Selling hacks without permission, claiming that this permission has been given?

Discussion in 'Discussion and Q&A Archive' started by AbyssalLeopard, May 4, 2016.

  1. Niko

    Niko All's well that ends well, right? Member

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    I'm sure we could write into the checksum to see if it's running on X hardware, and if so, don't run.
    Of course, only being able to check for Sega's hardware that the Emulators are emulating might be a bit of a turn, but it's also possible to release a ROM where the startup overloads the memory so it would crash on hardware, but empty itself after this routine on an emulator.

    That would only prevent plug'n'play cartridges, though.
    It might be easier to edit out if it's only in one place, but again..
    Sometimes just not releasing a ROM is better.
     
  2. MarkeyJester

    MarkeyJester ♡ ! Member

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    Using the checksum to determin whether or not the ROM is running on hardware is not a suitable idea. The reason is down to purpose.

    Many people get it wrong, they believe the reason why the checksum is put in place is to prevent the ROM from being altered by an alternative party. That might be "a" reason of some acceptance, but it is not "the" reason.

    If you are writing ROM data to your cartridge, or uploading it to a place, or someone is downloading it from a place, then there is the posibility that the transfer/write/download/whatever will fail. Say you're downloading the ROM, and halfway through it is interrupted or deleted from the source address before you can finish. That means the ROM is therefore incorrect. Anyone playing that ROM will assume that how its playing is the expected result of the game, be it; crashing in places, disrupted graphics, a change of gameplay in some form, and so on. The red screen indicates that the transfer/download/write failed, and therefore, needs to be retried.

    The last thing you would want, is someone downloading a copy of your ROM, having it damaged halfway through the transfer, and playing an incorrectly intended ROM, and then providing you error reports or negative feedback. You could be wasting your time searching for a reported bug that simply does not exist in the intended ROM, but only occurs in that one corrupt ROM that was damaged on download (you and the downloader would not know it's damaged, because there is no red screen, get it?).

    EDIT: Also this:

    <djohe> eash time these threads are made you just give the sellers more exposure :p
     
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  3. Animemaster

    Animemaster Lets get to work! Member

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    As much as I don't like this, I've kinda accepted it. Even if you don't want it to happen, it's happening and I do believe we cannot do anything about it. Which is funny because they lie, as Stephen pointed out. As much as they should just ask at least, they are not going to waste their time finding everyone when a new hack pops up and tries to find the person. All though I find it hard to believe they don't know about this place so as far as they go when they say "We don't know who they belong to" I call bull shit. But I'm tired, it is what it is, even if we don't want to accept it.
     
  4. EMK-20218

    EMK-20218 The Fuss Maker Exiled

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    Yeah. Fighting against these guys in order to prevent them to sell the games is like firing a bullet on our feet. I think there's a lot on this fact that can be easily ignored. I see no big problem on it at all, especially when we are in a community designed to a specific public. Most of these people know the existence of hacks, but most of them don't even know the existence of the Sonic Hacking community or even any rom-hacking related communities.