So let's talk reproduction carts

[Genesis Knight]

Repro games 'sort of' count, but only if I have them CIB with a manual (mostly thanks to Bratwurst). Otherwise they're kind of eh. You know in the back of your mind they aren't legit.

[Smii]

I hold that opinion as well. I personally beleive that reproduction carts are definitely making it quite difficult for a person to discern whether you are purchasing an original copy of the game versus a reproduction of the game. I will go as far to say that they have the ability of affecting the market negatively as well.

Could this be one reason "Gley Lancer" has shot up from an ebay market value of $250.00 to a whopping $700.00 today? Where once the purchase price was reachable, I dare to say that I will not be able to purchase this game anymore. Although I have no real concrete proof, I noticed the price increase coincided with the appearance of various sellers selling reproduction carts of the game.

Nah, the price of Gleylancer has so far stayed fairly consistent over the years (around £100 on evilbay) However the price of PAL Wily Wars has definitely gone through the roof - they never seem to end for less than £200-300 now, which is just insane. Couldn't say whether this is entirely because of repros, but they've definitely helped the game's notoriety as an "OMG RARE!" thing. As for the Spanish seller who keeps selling repros of that overrated game for around £40, and the people who keep buying them for such an inflated price, all I'll say is "ugh".

I personally own one repro, a US-boxarted MWIV. It sits between the multicarts / weird hacks in my collection, not official and will never be the same, but still a nice enough playable thing. Would I buy anymore? Probably not - while translations etc are awesome (as are the people who take the time to do them and then share their work with the community) I find it much better to emulate these, and save my money for original releases I don't yet have. And worthy homebrew. And the occasional "grey area" Chinese/HK/TW/Russian "unofficial" cart... ;P

[Thunderblaze16]

All this repro talk, Why not just skip all the crap and get a snes powerpak or everdrive. You gotta remember, repros are just copied roms in a cart, so really no different than downloading a rom to an sd card and playing it on your everdrive.

[steve]

Also, just food for thought - how many reproduction carts of games like Starfox 2 do you think there could be out there? Probably less than 1000, I'd assume. Anyone want to weigh in on that?

Well, it's all based on demand. The people who know how to make it CAN ALWAYS MAKE MORE. So whatever number it's at, it can always increase. Unlike, say, Panzer Dragoon Saga for Saturn which received a limited release. That number is set in stone forever, however many copies were released (I forget what it was, but it wasn't high)

And not to brag but I snagged SF2 for $50 iirc It usually goes for around 100. Dude was nice... and I got the "final" copy to boot! He made more though, I'm sure.

[steve]

All this repro talk, Why not just skip all the crap and get a snes powerpak or everdrive. You gotta remember, repros are just copied roms in a cart, so really no different than downloading a rom to an sd card and playing it on your everdrive.

+1

Only repros worth getting are the unplayable games on a flash cart (i.e. Star Fox 2)

[profholt82]

They are not official releases, so they cannot be part of the collection. I think they can be great things to own, especially when they are done well. Some of you are familiar with Mr Mark's work which is incredible. DJ Shok's art is always gorgeous as well. And while it is awesome to be able to play games which were previously unreleased or unavailable in your area, I just can't see how they can be "part of your collection." I live in the US, so I have a Genesis NTSC collection which I'll use as an example. Any repros that I own are not part of that collection. They are supplementary, non-releases. If I had the room and the ambition to do so, I could complete my collection, and own every NTSC game that was released for the Genesis. Any repros or fan carts are not and would not be a part of that collection. That does not diminish them, they are simply supplementary to the main collection.

[QuickSciFi]

I wouldn't count them as part of my collection, since I only collect official Genesis titles. I don't do translations either, so that leaves several RPGs from Japan out of my future arsenal (unless I learn the language) and/or their western pseudo/repro-translations. I wouldn't even consider playing a translated ROM, I'm too much of a purist (this doesn't count official translations. We're talking repros, after all).

The only repros I'd ever consider owning (and still not placing as part of my official collection), would be the ones that entail partial (or sometimes complete) ROMs of unreleased exclusive games. And I must reiterate "exclusive". In other words, if the game was meant to be ported to the Sega CD, but got released on the Jaguar, I'd have absolutely zero interest in paying for, owning or even playing said Sega CD unreleased ROM. It's just not my thing. But if it was something crazy like an unreleased 32X game that never saw the light of day (even on PC), then I'd favor a hard copy for the 32X myself.

Repros like Alien Soldier with a Genesis facelift make absolutely no sense to me. It's like defacing a perfectly good status as a rare import. The "Genesis" repro would hold absolute no value compared to owning an actual JP MD original.

[djshok]

I love repros (pretty obvious if you've seen all the artwork I make for them lol). I have quite a few and am definitely planning to get more. They're games, so I consider them part of my collection. I'd eventually like to own repros of all the games that I made covers for (not counting the ones that have official releases that I just made replacement covers for)

I especially love getting repros of unreleased games. It feels cool having them, kinda like I hacked reality somehow, or got them from an alternate reality where they did get released. (I used to watch a lot of Sliders lol) Translations are cool too because I'm really not into Sega or Nintendo or whoever telling me that I can't play a game because of what part of the world I live in. They can suck it, if I want to play Battle Mania 2 in English then I will. Translations rule and I'm really glad that people make them.

Then there's also the fact of knowing that my repros were made by a devoted retro-game loving tech geek that toiled over a hot soldering iron and painstakingly assembled the cart for me, printed and carefully cut out the label and lovingly put the whole thing together that actually makes me like the repro games a little more than official releases.

[eddiespruce]

All this repro talk, Why not just skip all the crap and get a snes powerpak or everdrive. You gotta remember, repros are just copied roms in a cart, so really no different than downloading a rom to an sd card and playing it on your everdrive.

Actually, I would feel more guilty using an everdrive, as it's about as fake as you can get. Repro makers go out of their way to make quality cartridge labels, and labels for clamshell cases, and when I actually get some repros, I will definitely consider them part of my collection.

[Hidden_Darkness]

I don't mind repros if they are either unreleased games or games never released in english, I just don't have the money to buy them since they aren't cheap.

[Bossman]

I'm split on the issue. I like the idea of repros for games that never got localizations, or like Star Fox 2 were never really made. But what I hate is people listing them on eBay for $200 claiming they are super rare US versions. Saw a Terranigma auction and Alien Soldier auction like that fairly recently.

[NeoVamp]

I wish there was a way to make Star Fox 2 carts without needing donor carts, then.. everybody could have cheap Star Fox 2 carts!
That way those fucking ebay leeches would have to find another way to make a quick buck.

[SEGA.GENESIS1989]

Where did you pull that $700 figure for Gley/Grey Lancer? Just because some Japanese seller hikes the price up astronomically doesn't mean that's the going price, you can still likely get a copy for under 250. If anything, Repro prices would cause real prices to drop.

Really? From all the research I've done thus far, Gley lancer has been on a steady increasing in price since 2008/2009. Maybe you could direct me to the respective site that is advertising the aforementioned item.

With respect to the comment that reproduction prices would cause the price to drop, I think not. There will always be hardcore collectors that will always want the original game in it's original condition.

Heck, I would not consider myself a collector in the least but as an enthusiast of the console, I cannot see myself buying a reproduction cart anytime soon. The caveat to that rule: If the game was released in a foreign language. The benefit of a reproduction cart is that it would allow the player the benefit of playing the game in the English language.

To expand on my statement, there are some of these game collectors/enthusiasts have gone so far as to post pictures of the actual cartridge circuit board, chip, capacitors etc. Even on this forum, we have people painstakingly developing a master list of every variation of a specific game right down to the card board releases.

In my opinion, as time goes on prices will begin to steadily increase for some games. This is especially true now that we live in a truly global environment where information and purchasing power is right at our fingertips.

[Da_Shocker]

The only thing I don't like about repros is the fact that you have to sacrifice another game to make them. If people keep doing this eventually a certain game might become rare or hard to obtain. Even if they are all sports games, I'd still hate to see a time where suddenly Madden 96 on the Genesis is this rare game going for $100's on ebay simply because most of them have been turned into repros.

I think it would be more worthwhile for those of us interested in making them to design a custom PCB that could be almost universal for most Genesis games and then go in and have some company produce a bulk order of them along with some Genesis cart shells. It can obviously still be done, Pier Solar is proof of that.

So pigs fly now.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

So pigs fly now.

I'm not saying it's true now, just saying I could see it happening if tons of people started making repros out of them.