TheyCallMeBruce

I've seen it run DC games.

So how do you think the industry should work? Companies should make games, and the consumers should just pay whatever they want to pay for them?

OK, then it's piracy, not theft. Whatever. You obviously know what we mean. They get to make money when their products are sold. You don't get to pirate their games so you can play them for free.

First of all, how do they not have a right to their intellectual property? If Nintendo creates something, they have a right to that thing. What are you talking about? Obviously there is a difference between free market competition and piracy. You already knew that, so please try to be a little less dishonest in your points. Stealing games you don't own is illegal. No matter how hard you want to try to justify your theft, it's still theft. It clearly hurts the bottom line of the creative forces behind these games, so you clearly have no legal right to do it. Instead, I hear the same bullshit I've heard from game thieves since I was a kid and people were making copies of PC games. If you want to play abandoned software, that's one thing. But to try to justify people making illegal copies of games being sold for retail is pretty ludicrous.

You're still taking something that you have no rights to. It hurts their revenue, so there really is no difference. Piracy is taking something that you don't want to pay for, and perhaps some number of those people wouldn't have bought the product if piracy wasn't an option, but it's naive to think that none of them would. Here's the thing: fewer DS games are being released right now because it's harder to make profits when people know how to pirate those games. So you're not just stealing from Nintendo. You're stealing from me, too.

It looks like these are all sold out everywhere. Rats.

The XBOX controller is also screwed up like that.

If I had to guess, claims about piracy increasing the cost of software are used just to try to convince people not to pirate software. However, as I said, the likely result of piracy is less software, rather than more expensive software.

I'm with you. I strongly doubt that Sega is ever going to produce new hardware again.

They can say what they want, but it is a simple matter of economics. They charge the number that will result in the greatest profit. If that's $50, then they charge $50. If it's $10, then they charge $10. They get hurt by piracy, but it doesn't affect what they charge. Your PS3 example illustrates this. And this is your right. No one is requiring you to pay those prices. What you cannot do, however, is demand a product at the price you want to pay, and then steal it when you don't get it. Right. Because they were the first company to bring a desirable product to the market, the supply was very low relative to demand, and they were able to charge $6500. As the supply of 42" LED TVs has increased, the price has gone down. They surely do have the same principles. The gaming companies charge a price that they think maximizes their profits. If a game doesn't sell, the price drops. If it does sell, the price stays the same. I remember when the Wii was announced at $250, and everyone bitched about the high price, but then they couldn't keep stock in stores for months while completely dominating the market in total sales. Obviously, the price was too low, and not too high. You're absolutely correct. If people stopped spending the prices being asked and instead chose not to play those games or systems, the prices would come down. In the past, you've seen products fail because the price was based on production cost rather than the supply/demand curve (the 3DO, for instance), and people weren't willing to spend that kind of money. Piracy doesn't change the prices, but it does increase the cost of production relative to revenue. So rather than increasing costs for everyone, what pirates are doing is likely preventing some games from being produced, which is far worse.

Didn't that come out last year? I'd still cut a man for one.

Software cost is a function of supply and demand. You aren't entitled to pay whatever price you want for games, and if you are in the business of piracy, it's not greedy for the company whose business you're stealing to respond with litigation. If the guy down the street wants your television, is he entitled to steal it because you won't sell it to him for far less that it is worth?

The Genesis had such awful sound capabilities, but I think that really added to its charm.

We got an NES on Christmas of '86. First console I bought myself was an SNES with the money I got for my ninth birthday in June of 1992.

Consoles: ColecoVision, Atari 2600, NES, SMS, SNES, Genesis, N64, Dreamcast, Gamecube Handhelds, Game Boy, Game Gear, GBA (three of them), DS, DS Lite

The Terminator - the original

Definitely NES. I was born in 1983, and my parents bought my sister some crappy picture drawing toy that hooked up to the TV for Christmas in, I believe, 1987. The item was defective (and terrible), so it was returned and replaced with an NES. My life began on that day.

I really wish that there had been an NES action game of The Running Man.

Because I am a huge, nerdy, nerdy, nerd, I made extensive lists of my favorite NES and SNES games. I feel that they will fit here. Enjoy: Top 50 NES games, all-time 1. River City Ransom 2. Super Mario Bros. 3 3. Tecmo Super Bowl 4. Super Dodge Ball 5. The Legend of Zelda 6. Bionic Commando 7. Little Nemo: The Dream Master 8. Rygar 9. Contra 10. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! 11. TMNT II: The Arcade Game 12. Metroid 13. Wizards & Warriors 14. Castlevania 15. Solstice 16. Ninja Gaiden 17. Megaman 2 18. Solomon's Key 19. Final Fantasy 20. Goonies II 21. Adventure Island II 22. Super Mario Brothers 23. TMNT III: The Manhatten Project 24. Shadowgate 25. A Boy and his Blob (The first game I ever played on an emulator) 26. Kirby's Adventure 27. Star Tropics 28. Dragon Warrior III 29. Blades of Steel 30. Excitebike 31. Dr. Mario 32. Ducktales 33. Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse 34. Maniac Mansion 35. Crystalis 36. Kid Icarus 37. Super Mario Brothers 2 38. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link 39. Megaman 3 40. Metal Gear 41. Battletoads 42. Blaster Master 43. Major League Baseball 44. RC Pro-Am 45. Duck Hunt 46. Kung Fu 47. Legendary Wings 48. Megaman 49. Deja Vu 50. Batman Top 25 SNES games, all-time: 1. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past 2. Chrono Trigger 3. Final Fantasy III 4. Super Mario World 5. Super Metroid 6. Actraiser 7. Super Mario RPG 8. Star Fox 9. Kirby Super Star 10. Earthbound 11. Donkey Kong Country 12. Super Mario Kart 13. Stree Fighter II Turbo 14. Super Punch-Out!!! 15. Super Castlevania IV 16. Contra III: The Alien Wars 17. TMNT IV: Turtles in Time 18. Earthworm Jim 2 19. Pilotwings 20. F-Zero 21. Soul Blazer 22. Ogre Battle 23. Secret of Mana 24. Mega Man X 25. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

There really is no wrong answer, because SMB3 and SMW are both so wonderful. They're like drinking rainbows.

I teach almost all freshman classes, and at our school, we have a ridiculous policy that the kids can make up any work they miss until ten days after the quarter ends. Teachers got called to the carpet by the principal if their failure rates were too high. A friend of mine got non-renewed because she was failing too many students, despite the fact that she could show how many ways she was trying to help them pass. She simply didn't pass kids who did nothing, and too many of the kids are like that these days.

Actually, I was totally wrong. I mis-read his post, and didn't realize he was talking about the Prima guide. I had the official NP guide.

Piece of cake: A winner is you - Pro Wrestling All your base are belong to us - Zero Wing Our magazines were in another castle - Super Mario Brothers I feel asleep - Metal Gear I am so old and uncool that my heart hurts.

Hey folks, call me Bruce. I'm 26, and I fell in love with video games in 1987 when my parents bought an NES for me and my sister. My dad got me a subscription to Nintendo Power starting from the first issue, and I have a great love these days for all things retro. I am a high school English teacher in Vernon, CT, I play and teach the drums, I coach the lacrosse team at my school, and I still love video games. I play new games, too, but I spend a lot of time running through my old school classics. Maybe I'm just a sap, but I feel like the video game vibe was different back in the day, when a magazine like Nintendo Power could have several million subscribers, The Wizard could be a viable film, or shows like Captain N, the Super Mario Bros. Super Show, and The Power Team were all over my Saturday morning cartoons. My all-time favorite game is probably The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and my favorite system is the SNES. Anyway, I hope I can contribute to this site a bit more than just by donating. I think this project is incredible, and I'm super-excited to be involved. Thanks!

This is a dynamite list. However, I noticed TLoZ: LttP listed as a 1997 release. The game was released (I believe) in 1992 in the US, and I definitely had that guide as a kid. My current copy is in shambles somewhere in my storage area, so I was wondering if there was any chance at getting those BA old Nintendo Player's Guides from back in the day and getting them up on the site. If they're already on here somewhere, sorry, I'm new here. Anyway, I'm really excited about this site. I had an original subscription to NP until I graduated from high school in 2001. Being able to go back and reread stuff that's hidden somewhere in my house in very questionable condition is awesome. Thanks a lot, guys. Let me know if I can help with anything. -PKB