Still Unconfirmed, but

[wraggster]

Brakken posted this over at tehskeen

********** is reporting that Datel has also been hit in the raids that are going on in France/Germany. It seems Datel's Flash Cart used some of Nintendo's copyrighted material to load, thus under French law making it illegal. Nintendo is really putting pressure around the Globe on Flash Carts as I agree with Zeus that they are most likely doing this to remove the competition to their own Flash Cart they will be brining out.

If you haven't heard Max Louran the owner of Divineo, Supreme Factory and ********** has been arrested due to his sale of modification devices in France. Since then all of the Flash Carts from both retail sites have been removed. While we haven't been able to obtain any press material regarding the arrest, various customers, friends, associates and enemies of Max from around the Globe are stating he has indeed been arrested. Read more about the arrest here.

This is very distributing news - not that Max has been arrested, God knows the jerk along with his flunkies deserve a lot more then being arrested for their activities in the scene, but it's bad news for all Flash Cart owners.

Flash Carts have a lot of legitimate uses which outweigh their illegitimate use. They are designed for amateur programmers to develop software for a console they own without having to pay Nintendo's outrageous licensing fees. Nintendo from day one has always wanted to control the market, but there is nothing wrong with developing legal software for a device that you own. Nintendo is just money hungry.

Of course Flash Carts can be used in an illegal manner, but this doesn't mean that they are developed to be used illegally and the blame should lie on the people who do illegal things with them and not the companies who produce them.

One lingering question now in my mind is do all Flash Carts, like Datel's use some sort of copyrighted code in them?

[Hypershell]

"Of course Flash Carts can be used in an illegal manner, but this doesn't mean that they are developed to be used illegally"

Unfortunately, many of them are. The manufacturers know that those too cheap to pay for their games outweigh the rookie programmers. Why do you think that, before DLDI, rom compatibility was a constantly updated thing since launch while FAT access for a new device may have taken months to get out?

Then again, the argument that there is legitimate use for commercial game compatibility is by far older than any now-last-gen console. Backups being the obvious reason, but also game modding for personal/educational use. Suppose you have this crazy idea that you'd rather not have to choose between voicework and english text with MegaMan ZX. You're not going to get both any other way.

Games N' Music, of course, is not a commercial game compatible device. So the whole argument is moot here, it's obvious that piracy is not Nintendo's concern in this action (if it was, the more legitimate course of action would be to attack the well-known rom suppliers). Seems they really are intent on attacking competition in the media department.

[Alpha_Slayer]

Is there a reason that you removed "**********" from the article? It seems like they're a crucial part of the story, whether you like them or not...

EDIT: So Maxcons0le is filtered... interesting...

[ellswortha101]

A lot of people are using very good products with much potential and ruining for everyone by doing illegal stuff and getting Nintendo Pissed. Just for the sake of everyone dumped games should have a code so they only work on one nds, the one that dumped it

[Kazayami]

"Nintendo is just money hungry."


This is not the case or cause of the raids. If Nintendo were money hungry, they would create more Wiis, which at the moment, there aren't enough of -- people are trying to give Nintendo their money, and they are refusing it.

Nintendo are playing a clever game here - their main aim in this situation is to stop the mainstream availability of flashcarts. Why? So that the general, ignorant public (mostly Japanese at the moment, this is where I'm talking about) don't know about the cheap-as-chips Datel MMD or GnM, or more expensive fully ROM enabled carts. This way, their new cart will be able to sell, without people realising they are paying for video and music, when they could use what they have on existing hardware for free. China has already succomb to the flashcarts, Japan has, but less so. If, in this new cart, Nintendo could offer a totally new feature unseen before, they would not be conducting raids. However, as this is more restricted than the GnM and similar devices, and offers nothing on top, as proven by the fact they are raiding Datel, they have no choice.

Datel have been the craftiest of all in the past, releasing Max Overload to their own consumers under the guise of a programmer to boost sales, and have dared to take that product onto the shelves, which severely angered Nintendo and prompted harsh action. I daresay Datel has just crossed the line for something we don't know about.

[wiggy fuzz]

to be honest, i like the idea of a nintendo official flash cart, as long as homebrew will be allowed to work, i wouldn't mind at all.

but teh chances of that are very slim. i like dsorganise, today i had someones email address to jott down, and didn't have any paper. so guess what rescued me?

i mean, sure, i like music on my ds - but if anything they'll put all sorts of drm restrictions on it, which i don't like.

i like my ds games, but forking out £29 for them totals up to some price over time, and the idea of having to go to toys r us to get demos that go away when you turn off your system isn't good logic. what nintendo should have done a long time ago was release an itunes - esque service (preferibly on teh ds :thumbup where you can download free demos or buy games (and leave them to download overnight) or from your pc. that would be fantastic, i hate having to wait for games to appear months later in my region

what would totally sell me would be virtual console ds, where you cold relive some nes/snes/gbc/ even gba classics on your ds, i mean, it has the same button layout as the snes!

off topic, but still... had to waste space

[Joel92]

im not too excited for the official flash cart, as it will mean the end of many other flash carts... but i do believe datel deserves to be stopped, because their products are horrible anyways, although it is really sad that max has been arrested. personally, i dont think he deserves it.