Boutique publisher Limited Run Games was recently accused of a GPL (general public license) violation in relation to Tomba! Special Edition, which, it was discovered, uses the PSXC-Rearmed emulator.
The issue was flagged on January 27th and has recently resurfaced and brought to our attention by several readers of the site.
We approached Limited Run Games for a comment and were told by Josh Fairhurst, Limited Run's co-founder and CEO, that it was always the intention to establish a GitHub repository that contained the modified portions of the PCSX-Rearmed emulator which form part of the company's Carbon Engine. There was apparently a delay when it was discovered that a Limited Run Games GitHub already existed.
Fairhurst says that it took "longer than expected to gain access to it" as the company was unaware of who actually set it up in the first place, and other critical deadlines within the company took residence.
However, Fairhurst was able to confirm with Time Extension that the repository is now fully up to date. "My understanding is that we have performed our duties by including the license in [the] game and publicly releasing the modified portions of the source code," he says.
Fairhurst also points out that this approach has also been taken by other firms which use PCSX-Rearmed, such as Blaze with its Evercade line of systems. "I think we could make our GitHub repository link more visible, which I will work to correct next week with a credits page similar to Evercade's," he adds.
[source github.com]
Comments 23
Mistakes....
puts on sunglasses
were made
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Can you please link to this repo? I can't find it.
And no coverage of LRG doing multiple reprints of their "limited run" games? https://youtu.be/MvkZkgmpg2w
@gingerbeardman https://github.com/LRG-CarbonEngine/PCSX-ReARMed
I've seen the video you mention and will be asking Josh / LRG about it.
@Damo cheers!
Tomba is so damn good. One of those games where even the demo is a solid play.
The PS4 version of tomba! Special is still missing in action as well they said it would come later but its has still not yet been released
@gingerbeardman I actually hope this is true. I’d love to get a copy of Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse for Switch without paying scalper prices (which I’ll never do).
random question:
we sometimes get physical carts for big rereleases and even new indie games on legacy consoles like genesis and NES.
why not psx discs? 🤔 or am I wrong?
@PZT How long did MVG work for Nightdive anyway?
If Josh Fairhurst is claiming it, it's almost certainly a lie.
Curious why the investigative video I sent in on LRG last week didn't get picked up here. Or anywhere else.
@-wc- To run on original, unmodified PlayStation hardware, discs would need specific "errors" in the disc mastering which the BIOS reads as copy-protection as well as region identification.
@KingMike
i knew there was a reason! is it "illegal" to replicate those "errors," or are they secret like a code?
thanks for the explanation! ✌️
@GravyThief If you watch the video linked above, the accusation is that LRG is secretly printing more copies while pretending the games are limited runs so as to maintain high resale values. Not what you might be thinking: telling everyone they are printing more copies of popular games.
I’m honestly not sure what I think of the accusations, as I don’t think people have evidence LRG itself profits from high resale values (i.e., LRG is behind games on eBay). Is the logic that LRG assumes some people only buy their games in the first place for high resale values? As a way for LRG to profit, that seems a bit convoluted…
@XiaoShao How is the notion that LRG increases demand by positioning releases as "high value collectable items" convoluted? Misrepresenting scarcity of items aimed at collectors is so straightforward and simple that I can't see how anyone could claim that's convoluted.
@Norintha
I would say it is a diamong in the rough. Generel gameplay idea is good and oddly a more or less unique combination (never understood why) and the presentation also is great.
But even back then the controls were something you had to get used to and not very good. Also it had some tedious backtracking, some quests with mediocore logic and oher things that could be improved.
Tomba is one of my personal all-time favorites. But I see some flaws and some things that aged poorly. This game would have needed a remake with all those things improved and with all those hype for metroidvania style sidescrollers it could have had a much bigger impact than this "remaster" had.
@-wc- I work for a company that does game distribution and also works with the major disc replicators for PlayStation and Xbox. So, PS1 discs are no longer able to be manufactured by Sony DADC, the company that does PlayStation discs. Many people don't know this, but it actually was still possible to get PS1 and PS2 games reprinted up until late 2019. For the last few years of that period, they were actually silver discs, and are actually mistaken for Hong Kong silvers, but they are the real thing. And that also goes for the Square Enix reprints they were selling on their online store for many years.
In any case, LRG couldn't get PS1 discs reprinted even if they wanted to. And they wouldn't dare make CD-Rs, not after the 3DO fiasco they had last year.
@JohnWan My point is that it would be a clear scam if LRG was itself selling games at a markup because of their alleged rarity, but LRG sells games at a set retail price. It’s the eBay folks that benefit from some level of rarity.
It’s your argument that this practice “increases demand” that I find more convoluted. Even CEs from LRG are open preorders with no set amount of units to be made. So how many consumers really buy the games because not many are being made, when it’s not even clear how rare it is? It’s certainly not why I buy anything from LRG: I want the physical copy because it’s a game I enjoy and have no interest in its rarity or resale value.
I will say LRG should be 100% transparent: if they will make more units for popular games, they should say so. Even while I don’t see how they profit much from this shadiness, a good company should be honest with its customers.
@-wc- My guess is maybe it would have required a specialized machinery to produce the discs with the correct "wobble" as it's called.
I'm guessing that Sony had their own disc-mastering facilities and the capability to set up PS-specific lines.
@KingMike yeah Sony Corp has their own disc manufacturing facility named Sony DADC, they used to make discs for Sony Music and Sony Pictures and they still make PlayStation discs, but the US manufacturing is now at their European facility in Austria. They also used to make Sega CD discs back in the day.
@XiaoShao They have extremely healthy margins. Given the direct-to-consumer nature of their website, they have the single best margins of anyone in the physical space. "Fraud by misrepresenting scarcity" is a classic practice that has existed long before LRG.
As for this article itself, it should be updated to reflect that LRG did not refute the license violation accusation. This twitter post seems to sum everything up much better than your article, which takes LRG's claims to have cleaned up their mess at face value despite all evidence to the contrary.
https://x.com/SuperMetroid64/status/1917207542926545355
@Twapsel
My biggest problem really, is that once you get through the first jungle bit and find the tower suddenly everything comes rushing to the end.
I have little respect for LRG, but now I'm losing respect for some who have worked for them, some who have had their hands in writing the Carbon Engine. If that was ever even an original creation of theirs.
Can you believe that after posting numerous articles pumping a Chinese IP thief; essentially making this site an ad for months, you're chastising a company for GPL violations?
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