Own Every SNES Game Ever Made For $24,999 199
An anonymous reader writes "BSNES author and game collector Byuu has decided to put his entire collection of SNES games up for sale — at the low price of 24,999USD. The collection covers *every* game ever made for SNES, all in the original covers. From the article: 'The seller, who goes by the name "Byuu" on Reddit, says that every single game in the collection comes with its original box and approximately 85 percent of the games come with their original manuals. The collection does not include unlicensed games, and every game has been professionally cleaned and tested. "They all work perfectly," Byuu says.'"
These belong in a museum! (Score:5, Insightful)
These belong in a public museum, not some private collection. I hope that somebody who is rich and who appreciates video games makes the purchase, and donates them to the Smithsonian or some other reputable museum so that they can be publicly displayed for all to see and to experience.
Re:These belong in a museum! (Score:5, Insightful)
As a gamer, I actually strongly agree on this... they should be taken care of, preserved, ba a part of a museum. That's lots of history he's selling.
BSNES is awesome, by the way.
Re:These belong in a museum! (Score:5, Insightful)
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The progress of computer hardware architecture and operating systems is steadily creating more work to do in order to maintain 'perfect emulation.'
Seth
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When you see some of the hardware tricks they pulled to get things to perform back in those days, sometimes not. Consider timing tricks for changing screen modes in the middle of a screen update or similar.
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Re:These belong in a museum! (Score:5, Insightful)
There are plenty of extant copies of any of these vintage (not even antique) consumer goods. I agree that these are as culturally important as anything else in an art museum, but this sale doesn't in any way hinder industry.
Besides, even if you ignore these games entirely, byuu has done far more than $25,000 worth of work preserving these games. Bsnes is arguably not just the best snes emulator but the most accurate emulator ever, which is likely to survive much longer than the cardboard, plastic and silicon being sold.
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No.
They belong as roms on the internet for people to pay. It is utter Bullshit they are locked up and hidden because of incredibly stupid laws and insanely selfish and greedy people.
The man needs to let someone carefully read every single rom and put them up on the net so that future generations can enjoy each one. It would hurt nobody in any way possible, I dont care what some scumbag lawyer says.
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Has there been any meaningful movement on making a SNES emulator that works more like say MAME where instead of a single ROM file you get a separate file for individual ROM chips and other data-holding devices in it and then some sort of description that links up the different chips (ROM, RAM, SRAM, co-processors, discrete parts etc) in the right way?
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It's not illegal to make a backup copy for fair use.
And I swear to god, should someone go after Byuu for taking on and finishing this monumental task, then I and many with me will pitch in the fundraiser to cover his attorney costs.
Next up, maybe the PAL set? :)
This is why copyright needs to go back (Score:2)
14 years with a 14 year extension, and I'd agree to maybe one or two more if the owner of the copyright really wants to keep it. I bet the makers of half those games don't exist or even care about their copyright on these old games anymore and wouldn't have renewed, so they should be public domain by now.
Re:These belong in a museum! (Score:4, Insightful)
So do you, Doctor Jones, so do you.
Re:These belong in a museum! (Score:5, Insightful)
Museums are for conservations of material goods. Libraries are better to spread ideas in whatever form they come in.
Museums are not lacking in material, I can assure you. Smithsonian only displays a tiny, tiny fraction of its inventory at any one time, and a smaller amount on tour somewhere, much of it is in warehouses, many never to see the light of day in my lifetime for want of display space. Many people I know who donated anything from their great-great-....grandfather's civil war canteen to their grandfather's US Army uniform to a local Museum often were shocked to see that stuff put up for auction from same museum. Because the museum preferred the money for budget/projects rather than common to even somewhat rare (but not especially valuable) items. It's even known some curators of smaller museums that even deal in/steal/pilfer goods and replace them with copies.
Maybe, sometime, somewhere a super nintendo with a super mario cartridge belongs in a museum somewhere. But certainly not the whole collection. It's just going to collect dust and not going to introduce more people to the joys of that era. Private collectors would be great to care for that.
That makes about as much sense as giving books to a museum to spread ideas. That's where a library is more appropriate. If you really want to get that, you would call for liberalizing copyright law. Tie it to patent length or something and only keep trademarks as ongoing. That way it would be legal to have the entire library up and served on the internet for generations to come and have people actually play them, if they so chose.
I don't think it's going to be much of an experience in 100 years to go to a museum, and look at video game and dvd titles, that you may play for 5 minutes because of a line or see for 5 minutes in some demo. That would surely be a stunted experience.
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These belong in a public museum, not some private collection. I hope that somebody who is rich and who appreciates video games makes the purchase, and donates them to the Smithsonian or some other reputable museum so that they can be publicly displayed for all to see and to experience.
The physical goods should be surely in the care of some good museum, but the digital games should be in public domain for everyone to enjoy, not just for ultra rich people who are able to afford this overblown price.
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They are something which can be very easily replaced.
They have no significance other than being the original package.
In the Boston Science museum, there sits a non-descript floppy disk with the Morris worm written on it. The disk isn't significant, what's on it is.
So, while they may look cool, there's no significance to a museum other than the software and box art.
And let's be honest, SNES games are nowhere near 'Smithsonian important'.
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Now I envision a middle aged guy with a brown hat and whip swooping down during the auction to swipe the collection for some museum...
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Only if you bought them to make a great emulator like BSNES.
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Please do. Do you have a ZX spectrum?
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Re:These belong in a museum! (Score:5, Insightful)
You're doing God's work, Byuu.
I mean, that's a cutely hyperbolic and very Internet thing to say, but seriously, kudos. It may otherwise become impossible to find the material which you are preserving for us.
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Before reading the linked pages, I was actually worried that you were giving up on emulation/BSNES. Good to see that you're not only not giving up on it, but actually doing this as a way of preserving a part of gaming history. That's definitely a good thing.
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Also, your emulator is really great; I love it. Far better than the alternatives for SNES, and with one or two exceptions, it's the best emulator for every system it supports (at least that I've tried).
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Re:These belong in a museum! (Score:4)
Someday, I'll make an ARM-optimized SNES emulator and you'll be my inspiration.
Begin today.
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For the same reason that the original Declaration of Independence is in a museum even though you can read its full text just as easily from any of thousands of other sources.
Worth it... (Score:3)
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That game kicked ass.
$24,999? (Score:3)
I guess asking for $25,000 seemed ridiculous?
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I can't believe there were only 721 games for SNES.
That sounds ridiculously small to me, too, considering the complete GBA collection went up to what, 4000-something (combined from all regions but that's a minor quibble)?
Angry wife (Score:1)
SELL that crap or no sex!
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Meh (Score:4, Insightful)
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I have every SNES game ever made uploaded to my Google Drive.
For the good of all mankind, you need mirror sites right?
Re:Meh (Score:4, Insightful)
But you can't download an arcade where every game is 25 cents to play, not counting the many many gameovers that leave you needing more. You can't download that first gameboy your older cousin lent you for the week to play Dr. Mario over and over again just so you could beat his high score. You can't download the way it made you feel to finally get to the third stage of a boss that had kept illing you over and over before you knew how to time your attacks while avoiding theirs.
And twenty years from now, gamers from today won't be able to download the group dynamics of their MMO clan, won't be able to download the step by step evolution of Minecraft indev with it's back and forth between Notch and the smaller community. They won't be able to download all the achievements, trophies, ranks, and golden guns from their favorite FPSs. They won't be able to download the connection made between shiningly creative Little Big Planet level authors after wading through the seas of shoddily-made CoD clones and Mario levels.
I just recently got a smartphone capable of playing these old SNES games. I might download an emulator and play some games. But gaming on a touchscreen smartphone will never be the same as sitting on the carpet with my siblings, racing through the ghost levels on Super Mario Kart and figuring out exactly where to use my jumping feather to get an edge towards victory.
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It's easier to deal with full sets so you're sure you have something when you want to play it than it is to assemble a "best of" collection. They're only a meg or two a piece. And there's always that day when you want to experience just how bad some of the bad games really are. It helps you appreciate the good games more.
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Yeah, just like I have time for MST3K and Weird Al. It amuses me. Not every moment of your life has to be spent in the persuit of perfection. Besides, some of these games have some interesting ideas, even if they're poorly executed.
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why are you playing bad games?
The same reason you play any game: entertainment.
I think his point was that there are so many -good- games out there that there's not enough time to enjoy them. Why waste the time with bad games? I don't think they have the same "so bad it's good" value as some bad movies do. Bad games are just frustrating.
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why are you playing bad games?
The same reason you play any game: entertainment.
I think his point was that there are so many -good- games out there that there's not enough time to enjoy them. Why waste the time with bad games? I don't think they have the same "so bad it's good" value as some bad movies do. Bad games are just frustrating.
Bad games can be entertaining in different ways, like for purposes of study. For example, what is it about Wizard of Oz that makes it a bad game? If you don't play it, you don't know. Angry Nintendo Nerd did an overview of it so I guess you don't have to play THAT one. But it's definitely worth looking into what works and what doesn't work in gaming, if you're a fan at all.
One missing game... (Score:4, Informative)
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pedantic correction (Score:5, Informative)
Slightly more restricted than "every SNES game", it's actually every regular-release SNES game sold at retail in the US, Canada, and/or Mexico. He bought them to improve the emulation quality of his emulator, bsnes.
He says he'll use the proceeds of this sale to purchase other SNES games he doesn't have, such as assembling the complete collection of games released in Europe.
But Wait! There's more! (Score:3, Funny)
Cloud cakes (Score:2)
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So a funny thing about unwanted items, in the scrap steel industry, when buying/importing cars,containers, and things that have open cavities from Japan it is a common problem to find them stuffed with garbage.
Shipping kills the deal (Score:1)
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Cleaned? (Score:1, Troll)
...and every game has been professionally cleaned...
**Random dude blows dust off of cartridge contacts.
"Cleaned. That will be twenty bucks."
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Lyeing to us all (Score:5, Funny)
The PCB contacts were scrubbed with sodium hydroxide (to remove oxidation)
That's a lye, and you know it.
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The PCB contacts were scrubbed with sodium hydroxide (to remove oxidation) and isopropyl alcohol (to remove residue.) Took about five minutes per cart. Which is about 60 hours of labor. Not a whole lot, it just ensures that every game will turn on with your very first try, and you won't dirty up your SNES connector on these carts.
Not that I have the money to purchase this set, but would you have any recommendations for cleaning the inside connections of an SNES as well? Is that necessary, or are you likely to further damage/corrode the connections? I realize that since cartridges are external they're more likely to pick up dust and moisture, but I imagine after 20 years the inside of my SNES could probably use some work too.
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Professional NES cartridge cleaner? (Score:1)
every game has been professionally cleaned and tested.
Man, it must have taken forever to personally blow on all those cartridges.
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Re:eBay link (Score:5, Insightful)
Crowd-funding of projects is hot right now and it might be easier to find thousands of people who think your efforts are worth $10 to them than to find a single person willing to part with $25,000 for old game cartridges.
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I'm sure the list is long, but how MANY of the 721 NA retail games have multiple retail versions?
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byuu, I'm sure you've got a million replies, but I wanted to add one more "thank you".
Re:HOLY FUCK! HOLY HOLY HOLY FUCK! NO SHIT! (Score:4, Funny)
Holy crap
someone didn't take their meds today...
Re:HOLY FUCK! HOLY HOLY HOLY FUCK! NO SHIT! (Score:5, Funny)
+1 Funny
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this is Slashdot. Stupidity is not tolerated here,
You must be new here.
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This was posted by the GP in an attempt to make it look like he has friends.
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this is Slashdot. Stupidity is not tolerated here
...and just like that a new slogan is born...
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Shtarker, zis is SLASHDOT! Ve do not DERP here!!!
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their just video games (Score:2)
Whose just video games are they?
Whoever they are, do they also have some unjust video games?
Declaration of Independence... (Score:2)
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The real question is
Is he going to delete all his roms now that he no longer owns the cartridges?
How long until the *IAA comes after him for illegal copies of roms.
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yeah, just a bit, I was waiting for someone else to pick up on it...
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He says he's dumped them all (made copies), and now is looking to sell them. Doesn't anyone see the legal issue here?
No.
Re:Um, he admits he's breaking the law (Score:5, Informative)
He says he's dumped them all (made copies), and now is looking to sell them. Doesn't anyone see the legal issue here?
Legal issue, yes. Ethical issue, no.
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Ethical issue, no.
Oh, hey, everyone, it's the guy who decides what's ethical or not! We have a few questions...
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He says he's dumped them all (made copies), and now is looking to sell them. Doesn't anyone see the legal issue here?
Depends on where he lives; this is perfectly legal in some places, but not the US. In many countries it's kosher to make a copy and sell the original. The trick is that you can't sell or distribute the copy -- personal use only.
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Think possibly you could archive them up, instead, and seal them in a manner, that the package won't be opened by anyone, except in a hundred years or so, when the copyright expires? :)
Re:Um, he admits he's breaking the law (Score:4, Insightful)
I promise that I'll delete all the ROMs as soon as the set sells
Please don't do this. It took certainly great effort to make proper dump of each game you have. Don't let this effort go to waste due to some idiotic laws and rather then deleting the ROMs, share then via some p2p network like bittorrent - http://thepiratebay.se/ [thepiratebay.se]
There are certainly people who will help you to share your roms anonymously, if you are afraid to share them yourself.
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He says he's dumped them all (made copies), and now is looking to sell them. Doesn't anyone see the legal issue here?
It's likely fair use, because it's a personal copy, for use in testing/refining his coding that emulates a SNES and interoperates with the software, and doesn't impact the commercial value of the product, as it's not for sale anymore -- and he's not consuming the content.
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It's likely fair use
Well, that'd be nice, but I think you're living in a land of make-believe filled with pixies and fairies and frogs with magic hats.
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Well, that'd be nice, but I think you're living in a land of make-believe filled with pixies and fairies and frogs with magic hats.
I might concede your point, if you had actually backed it up with rational argument. Are you a lawyer?
I am not suggesting he could plead the insanity defense, but the fair use defense, in case he were sued.
Mere possession of a lawfully created copy is not infringement.
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Mere possession of a lawfully created copy is not infringement.
What about this? [worldofspectrum.org]
S&A Group were the vendors of a cart dumper called the "PROM Blaster" for Atari 2600 videogames ... The archival exception for computer software did not apply to programs stored within permanent storage media (in this case a videogame cartridge) because these forms of media are not subject to the sort of risks that the archival clause was designed to guard against. As a result, the court ruled that dumping a videogame cartridge for archival purposes is not covered by the archival clause of copyright law.
And that's without considering the fact that the guy is selling the original ROMs.
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Don't people sell everything they own before they kill themselves?
No, that would indicate they still think there is something worth living for.
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I think it's funny how this is listed at $24,999, as if someone is going to say "Well, $25,000 is simply too much, take a dollar off and I'll consider it". :-)
Why not? It works. There's a reason why prices everywhere are always ending in '.95', or '.99' in countries that still have cents. Even if only subconsciously, it makes a difference to people's perception of the cost. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_pricing [wikipedia.org]
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It works.
Oh really? From your link:
The theory of psychological pricing is controversial. Some studies show that buyers, even young children, have a very sophisticated understanding of true cost and relative value and that, to the limits of the accuracy of the test, they behave rationally. Other researchers claim that this ignores the non-rational nature of the phenomenon and that acceptance of the theory requires belief in a subconscious level of thought processes, a belief that economic models tend to deny or ignore. Research using results from modern scanner data is mixed.
Re:ROMs (Score:4, Interesting)
I hope you have to write software to deal with other people's legacy crap some day, so you can know how it feels to be continuously cut up by hacks that have become standard practice before you.
FYI, cartridge folders will not be required for a later version of higan/bsnes. The intention was not to make it difficult to use ROM files, just to get ROM loading hacks out of the emulator. In the next version, in fact, you will be able to load .sfc files without problem.
And if you're going to complain about having to have your ROMs in an extension that makes more sense, that's your prerogative. Likewise if you insist on having a 512 byte header that is not actually part of the ROM nor any standard that contains no useful information. But don't go around preaching because people aren't doing things your way. Just because your 15 year old emulator supports it does not mean it is a good thing to support.
If renaming a file is too much work for SNES emulation, you clearly don't give a fuck about quality in your software. Go grab an old copy of ZSNES, a juice box and get back to those Super Mario World rom hacks.
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