The End Is Near: Gamestop accepting retro game trade-ins

[Kriven]

I feel like this is also a response to the move towards digital distribution. Modern games have smaller manufacture runs, and many industry leaders are talking about the death of the physical disc. If that were to happen, GameStop's entire purpose for being would collapse. It makes sense that they would switch gears a little bit, since a large portion of the old games haven't yet been ported to digital services.

I'm not saying this is the way the industry will go as an objective statement, but I think it's probably a major factor in why GameStop would decide do to this. They're just trying to build a revenue buffer for the possibility that this generation might be the last to see physical games.

[Koh]

I personally wouldn't mind if physical releases DID disappear. It only really sucks for the collectors honestly. Who's going to look me in the eye and say they enjoyed dealing with CD read problems, having to blow cartridges numerous times or tilt them at some sweetspot to get it working? I don't. Or how about the classic battery failure, where all your game data is lost. Then you actually need some place to store all these things, either by shelf, stack or some place where they can just BE.

[E-Man]

I'm generally mixed about the whole physical vs. digital release thing. It's a little more convenient to have the games on hand as opposed to going through all the trouble of downloading them and eventually exhausting all the free data space on your console. If you want to play a game, all you have to do is find it on the shelf and pop it in.

On the other hand, ever since Virtual Console-lke services have been made available, it means that I can play nearly any game I missed out on legally without jumping through hoops to find a working copy of a certain game. Plus, it makes it even more difficult to lose games since that sometimes happens with physical copies (I already shared a story of lost GBA games on another thread).

[Helmo]

I personally don't see what would be wrong with reproduction cartridges.  After all, I can't imagine too many original ones still being properly functional after all these years.  All a reproduction cartridge is is slapping the same game data into a more recent cartridge anyway.  Also great for rom hacks that decided to go the extra mile of making an official cartridge release.

Now if it's just a collector's pet peeve because everything needs to be 100% old and 100% not-reproduced, then it's a very minor complaint that only affects their collecting fix, and not the ability to play the games.  All GameStop needs to care about is that they're functional, not that they're vintage.

WOW... I hardly know where to begin.

#1 cartridges last a pretty damn long time, all my cartridges from old systems still work perfect... Even the ones for my Atari 2600.

#2 All they need to worry about is if it works?? It's not a matter of vintage vs functional it's about REAL vs fucking FAKE. That's what determines the fucking prices of the goddamn games, the fucking rarity. If gamestop thinks that a repro cart of Earthbound is real they're gonna sell it for like $80 along with any real ones. Not to mention it's probably not legal to knowingly sell them.

Reproduction carts are cool for rom hacks/translations etc. but they should NOT be sold as though they're the genuine article. ALSO blowing in your carts does literally nothing but corrode the contacts.

[Koh]

But that's exactly my point Helmo. Unless you've got an obvious unlicensed chinese game in that reproduction cartridge or something, it IS the real Earthbound. It just happens to be in a newer case. Reproduction cartridges are made of old games all the time, especially the rarer ones that only have a small handful of the original cartridges still out in the world. As long as it works, and it is indeed Earthbound or whatever it claims to be, that should be enough. Who cares if its in the original plastic versus new plastic?

[Kosheh]

geez, I don't work for Gamestop but lemme throw in my two cents. this is kinda silly

#2 All they need to worry about is if it works?? It's not a matter of vintage vs functional it's about REAL vs fucking FAKE. That's what determines the fucking prices of the goddamn games, the fucking rarity. If gamestop thinks that a repro cart of Earthbound is real they're gonna sell it for like $80 along with any real ones. Not to mention it's probably not legal to knowingly sell them.

Reproduction carts are cool for rom hacks/translations etc. but they should NOT be sold as though they're the genuine article. ALSO blowing in your carts does literally nothing but corrode the contacts.

gee, helmo, you sound mad. lemme quote koh's post 'cos it's relevant here too

But that's exactly my point Helmo.  Unless you've got an obvious unlicensed chinese game in that reproduction cartridge or something, it IS the real Earthbound.  It just happens to be in a newer case.  Reproduction cartridges are made of old games all the time, especially the rarer ones that only have a small handful of the original cartridges still out in the world.  As long as it works, and it is indeed Earthbound or whatever it claims to be, that should be enough.  Who cares if its in the original plastic versus new plastic?

You know, this came up while I was looking at the list of games - and that's partly why there's a carefully-chosen list of games.
I was actually shocked when Earthbound wasn't listed, but then I realized why - most copies of Earthbound you see on auction sites now are reproductions or bootleg copies. Gamestop wouldn't knowingly take that chance, and if they did, their employees would need additional training: they'd have to sit through like a webinar on intermediate cartridge care and each store would need the right security bit to open the games and inspect them for the proper carts. Knowing the foot traffic GS sometimes gets, this just wouldn't be feasible and for them it's simply not worth the trouble. On the other hand, who the HELL is going to bootleg a copy of Battletoads or TMNT Tournament Fighters?

If gamestop thinks that a repro cart of Earthbound is real they're gonna sell it for like $80 along with any real ones. Not to mention it's probably not legal to knowingly sell them.

it's funny you mention this - there's a ma & pa game store that sells videogames, and several times I've seen bootleg games sitting amidst their selection.  it's usually GBA games. They just so happened to have several bootleg copies of Final Fantasy games, including Tactics and VI, and I pointed it out to the clerk on shift. I pointed out every single difference between the two, and she immediately brought them to the store owner and relayed the information. He just shrugged and said "so?" My blood actually boiled right then and there - that's depressing. ):

I just kept my mouth shut afterward, hoping a real whistleblowing nerd will alert Nintendo that they're knowingly selling bootleg cartridges and the place will have no choice but to stop carrying them (the owner is a real dick, too - I won't get into that, though)

I've gone into other ma & pa game stores around here, found SEVERAL bootleg games, and explain why (the label's usually enough) - they open up the cartridge, look at them and say "oh. yeah, you're right actually. thanks for pointing those out!"

Reproduction carts are cool for rom hacks/translations etc. but they should NOT be sold as though they're the genuine article. ALSO blowing in your carts does literally nothing but corrode the contacts.

There's actually local stores here that sell repro carts, and one even has an agreement with a repro cart maker that occasionally supplies his shop with them (though, for your sake, I should mention that while talking to a friend who works at one said store [spoilers: it's ROBBYDUDE!] the repro cart manufacturer absolutely refuses to make repro copies of anything Earthbound) and...uh, well, that's awesome :V



Humorously enough, I've NEVER had an issue with fake cartridges at Gamestop, EVER. I have a friend who sold a bootleg copy of Pokemon FireRed he bought off of eBay to one and they took it - but that's the only time I've seen a bootleg at Gamestop.

[TomGuycott]

On the subject of shitty Ma and Pa bootlegs, back when Pokemon was JUST taking off and people who didn't care about video games or pokemon before or since, there was a store that printed really shitty bootleg Pokemon Cards. We were really pissed off at middle school, because those booster packs were expensive.


On the subject of old game reproductions, if they don't do it already then I feel like the reproducers should make various signs of reproduction on the mother board or wherever it would be difficult to undo that kind of thing. If I ever wanted a reproduction of a rare game and someone was leery about doing it for me, I'd be all like "just sodder a Dickbutt inside it, that way they know it's not legit."

Part of me would love to see Gamestop stock some retro games, but I won't hold my breath, because lord knows they'd just mark up the price anyway.

[Kriven]

They should put the indicator right on the outside of the cartridge. Just add a "Date of Manufacture" right on the back.

[Helmo]

The majority of bootleg games at gamestop are DS games, but there were plenty of GBA ones back when they had them. I see them all the time when looking through the DS section.

[Kosheh]

On the subject of old game reproductions, if they don't do it already then I feel like the reproducers should make various signs of reproduction on the mother board or wherever it would be difficult to undo that kind of thing. If I ever wanted a reproduction of a rare game and someone was leery about doing it for me, I'd be all like "just sodder a Dickbutt inside it, that way they know it's not legit."

Most repro makers like Rose Colored Gaming usually "sacrifice" another cartridge's motherboard that has similar specs and flash a different game onto a ROM chip which is then soldered to the cart. They do it in a way that's pretty cool, actually and make sure to do a professional-looking, clean soldering job. Chinese bootlegs generally have their own boards with the cartridge being dependent on a battery - if the battery runs dry, so does the entire game, not just the save data. They also do an incredibly shitty soldering job that looks like a third grader soldered the chips on.

They should put the indicator right on the outside of the cartridge. Just add a "Date of Manufacture" right on the back.

It's usually on the label of the repro cartridge. Repro teams generally are good about that kind of thing. Heck, they even make reproduction labels that all state REPRODUCTION LABEL so you know it's been replaced.

The majority of bootleg games at gamestop are DS games, but there were plenty of GBA ones back when they had them. I see them all the time when looking through the DS section.

I must live in a good town or something...then. I've only seen one DS bootleg, ever and it's 'cos one of my coworkers at my current job bought it off of eBay...but yeah, all the DS games I've ever purchased all check out.

Then again, I don't think I've ever bought a DS game without the box first, lol

[Kriven]

*tugs at Kosheh's sleeve and whispers* how can you tell if the ds game is fake

[psychospacecow]

A bit late I know, but I do have one issue with physical vs digital. A lot of it goes through Steam. What happens if steam caves? So does the industry. All eggs in one basket, ya know?

[E-Man]

That's a very good question. I think that it might be resolved if you actually downloaded the games onto your computer instead of relying on cloud data, but this is only a guess because I don't really know ho Steam works for certain.

Anyway, what I could tell you is that Steam might have already taken precautions to prevent everyone in the whole world losing their games (i.e. backup servers) since I think that a big company like that gets asked that question at least on occasion and it is a smart business move to invest in a backup plan or two.

[Helmo]

*tugs at Kosheh's sleeve and whispers* how can you tell if the ds game is fake

The most obvious is the label, if the label is wrong it's obviously fake.

The color of the metal on the back being dull, if "Nintendo" doesn't have a "tm" after it, or the seal of quality is wrong etc.

One other way is to check the back of the cart, if the green board has "Nintendo" written on it instead of a code then it's fake.