a little too much to heart.  But, I do care about folks not translating future projects.  I doubt that happens, although it may change how things are released in the future.

[ProfessorProfessorson]

But you knew you were buying high priced illegal boots. It didn't take much to figure out what it was going to lead to. Only the naive would have thought no harm, no foul. And Bernie, you don't strike me as the naive type... I like you, I honestly do, but I'm calling it like I see it. May come off as harsh, but this topic came up plenty before, and the possible outcomes were mentioned prior of what would happen if this kind of shit was supported.

[bob]

Prof, im really not up on the whole backstory, but were you a part of any of the actual work that was stolen?  I didnt know if your efforts were exploited along with NW?

[ProfessorProfessorson]

Prof, im really not up on the whole backstory, but were you a part of any of the actual work that was stolen?  I didnt know if your efforts were exploited along with NW?

No, but I was part of one of the original parties he worked to dupe on the Sapphire thing, as was Quoth09 and a lot of others. I should go into detail on this, but needless to say you can see me and others posting in really old threads about it from back in 2005. I used my original account in that thread, which goes by my actual name. Tobias went as far as to fake a letter from Hudson Soft to convince us his copies were legit. He was dropping a few of us pm's too showing us his "evidence" of the such and his reassurances that he obtained the Sapphires by legit means and was basically just trying to share the wealth.

I actually went out of my way to try to confirm one way or the next whether they were legit or not by contacting Care4Data and Hudson soft, but it didn't yield much results that were totally helpful, so in the end gave Fudoh the benefit of the doubt. In the end Fudoh busted himself by suddenly having more way more copies to sell, and some of which that had defects. Between that and his Mega Man and Space Fantasy Zone shit, it became pretty obvious at that point that he had went out of his way to scam the PCE scene.

[Joe Redifer]

Yep I'm sure he's gotten tons of orders now as I clearly specified where to get 'em.  Actually we've been planning on doing a show about repros sometime as we each have a couple of others from other people. I have Alien Soldier. I think that's it. Oh wait no I also have Sapphire (and I have ZERO SHAME in owning a bootleg of that). Dave has more than I do. Tobias said there's no obligation to cover 'em. He sent the Xak 3 set without even telling me what they were. So I see this thread fire up and I'm like "Hmm. Well shit." Then the package arrives. But if some of you wanna witch hunt, whatevs. I'm glad I can provide you with things to do with your free time.

Here's a still of some video I shot weeks ago illustrating the difference between real and fake. No clue when we'll do the episode proper.

[Emerald Rocker]

I believe Bernie.

Prof: I missed the whole Space Fantasy Zone story.  Is this related to the sealed SFZ's that were "discovered" around the same time as the Sapphire bootlegs, or is this something more recent?

[esteban]

Joe's comment was misinformed, and did not actually represent the proposal.

...blah blah...

READING IS FUNDAMENTAL

My post was a joke at Joe's expense, but let's get SeRiOuS -- there's not much difference between a disclaimer that says "translated by so-and-so" and a disclaimer that says "<the translation> is freely available at blank.com".

Please re-read what you yourself wrote.

I love you Esteban, but... DAMN

Actually, there is a difference.

Please read the anecdote in this post:

https://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=18596.msg395650#msg395650

Oh, heck, I'll just repost it (emphasis added for the wayward reader)...

I agree that a notice on the title screen is actually a good idea for actually *educating* folks.


Let me share a history lesson with everyone here:

Back in the day, lots of DIY punk bands wanted to get their music into as many hands as possible for a fair price. So they charged a fair price via mail order and trusted independent distributors. HOWEVER, lots of greedy bastards (record shops) sold the records at "regular" price, which allowed the record shop to make more profit from ignorant customers.

SO, the bands would put disclaimers on the actual record art "This EP IS AVAILABLE FOR $3.00 from" or "Pay no more than $3.00 for this EP"

This seemingly futile disclaimer actually worked for *some* customers. Many customers are ignorant and remain ignorant. Other customers don't care. But, I guarantee, at least a handful of customers *did care*, and *educated themselves* and stopped filling the pockets of the profiteers.

I was one of those ignorant customers.

Not for long, Thankfully.

Because of a stupid disclaimer.

The point is—even if we only reach a handful of  folks, it will prove to be worthwhile.

[ProfessorProfessorson]

I believe Bernie.

Prof: I missed the whole Space Fantasy Zone story.  Is this related to the sealed SFZ's that were "discovered" around the same time as the Sapphire bootlegs, or is this something more recent?

Those dumb things just started popping up on ebay and what not a couple years after Sapphire, 2007-2008 or so I think. I think Tobias was using proxy sellers of some sort to get them listed under different accounts on ebay outside of selling them directly from his own website. I know a couple peeps from here ordered them as time went on. For the life of me I cant remember who though. I think the things were professional labeled short strategy cd-rs with a fancy package. I dont recall either SFZ or Rockman being a pressed disc like Sapphire was. Honestly not worth the asking price.

I also don't think he advertised that they were cd-r's on his normal sales page either. It's something a forum member ended up telling me. Maybe it was Nat. I honestly cant recall who for sure. Fudohs original sale page is still archived for viewing.

http://web.archive.org/web/20120708074523/http://sapphire.anime4ever.de/

[esteban]

And I still love you, Emerald Rocker.

Also: Folks, the point of this thread is to EDUCATE.

If you bought stuff from Tobias, don't get your moist panties in a bunch.

We simply hope that you THINK TWICE before buying from him...we honestly feel that you should not support him and we have explained why. 

The rest is up to you.

Knowing is half the battle.

You gotta know when to hold 'em...

Who put the bop in the bop-shoo-wop-dee-bop?

[ProfessorProfessorson]

Ok yeah just checked and it was Nat who did a large post about the SFZ he got off Tobias/Fudoh from his website.


https://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=5143.0

[Emerald Rocker]

Prof: Thanks for the explanation and link.  Now I understand what the Mega Man stuff was about, too.

And I still love you, Emerald Rocker, but DAMN, you just love being the naysayer.

I'm a little confused because -- based on your post -- we agree, but that's ok.  I still love you too.