Nintendo games seem to be a particularly popular option for counterfeit product makers; the chances of finding a whole host of knock-off goods from any car boot sale or eBay search is scarily high. While we don't always see how companies such as the 'Big N' deal with such matters, these recently rediscovered photos show what is possibly the best method we could ever imagine.
Enter the steamroller. Found by the archivists at Gamegeschiedenis, these images of counterfeit Nintendo products being crushed were reportedly taken in the Netherlands back in 1994. The photos featuring some lucky employee whose job was to go around stomping on the fake games in a Mario outfit stood out as a particular highlight to us, although that actually does seem like a good way to put across a strong message to potential fraudsters.
Translated, the caption from this final photo reads:
Video game company Nintendo is using a roller to combat piracy. At Lelystad airport ten thousand counterfeit video games were crushed. The Japanese company has started a targeted and structured worldwide campagn to combat forgeries of their video games. The destroyed games came from Hong Kong and were confiscated from a Dutch importing company.
If that's not an effective way of getting rid of counterfeit goods then we don't know what is. We bet you weren't expecting to see photos like this to kick-start your weekend!
[source resetera.com, via nintendoeverything.com]
Comments 68
That first image looks like it was from the story the other day about their original headquarters.
Edit: You could also say it's not a great advert for recycling. At an airport, one of the leading industries responsible for much pollution in the world, literally using a steam roller, billowing out smoke. And where did all that carnage end up after the publicity stunt? Probably buried in landfill next to all those unsold Atari E.T games.
That Mario evil look is gonna give me nightmares 😨
what the hell
Cool to see these Dutch articles. I feel like I've seen that first photo sometime before.
WRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
Great pics! Wish Big N was still on a rampage. All those fake eBay games are likely plummeting the value of our retro collections.
Back then the bigger stores only sold the real games, some smaller ones or people selling games on conventions had sometimes fakers, searching for fake games was easy but for a regular person not really something common, most people bought them by accident or because they didn't know that "a real super mario world" can't be 4 times cheaper new just after 4 months.
But back then buying original games was easier, nowdays to many people sell on Marktplaats (netherlands only, is like ebay) SNES and GB/GBA games that are fake, some of them even know they are fake but sell them as real and if you say something about that they scold you that you don't know anything about games and that they are the experts...
But in comparsion to ebay, marktplaats doesn't punish people for selling fake games as real, I don't have issues with a repro game or fake game if the price is right (under 5 euro) and I hate people selling fakers as real, it's a big issue nowdays especially with rare and expensive titles (I don't even want to start about that time I saw PAL Earthbound or Chrono Trigger that just don't exists, and when you said something about it being fake once a guy even threaten me...)
Fake games are nowdays a bigger issue because the retro games aren't just for regular sale because of their age.
@Fuz lol He does look pretty derpy.
ROAD ROLLER DA!
Holy recycling policy Mario! You don't want 'em? give them to me! if the game plays and runs like it's supposed to I couldn't give a toss if it's coated in official Nintendo shrinkwrap or wrapped in wet lettuce.
Mario looks a coked-up freak on a head stomping rampage! "Mama Mia! You will not take any more the board of director's coins - they need a gold plated barnacle scraper for thier yatchs!!!"
1994? It looks more like 1904...
@Rayquaza2510 Fake GBA games are rife on eBay UK as well, I even saw a stall at MCM London years ago selling reams and reams of them.
Nintendo Cease & Desist Ver. 0.0 Closed Beta™™
Wow...
Annihilation time !
5th picture looks like ol dude is on his phone lol
Fred Dibnah anti-piracy enthusiast
If you watch closely you can see Cemu in the middle of the stuff too.
jesus christ that looks like a nazi book burning
and why did they use an actual steamroller? surely they had better equipment in 1994.
We are so lucky to have the iPhone, back in the 90's they didn't even have colour camera.
I like how the steam roller isn't enough and Mario is there curb stomping them too. Lol!
Za Warudo! Road roller! Wryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!
Fake games are Real Nightmare in my country Indonesia.
They are almost everywhere.
If you visit one of "Black Market" video games shop in my place Surabaya (and other places) you will feel cringed.
@AlexOlney
Hmmm, here's a thought.. a nintendolife booth at MCM comicon?
Imagine the amount of sweat the costumes accumulated...
That employee didn't feel lucky.
Why does the pic on Nintendo's headquarters from the 1800's that surfaced the other day look "newer" than the pics from 1994? haha
I don't remember 1994 being in 'black and white'
"I didn't choose thug life, it chose me." — Nintendo
Very cool.
Ugh, so many wasted circuit boards, screws, and plastic moulds. This hurts me more than others because my work involves electronics recycling. They probably did toss out the remains and allowed the powderized chemicals to drift into the air or leach into whatever dump site they chose after rain. I don't think they would actually do this today, the EU's recycling policies have evolved quite a bit over the past 24 years. This would be especially illegal in Germany today.
On a side note... This is the TRUE Mario. That happy go lucky Mario in all the games and media? That's just a stage act, which SMB3 alluded to. Mario is actually a homicidal psychopath with a penchant for destruction. (Proven by SMB1 manual.) So now we see his sunken, horrifically evil face. It's even worse than I imagined. It's high time for a Koopa Revolution!
Lol Nintendo can be very strange indeed
@Nincompoop those were newspaper articles, those were black & white in the past to save cost.
@Rayquaza2510 did you know Marktplaats is wholly owned by eBay? It's an eBay subsidiary.
@KlevaDaGreat
I didn't know mobile phones existed in 1904.
I'm surprised they haven't commemorated this yet in a Mario game as a steamroller power-up.
That is AMAZING.
This is why I love the internet... and my work day is off to a random, great start now
@Fuz they used the steamroller on him afterwards XD
Mario isn't standing in a very sensible place in that photo. Is that why his hat is so flat?
Okay's on them, those flatten carts must of been scalpped for a fortune for this historic value. XD
@Randomname19 KONO MARIO DA!
That is a terrifying Mario
@TossedLlama nope, the GB got released in 1989, so this is 1994
Geez that is a terrible looking mario head...glad they fixed that.
You can destroy counterfeits all you want, that won't stop the Chinese from continue making them and earning profits.
@SethNintendo
+1
In other news, that's got to be the ugliest looking Mario I've ever seen.
That was Wario in a costume.
Those images of Mario in the fourth photo down... I don't think it was the intention of Nintendo to make him look like a sex offender, but somehow they have. Oh dear...
Could only make out Robocop 2 for GB. I remember back in Gibraltar seeing Pokemon Jade and the "Original" Diamond for GB. Plus a more recent one with kind of a less stylised Ho-oh. Shinygold version I think.
@AlexOlney Did the guy have tonnes of Mega Man Batle Network 6 and Fire Emblem copies? Cos I remember seeing that one.
Why didn’t they use MARIO, he squashes everything he jumps on.
@TheMudHutDweller Haha, brilliant 😂
@Rayquaza2510
I once bought a fake copy of Pokémon Emerald of Marktplaats, which quite obviously had a defect safe battery, or no battery in it at all. I contacted the seller and he was kind enough to refund me. I think that was a rare exception though. Most people willingly sell fake games and therefore, the buyer is pretty much screwed in most cases. Nowadays I don't even want to risk buying GBA cartridges/DS carts from sites like Ebay, unless the games are complete with box, to avoid getting scammed. It's quite sad really.
It’s like a book burning scene by the nazi party
This post inflicted Kyriaki on me (not literally).
How do I play Mother 3 in English without resorting to piracy?
oh lord is that europe mario? no wonder those guys don't buy much nintendo stuff.
that guy is a mustache twirl away from tying princess peach up and putting her on train tracks.
Lol, I remember it from Nintendo Extra. Iconic images!
@Rayquaza2510 @Gex91 luckily here in the netherlands we have a lot of used game stores, also every big or monthly flea market has a trust worthy used game vendor. Might be a bit more expensive (depending on the game and store) but atleast we have these options. I just went to a new store (game solution ijmuiden) and bought some used games.
It confused me a bit Seeing all these articles lately that dedicated game stores and used game stores disapear even though here we get more and more of them.
@HauntedNostril
XD
What do you even say to this? I hope they at least recycled them afterwards. Tsk tsk.
shakes finger
@NinChocolate Right?
"Images resurface"? Were they ever lost then? I can give you two more easily, here you go
https://i.imgur.com/j2leEjo.png
https://i.imgur.com/gHnPGPQ.png
1994? I have seen better photos from the 1960s! Are these real?
@Nincompoop lol tells when u was born.lol was color cameras lol even the 80s had color lol I was born in 80 and I don't have b&w pictures
Article is from 1994 and yet it looks like it could have been from the WWII era.
I'm guessing we missing context on this event. Ww2 era airport, ww1 era. Steam roller. Ww1 era airplane. And ww1 era quality photos. And evil Mario that looks bootleg all on his own.
Maybe there's a steam joke to be had in here.
Tell me Mario, how many mushrooms have you eaten in your life?
wryyyyyy....
Honestly, if they want some ideas on how to destroy counterfeit Nintendo games, they should watch AVGN. I've lost count as to how many times he's destroyed games in different ways! XD
I don't remember 1994 being in 'black and white'
I do. Not every newspaper at the time printed in full colour.
@HauntedNostril I guess Nintendo didn't want to recycle them and sell them as official games because they would have been unaware of what the quality levels were of the product. The software itself could have contained viruses, the electronic hardware might not be up to the right quality and cause serious damage to consoles, etc... To use them they'd have to go through each cartridge, check the electronics safety of the cartridge, possibly replace numerous poor quality parts, re-write the EPROM with a genuine copy of the game with no extra code and then hope it was up to their standard.
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