Here's a little problem, kiddo.

You're comparing "mass media" to something that could never hope to compare. If I pick up an old cassette, do I need to find, say, a 1983 Sony Walkman to play it? -- Or a VHS tape. Do I need to hunt down a top-loading Emerson deck to watch it?

Fact is, if I want to play a NES game I have few options. I hunt down a working NES. I buy a clone unit/NES-on-a-chip. I buy an officially-supported emulation/port on a newer system. I get a 'virtual console' title.

Or I pirate it.

The reason why so many forms of media have endured in the public is because it's so very easy to find a compatible - and legal - method of continuing to use them. On the other hand, it's not like I can buy a Playstation 3 and play Sony Imagework's "Hook" for the SNES on it... despite 'SONY' being stamped on both.

The closest legal recourse I'd have is if it were released on the virtual console/xbox live arcade/playstation network. See, the companies are starting to learn - "Retro" is very much in because, as pretty as new games are... often the gameplay lacks something. Simplicity, ease-of-use, tight controls. Mega Man 9 is a shining example of this - after years of complaints about the more recent 3D Mega Man-based games, Capcom finally relented and let Inafune go and just make a good goddamn game again. Digital distribution is the ONLY thing that made this possible.

On a similar path, companies are porting and re-releasing games more and more often. In some cases we get games like Rondo of Blood's 3D remake on the PSP. In others we get Rondo of Blood's re-release on the Japanese Virtual Console. By making these games available on modern systems at low prices, we will -hopefully- see mass video game piracy start to wane.

It'll never go away. But hopefully it'll wane.

That it is. It's starting to feel like some sorta geeky emo-drama in here. Now, if I could only find some Atreyu CDs and a couple of razor blades, we'd be set.

Amazing how you're still posting here. When and if you want this thread closed, just yell. :)

Please, for the love of everything holy and pure. Close it.

Wisdom Tree knows that I'm around (I think), and they haven't said a word about it. Atari will be on our asses about it, because it's the one thing that they can still do, is attempt to protect their IP, because they only rehash the same crap now.

That being said, Zophar has generally been neutral territory with ROMs, and I'm personally opposed to this idea.

Edit: This is what I get for not reading the entire thread.

As the thread started requested, I'll leave this thread open till tomorrow at midnight (GMT+0 with DST). Be sure to write anything you want before that time.

As a final word (I know, I said it before, beat me!), the decision of hosting or not hosting roms here is always Edman's responsability. He paid for the site, he worked like an ass for this site for two months. Live it it as I've learned to.

I think you missed the point of my post gramps (if I'm a kid to you, then you must be reaaaaly old :p).

My point was that there's always been a way to make copies of a media and that even if each industry claimed that it would be the end if some people were involved in piracy, the end never came.

Cassette recorders were replaced by CD-Burners
VHS & BETA were replaced by PVRs and DVD Recorders
And scanners are now used instead of photocopiers to copy printed media

The media industry still holds on to their claims that these devices will kill them even if they have been proven wrong in the last 20+ years. There will always be a balance between people who purchase and people who pirate, not going to go away and it's never gonna kill any form of media (no matter how crappy a media can become).

Video games aren't going to go away because some people mod-chips in their consoles and it's certainly NOT going to die because people like myself have some old school ROMs, especially considering how high game sales are these days. As I stated before, I may have ROMs on one of my HDD, but I still buy games. I don't have a mod-chip in my Wii nor do I have a flash card for my NDS, I buy my games at a store like most people.

Closing thread... (I was late, sorry. :P)