Thousands of illegal game copying devices seized

Friday 6th March/... A raid at a detached house in Surrey has resulted in the largest seizure of its kind in the UK in the fight against illegal game copying devices. A web-based business was alleged to be importing and selling Nintendo DS™ copying devices worldwide via the internet. Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) knew something was wrong when large consignments of the illegal game copying devices started showing up at airports across the UK. These were seized and HMRC alerted IP investigators from ELSPA (the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association).

ELSPA’s anti-piracy team worked with Surrey Trading Standards culminating in the Surrey raid where they discovered thousands of game copying devices which allegedly infringe both the Trade Marks Act 1994 and Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. The items have been seized and sent for forensic examination by ELSPA.

At the house investigators discovered a fully operational ‘production line’ along with a fully detailed trading history for the business. Records found at the property revealed evidence of trading worth £hundreds of thousands. A simultaneous raid at a second business premises was carried out by the Royal Borough of Kingston-upon-Thames Trading Standards, but the premises were found to be empty.

Financial investigations have now begun with a view to restraining any assets connected with criminal conduct.

Michael Rawlinson, Director General of ELSPA, said: “This case demonstrates the enormous financial risk faced by those who import and sell illegal copying devices. ELSPA would like to thank HMRC, the thorough and professional investigation by Surrey Trading Standards department and ELSPA investigators. Together they continue to prove that increasingly pirates are paying very high prices for pursuing illegal business activities that rob our industry of their innovative IP.”

Peter Denard, Head of Surrey Trading Standards, added: “We are committed to working with ELSPA and rights owners on criminal activity of this kind. We will respond to requests where there is evidence of intellectual property theft in Surrey, which causes huge detriment to legitimate businesses. This type of crime will not be tolerated in Surrey and criminals can expect to be pursued to the full extent of the law and risk losing both their liberty and ill-gotten gains.”

The maximum penalty upon conviction for offences under the Trade Marks Act is an unlimited fine and/or up to 10 years imprisonment.

Ends.

VDP2 cache debugging wasn't that easy : I had to redesign the way threads were handled in order to get it working, as you can't share a rendering context between OpenGL and Windows. I decided to use Boost for those too, as I don't need something complicated. Now it works the way I wanted, ie you can display backgrounds by priority.

Bitmaps and cell mode now work using the cache, I used similar functions than for the VDP1 in order to handle cached textures.

I also used the block transfer mode from OpenGL, in order to speed up transfers to the graphic card memory. The results are interesting, as during the logo assembly of the bios the speed is over 70 fps, and around 45 fps (with bitmaps enabled) ) in the cd player.

I still have to convert all the display modes from the VDP2 to the cache system, and when it's done I'll move on (there's still plenty of stuff to do )

I made this, why? Because I love the original NES Final Fantasy! It was so unique for its time, and is a very deep game despite its simplicity. Plus, it is also started a worldwide famous video game franchise, that has produced some of the greatest gaming experiences made thus far. So, I made this for two reasons: 1) as a tribute to the origin of the series and 2) because I just plain have an addiction to making these things !

~Game Modes~
-Story Mode (Classic): Play through the story of Final Fantasy! Features the original NES music for all stages (and WonderSwan music for boss battles)!
-Story Mode (Arranged): The exact same thing as (Classic) mode, only this one features the PSX remixes for all stages!
-Arcade Mode: For quick play. Fight through the main villains of Final Fantasy, arcade style!

~Controls~
This is a ONE BUTTONED MOD! Meaning that you'll play with only ONE BUTTON! And that button is: the Attack button. Of course you still move around with the directional keys, but, that's a given really.

There are 6 playable characters, and they are divided into two groups: close-range and long-range. Close-range characters actually have to walk up to an enemy and attack it to defeat it, but there is little to no lag inbetween their attacks. Long-range characters can attack from farther away but have much more lag inbetween their attacks, so are more vulnerable to being hit.

Push up or down in the Character Select screen to scroll through multiple colors for your character.

~Close-range Characters~
(All close-range characters can attack up to 3 consecutive hits)
-Fighter: The "default" character. You can't go wrong using this guy.
-Thief: Has shorter range than a Fighter, but moves a lot quicker.
-Red Mage: Practically the same as Fighter.
-Black Belt: Practically the same as Fighter.

~Long-range Characters~
(All long-range characters can attack up to 2 consecutive hits)
-Black Mage: Launches a fireball that goes a good distance then disappears. Because of this, he can kill multiple enemies in a row as his fireball travels, but he cannot move until it disappears.
-White Mage: He can attack just as far as Black Mage can, but his magic is a set distance. What I mean is, it doesn't travel like the BM's fireball. Because of this, it may make him the harder character to play as you have to "aim" with him, but what he has over the Black Mage is shorter attack time, meaning he could almost attack twice in the time it takes the BM to attack once.

~Items~
-Orb: Pick this up to automatically kill all enemies on the screen.
-Crystal: Pick this up to fully heal the player that picked it up.

~OpenBOR Version~
I personally tested this on OpenBOR 2.2038... however, this mod doesn't use many new commands, so it may even work on previous versions (NOTE: This mod does NOT use the Jump button, so pressing the Jump button on older versions may make the game crash). But really, you should always use the latest version available, can't go wrong with that.

Now, contrary to what I've recently been releasing, you will not find fancy-shmancy combos here. Nope, this a very simple mod... every character has one attack, and all normal non-boss enemies die in one hit. I recommend playing with 2 or more players!