Since the success of the NES Classic Mini, we've seen plenty of knock-off versions released that have no official ties with Nintendo.
At a Triangle shopping center in Raleigh, North Carolina recently, an anti-counterfeiting taskforce seized and obtained a total of 340 fake Nintendo systems.
According to a local report, the sellers "voluntarily" surrendered the counterfeit units. While the real Nintendo Classic Mini contains 30 pre-installed games, the fake ones had between 620-800 pre-installed ROMs.
The estimated retail value of the goods exceeds $800,000. The estimated retail value is the amount the genuine trademarked goods would sell for
Secretary of State Elaine Marshall explained the warning signs to consumers:
If it's inferior quality, it may be a fake. If it's 'too good to be true,' it probably is
There's a lot of money in Nintendo's miniature console market. As illustrated earlier this year in April, the company's year-end financial report revealed the NES Mini and SNES Mini were still big sellers.
Have you spotted one of these fake systems down at your local mall? Leave a comment below.
[source gonintendo.com]
Comments 57
Literally 90% of ebay and amazon consist of fake nes minis. Dont buy from them. Use DKOldies, shopgoodwill.com, or just go to an actual store
I almost read the Fake NES as Fakeness. 😆
Let me guess the mastermind behind these fake NES is this guy...
I saw some in the mall about a couple weeks ago. I thought about buying one but didn't. Now I wish I had.
How stupid are these people? YOU CAN PLAY THE NES ONLINE ON YOUR SWITCH IF YOU CANT FIND A MINI
@GAMER1984dude Maybe they'd rather own their games.
I saw bootleg NES Classics at my mall, it's funny...only difference being that Nintendo was removed completely. I forget what the Super Mario Bros. game was called, probably Super Bros. or something. lol
@RainbowGazelle you don’t own the games you pirate.
@sanderev where in all hell did he say anything about pirating? Yeesh
I have seen these at my local market the games have laughable generic names like golf tennis super bros Kong Kong and they also do a version that looks like the famicom
The "estimated street value" sounds wildly inflated.
Ha, I wonder if some people got this, got home and plugged it in, then saw the system came with a crap ton of games. That person probably pooped themselves right then and there and then did a little dance for excitement. Then the Nintendo police would come knocking on their door, which the person pooped themselves again in fear and then they had to give the console to the Nintendo police.
800000/340 = an "estimated street value" of $2352 per system
@sanderev you don't own anything digital unless its out on a physical medium.
Making a copy of zeros and ones also isn't theft.
@Trajan Actually you never own a game, because ALL games are digital. Some are just stored on a physical medium. (A disc or cartridge) The only thing you own is that disc or cartridge and the license to the game.
Downloading / buying a game without a valid license (like these machines) IS piracy.
The only time you own a game is when you are either a. the creator of the game or b. the publisher.
If you purchase a game from the eShop (or any other download store) you will receive a digital license on your account and with that license you are allowed to download / redownload the game through that store. If you buy a game with a physical medium you purchase a physical medium containing a digital copy of the game and an included license that allows you to play that copy of the game on the hardware that is designed to play that game.
@sanderev In the US you can make backups of your games. You actually own them.
Yeah downloading old ROMs is piracy. I also jay walked twice this week.
@Trajan being allowed to make a backup isn't the same as actually owning them. You can also make a backup of an SD card containing the downloaded version. That backup is still bound to the same rules as the original. Meaning you are not allowed to play it on a system not intended / licensed to play that game.
If you make a backup you make a backup of the medium containing the game. You did not magically create a new license.
@sanderev Emulation is legal in the U.S.
@Trajan I don't live in the US. In the EU it's not. Even so, emulation of a game you don't own a license to is never legal.
Emulation in the EU can only be legal if you:
1. Don't break any copy protections.
2. Use your own purchased medium or make a copy of that.
3. Use your own devices firmware as bios for the emulator.
4. You don't share or sell your work.
@sanderev My point is: in the US you own the game if you have it physically in your hand via cartridge or disc.
Yes piracy is technically illegal. No one really cares about NES games anymore though. Hence my jaywalking comment.
I am also of the opinion that data being non-physical cannot be stolen if the original is not destroyed. I wouldn't pirate current gen stuff (a 2 year old game is already $10 anyway), but old NES games? Absolutely. Although to be fair I already own the handful of NES games I care about.
@Trajan You never own the game even if you have the physical medium. You still only have a license. Being able to make a copy does not give you a new license. You are not allowed to make a copy and then only sell that copy. Meaning you still have ONE license. Even if you are allowed to do anything else with it, you DO NOT own a game.
You are, however, allowed to sell your purchased copy in a second hand market. This should apply to both digitally purchased games as well as physically purchased games. But this way you will always lose your license to the game afterwards. Meaning you are not allowed to purchase a game, then sell it and then redownload it for free.
You are also not allowed to alter it, see Nintendo going after romhackers.
Or recreate it in a different form, see Nintendo going after projects that recreate older games with newer graphics.
Or make a new game in the same series if you don't own the original. See Nintendo going after "fan" games.
@sanderev you own that particular game. As long as you're not distributing copies of it, you can do as you please with it. You own that CD with the code in it, or that cartridge with that code on a ROM chip.
Unless you're misinterpriting what I'm saying. I'm not saying you own all rights to that title.
@Trajan You are indeed misinterpreting my messages. Since that's exactly what I said. You own the carrier (cartridge, disc or download) including the data it contains (ie. the license, copy of the game's executables). You do not own the source (ie. the source code of the game, or the publishing rights).
Nintendo owns The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild
You own the copy #1234 of The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild for the Nintendo Switch on cartridge.
I’m just picking up a Chinese takeaway, which I will own, however briefly.
@sanderev You must be a blast at parties...
Game roms from the 80s should be in public domain if the original copyright owners are to lazy to update the games for modern consoles. I have bought many arcade archives, Konami collections, SNK 40th anniversary, etc... from those who have decided to rerelease them but for those who haven’t bothered there should be put into public domain for everyone to enjoy through emulation.
Good I'm glad this is happening
Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time. Law enforcement did a great job here
I saw a few clearly fake SNES minis too on Amazon.
Funny thing is there is still a clear demand for these mini retro consoles. Nintendo should release a batch around the holidays.
I bought one from a stall in Great Yarmouth last year, they're just the same old Famiclones from the '90s put in a small NES shaped box.
They don't even have HDMI.
Now you're playing with the law!
@PBandSmelly At my mall someone was selling fake NES minis to people and had their own little kiosk. I reported it to Nintendo through.
Hardly a surprise that these exist, it's a very easy product to imitate.
Which primarily reminds me of how disappointed I was that Nintendo went with software emulation instead of an actual custom-designed system-on-a-chip.
Both fake NES/SNES minis and official ones loaded with pirate games are all over both Amazon and eBay. I've tried flagging them on eBay as counterfeit, but they're never removed. I don't think eBay or Amazon really care.
@Pod They're designed to be picked up by people who haven't played a NES/SNES game in decades and want a quick hit of nostalgia. If you're into retro games in a serious way then you're on real hardware or you're using Analogue products.
@ramu-chan
Oh I know. But that's also what makes it incredibly easy to counterfeit.
And I'm aware that a custom NES-on-a-chip would cost a lot more to make, and wouldn't have made sense to do for the original production run, which was supposed to just be one million systems, for the sake of brand rejuvination.
340 systems, more than $800,000... So they cost more than $2,000 each? o_O
@MysticX Assuming the game numbers on these things are accurate, that seems like a reasonably fair valuation (by Nintendo's standards at least); it'd come out to about $3-4 per game for a 700-game system.
Just saw a bunch of these fakes at the Ross Park mall in Pittsburgh yesterday 🤔
@Trajan
In the US you are not allowed to make back ups or archival copies per Nintendo or use it on another system it was not intended for. You are allowed to sell, trade, give away or horde as long as the buyer understands the only transferred part is the use license and not the original warranty unless they provide written proof.
@Zidentia Nintendo says that, but U.S. law says differently.
17 USC 117
Limitations on exclusive rights: Computer programs
(a) Making of Additional Copy or Adaptation by Owner of Copy.— Notwithstanding the provisions of section 106, it is not an infringement for the owner of a copy of a computer program to make or authorize the making of another copy or adaptation of that computer program provided:
(1) that such a new copy or adaptation is created as an essential step in the utilization of the computer program in conjunction with a machine and that it is used in no other manner, or
(2) that such new copy or adaptation is for archival purposes only and that all archival copies are destroyed in the event that continued possession of the computer program should cease to be rightful.
(b) Lease, Sale, or Other Transfer of Additional Copy or Adaptation.—Any exact copies prepared in accordance with the provisions of this section may be leased, sold, or otherwise transferred, along with the copy from which such copies were prepared, only as part of the lease, sale, or other transfer of all rights in the program. Adaptations so prepared may be transferred only with the authorization of the copyright owner.
@Trajan
I aware of this code but Nintendo is using code 106 in regards to copyrighted works being distributed. Also 117 has been argued specifically as to the veracity of lineage to a computer program versus a video game which has been argued as a copyrighted work with artwork.
The legal arguments for actual computer program archival has been decided and the precedent was in relation to utility/Operating system programs as opposed to entertainment programs.
@Zidentia 106 just deals with distributing copywritten works. For example, making a copy of a cassette for your own personal use is still legal, but if you distributed it it would be illegal.
There was also a case I don't remember what it was called that dealt with people making cassettes off radio plays of a song. That was deemed legal.
Has there ever been any legal cases against someone making copies of their own games? I don't know of any.
Where was 117 excluded from video games?
@Trajan
117 does not mention Video games it mentions computer programs. that is the legal argument still in the courts. Nintendo has used 106 to go after rom sites and also DMCA
@Zidentia video games are computer programs though. 106 doesn't deal with making personal backups at all.
@Trajan
I am going to end it here for me as you are not seeing the reality of things. You can argue the semantics but that is already being done in court. Nintendo is arguing that any copy is a violation of copyright. 106 does mention copies.
@Zidentia I'm not arguing, I'm asking. Nintendo can claim whatever they want, I want to see actual legal evidence that copies are somehow illegal.
@Fath Yeah, but not all of them are necessarily real games. Sometimes these sorts of knockoffs have each level of Super Mario Bros. 3 (for example) count as a separate game, or they just replace the sprites with Teletubbies.
@Averagewriter I just read it. They just placed an injunction on selling the game copy device. Would be interesting if CD based media would apply to that.
Maybe bit offtopic, but there is this one thing that still amuses me about NES/SNES minis.
All the dung that Nintendo got for the NES mini release, boo, lame, cheap, who cares, preinstalled games and no change to get more. Boo. BOO. BOOOOO. BAD IDEA AGAIN NINTENDO AND YOUR FOOLISH ATTEMPS.
And yet these consoles sold/sell extremely well and if this was suuuuuuuuuuuch a bad idea because Nintendo is dying and so last season - why we have PS1 mini and MegaDrive mini?
Also that streetvalue estimate seems... quite... high.
YouTubers get big views with knockoff consoles.
@retro_player_22
Wow, two dislikes, his army of supporters is far larger than I had ever expected. 😂
Sub heading:
"Estimated street value of $800k"
Actual quote:
"The estimated retail value of the goods exceeds $800,000. The estimated retail value is the amount the genuine trademarked goods would sell for"
You just making up.
@Trajan no yor wrong
@LoveEmpath about?
Soldja boy🤫🤫🤫.. I'm no snitch!
@RainbowGazelle well there 4 years late!
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