Do you download games?

[Sushi_b]

I suppose this can be directed towards PC titles as well, but I was thinking more a long with lines of the VC, PSN and Xbox live accounts.


I finally got my Wii online and purchased some games I never bought for other consoles.

Currently have:
Sin and Punishment
Alien Soldier
Ys Book 1 and 2
Dr. Mario Online RX
Blazing Lazers

There are a ton I want for Live but I can't access points for my account overseas, which sucks.

Does anyone else purchase the games online for download to their PC or console? If so what games. Or do you feel that these services are a waste of money?

[Phakiel]

If i had one of the current gen systems, I would probably enjoy a download or two.

I dont think they are a waste of money but they are indeed overpriced.

[Brian]

Go for hardcore emulation then. However, Y's book 1 and 2 is definately a must have. Earthbound is another game I recommend.

[Sushi_b]

Go for hardcore emulation then. However, Y's book 1 and 2 is definately a must have. Earthbound is another game I recommend.

No. I actually like to BUY my games and I wish that other people did as well. I'm not very fond of people who emulate games without ever intending on purchasing them. Just how I feel about it, to each their own.

[scorpion]

I only purchase games for the vc but if I get xbox live I might get some for that. anyway the vc games I have are:

streets of rage 1,2,3(genesis)
kirby's adventure(nes)
comix zone(genesis)
golden axe 1(genesis)

[Jarrid]

I have neither of those consoles. Back in the day, I use to download the RPGs for the SNES. I never owned a SNES, and I was able to play all of those great titles that I missed out. I do not emulate or download anything anymore, but I am glad I did play those SNES RPGs a while ago, or I probably would not be here right now.

[Priest4hire]

No. I actually like to BUY my games and I wish that other people did as well. I'm not very fond of people who emulate games without ever intending on purchasing them. Just how I feel about it, to each their own.

You do realise that the Wii virtual console works via emulation, eh? Just keep in mind that emulation is not synonymous with illegally copied games. I figure that if there is a way to buy the game new then that's the route to go. But what of someone who already owns the game? I don't hesitate to rip a CD I own to listen to it on a MP3 player so I don't see why a person should have to buy a game again to do the equivalent with it.

Games that are only available second hand are the tricky ones. As a collector I'd almost prefer that people who have no desire to collect but just want to play old games go the other route. Lower demand makes collecting games cheaper for those who are into collecting and it makes me feel less guilty about hoarding my games.

I don't have a Wii yet but I do occasionally buy games online. I plan on picking up a few Xbox arcade titles and then there's the shareware RPGs.

[Matron]

We've gotten a few games on Wii's virtual console. My husband wanted Kid Icarus, and my son's friend got him a Kirby game for his birthday. We've also gotten a few games on XBox live, but it's mostly just xbox arcade stuff, with a few demos in. We've also DLed a few computer games, like Maple Story, and Ragnarok. So yea, we download games, at least every once in awhile.

[Sushi_b]

You do realise that the Wii virtual console works via emulation, eh? Just keep in mind that emulation is not synonymous with illegally copied games. I figure that if there is a way to buy the game new then that's the route to go. But what of someone who already owns the game? I don't hesitate to rip a CD I own to listen to it on a MP3 player so I don't see why a person should have to buy a game again to do the equivalent with it.

Games that are only available second hand are the tricky ones. As a collector I'd almost prefer that people who have no desire to collect but just want to play old games go the other route. Lower demand makes collecting games cheaper for those who are into collecting and it makes me feel less guilty about hoarding my games.

I don't have a Wii yet but I do occasionally buy games online. I plan on picking up a few Xbox arcade titles and then there's the shareware RPGs.

I realize that it's emulation yet I'm still purchasing the games vs. just taking them.

I've got little problem with it if someone already owns the game and is loading it up to the PC or what ever. I've had to do that with some soundtracks and such too.

I just believe that most older games don't cost a lot of money and it's nice to actually have them in your collection. Plus the fact that so many people steal games for the current generation of consoles as well. That's not exactly helping the industry. Living in Aisa, it's unbelievable how many people here just burn games and get bootlegs for DS, PSP, 360, PS2 and so on. I suppose I have less of a problem with purchasing or emulating older games, but more of a problem with doing so with current generation games.

[Priest4hire]

Well, heck. Ys Book 1 & 2 on the Wii costs about $8, doesn't it? That's peanuts. If a person has a Wii and is even remotely interested there's no excuse to go the shady route when it's that cheap. It's even two games in one. Likewise a person should buy the games they like if just to support the company that made them. But consider the poor sap who wants to play Panzer Dragoon Saga. If Sega put the game up on some service for a reasonable price that would be one thing. But it goes for over $200 dollars now and not a cent of that goes to Sega.

[Sushi_b]

Well Priest, if you want to consider a poor sap who paid over 200 dollars for PDS, your looking at him (I even bought it at the time when the Canadian Dollar was around 65 cents to the US dollar). I totally agree that games with such a high price tag should be available to everyone but in some cases it just can't happen.

PDS will almost for sure never get ported or resold as a download because the original game coding has been lost in the past years. It would take a new development team to recreate it all from scratch and I just don't see SEGA having any interest in doing that. There is only one way to play the game and that's buying it. It's one of those special cases though.

[Brian]

No. I actually like to BUY my games and I wish that other people did as well. I'm not very fond of people who emulate games without ever intending on purchasing them. Just how I feel about it, to each their own.

Then keep buyin them til you realize you've been wasting 100's of bucks on games you won't play after the second playthrough. But hey, that's you. I choose this road because I already owned them and have come to the conclusion that buying all these bullshit games isn't worth being on the channels except my emulators >=p.


Great Example to have emulation on WII :

Earthbound Zero(NES)
Seiken Densetsu 3(SNES)
Tales of Phantasia (SNES)
Star Ocean (SNES)

Heh, and if there's news that Nintendo will be releasing any of those 4 games, I'll be glad to buy them. Too bad that won't happen anytime soon. No one will ever shed light on these classic games for a while. No need to wait anymore. I'd say give in to the bullshit and do it. Jeez, we're even lucky we got Sin and Punishment but that game isn't even that great anyway. I'm pretty sure I was blazing the same night I got it too @.@.

Aside from Nintendo, I also have games for ps3 such as Bionic Commando Rearmed, Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection, Super Stardust HD, Mortal Kombat 2 and I guess that lame ass GTHD Concept.

[Sushi_b]

Then keep buyin them til you realize you've been wasting 100's of bucks on games you won't play after the second playthrough. But hey, that's you. I choose this road because I already owned them and have come to the conclusion that buying all these bullshit games isn't worth being on the channels except my emulators >=p.

Well if you've looked at my collection in my Sig you would know that I WILL continue to spend that kind of money on games instead of emulating them for free. As you said, it's your prerogative versus mine.


Great Example to have emulation on WII :

Earthbound Zero(NES)
Seiken Densetsu 3(SNES)
Tales of Phantasia (SNES)
Star Ocean (SNES)

I don't disagree with this point. I'm guessing that no one at Nintendo really wants to translate those games to english though so that's probably the big deciding factor as to why they won't release those games. Tales of Phantasia did however come out on the GBA a few years ago. That and we should be getting the Star Ocean package for PSP pretty soon as well. So we still have a chance to play a few of those. :)
Jeez, we're even lucky we got Sin and Punishment but that game isn't even that great anyway.
Didn't like Sin and Punishment? That's too bad. It's a nice mix of Panzer Dragoon and Gunstar Heroes to me.

[Priest4hire]

Aww, the good old IGN game collection thingy. I tried that a few years ago and discovered that some games I own weren't in their database. Back then they had a link to email them info for games not yet covered. So I did. Twice. Demon's Winter is still MIA. 'Nuff said.

I find it odd that a game isn't worth paying a few dollars for yet is worth spending the time to play. For that matter I'm not sure we're owed games with the option of playing for them if we feel in retrospect that they were worth it. At least so long as there's a way to buy it new.

PDS will almost for sure never get ported or resold as a download because the original game coding has been lost in the past years. It would take a new development team to recreate it all from scratch and I just don't see SEGA having any interest in doing that. There is only one way to play the game and that's buying it. It's one of those special cases though.

They lost the source code? It blows my mind that despite the ease of creating backups companies can still lose stuff like this. They never learn. At any rate, they could theoretically port the existing art assets to a new engine. Like that will ever happen. And there is another way to play the game; it's just not entirely legal. But honestly how can Sega be harmed by the distribution of a game they do not, nor ever intend to, offer for sale? I'd rather that more people play the game than fuss over technicalities of copyright law.

Consider another example. I just blew a hundred bucks on a sealed copy of The Dark Heart of Uukrul. It's a game so rare it shows up maybe a few times a year on eBay. Now I suspect I'd have better luck getting a modern RPG gamer to try a 'trepanning at home' kit than take Uukrul for a spin and that's when it's free. Even a mediocre copy will fetch more than a new game. So if there's any hope for older gems like this to get any attention whatsoever it's going to have to be via the grey route.

[Sushi_b]

Aww, the good old IGN game collection thingy. I tried that a few years ago and discovered that some games I own weren't in their database. Back then they had a link to email them info for games not yet covered. So I did. Twice. Demon's Winter is still MIA. 'Nuff said.

I've had that happen to me before too, but I've written in the information on the game and they included it. Strange that they never did that. Maybe none of those goofs ever played the game before so they don't feel it's worth adding to their database. If that's the case...lame.


They lost the source code? It blows my mind that despite the ease of creating backups companies can still lose stuff like this. They never learn. At any rate, they could theoretically port the existing art assets to a new engine. Like that will ever happen. And there is another way to play the game; it's just not entirely legal. But honestly how can Sega be harmed by the distribution of a game they do not, nor ever intend to, offer for sale? I'd rather that more people play the game than fuss over technicalities of copyright law.

Team Andromeda folded up shortly after the release of the game and some of the members have joined different teams, such as Smilebit. They only worked on the PD series and nothing else. But they lost the code, probably when the team folded up and SEGA, from our understanding doesn't have it. That team went through hell to make PDS (2 team members died during production) and it's such a shame that their final product can't be mass produced again, without some significant effort anyways.


Consider another example. I just blew a hundred bucks on a sealed copy of The Dark Heart of Uukrul. It's a game so rare it shows up maybe a few times a year on eBay. Now I suspect I'd have better luck getting a modern RPG gamer to try a 'trepanning at home' kit than take [i]Uukrul]/i] for a spin and that's when it's free. Even a mediocre copy will fetch more than a new game. So if there's any hope for older gems like this to get any attention whatsoever it's going to have to be via the grey route.

I don't really disagree with a fact like that, but sometimes it feels annoying when you meet people who have played games like that yet have never owned it. I remember back when the DC was still running and I would talk about it with people. They would show off their game "collection" which consisted of a boot disk and several copied games, most of these people having the entire collection of DC releases. Things like that just kind of make me angry. On the other hand I suppose it's not as big a deal to emulate older games, but often most of them aren't that expensive (sure at times they are) and it just seems it's out of laziness or not wanting to spend money on them that people don't buy them. I don't know, everyone seems to think that buying old games is crazy, so I guess I'm just one of those crazy people (you as well Priest).

[Nickoten]

I occasionally pay for downloaded games, if convenience and availability point to that option first. I opted for Strong Bad on the Wii, for example, just because I have my Wii hooked up to my HDTV and it's much more convenient to lay down and play through the game lazily with one hand than sitting upright. Had I a laptop I'd have purchased the entire season on the PC, found a way to use the Wii remote as a pointer for it, and used my S Video cable to hook it up to my television. But I don't, and there's no guarantee that setup would work as well as playing it on my Wii does, so I went with what was more convenient.

As far as old games go, I'll support virtual console when the prices are more reasonable. Paying more for old virtual console games is one thing, but $8 for Super Mario RPG, for example, when the Playstation network charges about $6 or so for Playstation games makes that a bad deal to me. Granted, I own the cartridge for that particular game so I wouldn't feel the slightest bit bad just emulating it on my Wii for free. What I'm saying is, even though it doesn't make a difference to Nintendo in the long run, I don't really care for downloadable games or content if the cost is unreasonable, as it is getting to be these days.

Edit: Also, Nintendo needs to get its act together on handling downloadable content. Purchases are locked to a single physical Wii, so if you decide to get a new one and transfer purchases, it does not sound like an easy thing to accomplish. Then there's the limited storage space, the lack of freedom for developers in pricing (As far as I know, Telltale Games were not able to offer cheaper pricing for Strong Bad and a way to buy the season for a discounted price due to Nintendo's rather inflexible infrastructure), and slow trickle of quality releases that makes me just not care for the service.

And this is coming from someone who owns only a Wii and thinks Wiiware/Virtual Console are great ideas.

[drunken monk]

PDS will almost for sure never get ported or resold as a download because the original game coding has been lost in the past years. It would take a new development team to recreate it all from scratch and I just don't see SEGA having any interest in doing that. There is only one way to play the game and that's buying it. It's one of those special cases though.

The same thing happened with Commander Keen. I remember reading something about how Id wanted to port the game to a new console but they lost the code. I was pissed because I loved that game when I was younger.

But thankfully they did end up bringing it back. I dont know if they eventually found the original code or remade the game but I hope PDS has a similar happy ending.

And dont feel bad Sushi I spent around 300 bucks a few months ago adding Suikoden 1, 2, and Lunar: EB to my collection. So yeah I know how you feel about buying old games. But not everyone has that kind of money to spend on games. If someone wants to play a game like PDS and there only option is to DL it then they should. Its not like Sega is seeing any of the money people are making off of it on Ebay. I do however agree with you that DLing new games is wrong no matter the situation.

[Dick Fitzwell]

http://steamcommunity.com/id/desaluta/games

Yes I download games.

[moogle]

Got these on the Wii Virtual Console:
Blazing Lazers
F-Zero X
Gradius
Gunstar Heroes
The Legend of Zelda
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
R-Type
Sin and Punishment
Soldier Blade
Sonic the Hedgehog
Super Castlevania IV
Super Mario 64
Super Star Soldier
Zanac

I hate rebuying games, I don't know why I still do it. I should get the homebrew channel asap.

[freeflow^]

I used to have around 200 snes roms, but I lost them because I got a new computer, and didn't transfer the files. It's now really hard to get SNES roms unless you have IRC, and some friends or something. I beat Chrono Trigger and FFVI on rom format, and I played quite a few other RPGs on roms.

Right now I have a CPS 3 emulator which plays all of the Street Fighter 3 series, plus another fighter, for which I can't remember the name of at this time. I love me some 3rd Strike.

[drunken monk]

Hard to find? Have you ever heard of Bittorrent? I could find a pack with every single snes rom in like 2 seconds.

As for Street Fighter Ive always like Alpha 3 the most. 2d fighting at its best IMO.

[freeflow^]

Yeah I'm just new to torrents and that's totally right. I've gotten so many awesome CDs in full BitTorrent. Ehh, still probably not gonna get any SNES roms though. I don't have enough time to bring back the nostaglia train.

[moogle]

Hard to find? Have you ever heard of Bittorrent? I could find a pack with every single snes rom in like 2 seconds.

As for Street Fighter Ive always like Alpha 3 the most. 2d fighting at its best IMO.
I was just sorting out my SNES roms the other night. I have a zip from a few years ago that has every single rom, 2 GB compressed and 16+ GB uncompressed. Went through pretty much all of them (excluding dups). That was fun.

[Trillian]

I've downloaded a few games off of Virtual Console, but I haven't had the chance to download anything off of Xbox Live yet. I love the Virtual Console, and often find myself browsing through the games. So far I haven't any problems with storage on my Wii either.

Here are my games:
Metal Slug (Neo Geo)
Megaman 9
Ice Hockey (NES)
Legend of Kage (NES)
Adventure Island (NES)

...I actually think there's one more as well, but I'm not at home right now so I can't check it out.

I also have the cartridge for Adventure Island, but it's just easier to play it on my Wii :D