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Author Topic: Mario the Music Man  (Read 6436 times)

Watoad

  • Self-evictor
« on: January 18, 2003, 02:50:33 AM »
I sent an e-mail to the TMK Mailbag address, but it has not been included in one of the Mailbags. Perhaps you have read previous posts of mine in the forum about this? Well, enough time has passed that all hope of its appearing in a Mailbag is gone. There were some things in it that I really wanted others to see, so I have gone to the effort of uploading it myself.

It is, of course, not on TMK. But, if you feel so inclined, you can follow the URL below to find my Mailbag entry as it looks when my HTML skills are at work, as opposed to Deezer's (which are definitely superior to mine).

http://www.harbornet.com/folks/readers/mailbag.html

Thank you.


Note: The title of this topic, "Mario the Music Man," was the subject of my Mailbag e-mail.
The weaker you are, the stronger you can become.

Luigison

  • Old Person™
« Reply #1 on: January 18, 2003, 09:13:31 AM »
One problem with David's fictional relpy.  You say the SMB3 released in Japan wouldn't matter to him in North America.  I personally have several Japanese version Super Mario Advance games and they all work just fine on my US GBA.  (Deezer, I can send scans of the Japanese instruction booklets if you want.)
“Evolution has shaped us with perceptions that allow us to survive. But part of that involves hiding from us the stuff we don’t need to know."

Watoad

  • Self-evictor
« Reply #2 on: January 18, 2003, 03:00:43 PM »
Interesting. I don't have a GBA, and I didn't know that. It doesn't work that way with the GCN, does it?
The weaker you are, the stronger you can become.

Chupperson Weird

  • Not interested.
« Reply #3 on: January 19, 2003, 12:33:40 AM »
No, but if you solder a certain connector on your GCN, it will play Japanese games. It won't play American ones, however. Some people have gone as far as to install a toggle switch in their GameCube so they could play either country's game versions.
And yeah, the GBA has no lockout system of any kind. I was about to import a copy of Rockman&Forte when I read that they were going to release it as Mega Man & Bass here in America. (It was previously only released for SNES in 1998 in Japan, in case you were wondering.)

Edited by - Chupperson Weird on 1/18/2003 10:34:33 PM
That was a joke.

Watoad

  • Self-evictor
« Reply #4 on: January 19, 2003, 01:25:07 AM »
I wonder why the GCN and GBA would be different in this respect?
The weaker you are, the stronger you can become.

Luigison

  • Old Person™
« Reply #5 on: January 19, 2003, 10:38:08 AM »
I don't know why they are different.  Last year Nintendo had to pay over $1,000,000 in a lawsuit in Europe over unfair business practices, but I don't remeber the details.

You don't need to take your GCN apart know to play games from other regions.  A freeloader disc is now available at Gamestop and Funcoland.
“Evolution has shaped us with perceptions that allow us to survive. But part of that involves hiding from us the stuff we don’t need to know."

Watoad

  • Self-evictor
« Reply #6 on: January 19, 2003, 10:43:37 PM »
Nintendo was involved in something like that? Nintendo?! Or was it sued for some stupid reason, like that lady who spilled coffee on herself and wanted over a million from McDonald's . . . and got it . . . ?
The weaker you are, the stronger you can become.

Luigison

  • Old Person™
« Reply #7 on: January 20, 2003, 12:33:47 AM »
Here is the old news heading from yahoo.com:

Europe Fines Nintendo $147 Million for Price Fixing (The New York Times Archive)
The European Commission fined Nintendo, the Japanese video game maker, $147 million today for colluding with seven European distributors to fix prices on its products.
- Oct 30 2002

That's all I know, because they want to charge me $2.95 to read the whole article.
“Evolution has shaped us with perceptions that allow us to survive. But part of that involves hiding from us the stuff we don’t need to know."

Chupperson Weird

  • Not interested.
« Reply #8 on: January 20, 2003, 12:44:06 AM »
That has to be the most famous stupid law suit ever.
Anyway, yes, according to whoever was suing them, NOE was controlling the market, or had a monopoly, or something...
And as for the regional lockouts, I'm not really sure... the NES lockout chip was so people couldn't make unlicensed games (which they did anyway,) but the GCN one, I'm not sure of. Probably because of the country-specific licensing involved. And I have no clue about the lack of one on GBA.
That was a joke.

Chupperson Weird

  • Not interested.
« Reply #9 on: January 20, 2003, 12:45:38 AM »
Hmm... you posted while I was writing my reply.
That was a joke.

Luigison

  • Old Person™
« Reply #10 on: January 20, 2003, 01:30:42 AM »
I think they have lockout on the GCN to stop people from buying used imports for far less than the new region specific versions.  In other words they want to make more money, and this may be a form of price fixing in it broadest definition.  I bought the Japanese Super Mario Advance 3 shortly after its US release and paid about half the new US price.

Edited by - Luigison on 1/19/2003 11:32:24 PM
“Evolution has shaped us with perceptions that allow us to survive. But part of that involves hiding from us the stuff we don’t need to know."

Watoad

  • Self-evictor
« Reply #11 on: January 20, 2003, 02:14:35 AM »
For lots of region-specific stuff, look no further than the film industry. Most DVDs are "region encoded," which means they can only be played on domestic DVD players. There are something like eight or nine different regions for DVDs, I think. However, the discs aren't really encoded, per se. There's just a piece of information on each disc that tells the player which region it is. The U.S and Canada (and maybe all of North America), for example, are Region 1.
The weaker you are, the stronger you can become.

Yoshi zero

« Reply #12 on: January 20, 2003, 03:19:29 PM »
Yes there are 8 region codes.

Region codes were created to please the movie studios that distribute DVD movies. DVD movies are released at different times all over the world (usually in the United States first), and different studios handle distribution. Without region codes, a person in, say, Belgium, could buy a DVD movie in the US before it is actually released in Belgium. That means the studio releasing the DVD movie in Belgium loses out.

This is a list of region codes and their corresponding geography:

1.Canada, United States, US Territories(For example Puerto Rico)
2.Japan, Europe, South Africa, Middle East (including Egypt)
3.Southeast Asia, East Asia (including Hong Kong)
4.Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Central America, Mexico, South America, Caribbean
5.Russian Federation, India, Pakistan, Africa (except Egypt), North Korea, Mongolia
6.China
7.Reserved
8.Special international venues (airplanes, cruise ships, and so on)

Some DVDs may have a region code of "0," which means that DVD is region-free. You're supposed to be able to play these discs on any DVD player in the world.

Edited by - Yoshi zero on 1/20/2003 1:27:46 PM

Chupperson Weird

  • Not interested.
« Reply #13 on: January 21, 2003, 01:04:50 AM »
Interesting.
That was a joke.

Watoad

  • Self-evictor
« Reply #14 on: January 21, 2003, 05:29:46 PM »
I wonder if anyone besides Luigison and Chupperson has read my Mailbag entry?
The weaker you are, the stronger you can become.
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