Hundreds Of Fake NES Mini Consoles Seized By Anti-Counterfeiting Taskforce In The US

I almost read the Fake NES as Fakeness. 😆

Let me guess the mastermind behind these fake NES is this guy...

I saw some in the mall about a couple weeks ago. I thought about buying one but didn't. Now I wish I had.

How stupid are these people? YOU CAN PLAY THE NES ONLINE ON YOUR SWITCH IF YOU CANT FIND A MINI

@GAMER1984dude Maybe they'd rather own their games.

I saw bootleg NES Classics at my mall, it's funny...only difference being that Nintendo was removed completely. I forget what the Super Mario Bros. game was called, probably Super Bros. or something. lol

@sanderev where in all hell did he say anything about pirating? Yeesh

I have seen these at my local market the games have laughable generic names like golf tennis super bros Kong Kong and they also do a version that looks like the famicom

The "estimated street value" sounds wildly inflated.

Ha, I wonder if some people got this, got home and plugged it in, then saw the system came with a crap ton of games. That person probably pooped themselves right then and there and then did a little dance for excitement. Then the Nintendo police would come knocking on their door, which the person pooped themselves again in fear and then they had to give the console to the Nintendo police.

800000/340 = an "estimated street value" of $2352 per system

@sanderev you don't own anything digital unless its out on a physical medium.

Making a copy of zeros and ones also isn't theft.

@sanderev In the US you can make backups of your games. You actually own them.

Yeah downloading old ROMs is piracy. I also jay walked twice this week.

@sanderev Emulation is legal in the U.S.

@sanderev My point is: in the US you own the game if you have it physically in your hand via cartridge or disc.

Yes piracy is technically illegal. No one really cares about NES games anymore though. Hence my jaywalking comment.

I am also of the opinion that data being non-physical cannot be stolen if the original is not destroyed. I wouldn't pirate current gen stuff (a 2 year old game is already $10 anyway), but old NES games? Absolutely. Although to be fair I already own the handful of NES games I care about.

@sanderev you own that particular game. As long as you're not distributing copies of it, you can do as you please with it. You own that CD with the code in it, or that cartridge with that code on a ROM chip.

Unless you're misinterpriting what I'm saying. I'm not saying you own all rights to that title.

I’m just picking up a Chinese takeaway, which I will own, however briefly.

@sanderev You must be a blast at parties...

Game roms from the 80s should be in public domain if the original copyright owners are to lazy to update the games for modern consoles. I have bought many arcade archives, Konami collections, SNK 40th anniversary, etc... from those who have decided to rerelease them but for those who haven’t bothered there should be put into public domain for everyone to enjoy through emulation.

Good I'm glad this is happening

Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time. Law enforcement did a great job here

I saw a few clearly fake SNES minis too on Amazon.

Funny thing is there is still a clear demand for these mini retro consoles. Nintendo should release a batch around the holidays.

I bought one from a stall in Great Yarmouth last year, they're just the same old Famiclones from the '90s put in a small NES shaped box.

They don't even have HDMI.

Now you're playing with the law!

@PBandSmelly At my mall someone was selling fake NES minis to people and had their own little kiosk. I reported it to Nintendo through.

Hardly a surprise that these exist, it's a very easy product to imitate.

Which primarily reminds me of how disappointed I was that Nintendo went with software emulation instead of an actual custom-designed system-on-a-chip.

Both fake NES/SNES minis and official ones loaded with pirate games are all over both Amazon and eBay. I've tried flagging them on eBay as counterfeit, but they're never removed. I don't think eBay or Amazon really care.

@Pod They're designed to be picked up by people who haven't played a NES/SNES game in decades and want a quick hit of nostalgia. If you're into retro games in a serious way then you're on real hardware or you're using Analogue products.

@ramu-chan
Oh I know. But that's also what makes it incredibly easy to counterfeit.

And I'm aware that a custom NES-on-a-chip would cost a lot more to make, and wouldn't have made sense to do for the original production run, which was supposed to just be one million systems, for the sake of brand rejuvination.

340 systems, more than $800,000... So they cost more than $2,000 each? o_O

@MysticX Assuming the game numbers on these things are accurate, that seems like a reasonably fair valuation (by Nintendo's standards at least); it'd come out to about $3-4 per game for a 700-game system.

Just saw a bunch of these fakes at the Ross Park mall in Pittsburgh yesterday 🤔

@Trajan
In the US you are not allowed to make back ups or archival copies per Nintendo or use it on another system it was not intended for. You are allowed to sell, trade, give away or horde as long as the buyer understands the only transferred part is the use license and not the original warranty unless they provide written proof.

@Zidentia Nintendo says that, but U.S. law says differently.

17 USC 117

Limitations on exclusive rights: Computer programs
(a) Making of Additional Copy or Adaptation by Owner of Copy.— Notwithstanding the provisions of section 106, it is not an infringement for the owner of a copy of a computer program to make or authorize the making of another copy or adaptation of that computer program provided:

(1) that such a new copy or adaptation is created as an essential step in the utilization of the computer program in conjunction with a machine and that it is used in no other manner, or

(2) that such new copy or adaptation is for archival purposes only and that all archival copies are destroyed in the event that continued possession of the computer program should cease to be rightful.

(b) Lease, Sale, or Other Transfer of Additional Copy or Adaptation.—Any exact copies prepared in accordance with the provisions of this section may be leased, sold, or otherwise transferred, along with the copy from which such copies were prepared, only as part of the lease, sale, or other transfer of all rights in the program. Adaptations so prepared may be transferred only with the authorization of the copyright owner.

@Trajan
I aware of this code but Nintendo is using code 106 in regards to copyrighted works being distributed. Also 117 has been argued specifically as to the veracity of lineage to a computer program versus a video game which has been argued as a copyrighted work with artwork.

The legal arguments for actual computer program archival has been decided and the precedent was in relation to utility/Operating system programs as opposed to entertainment programs.

@Zidentia 106 just deals with distributing copywritten works. For example, making a copy of a cassette for your own personal use is still legal, but if you distributed it it would be illegal.

There was also a case I don't remember what it was called that dealt with people making cassettes off radio plays of a song. That was deemed legal.

Has there ever been any legal cases against someone making copies of their own games? I don't know of any.

Where was 117 excluded from video games?

@Trajan
117 does not mention Video games it mentions computer programs. that is the legal argument still in the courts. Nintendo has used 106 to go after rom sites and also DMCA

@Zidentia video games are computer programs though. 106 doesn't deal with making personal backups at all.

@Trajan
I am going to end it here for me as you are not seeing the reality of things. You can argue the semantics but that is already being done in court. Nintendo is arguing that any copy is a violation of copyright. 106 does mention copies.

@Zidentia I'm not arguing, I'm asking. Nintendo can claim whatever they want, I want to see actual legal evidence that copies are somehow illegal.

@Fath Yeah, but not all of them are necessarily real games. Sometimes these sorts of knockoffs have each level of Super Mario Bros. 3 (for example) count as a separate game, or they just replace the sprites with Teletubbies.

@Averagewriter I just read it. They just placed an injunction on selling the game copy device. Would be interesting if CD based media would apply to that.

Maybe bit offtopic, but there is this one thing that still amuses me about NES/SNES minis.

All the dung that Nintendo got for the NES mini release, boo, lame, cheap, who cares, preinstalled games and no change to get more. Boo. BOO. BOOOOO. BAD IDEA AGAIN NINTENDO AND YOUR FOOLISH ATTEMPS.

And yet these consoles sold/sell extremely well and if this was suuuuuuuuuuuch a bad idea because Nintendo is dying and so last season - why we have PS1 mini and MegaDrive mini?

Also that streetvalue estimate seems... quite... high.

YouTubers get big views with knockoff consoles.

@retro_player_22

Wow, two dislikes, his army of supporters is far larger than I had ever expected. 😂

Sub heading:
"Estimated street value of $800k"

Actual quote:
"The estimated retail value of the goods exceeds $800,000. The estimated retail value is the amount the genuine trademarked goods would sell for"

You just making up.

@Trajan no yor wrong

@LoveEmpath about?

Soldja boy🤫🤫🤫.. I'm no snitch!

@RainbowGazelle well there 4 years late!