
EarthBound’s Copy Protection - LaSombra
http://earthboundcentral.com/2011/05/earthbounds-copy-protection/
======
jcurbo
If you thought this was interesting, there's a lot more in this vein from the
author (Clyde Mandelin aka Mato/Tomato) who is a professional translator as
well as a ROM hacker (not to mention, his fame in internet Earthbound/Mother
fandom). He has a great blog, Legends of Localization[1], where he talks about
how games were localized into English, and streams interesting game hacks and
unusual games from Japan on Twitch (usually with his wife, Poe)[2]. For
instance, for the past few days they've been playing through an English
translation of BS Zelda[3], a 16-bit version of The Legend of Zelda released
on Nintendo's Satellaview service for the Super Famicom, which is long gone
but the game has been put back together by enterprising programmers.

[1] [http://legendsoflocalization.com/](http://legendsoflocalization.com/)

[2] [http://poematocx.com/](http://poematocx.com/)

[3]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellaview_games_from_The_Lege...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellaview_games_from_The_Legend_of_Zelda_series)

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yoklov
This is great.

Reminds me of Game Dev Tycoon's developers releasing a cracked version of the
game onto torrent sites where you'd always lose due to players pirating your
game [0]. When I heard what they did I sort of thought it was stupid, but the
chart at the end where they show that 90+% of the users of the game were
playing the pirated version is somewhat chilling. Kind of makes me want to
release a version of games I make to pirate sites (well, if I ever went
indie... this would be a very hard sell anywhere I've ever worked), just to
get similar usage information, although it's probably a mistake, as the
information would only bother me.

[0]: [http://www.greenheartgames.com/2013/04/29/what-happens-
when-...](http://www.greenheartgames.com/2013/04/29/what-happens-when-pirates-
play-a-game-development-simulator-and-then-go-bankrupt-because-of-piracy/)

~~~
anon4
If 90% of players pirate and if your statistics for how many players there are
for a given game usually come in the form of "number of sold copies", then you
could be severely underestimating the size of the potential userbase; feeling
that you are getting a small piece of a small pie, while in fact you're
getting a small piece of a much larger pie.

Statistics on pirate behaviour are sort of hard to come by anyway -- if you
buy games at all, you're not really a pirate, you're someone who downloaded a
game they didn't know if they'd like, or you didn't have money at that moment
and wanted to check it out, or any other explanation. Over the years, me and
my friends, have basically bought every game we've played. On the other hand,
if you habitually pirate and never buy, game developers aren't interested in
talking to you; in fact you're basically a criminal in their eyes, stealing
their profits. I really wish to see some sort of study disentangling these two
groups and finding a way to talk to and understand the latter group. Why they
do what they do, what motivates them and so on. Once you know that, you can
start addressing the issues that drive such behaviour.

~~~
sukilot
You are wondering what is the explanation for people taking readily available
free (to them) stuff they enjoy? This is not a deep mystery of the Universe.

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TazeTSchnitzel
Spyro YOTD (PS1) also had interesting copy-protection:
[http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131439/keeping_the_pir...](http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131439/keeping_the_pirates_at_bay.php)

Both that, and the Earthbound article, have been posted on HN before. Someone
might have the links.

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greggman
It doesn't seem like copy protection that makes the game un-fun to play is
really a good idea. It seems more likely to backfire as it might generate bad
word of mouth for your game.

"Damn, that game sucks. Glad I didn't buy it. Better warn my friends"

IIRC when we made Gunship for the Commodore 64 it had something long these
lines in that if the loader was tampered with the helicopter wouldn't get
enough power to take off. Whether or not that was a win for anti-piracy I have
no idea. I do know the game was completely pirated within 2 weeks of shipping
though even though we had gotten some fancy copy protection. At least the copy
protection added a fast loader so it was a plus for the user :p

~~~
XorNot
Red Alert 2's "all your units explode" copy-protection was incredibly stupid.
It would let you type in something like a 30-digit CD-key, and then not prompt
if you got it wrong and trigger the "exploding units" code in the game.

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Tiktaalik
Another interesting thing about the development of Earthbound was that one of
the main programmers of Earthbound was Satoru Iwata, who is now the current
CEO of Nintendo.

An Earthbound fan translated an old Famitsu interview with him and another
programmer about developing the game and some of the challenges involved.

[https://yomuka.wordpress.com/2011/12/24/weekly-famitsu-
septe...](https://yomuka.wordpress.com/2011/12/24/weekly-famitsu-
september-9-1994-2/)

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AustinG08
I feel compelled to post how this was the defining game of my youth. It was
the ultimate video game experience in my child brain. I was enamored for
years. I wanted to be Ness. My very first website was a GeoCities page, an ode
to this game titled "Earthbound: The Best Game Ever." I have scoured GeoCities
archives for a copy of it but unsuccessful each time. There was a neat attempt
at an Earthbound MMO [http://www.skyon.be/node](http://www.skyon.be/node) but
it appears to be discontinued. I love you Earthbound.

~~~
cremno
This summer a fan-made Earthbound (well, Mother) game called Mother 4 will be
released for free.

[http://www.mother4game.com](http://www.mother4game.com)

~~~
AustinG08
that just sent me down a rabbit hole. came back with this:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hVuv7mDNqM&feature=share](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hVuv7mDNqM&feature=share)

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tfb
You know what... this is really interesting to learn about this now, because I
played the hell out of Earthbound when I was younger using an emulator, but to
this day I don't recall ever beating it. And it is extremely rare that I would
just stop playing a game. The only game I started and haven't completed is
Oblivion.

I can't for the life of me remember completing Earthbound or when/why I
stopped playing it. I just watched that Youtube clip of the end battle with
Giygas and I vaguely remember it, but I have no recollection of some kind of
ending. If anything I remember being kind of confused. I bet I ran into that
last layer of protection where it randomly freezes and deletes the saved game,
and that's why I don't recall an actual ending.

Learning about this now, I guess I feel a little better about not remembering
ever beating Earthbound.

~~~
FlannelPancake
Eh, as the article points out it's pretty unlikely you encountered that last
layer of copy protection from a ROM.

~~~
tfb
Yes, I read that. But it's also most logical explanation for why I don't
remember the ending.

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lifeformed
Method #3 (increasing enemy spawn rate) sounds iffy. It's a subtle change that
just makes the game worse, and the player isn't going to know it was because
of piracy. They'll just think the game was designed poorly and be less
inclined to support the developer.

~~~
KeytarHero
I tend to agree - except there are _way_ more enemies. It's not exactly a
subtle change.

Also keep in mind this was 1994. If someone ran into this, it's not like they
could go complain on Twitter or Reddit where millions of people would see it
and it could potentially damage Nintendo's reputation because people think the
game is buggy.

Plus, Super Nintendo piracy was a lot more difficult than modern PC piracy,
and it was a lot less common. It's not like today where some people will
download a game just to try it out and then buy it if they like it.

~~~
XorNot
Yes but here is how your word of mouth for that goes:

A: should I buy this game? B: I played it and it's just stupidly balanced. A:
Ok I guess no then.

Notice how in no part of the exchange is anyone going to be communicated any
pertinent information about the context, nor do they have incentive to do so.

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michaelochurch
You cannot grasp the true form of copy-protection's attack!

~~~
dragontamer
The fact that this is horribly downvoted demonstrates how few people have
actually played Earthbound.

EDIT: Hurrah! Parent comment is positive again!

~~~
KeytarHero
Or people who get the joke are downvoting it because they like serious
discussion and don't want this place to eventually be filled with cheap one-
line jokes like Reddit.

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jay_kyburz
I really think this old attitude to copy protection is short sighted and why
free games are now the top revenue earners on every platform.

If a player is enjoying your game, great! The hardest part of the battle is
already won, you made a great game and got it in front of the customers. Now
you just need to get them to spend some money.

Sure, back in these days is was probably harder to just ask a user for a
credit card number, but punishing people that enjoy your game is crazy.

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jimmaswell
It seems like this would punish unwitting buyers of the pirated carts, not the
pirates.

