Random: Japanese Man Named Miyamoto Arrested For Selling Modded Super Famicom Mini

I am happy to hear that they caught this hardened criminal. I hope those poor video games companies can sleep better tonight. They have my prayers.

Its legal in most countries to mod consoles. Its not legal to add more games in them without licence but its pretty minor offence. I don't think he would get arrested anywhere else (maybe China)..

LOl, Glad they arrested him, How can he dare to be called Miyamoto!!

I modded my SNES mini, so I'll keep it far away from Japan.

They both must be related to Musashi Miyamoto of the feudal era.

And he used to be such a respected game designer.

You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain, Mr. Miyamoto.

I'm presuming that was the original NES/Famicom version of Super Mario Bros.? The All-Stars version would have made more sense IMO.

Miyamoto is kind of a common name in japan. I see it listed in credits of Japanese developed games and shows quite often, and I've even heard characters within games and anime with the name as well.

Oof. Only 3 sales and he was arrested. Now that’s strict. Though I mean, the moment he resold them was likely the problem. That or Japan is wicked strict. Do people get busted there just for modding their own system (and not reselling it)?

Copyright is important. You can't just take someone else's work and sell it as your own. If you don't understand why, you are either a child, or you slept through your high school level economics and social studies courses.

@Heavyarms55 If you don't understand why, you are either a child, or you slept through your high school level economics and social studies courses.

Most people didn't need you to preach to us about copyright but for those who don't know, well you were no help to them either.

$550? A SNES classic like like $80. Modding a console isn't hard. I assume people in Japan know how to use a computer.

Insane.

Is it bad that my first thought was Miyamoto Musashi? lol

If you can't do the time, don't do the crime.

@ShadJV The only way to "mod" a classic SNES would be to add games to it, so I'm assuming they are busting him for essentially selling ROMs.

@goggles789 Actually some people went overboard and installed DOS, Dreamcast emulators, made them into mini IBM PS/2s, etc. Basically a commercially complete raspberry pi. I dont get why you would want to do that to it, but there you have it. There's a reddit group on modding them. They pretty much do everything but play SNES games on them.

@Lizuka ah, I didn't know their size restrictions went as far as discarding PCs. I fear the same thing may be happening here, which has far reaching consequences.

@Heavyarms55 well, in this case yes.
But in other cases copyright has been less then a good thing, such as with the original Captain Marvel being forced into being called Shazam due to all the copyright hassle he's had since the 50s starting which DC claiming he was a superman rip off back when he was owned by Fawcett comics and before Marvel comics even existed.
Also the taking down of fan made games and mods that are completely non-profit has always been rediculios and redundant(as they just end up being uploaded again by someone else)

He added only five games for something like six times the price? Even for a counterfeit operation that is a scam!

@Trajan That's really interesting, and always funny to me that people go out of their way to emulate things on inappropriate hardware, lmao. Also, I spend zero time on reddit so that might explain why I never hear about these things...

@ShadJV He also added games to the console... wasn't simply a mod. Maybe that was the major issue?

Modding in home = OK
Selling a modded system = this is why we can't have nice things

@Tingle_The_Great
Don't sell yours and you'll be fine.

I didn’t realise you could mod or add games to the SNES/SFC Mini. I have literally never come across anyone on the internet mentioning this before

@ReaderRagfish Ummm by watching ebay sales maybe???

It's so pointless hacking these closed garden devices when there are 1000's of open platform devices on the market, ranging from PCs, Raspberry Pi's, Android devices, etc, which don't need to be hacked to run emulators/roms.

@Heavyarms55
"You can't just take someone else's work and sell it as your own."

Pretty sure he wasn't calling the games his own work...

Glad he got caught. I don't care jmuch about modded consoles, I care about karma doing it's well deserved work on scalpers.

Great catch. They saved the whole industry by such an act. Nintendo should sue this guy.

seems a bit harsh when their are 1000s of f bootleg consoles coming out of China with nintendo content a plenty on them,

@Heavyarms55 I'm not sure where you live, but "high school level economics and social studies courses" are not part of any high school equivalent default mandatory curriculum in most of the developed world. I also think you don't really understand what's happening here: the guy sold modded consoles, not ROMs. Finally, whoever bought these with such an enormously inflated price must be quite stupid, as you can do the required 'modding' in less than two minutes with little more than an internet connection and a USB cable.

Japanese copyright law is clearly even dumber than the Anglo-Saxon one.

The Nintendo Ninjas are lurking!😵🏯⛩

@Trajan There are other things such as a Raspberry Pi, but there is a much steeper curve to correctly setup a RetroPi than most are willing to do. The NES/SNES mini basically only requires a simple piece of software, resetting the console into a special mode, and clicking a button.

I modified mine to allow me to play my Steam purchased Atari Vault, Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Classics, and home-brew stuff (Strangely addicted the simplicity of Ninja Jump currently). I don't have a controller for my Mac and playing them without one is a pain, plus the SNES mini fits in my travel bag better than a second (personal) laptop.

Honestly if some of the other collections that have been released shipped with their ROM files accessible, I probably would purchase and load them onto my SNES mini. I don't care that they aren't Nintendo system games, just that they are easily accessible on a micro console that travels easily.

@c2017nlifemedia
Sounds to me like the article stated that he added extra games (ROMS) to the systems and then sold them for a profit. So he did add ROMS of Nintendo, and apparently other companies, and then sold them?

Look's like Miyamoto's evil twin Wiyamoto is up to no good again!

This is unsurprising. There is little violent crime in Japan so police have to be self rightous to stay relevant. Stealing a bike in Japan is the equivalent of grand theft auto.

@lemonjellydude lol Japan won't police China. Hell look at how much the US gov't owes China. I'm surprised he got 3 sales at $550. $150 is usually the price with the whole library modded. Maybe overcharging/scalping was the crime lol.

I don't understand why, the games selection on that one is awesome (barring the jarring lack of Super Mario All-Stars, but they most likely wanted the NES Classic not to be upstaged).

That said, the guy picked the wrong classic plug-and-play console to mod.

...I was hoping he'd be arrested for stealing the name Miyamoto. lol

@ShadJV Once you buy hardware it is YOURS they cannot stop you from doing what you want with it, but soon as you sell it that is when it becomes a problem, people should know better. When I modded PSP systems I charged like 30$ a pop and made a ton of money, but I only did it in person and upon request.

Oh mister Miyamoto, how low you have fallen (joking of course)!