What a mess. I don't have much else to say outside what I have mentioned in the comments section of the other reports here on TimeExtension. There's so many sides to the story that it's hard to point out exactly what's going on.
@Hexapus Yeah. My bad in not understanding the story completely, many people are coming with assumptions and it's hard to pin-point who exactly is to blame and how exactly it happened.
Here's the thing. Not counting the whole discussion regarding the SWAT (which is a big thing, I won't deny), that's the problem about trying to "preserve" prototypes and such. At the end of the day, many of those prototypes (either hardware, being prototype consoles, or software, prototype games), have very big disclaimers about not allowing distribution, reselling, and everything.
The person could have bought this to keep by himself, even though it would still fall under the rule that it shouldn't be distributed or being sold. But the blame is still more to the van driver who, first, was going to dispose the games (anyone could just put all of this on a regular trash, and cases like this HAVE happened before, of prototypes being on trash and someone else finding it), and second, selling them.
I'm to the side of game developers and even publishers to keep those things saved by themselves, so I don't like when prototypes are destroyed or just tossed away. I think prototypes are interesting and I love seeing old versions of games. Preservation does not mean accessibility, though. If anything goes, the Nintendo Leaks showcased us that Nintendo have an absurd library of their old works, still saved on their offices.
Games are one of the few media that prototypes are usually seen. We don't often see prototype of movies or books. Sometimes an early version of a movie might leak, but it's way less common than games. That sort of thing are usually reserved to who's making it, and there can be cases of personal information being leaked (one of the Forest of Illusion releases was some sort of test tool that had one of the developers face on it, while it was censored on the blogpost, I don't think it was when the actual ROM was released).
Before we end on conclusions in regards to the actions the buyer had with the whole situation, we need to remind ourselves what he has been through. He did everything legally, just buying something that was considered "junk" by whoever was disposing it.
So, imagine how does it feel for, out of the sudden, one day, you wake up with a loud knock on your door and ten officers seizes your house, and you have no idea what is happening. It's very understandable how he felt with the whole thing, and I don't blame the guy.
He was behind a cell for eight hours, all because of a misunderstanding. This is a very scary behavior, and I'm on his side in trying to understand what has happened. I don't think Nintendo would go after the guy, but instead was after SEGA, as they were at fault here. It seems SEGA panicked, and tried to resolve matters very poorly.
Sadly, those sort of things can happen if we publicly post about our lives in social media and the things we plan to do. However, no public traction means that wouldn't be enough funds to get these prototypes in the first place.
Game preservation is a grey area, and, while prototypes are cool to see, they are usually very confidential, it even says on the consoles and usually on game carts/discs as well. We did have Forest of Illusion shutdown and, as far as I know, we don't know exactly what happened.
Regardless of all that, if the person who sold these things had no idea about the values or how confidential these were, that's a problem in regards to the SELLER, and not the BUYER. In the end of the day, the person who bought those should kept the things, and the real person responsible should be whoever thought they could throw these things in the trash in the first place. Raiding the buyer's house was a very bad idea and, dare I say, dystopian.
The whole situation is a mess, and it's likely we may never know all the details.
Comments 5
Re: Company That Cleared Sega's Offices Of "Stolen" Nintendo Dev Kits Is A Charity, New Evidence Reveals
What a mess. I don't have much else to say outside what I have mentioned in the comments section of the other reports here on TimeExtension. There's so many sides to the story that it's hard to point out exactly what's going on.
Re: Random: Looks Like We All Owe The BBC An Apology - It Didn't Twin Windows 95 With An Apple Mac After All
They played 4D Chess with everyone who complained and nobody noticed.
Re: Sega Accused Of Using Police To Recover Nintendo Dev Kits It Had "Negligently Disposed Of"
@Hexapus Yeah. My bad in not understanding the story completely, many people are coming with assumptions and it's hard to pin-point who exactly is to blame and how exactly it happened.
Here's the thing. Not counting the whole discussion regarding the SWAT (which is a big thing, I won't deny), that's the problem about trying to "preserve" prototypes and such. At the end of the day, many of those prototypes (either hardware, being prototype consoles, or software, prototype games), have very big disclaimers about not allowing distribution, reselling, and everything.
The person could have bought this to keep by himself, even though it would still fall under the rule that it shouldn't be distributed or being sold. But the blame is still more to the van driver who, first, was going to dispose the games (anyone could just put all of this on a regular trash, and cases like this HAVE happened before, of prototypes being on trash and someone else finding it), and second, selling them.
I'm to the side of game developers and even publishers to keep those things saved by themselves, so I don't like when prototypes are destroyed or just tossed away. I think prototypes are interesting and I love seeing old versions of games. Preservation does not mean accessibility, though. If anything goes, the Nintendo Leaks showcased us that Nintendo have an absurd library of their old works, still saved on their offices.
Games are one of the few media that prototypes are usually seen. We don't often see prototype of movies or books. Sometimes an early version of a movie might leak, but it's way less common than games. That sort of thing are usually reserved to who's making it, and there can be cases of personal information being leaked (one of the Forest of Illusion releases was some sort of test tool that had one of the developers face on it, while it was censored on the blogpost, I don't think it was when the actual ROM was released).
Re: Sega Accused Of Using Police To Recover Nintendo Dev Kits It Had "Negligently Disposed Of"
Before we end on conclusions in regards to the actions the buyer had with the whole situation, we need to remind ourselves what he has been through. He did everything legally, just buying something that was considered "junk" by whoever was disposing it.
So, imagine how does it feel for, out of the sudden, one day, you wake up with a loud knock on your door and ten officers seizes your house, and you have no idea what is happening. It's very understandable how he felt with the whole thing, and I don't blame the guy.
He was behind a cell for eight hours, all because of a misunderstanding. This is a very scary behavior, and I'm on his side in trying to understand what has happened. I don't think Nintendo would go after the guy, but instead was after SEGA, as they were at fault here. It seems SEGA panicked, and tried to resolve matters very poorly.
Sadly, those sort of things can happen if we publicly post about our lives in social media and the things we plan to do. However, no public traction means that wouldn't be enough funds to get these prototypes in the first place.
Game preservation is a grey area, and, while prototypes are cool to see, they are usually very confidential, it even says on the consoles and usually on game carts/discs as well. We did have Forest of Illusion shutdown and, as far as I know, we don't know exactly what happened.
Regardless of all that, if the person who sold these things had no idea about the values or how confidential these were, that's a problem in regards to the SELLER, and not the BUYER. In the end of the day, the person who bought those should kept the things, and the real person responsible should be whoever thought they could throw these things in the trash in the first place. Raiding the buyer's house was a very bad idea and, dare I say, dystopian.
The whole situation is a mess, and it's likely we may never know all the details.
Re: '50 Indie Games That Changed The World' Explores How Indies Altered The Industry Forever
...no Yume Nikki?