xodaraP
Legendary
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XtraSmiley
Legendary
Well, here’s a different perspective. If someone has more money than time (or sense) to research the cheaper options, what’s the big deal?
Yes this guy is making money off of Mikes work, but it’s not that far to say all the people hoarding boards are doing the same thing when a multi comes out and when there is fresh demand they jack the prices up. They are profiting from the work someone put into the multi.
At the end of the day, if there’s easy money to be made, someone will go for it.
There is no reason to stop what everyone does here or make it harder for newcomers. I was a newcomer just a few weeks ago, now this is my favorite arcade board!
Yes this guy is making money off of Mikes work, but it’s not that far to say all the people hoarding boards are doing the same thing when a multi comes out and when there is fresh demand they jack the prices up. They are profiting from the work someone put into the multi.
At the end of the day, if there’s easy money to be made, someone will go for it.
There is no reason to stop what everyone does here or make it harder for newcomers. I was a newcomer just a few weeks ago, now this is my favorite arcade board!
I fail to see how locking down the forum prevents conversion sales from happening. if we're posting the information here and it "takes 5 seconds to register" then it takes 5 seconds for a bootlegger to register as well. If anything it further keeps the information out of the hands of people would would do it themselves but assume they have to rely on others to do the conversion when they can't find that info by searching.
The original intent of this thread was to generate support for the bounty for CPS1.5 conversions... locking that from public view seems quite counter intuitive to me.
I'm one of those people that "complained" that certain sections of the forum were locked from public view, and that's because I like writing guides and other informative posts, but if i'm unable to share those posts with people outside of the forum here and those posts aren't picked up by the search engines then I will not be posting them here. I like AP but I write that stuff for everyone... not just AP members.
Speaking of search engines the forum search sucks since it prioritizes recent threads over relevant threads, and if you're searching chances are you're looking for an older thread. I often search google just to find older threads here. making forums private prevents that.
I get the need to keep some stuff out of the search engines... maybe you should make a "private projects" sub-forum for that stuff so people can make their own decision if they're making their thread for public consumption or forum members only.
I'm pretty sure I suggested this when the forum first started and was summarily shot down but I still think it's a better idea than changing your mind every few months.
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I agree with @twistedsymphony.
I don't believe locking down the threads will prevent this kind of thing from happening at all. It will more likely help it to occur by hiding away what was essentially done for the public. If the public doesn't know it exists, you can't blame them for paying for the conversions they could've done themselves. As for the guys stealing peoples hard work. This is a shitty thing to do and those people should be called out for what they are doing in. This can be done on multiple forums so people are aware that they don't need to buy anything.
Its the old piracy argument. If you make something easier to access, piracy decreases. Netflix proved this.
The thing that makes it a bit trickier is a lot of the work here operates in a grey area. So you maybe don't want to be shouting it from the rooftops either. Its a hard one really, but I don't think hiding stuff away is good for the community. It does however go with the territory and exploits have basically been the gold of the "hacking community". Since the days of billboards people have been hoarding their knowledge for glory and profit.
I love this forum because most of the time it seems like this side of things is less prevalent and people actually tend to help each other find solutions and to preserve arcade history. We should keep the open, friendly nature of the forum. It would suck to watch it become elitist and locked down like "that other forum".
I don't believe locking down the threads will prevent this kind of thing from happening at all. It will more likely help it to occur by hiding away what was essentially done for the public. If the public doesn't know it exists, you can't blame them for paying for the conversions they could've done themselves. As for the guys stealing peoples hard work. This is a shitty thing to do and those people should be called out for what they are doing in. This can be done on multiple forums so people are aware that they don't need to buy anything.
Its the old piracy argument. If you make something easier to access, piracy decreases. Netflix proved this.
The thing that makes it a bit trickier is a lot of the work here operates in a grey area. So you maybe don't want to be shouting it from the rooftops either. Its a hard one really, but I don't think hiding stuff away is good for the community. It does however go with the territory and exploits have basically been the gold of the "hacking community". Since the days of billboards people have been hoarding their knowledge for glory and profit.
I love this forum because most of the time it seems like this side of things is less prevalent and people actually tend to help each other find solutions and to preserve arcade history. We should keep the open, friendly nature of the forum. It would suck to watch it become elitist and locked down like "that other forum".
Hatsune Mike
Champion
Pffffffffffffffffffff I hope whoever buys the conversion on YAJ gets butthurt when they see that the 1-player mode endings aren't finished and have some funny sprite business. I can't believe the test screen is there with the RC build string and my tag even. I'm more bewildered than mad, but it's a goofy situation in any case.
Honestly though, locking down the forums is just a minor deterrent, since people are still going to find the files they want. In this case, maybe it would have been better if I had put a startup screen of some sort indicating that it is a conversion, but it went against the spirit of what I was trying to do, and someone's just going to hack it out anyway. It's a never-ending cat and mouse game.
There are a few other similar hacks in the works, but the releases will probably be more heavily gated than this one, somewhat for these reasons. I'm a little burnt out on doing conversion work (though I appreciate words of support from those who have tried what I've worked on - thank you) but maybe it'd be worth adding something more to this one, even if only to mark the burnt conversion release as obsolete.
Honestly though, locking down the forums is just a minor deterrent, since people are still going to find the files they want. In this case, maybe it would have been better if I had put a startup screen of some sort indicating that it is a conversion, but it went against the spirit of what I was trying to do, and someone's just going to hack it out anyway. It's a never-ending cat and mouse game.
There are a few other similar hacks in the works, but the releases will probably be more heavily gated than this one, somewhat for these reasons. I'm a little burnt out on doing conversion work (though I appreciate words of support from those who have tried what I've worked on - thank you) but maybe it'd be worth adding something more to this one, even if only to mark the burnt conversion release as obsolete.
Well they are locked for now until further discussion between the mods. We will see. I'd still rather everyone have to register to get the info instead of just getting it from a google search. There is obviously no perfect solution for everyone so we will have to decide what is best for the masses.
Is locking the threads from guest view a bit knee-jerk? Perhaps. But members still have access for now and it's certainly better than disabling the posts completely.
Like I said. Once the mods have discussed it we will move forward.
Every other section other than the two mentioned have been kept 100% open.
Is locking the threads from guest view a bit knee-jerk? Perhaps. But members still have access for now and it's certainly better than disabling the posts completely.
Like I said. Once the mods have discussed it we will move forward.
Every other section other than the two mentioned have been kept 100% open.
I like the idea of private projects section that only members can view.
right now you're the only one with the talent and dedication that is doing these conversions, so we'll do our best to support your efforts.
sent a little something as well
AlxUnderBase
Enlightened
me toosent a little something as well
Malenko
Professional
I feel your pain mike, I recreated the marquee for RevolutionX and for fun I put a typo on it and sure enough right after I released the files the typo'ed marquee was up for sale on eBay. I later fixed the typo and they too were up for sale. I'll probably toss some more cheddar your way even though I don't play much SF2, especially if it encourages you to work on Slam Masters some more hahahahahha
ChuChu Flamingo
Enthusiast
I find the whole thing perplexing though. Mike never got any money/asked? in the beginning for his conversion of SF2 HF, yet neocps1 got it thrown at him from what I saw. Now people are rallying up cause some other guy made teh moneys.
This stuff is inevitable. It happened with Phoenix romsets, Uni-bios, other stuff, and now this. Sucks that it happened though.
@twistedsymphony is dead on that locking the forums isn't the answer. This is a kneejerk reaction to something that would've happened regardless.
This stuff is inevitable. It happened with Phoenix romsets, Uni-bios, other stuff, and now this. Sucks that it happened though.
@twistedsymphony is dead on that locking the forums isn't the answer. This is a kneejerk reaction to something that would've happened regardless.
J
jassin000
Would have happened, and will continue to happen unfortunately.
I agree that membership should be a requirement to use these forums, but as mentioned above...
Scumbags have a easier time ripping people off when the source information is restricted (aka open Google search results are NOT a bad thing/the problem).
Hatsune Mike
Champion
To be frank, neocps1 posted at a very opportune time, with a half-finished CE conversion, and I can't see it as anything except trying to jump in for some attention.
Let's not forget how much progress Trap made with Cadillacs and other CPS1.5->2 research.
Let's not forget how much progress Trap made with Cadillacs and other CPS1.5->2 research.
SmokeMonster
Champion
A huge problem with locking down the forum is that a lot of us have linked here extensively. Why not move this thread to a subforum and lock that down? A forum for romhacking or something.
I've talked with darksoft a bit. We will probably have separate project sections for open and locked down. We will sort it soon.
Yeah, seems like he only worked on it for about a week and accomplished more than neocps1
I really hope @trap15 finds the interest to pick it back up at some point!
-ud
Trap15 seems to have a lot of different interests and his interest in them sways to and fro. Looking at his Twitter anyway. 
I'm sure he will get back to it eventually.
I'm sure he will get back to it eventually.
Hmm...maybe a little bit of visual stimulation from old & new Mr. Franklin is needed?! 
Or would it help if I raised my donation a tiny little bit more?
But who knows, someone might surprises us one day.
Or would it help if I raised my donation a tiny little bit more?
But who knows, someone might surprises us one day.
