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When gaming entertainment actually evolved into something worthy of playing, Nintendo in the late eighties, many were drawn into gaming. Years went by, technology transformed and a lot of brain boxes started to appear in the far horizon of the industry. Crackers!
Basically, these were very clever people who manoeuvred with certain consoles making it possible to play copied games for the console. This era didn't arrive until consoles that read on discs arrived. You see when the industry really started cartridges were commonly used, which were virtually impossible to copy. This was a huge advantage for cartridges, but as well these advantages came many more disadvantages than discs.
The 'chipping' dilemma really got a boost when Sony's Playstation was released in the early stages of 1995. The Playstation gave crackers a huge money-making opportunity, which was simply to copy games and sell them to many willing gamers in the public. Copyright laws were firmly created restricting anyone from copying, but it still went ahead. When you load most consoles you can clearly see what's stated. Copying is illegal, but once again crackers refused to stop and carried on earning easy money. No-one really takes any notice of copyright warnings mainly because of all the writing. When you see it you instantly think 'bla bla...' and that's just the way of nature!
Playstation, in my mind actually earned more popularity because of this. Many audiences were aware of getting Playtstation's chipped and having copied games for a much cheaper price. A lot of comotion was often made just to get a copied game. Still, the whole idea of having a successful game company was to make a lot of profit, which they weren't receiving potentially. Obviously Playstation could not gather all their sold products back from the public and create a new 'un-chippable' one, it was totally impossible. So what they did was wait for a couple of years, say five years, and then created a newer and much smaller model, which was supposed to restrict the chipping process. Did it work, I don't think so! Many clever people, probably technicians, found ways to chip it making it posiible to play cheaper copied games again.
I didn't really see the point in releasing the same console with the same amount of power as its predecessor. The whole idea of having new consoles is to improve on the capabilities not just for looks. Ok, some PSone had a built-in screen and could run on batteries, but they still seem quite pricey, especially when you look at the logic.
So Playstation had a big plate on their hands, then look who came to join them...Sega! They entered the stage with great elegance with the release of the enhanced 128-bit Dreamcast, a huge success in their eyes. But what they didn't notice was the huge success for more crackers continuing making money from simply copying and selling a game.
It didn't take long until the Dreamcast was cracked, made possible to play copied games. It was no surprise that loads of people wanted copied games for the Dreamcast because it was cheaper - who in the right mind would want to buy something more expensive when you can get it somewhere else for a much lower price? No-one I'd imagine! This was the real factor that drew many crowds into buying copied games, the price. They wanted to play their favourite games for a lower price instead of going to gaming retailers and buying it for the 'recommended retail price'. Still, Dreamcast was quite successful, but not as successful as Playstation.
You would think now that Playstation would have made it impossible to chip their new PS2, but already people have found ways of chipping the PS2 once again making it possible to play copied games. When I purchased mine I had some idea that it was impossible to chip the PS2 due to all the comotion with the PSX but I was totally surprised when I found out you could. It's times like these when you just wonder why haven't developers permanently restricted chipping? What's holding them back, they're sure to have the technology so what's stopping them? I don't know do you?
With the next-gen consoles, GameCube and Xbox, joining the PS2 I'm already concerned if it's possible to chip them. As usual right now I think that no-one can ever crack the GameCube especially Bill Gates' Xbox, after all he did found Microsoft.
So what do you think about chipping? Are you for it or against it? Yes it may seem very tempting having the opportunity to purchase a game for cheaper, but it obviously isn't right. What it's doing to the industry is simply giving it a bad reputation, which isn't needed right now because we want gaming to improve. Look at it with this perspective. How would you like it if you created something, worked hard for it so you could earn well-deserved money then became very successful. Suddenly someone finds a way of imitating what you're doing and reducing your profit by the person selling copied versions of what you made. Very unacceptable wouldn't you agree? Well this is how many companies see it like today.
I'm sure many of you out there are FOR copying and not against it, but I don't blame you. It is very overwhelming, but we all have to emphasise with companies that work hard dat in day out creating better games/consoles and are gradually being foiled by illegal acts such as 'chipping'. Really it's up to you what kind of games you want but for some reason I prefer to get the rel thing, and not have my console tampered with.
Thanks for reading
As for the Xbox well it has a hard drive I believe that soon after launch, maybe a week someone will crack its copy protection, have it running Windows, Linux and any disc pirated or not pirated. Microsofts protection is probably there but is probably feeble. After all how many other Microsoft products have security holes...all of them. Besides Microsoft may encourage Piracy to some degree as initially Piracy drives sales of hardware and can benefit a console.
Its only when a machine comes to the end of its life that piracy can hard it. Thats why Sony cleverly released the PSONE a smaller playstation that is difficult to chip.
I only wish Nintendo were fighting a fair fight however I honestly believe they are fighting a true capatolist giant that will allow piracy on the X box (by weak protection), and yet will criticise piracy when it comes to Windows.
Jimmy
As for the Xbox well it has a hard drive I believe that soon after launch, maybe a week someone will crack its copy protection, have it running Windows, Linux and any disc pirated or not pirated. Microsofts protection is probably there but is probably feeble. After all how many other Microsoft products have security holes...all of them. Besides Microsoft may encourage Piracy to some degree as initially Piracy drives sales of hardware and can benefit a console.
Its only when a machine comes to the end of its life that piracy can hard it. Thats why Sony cleverly released the PSONE a smaller playstation that is difficult to chip.
I only wish Nintendo were fighting a fair fight however I honestly believe they are fighting a true capatolist giant that will allow piracy on the X box (by weak protection), and yet will criticisr piracy when it comes to Windows.
Jimmy
While new games seem to be costing more and more, it's easy to say that cracking games and copying discs is getting more justifiable and it's also true that this sells more consoles. The problem lies in companies seeing that they can't make a good profit with a certain platform and deciding to do something else instead. Luckily this hasn't happened with the Playstation, even though there are a lot of copied games. Perhaps this is because most of the PSX games companies are big enough not to worry about selling a few less games, but it all adds up and I'm sure that most of them would prefer that there was no pirating at all.
Mind you, it happens inside the companies too. Someone working in a games company gets hold of a new game, either while it is being play-tested, or before release, and sets up a crack on the net or in dodgy markets. This is probably the worst form of piracy as dodgy bug-ridden versions of games can give the game bad press among the public if they get to play the crack.
Still. Even I was tempted when I had a spectrum, and admit to having a few copied tapes around. I don't bother now. People have given me copied PC games and I'm trying to now get rid of the things. I won't get my PSX chipped, and although I could play copies on my DC, I only use the process for playing import games.
When gaming entertainment actually evolved into something worthy of playing, Nintendo in the late eighties, many were drawn into gaming. Years went by, technology transformed and a lot of brain boxes started to appear in the far horizon of the industry. Crackers!
Basically, these were very clever people who manoeuvred with certain consoles making it possible to play copied games for the console. This era didn't arrive until consoles that read on discs arrived. You see when the industry really started cartridges were commonly used, which were virtually impossible to copy. This was a huge advantage for cartridges, but as well these advantages came many more disadvantages than discs.
The 'chipping' dilemma really got a boost when Sony's Playstation was released in the early stages of 1995. The Playstation gave crackers a huge money-making opportunity, which was simply to copy games and sell them to many willing gamers in the public. Copyright laws were firmly created restricting anyone from copying, but it still went ahead. When you load most consoles you can clearly see what's stated. Copying is illegal, but once again crackers refused to stop and carried on earning easy money. No-one really takes any notice of copyright warnings mainly because of all the writing. When you see it you instantly think 'bla bla...' and that's just the way of nature!
Playstation, in my mind actually earned more popularity because of this. Many audiences were aware of getting Playtstation's chipped and having copied games for a much cheaper price. A lot of comotion was often made just to get a copied game. Still, the whole idea of having a successful game company was to make a lot of profit, which they weren't receiving potentially. Obviously Playstation could not gather all their sold products back from the public and create a new 'un-chippable' one, it was totally impossible. So what they did was wait for a couple of years, say five years, and then created a newer and much smaller model, which was supposed to restrict the chipping process. Did it work, I don't think so! Many clever people, probably technicians, found ways to chip it making it posiible to play cheaper copied games again.
I didn't really see the point in releasing the same console with the same amount of power as its predecessor. The whole idea of having new consoles is to improve on the capabilities not just for looks. Ok, some PSone had a built-in screen and could run on batteries, but they still seem quite pricey, especially when you look at the logic.
So Playstation had a big plate on their hands, then look who came to join them...Sega! They entered the stage with great elegance with the release of the enhanced 128-bit Dreamcast, a huge success in their eyes. But what they didn't notice was the huge success for more crackers continuing making money from simply copying and selling a game.
It didn't take long until the Dreamcast was cracked, made possible to play copied games. It was no surprise that loads of people wanted copied games for the Dreamcast because it was cheaper - who in the right mind would want to buy something more expensive when you can get it somewhere else for a much lower price? No-one I'd imagine! This was the real factor that drew many crowds into buying copied games, the price. They wanted to play their favourite games for a lower price instead of going to gaming retailers and buying it for the 'recommended retail price'. Still, Dreamcast was quite successful, but not as successful as Playstation.
You would think now that Playstation would have made it impossible to chip their new PS2, but already people have found ways of chipping the PS2 once again making it possible to play copied games. When I purchased mine I had some idea that it was impossible to chip the PS2 due to all the comotion with the PSX but I was totally surprised when I found out you could. It's times like these when you just wonder why haven't developers permanently restricted chipping? What's holding them back, they're sure to have the technology so what's stopping them? I don't know do you?
With the next-gen consoles, GameCube and Xbox, joining the PS2 I'm already concerned if it's possible to chip them. As usual right now I think that no-one can ever crack the GameCube especially Bill Gates' Xbox, after all he did found Microsoft.
So what do you think about chipping? Are you for it or against it? Yes it may seem very tempting having the opportunity to purchase a game for cheaper, but it obviously isn't right. What it's doing to the industry is simply giving it a bad reputation, which isn't needed right now because we want gaming to improve. Look at it with this perspective. How would you like it if you created something, worked hard for it so you could earn well-deserved money then became very successful. Suddenly someone finds a way of imitating what you're doing and reducing your profit by the person selling copied versions of what you made. Very unacceptable wouldn't you agree? Well this is how many companies see it like today.
I'm sure many of you out there are FOR copying and not against it, but I don't blame you. It is very overwhelming, but we all have to emphasise with companies that work hard dat in day out creating better games/consoles and are gradually being foiled by illegal acts such as 'chipping'. Really it's up to you what kind of games you want but for some reason I prefer to get the rel thing, and not have my console tampered with.
Thanks for reading