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XBOX modders caught. Might be facing Prison time if convicted.

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ErikRuud:

--- Quote from: DaveMMR on December 13, 2010, 07:26:59 pm ---Again, pirating did not kill the Dreamcast.  It did itself in for the reasons (not quoted for some reason) I mentioned above (a) timing (b) competition (c) lack of support due to poor track record.  

--- End quote ---

You are correct Sega had some really bad timing/decision making at that point.  They brought out the Saturn so fast after the Sega 32x that they effectively killed their own platform.  Then they did almost the same thing to the Saturn when they brought out the Dreamcast.  Competition from from Sony and Nintendo didn't help either.

ChadTower:

--- Quote from: DaveMMR on December 13, 2010, 07:26:59 pm ---Were there workarounds to overcome this?   Yeah probably - but I don't know.  

...

What the Dreamcast's ability to read unsigned CD-R's led to was homebrew games (of varying quality).  This did not affect software sales, and, as others have mentioned, the DC was pretty much dead once there was homebrewing in the works.  

--- End quote ---


Yes, there were workarounds, and yes, they were effective and allowed the easiest pirating of any console to that point.

I strongly disagree that it didn't affect software sales.  It was easy to get pirated Dreamcast games.  They were all over the same internet locations where people were pirating any other software.  They were also available, right out in the open, on Ebay, at flea markets, wherever people were doing shady business at the time.  Awareness had not caught up to piracy yet so people were in no danger selling them right out in the open.   The Dreamcast was the first system that could be pirated by the average user.

Now, did that kill the Dreamcast?  No.  Sega torpedoed the Dreamcast voluntarily through lack of support and basic lack of desire.  The Dreamcast was really just a boxed version of the Naomi platform anyway and that's what Sega was really interested in going forward.

ChadTower:

The GD-ROM concept was a good one.  The flaw was that very few of the games were actually bigger than a CDR.  All people had to do was read off the GD-ROM, write it to a CDR, and then throw it in a mass burner.  Or on an ftp site.  Sega's anti-Sony approach of engine generated animation rather than prerendered video actually bit them in the ass a little.  If their games were as bloated with cutscenes as Playstation games were they would all have been bigger than a CDR and much harder to pirate.

DaveMMR:

--- Quote from: ChadTower on December 14, 2010, 03:10:28 pm ---
--- Quote from: DaveMMR on December 13, 2010, 07:26:59 pm ---Were there workarounds to overcome this?   Yeah probably - but I don't know.  

...

What the Dreamcast's ability to read unsigned CD-R's led to was homebrew games (of varying quality).  This did not affect software sales, and, as others have mentioned, the DC was pretty much dead once there was homebrewing in the works.  

--- End quote ---


Yes, there were workarounds, and yes, they were effective and allowed the easiest pirating of any console to that point.

I strongly disagree that it didn't affect software sales.  It was easy to get pirated Dreamcast games.  They were all over the same internet locations where people were pirating any other software.  They were also available, right out in the open, on Ebay, at flea markets, wherever people were doing shady business at the time.  Awareness had not caught up to piracy yet so people were in no danger selling them right out in the open.   The Dreamcast was the first system that could be pirated by the average user.

Now, did that kill the Dreamcast?  No.  Sega torpedoed the Dreamcast voluntarily through lack of support and basic lack of desire.  The Dreamcast was really just a boxed version of the Naomi platform anyway and that's what Sega was really interested in going forward.

--- End quote ---

Fully aware I'm only speaking of my immediate surroundings.... I knew plenty of people who owned Dreamcast's; no one had pirated software.   I don't doubt you were able to find bootlegged DC games (not unlike the bootlegged PS1 games I always came across), but it wasn't like those guys walking into bars and laundromats with the bootleg DVDs for sale they have nowadays.

Now, could the DC be pirated by the average user back then (i.e. not anyone on this board)?   Again, don't think so.  I did a search on DC backups.  Here's a snippet:


--- Quote ---Second, YOU CAN NOT DIRECTLY COPY THE GAMES FROM THE ORIGINAL DISC. It's not the same as PSX - you can't rent a DC game and do a CD to CD copy. It simply doesn't work. You HAVE to download the images. Regular CD-ROM drives are incapable of reading the high-density sections of GD-ROM discs, and rumors of 'hacked cd-rom firmware' to read GD-ROMs are just that: rumors.
--- End quote ---

Mind you, this is information in 2010 - not 1999 when many of us were still on dial-up.    And all the pages I saw in my search required software downloads, multiple steps AND an .iso download.

Sorry, I find it hard to believe there was ferocious copying of DC games during its lifespan.

(Addendum:  Though I can believe it was more prevalent around when Pinballjim stated -- after it was already dead and stores weren't really selling new games anyhow.)

RayB:
Sega still sells brand new Dreamcasts:

http://www.amazon.com/Sega-Dreamcast-Console/dp/B00000K2R4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1292378323&sr=8-1


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