Reproduction cartridges

[Zenszulu]

Just wondering what peoples thoughts are are reproduction cartridges of games that weren't originally released in certain regions or never translated to English but have since been through rom patches, I know it's a bit of a grey area but still wondering what others thoughts are.

[Cauterize]

Grey indeed.

Whilst I'd love to believe the reproduction creators are getting in touch with the patch creators and getting their permission beforehand, I'm rather sceptical. Patch permission aside, you could then argue that these reproductions are made without Sega's, Nintendo's or any of the other company's permission either.

That said though, if any of these companies saw any problem with these reproductions you would have known about it by now. The reason they're around is that there is a demand for them. Nothing beats enjoying a game on the original hardware and given these don't exist legitimately in cartridge form, the grey-ness is somewhat easily ignored!

If only Nintendo released Star Fox 2...

[Zenszulu]

I agree it is such a grey area but i have tried playing those certain games that had fan translations in emulators and there is something about playing it on a PC that kind of kills it for me and as you say nothing beats playing it on the original hardware, although I also don't like these people who make the repros from existing cartridges by wiping them, I am however a fan of the ones that are built brand new and use all new parts because at least then they actually producing everything themselves.

Call me odd if you like but there is something about pretty much destroying old games no matter how bad they are just seems wrong to me, but when a publishers like super fighter team and watermelon make all the stuff from the ground up that I just love, even retrozone they do repros but also many homebrew NES games. I think I am in love with the idea of newlt produced games on old systems though.

[BigHurt]

I would easily buy Seiken Denetsu 3 or whats it called on cartridge, if it was patched with english text.

What I don't like are sellers that sell reproduction box and manuals for games that did see a english release.

[Zenszulu]

I have seen some of the reproductions for manuals and boxes on ebay and they are stupidly high prices some have been almost £30 which is stupid for a bit of card, I am quite tempted to get both Tales of Phantasia and Star Ocean from retrousb.com as they were never officially translated and they are all new parts although they don't come with any box or manual which would make them pretty good packages.

[BuckoA51]

If it's a repro, why not just get the ROM and wack it on your Everdrive?

[Zenszulu]

There is something about a standalone cartridge that really appeals to me dunno why as the convenience of a flash cart really outweighs it by far.

[Pondis]

I would only buy a repro cart for a game that was never released in PAL regions and later fan translated.

Im not sure I would count it in my collection though. I only collect complete, boxed with instructions games, so any missing one or the other dont get logged.

[Zenszulu]

I agree with you on both counts if I can buy an official version of the game I will go for that every time, but with so many games in the 8 and 16-bit eras that never got translated and released when I see them and that they use all new components I really get tempted by them, but I wouldn't count them as part of an official collection either.

[Shadowman]

I don't mind them. I picked up a couple of my Megaman collection - most notably Megaman and Bass for the Snes (translated version of Rockman and Forte) and a mock USA version of Megaman the Wily Wars. They are nice to have sit alongside my collection as oddities.

[BigHurt]

If it's a repro, why not just get the ROM and wack it on your Everdrive?

Wack it..

[BuckoA51]

Of all the grammatical errors on the internet you pick on that one

[nokgod]

I have several SNES repros.



In actual fact they're all available (barring Starfox 2). If anyone's interested drop me a pm. Apologies for the blatant sales pitch!

[Zenszulu]

I would be tempted except the fact that they use donor carts, but maybe I am an idealist and like the idea of some one producing a brand new product from the ground up, so tempted by secret of mana 2 though.

[nokgod]

Yes, that's absolutely true. That repro of Secret of Mana 2 was, in fact, my loose copy of Illusion of Time in its previous life. I would have thought it would be extremely difficult/expensive to build one from scratch.

[Zenszulu]

Well since I have started this topic I have actually taken the plunge and ordered both Star Ocean and Tales of Phantasia from retrousb.com I think it work out at £45 for the most expensive of the two but the both use all new parts and are region free a bit of a steep plunge but I like how they are made with new parts and personally find that a decent price.

[nakamura]

That is a pretty decent price for those games. I have a complete Secret of Mana 2 US repro. Love it!

[mickylynch9]

Where would I be able to get a fully boxed and complete PAL snes repro game? I'm really interested in getting Secret of Mana 2, Starfox 2 and some other games that were never released in the UK