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

[Black Tiger]

Considering how far Tobias has gone in various bootlegging projects, I wouldn't be surprised if he forged documents from various copyright holders.

[NightWolve]

That clown who would rather pay over $100 to play a bootleg spine card than a free cdr game reminded me of one of Tobias' key offenses for which there is no excuse.

After my Sapphire bootleg guide was used by eBay sellers of legit copies of the game, Tobias had another batch made, in an attempt to fix the most noticeable flaws (like her purple suit appearing blue), so that people wouldn't be able to tell from photos if they were fake.

This was after he'd given up on his previous stories of official 2nd print runs and confirmation of authenticity from current day Hudson Soft. He wasn't making a cheap functional copy for fans to play. He put extra effort to once again pass off his copies as authentic. This was after he'd already made tens of thousands of dollars from the first run.

I don't think he's stopped making or selling them either. I believe that he's returned to his original plan of low cost/time + high profit margin and is just slowly trickling them out on auction sites.

For the love of it.

Ah, I didn't know about this secondary attempt... So, in other words, after he sold those imperfect copies to BlueBMW who resold them on the cheap, he went back to his bootlegging press and tried to make them better imitate the originals, etc. Interesting... If we look at the Youtube landscape and consider clowns such as the one I posted about who went full troll on me, the appearance is he's been entirely forgiven for all of this!

I can't think of her now, Ericka (?), but she gave me the old line in her Youtube video comments about, "I don't judge..." Hahaha! It's the selective usage of critics being, you know, "too judgmental..."

[wildfruit]

So I got hold of copies of xak 3 and so2 from this guy.
And no I didn't pay for them.
Curious, on xak 3 when a screen loads it flickers at the top of the screen, lines of colour jut out horizontally. I wonder if that's a quirk of the game or something to do with this copy?

[Bonknuts]

SamIam has a decent idea; put in an easy to hack disclaimer, and then check for alterations randomly through out the game.

 I won't give details, but you can hide it pretty deep in the data track and make it very random and very difficult to find. Have it do something like hard lock the game, display an annoying/FU message, and then delete your save file (bye,bye progress). Or maybe something more evil like all of BRAM.

[seieienbu]

As hilarious as all that sounds, I'm left wondering if the people who buy these even play any of the games?

[elmer]

SamIam has a decent idea; put in an easy to hack disclaimer, and then check for alterations randomly through out the game.

 I won't give details, but you can hide it pretty deep in the data track and make it very random and very difficult to find. Have it do something like hard lock the game, display an annoying/FU message, and then delete your save file (bye,bye progress). Or maybe something more evil like all of BRAM.

Sure, you could do that, and since I'm probably going to end up completely recompressing Xanadu 2  in a new format, I could easily hide boody-trap code like that in there, too.

But why-on-earth would I???

Just in case you missed it ... he beat us ... http://freeturbodiscs.com/

The translations are given out for free.

For gawd's sake, he's even giving away Sapphire discs too, now!

He's not directly making money off "our" translations anymore ... the cost of giving them away is now built into his "marketing" and "PR" budget (raising the cost of the "packaged" products).

Just what language are we going to put into in some hypotheical and intrusive "Winner's Say No To PCEWorks" screen that ...
[uldecimal][li]Wouldn't just make the translators look like little children throwing a tantrum.[/li][li]Would make you think that Tobias would actually want to spend any time/effort trying to remove it.[/li][/ul]To most of the collectards out there, what he's doing is providing a huge benefit to the their enjoyment of pretty packaged "stuff". 

We're getting to the point of arguing that we should just start acting just like all the music companies did when they tried to force DRM on everyone.

[Punch]

Holy shit that free turbo discs site. What a morally bankrupt a$$hole.

[NightWolve]

Weirdly complex scrolling of a site too... Tangent: I have to admit I long for the days of basic HTML that worked on every possible browser instead of the trend to over-complicate and the packing of a massive loading punch when you hit a page with fancy menus, popups, feedback or STOP-SIGN-UP-NOW requests, video ads, etc. (not him, I mean in general over the Internet; his is just unneeded complexity for what could be one simple page with a few links, etc.)... :/

[Dicer]

Weirdly complex scrolling of a site too... Tangent: I have to admit I long for the days of basic HTML that worked on every possible browser instead of the trend to over-complicate and the packing of a massive loading punch when you hit a page with fancy menus, popups, feedback or STOP-SIGN-UP-NOW requests, video ads, etc. (not him, I mean in general over the Internet; his is just unneeded complexity for what could be one simple page with a few links, etc.)... :/

You need simplicity like this...
http://wombatnipplechips.com/

[Bonknuts]

SamIam has a decent idea; put in an easy to hack disclaimer, and then check for alterations randomly through out the game.

 I won't give details, but you can hide it pretty deep in the data track and make it very random and very difficult to find. Have it do something like hard lock the game, display an annoying/FU message, and then delete your save file (bye,bye progress). Or maybe something more evil like all of BRAM.

Sure, you could do that, and since I'm probably going to end up completely recompressing Xanadu 2  in a new format, I could easily hide boody-trap code like that in there, too.

But why-on-earth would I???

Just in case you missed it ... he beat us ... http://freeturbodiscs.com/

The translations are given out for free.

For gawd's sake, he's even giving away Sapphire discs too, now!

He's not directly making money off "our" translations anymore ... the cost of giving them away is now built into his "marketing" and "PR" budget (raising the cost of the "packaged" products).

Just what language are we going to put into in some hypotheical and intrusive "Winner's Say No To PCEWorks" screen that ...
[uldecimal][li]Wouldn't just make the translators look like little children throwing a tantrum.[/li][li]Would make you think that Tobias would actually want to spend any time/effort trying to remove it.[/li][/ul]To most of the collectards out there, what he's doing is providing a huge benefit to the their enjoyment of pretty packaged "stuff". 

We're getting to the point of arguing that we should just start acting just like all the music companies did when they tried to force DRM on everyone.

 Actually, not so much him. He doesn't seem to go after homebrew, and that's more what I had in mind with that post. There are people out there that have the mentality that if you don't sell your own stuff - someone else is free to (ethically). While this is more in the SNES, NES, and Genesis circles... it can happen with PCE. Homebrew, hacks, translation - they're one in the same for these guys.

[elmer]

Actually, not so much him. He doesn't seem to go after homebrew, and that's more what I had in mind with that post. There are people out there that have the mentality that if you don't sell your own stuff - someone else is free to (ethically). While this is more in the SNES, NES, and Genesis circles... it can happen with PCE. Homebrew, hacks, translation - they're one in the same for these guys.

I am being a bit myopic, aren't I?  :oops:

Yes, there are other smaller-scale and less balsy low-lifers, and even other gaming platforms, where such a tactic might be a discouragement.

I don't like the idea of grandifying those kind of folks by actually having to code booby-traps into games ... but I guess that would be up to individual development/translation teams.

[esteban]

Holy shit that free turbo discs site. What a morally bankrupt a$$hole.

You gotta respect Tobias.

He will always find a solution.

When I read that there was an "empty slot" in the Dracula X packaging....well, damn.

It was the equivalent of "checkmate".

Now, upon seeing the freeturbodiscs site and the "free" discs...he has cleverly positioned himself.

It is all a facade, but most folks don't care...

[ClodBuster]

: I have to admit I long for the days of basic HTML that worked on every possible browser

Me too. That was the time when most people wrote their code themselves instead of using CMS and huge libraries of Javascript that freezes your phone and f*cks up your computer browser.

About the free discs: I won't give that motherf*cker my address. I'd rather get my Duo's laser pots fixed for CD-Rs.

[SamIAm]

What Tobias did with the Sapphire bootlegs is not something anyone could rationalize away, and therefore I don't think we can ever really trust him. However, I do suspect that we've vilified this guy to the point that some of our fears are a little overblown.

Tobias started giving away Xak III and Startling Odyssey II when Nightwolve contacted him after he put them up on his site. The give-aways may have resulted in bigger sales of other products, but I think it's possible that they are not part of a scheme which he will continue to apply to all translations. For example, where is YsIV? We've heard that he pressed them and is supposedly sitting on them. However, that was a while ago. Could it be that Tobias's morals are not so totally black and white, and that being asked by the translator not to release a repro made him decide not to? If only for the bad press it might generate?

Maybe, maybe not. Regardless, here's a few points I'd like to make.

-Dracula X is pretty special, and it's no surprise that he went out on a limb for it. Nearly every other translate-able game on the system, however, including Xanadu I and II, is completely different. The originals are cheap, and most people don't know the franchises. Therefore, there's much less reward for any risk even if he gives away pressed copies for free.

-We should talk to him. Seriously. Before a release, let's just message him and say "Hi. We're about to release a translation, and we'd really appreciate it if you didn't make reproductions of it. We aren't accepting money for these because we believe it's wrong to do so, and it discourages us from doing what we do when we see people selling reproductions of our work. If you really love the PCE and would like to see more translations, please respect our wishes. Thank you."

-Like it or not, Tobias does love the PC Engine. He's posted on shmups.com for years, and I bet he knows more about PCE shooters than a lot of you do. Again, what he's done with Sapphire and other works is inexcusable, but I think he just might be more complex than the mustache-twirling villain we have been making him out to be. He might respond positively to positive engagement.

-The thing that makes the RIAA and the MPAA look so ridiculous is how threatening and patronizing they are. I think it's possible to craft a loading screen message that tactfully appeals to the player's maturity...a thing that IMHO people around this somewhat insular community are incorrectly convinced that too many outsiders have none of. Furthermore, if adding a loading screen message moves even a small fraction of the people who would pick up an unapproved repro, I think it's worth it.

Just my two cents.

[Bonknuts]

Actually, not so much him. He doesn't seem to go after homebrew, and that's more what I had in mind with that post. There are people out there that have the mentality that if you don't sell your own stuff - someone else is free to (ethically). While this is more in the SNES, NES, and Genesis circles... it can happen with PCE. Homebrew, hacks, translation - they're one in the same for these guys.

I am being a bit myopic, aren't I?  :oops:

Yes, there are other smaller-scale and less balsy low-lifers, and even other gaming platforms, where such a tactic might be a discouragement.

I don't like the idea of grandifying those kind of folks by actually having to code booby-traps into games ... but I guess that would be up to individual development/translation teams.

 And honestly, it's the risk we take when we do translations/hacks/homebrew. I've known this for years. I would probably never go as far as to implement such drastic anti-piracy measures, but it's nice to fantasize about it - lol.