There's a lot to be said against PC gaming. It's often more expensive,
sometimes requiring more technical acumen, more space, more power.
With a console, you just plug in the device, slap in a disk, and off
you go. [1]. PCs need you to futz around with an operating system,
worry about hardware compatibilities, etc.

But PC gaming does have one huge strength: the huge and relatively
easy accessibility of mods. From new skins for your on-screen avatar,
to player-made bug-fixes, to entirely new games made from the base
engine, the modding scene is one of the triumphs of PC gaming and is
often held up as the reason to pick the platform over its rivals.

It's also something Capcom hates.

In a recent video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT5bwwvDv00] [2]
the company detailed why it hates PC game mods, arguing that mods are
equivalent to 'cheating', lead to higher support costs, and
reputational damage, and that Capcom will continue to try to crack
down on them in the same way it does with its anti-cheat and
anti-piracy measures.

Which, look... if you think that sounds rather brain dead,
anti-consumer, and a complete misunderstanding of the PC market, I'm
not going to disagree with you. Frankly, if Capcom does choose to go
down this course, I'm happy enough writing off their games entirely.
They've never really made any games I've /HAD/ to play, and if they
suddenly disappear from the PC market, I'm not going to be that upset.

But I do get where Capcom is coming from (I don't agree with it, but
that's not the point). Because while the obvious reasoning behind this
is economic - a big chunk of Capcom revenue is made selling players
skins and expansions to their existing games, and free user-made mods
cannibalize these sales - I think it's more than that.

Capcom is a Japanese, console gaming company, and there are a lot of
societal differences from Western PC gaming. Capcom started as a
developer of arcade games, an industry where most 'mods' were pirated
copies of their ROMS and hardware. PC games in Japan were (are)
long-seen as the alternative for people interested in hentai and other
pornographic games; it was the SLEAZY platform. Japanese culture is
also more constrained and respectful of an authority's singular
vision; thus, an artist's intent for his work was often seen as the
only allowable interpretation. Modding a game to add new characters or
visuals beyond what the developer created? It's almost a heresy!

So, I get it; to a Japanese audience - and to Capcom's developers (and
that's whom the video was aimed - Capcom's assertion about PC gamers
modding their games makes a certain logical sense, if you accept their
worldview.

Of course, the problem is, Capcom also wants to sell their games on
the PC market and to western audiences. And if they think their
ultra-restrictive attitudes will fly there, well... like I said,
they're free to try, but at best people will just ignore their demands
and make the mods anyway. At worst, Capcom games will disappear from
the PC market. It's a stupid move, but if that's what they want? Knock
yourself out, Capcom. With thousands of other games available, you
won't really be missed.

--------------------------

[1] Well, less so these days. Too many console games require
installation and day-one patches these days. But the plug-n-play
method is the ideal, and even when consoles don't achieve that, it
still handles all the non-ideal nonsense far more automatically and
transparently than do PC games

[2] Nominally, the video is an open conference about developing
in-house anti-piracy methods and practices, but the speaker lumps
modmakers into the same group as cheat-makers and pirates.
The anti-mod spiel begins around the 14 minute mark. After the 18
minute mark, it goes into general ideas into HOW to prevent
piracy/mods/cheats, so unless you're interested you can stop there
(they aren't really saying anything new there, though)

Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> In a recent video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT5bwwvDv00] [2]
> the company detailed why it hates PC game mods, arguing that mods are
> equivalent to 'cheating', lead to higher support costs, and
> reputational damage, and that Capcom will continue to try to crack
> down on them in the same way it does with its anti-cheat and
> anti-piracy measures.

Warning: I'm going to play Devil's advocate here and defend Capcom,
although only on Anti-Modding

"Reputational Damage":
I'm seeing where this may come from, because this just reminded me of
another japanese fighting game company that literally had a warning
screen before the game started indicating that modding was banned and
would be prosecuted.

That would have been Tecmo, nowadays Koei-Tecmo, and the reason was the
Dead or Alive fully naked mods, which got even worse when a piece of
garbage called "Dead or Alive Extreme Beach Volleyball happened". This
has been affecting Street Fighter V and VI too. Lire restoring the
original Juri costume that was a bit too revealing, or the chun li going
commando mods. After what Rockstar got into with the Hot Coffee mod,
it's expected.

"Modding and cheating": Capcom is extremely focused on online games like
monster hunter, and Street Fighter has embraced Esports. There's a
slippery slope between modding a new character or new music, and
removing the protections against using a Hitbox controller. Hacked data
making it to the servers becomes a problem for other players. You just
have to see Pokémon players that have received edited monsters.

My reason for defending Capcom is that they will remove Denuvo from
their PC games once the sales goal has been met, something that can't be
said about Ubi Soft. It's something that balances the shittiness.

That would be the end of my defense. Now I'm going to bring out the
pitchfork and proceed to stab Capcom:

- Day one DLC and on-disc DLC. From the video, they are not worried
about game piracy, but DLC piracy (Denuvo has solved the problem) The
reason they are so worried about this is that they gotten into deep shit
with bad practices regarding DLC. First with Resident Evil 5 and locked
content inside the disc. This got worse with Street Fighter VS Tekken,
that had a ton of fighters locked and hidden because they were on hold
until the PSP version was released. Rather than releasing DLC, Capcom
intentionally removes content from the game that has been there since
the first day. "You get what you fudging deserve".

- Cancelling Megaman Legends 3. I still want payback for this.

- Abandoning every other IP their own to focus purely on Resident Evil,
Monster Hunter and Street Fighter.

> Capcom is a Japanese, console gaming company, and there are a lot of
> societal differences from Western PC gaming. Capcom started as a
> developer of arcade games, an industry where most 'mods' were
> pirated copies of their ROMS and hardware. PC games in Japan were
> (are) long-seen as the alternative for people interested in hentai
> and other pornographic games; it was the SLEAZY platform. Japanese
> culture is also more constrained and respectful of an authority's
> singular vision; thus, an artist's intent for his work was often seen
> as the only allowable interpretation. Modding a game to add new
> characters or visuals beyond what the developer created? It's almost
> a heresy!

Have you been watching the anime 16 Bit Sensation: Another Layer? On the
episode that is set on 1992, one of the protagonists is pretty annoyed
about how erotic games have overtaken the PC98 market and is not happy
about having to code them for a living. It is sorta implied that he was
playing rpgs on in, and at that time Ultima and Wizardry were big in Japan.

Japanese companies at its best...

There are so many cultural differences in approach to technology
it is amazing that we can find common ground in so many areas.

But I love japanese culture, we even had a japanese guest kid recently
in our house, I learned a ton upfront to accommodate the kid as well as
possible, but you have to see it from their fixed POV which is quite
rigid, highest principle in japan is the community and that you behave
within its rules, modding probably from their pov is breaking out of
this common ground on how to deal with their products.

That also explains a ton of Sonys weird behavior I guess and why
Japanese companies after initial success lose their ground after 1-2
decades at the top, they have problems to adapt to changes which happen
outside of japan due to their lack of adaptability and their rigid view
on how everything has to work.

They will come around, but it will take some time, PC gaming is new
territory for them, and it is amazing how long it took them to recognize
it as revenue possibility, but in the end as usual they came around!

On Thu, 2 Nov 2023 16:48:30 +0100, H1M3M <wipnoah@gmail.com> wrote:

>Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

>
>Warning: I'm going to play Devil's advocate here and defend Capcom,
>although only on Anti-Modding

I'm fine with devil-advocating. To some degree I did so myself, since
I know a lot of people on the Internet are going to jump on this story
and view it as an attack upon themselves, and I wanted to offer a
slightly more nuanced take. I don't agree with their stance but I can
to some degree understand where it is coming from. But regardless if
it rooted in reason or note, I think it's a STUPID stance, because if
they really intend to follow through on it, it's going to kill the
company's PC sales.

(but see below why I don't think the video is actually Capcom's
official stand on the issue)

>"Reputational Damage":
>I'm seeing where this may come from, because this just reminded me of
>another japanese fighting game company that literally had a warning
>screen before the game started indicating that modding was banned and
>would be prosecuted.

>That would have been Tecmo, nowadays Koei-Tecmo, and the reason was the
>Dead or Alive fully naked mods, which got even worse when a piece of
>garbage called "Dead or Alive Extreme Beach Volleyball happened". This
>has been affecting Street Fighter V and VI too. Lire restoring the
>original Juri costume that was a bit too revealing, or the chun li going
>commando mods. After what Rockstar got into with the Hot Coffee mod,
>it's expected.

Like I said, to some degree I get Capcom's argument. The reputational
damage thing, though, is hard to swallow given how sophomoric Capcom's
official content often is. They're quite willing to sell blood and
boobs when it profits them. And few companies have ever gotten much
bad press because of third-party mods, since they can easily point out
that they are not the creators for these mods and have no control over
them.

While there have always been a tiny percent of people who have
screeched bloody murder over nude-mods and the like, many of them
aren't actual consumers of the products, but just the usual
sex-obsessed busy-bodies. Mods in general have been well-received by
the games' actual /paying/ audience

(Incidentally, Rockstar got in trouble with HotCoffee not so much
because of the mod, but because the content itself was already in the
game. The mod merely unlocked it; the models and code were on the
discs provided by Rockstar themselves. Had "Hot Coffee merely been a
third-party 'let's add a sex mini-game!' mod, it wouldn't have blown
up in their faces anywhere nearly as big as it did.)

>"Modding and cheating": Capcom is extremely focused on online games like
>monster hunter, and Street Fighter has embraced Esports. There's a
>slippery slope between modding a new character or new music, and
>removing the protections against using a Hitbox controller. Hacked data
>making it to the servers becomes a problem for other players. You just
>have to see Pokémon players that have received edited monsters.

And had the video limited itself to just cheats/piracy, it might not
even have been noticed. But it equivocates general modding to
cheating. (example: slide 19, at ~the 14minute mark: "All mods are
defined as cheats, except when they are officially supported"). It
cites the aforementioned 'reputational damage', increased support
costs, and protecting future profits. It is also very focused on RE
Engine games, now largely used with the single-player Resident Evil
games (and one of the biggest 'support' issues repeatedly mentioned is
'corrupt save files'). I'm not saying that it isn't an issue, but the
video doesn't come across very concerned about mods being used to
advantage certain players over others in esports.

But watching the video again, though, it comes across much more as an
executive defending his position than anything else, so I'm not sure
how much his statements reflect Capcom's official position. The
speaker's job is the newly created office of "security engineer", in
charge of a department where anti-piracy and anti-cheat measures are
centralized rather than left for individual development teams to
ad-hoc.

This new department allows for the build-up of institutional knowledge
rather than requiring each team to recreate the wheel each time, and
it works well with Capcom's creation of its own in-house RE Engine
which will, apparently, form the basis for most (all?) of its future
games. It's arguably a good move by Capcom, but a good chunk of the
video is the speaker promoting his - and his departments - importance
and why all the other teams should come to him for help.

The anti-mod screed takes up four minutes of a 55 minute video. It
seems to be a lot of "these things utilize similar tricks to
cheats/cracks" and "they could also cost Capcom money so must be
stopped!" that, combined with "I'm your one-stop solution to
preventing gaming hacking!" makes me wonder how much this video
represents Capcom's actual stance on mods.

Werner P. wrote:
> Japanese companies at its best...

> But I love japanese culture, we even had a japanese guest kid
> recently in our house, I learned a ton upfront to accommodate the kid
> as well as possible, but you have to see it from their fixed POV
> which is quite rigid, highest principle in japan is the community and
> that you behave within its rules, modding probably from their pov is
> breaking out of this common ground on how to deal with their
> products.
>
>

Japanese companies have traditionally been draconian when it comes to
approaching IP protection, from modding to the creation of derivative
contents. It's one of those things that is becoming a massive culture
clash in the west, and won't change easily. At least Capcom seems
focused on just making things harder for modders, rather than making
your entire life a livinghell like Nintendo.

Still, I will take Capcom being a dick any day over having to suffer
Nintendo or... Pachinkonami.

https://www.kotaku.com.au/2019/01/game-modding-illegal-in-japan-punishable-by-prison-and-fines/

On 11/2/23 12:43, H1M3M wrote:
> Werner P. wrote:
>> Japanese companies at its best...
>
>
>> But I love japanese culture, we even had a japanese guest kid
>> recently in our house, I learned a ton upfront to accommodate the kid
>> as well as possible, but you have to see it from their fixed POV
>> which is quite rigid, highest principle in japan is the community and
>> that you behave within its rules, modding probably from their pov is
>> breaking out of this common ground on how to deal with their
>> products.
>>
>>
>
> Japanese companies have traditionally been draconian when it comes to
> approaching IP protection, from modding to the creation of derivative
> contents. It's one of those things that is becoming a massive culture
> clash in the west, and won't change easily. At least Capcom seems
> focused on just making things harder for modders, rather than making
> your entire life a livinghell like Nintendo.
>
> Still, I will take Capcom being a dick any day over having to suffer
> Nintendo or... Pachinkonami.
>
> https://www.kotaku.com.au/2019/01/game-modding-illegal-in-japan-punishable-by-prison-and-fines/

It always annoys me how much new games are locked down.
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

Am 02.11.23 um 18:43 schrieb H1M3M:
>
> Still, I will take Capcom being a dick any day over having to suffer
> Nintendo or... Pachinkonami.
>
> https://www.kotaku.com.au/2019/01/game-modding-illegal-in-japan-punishable-by-prison-and-fines/
Nintendo is nintendo, take them or leave them, Konami is really evil,
but do they even exist anymore in gaming?

Capcom is somewhat the middle ground, they always had really good games
and never were in the position to pull really bad stunts, but their POV
simply is basically a misunderstanding between japanese culture and
western one. Usually westerners are quicker to understand japanaese
mentality than vice versa!

Either way their view on modding wont change that quickly thats for sure!

Werner P. wrote:

> Nintendo is nintendo, take them or leave them, Konami is really evil,
> but do they even exist anymore in gaming?

Konami seems to be back at re-releasing a few games again, but it sounds
more like their gambling business is not going that well after a
pandemic and a global financial crisis and they need to diversify.

Them holding the entire Hudson Soft catalogue hostage really pisses me
off. Other than a sexualized Bomberman arcade game, nothing has come out
of those IPs.

On Thu, 2 Nov 2023 20:24:57 +0100, H1MEM <wipnoah@gmail.com> wrote:

>Werner P. wrote:
>
>> Nintendo is nintendo, take them or leave them, Konami is really evil,
>> but do they even exist anymore in gaming?
>
>Konami seems to be back at re-releasing a few games again, but it sounds
>more like their gambling business is not going that well after a
>pandemic and a global financial crisis and they need to diversify.
>

Their re-release strategy doesn't seem to be going that well for them
though. The "Metal Gear Solid" pack that just came out bombed /hard/,
thanks to the extremely lackluster effort the company put into it
(many pointing out that earlier releases of the games had more
features/better performance). Their "Silent Hill Revival" thing -
which apparently has a battlepass for cutscenes? - isnt' faring much
better.

Konami is coasting on its past success, but that gravy train seems to
be coming to an end for them.

On 11/3/2023 9:22 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> On Thu, 2 Nov 2023 20:24:57 +0100, H1MEM <wipnoah@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Werner P. wrote:
>>
>>> Nintendo is nintendo, take them or leave them, Konami is really evil,
>>> but do they even exist anymore in gaming?
>>
>> Konami seems to be back at re-releasing a few games again, but it sounds
>> more like their gambling business is not going that well after a
>> pandemic and a global financial crisis and they need to diversify.
>>
>
> Their re-release strategy doesn't seem to be going that well for them
> though. The "Metal Gear Solid" pack that just came out bombed /hard/,
> thanks to the extremely lackluster effort the company put into it
> (many pointing out that earlier releases of the games had more
> features/better performance). Their "Silent Hill Revival" thing -
> which apparently has a battlepass for cutscenes? - isnt' faring much
> better.
>
> Konami is coasting on its past success, but that gravy train seems to
> be coming to an end for them.
>
My heart bleeds for them. Let me find a piece of lint to bandage it with.

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

> Their "Silent Hill Revival" thing - which apparently has a
> battlepass for cutscenes? - isnt' faring much better.
>

More like Bloober Team's Silent Hill. Just hearing Bloober was enough to
put half the fandom into panic mode, and not exactly because the game
was scary.

Am 03.11.23 um 17:22 schrieb Spalls Hurgenson:
> Konami is coasting on its past success, but that gravy train seems to
> be coming to an end for them.
Well, they just have to release Metal Gear Solid, big Tits...

Shit I think I just gave them idea they will pick up!

Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

> It's also something Capcom hates.
>
> In a recent video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT5bwwvDv00] [2]
> the company detailed why it hates PC game mods, arguing that mods are
> equivalent to 'cheating', lead to higher support costs, and
> reputational damage, and that Capcom will continue to try to crack
> down on them in the same way it does with its anti-cheat and
> anti-piracy measures.
>
> Which, look... if you think that sounds rather brain dead,
> anti-consumer, and a complete misunderstanding of the PC market, I'm
> not going to disagree with you. Frankly, if Capcom does choose to go
> down this course, I'm happy enough writing off their games entirely.
> They've never really made any games I've /HAD/ to play, and if they
> suddenly disappear from the PC market, I'm not going to be that upset.

I'm officially in Capcom boycott mode now. Every game, even the ones
that are 10 years old have been updated with Enigma, a Russian
anti-modding DRM that has broken compatibility with Deck and ruined
performance.

On Thu, 18 Jan 2024 11:50:32 +0100, H1MEM <wipnoah@gmail.com> wrote:

>Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>
>> It's also something Capcom hates.
>>
>> In a recent video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT5bwwvDv00] [2]
>> the company detailed why it hates PC game mods, arguing that mods are
>> equivalent to 'cheating', lead to higher support costs, and
>> reputational damage, and that Capcom will continue to try to crack
>> down on them in the same way it does with its anti-cheat and
>> anti-piracy measures.
>>
>> Which, look... if you think that sounds rather brain dead,
>> anti-consumer, and a complete misunderstanding of the PC market, I'm
>> not going to disagree with you. Frankly, if Capcom does choose to go
>> down this course, I'm happy enough writing off their games entirely.
>> They've never really made any games I've /HAD/ to play, and if they
>> suddenly disappear from the PC market, I'm not going to be that upset.
>
>I'm officially in Capcom boycott mode now. Every game, even the ones
>that are 10 years old have been updated with Enigma, a Russian
>anti-modding DRM that has broken compatibility with Deck and ruined
>performance.

But mods are evil! Not only do they give people a reason to keep
playing older games - instead of buying The Latest And Greatest from
Capcom, as God (and Kenzo Tsujimoto) intended - but mods directly
compete with all the cosmetic DLC Capcom sells. Why pay $10 USD for a
revamped model of Ryu when a mod offers the same (or better) for free?
That's practically stealing!!!!

;-)

I have approximately 30 games published by Capcom in my Steam library.
Of those, I only see one where I really had fun and was impressed with
the game, and that's a remake of a thirty-year old game ("D&D:
Chronicles of Mystara"), and even that only held my interest for a
limited time. The rest were either awful ("Bionic Commando") or just
not to my taste (like all their Resident Evil games).

TL;DR: Capcom could drop off the face of the earth and I probably
wouldn't notice. Let them shoot themselves in the foot this way; I
won't care. If there's one thing I'm not lacking in, it's having
enough video games to play.

On Fri, 19 Jan 2024 09:23:23 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson
<spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

>On Thu, 18 Jan 2024 11:50:32 +0100, H1MEM <wipnoah@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>>
>>> It's also something Capcom hates.
>>>
>>> In a recent video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT5bwwvDv00] [2]
>>> the company detailed why it hates PC game mods, arguing that mods are
>>> equivalent to 'cheating', lead to higher support costs, and
>>> reputational damage, and that Capcom will continue to try to crack
>>> down on them in the same way it does with its anti-cheat and
>>> anti-piracy measures.
>>>
>>> Which, look... if you think that sounds rather brain dead,
>>> anti-consumer, and a complete misunderstanding of the PC market, I'm
>>> not going to disagree with you. Frankly, if Capcom does choose to go
>>> down this course, I'm happy enough writing off their games entirely.
>>> They've never really made any games I've /HAD/ to play, and if they
>>> suddenly disappear from the PC market, I'm not going to be that upset.
>>
>>I'm officially in Capcom boycott mode now. Every game, even the ones
>>that are 10 years old have been updated with Enigma, a Russian
>>anti-modding DRM that has broken compatibility with Deck and ruined
>>performance.
>
>
>But mods are evil! Not only do they give people a reason to keep
>playing older games - instead of buying The Latest And Greatest from
>Capcom, as God (and Kenzo Tsujimoto) intended - but mods directly
>compete with all the cosmetic DLC Capcom sells. Why pay $10 USD for a
>revamped model of Ryu when a mod offers the same (or better) for free?
>That's practically stealing!!!!
>
>;-)
>
>
>I have approximately 30 games published by Capcom in my Steam library.
>Of those, I only see one where I really had fun and was impressed with
>the game, and that's a remake of a thirty-year old game ("D&D:
>Chronicles of Mystara"), and even that only held my interest for a
>limited time. The rest were either awful ("Bionic Commando") or just
>not to my taste (like all their Resident Evil games).
>
>TL;DR: Capcom could drop off the face of the earth and I probably
>wouldn't notice. Let them shoot themselves in the foot this way; I
>won't care. If there's one thing I'm not lacking in, it's having
>enough video games to play.
>
>
Side note: if Wikipedia is to be believed* Capcom has /always/ been
obsessed with protecting its IP. Its very name derives from a "clipped
compound of 'CAPsule COMputers", a term coined by the company for the
arcade machines. 'Capsule' alludes to the company's desire to protect
its intellectual property with a hard outer shell, preventing illegal
copies and inferior imitation."

The company was founded in 1979 by Kenzo Tsujimoto. He remains the CEO
to this day. He started business in an era when hackers would
literally take out the boards from arcade machines, apply a new ROM,
and then resell it as a completely new machine. There was reason for
Capcom's paranoia and hatred of modding. Is it any wonder the company
is still obsessed with the same ideals it had 40 years ago?

That doesn't make the company's actions right... or smart. But there
is a logic to them, if your perception of how the industry works was
set four decades ago. Capcom is still operating like an arcade machine
vendor despite selling games for PCs and consoles. Like too many
companies, it deseperately needs a refresh of c-level management.

Frankly, it's a wonder they aren't still trying to get us to insert a
couple of coins into our PCs everytime we try to play one of their
games...

* yeah, I know

Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>
> There's a lot to be said against PC gaming. It's often more
> expensive, sometimes requiring more technical acumen, more space,
> more power. With a console, you just plug in the device, slap in a
> disk, and off you go. [1]. PCs need you to futz around with an
> operating system, worry about hardware compatibilities, etc.
>
> But PC gaming does have one huge strength: the huge and relatively
> easy accessibility of mods. From new skins for your on-screen avatar,
> to player-made bug-fixes, to entirely new games made from the base
> engine, the modding scene is one of the triumphs of PC gaming and is
> often held up as the reason to pick the platform over its rivals.
>
> It's also something Capcom hates.
>

Back to the topic, but we have updates:

Capcom also hates not making money.

The blocks are falling in place now.

- Use Enigma anti tampering to prevent mods
- Release Dragon's Dogma 2
- Add Micro transactions after release to avoid initial negative reception
- Fast travel is more like an in-game Uber paid with real money
- This is when modders would mod free fast travel into the game, or
other QoL features (remember the autoinjector in S.t.a.l.k.e.r.?)
- Because of the Enigma Anti tamper DRM, it's not possible to mod free
fast travel
- ???
- Profit!

Except that now negative reviews are in full place, there's a desperate
fanbase defending the 20 minutos walking between locations, etc.

Nier (the original) did not have teleportation type fast travel, but you
would fast travel due to the character running as if he had a pepper
shoved where the sun does not shine, and for added fun he could ride a
massive boar that was more reminiscent or riding a steam roller over
mobs at 120 km/h. With Dragon's Dogma 2, it seems to be a slog.

Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> On Fri, 19 Jan 2024 09:23:23 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson
> <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
> He started business in an era when hackers would
> literally take out the boards from arcade machines, apply a new ROM,
> and then resell it as a completely new machine. There was reason for
> Capcom's paranoia and hatred of modding. Is it any wonder the
> company is still obsessed with the same ideals it had 40 years ago?
>

The Street Fighter 2 hacked bootlegs were making the game better by
adding extras stuff (and syphoning money from the legit but stale
Vanilla Street Fighter II) to the point they had to add many of those
ideas (high speed, flying hadokens) on the updates.

But anyways, I just found something pretty funy, just yesterday.

Capcom was selling the CPS and CPS2 (Shadow over mystaria) systems back
then. Modular systems to fight back against the neogeo. You sell the
base board, then sell cheaper game cartridges, vendor lock-in. This is
just backstory.

Ok, CPS1 had a bootleg problem, as the Street Fighter II clones are
proof of it,You only needed to bootleg one cart and the base board
would still be the same. With CPS2 They added one of the worst
encryptions ever, the "suicide battery". A non replaceable battery that
kept the decryption algorythm in RAM. This was not a problem since an
arcade could send the game back and get one with a newer battery, but a
nightmare for collectors until someone was able to resurrect CPS2 boards.

But I managed to find somebody worse than Capcom: Gaelco. This spanish
arcade company managed to be Worst than Bobby Kotick (Worse than Hitler
is overused).

Originally they made money by developing their own bootleg system with
modular daughterboards. Like CPS and Neogeo, but looking like something
straight out of a mad max movie. Bad Dudes / Dragon Ninja was not
released in Europe and the only way to play it without importing the
full 110V board was these bootlegs.

By the time they started developing their own games (which were still
ripoffs of existing games), they added an antitampering protection that
makes Capcom look consumer friendly: If it detected the memory was being
read, the game would self destruct and be lost forever.

On Wed, 3 Apr 2024 11:22:18 +0200, H1MEM <wipnoah@gmail.com> wrote:

>
>Ok, CPS1 had a bootleg problem, as the Street Fighter II clones are
>proof of it,You only needed to bootleg one cart and the base board
>would still be the same. With CPS2 They added one of the worst
>encryptions ever, the "suicide battery". A non replaceable battery that
>kept the decryption algorythm in RAM. This was not a problem since an
>arcade could send the game back and get one with a newer battery, but a
>nightmare for collectors until someone was able to resurrect CPS2 boards.
>
>
>But I managed to find somebody worse than Capcom: Gaelco. This spanish
>arcade company managed to be Worst than Bobby Kotick (Worse than Hitler
>is overused).

>By the time they started developing their own games (which were still
>ripoffs of existing games), they added an antitampering protection that
>makes Capcom look consumer friendly: If it detected the memory was being
>read, the game would self destruct and be lost forever.

To some degree, I can almost emphasize with these tactics. There was
SO MUCH HACKING of arcade machines back then, and not only were people
pirating arcade machine ROMS, but then turning around and using them
to counterfeit the machines. If it wasn't outright counterfeits
(copying the ROMs into a third-party arcade machine and selling it as
legitmate), then they'd just make some minor changes to the visuals
and suddenly "Street Fighter" became "Road Rumble". Same game, just
with slightly altered sprites and a new title screen.

And since the arcade manufacturers made bank on the sale of the
hardware, it was no wonder they tried to lock it down as tightly as
they could. Especially since they often had to provide after-market
support as well. So - even if I don't agree with it - I understand
their motivations.

But there's a significant difference between arcade cabinets and home
sales, and the attitude that is acceptable with the one is not
necessarily the same with the other.

There's also an issue of cultural and legal differences. Many arcade
manufacturers were based in Japan, where IP laws (and general attitude
towards copyrights) are far stricter and more protective than
elsewhere. It is no coincidence that some of the most egregiously
litagious and anti-user video game corporations (Capcom being one,
obviously, but Nintendo is another) are based in Japan.

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote at 15:17 this Wednesday (GMT):
> On Wed, 3 Apr 2024 11:22:18 +0200, H1MEM <wipnoah@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>Ok, CPS1 had a bootleg problem, as the Street Fighter II clones are
>>proof of it,You only needed to bootleg one cart and the base board
>>would still be the same. With CPS2 They added one of the worst
>>encryptions ever, the "suicide battery". A non replaceable battery that
>>kept the decryption algorythm in RAM. This was not a problem since an
>>arcade could send the game back and get one with a newer battery, but a
>>nightmare for collectors until someone was able to resurrect CPS2 boards.

And I thought Pokemon 2nd Gen was bad..

>>
>>But I managed to find somebody worse than Capcom: Gaelco. This spanish
>>arcade company managed to be Worst than Bobby Kotick (Worse than Hitler
>>is overused).
>
>>By the time they started developing their own games (which were still
>>ripoffs of existing games), they added an antitampering protection that
>>makes Capcom look consumer friendly: If it detected the memory was being
>>read, the game would self destruct and be lost forever.
>
>
> To some degree, I can almost emphasize with these tactics. There was
> SO MUCH HACKING of arcade machines back then, and not only were people
> pirating arcade machine ROMS, but then turning around and using them
> to counterfeit the machines. If it wasn't outright counterfeits
> (copying the ROMs into a third-party arcade machine and selling it as
> legitmate), then they'd just make some minor changes to the visuals
> and suddenly "Street Fighter" became "Road Rumble". Same game, just
> with slightly altered sprites and a new title screen.
>
> And since the arcade manufacturers made bank on the sale of the
> hardware, it was no wonder they tried to lock it down as tightly as
> they could. Especially since they often had to provide after-market
> support as well. So - even if I don't agree with it - I understand
> their motivations.

I guess. I think some games only protected the copyright text (for
obvious reasons) though..

> But there's a significant difference between arcade cabinets and home
> sales, and the attitude that is acceptable with the one is not
> necessarily the same with the other.
>
> There's also an issue of cultural and legal differences. Many arcade
> manufacturers were based in Japan, where IP laws (and general attitude
> towards copyrights) are far stricter and more protective than
> elsewhere. It is no coincidence that some of the most egregiously
> litagious and anti-user video game corporations (Capcom being one,
> obviously, but Nintendo is another) are based in Japan.

Makes sense, but still sucks for all the Nintendo fans.
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

Am 19.01.24 um 19:27 schrieb Spalls Hurgenson:
> The company was founded in 1979 by Kenzo Tsujimoto. He remains the CEO
> to this day. He started business in an era when hackers would
> literally take out the boards from arcade machines, apply a new ROM,
> and then resell it as a completely new machine. There was reason for
> Capcom's paranoia and hatred of modding. Is it any wonder the company
> is still obsessed with the same ideals it had 40 years ago?

Thats the problem of most japanese corporations nowadays, they are run
by a bunch of 70+ guys never to retire and who basically do not
understand that times have changed. Thats one of the major reasons why
Japan could not keep up its dominance it had in the 80s, that and that
Japanese themselves have a tendency not to look outside of their borders
for historical reasons!
Capcoms stance on modding is just a symptom of those two problems
japanese companys have generally.

Werner P. wrote:
> Am 19.01.24 um 19:27 schrieb Spalls Hurgenson:

> Thats the problem of most japanese corporations nowadays, they are
> run by a bunch of 70+ guys never to retire and who basically do not
> understand that times have changed.
>

Huh. That's reminds me of what happened with Nintendo and two (three)
recent games.

- Zelda: Breath of the Wild: A new team of devs was assembled with the
youngest staff, were given freedom to innovate and build from scratch.
The game was a success.

- Pokémon: Legends of Arceus: Given to the B Team. Changed a lot of
things, broke partially with the formula, it was considered the best
Pokémon game on Switch.

Then this happened:
- Pokémon Sword and Shield. The mainline game. The oldest Game Freak
staff was in charge. Younger staff complained that they were restricted
to what they could do, and the mentality was on the line of "If it
works, it works. They are going to buy it anyways. All we want is to do
things the way always have been and retire in a few years". Any attempt
to innovate or improve would be blocked.

The result? it was a dumpster fire full of bugs, performance issues, no
originality. Company reviews in employment websites started to show the
reality of what it was to work on a mainline Pokémon game. Legends of
Arceus was reviewed again as a much better game. The B Team with younger
and fresher talent has been greenlit for another game.

It was the best selling game of the year, though.