Crazy how piracy in games is so hated by companies but the companies usually dont do anything or little to anything to preserve their older games that would have been lost or crazy rare to play
@@splashy_official6578 Yeah, honestly! Micro, Sony, and even Sega just kinda let it go once they stop supporting their old consoles. I think Nintendo gets mad when they see how much potential their older games still have; they want to reserve the right to modernize and re-release their games. Funny thing is they might not know what to remake/remaster without people playing their games so much on emulators, streaming, making videos, etc.
It's so freaking hard to like nintendo nowadays... Their game studios put out landmark games like Mario Galaxy or Zelda Breath of the Wild... Then their legal and executive teams suffer from corporate rabies and clinical greed, chomping their customers' heads off for liking them and preseving their beautiful history. It's the worst being a nintendo """fan""" nowadays. Fuck
Preserve them by taking care of your shit then lmao. Nintendo isn’t the only one who doesn’t rerelease games every fucking generation like you people expect.
Ah yes, the memory leak that caused Nintendo needing to develop an entire Memory Pak to run the game. What makes it even more hilarious is that Conker's Bad Fur Day, a game much, much more advanced compared to DK64 didn't require it.
@@mark030a the reason for that was the fact that it was stated that conker was made in a lot more organized and easily changeable order, compared to the DK64 team who was kind of all over the place
@@emon6476 Yeah, I know, and also, Rare got significantly better by the time they got to Conker's Bad Fur Day. Not that I'm complaining, their library is still one of the best classics out there to date. However, it's still pretty funny how absolutely fucked DK64's development was.
I'm always appreciative about how fun the concept of anti-piracy is... Bc it encourages so many people to keep cracking and editing the rom until they can be playable. It really brings people together.
I appreciated it until Denuvo. Denuvo is one of the greediest things ever made, it’s so anti piracy that unless a game company releases a non denuvo version, there is a possibility that the game will be lost for years because of how long denuvo takes to crack and how the only denuvo cracker is a psychotic homophobe and transphobe
That's all they want. Initial sales are the most important sales, (how important can depend game to game), but they really only need to delay pirates, not stop them.
@@TenjinZekken LOL no. They try to delay pirates bc that's the only thing they can do. If Nintendo had a Death note and knew every pirate's names, they wouldn't doubt it, they'll just kill them and justify it as "compensation for their losses"
Little did people know, the Mayan calendar ending wasn't a reference to the end of the world; it was a reference to the date that Banjo Tooie would finally be cracked.
32:25 damn, I didn't expect my friend Ben to come up in this. That was a blast from the past. I worked with him at my old job, and when he died it really ground stuff to a halt because not only was it a horrible loss of a friend, but he was the main guy who knew so much damn stuff. Btw I can confirm he hacked pretty much everything. When he left us, he was working on hacking his car's entertainment console so it didn't require you to click "ok" on the "Don't forget to be responsible" warning it always booted up with. lol It's weird the people you meet in life. It's amazing too.
That has the same energy as hacking your phone to not give you a volume warning past a certain level without any external mods or toast blockers. What a legend.
I admire people who just want to claim hardware they own as fully theirs, free to use them as platforms for playing around and creating cool stuff. It's like fully knowing your car inside and out, and having the technical knowledge to upgrade it and make it your own.
The way they handled anti-piracy in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Ring of Fates is, in my opinion, one of the best methods I've seen. Sometimes a gentle "hey this isn't cool, and we know what you did, but we appreciate you checking the game out anyway" is all you need.
Honestly it should have said “Thanks for playing this demo!” Because at that point it IS a demo and demos are free (and some people even treat illegal copies like demos) - missed opportunity but still funny.
That's what I was thinking. When I was young and broke, I pirated stuff all the time. Now that I can afford to buy my games, the only time I pirate games is when anti-piracy drm makes pirated copies easier to use.
I can tell you right now there are several games I pirated when I was younger that I never ended up paying for. Let's not pretend every pirated copy is a future sale, either.
I always look back to gaben's quote. “The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It's by giving those people a service that's better than what they're receiving from the pirates.” Nintendo has yet to impress me along with other consoles. The biggest beef i have is with save file control.
Just out of curiosity could you elaborate on your point about save file control? I don't quite understand and it seems interesting. With PlayStation I control my save files and PlayStation kinda has nothing to do with it so that's what confuses me. They do lock save files to accounts, so that could maybe be what you're talking about but it seems like you were talking about something more serious. Maybe it's not a PlayStation thing and I'm just a confused fish out of water, or missing details.
@@Maggot39967 By save file control i mean full read/write control. On a pc, you have the free will to make back ups to any free cloud service available instead of paying a monthly fee to a service that is obviously scamming it's users. Sure it's a limited space but depending on the game. Save files don't take up that much space. You can even setup symbolic links (Special shortcuts) to basically have your save always in dropbox (This does cause issues in some games). This in my eyes is important. With emulators you also have this ability. Some games even have save protection preventing you from backing up your save (Demon's Souls) forcing consumers to buy their cloud service on the ps3. Online multiplayer is another issue I take with. This should be free. Your ps plus is nothing more than sony demanding money for nothing.
@@kittentheboss2796 Don't buy Ps Plus and Don't use or need cloud storage either so neither of those things are really a concern to me I guess. I mean you kinda made my point for me by saying saves aren't that big and not really much space, I just maintain hardware and that's how I control my data. I don't mean to come off as an asshole or anything, it's all preference. I'm not ignorant of the Pc landscape either, I am writing this on a Pc. Your comment seemed pointed and came off as if you were assuming things about me that I wanted to make clear.
@@Nahobinoah Again you are assuming shit about me just because I Play most games on console nowadays. Geesh this is why people hate on Pc players. You seem to think everyone is stupid, except for you. I game on Pc. I don't pay for PlayStation plus or cloud storage yet you're saying Pc is free and therefore better. Well or me PlayStation is free and suits my needs perfectly. You guys are up on some high horse that doesn't exist, because I'm on that high horse too. I own a Pc and was 90% a Pc player until I grew up and didn't have the time and money to build a new beefy computer to play Elden RIng. Instead I just bought a Ps4 and Im happy. But you guys seem to hate that for some reason. Elitist nazi attitude. Only your thought process can be right and only the way you do things is correct.
My favorite Nintendo anti-piracy measure, and I use that loosely, is EarthBound's. Seriously letting you play all the way to Giygas and then it deletes your save. What an asshole move.
I do enjoy playing with the piracy protection on for the majority of the game, enemies spawning much more frequently makes the game so much easier when you're trying to level up. You can easily get a 6 group of Foppies in Belch's factory and just take them all out with a single PK Fire
I always love when game Devs have a sense of humour, especially when it comes to pirating or cheating in games. It sucks that most triple A studios have so much oversight they can’t get away with more tongue and cheek stuff they used to
It's all pointless because contrary to what delusional hipsters of today believe back in a day next to no one cared about Nintendo products in the world. They could implement all the gimmicks they wanted when in reality next to no one was buying their overpriced outdated trash. Heck even gaming was taboo since the early days, wasn't much of a thing in most places up until PS2 came out and made a gaming boom. Before that gaming was considered cringe and idiotic. When a gamer wanted to hook up with a girl the girls cringed on such people XD Fast forward to today and we have the same deal, billions of people from all generations quit gaming that isn't even gaming anymore but instead just a corporate pathetic cashgrab, placebo effect that the braindead people are only involved with, basically burning their life away. The only logical alternative are the people who make money on gaming. Another reason why retro bloomed and keeps on blooming in the past 7 years or so. Typical internet idiots of today: A: ...What do you do: B: I am a model on instagram and just chatting streamer my favorite games are zelda and mario and you? A: I am a pro soldier in a video game called call of duty my favorite game are also mario and zelda XD I rest my case XD
@@Slay1337pl Its always the higher-ups not the devs. In fact the reason why game suck now is because the high-ups chose to the same stuff with every game because it makes them money and they can't take risks. Also if the devs do anything actually punishing or offensive they can get in big trouble.
Making fish always drop in Oot is such a petty anti-piracy measure I absolutely love it. There is basically only the golden scale and two heartpieces locked behind the fishing pond.
One thing I have always been curious about when it comes to piracy, is just how damaging it really is (or isn't). Manufacturers will always claim that all pirated copies are lost sales when stating alleged damages, when in reality I am confident that the majority of people who engage in piracy would not necessarily buy a legitimate copy were no pirated option available.
That's what i think too. Piracy actually made me buy more games. If i liked a pirated game, i would go out and buy it. But i wouldn't just buy a game out of the blue
It’s a bit of both. My understanding is that most of the sales companies seek to retain are day 1 or near day 1 sales. They aren’t looking at the player who will sit back and wait until a patch is made. They’re likely lost causes for them to pursue to begin with. But instead, the target is those who fear on missing out in the first little while. This is why it seems there is minimal evolution in DRM - they aren’t trying to fully outwit piracy measures, but just stall them long enough for people unwilling to wait to open up their wallets.
Companies are profit-oriented and if they can lie a little to potentially increase profits, even if just a little, they do it Second-hand copy selling is similar to piracy in that two or more people play the same copy but only one sale goes to the company. But they ignore that because they have no legal ground to speak out against it
@@kirant It's also worth noting that, at the end of the day, companies should not and should never just sit back and say it's okay to pirate things. Day 1 profits or profits overall aside, a company's goal should not be to endorse the piracy of their games and so, even if there isn't much profit lost, it's still in their best interest to condemn the action.
I really love learning about the anti-piracy measures. It’s fun to watch the creepy pasta fakes but I’m more fascinated to learn what Nintendo actually did to protect their games.
Nintendo assumes every pirated copy wouldve been bought and that's absolutelly ridiculous. Here in brazil, until late 2000s it was unaffordable for most to buy games, thus gaming would be unfeasible until then. You could see brand new modded ps2s still being sold over here until late 2010s with no intention to be played with official software. I get the necessity to protect against piracy, but everyone knows how nintendo is full of shit when it comes to "protecting its ips".
Would be nice if they made better prices for poorer countries just like steam for example, i think xbox and playstation does this too. But i understand this would be likely impossible to physical games. Which were the only option during the ds' lifetime.
@@Krushak8888 but it's not like the same number of official copies would have been bought if there was no piracy, it's just that people wouldn't have been able to buy and play those games.
Nintendo now: "You made literally any modification to your console and/or game? Sorry, we're revoking your Nintendo account and all of your legitimately-purchased games."
It never ceases to amaze me whenever I hear about the software and hardware arms race between hackers and companies when trying to crack into consoles. It's something that most normal players, like myself, never really think about when enjoying our own consoles
Its always exciting when theres a run on a new console and before the run, the console was getting 1 update a month but once hackers found a way to weasel in, and theyre releasing methods to circumvent the console, updates start getting released weekly!
That Zelda hairdo never fails to crack me up ahahah. Didn't know about the Diddy Kong Racing pause measure, that's pretty cool, I wonder if a Turbo Controller with the Pause button would make this "bearable"
South America is insane for piracy, especially for older consoles. I remember that most of my N64 cartridges were much "lighter" than any original counterpart (obviously fake). I had a cartridge that you used for pirate cartridges to function properly, so it was pretty awkward (but it worked perfectly) to have a cartridge on top of another cartridge on the N64. I was pretty young, didn't know this was wrong until so much later in life, since this is still very, VERY common around there. Even barbers would sell 5 PS2 games (even new releases) for 10 bucks.
asia and russia are also insane, especially with the big games of the early 2000s. indonesia has its own share of bootleg modded GTA San Andreas copies where you play as wolverine (whitewashed CJ with claws and shitty hair) or robocop as EDY MURPHIE, and russia was selling cracked copies of half-life and counter-strike on the streets in the 2000s. theres also the fan dubs even if the game already had official dubs or subs in those languages, specifically in russian. the russian fan dub of Mortal Kombat 4 is a favorite.
@@disposable_income_andy oh, the number of different modder GTAs with country-specific things was through the roof too. Thanks for bringing back that memory lol
I have to be honest, the idea of a "piracy ring" is somehow hilarious to me. The word "Ring" evokes a much more serious connotation of a group which sells drugs, or weapons, or even _slaves._ It kind of reminds me of the way the US cracks down on illegal Kinder Egg smuggling.
Ring refers to an unorthodox system/structure of supply. Someone cracks a game>gets uploaded to a site/s that's known basically by word of mouth> an individual returns to the same or similar unorthodox supply line for more.
@@uppercutgrandma4425 Oh, nah, I know, it was just kind of funny the way it's used here. I honestly didn't know they were... disorderly, like that? Where all of the sources of supply are, in a sense, independent.
@@jackpumpoen I think it's a us food safety issue where toys have to be separated from food, ie the separate compartments for kinder toys and candy/cereal using bags for toys...etc
@@jackpumpoen So, the US passed a law that made certain kinds of inedible accessories that come with food products illegal; unless it's used to eat the food (ie: the stick of a lollipop) or can be removed from the food (plastic decorations on cakes) or possibly other things, it's illegal. As it turns out, this law excludes Kinder Eggs because they contain toys that can only be separated from the chocolate by eating the chocolate (or breaking it open), and the toy isn't necessary for eating the chocolate. As a result of this, even though you can find US-safe variations on Kinder Eggs in pretty much any grocery store (they're called Kinder Joy and have the candy and toy in separate halves of the egg), people will still try and illegally smuggle Kinder Eggs into the US for some ungodly reason.
The piracy and anti-piracy dance within the world of games has always been so fascinating to me. It's interesting seeing stuff built-into games, stuff released as a response in a system update, seeing how long it takes said response to be defeated again, ect. It's a real drama. Thanks for these long playlists, they're really great to have on while I'm doing stuff (or listening to your voices while I fall asleep lol)
Is downloading ROMs of games that are not sold anymore really piracy though? I would say no. (Of course they may re-release it on official system, but that is beyond the point)
copyrights in the USA last for 75+ years. they don't terminate if the company ceases to exist or if they stop selling new copies. and essentially all computer software in the world is less than 75 years old. so yes it is 100% illegal to download copyrighted software no matter whether it's being sold or not. there's basically no chance that anyone will come after you for doing it though. so practically speaking the only thing at stake is to consider whether its morally permissible to do it, knowing that the author of whatever you're illegally copying is missing out on a sale because you downloaded a thing illegally. BTW all of the video game music that is routinely used in the background of videos like this is also infringing copyright. doesn't matter whether you give credit to the source or not.
copyright law is flawed and in the digital era it basically makes criminals out of everyone but in the grand scheme it's not really a huge problem. as long as people who make content can make a living on it, things could be a lot worse.
@@sheridanrathbun I think (offline) games older than 15 years should be considered public domain. Game is not a book/patent, copyright law needs an update to get in line with the digital era.
Zelda: *Casually squeezes through bars* Link: How can I do that? Zelda: Only princesses can go through that, sorry! Link: *Realizes in mortification that he is using the wrong chip*
@@crazybunny1134 Wrong-warping to final ganon fight perhaps, although I'm speaking out me bum since I don't know the specifics of it to figure that out or not. That said, it would be hilarious if you had frilled lizard zelda to back you up in the middle of a battle that decides the fate of the world.
Imagine building a group around repurposing nintendo code to do what you want, then getting upset when someone repurposes your code to do what they want.
@@wowwow3576 Nintendo has never sued an individual for tweaking their own system. The most they've done is ban them from going online, which they have a right to do since I'm sure it breaks their ToS. There's also a legal difference between an individual tweaking their own system and someone marketing/selling tools to do that. The latter is who Nintendo goes after legally, along with of course the pirates.
Nothing Team Tweezers did alone was illegal, but if their technology and code got used for piracy, then they could very easily receive legal repercussions anyways. Besides, it shouldn't surprise you that the most passionate fans of Nintendo, who do all of this purely out of love for the craft and the games Nintendo makes, are also the ones who least want Nintendo to go under.
I have no sympathy for a company that sues, shuts down and DMCA its own fanbase over and over for projects that are free and often attempt at preserving their games.
They only step in when the people doing so are printing free money with their IP. There's a reason Ryujinx is active in development and Yuzu got C&D'd. Yuzu team was charging for the product and was raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
I feel so out of the loop when I realise how many of my childhood games I thought I knew well had all these hidden bugs and features this entire time but I never discovered them because they were saved for pirates only
LMAO, yeah, I remember that. Nintendo puts a lot of work into their console security, but for some reason they only see their own accomplishments. The security even if their security is great, it's irrelevant since they often overlook sometimes simple exploits. Hackers work around the security and look for any practicable exploits that can potentially allow them to run unsigned code. If they discover something, they can bypass the security and hack the device without the need to dismantle the console or solder any mod chips to the hardware.
To be fair, Nintendo isn't trying to convince hackers that it's unhackable. Nintendo is trying to convince shareholders that it's unhackable, and believe it or not, most shareholders aren't tech savvy.
I just love how playful so many of the anti piracy tactics were in earlier generations. What a lucky Rare dev who gets to program explosions, but bigger.
I find the one at 26:19 to be a very interesting way to go about it. Instead of punishing Pirates immediatly, it almost serves as a demo or a "hook" so people consider actually buying the game.
im surprised the malware doesnt exist in other consoles to prevent games to be pirated i guess the companys dont bother at the piont cause how the internet had advanced
I love sneaky anti-piracy methods. The one that always comes to mind is the one in Game Dev Tycoon where you can't win because people keep pirating your game. Just brilliant.
Anti-piracy stuff is so interesting, I love it and am a little sad you don't get the 'easter eggs' of pirated games any more. The Spyro 3 stuff is my fave.
Best Nintendo copy protection was Pokemon Black & White. Its just a challenge mode, you don't get exp which forces you to play the game in a whole new way. And its really thematic because you'll basically be playing like N just using whatever Pokemon are nearby. And some Pokemon(Cottonee with Prankster) are useful into the endgame.
Funny how companies assume that because ~260 millions worth of their game got pirated, they actually lost 260m. That's assuming everyone who pirated the game would've actually bought it otherwise, it's also assuming that no same person pirated the game twice or more, and it's also assuming that everyone who pirated the game did not end up buying it. Am guessing that of that 260 millions, only a small fraction of that was actually lost to piracy, and that small fraction is further diminished by the marketing effect piracy tends to have. If the game is not shit, most people with decent income will buy it even if they have access to a full pirated copy, and the people who don't have the means just wouldn't play the game without it. These companies sound like children throwing a tantrum because they got 274 rocket candy packages on halloween instead of 275. That's my opinion on piracy at least. =)
Haha true. Just look at south america, nothing was sell here. So like 80% of any game was obtained trought piracy. Movies too are a huge market, as most are localised for Spain but never for the Latino regions.
Agreed. When I downloaded EDF 4.1 to try it, I instantly fell in love with it, and bought it as soon as possible. I beat it in my pirate copy, bought it, then beat it again. Good games are like that.
and im pretty sure when people talk about videogames online, the vast majority of it doesnt involve whether or not the game was pirated. so most people dont even think about whether or not someone bought the game when they see a video about it or a review of it. it has no real effect on whether or not someone is going to buy it unless piracy is actually mentioned. if game companies really wanted to reduce piracy without improving anything for anyone else, they could just try to prevent it from being talked about. but stealing money from people via lawsuits is more profitable, i guess...
I used to get R4 cards from my Uncle sometimes, never knew those were pirated games... Guess that explains why I couldn't save in most of the games on it.
The two I remember getting were a game where you got to control tiny robots and battle people in a little simulated arena thing, along with a game where you took care of a dog that was in a chibi style.
Nintendo’s responses to piracy really feel like a remnant of old attitudes about digital media. They seem to still equate pirating games with like stealing them directly off store shelves.
@@I_Am_Wasabi_Man I do feel like pirating would go down alot if nintendo, well even microsoft and sony, if they would just do a better job a game preservation of past games on future hardware. A Icloud style storage service that allowed you to download pretty much every old game ever made up to the current gen, and store it and play it at your leisure. I mean, it wouldn't completely solve the issue. Some Pirates are gonna pirate regardless. But I mean, they can go after those fools at that point being like, hey, we have all of our software on current hardware now. Ban hammer to you fools. I mean, I take a look at the 3DS and Wii U eshop situation. Nintendo closed both these services down. The Wii U allowed you to download original DS games on there. The switch does not do that. Old games in particular are, not only starting to become increasingly rare and expensive nowadays. But you also have to buy the game on ebay or whatever, and hope you don't get a repro cart. Just something I noticed recently, but repro carts are becoming increasingly common. As well as people trying to scam you into thinking you are buying the real thing when in reality you are not. I wonder how that affects the process of the nintendo 64 checking for like NUS code 1000-760 or whatever for the different regions when it boots up for the anti piracy check. Repro carts are not 100 % the same as the original. It just sucks these companies refuse to allow gamers to purchase old games on more modern hardware. Luckily for me, I still have all of the old hardware. So I don't care as much. As well as not caring about certain games. Like I felt like Earthbound was the dumbest game ever lol. Even though it is rare now. But it can definitely be difficult to find alot of the games now in decent condition sometimes without having to spend a fortune on them. I think nintendo, microsoft, and sony, need to brand their own stores. That sell every single game ever made. I know I would. And I would be trying to make deals with companies, like let's say rareware, so that those games could be on there to. Why nintendo does not see this as a problem, I will never know. I was always one of those folks that liked to play on original hardware anyways. But alot of people have turned to piracy because games are expensive, and nintendo has no alternatives to download/find them legally.
The only bad thing about this video is that it ended. This was such an interesting and enjoyable video to watch and taught me a lot about illegal distribution among video games.
I love how creative some of these developers are when it comes to pirates. Can’t forget about The Great Sea Duel of 1732, between Nintendo and the infamous Captain Circuit Breaker. May all the bits that were lost never be forgotten 🤧
I remember, i got my DSi in a long official looking package that had a custom game card called DSi ne in there. Thought it waa official for many, many years. I had so many games on there until i accidentally bricked it. I don't remember ever seeing an Anti Piracy Screen. My Dsi was never connected to the Internet so I'm trying to restore that card now
I love videos like this because I run a small little game shop, and this is a more interesting and less distracting source of background noise for me while working than loud music, AND people that have never seen the channel before sometime learn fun little bits of trivia. I like to think that maybe they bring those little bits up at the water cooler later on.
My favorite bit of game dev v pirate trivia is when Bryan Fargo, the lead dev behind the Wasteland series, gave out signed pardons for people pirating their previous games.
Funfact: One of the hackers from Team Twiizers that worked on the Wii jailbreak is Hector Martin. He's got quite a portofolio. He was also part of fail0verflow, the team behind the PlayStation 3 jailbreak. Hector Martin also reverse engineered the driver for the Kinect and ported linux to the PlayStation 4. Currently the founder and lead developer of the Asahi Linux project, the project that ports linux to Apple silicone.
I think that the anti piracy measures put in place are always half baked. Allowing technical people to bypass but not the average user. That way majority will buy and purchase knowing that there is at least the possibility of piracy even if they’ll never go for it
no, not how it works, end users of pirated games/programs do not try to crack it themselves, there are specific groups dedicated to cracking software that release proper cracks
I hate when companies say "we lost X amount of money due to people pirating" Like, they think every person who pirated it would have bought it if piracy wasn't an option.
In my opinion, I think that every future console that comes out (even old ones that get improved versions) are gonna always be hackable, since hackers always find ways to crack a system and ways to circumvent region and copy protection and also circumvent ban waves too (if possible anyway).
And if not you can just emulate. I dont even play my switch anymore. I use Ryujinx and NSW2u to play any switch game at 4k 60fps and i can get cheats and mods to have a little extra fun with stuff like debug cameras and stuff.
I got my PS1 chipped when I was little; it was great being able to get whatever game you wanted. I'm pretty sure my friend had a chipped copy of Perfect Dark and Goldeneye for N64. A guy used to turn up once a week with pirated games and DVDs in the boot of his car; don't really see that anymore.
My uncle used to own a video game and electronics shop so I had a chipped ps1 and I still have the unit that attached to the back so if I decided to buy a ps1 agin in the future it would still work, I remember being blown away by being one of the first people to play crash bandicoot warped for the first time in the 90’s 😏😉😁
@@leeum20real Mario's Missing? Hmm let's see x86 (MS-DOS): Mario Teaches Typing Mario is Missing Super Mario Bros. & Friends NEC PC-8801: Super Mario Bros. Special Mario Bros. Special Punch Ball Mario I count six games love how uneducated people try to make a point then fail.
Really dig the direction you're all taking with the channel. The two videos per week honestly made the channel a little bloated. The long-form, investigative content creators like Dr. Lava and Dr. Cupcakes (Liam) have been making have been really enjoyable. Can't wait to see what will come next. Cheers to you all for making it so far in the UA-cam gaming space.
Honestly, most of the actual, existing anti-piracy measures are far more interesting than the creepypasta-like "if you pirate the game Mario will go to prison and Miyamoto will haunt you in your sleep" stuff. Great video, guys.
I agree! I actually cant stand the anti piracy fan creations... I like to see and learn whats REAL you know? :) I'm glad this video came out so I can learn more about real anti piracy in video games
looking forward to watching this all! i know about zelda's crazy pentagon hair, spinning pokeballs, mother 2's crazy anti piracy and more but i hope i find out some new things now too :)
@@narottamakarunanidhi1731 it's one of the few switches 100% jailbreakable nowadays, making piracy possible on a Switch. That's why they're so valuable now :)
I've always thought that ideas like this (in-game anti-piracy modifications) are FAR more effective deterrents than simple DRM since the player gets to experience a taste of the good game just out of their full reach.
Damn does this bring me back! It reminds me of an era when developers would develop their personal anti-piracy instead of relaying on standard procedures: the subsequent chaos was incredibly amazing! 😂
Satella-Q on the Satellaview became lost media because the entirety of the game data was stored in the BS-X's PSRAM rather than any permament storage. Nintendo's most effective "anti-piracy" to this date.
I still maintain that one of the legal punishments that a government should be able to levy on a game company that does wrong is forbidding them from using anti-piracy measures and requiring them to open source all documentation on past anti-piracy measures. The lawsuits dealing with Blockbuster and Nintendo trying to snuff out game rentals specifically should have resulted in such a penalty. A five-year ban from protecting their games would have been far more effective than any fine.
im ok with companies getting punished for doing bad things. cant imagine anyone thinking companies should be able to get away with doing terrible things. and while fines dont really help the average person, making piracy of those games easier and legally protected for a set period of time could do the trick. i like this idea.
"the government decides you are banned from protecting your creation" is equally ridiculous to how litigious Nintendo is. For those five years, every employee not at the top of the totem pole would take a pay cut so hard it wouldn't feed their kids. The companies could plan this, too.
@@AdamOwenBrowning yeah, the actual punishment would have to be more comprehensive and restrictive on the kinds of behaviors the people at the top could perform to make up for the loss. the government would also have to guarantee the protection of the company's employees, which knowing the track record or this sort of thing, it doesnt seem very hopeful. but its fun to dream.
I've always thought piracy is a good thing; I've owned pirated copies of mgs1, ff7, 8, 9, basically all sorts of games and I've also purchased all of those games legitimately multiple times. If the pirated copy was poor and you liked the game, you got the real copy.
It also saves money when you are someone who gets bored of games quickly. I used to play pirated Stardew Valley before buying it but once I bought it I lost interest after 300 hours and haven't opened the game since then. For over two years it's just sitting on my Steam account without a purpose and I regret paying for it.
@@Nekoszowa It does bug me when I spend £60 on a game and don't play it that much. Or, companies like Bethesda releasing the same game with slight differences over the course of a decade; no issue pirating companies when they pull crap like that.
im pretty sure most regular people, who know what videogame piracy is, are atleast neutral towards it, or even do it themselves. alot of the stuff you have to do for piracy is also the kind of stuff you have to do for games preservation, poverty is a bigger problem than piracy, and as Gaben once said, "its a service issue, not a pricing one." and even still, atleast when it comes to Nintendo, their company is so evil that its always morally right to pirate their games.
Thank god for Gamecube piracy. I don't have my GBA adapter disc from when I was younger, and that thing is hundreds of dollars nowaday. A hacked memory card that only requires games that most people have (Mario Sunshine, Windwaker, etc.) was like ten bucks. ...and as I mention this the video brings it up. I play legit GBA games, but goddamn I am not shelling out that much money for a disc to an accessory I already own.
I think my favorite anti piracy measure was from earthbound. If i remember correctly, it will let you play through the entire game, however right at the end it will trap you in an area where you can't escape and you won't be able to complete the game.
im like who would pirate nintendo games in the 2000's? nah I forgot I just pirated some GameCube games with the sd loader cause iso files were being taken down
As someone who created legit rips of Brawl using software on the Wii, I'd like to say its just plain faster to find a website, torrent the ISO and then put in on an SD card than using the Wii itself to copy Brawl onto an SD card for you That disc reader is *slow*
Really hoping that one day, we'll see copyright law reduce the years before public domain in digial content to 10-20 years. As it stands, 75 years essentially renders any (or at least a vast majority of) original consoles that could run that software moot without third party modification of a console, and a majority of those that would want to use the domain at the time of launch will likely be well....dead. it's kinda dumb. There are NES roms from the 80's that have little to no chance of returning to modern day either due to the companies that owned the rights closing down, or the new companies that own them being fickle or uncaring about re-releasing the content or rendering it public use. It's been 40 years since those games released, and games like Sweet Home will likely never see a public re-release...why should we just keep this stuff to corporations if they won't utilize it anyway?
Video game piracy countermeasures have always been a special interest of mine. I'm glad that you've included some awesome stuff I've never heard before in this video!
Nintendo was always the company that had the most clever ways to mess with pirates, IMO. It's fun to see these checks caught on video since almost all of these are patched in modern emulators.
Even old emulators won't trigger these unless you're triggering them intentionally. Remember that most antipiracy measures back then were geared to detect bootleg carts, not emulation.
I have to share something kind of silly here. Watching this video, I now realize that my aunt and uncle had a massive library of poorly pirated N64 games. My cousin had an N64 and was mentally disabled and rather old, so he'd spend nearly all his time on that machine at home. My aunt and uncle would go out to auctions all around the area they lived in, and they would bring home boxes and crates full of random N64 games (as well as spare consoles and controllers of all kinds of color and version). They'd get several copies of the same ones with some even being extremely rare collector's editions or stolen from places like Blockbuster, and later I would find out that some were even previous versions of the software put on them. I was young back then, but I remember very clearly that some copies of these games actually had the issues described here with the corresponding titles, and I feel absolutely astounded and kind of lucky in a way that I got to experience all that raw weirdness firsthand. This entire video is fascinating and I am so thankful for it.
Pro tip. Don't call a console's security unhackable. You will get the "Is that a challenge?!" response from hackers looking for a challenge. Then the media runs all over the story.
Piracy is GOOD for game preservation. I never mod current gen hardware and only mod discontinued products to keep my library playable for years to come. Companies like Nintendo don't care about preserving their legacy, so I'll do it for them.
Earthbound was great. It would give you an anti piracy screen first, then spawned in an absurd amount of mobs next, and deleted your saves and crashed the game right at the final boss.
My favorite kind of Anti-Piracy has always been the games that are like "You wanna play our game without paying? Sure, we'll even let you beat it, just prepare for the most miserable experience of your entire life.". Always cracks me up.
@@therunawaykid6523 Earthbound. Has the most cruel form of anti-piracy i've ever heard. It will let you play 99.9% through the game but if it fails the piracy check at the last fight, it deletes your save file. If that isn't a kick in the shin with cleats, I don't know what is.
Crazy how piracy in games is so hated by companies but the companies usually dont do anything or little to anything to preserve their older games that would have been lost or crazy rare to play
Nah mostly just Nintendo 💀
@@splashy_official6578 Yeah, honestly! Micro, Sony, and even Sega just kinda let it go once they stop supporting their old consoles. I think Nintendo gets mad when they see how much potential their older games still have; they want to reserve the right to modernize and re-release their games. Funny thing is they might not know what to remake/remaster without people playing their games so much on emulators, streaming, making videos, etc.
It's so freaking hard to like nintendo nowadays... Their game studios put out landmark games like Mario Galaxy or Zelda Breath of the Wild... Then their legal and executive teams suffer from corporate rabies and clinical greed, chomping their customers' heads off for liking them and preseving their beautiful history. It's the worst being a nintendo """fan""" nowadays. Fuck
Preserve them by taking care of your shit then lmao. Nintendo isn’t the only one who doesn’t rerelease games every fucking generation like you people expect.
@@Gu1tarZer0Sony sucks too. PS Now is an option I guess, but so many PS2 and PS3 games are stuck on original hardware.
7:23 the funniest thing is that in addition, even on non-pirated copies, the game naturally crashes if it has run for 10 hours
Ah yes, the memory leak that caused Nintendo needing to develop an entire Memory Pak to run the game.
What makes it even more hilarious is that Conker's Bad Fur Day, a game much, much more advanced compared to DK64 didn't require it.
@@mark030a woah, that's interesting! I've laways wondered why they developed that Memory Pak.
AKA, the speedrunner version.
@@mark030a the reason for that was the fact that it was stated that conker was made in a lot more organized and easily changeable order, compared to the DK64 team who was kind of all over the place
@@emon6476 Yeah, I know, and also, Rare got significantly better by the time they got to Conker's Bad Fur Day. Not that I'm complaining, their library is still one of the best classics out there to date.
However, it's still pretty funny how absolutely fucked DK64's development was.
I'm always appreciative about how fun the concept of anti-piracy is... Bc it encourages so many people to keep cracking and editing the rom until they can be playable. It really brings people together.
get to 69 likes
I appreciated it until Denuvo. Denuvo is one of the greediest things ever made, it’s so anti piracy that unless a game company releases a non denuvo version, there is a possibility that the game will be lost for years because of how long denuvo takes to crack and how the only denuvo cracker is a psychotic homophobe and transphobe
That's all they want. Initial sales are the most important sales, (how important can depend game to game), but they really only need to delay pirates, not stop them.
@@TenjinZekken LOL no. They try to delay pirates bc that's the only thing they can do. If Nintendo had a Death note and knew every pirate's names, they wouldn't doubt it, they'll just kill them and justify it as "compensation for their losses"
Little did people know, the Mayan calendar ending wasn't a reference to the end of the world; it was a reference to the date that Banjo Tooie would finally be cracked.
I don't know what to say You are the smartest life form in this universe
32:25 damn, I didn't expect my friend Ben to come up in this. That was a blast from the past. I worked with him at my old job, and when he died it really ground stuff to a halt because not only was it a horrible loss of a friend, but he was the main guy who knew so much damn stuff. Btw I can confirm he hacked pretty much everything. When he left us, he was working on hacking his car's entertainment console so it didn't require you to click "ok" on the "Don't forget to be responsible" warning it always booted up with. lol
It's weird the people you meet in life. It's amazing too.
Damn, sorry about the loss man
That has the same energy as hacking your phone to not give you a volume warning past a certain level without any external mods or toast blockers.
What a legend.
@@WinstonPoptart Great internet point response. mook.
I admire people who just want to claim hardware they own as fully theirs, free to use them as platforms for playing around and creating cool stuff. It's like fully knowing your car inside and out, and having the technical knowledge to upgrade it and make it your own.
He seemed like a really nice guy
The way they handled anti-piracy in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Ring of Fates is, in my opinion, one of the best methods I've seen. Sometimes a gentle "hey this isn't cool, and we know what you did, but we appreciate you checking the game out anyway" is all you need.
yeah. i thought it was cute lol
And JSAB with its Ted talk
Honestly it should have said “Thanks for playing this demo!” Because at that point it IS a demo and demos are free (and some people even treat illegal copies like demos) - missed opportunity but still funny.
you actually belive this fake shit
it also does that in just shapes and beats
Old people thinking that 1 pirated copy = 1 sale lost is still the funniest thing ever.
its not their fault, they just dont think humans should be happy if it doesnt make them money. its a tragic brain disease and they need to seek help.
Yeah, like I owned Pokémon platinum for DS, but still downloaded a rom for it 7 times since I was a dumb kid who couldn't organize his files.
That's what I was thinking. When I was young and broke, I pirated stuff all the time. Now that I can afford to buy my games, the only time I pirate games is when anti-piracy drm makes pirated copies easier to use.
I can tell you right now there are several games I pirated when I was younger that I never ended up paying for. Let's not pretend every pirated copy is a future sale, either.
Occupy Wall Street is the funniest thing ever
I always look back to gaben's quote.
“The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It's by giving those people a service that's better than what they're receiving from the pirates.”
Nintendo has yet to impress me along with other consoles. The biggest beef i have is with save file control.
Just out of curiosity could you elaborate on your point about save file control? I don't quite understand and it seems interesting. With PlayStation I control my save files and PlayStation kinda has nothing to do with it so that's what confuses me. They do lock save files to accounts, so that could maybe be what you're talking about but it seems like you were talking about something more serious. Maybe it's not a PlayStation thing and I'm just a confused fish out of water, or missing details.
@@Maggot39967 By save file control i mean full read/write control. On a pc, you have the free will to make back ups to any free cloud service available instead of paying a monthly fee to a service that is obviously scamming it's users. Sure it's a limited space but depending on the game. Save files don't take up that much space. You can even setup symbolic links (Special shortcuts) to basically have your save always in dropbox (This does cause issues in some games). This in my eyes is important. With emulators you also have this ability. Some games even have save protection preventing you from backing up your save (Demon's Souls) forcing consumers to buy their cloud service on the ps3. Online multiplayer is another issue I take with. This should be free. Your ps plus is nothing more than sony demanding money for nothing.
@@kittentheboss2796 Don't buy Ps Plus and Don't use or need cloud storage either so neither of those things are really a concern to me I guess. I mean you kinda made my point for me by saying saves aren't that big and not really much space, I just maintain hardware and that's how I control my data. I don't mean to come off as an asshole or anything, it's all preference. I'm not ignorant of the Pc landscape either, I am writing this on a Pc. Your comment seemed pointed and came off as if you were assuming things about me that I wanted to make clear.
I mean yeah but a console can never beat a PC and and free is better than paying so his logic is wrong
@@Nahobinoah Again you are assuming shit about me just because I Play most games on console nowadays. Geesh this is why people hate on Pc players. You seem to think everyone is stupid, except for you. I game on Pc. I don't pay for PlayStation plus or cloud storage yet you're saying Pc is free and therefore better. Well or me PlayStation is free and suits my needs perfectly.
You guys are up on some high horse that doesn't exist, because I'm on that high horse too. I own a Pc and was 90% a Pc player until I grew up and didn't have the time and money to build a new beefy computer to play Elden RIng. Instead I just bought a Ps4 and Im happy. But you guys seem to hate that for some reason. Elitist nazi attitude. Only your thought process can be right and only the way you do things is correct.
My favorite Nintendo anti-piracy measure, and I use that loosely, is EarthBound's. Seriously letting you play all the way to Giygas and then it deletes your save. What an asshole move.
I do enjoy playing with the piracy protection on for the majority of the game, enemies spawning much more frequently makes the game so much easier when you're trying to level up. You can easily get a 6 group of Foppies in Belch's factory and just take them all out with a single PK Fire
The end of the game is already super creepy as hell, I think I'd be scared poopless if my game suddenly crashed right then!
Asshole move for defending their IP?
Thats cruel lol
Not only that but the enemies appear so much more often, so it’s just torture and then when you finally manage to get to the end it just blueballs you
"Compensation for their losses"
My brother in christ, you DISCONTINUED THE CONSOLE! What loss are you talking about!?!?!?
I always love when game Devs have a sense of humour, especially when it comes to pirating or cheating in games. It sucks that most triple A studios have so much oversight they can’t get away with more tongue and cheek stuff they used to
i thought it was tongue in cheek
Because there's way more money on the line, and way more people involved
Oh no, trust me, the game studios have more humour than you think. It's the publishers we should blame.
It's all pointless because contrary to what delusional hipsters of today believe back in a day next to no one cared about Nintendo products in the world. They could implement all the gimmicks they wanted when in reality next to no one was buying their overpriced outdated trash.
Heck even gaming was taboo since the early days, wasn't much of a thing in most places up until PS2 came out and made a gaming boom. Before that gaming was considered cringe and idiotic. When a gamer wanted to hook up with a girl the girls cringed on such people XD
Fast forward to today and we have the same deal, billions of people from all generations quit gaming that isn't even gaming anymore but instead just a corporate pathetic cashgrab, placebo effect that the braindead people are only involved with, basically burning their life away. The only logical alternative are the people who make money on gaming.
Another reason why retro bloomed and keeps on blooming in the past 7 years or so.
Typical internet idiots of today:
A: ...What do you do:
B: I am a model on instagram and just chatting streamer my favorite games are zelda and mario and you?
A: I am a pro soldier in a video game called call of duty my favorite game are also mario and zelda XD
I rest my case XD
@@Slay1337pl Its always the higher-ups not the devs. In fact the reason why game suck now is because the high-ups chose to the same stuff with every game because it makes them money and they can't take risks. Also if the devs do anything actually punishing or offensive they can get in big trouble.
Making fish always drop in Oot is such a petty anti-piracy measure I absolutely love it. There is basically only the golden scale and two heartpieces locked behind the fishing pond.
One thing I have always been curious about when it comes to piracy, is just how damaging it really is (or isn't). Manufacturers will always claim that all pirated copies are lost sales when stating alleged damages, when in reality I am confident that the majority of people who engage in piracy would not necessarily buy a legitimate copy were no pirated option available.
That's what i think too. Piracy actually made me buy more games. If i liked a pirated game, i would go out and buy it. But i wouldn't just buy a game out of the blue
It’s a bit of both. My understanding is that most of the sales companies seek to retain are day 1 or near day 1 sales. They aren’t looking at the player who will sit back and wait until a patch is made. They’re likely lost causes for them to pursue to begin with. But instead, the target is those who fear on missing out in the first little while.
This is why it seems there is minimal evolution in DRM - they aren’t trying to fully outwit piracy measures, but just stall them long enough for people unwilling to wait to open up their wallets.
Nintendo and most other companies have a warped perception on why people actually pirate games
Companies are profit-oriented and if they can lie a little to potentially increase profits, even if just a little, they do it
Second-hand copy selling is similar to piracy in that two or more people play the same copy but only one sale goes to the company. But they ignore that because they have no legal ground to speak out against it
@@kirant It's also worth noting that, at the end of the day, companies should not and should never just sit back and say it's okay to pirate things. Day 1 profits or profits overall aside, a company's goal should not be to endorse the piracy of their games and so, even if there isn't much profit lost, it's still in their best interest to condemn the action.
I always love seeing the creative ways devs react to piracy. If you're someone who had no idea it can feel like a complete fourth wall break.
I really love learning about the anti-piracy measures. It’s fun to watch the creepy pasta fakes but I’m more fascinated to learn what Nintendo actually did to protect their games.
Nintendo assumes every pirated copy wouldve been bought and that's absolutelly ridiculous. Here in brazil, until late 2000s it was unaffordable for most to buy games, thus gaming would be unfeasible until then. You could see brand new modded ps2s still being sold over here until late 2010s with no intention to be played with official software.
I get the necessity to protect against piracy, but everyone knows how nintendo is full of shit when it comes to "protecting its ips".
Should Nintendo just make current games free in poor countries?
@@troywright359 oh no, of course not. Im just calling out their horrible argument and numbers of sales money lost taken from their ass.
Would be nice if they made better prices for poorer countries just like steam for example, i think xbox and playstation does this too. But i understand this would be likely impossible to physical games. Which were the only option during the ds' lifetime.
@@DPedroBoh but it's still money lost regardless if they hyper inflate their sales lost.
@@Krushak8888 but it's not like the same number of official copies would have been bought if there was no piracy, it's just that people wouldn't have been able to buy and play those games.
Nintendo now:
"You made literally any modification to your console and/or game? Sorry, we're revoking your Nintendo account and all of your legitimately-purchased games."
not if im offline hehe. My wii, 3ds and switch are all moded.
‘fbi breaks into your house’
"We'll also be sending ninjas to stalk you."
Then don’t do it
@@ejakaegypt my fucking console
It never ceases to amaze me whenever I hear about the software and hardware arms race between hackers and companies when trying to crack into consoles. It's something that most normal players, like myself, never really think about when enjoying our own consoles
What about people who do both?
Its always exciting when theres a run on a new console and before the run, the console was getting 1 update a month but once hackers found a way to weasel in, and theyre releasing methods to circumvent the console, updates start getting released weekly!
Most people don't think about it if it doesn't hinder them to play by mistake
That Zelda hairdo never fails to crack me up ahahah.
Didn't know about the Diddy Kong Racing pause measure, that's pretty cool, I wonder if a Turbo Controller with the Pause button would make this "bearable"
South America is insane for piracy, especially for older consoles. I remember that most of my N64 cartridges were much "lighter" than any original counterpart (obviously fake). I had a cartridge that you used for pirate cartridges to function properly, so it was pretty awkward (but it worked perfectly) to have a cartridge on top of another cartridge on the N64.
I was pretty young, didn't know this was wrong until so much later in life, since this is still very, VERY common around there. Even barbers would sell 5 PS2 games (even new releases) for 10 bucks.
nada de errado com pirataria, amigo :)
asia and russia are also insane, especially with the big games of the early 2000s. indonesia has its own share of bootleg modded GTA San Andreas copies where you play as wolverine (whitewashed CJ with claws and shitty hair) or robocop as EDY MURPHIE, and russia was selling cracked copies of half-life and counter-strike on the streets in the 2000s.
theres also the fan dubs even if the game already had official dubs or subs in those languages, specifically in russian. the russian fan dub of Mortal Kombat 4 is a favorite.
@@disposable_income_andy oh, the number of different modder GTAs with country-specific things was through the roof too. Thanks for bringing back that memory lol
Its never wrong to fuck corpos. They fuck you constantly, and turn about is fair play.
Piracy is more common when game companies don't localize their prices
I have to be honest, the idea of a "piracy ring" is somehow hilarious to me. The word "Ring" evokes a much more serious connotation of a group which sells drugs, or weapons, or even _slaves._ It kind of reminds me of the way the US cracks down on illegal Kinder Egg smuggling.
Ring refers to an unorthodox system/structure of supply. Someone cracks a game>gets uploaded to a site/s that's known basically by word of mouth> an individual returns to the same or similar unorthodox supply line for more.
@@uppercutgrandma4425 Oh, nah, I know, it was just kind of funny the way it's used here. I honestly didn't know they were... disorderly, like that? Where all of the sources of supply are, in a sense, independent.
can i get some knowledge on what an illegal kinder egg is
@@jackpumpoen I think it's a us food safety issue where toys have to be separated from food, ie the separate compartments for kinder toys and candy/cereal using bags for toys...etc
@@jackpumpoen So, the US passed a law that made certain kinds of inedible accessories that come with food products illegal; unless it's used to eat the food (ie: the stick of a lollipop) or can be removed from the food (plastic decorations on cakes) or possibly other things, it's illegal. As it turns out, this law excludes Kinder Eggs because they contain toys that can only be separated from the chocolate by eating the chocolate (or breaking it open), and the toy isn't necessary for eating the chocolate.
As a result of this, even though you can find US-safe variations on Kinder Eggs in pretty much any grocery store (they're called Kinder Joy and have the candy and toy in separate halves of the egg), people will still try and illegally smuggle Kinder Eggs into the US for some ungodly reason.
0:01 God I wish that were me
Oh god
🤣
Was getting ready to shame then realized it was the channel owner, still gonna shame, wtf dawg 💀
🤨📸
R.i.p
The piracy and anti-piracy dance within the world of games has always been so fascinating to me. It's interesting seeing stuff built-into games, stuff released as a response in a system update, seeing how long it takes said response to be defeated again, ect. It's a real drama.
Thanks for these long playlists, they're really great to have on while I'm doing stuff (or listening to your voices while I fall asleep lol)
The topic of piracy is always such an interesting one. Especially when it's about the older games
Is downloading ROMs of games that are not sold anymore really piracy though? I would say no. (Of course they may re-release it on official system, but that is beyond the point)
YES unfortunatly due to legal reasons but really who cares haha i modded all my dsis my N3DSxl and my wii xD
Yes
copyrights in the USA last for 75+ years. they don't terminate if the company ceases to exist or if they stop selling new copies. and essentially all computer software in the world is less than 75 years old. so yes it is 100% illegal to download copyrighted software no matter whether it's being sold or not. there's basically no chance that anyone will come after you for doing it though. so practically speaking the only thing at stake is to consider whether its morally permissible to do it, knowing that the author of whatever you're illegally copying is missing out on a sale because you downloaded a thing illegally. BTW all of the video game music that is routinely used in the background of videos like this is also infringing copyright. doesn't matter whether you give credit to the source or not.
copyright law is flawed and in the digital era it basically makes criminals out of everyone but in the grand scheme it's not really a huge problem. as long as people who make content can make a living on it, things could be a lot worse.
@@sheridanrathbun I think (offline) games older than 15 years should be considered public domain. Game is not a book/patent, copyright law needs an update to get in line with the digital era.
Zelda: *Casually squeezes through bars*
Link: How can I do that?
Zelda: Only princesses can go through that, sorry!
Link: *Realizes in mortification that he is using the wrong chip*
Would a speedrun strat make those bars avoidable?
"Only princesses can go through that, sorry!"
Link: *pulls out Super Crown*
@@crazybunny1134 Wrong-warping to final ganon fight perhaps, although I'm speaking out me bum since I don't know the specifics of it to figure that out or not. That said, it would be hilarious if you had frilled lizard zelda to back you up in the middle of a battle that decides the fate of the world.
Funilly enough someone beat LoZ OoT demo version using glitches and stuff.
“Guess I’ll die.”
Imagine building a group around repurposing nintendo code to do what you want, then getting upset when someone repurposes your code to do what they want.
Honestly I'm shocked nintendo didn't sue team tweezers out of existence when they started revealing corporate secrets back to them over email.
@@SHDW-nf2ki it's not illegal to play around with hardware and software you legally bought
@@PointsofData That never stopped Nintendo
@@wowwow3576 Nintendo has never sued an individual for tweaking their own system. The most they've done is ban them from going online, which they have a right to do since I'm sure it breaks their ToS.
There's also a legal difference between an individual tweaking their own system and someone marketing/selling tools to do that. The latter is who Nintendo goes after legally, along with of course the pirates.
Nothing Team Tweezers did alone was illegal, but if their technology and code got used for piracy, then they could very easily receive legal repercussions anyways.
Besides, it shouldn't surprise you that the most passionate fans of Nintendo, who do all of this purely out of love for the craft and the games Nintendo makes, are also the ones who least want Nintendo to go under.
I have no sympathy for a company that sues, shuts down and DMCA its own fanbase over and over for projects that are free and often attempt at preserving their games.
They only step in when the people doing so are printing free money with their IP. There's a reason Ryujinx is active in development and Yuzu got C&D'd. Yuzu team was charging for the product and was raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
I still think about Earthbound's anti-piracy trick that just erases your entire file right before you fight the final boss.
Dragon Quest V is pretty damn clever if you think about it. You’re stuck on a pirate ship because you pirated the game.
it's not really a pirate ship in-context of what's happening in the game itself, but yeah, it's pretty funny lol
😅
I feel so out of the loop when I realise how many of my childhood games I thought I knew well had all these hidden bugs and features this entire time but I never discovered them because they were saved for pirates only
Nintendo: The Nintendo DSi is unhackable.
Hackers: challenge accepted
3 days later.
Hackers: done
lol
LMAO, yeah, I remember that. Nintendo puts a lot of work into their console security, but for some reason they only see their own accomplishments. The security even if their security is great, it's irrelevant since they often overlook sometimes simple exploits. Hackers work around the security and look for any practicable exploits that can potentially allow them to run unsigned code. If they discover something, they can bypass the security and hack the device without the need to dismantle the console or solder any mod chips to the hardware.
To be fair, Nintendo isn't trying to convince hackers that it's unhackable.
Nintendo is trying to convince shareholders that it's unhackable, and believe it or not, most shareholders aren't tech savvy.
Nothings unhackable!
R4 is a godsend
I just love how playful so many of the anti piracy tactics were in earlier generations. What a lucky Rare dev who gets to program explosions, but bigger.
52:10 the irony of a hacking and piracy app having code to prevent someone hacking the app itself.
I mean, we can get make Zelda's fluffed out hair work, right?
Eventually we can get make it good ya
I don't get make it.
No, don't make him bl*ck.
Botw 2
Its really weird that it waits that long into the game before it messes up
I find the one at 26:19 to be a very interesting way to go about it. Instead of punishing Pirates immediatly, it almost serves as a demo or a "hook" so people consider actually buying the game.
Most likely would just make you go look for a better dump of the game tbh
Never actually knew about the DS Malware, but that is definitely a thing. So much info to take in from all of these videos y'all do!
im surprised the malware doesnt exist in other consoles to prevent games to be pirated i guess the companys dont bother at the piont cause how the internet had advanced
I love sneaky anti-piracy methods. The one that always comes to mind is the one in Game Dev Tycoon where you can't win because people keep pirating your game. Just brilliant.
Anti-piracy stuff is so interesting, I love it and am a little sad you don't get the 'easter eggs' of pirated games any more. The Spyro 3 stuff is my fave.
Videos like this one on piracy/anti-piracy measures are always so fascinating, especially the really bizarre ones. Thanks DYKG for this compilation.
I'm surprised no one has ever drawn fanart of Zelda with that afro ponytail.
Get your apple pencil
@@ahlamkastiro3154 fuck all things apple
@Drederick sounds like someone didn't get the free commission they asked for and now they're forever salty 🥺
@Drederick commission ≠ free art
@Drederick Sorry to burst your bubble buddy, but most artists are actually pretty broke
Anti-piracy is always so interesting, and I think that since it's an inevitability, the sillier ones are always the most entertaining
Or they could've just keep the game DRM free, and that likely won't cause much harm, if not benefiting the sales.
It's really not an inevitability at all. But it is interesting to see the ideas the devs came up with.
Piracy is a services problem - steamed pork bun man
Best Nintendo copy protection was Pokemon Black & White. Its just a challenge mode, you don't get exp which forces you to play the game in a whole new way. And its really thematic because you'll basically be playing like N just using whatever Pokemon are nearby. And some Pokemon(Cottonee with Prankster) are useful into the endgame.
I've always been interested in piracy prevention and knowing that Nintendo implemented them in games is fascinating
It's always super interesting seeing the different ways devs can mess with pirated games.
Yeah it is I love rares sense of humour banjo kazooie and goodie are classics😏😉
Funny how companies assume that because ~260 millions worth of their game got pirated, they actually lost 260m. That's assuming everyone who pirated the game would've actually bought it otherwise, it's also assuming that no same person pirated the game twice or more, and it's also assuming that everyone who pirated the game did not end up buying it. Am guessing that of that 260 millions, only a small fraction of that was actually lost to piracy, and that small fraction is further diminished by the marketing effect piracy tends to have. If the game is not shit, most people with decent income will buy it even if they have access to a full pirated copy, and the people who don't have the means just wouldn't play the game without it. These companies sound like children throwing a tantrum because they got 274 rocket candy packages on halloween instead of 275. That's my opinion on piracy at least. =)
Haha true.
Just look at south america, nothing was sell here.
So like 80% of any game was obtained trought piracy.
Movies too are a huge market, as most are localised for Spain but never for the Latino regions.
Agreed. When I downloaded EDF 4.1 to try it, I instantly fell in love with it, and bought it as soon as possible. I beat it in my pirate copy, bought it, then beat it again.
Good games are like that.
Exactly right. And nintendo being the biggest child of them all.
and im pretty sure when people talk about videogames online, the vast majority of it doesnt involve whether or not the game was pirated. so most people dont even think about whether or not someone bought the game when they see a video about it or a review of it. it has no real effect on whether or not someone is going to buy it unless piracy is actually mentioned. if game companies really wanted to reduce piracy without improving anything for anyone else, they could just try to prevent it from being talked about. but stealing money from people via lawsuits is more profitable, i guess...
The guy just casually stated that in the video like it isn't just silly.
I used to get R4 cards from my Uncle sometimes, never knew those were pirated games... Guess that explains why I couldn't save in most of the games on it.
I had an acekard when I was 4, I didn't realize the games were pirated either lol
I got all my games on r4. Was great
My cousin had a R4 with pokemon diamond in russian
The two I remember getting were a game where you got to control tiny robots and battle people in a little simulated arena thing, along with a game where you took care of a dog that was in a chibi style.
The dog one was Dogz, the robot one was Pocket Power: Custom Robo Arena
Nintendo’s responses to piracy really feel like a remnant of old attitudes about digital media. They seem to still equate pirating games with like stealing them directly off store shelves.
i mean, it kinda is - just that you don't have to go to the store to steal it lol
@@I_Am_Wasabi_Man I do feel like pirating would go down alot if nintendo, well even microsoft and sony, if they would just do a better job a game preservation of past games on future hardware. A Icloud style storage service that allowed you to download pretty much every old game ever made up to the current gen, and store it and play it at your leisure.
I mean, it wouldn't completely solve the issue. Some Pirates are gonna pirate regardless. But I mean, they can go after those fools at that point being like, hey, we have all of our software on current hardware now. Ban hammer to you fools.
I mean, I take a look at the 3DS and Wii U eshop situation. Nintendo closed both these services down. The Wii U allowed you to download original DS games on there. The switch does not do that. Old games in particular are, not only starting to become increasingly rare and expensive nowadays. But you also have to buy the game on ebay or whatever, and hope you don't get a repro cart. Just something I noticed recently, but repro carts are becoming increasingly common. As well as people trying to scam you into thinking you are buying the real thing when in reality you are not. I wonder how that affects the process of the nintendo 64 checking for like NUS code 1000-760 or whatever for the different regions when it boots up for the anti piracy check. Repro carts are not 100 % the same as the original.
It just sucks these companies refuse to allow gamers to purchase old games on more modern hardware. Luckily for me, I still have all of the old hardware. So I don't care as much. As well as not caring about certain games. Like I felt like Earthbound was the dumbest game ever lol. Even though it is rare now. But it can definitely be difficult to find alot of the games now in decent condition sometimes without having to spend a fortune on them.
I think nintendo, microsoft, and sony, need to brand their own stores. That sell every single game ever made. I know I would. And I would be trying to make deals with companies, like let's say rareware, so that those games could be on there to. Why nintendo does not see this as a problem, I will never know. I was always one of those folks that liked to play on original hardware anyways. But alot of people have turned to piracy because games are expensive, and nintendo has no alternatives to download/find them legally.
The only bad thing about this video is that it ended. This was such an interesting and enjoyable video to watch and taught me a lot about illegal distribution among video games.
I love how creative some of these developers are when it comes to pirates. Can’t forget about The Great Sea Duel of 1732, between Nintendo and the infamous Captain Circuit Breaker. May all the bits that were lost never be forgotten 🤧
I remember, i got my DSi in a long official looking package that had a custom game card called DSi ne in there. Thought it waa official for many, many years. I had so many games on there until i accidentally bricked it. I don't remember ever seeing an Anti Piracy Screen. My Dsi was never connected to the Internet so I'm trying to restore that card now
I love videos like this because I run a small little game shop, and this is a more interesting and less distracting source of background noise for me while working than loud music, AND people that have never seen the channel before sometime learn fun little bits of trivia. I like to think that maybe they bring those little bits up at the water cooler later on.
My favorite bit of game dev v pirate trivia is when Bryan Fargo, the lead dev behind the Wasteland series, gave out signed pardons for people pirating their previous games.
Funfact: One of the hackers from Team Twiizers that worked on the Wii jailbreak is Hector Martin. He's got quite a portofolio.
He was also part of fail0verflow, the team behind the PlayStation 3 jailbreak. Hector Martin also reverse engineered the driver for the Kinect and ported linux to the PlayStation 4.
Currently the founder and lead developer of the Asahi Linux project, the project that ports linux to Apple silicone.
I think that the anti piracy measures put in place are always half baked. Allowing technical people to bypass but not the average user. That way majority will buy and purchase knowing that there is at least the possibility of piracy even if they’ll never go for it
Kind of the point. There is not fool-proof way to protect anything theoretically. But deterrents can help protect it practically.
no, not how it works, end users of pirated games/programs do not try to crack it themselves, there are specific groups dedicated to cracking software that release proper cracks
The whole Wii piracy debacle was way crazier than I would imagine. Love these long form videos!
i love these dyk videos cuz i never know which one I've actually seen before. but this time its a new one!
I love emulated Nintendo games , but nothing beats playing them on there original intended hardware ! I love these hour long videos ! Thanks DYKG
I hate when companies say "we lost X amount of money due to people pirating"
Like, they think every person who pirated it would have bought it if piracy wasn't an option.
In my opinion, I think that every future console that comes out (even old ones that get improved versions) are gonna always be hackable, since hackers always find ways to crack a system and ways to circumvent region and copy protection and also circumvent ban waves too (if possible anyway).
Except for the new Xbox you mean
@@shib5267 Give it time.
And if not you can just emulate. I dont even play my switch anymore. I use Ryujinx and NSW2u to play any switch game at 4k 60fps and i can get cheats and mods to have a little extra fun with stuff like debug cameras and stuff.
Tbh, once I get the computer I want, I might not ever need a console again.
Once the online service is shut down "you might get banned" is kinda a moot point
I got my PS1 chipped when I was little; it was great being able to get whatever game you wanted. I'm pretty sure my friend had a chipped copy of Perfect Dark and Goldeneye for N64. A guy used to turn up once a week with pirated games and DVDs in the boot of his car; don't really see that anymore.
My uncle used to own a video game and electronics shop so I had a chipped ps1 and I still have the unit that attached to the back so if I decided to buy a ps1 agin in the future it would still work, I remember being blown away by being one of the first people to play crash bandicoot warped for the first time in the 90’s 😏😉😁
That still happens at flea markets in Mexico. It’s mainly music though, but you can find some video games if you look around
@@HedgehogStudios1 apparently Mexico hates musicians livelihoods then
Fact: Nintendo hasn't released a single pc port, they make the community do everything.
They just stuck mentally in times when pc gaming doesn't really existed.
You would be incorrect! Mario is Missing exist for the PC.
@@daedalus547 and mario teaches typing and..... uhhh... yeah.
@@leeum20real Mario's Missing?
Hmm let's see
x86 (MS-DOS):
Mario Teaches Typing
Mario is Missing
Super Mario Bros. & Friends
NEC PC-8801:
Super Mario Bros. Special
Mario Bros. Special
Punch Ball Mario
I count six games love how uneducated people try to make a point then fail.
@@daedalus547 I hath been defeated
I shalt now do the exact same thing because I did not learn my lesson
Really dig the direction you're all taking with the channel. The two videos per week honestly made the channel a little bloated. The long-form, investigative content creators like Dr. Lava and Dr. Cupcakes (Liam) have been making have been really enjoyable. Can't wait to see what will come next. Cheers to you all for making it so far in the UA-cam gaming space.
Honestly, most of the actual, existing anti-piracy measures are far more interesting than the creepypasta-like "if you pirate the game Mario will go to prison and Miyamoto will haunt you in your sleep" stuff. Great video, guys.
I agree! I actually cant stand the anti piracy fan creations... I like to see and learn whats REAL you know? :) I'm glad this video came out so I can learn more about real anti piracy in video games
looking forward to watching this all! i know about zelda's crazy pentagon hair, spinning pokeballs, mother 2's crazy anti piracy and more but i hope i find out some new things now too :)
well did u?
Fascinating video. I'm glad I got my Switch on launch day : 3
111k subs
Jokes
didn't the Switch launch sucked?
@@narottamakarunanidhi1731 it's one of the few switches 100% jailbreakable nowadays, making piracy possible on a Switch.
That's why they're so valuable now :)
@@-crap4589 my dad got me a switch when it first came out along with mario odyssey. man im lucky
I've always thought that ideas like this (in-game anti-piracy modifications) are FAR more effective deterrents than simple DRM since the player gets to experience a taste of the good game just out of their full reach.
"Nintendo made their next iteration...the Nintendo DSi, unhackable. However, hackers cracked the system within 3 days of launch"
This is golden 😂
These are so great to work to and have on in the background. Really appreciated the news on the main channel that it now comes in podcast form too!!
The length some developers go to try and prevent piracy is fantastic.
should've kept the houe grammatical error since we're one day away from april fools
Imagine being a huge company and got a malware problem because of someone's hacked ds
Damn does this bring me back! It reminds me of an era when developers would develop their personal anti-piracy instead of relaying on standard procedures: the subsequent chaos was incredibly amazing! 😂
Satella-Q on the Satellaview became lost media because the entirety of the game data was stored in the BS-X's PSRAM rather than any permament storage. Nintendo's most effective "anti-piracy" to this date.
I still maintain that one of the legal punishments that a government should be able to levy on a game company that does wrong is forbidding them from using anti-piracy measures and requiring them to open source all documentation on past anti-piracy measures. The lawsuits dealing with Blockbuster and Nintendo trying to snuff out game rentals specifically should have resulted in such a penalty. A five-year ban from protecting their games would have been far more effective than any fine.
im ok with companies getting punished for doing bad things. cant imagine anyone thinking companies should be able to get away with doing terrible things. and while fines dont really help the average person, making piracy of those games easier and legally protected for a set period of time could do the trick. i like this idea.
"the government decides you are banned from protecting your creation" is equally ridiculous to how litigious Nintendo is. For those five years, every employee not at the top of the totem pole would take a pay cut so hard it wouldn't feed their kids. The companies could plan this, too.
@@AdamOwenBrowning yeah, the actual punishment would have to be more comprehensive and restrictive on the kinds of behaviors the people at the top could perform to make up for the loss. the government would also have to guarantee the protection of the company's employees, which knowing the track record or this sort of thing, it doesnt seem very hopeful. but its fun to dream.
Punish a company by not allowing them to protect their IP?
@@chrism7574 Yep. Not one bit of sarcasm here - that should be part of the punishment.
I've always thought piracy is a good thing; I've owned pirated copies of mgs1, ff7, 8, 9, basically all sorts of games and I've also purchased all of those games legitimately multiple times. If the pirated copy was poor and you liked the game, you got the real copy.
It also saves money when you are someone who gets bored of games quickly. I used to play pirated Stardew Valley before buying it but once I bought it I lost interest after 300 hours and haven't opened the game since then. For over two years it's just sitting on my Steam account without a purpose and I regret paying for it.
@@Nekoszowa It does bug me when I spend £60 on a game and don't play it that much. Or, companies like Bethesda releasing the same game with slight differences over the course of a decade; no issue pirating companies when they pull crap like that.
Facts here on my country piracy is extremly common and thanks to testing pirated copies I decided to buy original copies of some of them
What I don't understand is... Where did free trial/demos go? why can't we try out the game a bit and then see if the consumers like it, then buy it?
im pretty sure most regular people, who know what videogame piracy is, are atleast neutral towards it, or even do it themselves. alot of the stuff you have to do for piracy is also the kind of stuff you have to do for games preservation, poverty is a bigger problem than piracy, and as Gaben once said, "its a service issue, not a pricing one."
and even still, atleast when it comes to Nintendo, their company is so evil that its always morally right to pirate their games.
I think Zelda's hair bugging out like that might be the best piracy thing I've seen from the franchise
Thank god for Gamecube piracy. I don't have my GBA adapter disc from when I was younger, and that thing is hundreds of dollars nowaday. A hacked memory card that only requires games that most people have (Mario Sunshine, Windwaker, etc.) was like ten bucks.
...and as I mention this the video brings it up.
I play legit GBA games, but goddamn I am not shelling out that much money for a disc to an accessory I already own.
No way one whole Houe?!
I think my favorite anti piracy measure was from earthbound. If i remember correctly, it will let you play through the entire game, however right at the end it will trap you in an area where you can't escape and you won't be able to complete the game.
im like who would pirate nintendo games in the 2000's?
nah I forgot I just pirated some GameCube games with the sd loader cause iso files were being taken down
As someone who created legit rips of Brawl using software on the Wii, I'd like to say its just plain faster to find a website, torrent the ISO and then put in on an SD card than using the Wii itself to copy Brawl onto an SD card for you
That disc reader is *slow*
Aww i thought i was gonna see the famous Earthbound piracy measures
I love how the phrase "Car Boot Sale" needed translating to Americano :D
Always fun to see how developers think of ways to stop piracy of their games
Really hoping that one day, we'll see copyright law reduce the years before public domain in digial content to 10-20 years. As it stands, 75 years essentially renders any (or at least a vast majority of) original consoles that could run that software moot without third party modification of a console, and a majority of those that would want to use the domain at the time of launch will likely be well....dead. it's kinda dumb.
There are NES roms from the 80's that have little to no chance of returning to modern day either due to the companies that owned the rights closing down, or the new companies that own them being fickle or uncaring about re-releasing the content or rendering it public use. It's been 40 years since those games released, and games like Sweet Home will likely never see a public re-release...why should we just keep this stuff to corporations if they won't utilize it anyway?
I wouldn't be shocked if that was partly Disney's fault. They're the reason public domain law is such a goddamn mess.
It's pretty crazy how much piracy has changed over time. At least older devs made it hilarious and interesting
I love the form factor of these videos, just a straight hour of content i can really just space out to. Love the content, keep it up!
Video game piracy countermeasures have always been a special interest of mine. I'm glad that you've included some awesome stuff I've never heard before in this video!
my favorite anti piracy techs are the ones that make people out themselves as pirates by inquiring information only in pirated copys
Nintendo was always the company that had the most clever ways to mess with pirates, IMO. It's fun to see these checks caught on video since almost all of these are patched in modern emulators.
Even old emulators won't trigger these unless you're triggering them intentionally.
Remember that most antipiracy measures back then were geared to detect bootleg carts, not emulation.
I have to share something kind of silly here.
Watching this video, I now realize that my aunt and uncle had a massive library of poorly pirated N64 games. My cousin had an N64 and was mentally disabled and rather old, so he'd spend nearly all his time on that machine at home. My aunt and uncle would go out to auctions all around the area they lived in, and they would bring home boxes and crates full of random N64 games (as well as spare consoles and controllers of all kinds of color and version). They'd get several copies of the same ones with some even being extremely rare collector's editions or stolen from places like Blockbuster, and later I would find out that some were even previous versions of the software put on them. I was young back then, but I remember very clearly that some copies of these games actually had the issues described here with the corresponding titles, and I feel absolutely astounded and kind of lucky in a way that I got to experience all that raw weirdness firsthand.
This entire video is fascinating and I am so thankful for it.
Pro tip. Don't call a console's security unhackable. You will get the "Is that a challenge?!" response from hackers looking for a challenge. Then the media runs all over the story.
There's such a delicious irony about selling piracy software.
Are you really going to talk about DS anti-piracy without bringing up what happened at the end of 2020?
WHAT IS IT
Aw man, you didn’t mention the Wii U! That old thing is only used by hackers and modders now.
Or the 3DS, for that matter.
Piracy is GOOD for game preservation. I never mod current gen hardware and only mod discontinued products to keep my library playable for years to come. Companies like Nintendo don't care about preserving their legacy, so I'll do it for them.
Remember, piracy is NOT theft. It is actually copyright infringement :3
Earthbound was great. It would give you an anti piracy screen first, then spawned in an absurd amount of mobs next, and deleted your saves and crashed the game right at the final boss.
If you want more trivia, here's one Hour of Mario Facts ► ua-cam.com/video/_3Fg21cNvas/v-deo.html
My favorite kind of Anti-Piracy has always been the games that are like "You wanna play our game without paying? Sure, we'll even let you beat it, just prepare for the most miserable experience of your entire life.". Always cracks me up.
Which games are those?
@@therunawaykid6523
Earthbound. Has the most cruel form of anti-piracy i've ever heard. It will let you play 99.9% through the game but if it fails the piracy check at the last fight, it deletes your save file.
If that isn't a kick in the shin with cleats, I don't know what is.
@@autonomous2010 wow, that sucks...