Reproduction stuff can be kind of a grey area, I thought I’d get the communities input on this.

Recently I bought a loose Faceball cart off eBay (non remastered version). I figured it was one done off one of the production runs that happen.

I get the package, open it up, cart looks great, and a large die cut vinyl VB sticker falls out! Cool! I shake the box in case there’s anything else, and an unused label falls out… for Space Invaders Collection. And it looks pretty legit.

I’m pretty worried at this point the guys gonna be making knock offs of the expensive Japanese games. I look up the seller and he has already listed another Faceball, and has two Blox for sale. Toatal he sold like 3 Faceballs and 4-5 Blox I think. I email the seller and ask point blank if he makes the carts himself, which he does. Said he can do Faceball, Blox, and Gundam, but doesn’t know if he’ll keep making them due to the workload involved.

I complimented him on his work, because really, the cart looks great, good shape, great label. I expressed my concern about how he is presenting the carts, because if I had known it was freshly made, I probably wouldn’t have hit the buy it now. He since changed wording in the descriptions, but still had them at auction.

SO, what do you all think? There’s a lot of repro stuff out there for other systems that is copied and repackaged and sold, where do you think the line is with VB stuff?

If he’s making repos of games that were never released as a retail game than it’s fine. As long as you’re happy with the quality I don’t see the problem. The Space Invaders label is a bit concerning though, it’s not cool if he’s gonna make repros of the rare retail games. Especially if they’re not labeled as a repro. Also Hyper Fighting is off bounds, but the rom isn’t out in the public, so it should be ok.

I purchased a Faceball cart from the same seller and received the same freebies. He indicated that in about a month he will have Bound High and probably Fishbone. Don’t forget to complete your Faceball at uncletusk.com!

Personally I see nothing wrong with making reproductions available for games that were never released at retail. I don’t even have an issue with reproductions of 20-year-old retail games if they can clearly be identified as reproductions but I do acknowledge this is contentious.

We made the reproductions for the fans. If someone else wants to make them, no problem. I say go for it. A few things that do bother me….

Use your own artwork and manuals. People worked hard on those and it wouldn’t take much to contact them to see if you could use their work, or float them a few bucks (or a free copy) if you use their work.

The space invaders sticker….that could be a bad bad thing.

-Eric

wcmiker wrote:
He indicated that in about a month he will have Bound High and probably Fishbone.

Well, Fishbone has been developed by me. I don’t know how I feel about someone creating copies without even asking for permission.

thunderstruck wrote:

wcmiker wrote:
He indicated that in about a month he will have Bound High and probably Fishbone.

Well, Fishbone has been developed by me. I don’t know how I feel about someone creating copies without even asking for permission.

I can let you know if I see him selling Fishbone on eBay.

wcmiker wrote:

thunderstruck wrote:

wcmiker wrote:
He indicated that in about a month he will have Bound High and probably Fishbone.

Well, Fishbone has been developed by me. I don’t know how I feel about someone creating copies without even asking for permission.

I can let you know if I see him selling Fishbone on eBay.

Nah, I thought about it and figured it doesn’t matter who might make money of Fishbone or Faceball Remastered. If someone starts selling Snatcher copies I will be pissed though.

I definitely think that permission should be given from the developers of a homebrew. Prototypes and fan translations I feel are OK too. Wcmiker, I agree that as long as they are very very clearly labeled as reproductions, older commercially released games are more acceptable. There’s several games I’d love to have a copy of, but not willing to shell out $500+ for.

I’m fine with repro’s of unreleased games (region or overall), fan edits and originals, however, repro’s of titles already released i’m not a fan of.

My rule is that for any system there are convincing fakes, I will never spend a large amount on a game. I honestly can’t trust anything expensive as being authentic in the NES, SNES, VB, Neo Geo, and other worlds.

I am happy about this though, because my skepticism and paranoia has prevented me from spending nearly as much as I did before! I just wish fakes or second runs were marked as such.

Also, anyone on this site who made a game and if unapproved copies come out, you should post so we can assist in flagging the auctions. It’s fine if they credit you or give you something, but you should be rewarded for your work, these VB homebrews are some of my favorites!

I think what the OP might be asking is, are repros done away from PlanetVB still considered as “official” (for lack of a better, non-oxymoronic term, if one exists) as the PlanetVB unlicensed releases.