At last....

[aburas]

nightwolve, the problem is fixed.  Anyways, i have a couple of questions, i saw some thing called Netshow for Ys origin, does anybody know what that is?  My second quesiton is for ys the ark of napishtim is there a enlgish patch and is it limited to donators?

Thank you

[NightWolve]

My second quesiton is for ys the ark of napishtim is there a enlgish patch and is it limited to donators?

Well, it's not something I can answer right now nor for a long time. I was for doing it before I was against doing it! See, I'm stuck in a bit of a flip-flop here. If years from now I know that Konami sells out of all Ys VI PS2/PSP stock and I feel like continuing, we'll see what happens. Consider it on the backburner indefinitely. In the meantime, I've removed any major public traces of such a project.

[aburas]

So it's off limits to everybody.   
And also i have a posting in The Ys I and II forum if you can answer it pease.

Thank you for all your help and time.

[duke4711]

That's too bad about the Ys VI project, I was actually looking forward to it because I wanted to see what the differences between the PC/PS2 versions. I was also wondering, since Legend of Heroes VI has been taken off of the forums page, does that mean it's dead?

[NightWolve]

It's backburner material indefinitely until further notice.

[shades_of_blue]

Your shittin me, now I'm pissed. I'd love to cut off the balls of whoever had to fuck you over concerning the Felghana early-access donation period. I cannot stand to play that crappy PS2 port of Napishtim. With it's 30fps and interlacing, it literally hurts my eyes. I have yet to beat the PS2 version, in fact I haven't made it more that a 1/2 through the game due to eye strain, which lead to cumulative headaches. Buying Napishtim for PS2 had to be my video game worst purchase ever. At the very least, I figured that one day I'll be able to enjoy the story with the game on my PC thanks to all of your hardwork NW. But I guess that too is now crushed. Damn you warez kiddiez. Damn you to hell.

[ranzor]

Well, it doesn't hurt to dream. I sure hope you release it someday. From everything I've seen about the PS2 version, I'd much rather play the original with your patch.

[memoryjar]

I don't know about you guys but I don't like to move on to another game until I have completely beaten the ones I have at that moment. This includes all the difficulties available. So by the time everyone beat the Inferno mode then it'll probably be time for the next Ys game. Then again, constantly playing the same game over and over can make you get sick of it.

[NightWolve]

At the very least, I figured that one day I'll be able to enjoy the story with the game on my PC thanks to all of your hardwork NW. But I guess that too is now crushed. Damn you warez kiddiez. Damn you to hell.

Well, there's even less of a reason to continue with it. It was one of the most high risk projects to begin with, but last Sunday a member of the warez freeloading faction emailed me a threat using an anonymizing email service (though I do know who he is since he made that same threat in public, thus I couldn't understand his choice to hide his identity). I can paraphraze a portion of his email down to this: "I'm going to inform Konami of your activities if you don't do things my way... You must come to understand that it is either my way or the highway, kekekekekekekeke."

I think those two sentences adequately capture his infantile mindset. His other threats were laughable (he tried to pretend Konami would have legal standing to deal with patches other than Ys VI, which is all they have a license for), but yeah, I would take the threat seriously WITH an Ys VI patch, as it's possible even a dumbfuck could pull it off. Konami has a US presence and an Ys VI license, so if they did catch wind of an Ys VI patch, it's possible they might have something to say about it.

I don't really know Konami's history, I mean, how often have they gone after places that are pirating their games?? Anybody know? That's more of a bigger problem to allocate resources for naturally and I wonder how frequent that has been for them.

[Justus]

Well, I seem to remember Konami going after the Dracula X Restoration project as soon as they heard about it.

I forget exactly, but I THINK it was a project the Castlevania Dungeon was hosting, that revolved around dumping the CD and somehow making it directly playable on Windows (without using an emulator).

Anyone else remember better?

[NightWolve]

I remember this one incident. Harry Turtle was the name and it was about piracy.

http://thedump.classicgaming.gamespy.com/tg16/dracx/index.html

Due to the threat of legal action by Konami of America, I am unable to continue with the Dracula-X copy project. We have come to a mutual agreement, but unfortunately it involves the complete abandonment of the project. I ask that all mirror sites please delete the mirrored files immediately, and please do not spread them around.

My intention was never to harm Konami, rather to allow the world to see and play one of their most highly praised games. I still hold the utmost respect for the people at Konami, and to their credit, they told me they knew that I was not trying to harm them, but they had the responsibility of upholding copyright. Needless to say, the consensus was that this game could NOT appear for free download on the internet, for whatever reason.

It was a "copy-project." I think that's around about the time archiving of PC-Engine/TG-16 games began in ISO/MP3/CUE form.

Anyway, yeah, point is, with their Ys VI license, it's probably best to let that project go anyhow.

[ranzor]

Well, that's just too much egoism! If they don't get it their way, no one gets it! What an Ys fan. I hope they rot in hell! What if someone else released the patch for you, someone not from Europe or USA? I don't know how these laws apply to the internet, but Konami's copyrights are only for these places, right?

[NightWolve]

Eh, it doesn't matter. I like/respect Konami and grew up with them, so I can let the PC project rest indefinitely, if not forever. This case is more about a moral question. We held the power to undercut the sales of all their localized ports (PS2, PSP, etc) because you could just pirate Falcom's PC version and use our patch, should it have come into existence that is, etc. With Felghana and/or Origins, there's no moral dilemma so long as no US publisher buys a license. Unauthorized English translation patches for Falcom games that'll never get licensed anywhere (IF that's for certain) increases the chances of more English-speaking fans importing copies directly from them, so in that case, we're the good guys. We'd be the spoilers in Konami's case concerning Napishtim, though.

Anyway, concerning your last question, I believe Konami purchased worldwide rights (limited to just Napishtim, to be clear), so technically they should have legal standing/protection in every country that is a signatory of the Berne Convention. (Note though, there have never been any legal cases involving fan translation issues... Occasional cease & desist orders, but that's about it. Even the guy I was talking about in another thread that I know, that ended with a cease & desist.)

[ranzor]

Well, I understand your point of view. I also like Konami a lot. From Castlevania, in the NES days, to Winning Eleven, they have always made great games that have been important in my life. But what if you did like you're trying to do with Oath, and make the patch unusable with a pirated copy? That way you wouldn't be hurting Konami's sales. Anyone wanting to use your patch would have to buy the japanese game from Falcom, and that's a lot more expansive than buying their port, so only diehard fans who want to play the original would get it instead of the PS2 version.

[NightWolve]

But what if you did like you're trying to do with Oath, and make the patch unusable with a pirated copy? That way you wouldn't be hurting Konami's sales. Anyone wanting to use your patch would have to buy the japanese game from Falcom, and that's a lot more expansive than buying their port, so only diehard fans who want to play the original would get it instead of the PS2 version.

Yeah, that's true. But they do still have the license, so the potential is there for them to care... It can wait for a few more years, then maybe I'll sell it at $4-5.

[OmegaRanma]

Nightwolve...Is there a way to track the IP from that extortionist. I am very displeased that someone would try to make me look like the scapegoat from someone else's attempt of this pathetic attack, and I would like to some how "deal" with this individual on my own terms.

Unless of course you are taking care of the situation by your own methods, then I will simply disregard it, and let you dish out a just deserving punishment for the individual.

[NightWolve]

Well, there was no intent to involve you or anyone else I'm sure. It just happened that I put two suspects on my list. The other suspect made virtually the same threat in public, so I guess it would be him. (You know where to find that post.)

[ranzor]

Yeah, that's true. But they do still have the license, so the potential is there for them to care... It can wait for a few more years, then maybe I'll sell it at $4-5.

Well, that's probably the wisest decision. I hope it happens sooner than later.

[shades_of_blue]

So another warez kiddie made a threat, what’s with these people?!?! First they want everything free and then they’re threatening to report you for reverse engineering?!?! F**k them, last I checked reverse engineering wasn’t illegal. If it was, there would be no ‘designer imposters’ perfumes. Then again, perfumes never had to bow to the DMCA either...

I remember the Dracula X incident, now that you mention it. Yeah, it was one of the first games ripped with CDRWIN. Back then, I don’t even think his files were distributed as MP3s, only WAV format. He was directly encouraging piracy, not exactly the same thing as releasing a translation patch. But I’m not going to argue that, maybe one day you’ll release your work, even in it’s incomplete form to a couple loyalists such as I and that alone would be enough.

I’ve always liked Konami too. It’s kinda hard not to, when they made TMNT the arcade game, Castlevania, Contra, Gradious and many other timeless classics. And more importantly, they didn’t ‘bottom out’ after the 8bit and 16bit era, like some other great developers did.

[Psycho DeuceBag]

last I checked reverse engineering wasn’t illegal.

In the world of software, it is. Most software licenses specifically forbid reverse-engineering.  Tecmo's especially particular about that... remember the DOA XTreme Beach Volleyball nude patches?

[shades_of_blue]

I remember DOA’s creator crying like a little girl about it, going far as to say it was like raping his own children, or something among those lines. I’m fairly sure no one was charged with anything, nor any legal action pursued.

[Psycho DeuceBag]

There was legal action pursued, actually.  I don't recall all of the particulars, but I know a lot of C&D orders got tossed around.