Lurker > gamester_12345

Balrog0 posted...

What do you mean by that?

on the Game Gear, the region is on the handheld itself. but some games like Ristar had levels that were skipped over if you played on a non-japanese Game Gear. whereas the McDonalds game was fully-localized despite being japanese-only.

EDIT: Also, Puyo Puyo, as 'Puzlow Kids', which strangely has a near-identical translation to the english Arcade version.

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KoL: Plucky, currently an Disco Bandit, RSN: Plucky9
ACNL/3DS FC: 5258-3681-6830 Ricky of Farm, FFBE: Plucky, 318,533,820

I just assumed that the law was more like that you're allowed to create archival copies of stuff you own, if the original is owned by yourself. but then actually using it (for emulation) goes into a grey area, you could reproduce games but you can't reproduce something that has obscurication like BIOS or the OS of a system.

having an open-source emulator that avoids BIOS/OS of the consoles itself would probably be OK. heck, i wouldn't be surprised if there was any kind of law with the actual copying itself. there's nothing that'd prevent people from sticking a disc in their PC or copying floppy discs, otherwise those would be against the law. People like Nintendo probably already chases around imports of flash cards, which would've made actually copying your games much more harder. (via stuff like firmware hacks or w/e), with software piracy only able to be performed at a OS level, they could probably issue C&D's/DMCAs or whatever as there's no way to get around that, Nintendo also personally identifies each cartridge/download as of the 3DS (?) which makes things obvious which software is a copy.

modifying consoles is probably against the law depending on part of the world. but if a console has lockout that can't feasibly be bypassed by human intervention then it'd likely need mechanical modification. (in the realm of modchips, say PS1). if a console could already natively play games but the only thing preventing it was disabling a chip (NES), or snipping some plastic (american SNES), or swapping the backs (US/Japanese N64), it's probably fine. you'd probably have issues w/regional differences like framerate but that's just inherent with what console you're on and if the game is either coded for alternate regions or knows if it's inserted in a console that's not of its sale region.

Heck, even the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive has pads/pins inside the system itself that defines region, presumably so SEGA could streamline the production process. there'd probably be nothing stopping from someone from say, rewiring something, or add breaks connected to a switch on the back of the console to alter the region or refresh rate. SEGA also has some degree of being modular with individual games itself depending on the region it's played on, like with several Game Gear games like Ristar and the Japan-exclusive McDonalds game Ronald in The Magical World. worst people might face is some kind of Right to Repair/Modify junk or something.

Not a lawyer or anything. but hardware manufacturers would probably try to squeeze any avenue of software archival if it means preventing piracy. maybe more so for Nintendo, who doesn't even uses discs thesedays.

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KoL: Plucky, currently an Disco Bandit, RSN: Plucky9
ACNL/3DS FC: 5258-3681-6830 Ricky of Farm, FFBE: Plucky, 318,533,820

maybe in 10 years when the next generation raises a stink about it.

The way i see it, the meaning of Weeb back then just means "Pre-teens being vocal about anime they discovered on the internet". the internet was probably still becoming a progressively larger thing in the early-mid 2000's, rather than just being there for businesses in the 90's. stuff like blogs, message boards and (even stuff like..) Deviantart were essentially something people could use for free. Computers becoming more wideplace would mean they could get online much more often. like you know all that Invader Zim Hot Topic GIR (dog disguise) merchandise? the widespread appeal of anime on the internet was kinda like that.

I'm british, so i have no genuine idea how's the anime boon is for the US.

the stuff the UK got were stuff that the US had. so we're pretty much stuck to something like Pokemon, Dragonball Z and Sailor Moon as the somewhat prominant examples. Pokemon had relative staying power even when popularity started to wane for the non-videogame part of the franchise from the second generation. Fox Kids attempted to jump onto the anime trend with Sailor Moon, but also had Digimon, Monster Rancher, Samurai Pizza Cats and Flint the Time Detectve, though all of those shows faded off (besides Digimon). it's kind of saying a lot if Fox Kids was already getting into its Jetix phase if they're constantly replaying Naruto around the "Orochimaru breaks/heals his arms" episodes and back to episode 1 over and over again.

Other than them and some smaller channels. Cartoon Network attempted to keep anime alive w/One Piece, Beyblade..and Bakugan. honestly, at this point i forgot that Jetix (when they were Fox Kids) also had Shaman King.

with Youtube being around, it was probably even easier for people to illegally upload episodes/subs of anime online with no one to handle it, increasing the exposure even further with derivative content like animated music videos. VIACOM jumping in because of Nickelodeon/Spongebob content probably spooked them into dealing with piracy, if not so when they got bought out by Google.

Anime is more of a commodity for streaming services these days. if it isn't scrunched up by Funimation or Crunchyroll, it'd probably be snapped+subbed by Netflix, or streamed by Amazon, heck...maybe even VRV? Manga is probably a bit more restricted, it's probably more of a hassle to specifically go for the reading/ebook format if it costs tons just for a single series' manga, compared to something more digestable like whole episodes. (there's almost close to 1000 chapters of One Piece, for example)

Kids suddenly using Japanese words, terminology or honoriffics is probably to be expected. it's just a lot harder to ignore people posting stuff like fancams online in the replies of news sites reporting on celebrity deaths, or social media sites framing them up as the latest Cringetopia topic. that'd arguably would be like how the internet's definition of Weeaboo would've fit.

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KoL: Plucky, currently an Disco Bandit, RSN: Plucky9
ACNL/3DS FC: 5258-3681-6830 Ricky of Farm, FFBE: Plucky, 318,533,820