Author Topic: Mario the Music Man (Read 6328 times)

Watoad · « **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.

Luigison · « **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.)

Watoad · « **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?

Chupperson Weird · « **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

Watoad · « **Reply #4 on:** January 19, 2003, 01:25:07 AM »

I wonder why the GCN and GBA would be different in this respect?

Luigison · « **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.

Watoad · « **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 . . . ?

Luigison · « **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.

Chupperson Weird · « **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.

Chupperson Weird · « **Reply #9 on:** January 20, 2003, 12:45:38 AM »

Hmm... you posted while I was writing my reply.

Luigison · « **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

Watoad · « **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.

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 · « **Reply #13 on:** January 21, 2003, 01:04:50 AM »

Interesting.

Watoad · « **Reply #14 on:** January 21, 2003, 05:29:46 PM »

I wonder if anyone besides Luigison and Chupperson has read my Mailbag entry?

Yoshi zero · « **Reply #15 on:** January 21, 2003, 05:38:49 PM »

Yes, I read it to.

Watoad · « **Reply #16 on:** January 21, 2003, 10:06:56 PM »

Watoad · « **Reply #17 on:** January 26, 2003, 03:34:18 PM »

Must this thread die so soon? Will not anyone else read my Mailbag entry? I only know of three people who have done so thus far.

Fifth · « **Reply #18 on:** January 26, 2003, 04:16:35 PM »

I had read it when you first posted it, but I just didn't say anything.
Quite interesting, though. I don't think I've ever seen anyone emulate the mailbag before.

Go Moon!

Watoad · « **Reply #19 on:** January 27, 2003, 09:06:54 PM »

Thanks, Fifth! That brings the count up to the square number 4!

To be me is to be devoid of Special Powers.

Chupperson Weird · « **Reply #20 on:** January 28, 2003, 12:03:00 AM »

Does anyone remember Square One? That was a cool show!

I write poetry when I`m not looking.

Watoad · « **Reply #21 on:** April 10, 2003, 09:19:37 AM »

Did you think this topic was dead? Looks like I didn't for some reason. Well, whatever. It doesn't really matter, as you can see, because this topic isn't dead. How else would you be here right now? What, do you have the Special Power for entering dead topics? If you do . . . I'm scared . . .

[C.: I'll be at our pads Fri. or Sat.]

I posted in BORED!! With a pinch of salt.

Chupperson Weird · « **Reply #22 on:** April 10, 2003, 11:25:20 PM »

Okay. I'm gonna go drop a note there anyway.

Aigh! It's the return of the undead topic!

You can be silent and let the world think you are a fool, or you can open your mouth and remove all doubt.

Watoad · « **Reply #23 on:** April 15, 2003, 01:50:52 PM »

This poor topic. My poor, mysteriously excluded Mailbag message. Only four people. If only it had been Mailbag materialâ€”but it wasn't, it just wasn't . . .

What I really should have done was post this in General Mario Chat. Don't you think so, O only person in these forums who will even see this post of mine? It even has "Mario" in it's title. Surely it belongs there more than a majority of the topics that actually are. You know what the absolutely crazy, ironic thing about that is? I intended to put this thread in General Mario Chat when I first posted it, but by some freak of Wa-something-or-other I put it here by mistake. Aaaarrrrggggghhhhhydfonasdfasdf . . .

Hey, I know what I'll do. I'm going to post a thread in General Chat asking how many people actually visit the topics in General Chat. And after it gets its total of somewhere between zero and two replies, I might repost this topic in General Mario Chat. Who knows? That might bring the number up to five.

I posted in BORED!! With a pinch of salt.

Sapphira · « **Reply #24 on:** April 15, 2003, 02:17:43 PM »

I read all the topics in any category that have been updated since I was last there (unless I have no interest in it. Usually I come around to a topic I wasn't interested once it starts getting popular).
I also read your post earlier but didn't have anything to say.
To quote Plato:
"Wise people speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something." Hmm...I might use that as my next sig. :)

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If things don''t go your way, just keep complaining until your dreams come true.